Grilled chicken parmigiana

Rachel Ray gets a bad rep. Her recipes are quick and easy and usually pretty good. Sure she's not a professional chef, but neither am I. What I want is something that's pretty good, pretty easy, pretty fast and pretty healthy for my family. This recipe fits the bill. I like it because it avoids all the battering and deep frying of the traditional chicken parm while still maintaining the good flavour.

This version slightly modified from the original.

Grilled chicken parmigiana

6 thin chicken breast cutlets, about 2 lbs
Olive oil for grilling & sauteing
3 to 4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon chrushed hot red pepper flakes
1 medium or large yellow onion, finely chopped
1 or 2 slices bacon or smoked ham
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/2 pound smoked mozzarella, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Grill the chicken cutlets on a well-oiled grill pan. A frying pan works too.

2. Meanwhile, place a medium pot on the stove over medium heat. Add some olive oil & saute the garlic, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning and onion for 10 minutes, stirring often.

3. Add the tomatoes and heat through, 2 minutes.

4. Preheat the broiler to high.

5. Layer the chicken with the tomato sauce in a casserole dish. Top the casserole with Parmigiano and mozzarella. Brown the chicken parm casserole under the broiler for 3-5 minutes.

Ray suggests using a can of "fire-roasted diced tomatoes, such as Muir Glen brand" which doesn't seem to exist in Canada. On the tv show, she suggest a bit of bacon to replace the smokiness if you can find the fire-roasted tomatoes. The smoked mozzarella really adds to the flavour and shouldn't be substituted if possible.

This recipe makes 6 cutlets but we only ate 4 at dinner. The next two days I fixed myself a couple of really nice chicken parm sandwiches with the leftovers. Yum-o!

Split pea soup

I love pea soup. It's something my Mom used to make quite often when I was a kid, it's a kind of French-Canadian staple. I've often had canned pea soup and its often quite good too, especially the Habitant brand. So, I decided to make it for myself. And as is quite common in these sorts of projects, I was inspired by watching Michael Smith on Chef at Home make his version of speedy split pea soup. The recipe below is very closely patterned on Smith's.

Speedy Split Pea Soup with Bacon

Make 6-8 main dish servings

1 lb package bacon, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
3 stalks celery, washed and chopped
3 or 4 cloves garlic, peeled sliced thinly
2 cups dried split peas
8 cups chicken or vegetable stock or water, in any combination. Use low sodium stock if possible
2 bay leaves
1 dried rosemary
pepper
2 cups frozen peas
1 tbsp of any vinegar
1 ham bone (optional)

1. Place bacon in a large soup pot over a medium high heat. When the bacon is brown and crispy drain away nearly all the fat, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pot.
2. Add onion, carrots, celery and garlic to the pot and sauté for a few minutes.
3. Add the dried peas, stock, ham bone, bay leaves, rosemary and pepper.
4. Bring to a simmer and continue cooking until the soup is thick and the peas are completely soft, about 1-1.5 hours
5. Stir in frozen peas and stir to heat through.
6. Stir in the vinegar and adjust seasoning to taste. The bacon and stock are already quite salty, so you probably don't need to add any more.

How would I do this one differently next time? Well, I was just lucky to have a ham bone around to simmer with the soup, so that's likely to change. Also, I'm not a huge bacon fan so I might switch to 1/2 a pound of bacon and 1/2 pound of cooked ham. Ham is more traditionally French-Canadian in this recipe anyway. I didn't check any of my traditional French-Canadian cookbooks before starting, so I might do that as well to see if I can get any ideas.

BTW, this one was a real winner, a huge hit with the family last night.

Dad's famous subs

I love making submarine sandwiches and, thankfully, my kids love it when I make them too. This is a quick and easy supper or lunch. Serve with some kind of salad or sliced veggies. I'll give the ingredients per sandwich.

1 panini bun
1/4 lb (100g) mixed coldcuts
1 slice havarti cheese
sliced tomato
sliced dill pickle
hot mustard

1. cut bread open

2. assemble sandwiches

As far as meet selection, I like to use three different kinds in the sub. Usually two fairly plain, like smoked turkey or maple ham, but at least one that has a very strong flavour, like a good salami or summer sausage.

Tuna salad

This one's adapted from Michael Smith's book Chef at Home. I like this tuna salad a lot and use it every week or so to make sandwiches for my and kids lunches. It's also great just eating on it's own as a side or a snack. It's also one that really encourages experimentation with incredients and ratios until you find that way you like the best. This makes 4 to 6 good-sized sandwiches.

2 cans tuna
1 tbsp diced red onion
1 1/2 diced dill pickles
small handful chopped cilantro
1 1/2 stalks celery
2 tbsp dijon mustard
splash of olive oil so it all holds together
salt & pepper to taste

1. combine all the ingredients in a bowl & prepare sandwiches.

Another thing I like about this recipe is that it's a nice sandwich salad that doesn't use mayo. A very important consideration is what kind of tuna you use. The Italian style tuna packed in olive oil, but that's a bit expensive sometimes. Using one can of Italian (use the oil) and one of regular tuna packed in water (drain the water) works very well too.

Dad's famous potato salad

Simply Recipes is my favourite recipe site, and I slightly adapted this one from Elise's Dad's Potato Salad Recipe. I usually add the word "famous" to all my signiture family dishes: Dad's famous chile, Dad's famous burgers, Dad's famous subs. I'm sure I'll get around to posting those all one day too. But for now, enjoy this really tasty potato salad.

4 mid sized Russet potatoes
4 Tbsp juice from Kosher dill pickles
2 finely chopped dill pickles
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 or 3 stalks celery, chopped
1 or 2 chopped scallions

1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste


1 Bring a pot of water to boil. Add the potatoes (skins on). Simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from pot. Let cool enough to handle, but still warm. Remove skins. Cut potatoes into inch sized cubes.

2 Put potatoes in to a large bowl. Add the juice from the Kosher dill pickles. Add the finely chopped pickles themselves. Add parsley, onions, celery, scallions.

3 In a separate small bowl, mix mayonnaise with mustard. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix in the dressing with the potato mixture. Again, salt and pepper to taste.

The most significant change is that I switched cilantro for parsley. Personally, I just like the flavour of cilantro better and I think it adds a real zing to this recipe. Also, the 20 minutes that is suggested for the potatoes might not be enough. To get them soft all the way through takes another 5-10 minutes (unless of course, you like them a bit crunchy).

Two bean salad

This is a kitchen-sink-style salad I made the other day, mostly using stuff just lying around the fridge and pantry. It was surprisingly good.

1 can black beans (rinsed)
1 can white kidney beans, rinsed
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes
1 avocado, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 chopped roasted red peppers (from a jar)
1/2 small red onion, diced
parsley to taste
pepper to taste (no need to add salt, beans are probably already salty enough)
oil & red wine vinegar as dressing, to taste

1. Combine everything in a large bowl.

2. Add dressing & toss gently.

What could I have added? A can of tuna would have turned this into a great lunch salad. Also, any kind of bean would do, especially canelloni instead of white kidney.

Southwestern rice

I love the flavours of the southwestern USA, guacamole, chile, the whole range of flavours. One of the mainstays of the cuisine is the spice cumin, and this recipe really showcases the earthy, rich aroma of cumin.

I adapted this one a bit from a recipe on Michael Smith's show Chef at Home, on Food Network Canada. I love that show, it 's really what inspired me to take up cooking as a forty-something. Smith has a great, easy going way of presenting, he really emphasises the ease of preparation of most recipes. He also mostly uses fairly common ingrediants in basic preparations. When he shows you how to braise something, you really get an idea of what braising is all about. His style of cooking without a firm recipe is also inspiring -- you really think, "Hey, this is easy, basic ingredients in simple preparations -- I could do that!" And, mostly, you can. I first starting watching Smith while staying home with my wife while she was recovering from an operation, so we had lots of time to watch tv together and I certainly had the opportunity to get a bit of practice in the kitchen. The rest is history! (One of these days, I'll blog the first thing I made, his clam chowder.)

Anyway, back to the recipe:

Makes 4-6 side dish servings

1 cup of basmati rice
2 cups of tomato juice
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
olive oil
1 medium red onion, diced
1 1/2 red pepper, diced
1 12 oz can of corn kernals
4 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper

1. Put rice, tomato juice and 1/2 tsp of cumin into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn heat down, cover with a lid and simmer until all of the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Toss with fork and let cool slightly.

2. Heat oil in large skillet. Add the rest of the cumin to the oil.

3. When it begins to smoke, add onions and peppers and sauté quickly until they are softened and slightly caramelized.

4. Add corn and continue to cook for about 3 minutes. Add rice, season with salt and pepper and stir-fry until incorporated.

5. Stir in green onions, cilantro and lime juice and adjust seasoning.

We served it this evening with a nice baked ham from Nunzio's Fine Foods on Bayview in Toronto, and it was a great combo. Another link for Nunzio's, one of my fave places for good food, especially meat and fish. I also can't speak highly enough of Michael Smith's Chef at Home cookbook.