Turkey Paillard With Arugula Salad

In the mood for something fried? We rarely fry anything...so when we do we like to keep the rest of the meal light. This Turkey Paillard with Arugula Salad fits the bill. The great thing about it is you can make it with just about any kind of meat you desire (turkey, chicken, veal, or pork).

Ingredients:

turkey cutlets (or cutlets of whatever type of meat you decide to use)

2 or 3 eggs

flour, for dredging

panko breadcrumbs for coating

dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

vegetable oil

lemon, cut into wedges

for salad:

arugula

1 heaping tbsp. of dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, minced

4 tbsp. olive oil

half a lemon, juiced

Be sure you get cutlets that are sliced thin to begin with, and pound with a meat hammer between plastic wrap and your cutting board to make them even thinner. Set up the dredging station like shown in the picture above. You should have a container for the flour, the eggs, and the panko breadcrumbs (which you should season with the salt, pepper, and thyme). In case you don't know the rules of dredging this is the order that you do it: cutlets into the flour, then into the egg, then into the breadcrumbs. When you are finished coating the cutlets be sure to place them into the fridge uncovered for at least 15 minutes.

Commence fry-o-lation! Pour vegetable oil into a cast iron pan...about 1/2" deep. When frying, be sure you do not crowd the pan...else they won't crisp up properly. The oil should be heated to around 375F. Cook until golden brown on one side, then flip to finish. These are very thin, so it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.

For the salad, fill a bowl with arugula. Mix the other ingredients together for the dressing and toss.

Top the fried cutlets with the salad and serve with a lemon wedge. ENJOY!!!



Chicken With Asian Flavors

We aren't sure if this recipe is Thai, Vietnamese, or Korean...we just made it up. But the chicken comes out delicious!!! We served it with a cucumber and radish salad topped with a lime and cilantro vinaigrette and orange flavored brown rice with carrots.

Ingredients:

Marinade-

2 tbsp. ginger, chopped

2 tbsp. garlic, chopped

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 heaping tbsp. of brown sugar

big pinch of crushed red pepper

1 tbsp. canola oil

zest of one orange

1/2 tsp. Asian sesame oil

a few grinds of black pepper

1 scallion, chopped into mulch

The Chicken-

1 whole chicken

salt and pepper to taste

butcher's twine

the orange you just zested for the marinade

1 scallion, chopped

1 scallion, sliced (for garnish)

handful of cilantro, chopped (for garnish)

Divide the marinade into two. Save half in the fridge...this will be your dipping sauce. Use the other half to marinate the chicken.

Wash the chicken and dry it will with paper towels (inside and out). Quarter the orange, and put 1/4 into the chicken's cavity along with the chopped scallion. Place the remaining 3/4 of the orange into the pan with the chicken. Use the butcher's twine to tie the chicken into as tight a ball as possible. I have no idea on the proper way to do this...just get it into a tight ball. Pour the marinade over the chicken and use your hands to rub it all over. Cover it with plastic wrap. Place into the fridge for at least 6 hours...but overnight if you can.

When you are ready to cook take the chicken out of the fridge and leave it at room temperature for one hour. Liberally salt and pepper the chicken. Pop it into a 350F oven for one hour. When the hour is up, remove it from the oven and turn the oven temperature up to 475F. Squeeze the juice of the orange that is in the pan over the chicken. When the oven hits 475F, put your chicken back in for another 10-15 minutes...until the skin gets brown and crispy. When the chicken is done let it rest out of the oven for at least 10 minutes...then you can carve it. We garnished the chicken with sliced scallions and cilantro.

Serve with the remaining marinade to use as dipping sauce (as shown below).



Pissaladière

Don't let this photo intimidate your cooking skills or your palate. I know when I saw an image of this (in countless cookbooks) I remember saying how I thought it looked gross. But boy was I way off! It is absolutely delicious! Slightly salty from the anchovies and olives, yet sweet from the roasted onions. This is perfect for an appetizer or even a lunch. Chris made this the other day and we couldn't wait to share his recipe with our readers. ENJOY!



Ingredients:

3 softball sized onions, ¼ inch slices

extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
2 small tins of anchovies
a handful of pitted black olives (low salt is great)
fresh thyme

Crust:
2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons yeast
1 teaspoon salt
warm tap water to make the dough ½ cup plus more as needed
extra virgin olive oil for bowl

To make the dough/crust, bring all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl and stir with your hands until combined. If the dough won’t stick into a ball, add more water. If you have glop or a wet sticky blob, add more flour. Do these adjustments a teaspoon at a time. Dust some flour on your impeccably clean countertop and knead the dough until it’s smooth. This will take 8-10 minutes. Grease the bowl lightly with EVOO and but the dough back in to it. Cover the dough lightly with a glug of oil as well. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it some place where the wind or AC vent doesn’t blow on it. It will double in size in about 3 hours, at which point, you should put it in the refrigerator overnight. Take the dough out of the fridge 4 hours prior to your planned baking time.

The filling is traditionally made by sautéing the onions in a metric ton of butter (hey, it’s French). I’ve done it this way before and, shock of the century, it was pretty damn greasy. Instead, put the sliced onions into a roasting tin and toss them around in a light drizzle of olive oil. Roast them in a 450F oven for an hour, tossing them around half way through cooking. Take them out of the oven, they should be a golden light brown. If not, roast longer. If they’re black, you screwed up. Oops! Be sure to keep an eye on them!

When the onions are done, your dough should have been out of the fridge for 4 hours. Spread it out evenly over a metal oven tray. The one I used is 11X14. Next, spread the roasted onions out evenly over the crust. Next, lay out the lattice pattern over the onions using anchovies. Finally, place an olive in the center of each rhombus/parallelogram you have created and sprinkle the whole thing with half the fresh thyme leaves you have on hand. Pop the tray in to a 450F oven and bake it until the crust turns a medium brown around the edges. When you take it out of the oven you can sprinkle the remainder of your thyme over it.