Chicken Wrapped Prosciutto with Cajun Honey Mustard

So as I fell asleep last night visions of recipes danced in my head--what if I stuffed chicken with prosciutto? And. Honey Musta..no....CAJUN Honey Mustard....and cheese. Yeah, cheese.

Yeah yeah, forget about sugarplums and whatnot. These are the things I think about as I go to sleep. Leave me alone.

You see, as I mentioned yesterday, if the Next Food Network Star folks DID decide to call me back ::obligatory eye roll goes here:: I'd have to have 30 original recipes ready to go at a moment's notice. I determined last night that I'm at 18 Food Network-ready recipes:

Cedar Plank Salmon
Jack Daniels Salmon
Fried Bell Pepper with Mozzarella and Pico De Gallo
Spicy Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin
Peach Cobbler
Steak Au Poivre with Portobello Mushroom and Vidalia Onion Sauce
Steak Au Poivre the first way
My Nachos
Summer Salad
Cinnamon Poached Apples with fruit coulis
Sweet and Spicy Buffalo Wings
Lime Chicken Vinaigrette
Chicken and Rice Soup
Nouveau Shrimp Cocktail (is this four recipes or one?)
Macaroni And cheese
Hot and Sour Seafood Soup
Baked Brie

So I came up with two recipes as I fell asleep last night, and tonight was the first attempt--pretty good, but with a couple of things I need to tweak.

Butterflied and flattened some chicken breasts, topped with prosciutto, italian seasoning, cayenne, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper, havarti cheese (next time I'll use something a bit more pungent), wrapped them and speared them with some wooden skewers to hold in place.

Then made a cajun honey mustard that, from my best guess, was about 1/2 cup honey and dijon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne, 1/2 tablespoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt.

This time, I coated the chicken in cream before dipping in panko bread crumbs. Next time, it will be coated in the honey mustard and then dipped in the bread crumbs. Fried at 375 degrees, served on a bed of baby greens, and drizzled with the cajun honey mustard.

Definitely a keeper.

Next up, ceviche summer rolls. Yeah, a brotha can do fusion too. HAH!

Yeah, Yeah, I Know....

It has been a full month since my last post. Totally unacceptable. Especially since, in that month, I've made some super interesting and tasty foods, including but not limited to:

• an experiment with fried mashed potatoes that has serious serious potential
• shrimp tempura maki
• Steak au poivre with a portobello mushroom and onion sauce (three times)
  
• my cedar plank salmon, complete with actual recipe
• fried bell pepper with mozarella and pico de gallo
• a wonderful batch of garlic mashed potatoes
• Spicy Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin
  
• and of course, our southern food night on July 4: Fried Green Tomatoes Oscar, Southern Fried Catfish, Collard Greens, Baked Garlic Cheese Grits, Tangy Green Bean Salad, Cornbread, and Peach Cobbler

So why the random hiatus? A couple of things, actually--the first being the death of my digital camera (Get him one for his birthday!) What? Who said that?? Anyway...

Yes, my digital camera went caput sometime post July 4 and before I tried to blog about July 4. And I realized that a good portion of why I love blogging about my food is getting to look back and take pictures.

Also, my facebook feed broke--the one that pulled all my posts from Blogger directly into facebook. My detailed studies (read random guesses) indicate that most of you read these posts when they pop up on facebook. And since they won't anymore, blech.

But I'm over all that silliness and back on the blog...er...block. Didn't you miss my nerd puns?

I also finished my audition video and application for Next Food Network Star. It's up on myspace. Or right here: Check out this video: NFNS 3 submission videos



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I'm about 90% happy with it. I wish I had danced more. But of course, can't I say that about my life in general?

So theoretically, if these Food Network folks WERE interested, they said they would need 30 original recipes immediately. I think this is an interesting project for me in general. So I'm gonna get to work on compiling 30 original recipes.

Hm. Does Nouveau Shrimp Cocktail count as 1 or 4?

Quintessentially Me

Sometime in the next month I'll record an audition video for The Next Food Network Star. In it, I'll need to prepare a dish that is quintessentially me.

Any ideas? I've toyed around with one of the nouveau shrimp cocktail combinations. The lime chicken vinaigrette is obviously one of my favorite original recipes. I'm trying to think of something that will balance gourmet T with practical, simple T.

Just thinking out loud. :-)

California Roll Salad

Some time in the late 90s, this California girl (a.k.a. my mother) introduced me to the California Roll. Via Kroger or Publix or some other grocery store that I'm way too snobby to get sushi from any more, I stepped into the world of maki and never looked back.

My sushi tastes are now at the very least more complicated and, hopefully, more sophisticated. Masago makes everything better, eel is my favorite addition to just about any roll, and there are very few things I just won't try. But I thought that with another California girl (this time Marianne) in town, an ode to the California roll might be fun, just a little reinvented.

The preparation was super simple--I steamed sushi rice and added just a bit of rice wine vinegar and minced ginger (not enough to make it sticky, so really just a dash), sliced avocado, bits of imitation crab, and matchsticks of cucumber and carrots. Then I roasted a little bit of seaweed (held it for about twenty seconds over heat from the stove, just until it got crispy and turned green), and tossed it into the mix. Served immediately with a wasabi ginger dressing that I think I should have made into a vinaigrette. I will next time.

T's version of a bender

Six days ago sparked what can only be described as a cooking bender. 6 out of the last 6 nights have involved some form of over-the-top cooking.

Friday's Four Course Meal welcomed Marianne to DC
Saturday's California Roll Salad
Sunday's Broccoli and Chicken Casserole
Monday's Ribeyes and Fries
Tuesday's Mozzarella Sticks (ok, in fairness, this wasn't really over-the-top. But I needed SOME kind of break...)
Wednesday's....well, let's just call Wednesday one big experiment.

Usually I find some time in the evenings to throw a quick blog together, but as you can see I haven't exactly had a whole lot of time. But I am not cooking tonight. Nor tomorrow. In fact, there's a decent chance I won't cook anything until Alyse and I put on Southern food night on the 4th of July. So instead of cramming all of this into one big post, you'll get one a day for a little while, as I try to catch up.

First up, Friday's Four Courses:

We started with baked brie (inspiration courtesy of Erika) . This time, I tried adding some cinnamon and nutmeg-just a sprinkling...I didn't want it to taste like dessert-and I again wrapped the mixture of brie, slivered almonds, and peach preserves in fillo dough. I'm still trying to figure out another way to use that stuff. It'll come to me. It was again a winner, and I'm wondering if it's just a drizzle of honey away from being a dessert. Maybe a little lighter on the brie and heavier on the fillo (or other) dough. Hm.


Second up was my first attempt at a summer roll.

[Detour: What, you ask, is the difference between a summer roll, and spring roll, and an egg roll? An egg roll is more meat based, and is fried with some sort of batter. I've never tried making one. A spring roll is wrapped in rice paper and deep fried. A summer roll is simply wrapped in rice paper.]

Surprisingly, I found both rice paper and cellophane noodles at Harris Teeter. I rolled the rice paper with napa cabbage, noodles, some shrimp I poached in vinegar, hot sauce, cayenne, salt, white wine, and water, some sweet orange bell peppers, and a bit of lettuce. I accompanied it with a sweet chili sauce. Since I was lazy, I started with a base of regular store brought chili sauce and added peach preserves, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger powder, and a 1/4 of a habanero. It was fiery and sweet--the perfect accompaniment to the fresh, crunchy flavor of the summer rolls. I'll do these again. Soon. And exactly as I made them this time.



Third course was a frenched rack of lamb that I pan seared in olive oil with a dry rub of rosemary, coriander, lots of black pepper and salt, and a couple of dashes of cayenne. Then tossed in the oven for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees for medium rare. While that was going, I tossed some white wine back in the pan that I used to sear the lamb (and because I love fire, a wee bit of flambe) and added honey, liquid smoke, garlic powder, a dash of cream, lemon juice, and some Iranian saffron (not the stuff at Trader Joe's) that Marianne brought back from Europe. High-five, Marianne.






Finally, a flourless chocolate cake with a caramel sauce that's good enough to make you wanna slap your momma. (Not MY momma, before I get any phone calls) Amazing how a simple combination of chocolate, sugar, butter, and eggs can turn out so light! I was worried I'd end up with a cake so decadent and dense that I'd have one slice and not be able to look at chocolate the rest of the month. But this cake was like a complex brownie--simultaneously light in texture and rich in flavor. Balanced with some good quality vanilla ice cream, both of us were ready to go into food comas.

Hey T! Cook this.

My journey to....where the heck am I going, anyway?

Honestly, I'm not too sure. Does all this end in a stint in culinary school? Do I skip actual schooling and go straight into catering? How about a restaurant? What about this idea? Do I fit as well here as I think I do? (especially since they are notoriously low on minorities?)

Existential crises aside, I'm pretty sure that no matter what I want to do with this developing talent, it will involve learning to cook things that I'm uncomfortable with or may never even think to cook.

So I started to keep a list of new things I want to cook--things I've never made before. Right now, the list looks like this:

Poached Apples drizzled with chocolate
California Roll Salad, and other salad interpretations of classic dishes
Summer Rolls (coming soon)
Sauces involving one or more of the following ingredients: lemon, basil, garlic, saffron, peppers, mushroom, citrus, parmesan, provolone, sherry, a mole sauce.

So for all eleven of my readers, I'd be quite happy with some suggestions. What would you like to see me make and perfect? This will be one of the few times I demand you actually comment--so stop lurking and write a comment, even if you stay anonymous. Blow my mind, break my borders, make me cook something interesting.

Ridiculous Thursday Dinners

It's been quite a few months since I've gotten to cook for my besties Christine and Amber, so I knew I had to go all out for their visit this weekend. They're in town this Thursday and I knew that they needed to be treated to a full, all-out dinner--start to finish.

First course was a salad with arugula, pear, georgia peaches, goat's milk gouda, and red onions, tossed in a strawberry vinaigrette. Good, but missing something. I'm a big fan of the strawberry vinaigrette, which was red wine vinegar, about a cup of strawberries, a dash of sugar, salt, pepper, a dash of lemon juice. It starts like a strawberry smoothie but finishes with the taste of vinaigrette. Nice.

For me and CLurie, main course was a Red Wine beef tenderloin. The steak was prepared just like earliest this week, but instead of the French Cognac sauce I made a red wine reduction with cloves, thyme, allspice, garlic, a dash of lemon juice, and a bay leaf. Amber had a cedar plank smoked salmon that was marinated in butter, lemon juice, olive oil, tarragon, salt, pepper, and parsley. It needs fresh dill and cayenne if you're doing it at home, but it turned out well. As always, cooked the salmon on the cedar planks and added maple syrup just before removing from the oven. Nice.





Finally, the key lime cheesecake. Unfortunately, no mango and no mandoline. So instead, topped with key lime and strawberry slices with a couple of raspberries.



Sorry for being so straight to the point--have to get back to my kiddies. Have a great weekend!