Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken Breast

I am still learning how to grocery shop. Shopping for one is the hardest thing ever; something I was planning on cooking tomorrow always goes bad yesterday. Most of the time when I look into the depths of my fridge to find a magical combination of ingredients that will allow me to make something edible other than packaged risotto (they do have good ones, by the way...I've just eaten way to much of it), I cave and end up not cooking at all.


But sometimes, the food gods look down upon you and you just happen to have all the ingredients just staring at you in the face, shouting "combine me into something delicious, please!!" Well, I just happened to have a chicken breast, some pesto, and some prosciutto lying around.

This recipe is so easy. There are only three ingredients involved, assuming you don't make your own pesto (I'm asking for a food processor for Christmas). And I swear it tasted better than it looks in this photograph...I have yet to master food photography..

That's the breast cut in half--you want the prosciutto to be slightly crispy on the outside, the chicken to be moist, and the pesto to ooze out of the center.

Take your boneless skinless chicken breast, and slice it sideways through the center, but not all the way through, so it's like an open book. Spoon some pesto into the crevice, a good amount but not too much that it all squeezes out when you close the chicken. Season the breast with salt and pepper and whatever other fresh herbs you like. Lay several pieces of prosciutto down vertically next to one another, so their sides are slightly overlapping. Lay the breast down on top of the prosciutto and wrap the prosciutto around the breast. The ends of the prosciutto should meet and seal around the chicken.

Heat some oil in a pan over medium head and place the breast in the pan, browning on each side, 3-4 min. Make sure to place the side with the prosciutto ends down first, so that it seals quickly. Ideally use a pan that is safe in the oven also--I dont have this so I just transferred the chicken to a baking pan lined with aluminum foil, making sure to keep some oil on the breast. Bake in an oven preheated to 375 degrees for 15-20 min or until chicken is cooked through. If you do have a temperature thermometer, the chicken should be 160 deg F in the middle.

Let set for a minute or two before cutting so the juices don't run out. This can be prepared many different ways, I just made it this way because it's what I had handy. A good alternative would be a Florentine version with a spinach and ricotta stuffing. Or you don't have to stuff the chicken at all. If I did it over again, I would either use less prosciutto or have it sliced thinner. For some reason the guy at the grocery store had no idea what I meant when I asked for prosciutto and then proceeded to slice it pretty thick. Several very thin slices will cook nicer than a few thicker ones.

I have a lot of posts to catch up on, including Billy's bakery in Chelsea and some yummy ramen in the Lower East Side. Soon!

Nosher

Providence Chocolates

Right before I came back to school my parents celebrated their 29th Wedding anniversary at Michael Cimarusti's two-star Michelin restaurant Providence. I've never been but my parents have and they rave about it--just a fantastic dining experience every time. They brought home a box of chocolates that were too beautiful not to share. My sister and I devoured them too fast for how pretty they were, but I managed to snap a few pictures first.

Even the box was beautiful:

And the 12 mini works of art:
The flavors were very unconventional and exciting. Some of my favorite chocolates are those with tea-infused ganache--flavors like jasmine, earl gray and darjeeling work so well with dark chocolate--but these pushed the boundaries a little bit more. My favorites were the chocolates that incorporated spices (we know this works from Mexican staples like molé), like the Dark Chocolate Baharat with cinnamon, pepper and chilies (bottom right corner) or the Milk Chocolate Coffee Urfa with Turkish urfa chili (bottom left corner). Some of the fruitier chocolates were interesting as well, even though they're not usually my preference--there was a Kalamansi (tropical lime) Mint White Chocolate (top row, second from left), and an Apricot Saffron White Chocolate (top left corner), both great combos.

I have to apologize for this post being merely mouthwatering eye-candy without any immediate satisfaction of being able to order it/going there to eat (Michelin star = $$$), but keep a look out for similar flavor combos next time you're fiending for chocolate.

NOSHER

Indulgences

Okay, I know this really fancy shmancy, especially for dorm life, but I can't get enough of truffle butter. It's not my fault! Blame my mom! But really, it's the best.

Today I cooked my eggs with truffle butter. I should probably be using it for more elaborate meals, but I went to Whole Foods yesterday and am still in that over-excited, fridge stuffed with lots of new goodies phase. I couldn't resist.


I bought small container yesterday manufactured by Wild Forest Farms and I like it a lot. They use white truffles and it cost $7, which for truffles seems like a bargain. It is certainly way cheaper than buying whole truffles, and when every bite is infused with truffle flavor, it doesn't seem to matter anyways. It's just so good. Wild Forest also sells a lot of other truffle based products on their website (linked above). Another kind that I have used in the past and is also widely available is D'Artagnan Black Truffle Butter, which also costs $7. If you use your butter wisely and sparingly, you can get a lot of use out of it and it will last quite a while--just dont forget to really indulge once and a while and spread it on your toast.

Nosher

Asian Sandwiches

You can take the girl out of Asia, but you can't take the Asia out of the girl. Only in New York City can you find such a plethora of foreign flavor combinations that are making the until recently lesser known street foods of Southeast Asia accessible to just about everyone.

Lately I've been on such a sandwich kick, and here are a few of my finds:

I stopped by Xie Xie (pronounced shuh shuh), last week to try my hand at this new trend. All the sandwiches looked great and I couldn't decide which one to get, so I asked the owner, Angelo Sosa, who was behind the counter making the sandwiches, which his favorite was. He guided me in the right direction with the shredded braised chicken sandwich with smoked egg salad, cilantro, and picked onions.

The chicken was slow cooked to perfection and retained a ton of its juices, so it naturally went well with the generous amount of pickled vegetables. I love it when a good sandwich contrasts both flavors and textures--the deep, rich flavor of slow cooked meat with the vibrant and sour crunch of picked vegetables.

My friend had the Vietnamese bbq beef sandwich with basil mayo and carrot kimchee. While tasty, it wasn't as rich in flavor as the chicken was; the beef was a little dry and the carrots weren't really kimchee-d at all, but the basil mayo was a nice touch.

I would love to go back and try the Asian Lobster roll with kewpie mayo and tarragon crispy shallots, but I was a little short on change the first time around. The sandwich I got was $8.50--a little pricey but in my opinion, worth it.

Sosa also stocks up on some unusual beers and will recommend some combinations for you. My boyfriend tried the Lighthouse Ale with the "100 year old" Ice Cream Sandwich--a thick block of vanilla ice cream surrounding black caramel in between two thin and chewy chocolate cookies. Yum.

Xie Xie
645 9th Ave at 45th St
New York, NY 10036


More recently, I went on a Banh Mi excursion with my friend Adam. He took me to Baoguette/Pho Sure on Christopher Street. While there seemed to be a lot of tasty and authentic options on the menu, many of which I had just had in Vietnam, my choice was easy--classic, please.I think I had a banh mi sandwich every day in Vietnam, yet it still hasn't deterred me from eating some more. All the ingredients and flavors were spot on, and it definitely had a kick to it--Adam had already warned me that "medium" spicy actually means really hot, so I went with the mild and it was still spicy, but not in an overwhelming way. And at $5, it was pretty cheap for the size--I couldn't finish. Definitely not the dollar I paid in Vietnam, but in NYC it's a great price. I did have one major qualm though--their ingredient distribution is way off! Distribution is key!! They stacked all the components of the sandwich horizontally in the roll instead of vertically, which meant that I could only ever get a bite with everything on it in the middle of the sandwich, and to get to the middle I would have to have two very uneven bites on the sides first--all picked vegetable/cilantro or all pork. Banh mi is really a revelation because of the combination of components in between the bread, and doesn't work as much for me when the ingredients are separated. For someone who takes sandwich making very seriously, this was a big no-no. But alas, if you're not so much of a stickler, I would say go for it anyways. It was still substantially satisfying at the end of the day. I will have to keep exploring, though.

Baoguette/Pho Sure
Various locations
NYC


Nosher

Highlights from SE Asia, or, Mostly Pork

Sorry for the delay, but moving into college yet again is quite time consuming. Although it's pretty nice to come back to a roomate heavily armed with fridge magnets for our daunting grocery lists and magazine clippings of impending bacon excursions. I already have a few blog posts lined up from the city.

But this must come first: a round up of the best of my food adventures from SE Asia. And for lack of imagination, in chronological order.

THIS was the first thing I ate upon arriving in Asia:GOOSE. With BBQ Pork hidden underneath there. I actually flew into Hong Kong, and a friend of mine from school took me to Yung Kee Restaurant in Central, which is apparently one of the most authentic and oldest dim sum restaurants in the city. It tasted a lot like Peking Duck, but was inexplicably better. The key is the crispy skin. MMMmmm.

Novelty is the tastiest; this was my first meal in Thailand: Josie and I stumbled upon a small place our first morning, and we lucked out. The lone woman working at the cafe couldnt cook both of our orders at once, so she cooked mine first, served me, and then went back to cook Josie's dish. True home cooking. This is fried rice with pineapple, pork, baby corn, onion, and bell peppers. A simple dish that tasted infinitely more authentic and delicious in its native environment.

The Sunday market in Chiang Mai had a wealth of amazing street food. My friend Liz got this roast pig's feet served over rice with a vinegar dressing poured on top-- The meat was so juicy and melted in your mouth. I got some fried quail eggs, miniature eggs cooked in this big circular pan with a dozen half circle inlets. They're served with pepper and soy sauce. Soy sauce is actually really good with eggs. Try it at home with regular eggs and eat with toast slathered with coconut jam. This is how they serve it at Street in LA.

There were so many choices at Quan An Ngon in Saigon that Josie and I had to go there twice. It's an established restaurant but all of the owner's favorite street vendors line rim of the seating area, preparing their one signature dish. My single favorite dish from here was the Nom Quan Ngon, or pork salad with cucumber and bean sprouts, with rice cakes and two different sauces (a fish/vinegar sauce and a chili sauce):

But the real street food was even better in Saigon. We ate at the market near our hotel every morning and other various markets elsewhere for most of our other meals, choosing our eats mainly by seeing something that looked appealing and then pointing. One staple, however, was Cafe Su Da--iced coffee with milk. Or in other words really fucking strong espresso with sinfully sweet condensed milk. It was the only way to survive in the heat.

After only eating soups, curries, and rice in Thailand and Cambodia (the equivalent of Thai food but less spicy; left out of this section because nothing honestly made the cut and paled in comparison to the Vietnamese food we had), Josie and I were seriously jonesing for bread. Good thing Vietnam has a history of French rule and awesome baguettes to match. The result? Banh Mi sandwiches...we had one every day were were in Vietnam. They. were. so. good. Perfectly crisp/soft combination baguette with pate, various cuts of pork, picked vegetables, cucumber, chilies, soy sauce, chili sauce, and most importantly cilantro used to the extent of lettuce. Genius combination. Luckily these are pretty trendy in NYC so I can get my Banh Mi fix (and of course post them here).

Another market favorite was Banh Xeo, a crispy egg pancake with minced pork and shrimp inside. A balanced breakfast!

And, to top it off, the perfect bowl of pho, eaten at an impromptu streetside cafe while watching thousands of motorbikes fly by. So many things in Vietnam are served with a huge basket of fresh herbs--basil, coriander, lemongrass to flavor the broths, different kinds of lettuce to wrap the spring rolls in, etc. It's the most genius concept ever and just reinforces how farm fresh (mostly) everything at the markets were. How is it that I got to eat the most delicious bowl of noodle soup with unlimited fresh herbs for the equivalent of a US dollar?

That's all for now.

Can't wait to get into it here in NYC. The food adventures have only just begun.

Love,

Nosher