Brie, Prosciutto, and Fig Jam Panini

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that I'm training to run a half marathon. The race is now a week from tomorrow, and I'm completely freaking out, but that's not the point. A few weeks ago, Jen Clementine and I went up north to do a long run in cooler temperatures. We were ready to rock out 12 miles, and I figured the change in altitude (I think it's around 5,000 feet) would be balanced out by the cooler temperatures. I was wrong. The altitude kicked our asses, and it really wasn't that much cooler than when we do our early morning runs here. Lame. We left feeling pretty defeated. We had planned on eating lunch up there before heading back, but when we gave up it wasn't really lunch time. We figured we'd eat somewhere in Phoenix before heading home. Clementine suggested Postino Winecafe which was fine with me because I'd wanted to try it for a long time.

We got there and were overwhelmed with tasty options. First overwhelming thing: all wines are $5 a glass from 11 to 5 every day. Once we got our wine choices figured out, we had to tackle the menu. Bruschetta...panini...salads...desserts...oh my. We ended up sharing one of the bruschetta boards and splitting a sandwich. I loved Postino so much that I decided the husband and I needed to eat there the following weekend when we were doing a staycation at a local resort. He and I shared the same combination of food but with different bruschetta flavors (I guess toppings would be a better choice of word) and a different sandwich. The sandwich we went with was the Prosciutto with Brie--Prosciutto with triple cream brie, fig jam and arugula
with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Holy moly. The husband is a huge fan of figs, so it was an easy sell. I knew after eating it I needed to recreate it. Clementine had recreated it before, so I read what she had done and kind of went from there. I don't have exact measurements of what I used, so you'll have to wing it a bit if you decide to make this.

Brie, Prosciutto, and Fig Jam Panini
Source: adapted from Postino Winecafe

2 cups arugula
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Juice from one half a lemon
1 loaf ciabatta bread
Fig jam/preserves
Prosciutto
Brie

In a medium bowl, toss arugula with drizzles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and juice from half a lemon. Set aside.

Split ciabatta loaf into two halves then slice each half horizontally (or use ciabatta rolls). Spread fig jam on inside halves of the bread. Top with prosciutto, arugula, and brie. Place top half of bread onto sandwich. Grill on a panini press until cheese is melted.

*****

I think I had a three ounce package of prosciutto and used the whole thing between the two sandwiches. This was super tasty. The salty prosciutto, the sweet figs, the creamy brie...oh my goodness! It's pretty rare that we have fig jam, and it's not cheap when we do have it, so I doubt this is something we'll have very often (unless we go to Postino), but oh man, was it ever tasty!!

Creamy Chicken Dijon

I know I've mentioned before my great aunt who is (well, was as she passed away a few years ago) a James Beard award winner for a cookbook she authored. One of the cookbooks she wrote was a low carb slow cooker one. My mom had a copy and gave it to me the last time I did Phase One of the South Beach Diet. I hadn't used it, then when I was meal planning for this past week I got it out to see what was in it. I had originally slated this for Wednesday night because I knew we'd be getting home late, but then plans ended up changing, so I didn't make it. I had meant to make it for Saturday night then but forgot. So it then became our Sunday night dinner.

Creamy Chicken Dijon
Source: Low-Carb Slow & Easy by Frances Towner Giedt

2 large leeks, white part and 1 inch pale green
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp crushed dried tarragon
1-1/2 ounces prosciutto, cut into 1-inch wide strips
1/2 cup white Burgundy wine or low-sodium canned chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream

Cut the trimmed leeks in half lengthwise and wash well. Thinly slice on the diagonal. Place the leeks in the bottom of a 5-quart or larger crockery slow cooker.

Rinse the chicken; discard any fat. Pat dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper. In a small dish, combine the Dijon mustard and tarragon. Spread on the chicken pieces and wrap strips of the prosciutto around each piece. Place the chicken on top of the leeks. Pour the wine over the chicken.

Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or on high for 2.5-3 hours. Transfer the chicken to a heated serving platter. If cooking on low, increase the temperature setting to high. Whisk the cream into the pan juices and cook, uncovered, until sauce is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Spoon the sauce over the chicken. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Info (per serving):
222 calories, 12 grams fat, 24 grams protein, 5 grams carbohydrates

*****

The store where I did the bulk of my grocery shopping last week didn't have leeks. I tried another store. They only had organic leeks, which I was okay with, except that they all looked horrible. You know how if you leave green onions in your fridge too long they get kind of slimy and stick together? That's about what these leeks looked like. I wasn't paying good money for bad leeks. So I skipped that part of the recipe. And I couldn't find any tarragon in my pantry, so I used Italian seasoning instead. I also used all chicken breasts because I didn't have any chicken thighs on hand. And since wine isn't allowed in Phase One, I used chicken broth instead of a white Burgundy wine. And half and half instead of cream. So really I kept very little of the original recipe intact.

We were all kind of ho-hum about this. My sauce didn't really turn out, and the chicken really needed some sauce. My kids resorted to dipping theirs in ketchup. I have some ketchup issues, but if it got them to eat...fine. And they both did eat all the chicken that was on their plates. Whenever I cook chicken in the crockpot, it's so dried out when we eat it. That's my only real complaint. And the dijon mustard didn't provide a whole lot of flavor like I thought it would. I think this dish done in the oven instead of the crcokpot would turn out a lot better.

Sadly, it's probably not something I'd make again. Also sadly, my memory card wasn't in my camera, so I didn't get a picture of it.

Prosciutto and Gruyere Strombolis

I get a daily email from MyRecipes.com with a featured recipe of the day. Sometimes they look great and then find their way into my Recipes folder in Outlook, other times they meet the sad fate of the Deleted Items folder. When this one showed up one morning I had a sudden flashback because I had made these years and years ago. In fact, when I first made this may have been one of the first times I'd ever used prosciutto. I don't remember when it was exactly, but it was two houses ago, so it was some time between February 2003 and September 2005. It was a Cooking Light recipe, and how I forgot about it, I'm not sure. It's really yummy and really easy, which, as you know, is a combination I love!!

Prosciutto and Gruyere Strombolis

1 (11-ounce) can refrigerated French bread dough
2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto
1 cup trimmed arugula
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Gruyère cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 425°.

Unroll dough onto a baking sheet; pat into a 14 x 11-inch rectangle. Cut dough into quarters to form 4 (7 x 5 1/2-inch) rectangles. Top each rectangle with 1/2 ounce prosciutto, 1/4 cup arugula, 2 tablespoons cheese, and 1 tablespoon parsley. Beginning at short side of each rectangle, roll up the dough, jelly-roll fashion; pinch seam to seal (do not seal ends of rolls). Arrange rolls 4 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 10 minutes or until rolls are lightly browned. Serve warm.

CALORIES 275 (28% from fat); FAT 8.5g (sat 4.4g,mono 2.1g,poly 0.5g); IRON 2.3mg; CHOLESTEROL 24mg; CALCIUM 158mg; CARBOHYDRATE 34.4g; SODIUM 754mg; PROTEIN 14g; FIBER 1.5g

*****

So according to the website, this was published in Cooking Light's August 2004 issue. One of the reasons I slated this dinner (whenever it was we had it weeks ago) was because I had arugula in the fridge, but by the time I made them the arugula had seen better days. I skipped that part of it and just had prosciutto and gruyere inside them. This was a huge hit with everyone. The boy was strangely excited for this dinner when I told him what we were having. Now that I've remembered this recipe it's something we'll have again for sure. Yum!

sadly I did not take a picture. :(

Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken with Green Beans

I've been down with strep throat most of this week. I had figured I'd update my blogs while stuck in bed, but I did something like 10 entries for my family blog and was all blogged out after that. Plus every time I'd think of it I'd realize most of the recipes I'd made weren't online and the actual recipes were downstairs which would require me leaving my sickbed. Hopefully over the weekend I can get caught up on everything.

We had this a week or so ago, and I honestly wasn't sure what my family members would think. I generally assume prosciutto-wrapped anything is going to be awesome, but everyone else in my house doesn't share my affinity for olives. Their loss I guess. It's a recipe from America's Test Kitchen 30-Minute Suppers Summer 2010. Honestly I'm not sure how I never noticed it before because I've looked through this magazine hundreds of times.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken with Green Beans
From America's Test Kitchen 30-Minute Suppers Summer 2010

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup pitted mixed olives
1/4 cup lightly packed sage leaves
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
8 thin slices prosciutto
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1 pound green beans, stem ends trimmed
1/4 cup water

Adjust oven rack to upper middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Process butter, olives, and sage in food processor until smooth.

Pat chicken dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Spread butter mixture on 1 side of each chicken breast. Working with 1 breast at a time, slightly overlap 2 slices of prosciutto on work surface. Lay chicken, butter side down, in center of slices, then fold prosciutto over chicken. Repeat with remaining prosciutto and chicken.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add chicken, seam side down, and cook until well browned, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to baking sheet and bake until chicken registers 160 degrees, about 8 minutes. Transfer to platter and tent with foil.

Reduce heat to medium. Add garlic to skillet and cook until lightly browned, 1-2 minutes. Add green beans and toss to coat thoroughly. Add water, cover, and cook until bright green and tender, 8-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve chicken with green beans.

*****

I didn't change anything with the chicken and used a mix of green and kalamata olives. I went to the olive bar at my grocery store and picked out a few olives of two different kinds. I've used the green olives before in muffuletta sandwiches and knew they were quite yummy because they're marinated in olive oil and garlic. Yum! I used frozen green beans because it was what I had. I was feeling lazy and didn't want to slice garlic, so instead I just threw some dried garlic in the pan.

This chicken was AMAZING. I took one bite and was in l-o-v-e!! Yes, I feel like I'm 13 writing this but I don't care. It was so fantastically good. We all loved it. The husband and I both devoured ours. Just thinking about it makes me salivate some. The salty olives, the slightly crisped prosciutto...lordy mama. This will definitely go into high dinner rotation or as often as I rotate dinners anyway!

Sorry the picture isn't better...I couldn't find my good camera. I didn't know which was "better," the picture that looked orange or the one with the glaring flash. Sigh.

Chicken Suitcases Perugina

I feel like I'm getting sick. I really, really, really hope that isn't the case, but I'm feeling worse as the day progresses which is not a good sign. :( I'm trying to take it easy and drink a lot of water in the hopes that I can ward off whatever is trying to infect me.

Anyway, this was a contender for dinner on Friday night, but I forgot to get chicken out in time. I have some prosciutto left that I don't want to go to waste, so I want to use it sooner than later so I don't forget about it and end up having to throw it out. There was a similar recipe that sounded good, but it calls for white wine, and well, we drank all the white wine in our house last night. So by process of elimination, this is what we're going to have.


Chicken Suitcases Perugina
Recipe #102359

8 (3 ounce) boneless skinless chicken breasts, thinned
8 slices prosciutto (very thin slices)
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, cut into 8 slices
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup marsala wine or chicken broth
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons minced parsley

Pound chicken between plastic wrap to thin (about 1/8 inch thick). Top each piece of chicken with a slice of prosciutto and a piece of cheese. Fold the chicken over to completely enclose the prosciutto and cheese and secure with toothpicks. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken packages in flour. Heat butter and oil in a large skillet and brown chicken packages on both sides until golden. Transfer chicken to a plate. Add the Marsala or broth to the skillet and stir to release the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add lemon juice and parsley. Increase heat and cook sauce for 1 minute until slightly thickened. Remove toothpicks from chicken and return to skillet and heat through.

*****

I have monterey jack cheese, not mozzarella, but I think that will be fine. I bought some mushroom risotto at Trader Joe's that we're going to have as a side and probably some green beans as our vegetable. My frozen vegetable supply is running low, but I've waaaaaay overspent on my groceries recently, so I'm trying to avoid a trip to the store and base my meal plan for the coming week on what we have here.

*****

Wow, wow, wow! These were fantastic!!! The husband's friend Matt ended up eating dinner with us, and we all loved it! The chicken breasts I had were huge and took forever to defrost, so I was in a hurry to get them assembled and forgot to salt and pepper them. Instead I mixed it in with the flour. Really I think you could skip the salt. I minced up a few garlic cloves and threw them in the pan after the butter had melted. I tell you--there are few things that smell better than garlic being sauteed in butter/olive oil. Since my pieces of chicken were so insanely huge I covered the pan to speed up the cooking time. Oh, and toothpicks or something to hold the chicken together are a MUST. I was being cocky and didn't think I'd need them, but when I went to turn the chicken, they started to unroll. I looked all over my kitchen for some toothpicks or bamboo skewers--something that would hold them together. All I could find was kitchen twine, which worked well enough. I would definitely make these again--they were fantastic!!

Paninis

I still have some goat cheese left from my Costco purchase awhile back, and I want to be using it up. Awhile back we had some really good goat cheese and red pepper relish paninis, so I put those on the menu plan for tonight, but then I remembered I have some prosciutto in the fridge that needs to be used up, so I think I'm going to do prosciutto, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and basil paninis on ciabbata rolls. Not sure on the side dish yet...I haven't thought that far ahead yet. I still have some broccoli that needs to be used, so I'll probably steam some of that.

By the way, the red pepper relish in that other recipe DOES NOT freeze well. I had quite a bit left and stuck it in the freezer so it wouldn't go to waste. Yeah...it was pretty watered down and gross when I defrosted it. I'm just going to roast the peppers this time and put them on the sandwiches whole, skip the relish step.



These were super yummy!! I was kind of worried it was going to be too many flavors together, but it totally worked! I love paninis, and I love all the ingredients that went into this. I forgot to take a picture of my sandwich after it was done, so I took a picture of the husband's before it went in the panini press.

Pizza

The boy wasn't napping yesterday, so I had to cut my updating short so I could actually get some stuff done while he was contained in his room. It was nice to have a clean house for awhile--of course this morning when I got up it was a disaster already. I think elves or some other small mythical creatures must sneak into my house in the middle of the night after I've cleaned and make a mess again. Oh wait--or maybe it's the husband and my almost three year old son. That's probably a more likely scenario.

Anyway, we had pizza last night. it was yummy. I had bought proscuitto at Trader Joe's a couple weeks ago and remembered a pizza I'd made with proscuitto awhile ago, so I made one of those and a plain cheese. I think the baby is going through a growth spurt because he wanted to eat every hour yesterday evening, so the husband and I ended up eating dinner after the boy went to bed because there was no way the pizza was going to be ready in time for us to all eat together. Here are the recipes for the crust I made and the proscuitto pizza.

Quick Homemade Pizza Crust
1 package of active dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups of flour
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon of Italian Seasoning (optional)
1 Tablespoon of garlic powder (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 450. In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy (about 10 minutes).
2. Stir in flour, salt, & olive oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes.
3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan dusted with corn meal. Spread evenly with sauce. Cover with toppings in an even layer.
5. Bake 15-20 min. Let cool 5 minutes. Cut and serve!


Mushroom-Prosciutto Pizza
Cooking spray
8 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 (10-ounce) Italian cheese-flavored thin pizza crust (such as Boboli)
2 ounces prosciutto, cut into thin strips
1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) shredded fontina cheese

Preheat oven to 450°.
Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add mushrooms and shallots to pan; sauté 7 minutes or until mushrooms are tender. Add garlic and thyme; sauté 1 minute. Stir in vinegar; remove from heat.

Place crust on the bottom rack of oven. Bake at 450° for 4 minutes.

Place the crust on a baking sheet. Spread mushroom mixture evenly over crust; sprinkle evenly with prosciutto and fontina cheese. Bake at 450° for 6 minutes or until cheese melts.

*****

Obviously I changed up the proscuitto one since I made my own crust. I also didn't have sherry vinegar, so I used red wine vinegar instead. I also couldn't find fontina cheese at the store I was at, so I got some smoked gouda instead. I don't like all smoked cheese on a pizza, so I did a layer of that and then regular old mozzarella (well, not old mozzarella because that would be gross, but you know what I meant). And I baked for the time in the dough recipe.

This pizza is FANTASTIC. I had kind of forgotten about it until I bought the proscuitto, and I was so glad I remembered it. The flavors in it are so good together. This is one I need to make more often because the husband and I both really like it. We had planned on grilling them, but we're low on propane, so we just did them in the oven instead. There are a few pieces left which I can't wait to have for lunch!!

Grilled Pizzas

I can't remember if I had shared that this past week was hard because we moved the boy into a big boy bed instead of a crib. He go tup earlier, took shorter naps...ugh. Friday afternoon the poor kid fell out of bed. :( We had a rail on there, so I don't know what happened. The husband secured it more once he got home, so hopefully we don't have any more mishaps like that. He was okay, just scared, and he only napped for an hour. Yuck. So, I didn't have my usual computer time to update the ol' cooking blog. Today has been a busy day with a birthday party this morning and then swimming and dinner at a friend's house. The husband went out with a friend, the boy is in bed, so I'm getting in some computer time.

Someone left me a comment about doing a BBQ chicken pizza, but unfortunately it was after we had done pizzas. We HEART BBQ chicken pizza in this house, and we haven't had it in a long time. Definitely one we'll be doing again soon. Thanks for the suggestion!!

I asked the husband for topping ideas, and he remembered this amazing, awesome, super duper cheesy pizza we used to get back when we were DINKS (dual income, no kids). Actually, I think it was before we were married. Actually, I think it was when we first met! Anyway, they had this Four Cheese Formaggio (yes, I realize saying cheese and formaggio is redundant, but it wasn't my pizza name!) that was fantastic. Soooo much cheese, and if you've been reading this awhile, you know we love our cheese in this house! So the husband suggested we do our own version of that. I checked the restaurant's website, and it was actually five cheeses...I assume they don't count the mozzarella. Provolone, Swiss, Cheddar, and Monterey Jack (and mozzarella). I wasn't able to find Provolone to shred, so I skipped it. I mixed all the cheeses together in a bowl, finely chopped some fresh oregano (my new favorite herb!!) and fresh basil, and that was that. Oh, and we are no frills kind of folks and just used some Ragu for the sauce. It was pretty good...definitely cheesy. Not as good as the restaurant, but how can anything with four cheeses on it be bad?!

For the other pizza I checked the Cooking Light website. Y'all know I heart Cooking Light! They've never led me astray before. That's probably not true. Anyway, I saw this recipe and thought it sounded really good and it was something new and different:

Mushroom-Prosciutto Pizza
Cooking spray
8 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms
1/4 cup finely chopped shallots
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
1 (10-ounce) Italian cheese-flavored thin pizza crust (such as Boboli)
2 ounces prosciutto, cut into thin strips
1/3 cup (about 1 1/2 ounces) shredded fontina cheese

Preheat oven to 450°.
Heat a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add mushrooms and shallots to pan; sauté 7 minutes or until mushrooms are tender. Add garlic and thyme; sauté 1 minute. Stir in vinegar; remove from heat.

Place crust on the bottom rack of oven. Bake at 450° for 4 minutes.

Place the crust on a baking sheet. Spread mushroom mixture evenly over crust; sprinkle evenly with prosciutto and fontina cheese. Bake at 450° for 6 minutes or until cheese melts.

*****

Obviously I modified it some since I wasn't using the oven. And I didn't have some of the ingredients, so ours was really a loose adaptation of this recipe. I sauted cremini mushrooms (which were on manager's special when I went to the store because the "use by" date was yesterday!!) with some garlic and some dried thyme. Then, because I didn't have sherry vinegar, I added in a few teaspoons of red wine vinegar. We put that down on the crust of the pizza, then topped it with prosciutto I had sliced up, then put down some of our four cheese blend. Oh man, it was tasty!! I don't know which was my favorite pizza. I honestly think it was this one. The four cheese one needed some tweaking with the sauce for it to have been better I think.

BTW, I recently did a grilled pizza tutorial for a message board I belong to. If you'd be interested in me posting it on here, leave me a comment and let me know. It's complete with pictures and everything!!

Prosciutto Ravioli

So, I thought I was being really creative with my dinner tonight. I had some prosciutto in the fridge and saw wonton wrappers on sale at the store last week, so I thought, "Cool, I'll use the wonton wrappers and make my own raviolis with prosciutto and some ricotta." Then I was reading through a Giada De Laurentis cookbook (Everyday Pasta) and saw a recipe for prosciutto raviolis using wonton wrappers. I was so bummed...I thought I'd had this great original idea, but really it was something I just tucked away in the back of my head. Lame! Oh well. Here's the recipe:

Prosciutto Ravioli
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped
2 large egg yolks
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
48 wonton wrappers
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
Freshly grated pecorino

Whisk the ricotta, spinach, prosciutto, egg yolks, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl to blend.

Place 1 tablespoon of the ricotta filling in the center of a wonton wrapper. Brush the edge of the wrapper lightly with water. Fold the wrapper in half, enclosing the filling completely and forming a triangle. Pinch the edges to seal. Transfer the ravioli to baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining filling and wrappers. (Can be prepared up to 2 hours ahead; cover and refrigerate.)

Melt the butter in a heavy small skillet over medium heat. Add the oregano and stir 1 minute. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.
Working in batches, cook the ravioli in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes per batch. Transfer the ravioli to a large shallow bowl.

Pour the oregano butter over the ravioli and toss gently to coat. Sprinkle the pecorino over the ravioli and serve.

*****

I'm using lowfat ricotta and some Egg Beaters instead of egg yolks. I also only have half a package of spinach, and I have parmesan not pecorino. This is my first attempt making something like this, so we'll see how it turns out!