No recipes … just lots of pictures. If you want recipes for something, let me know.
It’s been really warm and humid, and the A/C is labouring to deal with it all, so I have been doing minimal cooking.
In fact, I bought a giant (28 piece) cheese and pepperoni shreds pizza and have been eating 2-4 pieces for lunch or dinner over the last week, while playing with some aspect of tried and true recipes.
Like trying a substitute for chicken stock in the form of a jar of “Better than Bouillon low sodium organic chicken base” and then using it to make egg drop/flower soup. The pinch of turmeric didn’t make the soup appreciably more ‘yellow’ than my usual recipe even though it’s supposedly a Chinese restaurant trick.
And then there was the boneless chicken breast that I sliced in half horizontally, pounded thin, and panko-breaded. I ended up with a cutlet and some chicken fingers which I baked. The twist was combining the egg/flour breading steps into a batter flavoured with mayo and mustard. The end result was super crunchy.
Chicken Finger/Cutlet Batter
1 egg
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard (or any other mustard of choice)
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
Black pepper
Place the Batter ingredients in a bowl and whisk with a fork until combined.
I pounded a boneless pork chop thin and treated it in the same manner.
I also made a batch of crepes (must remember to re-season my cast iron frying pan cause there’s a sticky spot), a dozen cream puffs and a half recipe of pastry cream. Instead of baking the cream puffs at the usual temperature (350 deg F) I tried the high/low combo that the classic recipe calls for. They looked great but about half the tray fell and I can’t account for it.
NEON PASTA ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And, finally, I attempted the classic Italian pasta dish egg-yolk ravioli (Uova da Raviolo). I used beet pasta from the freezer, cause I didn’t want to bother making a fresh batch of plain pasta dough. I rolled the dough a bit too thin and, while I was cooking the ravioli, the fragile pasta tore open. I managed to salvage the 2 ravioli (that’s all I made) and, after dressing them up with a browned butter-bacon-sage sauce, ate a delicious dish with a perfectly cooked egg yolk.
The effort is worth the fuss. I used the rest of the ricotta-Grana Padano cheese filling to make some regular ravioli which I froze away.
I kneaded a bit more flour into the pasta from the trimmings used above for these ravioli giving me a paler colour.
All in all, it’s been a fun week. 🙂
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
All the food photographs look delicious. I’m jealous of your warm humid weather. I’d swap you in an instant. It was –3 °C when I woke up.
That is COLD. I’m so grateful to be able to stay in where the A/C is running rather than working outside in the full sun as so many people have to do.
I am definitely stealing your breading suggestion! My hubby love various protein parmesans but I’ve been reluctant to make it because of the frying, you’ve really inspired me.
All of your dishes look mouth watering, particularly the crêpes. I must re-season my crêpe pan too, as I have a single sticky spot. Do you use a cast iron pan? I bought mine in Paris many years ago (before they really cared about luggage weight!) and the wooden batter spreader has broken so I’m on the lookout for a metal one. My dear Mom’s pan was a simple stainless steel pan which was light enough to pick up and tip the batter into a beautiful and thin crêpe. I wish I still had it.
A/C works hard in the city too but we’re at the cottage for a few days and we actually had to shut the windows last night, it got so chilly.
I toasted the panko in the oven (with a spritz of cooking spray to help it brown) before coating and it was pretty amazing. Just don’t over bake the chicken. 🙂
I inherited my mom’s cast iron frying pan which weighs a ton but makes a good crepe pan. No flipping the pan for me though. I just pour 1/4 cup of batter into the bottom and swirl.
It was cold this morning when I went out at around 6:30am. We’re getting a bit of a break from the heat today then it jumps to the mid to hi 80s again.
I meant to ask, can you taste the flavour of the beet in the pasta?
I don’t really know what beets taste like cause I’ve never eaten them before but it just tasted like regular pasta to me.
absolutely look the beet Ravioli!!! Will put this on my to do list for sure:))
Hope you get/got a chance to try and enjoy it.
Love it! Neon pasta warning!! lol. Everything sounds great! 🙂 Very chi chi on that rav! 🙂
They’re bright, aren’t they? I’ve seen multi-coloured pasta that I’ve wanted to try …everything from stripes to plaids.
The egg ravioli is something I want to try again but with regular pasta.
🙂
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