Chicken Milanese and Carrots

I was sooo excited to roast some carrots, or do something with them.  Problem is, I have been crazy busy lately and not been able to do much cooking or had much desire to the one free night I have a week.  So I bought this lovely bunch of carrots and was set to make something, I can't remember what anymore, but it took me a week or so to get to it.  When I pulled the carrots out, they had gone soft.  I was seriously, very sad.  I really wanted to make whatever with those carrots and now I couldn't.  My dinner was ruined.  I don't remember what I ate instead, probably a bowl of pasta with a bit of salt. Tear. 


On the next grocery run I picked up carrots again and made a point to use them as soon as possible.  I also had the recipe for Chicken Milanese bookmarked in my Fresh Flavor Fast, so I decided to give it a try and add the carrots as a side.  I use a quick recipe from Great Food Fast  to make the carrots.  It all turned out great.  It was fast, yummy and great as a leftover.  I don't have a rack that I can put in the oven so I used a pizza pan that has holes in it to bake the chicken on over a pan.  It seemed to work fine.  While the chicken was in the oven, the carrots cooked up quickly and everything was ready pretty close to the same time.    I kept the onion with the dressing separate from the arugula so that it didn't wither or go brown waiting for the next meal.  

Chicken Milanese
4 servings 

• 1 1/4 cups plain dried breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 6 ounces each)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, plus lemon wedges, for serving
• 5 ounces baby arugula
• 1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, toss breadcrumbs and oil until well combined; spread on sheet. Cook, tossing once, until golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl. 
2. Place flour and eggs in separate bowls; season with salt and pepper. Place a rack on another rimmed baking sheet (or make it up like me!).
3. One at a time, place chicken breasts between two large pieces of plastic wrap. Using a meat mallet or bottom of a small heavy pan(I used the pan route), pound until 1/2 inch thick. 
4. Coat chicken on both sides with flour (shaking off excess), then dip in eggs (allowing excess to drip off); dredge in breadcrumbs, pressing firmly to adhere.
5. Bake chicken on rack, without turning, until opaque throughout, 10 to 15 minutes.
6. In a bowl, whisk together remaining 2 tablespoons oil and lemon juice; season with salt and pepper. Add onion and toss.  Top a bed of Arugula with the onion mixture and place the chicken on top. 

Roasted Carrots
4 servings (unless you're like me, then its 2)

• 9 carrots (1 1/2 pounds)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Pepper

1. Quarter and cut carrots into 2-inch lengths. 
2. In a skillet, bring carrots, sugar, 1/2 cup water, butter, and salt to boil.  Reduce heat; simmer, partly covered, 6 minutes.
3. Cook uncovered, over high, tossing often until tender, 3 to 4 minutes.  Season with pepper.

Enjoy! 

Chicken Pot Pie

Look at those tasty veggies! 

Ok- I must appologise for my mini hiatus.  I  have posts lined up to go, but just haven't finished them to get them online.  It has been a busy couple of weeks with Architecture for Humanity NY  stuff going on and other architecture related events.   I promise to try and get myself back on track!  
Today I bring you a yummy recipe from Real Simple  that I have been holding on to from the February 2009 issue.  It was cold around here for about, oh... five minutes?  In that time I was so excited for hearty, warm comfort foods like this Chicken Pot Pie.  In fact I really want it to get cold again for two reasons: I want to have an excuse for more meals and soups like this and I have a trip to Montana planned at the end of this month to do some skiing and snowmobiling- I NEED SNOW!  Oh and I want to wear my amazing warm and fuzzy winter boots and this 40 degrees weather is too warm for such things.  They require cold.  Freezing.  Snow.  I might be going through withdrawals...
Sorry, I'll get back to the recipe, I just really love snow.  OK- so, even though this recipe is a bit time consuming with all the vegetable chopping and cook time it is completely worth it.  I made it on a Monday and it was my lunch for the rest of the week.  (I love not having to think about what I am going to take for lunch every day or what dive near my office I will be getting lunch from!)  I thought about making my own crust, but since I knew  I would be making this on a week night, I stuck with the store bought crust.  Unlike the recipe, I used both crusts, (two came in the package), for a top and bottom, I have a soft spot for crust.  One think I kind of screwed up, was I did not cut the carrots small enough.  Everything tasted fine, but the carrots were still a bit crunchy after all of that cooking and baking.  I substituted dry thyme for fresh since I didn't have any.  I hope some of you are still able to enjoy your winters and can whip this up, because it is so tasty.  
Chicken Pot Pie
Makes 6 to 8 servings

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 onions, chopped (about 1 pound)
• 4 carrots, diced (about 1 pound)
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups  milk
• 1 10-ounce package frozen peas
• 1/2 tablespoon dried thyme
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 2 9-inch store-bought pie crusts, thawed if frozen

1. Heat oven to 400° F. Cook the chicken in a pot of simmering water until cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes; let cool, then shred.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the onions and carrots and cook, stirring, until they begin to soften, 6 to 8 minutes (do not let them darken). 
3. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  
4. Add the wine and cook until evaporated, about 5 minutes. 
5. Add the milk and simmer until the sauce thickens, 2 to 3 minutes. 
6. Stir in the chicken, peas, thyme, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.  
7. Place one of the crusts in a shallow 1 1/2 to 2 quart baking dish.  Transfer the chicken and vegetable mixture to the dish.
8. Lay the crust on top, pressing to seal the crusts together.  Cut several vents in the crust.  Place the pot pie on a baking sheet and bake until bubbling and the crust is golden, 30 to 35 minutes.

Enjoy! 

Carrot Soup

It has finally started to get cold here.  It even snowed for the first time since Halloween this weekend.  I have been on a bit of a soup kick and I like to have it for lunch since I spend most of the morning in my office typing in mittens.  I have been wanting to try a carrot soup for a while, but have never got around to it until last weekend.  Big Girls Small Kitchen posted up a recipe for Roasted Carrot Red Curry Soup and it sounded delicious and not too time consuming.   

I personally did not think the recipe had enough curry paste in it.  After I doubled the amount, I just keep tossing in teaspoons until I decided it was enough- I think I probably quadrupled it.  That was the only thing I really changed in the recipe.  It was a bit cool for my liking, so I would suggest warming it more before serving, or at least testing it before hand. I also have to keep stealing the neighbors blender/processor since mine broke and then I have to repay them in soup.  I might need to invest in an attachment for my Kitchenaid sooner than later...


Roasted Carrot Red Curry Soup
Makes 4 servings

• 1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces 
• 2 small red onions, quartered
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 inch ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
• 1 to 2  tablespoons Thai red curry paste (some of you may want to start with less and do taste test as you go adding more. 
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• One 15-ounce can coconut milk 

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, toss carrot and onion with oil, sugar, and salt. 
3. Spread the veggies evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until browned and tender, stirring once halfway through.
4. Transfer the vegetables to a food processor or blender along with the ginger, 1 teaspoon curry paste, and the stock.  Blend until incorporated. 
5. Add coconut milk and blend until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add salt and additional curry paste if you like. 
6. Reheat and serve. 

Enjoy! 

Beet & Carrot Salad with a New Turkey Burger

Fall is definitely here.  Do you know what that means?  It's time for another OFF.  This one is going to be tough: beets.  With the exception of this recipe, I have no experience with beets.  Correction, I have plenty of experience eating delicious beet dishes like beet gnocchi and mom's pickled beets and no experience cooking with them.  This video  makes me want to create a beet cake, however I don't know if I could create something that looks that good.  I could make a fun mess though.   

I decided I should start out simple, no cooking, boiling, or whatever it is you might do with a beet.  I needed a side for the new turkey burger I was trying out.  I have to take a detour here to talk about these burgers.  Something was just not right.  Maybe I need to use a paper towel to get some of the moisture out, maybe it was the fact that I cooked them on the grill, maybe it was just that I didn't really measure stuff (but  I don't think I was far off).  No matter what the case, they were really mushy and kept wanting to fall apart.  They tasted much better than I thought they would looking at them, but they were not as good as the first turkey burger trial.  If I make these again, I will add bread crumbs or something.  

Don't forget the sweet  potato fries!

Back to the beets.  Since I needed a side for these burgers, I decided to give this Shredded Beet & Carrot Salad  from my Great Food Fast cookbook a try.  It was so much spicier than that thought it was going to be!  Again, I didn't really measure the spices that closely, but I still think it would have been hot.  There was something about it that I didn't quite like, but I still thought it was good.  Maybe it was the cumin smell that was too strong for me, I just can't figure out what it is.  Someone suggested adding something sweet in like raisins.  I don't like raisins in things, but maybe some apple?  Give it a try and let me know what you thing. 

Shredded Beet & Carrot Salad

6 servings

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp honey
• 3/4 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• Coarse Salt
• 1 lb raw beets, peeled
• 2 carrots, peeled
• 2 tbsp dried parsley

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, oil, honey, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cayenne and 3/4 tsp salt. 
2. Shred beets and carrots into a medium bowl.  
3. Add the juice mixture to the beets and carrots. Sprinkle with parsley. 

Enjoy!