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!