2008 October | Kitchen Guy

Archive for October, 2008

Video: Provolone and Olive Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Posted by Chef Jim on October 29, 2008 | Comments Off

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Tired of plain old chicken breasts? Try this to jazz ‘em up!

Tags:Chicken, Olives, Provolone, Recipe Videos

Filed Under: Video Archive

Blog Topic: Il Scandolo (The Scandal)

Posted by Chef Jim on October 27, 2008 | Comments Off

I had better wear a disguise on my next visit to Italy because it seems that one of my recipe videos has caused a minor uproar and great offense.

Apparently, there are some Italians in Italy who think that I’ve committed the ultimate sin, offending their sensibilities, by using rotini instead of spaghetti in my Pasta Frittata.

Some months ago I posted “Pasta Frittata” on my website and on You Tube. I also have a list of e-mail subscribers who receive my videos every week. It’s a simple recipe that shows one thing you can do if you have leftover pasta. Within a week of first posting the video, I got a few positive comments and then that was that. I’ve posted 15 or 20 videos since.

I guess someone in Italy did a search for “pasta” or “frittata” on You Tube and came across my piece.

This has become an excellent example of a “viral video” because the offended parties (there are about 12 of them) have sent my Pasta Frittata video to everyone on their e-mail lists and now I have been inundated with e-mails (all in Italian) and even though I don’t speak the language, I can tell they’re not very kind.

There’s a web site that offers free translations and I copied and pasted some of the comments and I must confess that the supposed translations into English may as well have been in Hindi or Chinese because I guess the free translator doesn’t understand Italian slang or scatological references.

Some of the translations, though, were kind of amusing. For instance, there was this one: “Your cooking not trying to make moon look like yellow roller skates after kissing.”

As you might guess, I’m passionate about cooking, but I have never been so attached to a dish that I would get into a war of words with some cook 5,000 miles away. Geez. All I wanted to do was show my regular viewers one thing they could do with leftover pasta and sauce.

I didn’t know I would need a special dispensation from the Pope or Prime Minister Berlusconi to use something other than spaghetti. In any case, if you choose to try the recipe at the end of this column, please feel free to use any leftover pasta you have. But if you’re having Italian guests from Italy, make sure you use spaghetti. Otherwise, you might be in for a very unpleasant visit.

First, before you read or try the recipe, judge for yourself. Paste this URL into your browser and let me know if you are offended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFcjLrGHctw.

Kitchen Guy’s Pasta Frittata

(no representation is hereby made that this is genuinely Italian)

8 ounces leftover pasta – your choice

2 cups pasta sauce – also leftover

5 large eggs, beaten

1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped (divided use)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup grated or shredded Parmesan cheese

Preheat broiler. Toss pasta and 1 cup of pasta sauce in a bowl to blend. Heat oil in a large oven proof skillet and add pasta and toss until warmed through, about 3 minutes.

Combine eggs with half the parsley, salt, pepper and cayenne and whisk to blend and pour over pasta, but do not stir. Reduce heat to medium low and cook eggs until they begin to firm up and bottom begins to brown. You may lift the sides occasionally to let any uncooked egg run underneath. This should take about 8 minutes.

Remove the skillet from the heat and sprinkle frittata with cheese. Place under broiler until cheese melts, about 3 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining sauce over low heat. When the frittata comes out of the oven, use a flexible spatula to loosen the edges and bottom and slide on a plate or cutting board. Sprinkle with remaining parsley, cut into wedges, and serves with warmed sauce.

Tags:Following recipes, Italian Food, Scandal

Filed Under: Chef Jim's Blog

Blog Topic: Rehabilitating Rocco

Posted by Chef Jim on October 23, 2008 | Comments Off

Far be it from me to criticize another chef – especially one who right now is famous for being famous a la Paris Hilton. But he happens to be a really good cook, too, and that’s what he used to be famous for.

It’s just that it seems he gets so caught up in his celebrity that he forgets that his thing is creating and cooking great food.

I’m writing about Chef Rocco DiSpirito, who (as of this writing anyway) is a contestant on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars. They gave him a pretty talented professional partner, too, but he seems to be screwing it up because when he’s on the dance floor, he’s nothing but a stiff.

Maybe you remember Rocco from a short-lived series called The Restaurant several years ago. He partnered with a well-known restaurant investor-mogul, Jeffrey Chodorow, in opening an eponymous Italian restaurant in New York. As it happened, Rocco’s mother was shown to be more able than her professionally trained son.

The show also highlighted Rocco’s obsession with self, his inability to deal with employment issues (both his own and others who worked for him), as well as his inability to take a leadership role in birthing a new enterprise and shepherding it as it struggled through its infancy. Most people see the “glamorous” side of restaurant ownership. The ugly underbelly is rarely exposed as it was on this television show. In the end, Chodorow (who’s no angel either) fired Rocco, the “partnership” ended in a bitter dispute, and the restaurant eventually closed.

Now here’s the thing about Rocco: He is a very talented chef, having entered the Culinary Institute of America at the tender age of 16 and then studying under the tutelage of some of the greatest chefs working in France. His best known and most honored restaurant was Union Pacific in New York and soon after, he was named Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef. In 2000, Gourmet magazine called him “America’s Most Exciting Young Chef.”

He’s also published a couple of cookbooks that have had mixed reviews.

But Rocco seems to be a guy who is too easily diverted by his celebrity. This behavior continues to deprive the culinary world of one very talented guy who should be spending more time behind the stove than in front of the cameras.

Right now you may be thinking, that people in glass houses, etc. etc. After all, I’m a TV cook, too. Have I broken the honor code among television chefs?

Not really. It’s just that between the dancing show and other talk show appearances, Rocco’s been making a concerted effort to rehabilitate his image because he really was shown in a very poor light on reality TV. And as a celebrity chef, he’s no fool either. I certainly can’t fault him for his entrepreneurism because he’s also out there hawking a new cookbook.

Good for Rocco. But I still wish he’d get back in the kitchen and cook some great Italian food.

And that leads me into my recipe for this week: Chicken a la Romana. You can see me make this dish if you have access to the internet. Simply paste this link into your browser: http://blip.tv/file/1021266/

4 6 oz. chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1 tsp. vegetable oil
2 ½ cups sliced mushrooms
1 tsp. garlic, minced
¼ cup dry white wine
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. olive oil
¾ cup chicken stock
4 Prosciutto slices 4 Provolone slices
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp. fresh tarragon, chopped
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
¼ cup sherry
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. fresh chives, snipped
2 Tbsp. red bell pepper, diced

Pound chicken breasts in between sheets of plastic wrap with a meat mallet until they are a uniform thickness, about ¼ inch. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator.
In a medium sauté pan, heat vegetable oil over high heat. Add the garlic and heat for a moment. Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté until the mushrooms are brown and cooked down. Add the white wine and cook for another minute. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool.
Season the flour with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken in the seasoned flour and shake off excess.
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken and sauté quickly until the breast is golden brown. Turn the chicken, the remove the pan from the heat. While the chicken is off the heat, cover each breast with a slice of Provolone and top the cheese with a slice of Prosciutto. Add 1/3 of the chicken stock to the pan, cover and return it to the heat. When the cheese has melted, remove the pan from the heat and uncover. Remove the chicken breasts and set aside on a plate and cover to keep warm.
Place the pan back on the stove and reduce the heat to medium. Whisk the cornstarch in the milk until smooth. Add the remaining chicken stock, tarragon and the milk slurry. Cook, whisking constantly until the sauce begins to thicken. Add the mushrooms and continue to stir. Add the sherry and some salt and cook until the sauce has thickened to your preference. Remove the pan from the heat and incorporate the Parmesan into the sauce. Place the chicken breasts on plates and cover with the sauce. Garnish with chives and diced bell peppers.

Tags:Dancing with the Stars, Jeffrey Chodorow, Rocco DiSpirito, The Restaurant

Filed Under: Featured Articles & Videos

Blog Topic: In The Pink

Posted by Chef Jim on October 22, 2008 | Comments Off

This may be a stretch, but I chose my topic for this column to show some sort of simpatico with the color theme for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I’m virtually certain that your grandmother or home-ec teacher told you that pork had to be cooked until it was bone dry and bright white in order for your tummy to be safe. I and thousands of my culinary professional colleagues urge you otherwise.

The last known case of trichinosis in the United States occurred more than 55 years ago. The pork producers of this country and I hereby declare it safe for you to let a little pink remain in your pork. That’s because the folks who raise hogs are using better feed and, as a result, the pork we’re buying now is actually about a third leaner that it was 15 years ago. Even so, that nasty bug that causes trichinosis dies at 137º.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the normal food-safety precautionary measures when handling this meat, such as washing anything that comes in contact with raw pork.

Nevertheless, that little pink I’m advocating happens to be the secret to moist and flavorful pork whether it’s the tenderloin or pork chops and even pork roast. I feel the same way about beef and duck breast, but definitely not chicken or turkey.

But I digress.

Pork tenderloin is one of the more delicate cuts of meat and it should be treated with care. So I sear it quickly and roast it quickly, too. But I also “protect” the meat with a coating of pecans and breadcrumbs.

I use Dijon mustard to help the nuts adhere to the meat. The oils released by the nuts, along with the herbs I add, during the time in the oven – all of these add to the flavor of the meat. And because the tenderloin has very little fat, it’s important to take such measures to maintain as much moisture as possible.

When it comes to pork tenderloin, forget what grandma told you. Just watch your temperature; watch your time; and go pink!

Pecan-Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Tomatillo Salsa

2 1-pound pork tenderloins
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup plain dry breadcrumbs
2 tsp. dried thyme
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 400°. Combine the pecans, breadcrumbs, thyme, salt and pepper in a pie plate.

Heat a large skillet with a thin film of oil over medium high heat. Sear the tenderloins until they develop a golden crust. Remove from the pan to cool.

Using a pastry brush, “paint” the pork with the Dijon mustard and roll in the pecan mixture until the tenderloins are coated.

Roast for about 18 minutes or until your instant read thermometer registers 145º. Let the meat rest for a couple of minutes so the juices settle and then slice, served with tomatillo salsa. Here’s that recipe:

3/4 pound tomatillos, husks removed and washed
1/2 cup Granny Smith apple, skin on, coarsely chopped
1 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh basil
2 Tbsp. fresh mint
Salt and pepper to taste

Remove the husks from the tomatillos. Rinse them and then cut them into quarters. Add to the bowl of a food processor.

Add in coarsely chopped Granny Smith apple, the jalapeño pepper, the fresh basil and fresh mint. Turn on the food processor and chop until the mixture combines into a chunky salsa. Salt and pepper to taste.

To get the maximum flavor from this salsa, make it a day ahead and let it sit covered in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving with the pecan-crusted pork tenderloin.

Tags:Meat Temperature, Pork, Recipes

Filed Under: Chef Jim's Blog