cornflake fried chicken?!

Sounds strange, but this is a great alternative to breaded fried chicken.  As a kid, this meal was a treat. Yes, everything tastes great fried, and anytime fried chicken is listed as a menu item, hands down, I’ll order it! Think about when you bite into a piece; that initial crunch, that moist chicken, just a perfect combo. There’s definitely something about that crispy, savory taste that’s in every bite of chicken. I’ve gone to great lengths to find the best fried chicken in Philadelphia. Sure, it was a struggle and some weren’t great, but for the good ones, they were well worth the trip.  Unfortunately, as much as I love to eat fried chicken, I love my arteries more! So, on to baked cornflake “fried” chicken!

Cornflakes make a great breading.  Personally, I think crushing the flakes versus pulsing in a food processer makes a good, crunchy base. Also, you can get out some daily frustration by crushing them with your hands! In my recipe, I added spices that I like, but it’s always fun to experiment. 

Recipe

1 lb chicken

2 ½ cup corn flakes, crushed

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp chili pepper

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp salt

1 large egg

2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

Crush cornflakes. Add spices to cornflakes. Beat egg and add milk and olive oil for egg wash. Cut chicken to size desired. 

Dip chicken into egg wash.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? 

 Dip chicken into cornflake mixture.

Can you find the chicken??

Bake at 350F for 25 minutes.

Ready for the oven!!

Looks just like fried chicken, but surprise, it's baked! Has a great crunchy factor from the cornflake crust and is artery friendly!  

Heirloom Carrots Parte Deux!

Maintaining healthy habits in the New Year is a constant struggle. As January comes to a close, I’m trying new ways to continue eating well.  I have a bag of buckwheat flour that’s about to expire next month; I probably bought it the last time I was “eating well”! 

Can you see the date?! I got two more weeks to go!

I searched the internet blogs and recipe lists for the last two days looking for a recipe that wasn’t necessarily vegan and didn’t have any strange stabilizing agents like xanthan gum. What I concluded was that I’d try something on my own!

My heirloom carrots inspired me to make a carrot cake muffin, but a healthy version, and my favorite kitchen gadget aided in the shredding! 

By saying, “No!” to cream cheese frosting, these muffins became savory and the buckwheat adds an earthy element. Also the honey didn’t impart much of a sweet factor as I’d had hope, so in a possible revision, I’d substitute honey with brown sugar. As a side note, you can substitute whole what flour for the oat flour. If you don't have oat flour, you can quickly make your own by pulsing oats in a coffee grinder. I used the grinder blade on my Nutribullet. Ultimately, I reached my goal with this recipe. This will be a great breakfast with a little bit of fruity jam; can't wait til tomorrow morning!  ENJOY!!

 Ingredients 

1 cup buckwheat flour (dark)

^1/2 cup oat flour

2 tsp baking powder

^1/4 tsp salt

^1/4 tsp cinnamon

^1/4 tsp ginger

^1/4 cup walnut

^1/4 cup apricot

2 ^1/2 cup carrot (about 2 carrots)

^1/4 cup honey

1 egg (beaten)

^1/3 cup canola oil

1 cup skim milk

Makes 12 muffins

Directions 

Heat oven to 350F. Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients. Grate carrots. Combine wet ingredients to dry. Place mixture into muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes.

PS
This is my cream cheese frosting recipe:
Ingredients

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature

 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

Directions

Blend all ingredients together with an electric mixer. Dollop onto muffins. 

The carrots turned my soup purple!?

My blogging hiatus is over! Hello and welcome back to my cooking adventures!

I decided to make some chicken stock tonight.  Over the weekend, I visited my old farmer’s market in Clark Park to pick up our weekly vegetables.  With the bitter cold, it was hard to stroll each stand.  Though the crowd was small, the shivering vendors busily restocked baskets with local produce. Perhaps, really they just kept moving to forget how cold it was! As I examine each basket, I picked up some heirloom carrots.  

These wonderful purple, orange, and red variations are so ornate, and they retain such a pungent carrot-flavor when raw.  The sugar content is much less than the average store bought, and the purple variety has a sharp parsnip flare.  

For my stock, I took out my 3qt pot, filled it with carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, and chicken bones, and then covered with water. I added salt, pepper, nutmeg, cumin, and bay leaf. I brought the stock to a boil and then let simmer for an hour. 

Upon my return, the purple carrots leached their color! The flavor is there, and the carrots have mellowed in intensity.

I’ll definitely be getting some looks at lunch with my purple soup! With the remaining carrots that I have, I’ll roast them, and hopefully, the purple carrots will behave and not bleed! 

My Sbarro's Update

Earlier this year, I blogged about Sbarro's filing for chapter 11, and today, I read an article about "zombie" restaurant chains that just keep on pulling though (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/slicing-costs-still-serving-160802334.html). On November 29, Sbarro's exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy (http://nrn.com/article/sbarro-exits-chapter-11). With some restructuring, loans from lenders, and most likely people cutting back on healthy food during the recession, the chain has come back from the crypt. I'm personally glad that this food court staple has a second chance. Though the Sbarro's doesn't have a significant signature dish in the way that your order a Whopper from BK or a McBlank from McDonalds, I just like Sbarro's because you can never go wrong with a slice of pizza (well maybe sometimes you can, but it sure beats some mystery meat sandwich!)

Sunday's dinner

Continuing the theme of cleaning out my freezer, Sunday night, I made tortellini with peas and roasted lemon chicken with a side or Trader Joe's cauliflower and romanesco  (http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=224) . (minus 3 1/2 from my freezer!!)

Romanesco belongs to the broccoli-cauliflower family, and if you can determine from the vegetable's name, it's from the Rome region of Italy. You can pretty much prepare it as you would broccoli or cauliflower: steamed, boiled, sautéed etc. TJ's has it in the freezer section, and it's served in a butter sauce. The bag gives directions to microwave its contents, but I think it would have been better roasted. If you see this vegetable, definitely give it a try. It's also pretty cool looking! 

As for my tortellini with peas, here's my recipe: 

- 1/2 small onion, diced

- 4 small garlic cloves, diced

- 1/2 cup green peas

- 3 tbsp olive oil

- 1 tbsp tomato paste

- 1 box tortellini

salt and pepper

  

Sauté onion and garlic for 5 mins in olive oil. Add tomato paste and combine. Add green peas and continue to cook until peas are tender. 

In the meantime, boil water to cook tortellini and follow cooking time according to package. Reserve 1 cup of pasta water. When the pasta is almost completely cooked, combine with onions and peas and add pasta water to combine ingredients. 

Serve and enjoy!

To make the chicken, I thawed two chicken breasts, and I seasoned the meat with salt, pepper, and oregano. 

Cook at 400F for 45 mins (Note, my oven temp may be different than yours, so if clear liquids come from the chicken or if you have a thermometer, then it's ready!) Add juice from one lemon. 

Here, I have it served with Trader Joe's cauliflower and romanesco. 

I add lemon last to intensify the lemon flavor, and it's a nice bright surprise on a cold night!

can you pass the salt?

Last night I kept dinner simple. I took out Trader Joe's soy-ginger glazed cod (http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article.asp?article_id=230), steamed rice, and popped a bag edamame in the microwave  (minus 2 from the freezer!!) The cod had great flavor, and the ginger wasn't too overpowering as Brian puts it.  It was a great meal with very little effort.

After steaming the edamame, Brian sprinkled some salt onto the pods and asked,"Does all salt have iodine?" The answer is no; not all salts contain the micronutrient.  With many recipes calling for Kosher salt or sea salt, these do not contain iodine. Even basic table salt has to state whether or not it iodized.

So what's so important about iodized salt? It helps prevent iodine deficiency, which was first recognized as a public health concern in the 1920's, and shortly after, iodine was added to flour first, then to salt. It may seem that two main staples of our basic diet, flour and salt, should be sufficient in preventing iodine deficiency; however, today, flour is not iodized, and companies are not mandated to add it to salt. Compounded by the fact that we are all "trying" to use less salt, these factors are leading to a decline in the intake of iodine and a rise in the deficiency.

Iodine is needed to produce thyroid hormones, and without its intake, hyperthyroidism can cause the thyroid gland to swell resulting in a goiter. Another concern of iodine deficiency is in pregnant women. Without the intake of the element, the health of the mother and child are at risk, including potential miscarriage, stillbirth, or mental retardation.

Just before you start taking iodine supplements, too much iodine is also not a good thing! It you consume  excess iodine, you can stimulate too much thyroid hormone. If you keep to the required daily allowance of salt, which is less than one teaspoon (and remember most food we consume contain sodium), then your iodine intake should be covered, unless you're expecting, then talk to your doctor.

Manhattan Clam Chowder

When we were in Cape May, we ordered softshell crabs to-go from the famous Lobster House. With the remaining legs and shell, I made a crab stock. I had seen that recipes call for fish stock, and I after a few google searches (http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Lobster-Broth),  I assumed that if you seeped the shells, it would yield a broth outcome, and it did. I just never knew what I wanted to do with fish broth. 

Until last week, my fish stock tupperware inhabited my freezer!  I decided to make Manhattan Clam Chowder. I even tried to replicate the Lobster House recipe, since I kept the lid and the ingredients were listed, so I decided to give it a whirl!

In my clam chowder (made 4 servings), I used the following
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 large carrot
- 1/2 medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 hand fulls of fingerling potatoes
- 2 cans of minced clams
- 4 cups of crab stock
- 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes
- 1 cup water
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3 slices of Bacon diced

First, dice the bacon and cook until the fat is rendered. Use a medium heat, but if the bacon starts to burn, lower the heat.

As the bacon is cooking, dice the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. 

Next, remove the bacon from the pot, and keep it aside. Sauté the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in the bacon fat. Add spices. Cook for 5-7 mins at medium heat. 

Add potatoes and continue to cook for additional 5-7 mins. 

Add fish broth, water, and diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for 20 mins. Add the clams and bacon. Continue to cook for 15 mins.

Serve and enjoy!!!