Spicy Chicken Cakes

Dinner tonight was Spicy Chicken Cakes. One of those dishes that Moe and I both like but I haven't made them in a while.   Linda (Doucanoe) shared this recipe on the Gardenweb's Cooking Forum a few years ago.  

   The original recipe calls for a Horseradish Aioli.  As much as I love horseradish, I find it way to overpowering for these Chicken Cakes.  I  usually serve them with either a lemon garlic aioili or with a tomato and black olive salsa.  But they are just as good served without a sauce.

Tonight we had them with a side of pasta.  The pasta was tossed with butter, garlic, parmesan cheese, fresh chopped parsley and salt and pepper.


Spicy Chicken Cakes
==========================================
Source:  Linda Fries
Spicy Chicken Cakes with Horseradish Aioli
 

2 (1 1/2-ounce) slices whole wheat bread
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
3 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons canola oil

NOTE: I used real Hellmans, not low-fat and I added a minced garlic clove and cayenne pepper in place of the cajun seasoning.

NOTE: Made my own Aioli. A garlic Lemon Aioli using the extra egg yolks, and adding 3 large cloves of garlic, fresh squeezed lemon juice, lemon zest salt, pepper and olive oil.

HORSERADISH AIOLI:
2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1/8 teaspoon salt

To prepare cakes, place bread in a food processor; pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs measure 1 cup (discard remaining breadcrumbs). Set breadcrumbs aside.
Place chicken in food processor; pulse until ground. Combine chicken, chives, 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, seasoning, 1/4 teaspoon salt, egg whites, and breadcrumbs in a medium bowl; mix well (mixture will be wet). Divide mixture into 8 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add patties; cook 7 minutes on each side or until done.

Angel Hair Pasta with Lobster

I didn't get nearly as much done as I had wanted  on my days off this week.  It snowed Monday and Tuesday wasn't much better.  So that left Wednesday.  It was only raining so I headed down to Victoria to finish up my Christmas shopping.  On the way home I stopped at the market thinking I would buy clams and make pasta for dinner.   Lobster tails were on sale so I picked up two for the freezer and two more for dinner. 

Made a quick and simple pasta dinner.

  Angel Hair Pasta with Lobster
=============================
2 lobster tails

1 red chili, finely sliced or chopped
2 cloves garlic minced
olive oil
white wine
chicken broth
3 to 4 canned Italian tomatoes or fresh Roma tomatoes
parsley
basil
salt
pepper

Cut Lobster into bite size pieces (in shell)
Saute red chili and garlic in olive oil.  Add the lobster and cook a couple of minutes.  3 or 4 tomatoes chopped canned or fresh tomatoes. Add 1/4 cup white wine and 1/4 cup chicken broth.  Simmer until lobster
is cooked. Just a couple of minutes. Season with salt and pepper.  Add the cooked, drained angel hair pasta to the pan, add the parsley and basil and toss to mix.  Serves two.

Weekly Bread Post

This bread makes the best toast.  

I kneaded up a large batch of bread dough on Tuesday morning.  Baked four baguettes on Wednesday and saved half the dough to make pizza and two more loaves of bread Thursday night.    Moe took the dough of the fridge an hour or so before I got home from work so that it could come to room temperature.

Thin crust Pizza  topped with my own pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella, sauted mushrooms and chorizo.  

And I had enough dough leftover to bake two more small loaves of bread.

Garlic Prawns over Pasta

Last spring I froze a number of containers of our local spotted prawns. Beheaded but tails left on and frozen in water.  This is the best way to freeze prawns or shrimp if you want them to retain their fresh caught flavour and texture.

I still had two containers of local spotted prawns in the freezer.  Perfect for when I haven't made any plans for dinner.  I called Moe yesterday from work and had him pull one of them out of the freezer.  They didn't take long to defrost when run under water and they only took  a couple of minutes to cook.

Making a slight adjustment to my standard Spanish Tapa - Garlic shrimp recipe  I sauted  the prawns with lots of garlic in olive oil seasoned with red hot pepper flakes, added about a quarter cup of chicken broth, 3 tablespoons butter and fresh chopped parsley and served them over spaghetti.  Another quick and simple dinner.

Spanish Tapa - Garlic Shrimp
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6 Tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pound medium or large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons of chicken broth
2 tablespoons lemon juice
salt
2 Tablespoons minced parsley
Italian or French Bread cut into cubes

Heat the oil, garlic and red pepper flakes in a large, shallow pan. When the garlic just begins to turn golden, add the shrimp and cook over high heat for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the broth
and lemon juice.

If serving in the living room, pour into a large earthenware bowl and sprinkle with salt and parsley. Serve immediately.
Note:  Use more chicken broth and lemon juice if you like more sauce to dip the bread into.

Plan Ahead Pizza

I try to bake bread at least one if not two days a week, on my days off.  This past week I baked 6 baguettes on Tuesday,  and three sourdough baguettes on Wednesday.  I saved enough dough from the sour dough batch to make a pizza. I know I have mentioned it before, but giving the dough a chance to develop over two or three days really does make for a superior crust.

The crust is so good it becomes the star of the show needing nothing more than a few simple toppings.   Last night's pizza was topped with just sauce, Bocconcini cheese (fresh mozzerella balls) and I had a few mushrooms that I needed to do something with. Sliced thin and sauted they were all we needed. 

Italian Sausage and Olive Pizza

I finally got around to making a pizza for dinner.  The dough was started last Wednesday and then incorporated into another batch of dough Sunday.  The crust was wonderful.

Since most doughs are just flour, yeast, water and salt, you can pretty much use your favourite bread recipe to make pizza.   Lately it seems I only make a version of French Baguette bread dough and I have found it is perfect for pizza crusts.    Especially if it is allowed a long fermentation in the fridge (two, three, four days).

Pizza Sauce
===========
After playing around with many different pizza sauces over the years this is the one that I came settled on as my favourite. It is an uncooked sauce with lots of flavour.

1 28 oz can quality Italian Tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
fennel seed
oregano
Basil
2 to 3 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

Puree tomatoes with the minced garlic. Grind the fennel seeds. Add the seeds and the oregano, basil, and the olive oil and mix together.

NOTE: I use a stick blender and blend all of these ingredients right in the can.

Chicken Piccata with a side of Pasta

This has to be one of the quickest and easiest dinners to put together.  On the table in less than 30 minutes.  I defrosted boneless chicken breasts to cook Friday but by the time I got home from work I wasn't in the mood so I made a pot of Potato Leek soup instead.  That still left the chicken breasts for last nights dinner.

I walked in the door, put a put a pot of water on to boil for pasta, pounded out the chicken breasts, added a tablespoon or so of green peppercorns to half a cup of chicken broth (so they could soften) and made chicken piccata for dinner with pasta on the side. On the table in 30 minutes.  It took the water longer to boil then it did to make the whole dinner.    The pasta was what was left of the homemade batch I made a week or two ago.  I had dried half of it.

Click for Printable Recipe

Pizza

I had intended to roast a Sirloin tip for dinner, but postponed it until Sunday.   We went out for lunch and we both had burgers and fries and then we were not in the mood for more beef.

So instead I made a double batch of bread dough and baked three large loaves and saved enough dough  to make a simple pizza for dinner.  The pizza was topped with   a  fresh sauce made with chopped plum tomatoes from our garden, garlic, hot red pepper flakes, oregano, basil , salt and pepper  and a little olive oil.   The only other topping was the mozzarella.

Baked at 510°F on a pizza stone.  Makes for a wonderful crust.

Homemade Pasta

Before leaving for work this morning I used the food processor to knead up a  batch of pasta dough.  The dough went into the fridge to rest for the day and about 4:00 PM I called Moe and had him take it out so that it could come to room temperature and be ready to roll out when I got home from work.  He also took a container of spotted prawns out of the freezer at the same time.

A pan of cherry tomatoes (fresh picked from our garden)  drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with minced garlic, basil and salt and pepper went into the oven immediately after I walked in the door.   While the tomatoes roasted I rolled out the dough for the pasta and cut it into wide ribbons, put a pot of water on to boil and cleaned the prawns.


Dinner was pasta tossed with garlic simmered in olive oil with hot red pepper flakes, roasted cherry tomatoes, pan fried prawns , chopped parsley and fresh basil.



This is my basic Pasta recipe.  Todays batch was made in the food processor using two cups of flour, 2 1/2 eggs, one tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a little salt.

Pasta - Homemade Pasta
======================
I watched a friends Italian Momma make her pasta one day. (She did it all by hand)  I make it following her directions but I use the Food Processor to mix and knead.

1 egg for each cup of flour( plus an extra egg for every 3 cups of flour, ie. 3 cups flour = 4 eggs, 6 cups flour = 8 eggs.
Salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil, per three cups of flour.

Put the flour on a large board and make a well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well and sprinkle with salt and oil . Use your fingertips to mix up the eggs and then start to incorporate the flour into the eggs. Eventually it will all come together. (add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water if necessary) Knead dough until smooth and elastical. Let sit covered for 15 or 20 minutes. Divide dough into smaller portions and run through a pasta rolling machine or roll out by hand. Let dry slightly and then cut into desire widths.  Leave out to dry or use fresh. When dried she always stored it in a wax paper lined box, in a cool place.

You can also mix and knead this in the cuisinart, which is what I do when I make it.

My friends mom would make 12 and 15 egg pasta at a time and give it to all of her family members (and me, a would-be family member). After she cut the pasta she would lay the strands flat. She would have it spread
out everywhere there was a flat surface and also hang it from a broomstick strung between two drawers. Once it was dry she would gather up the stiff pieces and put them in boxes. Because I don't make that
much at a time, I just lay it all over my table and counter.

NOTE:  Depending on the flour and the eggs, sometimes you will need more eggs

Click Here for Printable Recipe

Rigatoni with Italian sausage

A very simple pasta sauce.  Can be prepared from start to finish in about 45 minutes.   The sausage are par boiled first.  This firms up the sausage making it easy to remove the casing and to slice.

Italian Sausage with Tomato Basil Sauce
=======================================
For Two
2 Italian Sausage
Olive oil
1 to 2 cloves of Garlic
1 Can of Quality Italian Tomatoes
Fennel seed, hot red pepper, dried basil, salt and pepper to taste
Kalamata Olives (optional)
Fresh Basil
Farfalle or other favourite pasta shape.

Option:  Substitute Clams. Omit the fennel seed. Cook the sauce and then add the clams a minute or two before serving.

Par boil sausage to firm up.  Remove sausage skin and slice into 1/2 inch slices.

Sauté the sausage in olive oil until lightly brown.  Add minced garlic, canned tomatoes and dried seasonings.  Break up tomatoes with a fork. Add the olives if using.   Simmer while the water is coming to a boil and the pasta is cooked.   Just before serving toss in a handful of chopped fresh basil.

Click here for a Printable copy of this Recipe

Pizza Margherita

Pizza was on the menu here last night. I still had the other half of the dough I made on Wednesday so I baked a pizza and another loaf of bread. Moe pulled the dough out of the fridge a couple of hours before I got home from work so that the dough would be at room temperature and almost ready to work with.

Pizza Margherita. Simple but delicious. Just sauce and bocconcini cheese.

Pizza Sauce
===========
After playing around with many different pizza sauces over the years this is the one that I came settled on as my favourite. It is an uncooked sauce with lots of flavour.

1 28 oz can quality Italian Tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
fennel seed
oregano
Basil
2 to 3 Tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

Puree tomatoes with the minced garlic. Grind the fennel seeds. Add the seeds and the oregano, basil, and the olive oil and mix together.

NOTE: I use a stick blender and blend all of these ingredients right in the can.

Mushroom Pizza

I made a double batch of bread dough yesterday - baked three baguettes and saved the other half of the dough to make a pizza for tonight's dinner. A mushroom pizza.

New York style. Thin crust in the middle with a slightly thicker outside crust.

I love a pizza crust made from dough that has had anywhere from a 24 to a 48 hour rise.

Zucchini Lasagna

Dinner last night was Zucchini Lasagna. Basically the same as my regular lasagna with the substitution of zucchini for the pasta. I think I liked this version even more than the traditional. I don't like leftovers but this was so good we had it again for dinner tonight.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Zucchini Lasagna
================
2 pounds ground pork
1 onion chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
2 to 3 cloves garlic
Italian parsley
1 to 2 tablespoons basil
1 teaspoon oregano
salt,
pepper
2 cans tomatoes
1/2 cup cream

1 pint ricotta
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg mixed together.

2 cups shredded mozzarella

2 to 4  medium size zucchini sliced lengthwise or into thin rounds
Note: Salt the slices to draw out the moisture. Pat dry before using.

Bechamel Sauce (seasoned with a garlic clove and fresh grated Parmesan)

Directions

Saute onions and celery in olive oil. When tender add the garlic and the ground pork. Cook until meat starts to brown and is no longer pink. Add the salt, pepper, basil, oregano and parsley. Add the cream and simmer until evaporated. Add the tomatoes and simmer for at least one hour.

Spoon meat sauce into the bottom of a deep casserole. Place layer of zucchini over sauce. Top with 1/3 or 1/2 of the ricotta mixture (depending on whether you are making two or three
layers). Sprinkle with mozzarella. Top with more meat sauce and another layer of zucchini. Repeat. Finish with a layer of the meat sauce and then top with the bechamel. Bake in a 375°F oven for 45 to 60 minutes. Cover the top with foil if the lasagna starts to brown to much.

Pasta and Prawns

Put a few cloves of the fresh garlic to good use last night.

Penne with grilled prawns.

The penne was tossed with a fresh tomato sauce seasoned with lots of garlic and fresh basil. The prawns were rubbed with a lemon parmesan pesto and grilled. I tossed a few balls of mini boccochini cheese (fresh mozzarella) into the hot pasta before adding the room temperature tomato mixture. The heat from the pasta slightly melted the cheese. Moe moaned as he ate his dinner.

Lori's Chicken Francaise

Tried something new last night. Lori's Chicken Francaise. You can find the recipe on Lori's blog All That Splatters.

I've been meaning to make this ever since June when Lori first posted the recipe. I shouldn't have waited so long. This is one of those dishes that is delicious and very simple to put together Perfect dinner on a work night. With it we had a little pasta, tossed with butter, garlic, Parmesan cheese and parsley.

Italian Night

We had big bowls of spaghetti with meat sauce for dinner tonight. I put the pot of sauce on to simmer early in the afternoon. Moe put in a request for my Gorgonzola Garlic Bread. I hadn't made it for him in awhile. We lived in Dunkirk, NY for a couple of years and we would go to Buffalo on a regular basis to shop, and when we did, we would have lunch at a little Italian restaurant that served this wonderful warm garlic breaded seasoned with Gorgonzola and Parmesan cheese. This is my copycat version.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Bolognese Sauce
===============
My recipe. (updated February 27th, 2004)
Olive oil
1 1/2 pounds lean ground steak or use 1/2 lean beef and 1/2 ground pork
1 onion, chopped
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
2 to 4 cloves garlic minced
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley - preferably the Italian Parsley
1 to 2 Tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon teaspoon dried oregano
Rosemary, and fennel seed (Optional) Pinch of hot red pepper flakes
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup cream or milk (Optional)
1 cup beef or chicken broth
2 to 3 large cans chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper

Optional: If you have a rind from a Parmesan cheese add it to the pot to simmer along with the sauce. Really enriches the sauce. Saute chopped onions and celery in olive oil until softened. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the meat and saute until no longer pink. (Add cream/milk if using it and simmer until it has evaporated) Add 1/2 cup white wine and simmer until wine has evaporated. Add the dried herbs and fresh parsley. Coarsely puree tomatoes and add to the pot. Add chicken broth and simmer for at least 2 hours on low heat.

Serve over spaghetti with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Italian Bread with Gorgonzola
=============================
Long loaf of Italian Bread or long crusty rolls.

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup Gorgonzola cheese
1 to 2 cloves garlic
parsley
salt
pepper
fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Optional: Basil or Oregano

Cream the butter with the Gorgonzola cheese.Mince garlic and add to cheese mixture. Add chopped parsley, and season with salt and pepper. If using the basil or the oregano add now as well. Leave loaf whole, but cut slices so that the loaf stays together. Spread cheese mixture in between each slice and reshape loaf. Sprinkle top of loaf with Parmesan cheese and wrap in foil. Place in 400°F oven for 10 or 15 minutes and serve hot.

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Penne with Grilled Italian Sausage

Quick and simple. Grilled Italian Sausage with penne in a basic marinara sauce.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Basic Marinara Sauce
====================

Olive oil, fresh garlic, canned Roma Tomatoes, salt, pepper, and basil.

Heat the olive oil with the garlic and saute 30 to 60 seconds, don't let the garlic brown. Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper and basil. Do not cover. Just let simmer until the sauce reduces and thickens. Less than 30 minutes.

OPTIONS: Toss in some Kalamata olives into the sauce.

or: Saute Italian sausage in the olive oil, add the garlic and the tomatoes...etc...

Or: when the pasta is cooked and the sauce is reduced, toss in a pound of prawns/shrimp. Cook for a minute or two until the prawns are cooked.

Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza

Moe suggested that I make pizza on one of my days off this week. But just the mention of pizza had me thinking about it all day at work yesterday. So when I got home from work I offered Moe the option of pizza with the warning that he would have to wait a few hours to eat. He was okay with that, so, as soon as I walked in the door at 5:20 I got started on the dough. Doesn't take long to knead dough using the food processor.

TIP: Most Food Processors will knead up to 4 cups of flour and it only takes a minute or so. Just add 3 to 4 cups of flour to the bowl, a couple of teaspoons of yeast, salt, water and a little olive oil, and pulse. Usually 45 to 60 seconds is all that is needed for a perfect dough. Put the dough in an oiled container and cover. Leave to rise until doubled).

If I had had more time, I would have knocked the dough down after the first rise and let it rise again. Made the pizza sauce, cut up the pepperoni and sauted some mushrooms and then waited for the dough to rise. Dinner was served just a little after 8:00.

Other Pizza posts:

Sourdough Crust
Pizza Night - Two Nights in a Row
Last of the Pizza Dough

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Pizza Sauce
===========
1 28 oz can quality Italian Tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
fennel seed
oregano
Basil
2 to 3 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper

Puree tomatoes with the minced garlic. Grind the fennel seeds. Add the seeds and the oregano, basil, and the olive oil and mix together. NOTE: I use a stick blender and blend all of these ingredients right in the can.

Chicken Pollo alla Marengo

Another work day , another easy to put together after work dinner.

Pollo alla Marengo with a side of pasta. Very simple pasta too. Just put the cooked, drained pasta back into the pot, add a chunk of butter, a minced garlic clove , a little cream if needed, a little salt and lots of black pepper and fresh grated parmesan cheese. That is all there is too it. TIP: Use a microplane to grate the garlic right into the pot). This is pasta is wonderful as a side for chicken or veal piccata.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Chicken - Pollo Alla Marengo
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adjusted : from The Art of Eating Well, Pellegrino Artusi 1820 - 1911, Italy's Most Treasured Cookbook, Translated by Kyle M. Phillips III.

On the eve of the battle of Marengo, Napoleon's cook was unable to find the chuck wagons in the confusion and was forced to improvise, using stolen hens. The dish became known as chicken marengo, and tis said that Napoleon always enjoyed it, less for iteself than because it reminded him of a glorious victory.

Chop a young chicken into pieces at the joints. Saute it with 2 tablespoons butter and 1 of oil, season it with salt and pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. Once the pieces are browned on all sides, drain off the fat, dust the meat with flour, add a minced clove or two of garlic, and add 1/2 cup of dry white wine. Add about 1/2 cup of broth over the chicken to keep it from drying out, cover it, and simmer it until done. Before serving it, sprinkle it with minced parsley and squeeze half a lemon over it.

Pasta in a Sausage, Tomato and Cream Sauce

This is another very quick dinner to put together. Lori of All that Splatters shared this recipe with me a few years ago and it quickly became a favourite.

TIP: I like to slice the sausage rather than crumble it. I parboil the sausage for a couple of minutes. Just long enough to firm them up. This makes removing the casings and slicing easier.

Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table

Pasta with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cream
======================================
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 cup diced onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 28-ounce can Italian diced tomatoes
1-1/2 cups whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound pasta (bowtie, rotini, etc.)
3 tablespoons fresh minced basil

Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Heat oil in large heavy skillet over medium heat. Remove casings from sausage, crumble and cook in oil with crushed pepper until sausage is no longer pink, about 7 minutes. Add onion and garlic and cook another 5-7 minutes until tender. Drain tomatoes, chop coarsely and stir into sausage along with cream, salt and basil. Simmer until mixture thickens slightly, about 4 minutes.

In a separate pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta al dente. Drain pasta and add to simmering sauce. Garnish with Parmesan and parsley. Serves 4.