Club Sandwich anyone?

Many American restaurants here offer some of the typical dishes found in diners back home. Yet, their Club Sandwich is never the same recipe as we are used to: they had eggs or include other sauces.

I had never made homemade club sandwich as it wasn't something I would ever think about making... But, let's face it, there is nothing like a good club sandwich!

So for those craving the recipe, here it is:

Ingredients:
3 slices of bread
100 grs of grilled chicken breast
1 tomato
slices of lettuce
homemade mayonnaise
4 slices of cooked bacon


Prepare the ingredients: cook the bacon and grill the chicken if they aren't done yet. Slice the tomato and make the mayonnaise.

Toast the bread slices.

Spread the mayo on the bread slices.

On 2 of the slices, add the lettuce.

and the tomato slices.

Add the bacon.

Add the chicken.

Place one of the covered slices on top of the other one and cover them both with the 3rd slice.

Insert the wood sticks on the four sides of the sandwich and cut it diagonally.

 Separate the 4 sides and plate. Serve with extra mayo.

And there you have it! Enjoy :)

Pre-Christmas Dinner Part 2:)

Ok, on to part 2: the main dish.

This is a dish my mom often makes and always is a crowd-pleaser. You cannot go wrong with this dish and it's great when entertaining: oven baked. And best of all: Red and green coloring for Christmas!

Pollo alla Fiorentina

Ingredients:

6 chicken breasts
breadcrumbs
2 cups marinara sauce
1/2 cup red wine
1 1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup of round rice
1/4 cup black olives
2 packs of frozen spinach
1 pack of ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
butter
oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven at 180C.

Coat the chicken breasts with seasoned breadcrumbs (I usually put oregano, basil, parsley, garlic powder and black pepper).

In a large pan, heat some oil. When ready, add the chicken.

Remove from the pan and set aside.

Combine the marinara sauce (tomato sauce with garlic, same seasoning as the breadcrumbs, garlic and a bit of sugar cooked during 15 minutes) and red wine.

Remove part of the mixture (about 1 cup) and set aside.

Add the broth, rice and sliced olives.

Bring to a boil and transfer to the oven dish.

Arrange chicken on top.

Cover with foil and cook for about 25 minutes in the oven.

In the meantime. squeeze the excess water from the spinach and combine the parmesan, ricotta, eggs and spinach together.

Mix well.

Remove chicken from the oven and place the spinach mixture on the sides of the dish.

Add the remaining marinara wine combination on top. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top and bake for another 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and serve.

Doesn't it make for an awesome presentation :)

Enjoy :)

Madrid's Famous Dish

Cocido Madrileño. Madrid's slow cooked pot. This dish goes back ages in history and is still super common nowadays. Most families will serve this on Sunday meals. There are many variants in Spain of the Cocido. Some eat the soup with all of the ingredients in, or only the chick peas, other eat it separately, which is the Madrid way.

I really like this dish and every chance I have a making it, it's on my menu. David is not too much of a fan due to the chick peas. Thank god, they serve it at work usually every 2 weeks :)

Cocido is a cooked pot of everything! Chorizo, morcilla, chicken, beef, chick peas, potatoes, carrots... Super easy to make as well. Just let it cook :)

Cocido Madrileño

Ingredients:

200gr morcillo (shin part of the beef)
2 chorizos
1 or 2 morcillas (blood sausages)
200gr dried chick peas
1/2 hen (I used chicken thighs)
4 potatoes
3 carrots
100gr lard (tocino)
1 or 2 beff bones
1 spanish dried ham bone
1/2 cabbage
soup noodles
water

Let the chick peas soak overnight.

In a large pot, add some water. Drop in the beef bones, jamon bones and lard.

Bring to a boil. When boiling, add the mocillo and the chick peas.

Here you might need to remove the mousse that forms on top.

After half an hour of cooking, add the chicken.

The chorizo.

After about another hour of cooking, add the carrots.

Half an another later, add the potatoes.

In a separate pot, cook the cabbage and morcilla with some water.

When the chickpeas are cooked and after about 3 hours, 3 1/2 hours of cooking, remove the meat and chickpeas (apart) from the stew.

Left soup.

Bring the broth to a boil. When boiling, add some soup noodles.

In the meatime, remove the chicken meat from the bones, slice the carrots, morcilla, chorizo, morcillo, lard...

Plate together the meats and chickpeas separately.

Serve the soup to each person with the rest of the cocido in the middle. This way, people can eat it the way they prefer. (I like adding chickpeas to the soup).

Enjoy this traditional Madrid dish!

Got some General Tao Chicken?

This one goes out for my Dad and sister. They are also big fans of this, as we thought it, Chinese recipe. Turns out: it was actually invented in New York, so it's an American Chinese dish. It doesn't exist in Spain and David keeps on asking for it at Chinese restaurants! Poor him! Well, to his surprise, I made some homemade and he LOVED it! I sure made his day :)

General Tao Chicken is a very popular dish in Montreal. You can basically find it at any Chinese restaurant. It is pretty simple. Fried chicken covered in sauce. Obviously, the trick to the dish is the sauce :)

General Tao Chicken

1 kg chicken breast
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
salt
oil
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp minced ginger
4 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp mirin sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 guindillas
sesame seeds

Slice or dice your chicken. My poultry guy had already butterfly cut my chicken so slices it was for me.

In a bowl, add the chicken and the egg.

Mix well.

In a wok, heat some oil for frying.

While it heats, pass the chicken pieces through the flour to coat them.

Fry the chicken as you make it.

And here is the golden brown chicken.

Mix the chicken broth, sugar, vinegar, hoisin, soya, sesame oil and cornstarch together.  (Truth is, I really just eyeballed the quantities here)

Remove the frying oil from the wok.

Add about 1tbsp back and fry the minced ginger and garlic.

Add the sauce.

When it starts bubbling, it will thicken quickly. Keep on stirring. (This is when I added my guindillas. David is not a fan of spicy food. This way, the sauce was not really spicy).

Add the chicken back to the wok and mix well to cover all the pieces.

And completely covered.

Plate.

Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and there you have it. Some AWESOME General Tao without stepping out of your home :)

Keeping with the Asian Style

Since I just posted about wontons, I decided it would be great to combine it with a nice wok recipe. Ok, it's not from the same country (the wok being Japanese) but it's from the same "area" ;)

I like diversity in the kitchen (as if you haven't noticed yet!) and always try to innovate. Turkey is a great and lean meat yet it tends to be really dry. At the poultry store, they have this cut called Ragu (the thigh part of the leg removed from the bone) and I love using it to cook now. I am a big fan of turkey legs but David hates all the connecting nerves in them so I had to find a solution. Ragu it was :)

Here is a little creation that I make and always pleases the crowd. People don't beleive that it's actually turkey meat as it's so tender.

Turkey Wok

Ingredients:

1kg turkey thigh meat
100grs shitake mushrooms
1 onion
100grs frozen spinach thawed
1 pack of chinese egg noodles
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp ginger
1 tsp coriander
2 tbsps mirin sauce
2 tbsps soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsps teriyaki sauce
salt and pepper

In a bowl, mix the turkey meat with the mirin sauce, soya sauce, teriyaki sauce, minced ginger, coriander, salt and pepper.

Marinate minimum 20 minutes or overnight.

If you have dried shitakes, soak them in water for at least 20 minutes. Slice them if needed.

Slice the onion and garlic.

Heat water in a pot. When it boils, remove from the heat and add the chinese noodles. Cook for a few minutes covered and drain. Keep aside.

In a wok, heat the sesame oil. When ready, add the turkey meat.

When lightly browned (which occurs really fast in a wok), add the veggies.

Mix well and cook for a few minutes until the onion starts to sweat.

Serve the meat and veggies mixture on top of the chinese noodles.

Add some soya sauce to taste.

That's it! Enjoy :)