Chicken Piccata

We were watching the 1st episode of 'Top Chef Chicago" on Food Network a couple of days ago and one of the "expert" judges said something that really got the hair at the back of my neck to stand.

They were judging the chicken cooked by one of the contestant, a guy called Ryan who was asked to make Chicken Piccata. The poor guy made his own version of the piccata and in doing so, got himself in a deep "piccata". The "expert" judge, a guy called Tom Colicchio went on lambasting him about how he didn't know the basics and how chicken piccata was a classic that everyone should know.

He then went on the correct Ryan and say that Chicken Piccata is chicken dredged in flour and eggs - no breadcrumbs. What I thought was funny was Anthony Boudain (chef extraordinaire) was agreeing with him on TV. He successfully managed to tell every naive TV audience a totally wrong fact about classical cooking.

I am hence going to set the record right now:
1) There is NO "Classic Chicken Piccata" - there is only "Classic Veal Piccata" - the Chicken version is a North American version and cannot be considered "classic" at all. So Mr. Colicchio please stop calling corrupted North American versions of European dishes "classical".
2) Chicken Piccata has NO EGG. A piccata is simply pounded breast of chicken dredged in flour and cooked in butter. When you add egg to the dish, it becomes a "Chicken Fried Steak" that you find in America.
3) The part that Mr. Colicchio was correct about was that there is no breadcrumbs in the Piccata. When you add breadcrumbs, the dish becomes a Milanese or similar to a Schnitzel.

Hopefully that has set the Piccata record straight. Hopefully, millions of readers will read this blog and no longer be under the impression that Piccata has eggs!

Athenian Spinach

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter.

Ingredients:
1 large onion finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic finely chopped
2 tsp olive oil
2 bunches of spinach
50 grams feta cheese- chopped up
1/4 cup walnuts (or any nuts you like except peanuts)
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
salt
pepper

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan.
2. With the flame on MEDIUM HIGH, add the chopped onions and garlic and saute for 3-4 minutes until onions are translucent.
3. Add the spinach and cook for 3-4 minutes until the spinach has wilted and let out it's water.
4. Immediately plate the spinach. Using tongs, take 1/2 the spinach and onions from the pan (leaving as much water as you can in the pan) and put in the serving dish. Sprinkle on 1/2 the mint leaves, 1/2 feta and 1/2 nuts, salt and pepper to taste. Repeat with the other 1/2 of the spinach layering that on top.

The difference between men and women

For the longest time, I have always believed that women are far more sturdier than men. We manage to do a lot more - and are pros at multitasking. Among the women I know, 90% manage to run a household, have families, hobbies, work a whole day, cook for their families and still have time to catch up on the news and chat to their friends. Contrast this with humans of the other gender and you find that they are "oh so tired" because they did "so much and no one appreciates it". I am no longer surprised at how little men accomplish and how inflated they believe their achievements are.

I am married to a man who does a lot - but somehow every time he says he is tired - I do a quick mental check of all the things I have done since morning and the things he has done and I get totally upset when I realise he's done 10% of what I have done and still he's the one who is tired! This pattern goes across every male I know. The ones linked genetically to me are even worse!

My husband totally put me over the edge today when he said he's so tired because he went down 4 times. Now, that's the worst excuse in my book. "Going Down" (get your mind out of the gutter people) requires him to step outside my apartment door, walking exactly 6 steps to press the elevator button and voila you are there! How tiring can that be? I realise I am being a bit mean here, since the man doesn't sleep all night since Baby M has taken to sleeping only while she scratches him, but come up with a better excuse please!!!

I simply do not know of a single woman (well, I know one in Montreal) who would use something that silly as an excuse.

I like to compare us to a really good German made car -sexy, reliable, safe and you can do a lot of things with it.

Men are like one of those American made sports cars - they have all the tools and gadgets but very soon they break down and need way too much maintenance.

Danish Spring Salad with Asparagus and Peas

I got this recipe from the latest Eating Well magazine but have adapted it a bit.
For 2 as a main course or 4 for starters.

Ingredients:
Fresh lettuce leaves - get the kind you like to eat.
1 bunch fresh asparagus
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas (do not defrost)
3-4 spring onions - white parts only
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Method:

1. Wash and dry the lettuce leaves.
2. Add the peas to boiling water and cook for 3 minutes.
3. Cut the asparagus into very thin slices - chop of the end hard part.
4. If using tomatoes - cut them up into small pieces as well.
5. Put all the ingredients except the lettuce in a bowl and add the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.
6. To serve - put the lettuce at the bottom of the plate and add the vegetable mixture on top.

Fish in Lemon Sauce

For 2 servings as a main course.
Ingredients:
2 portions of fish of white fish of your choice
Lemon rind of 1/2 a lemon
Lemon juice of 1 whole lemon
1 clove garlic very finely chopped or grated
salt
pepper
1/2 cup fresh herbs: chives, basil, parsley, coriander, dill - whatever you have at hand.
2 tsp olive oil

Method:

1. Mix the garlic, lemon rind and salt together. Press it down with the side of the knife so the garlic starts to "melt".
2. Add to this the lemon juice and pepper. Mix so that the garlic dissolves. It may be easier to do this with a hand blender if you have one.
3. Chop the herbs very finely and keep to the side.
4. Add the olive oil to a pan and heat on MEDIUM HIGH flame. Add the fish and cook for 2 minutes on each side or until fish is cooked properly.
5. Add the lemon sauce and move the pan around to evenly distribute- do not move the fish or they may break up. Add water and move pan around again.
6. Immediately add the chopped herbs.
7. Cook until most of the water in the sauce disappears - you should be left with about 2-4 tablespoons of liquid.
8. Serve immediately.

Macaroni with a Spinach and Feta sauce

Ingredients:
300g raw macaroni or other tube like pasta (rigatoni, penne etc)
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 large onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1 bunch (500g) raw spinach - washed and stalks cut off
100g feta cheese
3-4 tablespoons breadcrumbs

Method:

1. Boil pasta in hot water and cook according to instructions and taste.
2. In a pan, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and saute for 3-4 minutes on MEDIUM until the onions are translucent.
3. Add the spinach. Stir and allow to cook until the spinach is cooked. Do not evaporate all the water.
4. Blend together the spinach mixture with the feta until it is smooth.
5. In a baking dish, put the cooked pasta at the bottom, cover with the spinach and feta mixture. Lightly dust the breadcrumbs on the top.
6. BROIL under a LOW flame for about 3-4 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are golden brown.

Omar Khadr - Give me a break!

I had so much to write about after the trip to Alberta - but all that will have to be saved for later. My rant today is about Omar Khadr.

Now, for some bizarre reason, people in Canada seem to be supporting Omar Khadr's return to Canada and his rehabilitation. What nonsense!!! For those who are not familiar with his case - here is the wikipedia version of it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Khadr

Here is a child who was caught in illegal activities in Afghanistan. Shipped off to the Guantanamo Prison and presumably tortured under Bush's crazy henchmen there. I am sorry for that - very sorry. No child should have to go through that. But this is not an ordinary child - this kid was blowing up innocent people! His family openly supports Al Qaeda and who are close enough to the nut Mr. Bin Laden that he attended his sister's wedding. The only reason his family is back in Canada (a country they openly hate and want to destroy) is because they need the medical benefits for one son who was paralysed following a battle in which his father was killed and because the Canadian govt is providing extensive security for them. We are already spending millions trying to keep this single family alive- too much in my opinion.

And now- they want to spend MILLIONS more on rehabilitating Omar Khadr into Canadian Society. What BULLOCKS is this!!!! This family owes us millions of dollars - they have totally mooched off the system, openly professed hatred towards this country, are hands in hands with people who want to blow the rest of us (including a fair number of Muslims who live here) to death and now WE have to pay to bring him and rehabilitate him on OUR LAND!!! How is this even remotely sensible???

Of course as a child he shouldn't have been put in Guantanamo - no one should have been put there. But the US did and it's a US problem now. Why do we want to bring people like that back to stay in our country - let them remain on US soil and let the US deal with them! More importantly why are we wasting valuable tax payer money on a kid who will eventually go back to fundamentalist Islam anyway. It's even more absurd how they want to rehabilitate him - they want him to live in a mental health facility in Toronto (taxpayer dollars and a valuable space in the facility gone), then have his religious views re-conditioned by keeping a full time imam for him (cha-ching - more taxpayer dollars and as a Muslim I do not think there exists anything like a non-religious Imam - he needs to be totally removed from religion - not immersed more in it) - they don't want to allow him to live with his family - but they want him to live with his maternal grandparents. What is the difference????

I feel bad for this kid - he is a product of his environment - but this is something that the US created and I don't see why Canadian taxpayers should be paying to keep terrorists on our soil!

There are so many better ways to spend all the millions we have already spent on this ungrateful family:
- Millions could have been spent to fight the gangs that are showing up everywhere and get those kids on the right track.
- Millions could have been spent on hiring new police forces and training the existing ones so we are better at fighting gangs and destroying them.
- Millions can be spent in after school programs to prevent kids from joining gangs.
- Millions can be spent to increase "Canadian" influence in mosques and madrassas so that no more Omar Khadrs take place.
- Millions can be spent on providing immigrant women with easy access to education so that they break the religious fundamentalist cycles they seem to come to this country with.
- Millions can be spent to ensure that every kid in Toronto has access to summer camps.
- Millions can be spent on creating better medical facilities at Sick Kids Hospital.

Instead, we are wasting our tax payer money by throwing it on the Khadrs. Shame on us!

Double Standards

I almost burst out laughing when I read the first thing Mr. Obama did today after he won the nomination was "reach out to Israel"!!! Mr. Obama - you should be reaching out to the millions of Americans who did not vote for you - not sucking up to the brutal regime that routinely tortures innocent Palestinians. Here is something that both Hillary (I mention her only because her speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) today) and Obama may not know - Israeli's are NOT voting in the US elections - it's the Americans and you need to focus on them! No one cares what is happening in Israel when they can't afford to pay the mortgage on their house, are loosing jobs to China and can't afford to buy a loaf of bread for their family!

Yes of course Israel has the right to exist - the UN created it. But the UN also created a whole bunch of rules on how to treat people in (illegally) occupied lands - the Israelis seem to pick and choose which rules to follow and the US who have so far shown zero commonsense in their Middle East policy allows them to get away with plain murder. What they do in the occupied territories is worse than apartheid and any leader with a conscience should be trying to put a stop to that instead of perpetuating the hatred and bloodshed that is so prevalent in the region.

Hillary - who I am now calling Looseary - went on to talk about how Israel has a right to self defense. Of course it does! EVERY COUNTRY has a right to self defense and an obligation to protect it's citizens - INCLUDING THE PALESTINIANS!!! The problem is when self defense becomes mindless violence as is the case now and when the medieval system of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth becomes one Israeli life for 10 Palestinian ones! Innocent children on both sides are dying and everyone should be putting a stop to that.

She talked about her commitment to getting the kidnapped soldiers back - and I agree - they should be returned - but so should the hundreds and thousands of innocent Palestinians locked up without trial in Israeli prisons. They talk of violence at the hands of the Palestinians - but what about all those kids who were killed because of Israeli's trigger happy IDF and the sufferring of millions of people under Israel's draconian self existence rules. A leader is NOT one that perpetuates stereotypes and violence - but one that reaches out beyond all that to create peace and fraternity where none existed. Mrs. Clinton, your speech today shows you are neither a leader nor a humanist - there is no place for you in a modern international world- please take your dirty game of politics and leave with whatever integrity you still have intact.

And Mr. Obama - get your act together on Iran - you talk about doing "everything" to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons - but shouldn't you also be stopping the illegal nuclear weapons of Israel? The double standard is sickening! I do not think ANY country should have any weapons that can wipe out civilizations. And what exactly does "everything" mean - are you now going to bomb out 65 million Iranis because of claims of "weapons of mass destruction"? Get real Mr. Obama. Have a policy that is sensible. Iran has the right to protect itself as well. Look what happened to Lebanon when the Israeli's decided to bomb out Beirut - you tell me if they were better prepared Israel would not have thought twice about it. Focus on a policy of zero nuclear weapons and force all countries to destroy all their weapons - that is the vision the world needs today!

The Hillary Woes

Over the last 48 hours about 4 women have accused me of being unfair to Hillary Clinton. One of them even went so far as to say I was perpetuating female stereotypes! I assume this out pour is somehow linked to Hillary finally beginning to realize that she mathematically cannot win the nomination. While I am terribly flattered that people think my blog could have had anything to do with changing the course of history and could somehow have caused millions of somewhat intelligent Americans to vote away from Hillary, the truth is I don't have quite that large a following yet.

I did provide fashion advice to Hillary on her website telling her to please never wear those granny puff sleeve jackets she wore on one event. Maybe that was the wrong advice? Maybe Americans could simply not see a tough woman in a pant suit. (I still haven't figured out what the big hulahoo was about the pant suit - it's comfy, you don't have to worry how you sit, you don't have to worry about a run in your stocking, and no one can see your panties - perfect if you are running all day long).

And while there are people who believed that Hillary has done the right thing by staying in the race for this long. I have this to say.

1. If anyone thinks they should go the extra mile to prove their point - do it! I am the last one for holding back people and Hillary staying in the race this long has opened up a more realistic view of Obama and kind of put him on the spot more. Something I am grateful for. (I will discuss Obama at a later date - today is reserved for Hillary). However, staying in the race, also brought to light the several inflated and false entries on Hillary's resume which may have turned more voters off her.
2. Money - For the love of God - if this woman or any of the men standing for elections really had the goodwill of the Americans at heart - they would have spent money that they raised on school programs, medical benefits, arts programs etc - which is a far better way to spend the funds than having their plasticky smiles pasted all over the country.
3. Florida and Michigan. Rules are rules. It was TOTALLY WRONG of the Democratic Party to even consider changing the rules during the game. It is irrelevant whether this helped Hillary or not. What is relevant is that this is another example about a woman who is a sore looser but who is powerful enough to get the rules changed even when she is on the downside.
   

Do I think this is a woman who can make the world better? NO - not after she said she wanted to obliterate Iran from the earth! A land that has 64 million people living on it! While I think both she, Obama and McCain are going to continue to kow-tow to the terrorist state of Israel who routinely brutalizes and tortures innocent Palestinians, I am inclined to believe that of the 3, Obama is the least likely to press the nuclear button and destroy more of our civilization.

Do I think a woman should be President of USA? ABSOLUTELY! But just because a woman stands for the White House, it doesn't mean I have to support her. Women in power is not a new thing for most of the world. Only in close minded America is it still such an oxymoron. The President of USA has unfortunately too much power, and what I would like is someone with common sense, integrity and passion to have a shot at that seat. I did not find this in Hillary.

Hillary has fought a good fight. She has fought hard and when the time comes, I only hope, that she will find it in her to provide support to Obama. Do I see her as a good Vice President? NO. The most powerful woman in North America would never be satisfied in second place.