Recipicity

From Cook’s Country. So many great things about this recipe. We will DEFINITELY make it again. It can be made and refrigerated the day before, then baked when you’re ready. The method of stuffing them is brilliant!  And the coating doesn’t peel off! The coating has amazing flavor! Crackers certainly add a good flavor, and the mustard in the beaten egg adds more good flavor. Can you tell we LOVED THIS????? And it’s fabulous with the Creamy Baked Risotto!!!!!

25 Ritz crackers
4 slices hearty white sandwich bread
6 T. unsalted butter, melted
8 thin slices of Deli ham (recommended is Dietz & Watson Black Forest Smoked Ham)
2 c. shredded Swiss cheese
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2# total)
salt and pepper
3 large eggs
2 T. dijon mustard
1 c. all-purpose flour

1. Make crumbs.  Adjust oven racks to lowest and middle positions and heat oven to 450. Pulse crackers and bread in food processor until coarsely ground (misread this, and ours were pretty fine – still amazingly good). Drizzle in the melted butter and pulse to incorporate. Bake crumbs on rimmed baking sheet on middle rack, stirring occasionally, until light brown – 3-5 min. Transfer to shallow dish. Leave oven on!

2. Stuff chicken. Top each slice of ham with 1/4 c. grated Swiss cheese and roll tightly; set aside. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Cut pocket in thickest part of chicken and stuff each breast with 2 ham-and-cheese rolls. Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper. Transfer chicken to plate, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 20 minutes.

3. Coat and bake. Beat eggs and mustard in second shallow dish. Place flour in third shallow dish. One at a time, coat stuffed chicken lightly with flour, dip into egg mixture and dredge with crumbs, pressing to adhere. Can be refrigerated at this point, covered, for 1 day. Transfer chicken to baking sheet or shallow baking dish and bake on lowest rack until bottom of chicken is golden brown – about 10 minutes, and then move baking sheet to middle rack and reduce oven temp to 400. (at this point, you can add the Dutch oven of the creamy baked risotto to the oven – temp is right, and baking time is pretty close. Our risotto actually took about 20-25 minutes) Bake until golden brown and chicken registers 160 degrees – about 20-25 minutes. Transfer to cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest 5 minutes.

OMG – This is amazing stuff and so good to be able to put it in the oven to bake while you’re making the Chicken Cordon Bleu!!! Recipes for both of those come from Cook’s Country. One never knows with new recipes if they’ll turn out well the first time, but both of these were hugely successful!! We ooh-ed and aah-ed all through the meal! Lots of “OMG”!!! Decided we’d do fresh asparagus to go with it next time – probably grilled!

Creamy Baked Risotto recipe:
5 c. low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 c. water
2 bay leaves
4 T. unsalted butter
1 onion, minced
salt and pepper
2 c. Arborio rice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c. dry white wine
1  1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 T. chopped fresh parsley

1. Heat the oven to 400. Bring broth, water, and bay leaves to simmer. Cover and keep warm at lowest possible heat.

2. While broth is warming, melt butter in Dutch oven over med. heat. Add onion and 1/2 tsp salt and cook until lightly browned, about 6 min.  Stir in rice and cook until edges begin to turn transparent, about 2 min.  Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 sec.  Add wine and cook, stirring, until completely absorbed, about 1 min.

3. Pour warm broth over rice. Cover Dutch oven with sheet of aluminum foil, pressing it down so that it rests on top of the broth! Crimp the foil all around the edges and cover pot with heavy lid for a tight seal. Bake until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Stir in Parmesan cheese and parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve. Yum!

Cook’s recipe stresses the importance of sealing the pot with the foil and heavy lid, to ensure even cooking and the requisite creamy consistency.

In Southern Utah, we had a good friend named Renee Christmas (really!). She wasn’t the best of cooks – for example: she roasted the turkey for our communal Thanksgiving dinner, with the (then plastic!!) bags of giblets, etc. still inside the turkey!!! But she had an Indian exchange graduate student (Gan) living with her and her husband, Bob, and this is the way Gan cooked for himself. Guaranteed to make the house smell REALLY GOOD for several days!!! All I can say is, make tons of the “chutney”. We never seem to have enough!

Ingredients list:

2 small onions
A couple cloves of garlic
Butter, butter, butter
3 lg. cans of tomatoes
curry powder
cumin
chili powder
salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
1-2 fresh coconuts
1-2 green peppers
fresh mushrooms
Small bag of long grain rice
2-4# ground beef (or leave it out, add tofu and it’s vegetarian)
1-2 pkgs frozen peas and carrots mix
whole cloves (count them so you can search them out when serving – not good to bite into one!!)
ground nutmeg
1-2 cans mixed nuts

Chutney:

Sauté 2 small onions (chopped)  and a minced garlic clove or two in a small amount of butter
Add 3 lg cans of tomatoes and 1 T. curry powder
Simmer for 1-3 hours, covered
Just before serving, add 2 crushed bay leaves and a pat of butter

Curry Prep:

Crack 1-2 fresh coconuts and dice without removing the brown rind. Refrigerate. (Be sure to pick a coconut that has milk in it – they’re fresher)

Dice 1-2 green peppers and set aside
Slice fresh mushrooms and set aside

Cook a small bag of long grain rice, uncovered, in a large pot
Don’t overcook or rinse.

Cooking method:

Salt well.
Usually start with a small pat of butter, let it melt, and bubble and then add spices. Then add food to be cooked.

Exception is hamburger – cook it first, drain most of the fat, add spices to a small amount of the fat, let it bubble up, and then mix in the hamburger. Dump on top of rice.

3 steps:

1- 2-4# ground beef, 1-3 T. curry, 1-3 T. cumin, 1/2 to 1 tsp chili powder, pepper
Cook. Dump on top of rice. Start next step with new butter and spices.

2- 1-2 pkg frozen peas and carrots mix, green pepper, 1 T. curry, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp. chili powder, dash of pepper.
Don’t overcook. Heat vegetables, steam, and stir-fry. Dump on rice and add new butter and spices.

3- fresh mushrooms, diced coconut, 1-2 cans mixed nuts. Add 6-8 whole cloves and a small amt. of nutmeg, cumin
and curry.  No chili powder this time. Use extra butter for fresh mushrooms. Dump on top of rice. Mix well
and heat to piping hot. Serve with chutney ladled over the top.

After you’ve made it once, you’ll have a better idea of how much of each spice to add, etc. It’s all a matter of personal taste. This makes enough to feed a crowd!! I’ll have to take a photo the next time I make it. It’s really “pretty” with all the colors, textures, etc! And it tastes SOOOO good!

Growing up, we always had bran muffins! Mom would make a batch of the dry and then could make them up in 1/4 batches as needed. Always yummy. The spotty availability of the Bran Buds has sometimes made for some creative adjustments to the recipe – for instance, All-Bran doesn’t work the same way as Bran Buds.

1 box Bran Buds
3 c. sugar
5 c. flour
5 tsp. soda
2 tsp. salt
dry buttermilk powder to make 1 qt of buttermilk

The above ingredients can be mixed together well and stored for some time. I usually make them up in 1/4 batches.

If making the full batch, add:

1 c. shortening (oil is fine)
4 eggs
2 c. boiling water
water required by dry buttermilk powder, or skip the dry above and just use 1 qt buttermilk here.

If making up the whole batch:

Pour boiling water over the bran cereal and let it soak a few minutes. Add buttermilk. Cream sugar, shortening and eggs. Add to bran mixture. Add dry ingredients. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350-375. Makes about 5 dozen.