Sunday, November 20, 2011

Spaghetti In A Creamy Tomato Chive Butter Sauce Topped with Moist Chicken Cajun Cutlets

This has got to be my favorite Pasta by far. For me, it's the best of both worlds of creamy and tomato based pastas.

When I look at it, it resembles Chicken Parmesan Pasta in that the pasta is topped off with a cutlet, or thin cut of meat breaded and pan fried.  There's something about fried breaded meat on top of pasta and sauce.  I think the flavors and textures mix in so well together.  

Maybe the reason why I love it so much is because it's sort of a grown up version of Chicken Mc Nuggets and magic dunking sauce.  The cutlet on top is the nugget, and the creamy sauce is the little dunking sauce.  Hmm... Then the noodles can be the french fries?  All I know is that this pasta made me dance... and that's a pretty good indicator that it's a keeper.

How did this dish come about?  I had left over Chive Butter Spread and wondered what I should do with it since I was out of bread to spread it on.  Once again, I looked at what ingredients I had on hand (spaghetti, tomato, and chicken breast) and tossed them together.

*Note: I always bring my chicken breast to room temp before cooking it. This helps ensure that it gets cooked evenly.  I also lightly dredge them in flour and pan fry them with butter because these two steps are key in helping keep moisture in.  Butter has a lower heat capacity compared to regular oil so it's like you're slow cooking your chicken. 

Serve with garlic bread, soup, and/or salad.  As always, enjoy!  
2-3 servings; 15-25min
Ingredients:
3 tbsp butter (I use land o lakes light, salted)
1 garlic clove minced finely
~1/3 cup chopped chives chopped
1 tsp dried parsley
1/8 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning
If using unsalted butter add 1/2 tsp salt.  If using salted, add 1/4tsp or to taste.
1/4 cup lime juice from a ripe lime (or white wine)

1 tbsp cream cheese
6 tbsp evaporated milk

1 large very ripe tomato diced
splash of water
2 chicken breast
~4 tbsp flour for light dredging 
1 tbsp butter for each breast for frying
cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper for dusting breast

200g (~1/2 standard pack in Grenada) Spaghetti noodles

Cheddar cheese for topping

Directions
1. Butterfly chicken breast (lay palm of hand on top of one side and use a flat edged knife to make a cut down the middle. Tip: to start the cut, make short back and forth motions with a flat edged knife). Lay flat and cover with plastic wrap.  Take a flat edged cup or mallet and pound in a thin even layer.  Lightly dust chicken with salt, pepper, and cajun seasoning on one side only. Bring to room temperature while preparing other ingredients.
2. Sauce: Melt butter in sauce pan Medium heat. add chives, garlic, parsley, pepper, cajun seasoning, and salt. stir frequently to cook uniformly.  When mixture starts bubbling ~5 min. add lime juice. Stir to incorporate. Cook for 2 more min. Add cream cheese and evaporated milk. stir to incorporate. cook for another min and move to a separate bowl.
3. Noodles: bring a pot of salted water to a boil. cook noodles until their slighty undercooked. they will continue to cook in sauce.  One cooked, drain but don't rinse.
4. Chicken: Heat fry pan medium high heat. add 1/2 tbsp butter and wait until it starts crackling. In the meantime, lightly coat chicken in flour and shake all excess flour off.  Add to crackling fry pan and cook on one side without moving it for ~3 min. Be careful to make sure the pan doesn't smoke. Push to the side and add other 1/2 tbsp butter. once melted, flip chicken breast and cook for ~3min. to check if cooked, stab the breast- juices should run clear. repeat process with other breast. once both are cooked move to a separate plate.
5.  Don't discard chicken drippings.  Under medium high heat, add diced tomatoes and lightly salt to extract water. stir to coat in drippings. add a splash of water and cover with lid. stir occasionally and cook until tomatoes have turned into a puree ~5 min.
6. Once cooked, add creamy sauce and mix well.  Once mixed, add spaghetti. Mix well until sauce sticks to noodles. Turn Heat off and top with sliced chicken cutlets and shredded cheese and enjoy!! 

New York Bagel, Grenada- Menu

-Cuisines:  American,- Bagels, Hamburgers, Pizza, Soups, Sandwiches, Kosher 
-Location: Wall Street, St. George's 00000, Grenada. SGU Student Center. SGU behind SD5.
-Hours: On Wall Street and Truck- M-Th 7am-8pm; F 7am-5pm; Sa closed; Su 9am-8pm. 
Student Center- Su-Fr 24 hrs; Fr Close 5:30pm; Sa Open 7pm
-Phone: (473)-442-2435
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Saturday, November 19, 2011

Creamy Burger Fajita Spaghetti

I was thinking about making Fajitas-a traditional Mexican dish composed of any type of meat grilled with bell peppers and onions that's typically served with tortillas- but I didn't have any tortillas on hand so I decided to use spaghetti noodles instead.

If you've eaten pasta before you would've probably figured out that with every pasta dish comes some type of sauce.  Mexican Fajitas normally doesn't come with sauce.  Instead, it's topped off with a little lime juice, sour cream, and a splash of hot sauce.  With these ingredients in mind, I decided to make my own creamy sauce with ingredients I had on hand- Cream cheese, white balsamic vinegar, and eggs.  This combination probably doesn't sound so great together but I can assure you that they mix in well.  The balsamic vinegar is reduced into a nice sweet sauce and leaves behind a little acidity the help balance off the other flavors and the cream cheese and eggs bind everything together nicely.

The "burger" part of this recipe comes from the addition of ketchup.  Ground beef and ketchup?  That screams out burger so I decided to add it in as part of this dish's title.  I had so much fun making this dish and even more fun eating it.  It's such a great dinner to eat in front of a movie.  Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic minced (~1tsp)
1 medium onion diced
1 medium potato cubed 1/4'' 
1 medium bell pepper sliced
a little under 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar or white wine (Foodfair for balsamic, IGA or CKs for wine)
1tbsp butter
1lb ground beef
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp dried parsley flakes
3tbsp ketchup
1 tsp brown or white sugar


Topping
2 eggs beaten
cheddar cheese
cream cheese
dash a cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes for heat

1 pack of Spaghetti Noodles (400g or 14.1oz)

Directions
1.  Heat up pan medium high heat.  Add oil.  Add garlic and onion. Cook until translucent.
2. Add potatoes. Lightly salt and pepper.  stir to coat. cook for ~4 min.
3.  Add bell pepper amd stir fry for ~1min.  Push all ingredients to one side of pan.
4. Add balsamic vinegar on bare side of pan. Bring up to boil ~1min or until it reduces into 1/2. Add butter and stir to incorporate. Mix into vegetables.  Push to one side of pan. (turn heat down to low while you prepare spaghetti noodles)
5. Heat a pot of salted boiling water. Cook spaghetti al dente (slightly undercooked).
5.  turn heat back up to medium high. Add beef on bare side of pan in a flat layer.  Add salt, pepper, paprika, parsley on top.  Stir to incorporate and cook ~6min or until beef is cooked.
6. As soon as beef is cooked, mix in with veggies.  Add ketchup and sugar. cook for another 2min. with cover on.
7.  Place both spaghetti and noodles in separate bowls. I only mixed what I was going to eat, saving the rest for later.  Take desired amount of noodles and desired amount of beef mixture and add to pan. medium high heat. mix well. turn heat to low and add on top 2 beaten eggs, cheddar cheese, and cream cheese (for about 2 cups of noodles, I added 2 eggs). as soon as everything is mixed well together, turn heat off. Enjoy!

39th Anniversary of Grenada's Independence

2.7.13 St. George's Downtown and National Stadium Grenada, West Indies. © Katherine Fung, All rights reserved.  Grenada, The ...