Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breast

I don't usually have chicken breasts, because they just cost so much! The legs and drums cost 1/3 the price of breasts, and honestly, they do pack more flavour. But since I recently cut up a whole chicken, I have chicken breasts to work with. The tricky bit about roasting chicken breast is it can end up very dry and bland because it's so lean. So you should try to keep the meat moist and the skin on, or another trick would be to wrap it in something fatty, like this Moroccan Couscous Stuffed Chicken Breast wrapped in Bacon.

Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Chicken Breast

Ingredients

1 chicken breast, with skin

pinch of salt, black pepper

a bit of parmesan

olive oil, butter

For the stuffing,

2 tbsp homemade cream cheese

2 tbsp grated parmesan

handful of spinach leaves, chopped roughly

2 button or chestnut mushrooms, chopped small

1 tsp garlic powder

pinch of nutmeg

Method

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celsius.

1. Saute spinach and mushrooms with a small knob of butter and a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg, for abut 1 min (they will get more cooking in the oven later). Drain, because you don't want all the liquid to make the stuffing too runny, but reserve the liquid (don't waste the flavourful butter/juices!).

2. Mix all the stuffing ingredients together.

3. Carefully lift up the skin of the chicken and push the stuffing in between the skin and the breast. The skin will stretch, so you can stuff more than you expect, but don't be too greedy!

4. Place stuffed chicken breast into a greased baking dish, skin side up. Pour the reserved cooking liquid over the breast

5. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle the top with a bit of parmesan, and dot with some butter/olive oil.

5. Put into oven for 45 min, or until the skin is golden and crispy.

6. After removing from oven, let it rest slightly before cutting into it and adding some parsley if you want!

Crispy skin and melty inside always works(: I like it when there's something special hidden in your food, like in stuffed pastas or dumplings.

This is part of Full Plate Thursday and Tuesday Night Supper Club.

I cut up a whole chicken!

It's so much cheaper to get the whole chicken rather than individual chopped up parts, but I've never really done it, because in the past,

1. I didn't want to get my hands dirty

I don't mind it now, I think if you get serious with cooking you have got to be willing to understand what you're cooking by feeling the flesh, the bone, the fat, the skin..

2. It's just stressful facing a whole chicken

So, to prep myself mentally, I watched a lot of youtube videos beforehand.

I have a diagram for anyone keen to try it out too:

3. My freezer is TINY.

My flatmate's going away for a holiday, so the freezer's actually got space. It's now or never.

And I did it! It wasn't perfect, there were bits of meat still clinging to the bones so I just scraped them off, minced them all up, and got me a small portion of minced chicken that will come in useful somehow.

People say they cannot afford free-range, but like getting pre-packed chicken breasts which costs £7.78/kg. A free-range chicken costs £3/kg. Free-range chicken thighs and legs costs £3.34/kg. This is what i get usually, and actually the meat is more flavoursome than breast meat. All the same, I can't wait to try recipes using the breast cut of the chicken this time though! Oh another perk, I get the leftover carcass for making chicken stock!

Hurray for "auntie" mathematics (:

Donguri Kazari / hiasan pinus

12 desember 2010, minggu

Ngikutin sebuah ibento, bikin hiasan dinding dari donguri n matsubokori, diadakan di sogo koen hari minggu kemarin. Yang daftar ternyata banyak banget, so mpe di lotere ama pengurusnya, kalo keluar namanya, berarti kita bisa ikut. Ternyata kita dapet namanya...wah seneng banget dah.

Bareng ma teman ngikutin ginian pas hari minggu kemarin, pas banget bisa nitipin Xiang di mertua, jadi berempat ma temen n anaknya ma mei. Lumayan juga acaranya dari jam 1 siang da mesti ngumpul mpe jam 3an. Yang ngikutin ada sekitar 15 orang deh.

Pertama kita dikasih petunjuk bahwa kita akan keluar ke tamannya buat nyari ranting kayu yang buat dasar bikin lingkaran hiasannya. Anak2 seneng bukan main, soalnya sambil narik2 tuh ranting, ketawa2 karena agak alot.Rantingnya menjalar agak lunak, jadi bisa buat lilitan hiasannya. Sekitar 1/2 jam nyari ranting, trus balik ke ruangannya, gw sambil jalan sambil ngelilitin bikin bulatan...wkwkw, pertama kali bikin, lumyan juga jadinya..seneng banget.

Trus dalam ruangannya uda disiapin hiasan kayak daun pinus, pinus, bunga2 kering, pita, tali, buah2 mini kering, jadi terserah anda, mo pilih apa, mo hiasnya gimana, sesuai kreasi n kemampuan masing2 dah...Hasilnya kayak gini yang gw bikin.

Minggu2 lalu nya, juga pernah ikutan, bkin foto frame, hias pake pinus n bkin kaki framenya pake kayu kecil2, lumayan menarik, Mei juga ikutan bikin, dia senang...taunya pas dibawa pulang, di taroh di kursi mobil, keduduk sama dia..alhasil, kaki framenya patah..dia mewek..wkwkkw...susah2 bikin ternyata patah..ya mo gimana lagi??? Ntar kapan2 kesitu bkin lagi deh.

Salmon Pie with Crispy Pancetta

   

   

Brrrr…bacon.  It’s still cold outside, and I’m still on a bacon kick.  I recently prepared a special meal for a loved one featuring her favorite food: bacon.  It’s winter outside, and so I wanted everything to reflect the season and provide a hearty, warming glow.  I served first the butternut squash with apple and bacon recipe that I featured yesterday.  But, what to do about a fish course?  I find that recipes wrapping fish in bacon tend to overwhelm the fish.  We’ve all tasted those ubiquitous appetizers with bacon wrapped shrimp or scallops.  I personally find them gross.  I’ve even had a more delicate wrapping, such as prosciutto, around a larger piece of fish, such as monkfish.  Still, the pork flavor overwhelmed.  For this meal, I wanted and needed something more.  This recipe from the Daily Mail UK newspaper last year suggests the quintessential British comfort food of a meat pie.  In a sense, it is a shepherd’s pie with fish instead of ground lamb.  Is this cheating on my bacon theme to just lay strips of pancetta on top of a dish?  Maybe so, but the idea of a seafood shepherd’s pie certainly made me feel warm inside.  This recipe builds upon a bechamel sauce and milk-poached salmon with smoked salmon for an extra layer of flavor, and shrimp for additional bite.  The salmon stands up to the bacon, the mashed potato topping adds that pot-sticking component, and the bacon on top allows you to select in which bites you want to include a bacon taste or just savor the salmon.  Serves 6.

   

Ingredients:

2 lb salmon filets, skin left on

1 cup milk

1 bay leaf

8 tbsp butter

¼ cup flour

½ cup dry white wine

1 cup crème fraiche (or ½ cup crème fraiche and ½ cup milk)

1 tsp dijon mustard

6 oz sliced smoked salmon, cut into 1/2” pieces

1 lb shrimp, peeled

¼ cup chopped parsley

3 lbs potatoes, peeled

2 egg yolks

3 oz sliced pancetta

    

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Bring a large pot of salted-water to boil.  Meanwhile, in a large pan, add the salmon filets, bay leaf and milk.  Add more milk if needed to cover the thickness of the filet.  Bring to a simmer, cover partially and cook for 4 minutes.  Add the potatoes to the pot of boiling water.  Remove the poached salmon from its pan and cut the meat from the skin.  Pull apart the meat into bite-sized chunks and set aside.  In a medium pot over medium-high heat, melt 4 tbsp of the butter.  Stir in the flour and mix to make a roux.  Allow the roux to cook a couple of minutes and then whisk in the wine.  Whisk in a cup of the cooking milk, mustard, ½ cup crème fraiche and cook for 10 minutes, stirring to ensure there are no lumps.  Add more of the cooking milk if needed to produce a smooth sauce.  Taste and adjust the salt and pepper seasoning.  Fold in the poached salmon, smoked salmon, shrimp and parsley then turn out into a baking dish.  When the potatoes are cooked, drain, run through a ricer, and then combine with 4 tbsp of melted butter, the egg yolks and enough crème fraiche or milk to produce a smooth mashed potatoes.  Smooth the mash over top of the fish mixture.  Bake the pie in the oven for 20 minutes. Lay the sliced pancetta across the top and bake another 25 minutes or until the pancetta is crisp.  Serve.

    

Surreal

What is this? Seriously. What is it?

Food Writer's Diary end-of-year poll

December 15

I have one final poll for you this year, asking your favorite and least favorite food trends in 2010. I’ve listed on the right what seem to me to be probably the five biggest food trends of the year (I welcome disagreement, of course; feel free to berate and chastise me in the comment section below). Please select the one you like the best (whatever that means to you) and the one you hope not to see in 2011.

Thank you.

Who Needs Restoration Hardware Anyway???

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a good weekend. Sorry I have not responded to everyone right away, but it has been a little busy here at The Room. I promise I will respond to everyone ASAP. Here is the new news, Mr Swedish Room surprised me with a trip to Coco Beach in Florida. Here is the catch we are going in Gracie, ok not so much a catch, but I still have to pack her and get her ready. I ready don't mind because I'll enjoy Christmas on the beach in my BCOW (For those not in the know, Beach Cottage On Wheels). Just have to get a little tree and some beachy ornaments, I'm going to have fun. PS we are taking my buddy Zeus (check the side panel, he is the one with the smiling face and the wagging tail). I'll keep you posted.....

Ok its White Wednesday Time, and have I got a project for you. I'm sure everyone has seen how Restoration Hardware has this new French Flea Market look, but lets just say the price tags don't match. Ok I sell antiques, but even I have to look twice and shake my head. I love the look, but in these days and times a penny saved is a penny earned. So I needed a new lamp, now is my time to strike with the good old crafty imagination (Thanks Martha Stewart). I know I need to take step by step pics, but I was so excited, I guess I didn't think about it at the time until the end, darn...

I took a lided urn I had kicking around The Room and said LAMP!!! So off to work I went. I took off the knob. Enlarged the hole, and put the base together. I found a base for the bottom and faux rusted it ( I used Rust-oleum rusty metal primer and after that dried, put on Rust-oleum Multicolor Textured spray paint in Autumn Brown. Here is the part that makes it look rusty, take a hand towel and dap the Autumn Brown spray paint wet. You may need more than one coat and dap to get it where you want.) I had Mr. Swedish Room wire it, and I took my creation to Restoration Hardware for a shade (Can you believe someone wanted to buy my lamp in the store? It made me feel great). There you have it a Restoration Hardware like lamp without the price tag. Enough talking, here are some pics.

The faux rusty metal base goes great with the real rusty metal of the urn.
Silk shade by Restoration Hardware, lamp by me. After all they are copying want the rest of us have been doing for years.

Here is a before pic I found of the urn with the lid. The knob just unscrewed and away I went. Look around you never know....
For more Wonderful White Wednesday go see Kathleen at http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/
Go Hug Someone, you may make someones day.
See everyone later......

A Quick Comparison of Science Diet and Purina Cat Foods

... specifically, those our Maximum Leader would be fed.

	Science Diet m/d	Science Diet Mature Adult Indoor	Purina Healthful Life
Protein	51.5%	34%	36%
Fat	22%	20.1%	13%
Carbs	14.7%	31.9%	not listed
Crude Fiber	5.9%	8%	6%

Science Diet m/d is their weight loss and diabetes prevention diet. It's a prescription diet* that you can only buy at a vet's office. It looks to me like Healthful life compares reasonably well with Mature Adult Indoor. Regular Science Diet food can only be found at pet stores. I've got to take Her Serene Furriness in for a vet appointment soon and when I do I'll pose the question for them, but until then, it doesn't look like I'm doing any harm feeding her Healthful Life.

* - A prescription diet?!? Huh?