Chicken Parmesan

While I was traveling in NY, I helped make dinner for me, my sisters, my friend Linh, and her friends. We made chicken parmesan with mozzarella sticks, green beans, and browned-butter pasta. We cooked for a big group of 8 and some left overs too.

Chicken Parmesan:

tomato sauce (you could use pre-made, canned sauce):

60 ounces tomato puree or sauce (doesn't have to be exactly 60 ounces)

1 1/2 onion (any type of onion, small sized)

3 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

6 teaspoons dried, crushed oregano

2 teaspoons dried, crushed basil (optional)

2 teaspoons sugar (optional)

6 chicken breasts, skinned, boneless

1 can Italian seasoned breadcrumbs 

If you can't find any pre-seasoned breadcrumbs like us, use

12 ounces panko breadcrumbs or regular breadcrumbs

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

2 teaspoons black pepper

5 tablespoons oregano

1 1/4 cup grated parmesan (leave some for topping the food)

5 cups all purpose flour

8 eggs

8 ounces mozzarella cheese, whole block or shredded

1. Chop the onions and cook them in some olive oil in a large pot.

 2. When the onions have browned, add the cans of tomato sauce or puree. Use some water to wash out the cans and put that in the pot too.  Add extra water if using tomato puree.  Cover and cook on high heat until the sauce comes to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the salt, pepper, sugar, oregano, and basil. You could add other herbs like parsley and marjoram. Let it simmer covered for 30 minutes, taste and adjust as needed, and allow to continue simmering till you use it later.

 3. Meanwhile, prep the chickens. For convenience, buy skinless, boneless chicken breasts. If you buy them with bones, you'll have to trim that. Trim off excess fat too. Cut each chicken breast in half. Place in a ziploc bag and thin them out to 1/3"-1/2".  Use whatever you have to pound out the meat.

4. Set up your dipping stations. Place three shallow bowls in a line. The first bowl will have flour. The next will have beat eggs. The last bowl contains the breadcrumbs.  If you didn't find a can of seasoned breadcrumbs, just mix plain breadcrumbs with the seasonings in my list.  Fill the bowls about halfway. Don't fill the bowls too much or you will make a mess. You will probably have to refill the bowls later on.

5. Heat a pan with some olive oil. To make things go along faster, you can set up multiple frying pans. Or you can put a griddle over two burners, like we did. Dip your chicken in the flour, shake off the excess flour, dip into the egg, and then dip into the breadcrumbs. Cook the chicken breasts on the stove until both sides are nice and browned. It'll take about 3-5 minutes per side. Don't worry about the chicken being cooked all the way through. When each piece of chicken finishes browning on both sides, place the pieces in a oven safe dish. Try not to overlap the chicken. When you are close to finishing, preheat the oven to 400F.

 6. When the chicken is all browned, ladle the tomato sauce over the chicken. In my pictures, I have less sauce than what I wanted. The sauce will come up to the level of the chicken pieces. The mozzarella can be sliced as shown below or shredded. Bake the chicken uncovered for 25 minutes. Then, set the oven to broil and cook for 1-2 minutes. Be careful when broiling because the cheese can easily burn.

Bonus:
Hmm, we seem to have extra mozzarella. We bought two 8 ounce blocks. Why don't we cut the mozzarella into big chunks. Dip in flour-egg-breadcrumb-egg-breadcrumb. Fry on the stove on all four sides and finish them in the oven or toaster oven. Experimental mozzarella sticks!

 Happy eatings.

Banana cranberry walnut bread

I love banana bread! Sorry I didn't take many pictures.

My version of banana bread: 

2 cups chopped walnuts (pecans are a good substitute)

2 cups dried sweetened cranberries

2 cups boiling water

4 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 sticks butter (12 tablespoons or 6 ounces), softened at room temperature

2 cups brown sugar

4 eggs

5 very very ripe bananas

1/2 cups plain yogurt (or flavored if you feel like it, sour cream would be good too)

1/4 cup vegetable oil (corn, canola, peanut, or a blend)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Chop the walnuts into small pieces, about 1/4 inch pieces. Toast in a dry pan on medium heat. Stir every 30 seconds or so. It should take about 3-4 minutes to toast. Find the largest piece and eat it. Is it crunchy now? Ok the nuts are done then. Immediately pour them into another container. Don't leave them in the pan or else they will burn. If your nuts are slightly burnt, it's okay, you can probably still use it.

2. Boil some water. Put the dried cranberries into a small bowl. Pour the water over the cranberries and let them soak. The level of the water should be 1/2 inch above the cranberries.

3. Place a strainer on top of a small bowl. Pour the flour, baking soda, salt into the strainer. Tap the side of the strainer until all of the ingredients are sifted through.

4. Place the softened butter and the brown sugar in a large mixing bowl.  If the butter is not soft enough, microwave them for 10 seconds at a time till it's soft, then add to the bowl.  Use an electric beater to beat the sugar and butter together for about 5 minutes. The butter should be fluffy and the sugar, completely mixed throughout.

5. Preheat the oven to 325 somewhere around here. Place the peeled bananas in a medium bowl. Use some implement to mash the bananas. I have a potato masher. A fork would also be acceptable. Add the oil, yogurt, vanilla extract and mix well.  Add the eggs one at a time, mix well before adding the next egg.

6. Pour the banana mixture into the butter bowl. Electrically or manually mix. Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time. Mix well before adding the next portion of flour. I poured in four additions. 

Before adding the dry ingredients

7. Stir up the water and cranberries in that forgotten bowl you have in the corner of the kitchen. Add the cranberries, walnuts, and cranberry water  to the batter and mix well.

8. Pour into a greased 13"x9" pan. You could also use two loaf pans, or two smaller baking dishes, or many dozens of muffins/cupcake tins. When I bake in my 13"x9", it takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to bake. Halfway through the baking, you can cover the bread with a piece of foil to prevent the top from browning too much.  It will be done when you can start smelling the banana bread and a metal knife/fork comes out clean when you stab the middle of the bread.

Red Wine Pasta Carbonara

I got this delicious pasta from Food and Wine, of course. Since I already loved carbonara finding a recipe that uses two of my favorite things, wine and procuitto/pancetta, seemed like a no brainer to try. I have been cooking it for a while now and just made it for my dad and brother this week. Needless to say I had to fight to have left-overs the next day for lunch! So now I have to post it so Josh can make it when he goes back to school.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
4 oz pancetta or procuitto cut into strips
1/4 cup of red wine
1 teaspoon of fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon of fresh minced garlic

2 eggs
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I usually add nearly a cup though, we know how I love cheese)

1 lb of pasta

2 heads of broccoli cut into florets
1-2 teaspoons of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat your oven  to 450 for the broccoli and set a pot of water to boil for the pasta.

2. Put the butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cut the pancetta/procuitto and put it the skillet to cook until JUST crispy.

3. While the meat is cooking chop the broccoli and put in a pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Then put in the oven to roast for about 15 minutes.

4. When the meat is just crispy add the wine, pepper, and garlic and cook until the wine has reduced to about 2 tablespoons. I don't always cook it that long, depends on how much "sauce" I want.

5. Make sure to add the pasta to the water when it is at a boil and check how long to cook it per its box. I use any and all pasta for the most part.

6. While the pasta cooks, add the eggs to your serving dish with the cheese. Scramble, or whisk it together.

7. Once the pasta is ready drain it and then immediately put in the serving dish and mix with the cheese mixture. This part is key to cook the egg in the pasta. Then add the broccoli and the procuitto/pancetta mixture. Grate more cheese to serve and enjoy!