chicken cordon bleu

cordon bleu
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

It is not too hard to make your own cordon blue instead of buying the ready made, thickly breaded cordon bleues in the shop. These turned out rather fat, but they were very delicious. I used one chicken breast for each; I cut it open with a sharp knife, not cutting it all the way through. Hammer with a meat pounder (use some plastic foil to keep it clean) until more flat and season with salt and pepper on the inside. In each breast, put one slice of prociutto (I used katenspek) and one slice of cheese. I bought processed cheese, reminding me of the Kraft cheese we always bought in China. Speaking of China, I am going there for the next week and I expect to eat LOTS of great food. I take my laptop along, so come back regularly to check out what things I had to eat! By the way, fry those chicken breasts in oil until done, melted cheese, and eat with grilled potatoes and a green bean salad.

home made ravioli

196-9676_IMG
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Make a dough of 150 grams of pasta flour and 2 eggs, knead until a supple dough and let rest for half an hour. Meanwhile, make the filling: a cup of ricotta cheese, beaten with one egg yolk, pepper, nutmeg, grated lemon zest, soft goat's cheese, grated parmesan and grated old goat's cheese. Cook up a simple tomato sauce with one tin of plum tomatoes, a little sugar, some butter and one clove of garlic, let simmer for half an hour or so. Use a pasta machine to make sheets of pasta and fill with the cheeses filling. Fold and put on a board until ready for cooking. In simmering water, boil the home made ravioli for about 4 minutes until just done. Put in a warmed plate, add a little tomato sauce, some grated cheese and drops of (leftover) pesto. Lovely flavours: nothing beats the freshness of homemade pasta and filling, so subtle and delicious.

potstickers (guotie)

guotie by kattebelletje.

Making guotie (potstickers, gyoza) is a quite long affair! Made from scratch, they taste delightful. Prepare a dough from flour and water, roughly ration 2 to 1. Knead until supple and leave to rest for half an hour.

Meanwhile, prepare a filling with a food processor: mince fatty striped pork and a about 1cm of ginger until completely smooth. Put into a bowl and add water in which you have soaked shiitake dried mushrooms (the black Chinese mushroom you can buy in Chinese shops). Add water, soy sauce and rice wine; add salt to taste. Add sesame oil. Add chopped spring onion, chopped shiitake and, optional, some chopped cooked spinach. Also, add chopped Chinese cabbage, after squeezing all water out. Stir this filling until smooth.

Now shape the dough into small rounds with a wooden rolling pin and put your filling in the centre. Fold the dumpling in the typical half moon shape and leave on a bamboo jiaoziboard (or plate dusted with flour). For dumplings or jiaozi, cook in water; but for panstickers fry in oil in a pan, then add water, wait until all water has evaporated and fry intil crispy on the bottom and succulent in the centre. Enjoy with a hot sauce or just plain Chinese vinegar. See more photos on Flickr.