Chicken Cordon Bleu with Mushroom Onion Gravy

What's life without cheese? It's like the basic ingredient in every western meal. Well almost :) Few days ago I whipped up a dish I couldn't possibly forget. The juiciness of the chicken, smoothh melted cheese, ham and thick creamy mushroom gravy just lingered in my mouth.  Everything just felt so right. SO what's for dinner tonight?? If you guessed Chicken Cordon Bleu. You're absolutely spot on.. 

Chicken Cordon Bleu is basically a french inspired dish consisting of chicken, ham and cheese all rolled up in a bundle of goodness, drenched in breadcrumbs and then deep fried. 

Recipe adapted from Blake Royer, posted in serious eats. This particular recipe called for sauerkraut to be incorporated together with the 3 main components however I couldnt find sauerkraut anywhere so just had to do w/o. ;[. I can only imagine how good that dish would have tasted if I had some on hand and how it adds a little tangy-ness to the flavor!!

Ingredients: 

6 boneless, skinless chicken cutlets (about 1 1/4 pounds total)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Dijon mustard, as needed
1 1/2 ounces provolone cheese (1 1/2 thin slices)
1 1/2 ounces ham (1 1/2 thin slices)
3 tablespoons sauerkraut, packed ( left this out)
3/8 teaspoon caraway seeds ( left this out)
2 cups plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, for frying.

Procedure

1. If the chicken cutlets are not of uniform thickness, place them between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound gently, aiming to make 3 pairs of approximately the same shape. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

2. In a bowl, whisk the egg whites, cornstarch, parsley, and garlic, until the egg whites begin to turn foamy.

Foamy egg white mixture with parsley (  DIE! I think of you clar everytime I see parsley ) .. 

3. Paint one side of each chicken cutlet with mustard, then layer the ham and cheese on three of the cutlets. Spread a tablespoon of sauerkraut on top of the ham and cheese, then lay the second half of each pair, mustard side in, to make a sandwich. Seal the edges as best you can. ( I follow the traditional way of using toothpicks to secure the edges. works perfect but just it gets a little tedious to remove them after frying.But anyway it's better to secure rather than have cheese oozing out into the hot oil)

4. Dip the cutlet sandwiches in the egg white mixture, then dredge in the bread crumbs. If needed, they can be refrigerated for several hours at this point.

5. Heat the oil in a skillet with plenty of room for all the chicken (if not, cook them in batches) over medium-high heat until a breadcrumb tossed into the pan sizzles vigorously. Fry until dark golden brown, 2-3 minutes/side. Drain on paper towels momentarily, then serve immediately, with more sauerkraut, if desired, or a tart salad.

I made a corn salad to go with it. 

Ingredients:

2 corn on the cob

lemon

salt and pepper to taste

butter

italian dressing

cherry tomatoes

portobello mushrooms

Steps:

1) Heat butter in pan and saute corn and mushrooms

2) add salt and pepper to taste

3) Remove from pan add in tomatoes for color and sprinkle some lemon for the zesty taste and italian dressing 

and a Mushroom onion gravy to accompany the chicken. 

Ingredients:

Onions ( one) sliced not too finely

portobello mushrooms ( as much as you like)

mushroom cream sauce ( I bought the prego can)

corn oil/olive oil

Steps:

1) Heat oil in pan and fry onions till fragrant and caramelized. 

2) add mushrooms

3) Add in canned mushroom sauce 

4) Add a little water if gravy is too thick to the consistency you desire. 

5) Pour generous amount over chicken and serve hot. 

Bon appetit!

A simple dinner

After too much indulgence in online shopping and painfully seeing a column of debits under the transation summary, it's time to save! ( by eating in ). As much as I love eating out, I've practically learnt to reach a compromised state. I "ransacked" the fridge for something interesting to cook but it always boils down to the same few dishes.. chickenn , veg and fish. I don't think we're a pretty big fan of red meat either. More like huge fans of fish. FISH FISH FISH! My mum cooks them in all kinds of style.

ok so as far as my imagination would take me, HAHA I decided to cook the simple usual meal.

Honey seasame  (couldnt find any) chicken:

Do the usual of thawing the chicken, seasoning it with pepper, sauce, sesame oil, sugar, vinegar, oyster sauce and leave it in the fridge for few hrs ( 4-5hrs).

Then fry them up! The best part about frying stuff is you get to mix everything together ( the meat and the sauces) and then add a dash of seasoning like how you would play with your food. HAHA ok I shall not go there..

Salt and pepper fried tofu:

I like salty and pepperyy stuff so this dish is flowing with abundant goodness.

and lastly my all time fav: hei bee hiam sambal long beans :))))

Loves :))

Singapore's signature chilli crabs

What better place to be eating chilli crabs and black pepper crabs- at the comfort of one's home! No noisy crowds, No perspiring. Plus it's affordable (minus the cleaning and preparation). Mummy wanted to cook crab specially before we all started sch so ta da. ONE WEEK before semester starts, mother and daughter were down at work. Daughter on the fried rice and mother on the crabs :))

Introducing Tom Yum Fried Rice:

Wanted something towards the spicy side as well as tom yummy so I just mixed some Tom Yum paste into the fried rice and it works wonders :D When I think of fried rice, BANG! I immediately remember those days at Annenberg where I used to fry rice with tons of chilli ( sauce, chilli flakes) after being severely deprived from chilli from a land of only ketchup and fast food.. One thing I love about fried rice is that it's so simple to whip up cuz you just dump basically everything together and fry. and if it doesn't taste good, just add a helll lot of chill or blachan to make up for the taste :) Eggs good too.

Ingredients ( rice) :

Rice of course (overnight or 2 days old) It needs to be dry!

Onions

Garlic ( I put alottt)

prawn ( de-shelled)

soya sauce and sugar (to taste)

eggs

char siu ( or you can put ham and bacon, which is outrageously yummy as well)

peas and carrots

Tom Yum Pasta

Pork floss (to garnish)

1 egg ( to garnish)

Steps:

1) Fry garlics and onions till little brown then add rice and fry till fragrant ( till you just could eat it plain and on its own). Set aside

2) Then fry prawn, char siu, peas and carrots till just cooked then add rice and fry fry fry again to get the nice reddish colour.

3)Add soya sauce , tom yum paste ( as much as you desire) to taste.

4)Add eggs and to incorporate evertthing together and there you go! A meal settled. Garnish with another fried egg cut into strips and pork floss :P:P:P

5) Pray that your guests will love it

Mummy's pepper crabs and chilli crabs. I can't explain how much I love her crabs. All I can say is that it's TERRIFICCCCC.