5:01 Dinner Club

Serves 4-6 In about 30 minutes (especially if you season the chicken and make the butter ahead of time)

1. 4 Boneless-skinless chicken breasts that you have cut into pieces of similar thickness and size (so they will cook quickly and at the same rate)
2. Salt, pepper & sugar to sprinkle over chicken before cooking
3. 1 Tsp Olive oil
4. 3 Tbs Unsalted Butter, softened
5. 1-2 Tbs Fresh herbs (I used thyme but any soft herb that is good raw would do like basil, parsley, sage, tarragon…), chopped fine
6. More Kosher salt to taste (about 1 Tsp is what I used)
7. 2 Big cloves garlic, crushed
8. The zest (yellow only-no white) of 2 fresh lemons
9. Pepper to taste

•  Season chicken with a little salt, pepper & sugar on both sides and let sit a min of 20 minutes or up to all day (in the fridge)
• In a small bowl, mix ingredients 4-9, form butter into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze (if last minute)  or refrigerate (if making way ahead) to make it hold its shape
• In a large sauté pan or, like me, on a big griddle over high heat-brush olive oil over pan and then sear chicken until golden brown on each side-3-5 minutes each side
• Pull chicken from pan and place in oven at 350 degrees until done-no longer pink-at all (about 5 more minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken)
• Pull chicken from oven and allow it to rest for a couple of minutes
• I presented my chicken over a bed of arugula that I dressed with a tiny bit of olive oil, salt & pepper
• I placed the chicken on top on the greens and then sliced a small pat of butter over each chicken.  The butter was sull of flavor and created an amazing sauce over the chicken.

This was really good and very easy with leftover chicken that could be used an a number of recipes!!

Serves 4-6 as an appetizer in about 5 minutes

• 1 lb Skinny green beans (sometimes called haricot verts), ends trimmed
• Salt to taste
• 1 Jar of veggie dip (I chose a hot-sweet, creamy, horseradish-dill dip from Whole Foods and it was super delicious)

1.  Boil beans in salted water until desired consistency and still very green-5 minutes maybe.  You want to make sure that they do not become floppy!
2. “Shock” the beans in ice water to stop the cooking process
3. Drain & dry the beans
4. Display bean as desired on a serving dish and then sprinkle with sea salt or kosher salt
5. Serve with dip

So anyone who subscribes/reads to my blog is well aware of the fact that I love food.  I love cooking, developing recipes, eating (of course), reading about food, looking at food and (of course) writing about food.  Food=memories, and warmth and love to me.

But you probably do not know that I am also a little obsessive about dance.  And not the kind of dance you might imagine.   I love thumping, booty popping hip hop music. When hip hop comes on, I involuntarily begin to move.  I am biochemically structured to be put into a motion by a good Pitbull, Jay Z, Chris Brown song…  It’s beyond my control.  So when I realized that, right around the corner from my house, our gym has classes for people like me, I was ecstatic!  Hip hop every week!!!! and Zumba with a hip hop twist several times a week!   And with the BEST instructor/choreographer-EVER- Ally Ponte-  Heaven for a long time dance junkie…

And within these classes, I have been privileged to meet and get to know a group of amazing dancing ladies that share my passion.  Dancing together in and out of class and supporting each other in new entrepreneurial business ventures (you have to check out Studio 13 Fitness-a new mobile Zumba business started by Ally, Risa & Heidi-awesome instructors- http://studio13fit.com/ )-most of all- proving to be loyal friends.  Because of this, it is not uncommon for the “Z Girls” have get together to celebrate stuff.  Tonight-it was a great super bowl party at Jennifer & Chad’s house.  I took the Black Eyed Pea Salsa-Dip (Not really a dip.  Not really a salsa…)  Sue, who proved to be a truly amazing cook & hostess at a Holiday get together in December, said she liked my Salsa-Dip and wanted the recipe.  (I can’t believe I haven’t posted it before)  SUE-this is for you!!!  I am so glad you liked the dish and I look forward to bonding with all of the Z Girls over a good home cooked meal at me house in 2012!!

 

Serves: A Bunch Of People (12-14 maybe…)

• 3 Cans black eyed peas, drained & rinsed well
• 4 Haas firm but ripe avocados, diced
• 2 Small (I used Roma tomatoes) tomatoes, chopped
• 2 Jalapenos, seeded & chopped
• 1 Small sweet onion, chopped
• Juice of 1 fresh lime
• ½ Cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• Chipotle Tabasco sauce to taste (for me it’s about 20 shakes)
• Salt, to taste

1.  Mix all ingredients in a large bowl & serve!
2. P.S. I think it actually tastes better if it sits for a couple of hours before serving-

Glenn & I have been taking French for 3ish years.  We have traveled to France once since our lessons began…  We find the French people to be playful and fun.  We thought France was lovely and we can’t wait to go back.  And we LOVE French food!!

So, when in Miami, over the Christmas holiday, we were delighted to find that we had 2 French cafes right around the corner from our hotel.  One of these cafes included several “Paillasons”-or literally straw potato pancakes.  I had one of these and loved it.  I have been thinking about it ever since and I decided to (based on the texture, flavor of the one I had) come up with my own version.  The Paillason that I had had sour cream and smoked salmon on top and I think this would be great for any meal at any time of day and it doesn’t take long to throw together at all so it is very 5:01 Dinner Club friendly!!

Serves 4 in about 30 minutes (8 Cakes)

1. 2 Medium-large white potatoes-grated and them submerged in a bowl of cold water
2. 1 Egg
3. 1 Small sweet onion, finely chopped
4. ¼ C All purpose flour
5. 1 Tsp Kosher salt
6. ½ Tsp Ground black pepper
7. Olive oil-as much as you need to sauté the cakes (6ish Tbs)
8. ½ C Sour cream
9. 8 Small pieces of smoked salmon (I bought 1 small package at the grocery store for $6.99) I cut out the center, sort of gray strip, because I think it’s fishy…

•  Drain potatoes and then squeeze the water out with a clean kitchen towel- get as much of the water out as you possibly can!
• In a large bowl, mix ingredients 1-6 until well combined
• In a large sauté pan over med-high heat, heat oil
• Use ½ C size measuring cup to form each cake squeezing out excess liquid
• In batches, careful not to overcrowd the pan, place cakes in hot oil and pan fry the cakes until the are cooked through and golden brown (this took me about 8 minutes on each side and I had to keep the heat no higher than medium because the cakes would begin to burn on the outside before being done on the inside)
• Drain cakes on a paper towel if necessary and then then keep the first cooked cakes in a warm oven until ready to serve
• Plate the cakes, then spread top of each cake with about 1 Tbs sour cream (I used reduced fat)
• Place 1 piece of salmon on top of each cake and then serve aside a mixture of field greens that have been dressed with a simple, basic white wine or mustard vinaigrette

 

I recently posted comments on our home grown sweet potatoes.  It’s the coolest thing ever really.  Glenn cuts up a couples of sweet potatoes, plants them in the garden and BOOM we have more sweet potatoes than we know what to with!  When I made the chips I wrote about a couple of months ago, I found them to be slightly sweet but not as sweet as I expected.  Glenn later read that sweet potatoes should sit out for a couple of weeks after being harvested so that the can develop their sugars.  And OH MY GAH- these aged sweet potatoes which I used for soufflé were perfection!  You can see it in the pictures.

They were so perfect in fact-that after researching beaucoup sweet potato soufflé/pudding recipes-I cut way back on the sugar.

I just kept thinking, why do you have to dump sugar (and then put marshmallows on top????)  into a dish where you are supposed to appreciate the naturally sweet flavor of the feature ingredient!

P.S.   Sweet Potato Souffle is really not a souffle at all-it’s a custard/pudding-

Serves 6-8

• 3 C Sweet potatoes, mashed until smooth (about 5 medium sweet potatoes)
• ½ C Milk
• ½ C Heavy cream
• 3 Eggs
• 2 Tbs Unsalted butter, melted
• ½ C Sugar
• 1Tsp Vanilla
• ½ Tsp Cinnamon
• ¼ Tsp Nutmeg
• ¾ Tsp Kosher salt (½ Tsp if you use iodized salt)
• 1-2 C Mini marshmallows

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix everything but the marshmallows in a large bowl until smooth
3. Pour mixture into a casserole dish that has been sprayed with non stick cooking spray
4. Bake soufflé until firm in the middle (anywhere from 40 minutes to 60 minutes depending on how deep the dish in which you cook the soufflé is)
5. Spread marshmallows over the top of the soufflé and then place back in oven on broil
6. Watch marshmallows carefully as they brown-after about 5 min-the top will be golden brown

 

I love “Father Of The Bride”!!  I smiled today as I thought of Mr Banks telling Frank-the very German-very feminine wedding planner- that instead of the chic seafood, he wanted the “chipper chicken” at his only daughter’s wedding because the chic seafood was not in the budget!!  Truth is- the chic seafood isn’t the budget for most of us these days so tonight I found my self with the just thawed “chipper” chicken, a plate of left over cornbread and buttermilk (we need to use it for something before it goes bad)  and I came up with “Buttermilk & Cornbread Fried Chicken” with a memory of something Micheal Symon taught me to guarantee tender/flavorful chicken.  And I would have posted a pic of the finished product sliced up all pretty but the truth is it was a clean plate night!!  This chicken was soooo good that it was  GONE before I could get pictures.   An important part of this recipe, I’m convinced is what Micheal Symon taught me about flavorful chicken or meat in general:  rub with a mixture of salt, pepper and sugar-allow it to soak in over hours if possible and then prepare.   And last, I did not measure anything tonight-no time. So, if you test this, taste this and disagree with the measurements I have estimated-no hard feelings!!!  Make it your own!!

Serves 4 in about 30 minutes

• 4 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded so that they are even thickness
• 1 Tsp Kosher salt, 1/2 Tst ground black pepper & 1 Tsp sugar
• 3/4 C Buttermilk
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 C Canola or vegetable oil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 C Cornbread, crumbled completely in a large shallow dish with salt & pepper to taste

1. Before you leave for work or at least  2 hours ahead of time, mix ingredients salt, pepper & sugar and then  sprinkle on chicken and then cover and refrigerate
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
3. Heat oil in a large saute or frying pan
4. In a medium bowl, whisk egg and buttermilk and then salt & pepper to taste
5. Dip seasoned chicken into buttermilk mixture, coat in cornbread crumbs and then place in hot oil
6. Brown chicken-about 5 minutes each side
7. Place chicken in an oven safe pan and then bake until cooked through- about 15 minutes
8. Remove chicken from oven and then allow it to rest for 5 minutes