Loca for Saltimbocca Part II

So the last time I made saltimbocca, it was with chicken and I went easy on the sage. I recently found a recipe for pork saltimbocca in my Best of Cooking Light cookbook and decided to just go all in. Turns out that fresh sage leaves aren't as overpowering as I thought they were, and the technique used in Cooking Light totally trumps the technique suggested by America's Test Kitchen (surprising, since they're notorious for testing, re-testing, and testing again).

While the chicken saltimbocca was very good, I strongly suggest this recipe instead. The pairing with the polenta was amazing, and the sauce was so much better!

Pork Saltimbocca with Polenta
Ingredients:
2 boneless pork loin chops
2 very thin slices of prosciutto
2 large fresh sage leaves
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 tablespoon fresh sage, thinly sliced

Directions:
To prepare pork, place each chop between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet. Arrange a slice of prosciutto and a sage leaf over each chop. Fold chops in half to sandwich filling. Sprinkle both sides of pork chops with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chops and cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove chops from skillet; cover and set aside.

Add wine to pan, scraping up the browned bits. Cook until reduced by half, about 2 minutes. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cook until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Stir in sliced sage. Reduce heat to medium. Return chops to skillet. Cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

For the Polenta:
1 2/3 cup water
1/2 cup milk
Salt
1/2 cup polenta
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Pepper
2 oz. grated Parmesan cheese

Add the water, milk and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Slowly add the polenta while whisking constantly in a circular motion to prevent clumping.

Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring often and vigorously, until the poletna is soft and smooth, about 10 to 15 minutes. Off the heat, stir in the butter and cheese and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve chops over polenta with sauce spooned over.


I thought my chicken saltimbocca was pretty yummy, but this dish FAR exceeded it. I think the secret was pounding the pork super thin and folding it over to sandwich the filling. This enabled me to get a perfect crust on the pork, which was really flavorful. With the chicken saltimbocca recipe, there was no folding involved, so you got a sear on the prosciutto layer as well (and it was kind of tricky because you had to flip it in the pan without separating the prosciutto and sage from the chicken). That approach made the prosciutto more bacon-y (which isn't necessarily bad), but the folding makes it more cordon bleu-y (which is awesome!).

Chef Bill

He doesn't do it very often, but Chef Bill made an appearance in my kitchen tonight. I'm sure it's because he has a minor man crush on Tyler Florence and couldn't resist browsing his cookbook after I made the Sesame Chicken Salad the other night.

So Bill chose Tyler's Ultimate Roast Chicken Provencal, which I thought was a pretty daring selection since roasting a chicken isn't exactly entry-level work. But I suppose I should give Bill more credit because he has mastered a few things, like Mario Batali's Basic Tomato Sauce. (Do you notice a trend with Bill and the Food Network chefs?)

Roast Chicken Provencal
Ingredients:
Leaves from 1 bunch fresh, flat leaf parsley
Leaves from 1/4 bunch fresh thyme
Leaves from 1 bunch fresh tarragon
4 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 whole chicken
1 lemon, halved, plus 1/2 lemon, sliced paper thin
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
4 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch thick rounds
1 red onion, thinly sliced
Leaves from 4 fresh thyme sprigs
Olive oil

Directions:
Pregeat oven to 400 degrees.

Throw the parsley, thyme, tarragon, garlic and olive oil in a blender, season with salt and pepper, and puree to a paste.

Rinse the chicken inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Set the chicken on a cutting board and season the cavity generously with salt and pepper. Stuff the lemon halves in the cavity. Fold the wing tips under the bird and tie the legs with kitchen string to give it a nice shape while it cooks. Rub the chicken with the herb paste so it's well coated.

Put the chicken in a large roasting pan fitted with a rack and scatter the tomatoes, zucchini, onion, lemon slices and thyme around it. Drizzle the vegetables with olive oil, about 1/4 cup, and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 1 hour. Chicken is done when an instant read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 160 degrees.

Remove from oven and allow chicken to rest 10 minutes before carving so the juices have a chance redistribute. Serve with the roasted vegetables.


I'll go on record as saying that I thought this was a delicious dinner. Bill on the other hand, with his celebrity chef aspirations, never thinks his meals are good enough. I believe his exact words after his first bite were a crestfallen "Tastes like chicken." I'm not sure what exactly he's expecting (especially since it was chicken), but he's typically (unnecessarily and unreasonably) disappointed. I don't think he's giving himself enough credit. Don't get me wrong, he's definitely had his kitchen missteps ... and I don't have time to recount them all here :) But he's had some real wins - like this one - too.

Open Sesame Chicken!

I've definitely been bitten by the spring cleaning bug. In the past two weeks, I've delivered two huge shopping bags full of stuff to Goodwill. Today's donation included a big stack of cookbooks I've either never opened, or use so rarely that they're not worth space on the shelf. But in the process of eliminating those cookbooks, I came across a few gems I had forgotten about!

One was Tyler's Ultimate, which has a hundred awesome recipes ... none of which I've ever made! So I picked a few out for this week, including Sesame Chicken Salad with Spinach and Cucumber. And to serve alongside it, Broccoli and Sesame Rice, a recipe I found in Real Simple magazine.

Sesame Chicken Salad with Spinach and Cucumber
Ingredients:
1/4 cup soy sauce
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 1/2 cups panko
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
4 cups spinach leaves
1 cucumber, sliced thinly
1 scallion, white and green part, sliced

Directions:
In a bowl, whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, ginger, sugar and red pepper flakes for the vinaigrette.

Toast 2 tablespoons of the sesame seeds in a small dry skillet until fragrant, a minute or two. Set aside.

Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Put a chicken breast on the cutting board and, holding a large knife parallel to the board, cut through the breast horizontally so that you have 2 thin fillets. Repeat with remaining breasts. Put the chicken on a platter, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette, and toss to coat. Set the rest of the vinaigrette aside. Let the chicken marinate for about 10 minutes.

Combine the panko and the remaining 1/4 cup sesame seeds in a shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper. Mix with your fingers so the seasoning is incorporated. Dredge the chicken in the crumbs, patting gently so the crumbs adhere.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Line a platter with paper towels. Add about half of the chicken to the pan and cook about 2 minutes on each side, until golden brown and crispy. Remove the chicken to the towel-lined platter to drain while you cook the remaining chicken.

Put the spinach in a bowl with the cucumber, scallion and a tablespoon of the toasted sesame seeds. Drizzle with vinaigrette and toss to coat. Plate with the chicken and sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds.

Broccoli Sesame Rice
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup long-grain white rice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups broccoli, finely chopped
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

Directions:
Bring water, rice and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover, turn heat to low, and allow to simmer for 12 minutes. Spinkle broccoli on top of rice, cover, and continue to cook 5 minutes more. Remove from heat and toss with scallions and sesame seeds. Serve.


All I can say is that Tyler can't miss. Everything he cooks on TV looks so amazing, and if this recipe is any indication, everything in this book is going to be amazing, too. My knife skills aren't stellar, so my chicken "fillets" were a bit uneven. This made getting the cooking time right a little tricky, and a couple of the breasts ended up a bit dry. But the good ones were crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside!

It's been hard to get back in the swing of things since returning from Vegas and we've been eating out way too often. So I promise that this week I'll be posting much more regularly because the restaurant visits have got to stop! I like my own cooking so much better :)