Tuesday, 9/28/2010

My friend Lyle came over for dinner tonight.  We enjoyed chicken piccata, roasted garlic couscous, and grilled asparagus. I prepare all of the ingredients for dinner throughout the afternoon, while Katie allowed it:)  At 5:30pm, the only thing I had left to do was slice the chicken, pound it into cutlets, and dredge them in flour.  I was a little worried dinner would be really late when Ben said he was stuck in bad traffic downtown.  Thankfully, he got home before Lyle arrived, and we were able to tag-team with the chicken prep and Katie entertaining. 

I have fond memories of the first time we had this chicken dish.  My parents had to wait over a month to visit Katie when she was born, due to the extremely snowy winter in Spokane.  When they finally arrived, this was one of the meals I planned to make for them.  As you can imagine, Katie needed to eat at the exact time I was supposed to make dinner.  So, I turned the recipe over to my parents and let them fix it instead.  It was a delicious meal that I will always remember.  It was fun to relive it tonight.  Here's the recipe.

CHICKEN PICCATA
from Cuisine At Home magazine

Makes 2 servings
Total time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half and pounded into cutlets.
Salt and black pepper
All-purpose flour
Nonstick spray
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. drained capers
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Fresh lemon slices
Chopped fresh parsley

Directions:
1.  Season cutlets with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.  Coat a saute pan with nonstick spray, add oil, and heat over medium-high.
2.  Saute cutlets 2-3 minutes on one side.  Flip cutlets over and saute the other side, covered, 1-2 minutes.  Transfer cutlets to a warmed platter; pour off fat from the pan.
3.  Deglaze pan with wine and add minced garlic.  Cook until garlic is slightly brown and liquid is nearly evaporated, about 2 minutes.
4.  Add broth, lemon juice, and capers.  Return cutlets to plan and cook on each side for 1 minutes.  Transfer cutlets to warm plates.
5.  Finish sauce with butter and lemons.  Once butter melts, pour sauce over cutlets. 
6.  Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and serve immediately.

Notes:  This makes enough for 3 people if you are serving with a couple side dishes.  Also, I've never garnished with parsley and it still looks and tastes great. 

For dessert, we had large lemon cupcakes with buttercream frosting.  I have Duncan Hines and Pillsbury to thank for the cake mix and frosting:)  This afternoon, I thought Katie would enjoy watching me frost the cupcakes.  I sat her on the edge of the counter, stood in front of her to keep her from falling off, and then showed her how to do it.  She seemed to enjoy watching; so, I asked her to get the next cupcake for me to frost.  She picked it up and promptly buried her little teeth in it.  "Cake" she said confidently!  I guess she wanted to make sure she claimed one for later:) 

Wednesday, 4/21/2010

ZESTY SALMON CAKES

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes (per batch)
Makes 6 large or 18 appetizer size cakes








Ingredients:
14 oz can of wild red or pink salmon (2 cups fresh cooked salmon can also be used
2 eggs, beaten
12 saltine crackers, crushed fine (I like to use 6 crackers and 1/4 cup panko break crumbs)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp chopped capers
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
fresh lemon wedges (optional)

Preparation:

1. Add the salmon to a mixing bowl. (Due to the way it's processed, any bones found in canned salmon are very soft and edible, and should be mixed right in. If you want to take the time you can pick through the meet fairly quickly and remove them.) Add the rest of the ingredients, except the oil and butter, and mix with a fork until well combined.

2. Shape into 6 patties about an inch thick (or 18 for appetizers). Heat the oil and butter in a saute pan on medium heat until the butter melts. Saute the salmon cakes for 5 minutes per side until golden brown. Serve hot with fresh lemon if you would like.

I have made this recipe several times, each time using fresh salmon that I pre-baked. This week I bought pre-seasoned salmon, lemon pepper, from the meat counter thinking it would add even more flavor. I won't do it again. The salmon was salted and I didn't think to compensate for that in the recipe. So, the cakes were a bit salty for my tastes. Better to stick with plain salmon. The ingredients in the recipe give it plenty of flavor.

Tonight I baked the salmon just before I mixed it into the other ingredients. I think I should have waited a bit so that some of the moisture could evaporate. The cakes were a bit moist and didn't stay together as well as I would have liked. I also didn't make them as thick as the recipe calls for, so that could have compromised how well they held up against handling and turning. Even though they didn't turn well and were a bit salty, they were still enjoyable. I mixed up my standard fish dip (ketchup, mayo, and worchestershire sauce) and had a small mixed green salad on the side.

Katie had grapes and strawberries along with her fish cake. She likes the dip too:)