Chicken Cordon Bleu
From Kitchen on the Green cooking teacher Thesala Jones, serves 10.
Ingredients
- 10 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
- 10 slices fully cooked ham or Prosciutto
- 14 ounces Hollandaise Sauce (below)
- 3 packages puff pastry (6 total sheets)
Directions
Rinse chicken; pat dry. Place each breast between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Pound lightly until flattened about 1/8-inch thick. Remove plastic wrap.
Place flattened chicken breasts atop puff pastry sheets. Place a slice of ham and 1 ounce of Hollandaise on each chicken piece. Seal pastry sheets closed around each chicken breast.
Cook for approximately 45 minutes to one hour in a 350-degree oven. Puff pastry will be brown and clear juices will run from chicken when sliced. Top with remaining Hollandaise and serve.
Hollandaise Sauce
Makes 1 quart.
Ingredients
For reduction:
- 5 ounces dry white wine
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 4 each whole black peppercorns, crushed
- 1 each bay leaf
For sauce:
- 4 ounces pasteurized egg yolks (sold in the egg section of the grocery store) or 2 regular egg yolks
- 24 ounces clarified butter, heated to 165 degrees (see note below)
- Salt and ground white pepper to taste
Directions
In a saucepan, combine all of the ingredients for the reduction and heat to a boil. Reduce to half of the volume, strain, and cool.
In a bowl, whisk the cooled reduction into the egg yolks.
Whisk the egg yolk mixture over a double boiler, cooking until the eggs start to ribbon. Remove the eggs from heat.
Slowly add hot clarified butter to eggs, whisking constantly. Adjust seasonings and serve immediately.
Note: To clarify butter, heat butter over low to medium heat to melt. When milk solids rise to the top, skim off with a ladle and discard. Butter is now clarified and ready to use.
Drink ideas: A sparkling cider like Martinelli or Izze’s new apple completes the all-American flavors here, and makes a sweet-tart counterpoint to the Hollandaise sauce.
Basic Pasta Recipe
From Kitchen on the Green cooking teacher Gigia Kolouch, this recipe serves 8-10.
Ingredients
- 2 cups white flour
- 1 cup semolina flour
- 3 eggs
- 3-6 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Directions
Mix together flour, eggs and olive oil. Add enough water so dough forms a stiff ball. Knead for 10 minutes, until smooth and silky. Let rest covered with a thin layer of olive oil for at least 15 minutes before handling.
Note: For coloring, you can add puréed cooked spinach, tomato paste, saffron, minced parsley or beet juice.
Tortellini Filling
Serves 8-10.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 pound ground turkey
- 1/2 pound ground beef or pork
- 4 slices prosciutto, cut into pieces
- 2-3 shallots, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed with the water squeezed out (see note for substitutions)
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Directions
Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, sauté turkey, pork, prosciutto, shallots and garlic until meat is cooked. Let cool and grind meat with remaining ingredients in a food processor until you have a thick paste.
Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thick. Cut into 2-by-2-inch squares. Place 1/2 teaspoon filling in the middle of the dough. Fold diagonally to cover filling and form a triangle. Rub a small amount of water along the edges of the dough and press together to seal. Now take the two long ends of the triangle and fold one over the other, again using a little water to help seal the two.
Cook in boiling water for about 5 minutes. The tortellini are done when they rise to the top of the water.
Note: Instead of spinach you can substitute 1/4 cup minced sun dried tomatoes, or 1/2 ounce dried porcini or wild mushrooms, soaked in hot water and finely minced.
Drink ideas: This hearty filling needs a strong flavor to stand up to it. Try Orangina or one of the Hansen’s flavors – kiwi strawberry or cherry vanilla cream soda.
Easy Marinara Sauce
From Kitchen on the Green cooking teacher Gigia Kolouch, this recipe serves 8.
Ingredients
- 1 fennel bulb
- 1 large yellow onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley or fresh basil
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1/2 cup water or chicken stock
- 1 28-ounce can plum tomatoes
Directions
Cut fennel in half and remove the core. Slice it into translucent crescents. Slice onion into 1/4-inch rings. Chop garlic and parsley.
Sauté onions, fennel and the garlic in olive oil over medium heat for 10 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and tender. Add wine and tomatoes. Lower heat and let sauce simmer for 15-30 minutes, so that the flavors can meld together. Add the parsley, and salt to taste.
Drink ideas: Just for appearances, serve with something that looks like red wine – pomegranate, grape or cranberry juice mixed with seltzer.
Cream Puffs
From Kitchen on the Green teacher Gigia Kolouch, this recipe makes 12-15 cream puffs.
Ingredients
- 1 cup water
- 3 ounces unsalted butter cut into 6 pieces
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
- 1 cup eggs (about 5 large eggs)
Egg glaze:
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon water
- Pinch salt
Directions
Bring water to a boil in a 2-quart pan with butter, salt and sugar. As soon as butter has melted, remove pan from heat, pour in all flour at once, and vigorously beat it in. It will be lumpy at first but smoothes out rapidly as you beat. As soon as it is blended, beat over moderate heat for a minute or more, until pastry balls up, cleans itself off sides of pan, and begins to film its bottom.
Turn pastry into 3-quart bowl and stir with a wooden spatula or spoon for 30 sections to cool it off briefly. Then make a well in the center of the warm pastry and beat in 1/4 cup egg, then another, and half of the final bit of egg. The pastry should just hold its shape when lifted in the spoon, so beat in final bit of egg by dribbles until you get the desired consistency.
Preheat oven to 425. Lightly butter 2 baking sheets. Mix together egg glaze. Place cream puff pastry in a pastry bag.
Spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart, squeeze round blobs of the dough into 1-inch high mounds. Dip the pastry brush in egg glaze and rapidly paint each blob, shaping it nicely with the brush if necessary. Be careful not to dribble egg down the puff onto the baking sheet, as this could glue it to the sheet and prevent puffing.
Immediately place the puffs in the preheated oven. Bake about 20 minutes until the puffs have about doubled in size, are a nice golden brown and are crisp to the touch. Remove them from oven and turn it off. Make a slash in each to let out steam, return to oven for 5 minutes. Arrange on rack to cool. Cut in half to fill with pastry cream or use a syringe. You may also top them with chocolate or caramel sauces.
Pastry Cream
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 3 fine strips lemon zest
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- Pinch salt
- 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
Directions
Slowly heat milk and lemon zest in a small heavy saucepan over low heat.
Meanwhile, whisk sugar, egg yolks, egg and salt in a small bowl until thick but still golden, 2-3 minutes. Sift in flour, a little at a time, whisking briskly to mix thoroughly.
Whisk 1/2 cup of the boiling milk mixture, 2 tablespoons at a time, into egg mixture; then pour egg mixture into remaining milk mixture. Cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until thickened, 5-7 minutes. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the edges of the pot, making sure that the cream doesn’t stick.
As it begins to reach a boil and looks lumpy, whisk it vigorously to smooth it. When cream is as thick as mayonnaise, reduce heat and whisk or stir 1 minute. Remove from heat and discard lemon zest.
Beat in vanilla and then butter. Cool cream quickly by placing pan in a bowl of ice water and stirring continually. Smear a little butter on top and cover tightly with plastic wrap so that the cream doesn’t develop a skin. Cool completely in refrigerator. You may want to thin it with 1-2 tablespoons milk before using. The pastry cream will keep 4-5 days in refrigerator or in freezer up to 2 months.
Chocolate Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup white corn syrup
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
Boil corn syrup in a small saucepan for a minute or two, until it forms heavy strands as you drop it off a spoon. Remove from heat and stir in water.
Sift together cocoa and sugar, and then whisk them in. Simmer, stirring, for several seconds, until you are sure sugar has dissolved completely — very important since undissolved sugar will cause sauce to crystallize later.
Add baking chocolate and simmer, stirring, until melted; blend in butter and heavy cream. Bring to a full boil for 15 seconds.
Remove from heat and blend in salt and vanilla. Serve warm.
Drink ideas: These rich puffs call for old school coffee, hold the Starbucks-style sugar, syrup and whipped cream.
