The Hunger Struck

Cherry Tomato, Basil and Brie Panzanella Salad

Natalie — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:39:09 +0000

I’ve gone a little tomato crazy this year. I’m finding myself literally surrounded by tomatoes of all varieties and I only have myself to blame for it. As I may have mentioned before we receive more than we can eat in tomatoes each week from my mother-in-law and with many failed attempts at refusing her generous offers, because she really gives us way more than we could possibly eat, we gave up.

You would think that this constant supply of free tomatoes would extinguish any temptation to buy other available varieties in the market.

Nope, unlike most people who find themselves in an over abundance of any one thing, I don’t seem to know when to stop. You see, its tomato season in Vancouver and we have all kinds of amazing otherwise unavailable varieties like heirlooms and Okanagan Field tomatoes (still a few more weeks for these but I’m anticipating!). I wait all year for good Okanagan tomatoes I still think they’re the best in the world. How would it be possible for me to pass these up?

In a moment of panic, upon realization of my dilemma, I have come to the conclusion that we will be eating a lot of tomato based meals in the near future, at least until the Okanagan tomatoes are through. I’m OK with that for now. I promise I will exercise some restraint and not post exclusively tomato recipes for the rest of the summer.

Here’s a salad I absolutely adore. It’s based on a pasta recipe my mother used to make, which you could easily transform back by substituting the bread for hot pasta. I was in the mood for a non traditional panzanella salad, one of my all time favourites. Its like the best sandwiches ever deconstructed in a bowl. There are so many possibilities with a panzanella salad, whats not to love? I used a few varieties of tomatoes, a surprisingly good green house cherry tomato as well as a small heirloom variety – you could use anything you have available. The trick is to serve this salad at room temperature. Better yet of you buy tomatoes in small quantities don’t refrigerate them, they are so much more flavourful when the aren’t stored in the fridge. But if you can’t don’t worry just let them sit out a while and come to room temperature. The combination of brie, bread, good tomatoes and basil is truly out of this world.

Cherry Tomato, Basil and Brie Panzanella Salad - Serves 2 as Dinner

A whole bunch of Cherry tomatoes, halved

1 small – medium piece of good quality French Brie, cut into bit sized pieces

1 shallot, minced

1 clove garlic, smashed

olive oil

lemon juice

fleur du sel

1/2 day old Georgian baguette torn into bite sized pieces and toasted in the oven

1 bunch fresh basil, washed

Toss the cherry tomatoes, brie and minced shallots in a large bowl and set aside. Pour some olive oil (about 1/4 cup) into a small bowl and toss in the smashed garlic clove. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the oil and stir with a fork to emulsify, season well with salt and pepper (this is really what makes a good salad dressing good) and pour the dressing over the tomato, brie, shallot mixture. Allow this to marinate at room temperature for an hour or so. You want the cheese to be a bit melty and all of the flavor of the dressing to get into the tomatoes.

When you are ready to eat, toss the toasted baguette pieces into the bowl and tear the basil roughly over top. Toss well to combine and adjust seasoning to taste. Serve immediately.

5 Vancouver Restaurant Favorites

Natalie — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:26:02 +0000

I rarely write about Vancouver restaurants here on The Hunger Struck, so I thought it was time to make a quick list of my current favorites. We do eat out at least once a week and over the past few months have been going back to these places frequently. They are all in the moderate price range and I think all of them are pretty great.

1. Nuba – If you like Lebanese food you’ll love Nuba. Not exactly a new Vancouver staple but their newish Hastings location across from their previous location has me going there more often. I just love this place. I have a tendency to always order the same thing : the vegetarian platter for two.

Nuba Restaurant
207 Hastings Street West
Vancouver, BC
(604) 688-1655
http://nuba.ca/

2. Acme Cafe – This place is great for breakfast and lunch. We have a tendency to come here for lunch lately because they make a great tomato vegetable soup, which is probably the best side of soup I’ve had in a long time from a diner style restaurant. Also any place that offers mac and cheese as a side is alright by me.

Acme Café
51 Hastings Street West
Vancouver, BC
(604) 569-1022

http://www.acmecafe.ca/

3. Bao Bei – A Chinatown favorite Bao Bei is Chinese tapas done right. I love that they’ve made it casual. It’s the perfect place to stay for a few drinks and linger over some food but at the same time a place where you can be in and out in under an hour should you have to. I think I’ve pretty much tried everything on the menu by now and I can definitely say I’ve really enjoyed it all. The Shao Bing a sesame flat bread sandwich with braised pork butt, Asian pear, pickled onion and mustard greens would be my favorite if I had to pick, but I’m a sucker for sandwich type fare.

Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie
163 Keefer Street
Vancouver, BC
(604) 688-0876
http://bao-bei.ca/

4. Au Petit Chavignol – Brought to you by the owners of Les Amis du Fromage, this little wine and cheese bar is definitely something special. They offer a wide variety of both international and local cheeses and meats as well as croque monsieur, fondu and other cheese based dishes should you fancy something warm. It’s all fantastic.

Au Petit Chavignol
843 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
(604) 255-4218
http://www.aupetitchavignol.com/

5. Northern Delicacies – Ok this place isn’t exactly in Vancouver, its in Richmond in the Aberdeen Mall. But Richmond is much more accessible now that the new sky train line goes there and I really think everyone should be going out there to try the amazing varieties of Chinese food that city has to offer. It’s actually pretty fast, I think it takes maybe 20 minutes from Waterfront station. Anyway it’s a Shanghainese restaurant and has became a favorite of ours over the years because of two dishes they serve first the Xiao Long Bao dumplings and second the Dan Dan Noodles. I’m sure there are many other amazing things on their menu but we just can’t seem to get by these two. I know those soup dumpling aficionados in the Vancouver area are going to say that there are way better places for these and I don’t doubt that there are but I do really like the ones at Northern Delicacies so maybe my dumpling plate is not refined enough yet. I’m ok with that.

Nothern Delicacies – Aberdeen Mall
2nd floor (I think!) they have terracotta warriors out front
4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC
(604) 233-7050

Brown Butter Ice Cream

Natalie — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:22:52 +0000

Its almost like I have an unconscious wish to get really really fat. I’ll spend hours at the gym the weekend baking and eating and still find myself a bit confused when my jeans fit tight on Monday morning. The best part is that by some miracle I am able to ignore this and use absolutely no common sense when I see recipes like Brown Butter Ice Cream. Obviously ice cream base on its own isn’t rich enough so lets add a stick of butter to it. Sounds good to me!

In all seriousness, am I the only one that sees the genius of this? Brown butter on its own is magic and can add so much to a dish. I routinely use it when I make rice.

This is another recipe from Chez Pim and I have to say I was instantly attracted to it. It just made perfect sense to me. Brown butter, sugar, cream could there be a better combination out there? Seriously email me asap if you you know of one. This was one of the recipes that I knew would be amazing the second I laid eyes on it and I was right.

The end result is as close to perfection as any one ice cream can be, it’s also a bit mysterious which I like. That is to say, not knowing that its brown butter ice cream you may not be able to put your finger on what exactly gives this ice cream its incredible rich flavor. It has a very organic custard taste. It will challenge your will power. If you’re smart you’ll just give in.

Brown Butter Ice Cream – Recipe Adapted from Chez Pim

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 cups cream

1/2 cup sugar

6 egg yolks

1 teaspoon salt

Over medium heat melt the butter and allow it to brown being careful not to burn. You want the milk solids to get golden but not too dark, as soon as the butter is browned remove from the heat and pour into a separate bowl to avoid burning it as it will continue to cook if left in the hot pan.

For the ice cream base divide the sugar between a pot (you can wipe out the pot you used for the butter) and a blender. Pour the milk into the pot and over medium heat bring to just a simmer. While you wait for the milk to warm up add your egg yolks to the blender and turn it on to mix them into the sugar. With the blender on a lowish speed slowly pour the browned butter into the egg yolk sugar mixture and mix until combined. Once your milk has come up to a simmer, on a low speed gently add that into the egg yolk butter mixture along with the salt and mix until combined. Pour the cream into the blender and blend quickly to combine.

Pour the ice cream mixture into a bowl, cover and refrigerated until completely cold. I like to make ice cream base the night before churning. Once the mixture is cold, churn in your ice cream maker according to manufactures instructions.

Serve on its own or as an addition to a pie or tart. I served mine with Pim’s amazing Fig Tart. It was truly spectacular.

Fig and Blueberry Tarts with Almond Frangipane

Natalie — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:05:18 +0000

I love to bake and have always longed to be one of those bakers who can produce perfect aesthetically magnificent creations. This is a bit strange because in other ways I’m not exactly what you would call a perfectionist. This desire for baking perfection may stem from the fact that baking is something I was very comfortable with at a young age. I worked in a bakery for a while after high school and prior to that spend many days in the kitchen baking cookies, pies, tarts etc. Baking came to me easily, I only struggled with the aesthetic.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much time I spend calculating circumference or carefully cutting sides of puff pastry, somehow it always comes out looking a bit rough. I know there is appeal in a rustic looking free form tart, but sometimes, maybe even just once, I would like to make something that looks as amazing as it tastes, something refined.

I will say that despite all this talk of perfection, it wasn’t my goal to come out with a perfect looking tart or tarts this weekend. I just found myself contemplating this point again after these tarts came out the way they did: a bit rough not unlike the others before them but absolutely delicious.

The inspiration for these came from a post Pim did back in November and which I bookmarked immediately so that as soon as fig season came around in Vancouver I could make this amazing looking tart. This tart of course turned into two, there was a bit of left over dough and a small basket of blueberries in the fridge that seemed willing. Pim called this the best fig tart ever and I think I will have to agree. It’s funny though because I would not have thought to pair Figs with Frangipane. I would have assumed the almond to be a bit overpowering, but its actually not at all. Especially because I did it the lazy way (I recently broke my food processor) and bought blanched ground almonds, I suspect though that this tart would be even better if you roasted the almonds and ground them yourself. All things considered you have to try this, especially if you are as obsessed with figs as I am. This has become an instant favorite in our house and I know I will be making it again very soon.

Fig and Blueberry Tarts with Almond Frangipane -Recipe Adapted Chez Pim

I have used the same pie dough for as long as I can remember, while its a great go to recipe for no fail flaky dough (it uses 1/2 lard 1/2 butter) I decided to try something new this time. Since this recipe is adapted from Chez Pim it only made sense to give Pim’s dough a try. As I don’t own the Foodie Handbook I found the recipe in video format on Serious Eats, Pim has since then published the recipe on her blog. The video is really helpful for those of you who are intimidated by pie dough.

For the Dough-

2 1/4 cup of all purpose flour

8 oz cold salted butter

1/4 cup cold water

For the Frangipane-

1/2 – 3/4 cup ground almonds

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

For the Tart -

10 large figs

1 small box of blueberries

1 egg

granulated sugar

1. For the Dough: Dump the four onto your work surface and cut the butter into chunks on top of it. Working with you hands press the flour into the butter and use a pastry scraper to scrape up all the flour. Continue doing this until all the flakes of butter have been pressed into the four and you have a lose crumbly texture. Make a well in the center and pour in the cold water, quickly mix together with you finger tips until the dough comes together. Form into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Once the dough has cooled, remove it from the fridge and on a floured surface, using your rolling pin, roll it out into a long rectangle. Fold the dough on top pf itself in thirds and roll your again. Repeat this 5 times or until the dough is smooth and easy to work with. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, I cut one bigger using about 3/4 of the dough and one smaller using the 1/4 remaining.

Refrigerate again until col before rolling out.

2. For the Frangipane: In the bowl of your stand mixer combine almonds sugar and butter and mix until combine. you could easily do this by hand as well. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerated until ready to use.

3. To assemble roll out your dough into one large rectangle and one smaller rectangle. I rolled it out to about a 1/4 inch thick. Spread about 1/4 of the frangipane mixture on the bigger tart and about half of that amount on the smaller tart. Make sure to leave a 1 inch boarder around the outside. Cut your figs into quarters and arrange on the larger tart shell. For the smaller tart grab a good handful of blueberries and layer them on top of the frangipane. For the blueberry tart I had about 2-3 layers. Once the tarts are filled, if the dough has warmed up, you can just stick it in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool it down, this also makes it much easier to fold the edges in. Once the tart has chilled againg gently fold in the edges of the dough and with a pastry brush brush the edges with the egg wash. Sprinkle the tops of the tarts with some granulated sugar and bake for 45 – 50 minutes at 400 F. Serve warm.

Fig, Serrano and Bocconcini Bruschetta

Natalie — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:49:07 +0000

I have been the laziest cook lately. For the last few weeks as this blog will attest I have had minimal time in the kitchen. Actually it hasn’t been intentional at all, I’ve just been so busy lately. We are desperately trying to find a house right now as we’ve out grown our one room apartment, so all of my free time has been spent doing this. Any of you Vancouverites who have been through this process recently will know how frustrating it is. I wont get started on the housing prices in Vancouver, they make me want to pull my hair out.

But hopefully we will find something soon because I’m sick of this and need more time to do the things I love again. AND my kitchen misses me. AND i just got a new set of amazing pots and pans. AND figs are in season!

I don’t know about you guys but I’m absolutely obsessed with figs. I wait not so patiently all year until its fig season. Once they start showing up we go absolutely fig crazy. Seriously we eat them on a daily basis. I thought I would share this extremely no brainer recipe quickly, its the first thing we do with figs each year and it may change the way you look at bruschetta forever.

Fig, Serrano and Bocconcini Bruschetta – Serves 2 – Adapted from Jamie Oliver

4 slices sourdough

4 large figs

8 slices of serrano ham

3 small balls of bocconcini

fresh mint

olive oil

fleur de sel

Toast the bread and lightly coat in a bit of olive oil. Fold on the Serrano ham, we like 2 pieces per slice. Roughly tear over the bocconcini and fresh mint. Finish with olive oil and fleur de sel. Prepare to be amazed.

Black Current Jam

Natalie — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:15:46 +0000

I over bought at the farmers market a few weeks back. Does that ever happen to you? I find it so hard to control my purchases at this time of the year, it seems I have to constantly remind myself that with work and everything else I just don’t have time to plan what I’m going to do with 10 pounds of berries on a Sunday night. This is a really upsetting realization for me. I have always thought I could be such a great candidate for a stay at home wife position. Not out of laziness or not wanting to work, but simply because my favorite thing in the whole wide world is cooking and spending time in my kitchen. I knew I should have married rich. Or maybe become a farmer instead of choosing a career in advertising?

Fortunately I was able to have a bit of control this week when I saw the little bushels of black currants. Of course what I wanted to do was just buy up the whole lot, I love currents, but seriously what are 2 people going to do with 10 pounds of currents? In the long run I’m glad I had the strength to limit myself because as it turns out the currents on top, the ones I tasted, were pretty sweet but the ones underneath that first layer were really tart almost sour. If I was a suspicious person I would call the farmer I bought them from sneaky, but I’m not and honestly it gave me an excuse to make this pretty awesome black current jam.

Black Current Jam – makes 1 small jar

3 cups fresh black currents

2 cups organic white sugar, or to taste my berries were quit tart and I like my jam a bit on the tart side too.

juice of half a lemon

about 1/4 cup water

Add all of the ingredients to a medium sized heavy bottom sauce pan, gently stir together and bring to a boil. Once the berry mixture is boiling you’ll want to keep an eye on it and stir quite often to avoid burning the sugar. Keep at a gentle boil for about 20 minutes or until desired consistency.

Allow the jam to cool completely and then spoon into a small bowl or glass jar and refrigerate.

Farmers Market Greens with Anchovies and Sesame Spelt Croutons

Natalie — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:26:10 +0000

Saturday lunch during the spring and summer months is my favorite meal of the week. It rivals even the prized boozy Sunday night dinners at my parents place. Though arguably lighter and without the wine parings these lunches are always pretty fantastic and inspired by the farmers market. They are also extremely simple, usually no more than just a few ingredients.

I had been meaning to write up one of these for some time now so I’m glad I’m finally getting to it. It might become a tradition, well see. This week, like most, I was drawn to the greens and decided to whip up a salad from a mix of pea shoots, pepper crest and another delicate green that I think was called something like Cresh. I’ll confirm that next week. Regardless though the result was pure perfection. The sweetness of the greens with the salt of the anchovies was amazing and surprisingly these greens though delicate were not overpowered by the anchovies. I was pretty happy with myself about that.

Farmers Market Greens with Anchovies and Sesame Spelt Croutons – Serves 2

4 big handfuls of mixed greens

6 anchovy fillets

1 slice of spelt bread, toasted

extra virgin olive oil to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

fleur de sel

Divide the greens between 2 plates and lay 3 anchovy fillets across each of them. Break up the toasted spelt bread into small crouton like pieces and scatter them over the greens. Drizzle over some olive oil and season with pepper. Taste before you decid to add any salt as the anchovies are very salty and you don’t want to overdue it. Serve immediately.

Quinoa, Garbanzo, and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing

Natalie — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:09:04 +0000

There are many things I love about quinoa but the best thing by far is that it fills you up for a long long time. I’m not sure exactly why that is, someone mentioned to me recently that they thought quinoa contained more protein than other grains, I’m going to run with that theory as it makes perfect sense to me.

So I’ve gradually started to make quinoa in the place of other grains and pastas. I never thought it would stick for more than maybe a few dinners as I was anticipating serious opposition from my husband. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s to never take rice away from an Indian! Not that I was actually trying to make him stop eating rice, I was just trying to find something that we could occasionally replace the all the basmati rice with.

Have you ever had basmati rice at an Indian restaurant? Or maybe you have a fabulous Indian cook in the family too? Ever wondered why the rice is so freaking never-want -to-eat-anything-else-EVER-again good? I’m talking about the kind of rice that makes you completely forget about that incredible piece of naan bread laying next to your plate AND the butter chicken you ordered.

Can you guess the answer?

Butter.

Obviously.

Lots and lots and lots and lots of butter.

It’s actually sort of funny because when we make Indian food at home, my husband always makes the rice. And I gladly let him. It’s no secret to anyone who knows cooking when there is a large amount of butter in a dish. I just prefer to ignore it. It’s much more fun to think of Sat as an amazing rice making genius. It’s also easier on my conscious. Trust me.

Believe it or not it’s actually not the butter that inspired me to find a healthier substitute. It was starting to get a bit perplexing that even after completely pigging out on huge amounts of rice at dinner, I would still find myself a few hours later in the pantry with a strong desire to eat something.

I find that quinoa really stops me from needing to do this. It keeps me full for an incredibly long time and it tastes good. I’m not an advocate of depriving oneself of food, but my evening snacking was completely out of control and was starting to disrupting my sleep. Another benefit of this grain for those of you who like me eat more than recommended portion size, is that it digests easily so basically even if you overeat its not likely that you will feel it. It’s the perfect situation really.

I found this recipe in Bon Appetit and was immediately won over with the smoked paprika dressing. I did alter the recipe slightly by adding a bit more dressing and a few other things. You can find the original recipe here if you would like to compare.

Ohhh and it’s Gluten Free!

Quinoa, Garbanzo, and Spinach Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing – Serves 6, Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit

2 cups quinoa, rinsed

1 cube of good quality vegetable bullion

4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves

2 small cans garbanzo beans

2 Asian style cucumbers, diced

2 medium sized tomatoes, diced

1 cup of fresh mint leaves, minced

10 ounces of feta cheese, divided

1/3 cup sherry wine vinegar

3 teaspoons smoked paprika

1/2 cup olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pour your quinoa into a medium sized pot along with the cube of bouillon and cover with water by about 1 inch and bring to a boil. Once boiling reduce heat to a simmer and cook for approximately 15 minutes or until quinoa is tender. If there is water left drain it off and set the quinoa aside to cool down.

In a large serving bowl combine spinach, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, mint and half of the feta.

In a small bowl assemble the dressing by combining the vinegar and smoked paprika and slowly drizzling the olive oil over in while whisking to emulsify. Season to taste.

Once the quinoa is cooled down either completely or still a bit warm toss it into the serving bowl with the vegetables and top with the dressing. Mix to combine. Adjust the seasoning to taste and serve topped with the remaining feta.

Roasted Baby Artichokes

Natalie — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 01:16:12 +0000

Here’s a recipe that will make you feel a little fancy on a Tuesday night. I almost can’t believe I’m writing a post about artichokes as they were one of my most feared food items as a child. I’m not quite sure why anymore, I think it had something to do with a period in my life where my mother made them a lot, beyond that I can’t remember any details.

A few years ago after seeing baby artichokes make there way into Vancouver markets, I decided it might be worth giving them another shot. They are small and seemed like the perfect entry level artichoke to tackle as a former artichoke hater. Plus I had them once being served as part of an amazing antipasti platter and I completely fell in love with the way they complimented everything both aesthetically and with their woodsy flavor.

These artichokes apart from the cleaning process are extremely simple to prepare. Really it’s just a few tablespoons of olive oil, lemon and any variety of strong hard cheese you have on hand. They are a perfect snack or accompaniment. I served these roasted as is but I suspect they would be fabulous if you had some kind of simple sauce like an aioli to dip them in. My behind is starting to look like an Easter ham so I decided to skip that part at least this time around.

Roasted Baby Artichokes – Serves 4 as a side – Recipe inspired by Saveur

Take a look at what Saveur says about cleaning baby artichokes.

1 pound of baby artichokes, cleaned, sliced in half and rubbed with lemon

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cloves of fresh grated garlic

1/4 cup fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano

Fleur de Sel

Freshly grated black pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 c.

Make sure each artichoke half is rubbed well with lemon. Let the artichokes soak in a bowl of cold lemon water as you are cleaning the rest.

In a high sided pan or pot bring some water to a boil. Throw in the artichokes and a few of the lemon wedges and boil until they are tender. The time on this will depend on how young your artichokes are and how much of the outer leaves you have pealed off. For me this was about 15 minutes.

Mix the olive oil and grated garlic together and allow the garlic to infuse the oil.

Drain the artichokes once they are tender and dry off completely and toss them in the olive oil and garlic mixture. Season with Salt and pepper and roast them in your oven for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown.

Serve warm tossed with the cheese.

Chicken Paillard

Natalie — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:56:31 +0000

I think Chicken Paillard might be the only chicken recipe where I can support using boneless skinless chicken breast. It’s inadequacies are well documented, but to put it in a nutshell, boneless skinless chicken breast has the power to turn even the most ardent meat lover into a vegetarian. You know that staunch type that would sooner do something incredibly barbaric like open up a can of spam than eat something completely vegetarian? Or maybe like me you have some experience with someone in your life who repeatedly proclaims the unpalatable piece of petrified leather on his plate (in the name of cutting back on fat or something equally obnoxious) to be the best tasting piece of meat they’ve eaten in ages. Seriously, if boneless skinless chicken breast was the only available meat it would have even these people begging for a tofu turkey before you know it.

I’m not going to pretend there aren’t those out there who actually do like such things because experience has taught me that there are. Experience has also taught me that these aren’t the kind of people I want to cook for me. I have a tendency to think that they are members of that paradoxical group who view food solely as fuel (shudder). Or that other group that have some major psychological issues with a little thing called fat. Ok I know there are people who for serious health reasons limit their fat, but they are not the ones I come across in my life, so to be clear those aren’t the people I’m talking about.

Here’s the thing, boneless skinless chicken breast has to be wrapped and stuffed up like a thanksgiving turkey just to give it some kind of moisture by adding back in the fat or flavor that it has been striped of. White meat by nature is the underdog why would you want to take away the only thing that is giving it a fighting chance?

This chicken paillard recipe while not adding in too many bells and whistles is also a minor offender on this level. It is skinless chicken breast after and so there need to be things added to it to make it taste good. The saving grace here is that the breast has been pounded out to about 1/2 inch in thickness, which allows it to be fried up very quickly. This is a Tyler Powell recipe I was strangely drawn to one day while watching the food network. I’ll admit I was in the mood for southern fried chicken but was not prepared for the process of making it and my husband against his better judgment had brought home a few chicken breasts that week, despite my disdain for them I can’t waste food.

But why do I really like this recipe?

Well I’ve paired it down to a texture thing between the crisp panko and the creamy Caesar dressing of the salad that its served with. There is also something satisfying beyond the texture that I can’t quite put my finger on, maybe my brain thinks its eating a pork chop or something.

Chicken Paillard – Serves 2 – Adapted from Tyler Florence

For the Dressing

2 anchovy fillets

2 egg yolks

2 garlic cloves

juice of 1 1/2 lemons

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

salt and pepper

For the Chicken

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 cup flour

2 eggs beaten

1 1/2 cusp panko bread crumbs

olive oil

salt and pepper

For the Salad

about 5 grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 bag of fresh baby arugula or green of choice

shaved paremsan

lemon wedge

olive oil

1. To prepare the dressing for the salad combine anchovy fillets, egg yolks, garlic cloves, lemon juice in a blender and pulse until smooth. With the blender still running slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the dressing emulsifies. Pour into a bowl and stir in the grated Parmesan cheese and season to taste with salt and pepper. Set the bowl in the fride whil to prepare your chicken.

2. Set up a breading station with flour in one bowl, egg in another and panko at the end. make sure to season your flour and egg with salt and pepper. Between 2 pieces of wax or parchment paper gently pound out your chicken breast to about 1/2 thick. Dip the breast in the flour first then the egg and finally the panko and set on a large plate and refridgerate for 10 minutes to allow it to dry out a bit.

3. To fry the chicken heat a pan over medium high heat, once hot add in some olive oil and fry the chicken for about 2 – 3 minutes on each side. remove from the pan and drain on a aper towel if necessary.

4. In a bowl combine tomatoes, arugula and a few spoonfuls of the dressing and toss to coat. Lay one a piece of chicken on a plate and top with salad. Finish by shaving a few pieces of Parmesan over the top and drizzleing with some olive oil. There will be plenty of dressing left over, I like to serve a bit of it on the side to dip my chicken into.