[Recipe] [Blue Apron] Matzoh-Crusted Chicken with Orange, Fennel and Golden Beet Salad

Restaurants are bad.  There, I said it.

I don't mean they're bad as in, they don't serve delicious food.  I mean they're bad as in, the portions are gigantic and everything is smothered in butter and cream and deep fried.  It's so delicious, but it's also incredibly easy to gain weight, even if you keep otherwise relatively healthy habits.

As you've probably surmised, I love to cook, but I generally cook for one (except when I'm throwing a dinner party), and my worklife keeps me so busy that it's often difficult to go shopping for groceries.  Plus, there's the part where I live in NYC, making it much more difficult to shop for groceries alone—I just can't carry that many bags back with me from the store.  Never have I missed suburbia more.

Enter, "meals by mail," programs/packages that aim to make cooking as easy as, well, checking your mail.  For a fee, they deliver the precise amount of groceries you need to make a set number of meals for one or two people (or a family of four, if that's what you are) directly to your door.  The Blue Apron kit comes with beautifully photographed step-by-step instructions.

I had my first shipment this weekend and am already so excited about my refrigerator full of home-cooked meals, which I'll be bringing to work for lunch and/or dinner all week.  I'll be posting a few recipes from the program as I go, as well as pictures of some of the other meals (without recipes).  Check out this link to see which of these services is right for you-- and let me know your thoughts!

Matzoh-Crusted Chicken with Orange, Fennel and Golden Beet Salad

A recipe by Blue Apron

I decided to post this recipe, out of the three that I received this week, because I'm so enamored of this salad.

Ingredients

2 chicken breast cutlets, pounded

1/2 cup matzoh meal (if you don't have matzoh meal, panko bread crumbs will suffice)

1 fennel bulb

1 golden beet

1 red onion

1 navel orange

1 bunch parsley

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

water
2 to 3 tablespoons canola oil

1 to 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt

pepper

Directions

1.  Prepare the produce.  Wash and dry all the fresh produce.  Peel and thinly slice the onion.  Peel the beet and cut it in half lengthwise; very thinly slice the halves.  Cut off and discard any fennel stems and fronds (that is, the green, thread-like tops of the plant).  Halve the fennel bulb lengthwise; remove and discard the core.  Thinly slice the fennel bulb.  Pick the parsley leaves off the stems; discard the stems.  Cut off and discard the peel and pith of the orange; medium dice the orange.

2.  Pickle the onion.  In a medium pan (non-stick, preferably), combine the sugar, vinegar, onion and 1/4 cup of water, and season with salt and pepper.  Heat to boiling on medium-high heat.  Once boiling, cook 1 to 2 minutes, or until the liquid is slightly reduced in volume.  Transfer the onions and pickling liquid to a heatproof bowl and set aside.  Carefully rinse and dry the pan.

3.  Coat the chicken.  In a large bowl, combine the mustard and 3 tablespoons of water.  Pat the chicken breast cutlets dry with paper towels; season with salt and pepper on both sides.  Place the matzoh meal in a bowl.  Working one at a time, coat the seasoned chicken cutlets in the mustard-water mixture (letting the excess drip off), then the matzoh meal (tapping off any excess).  Transfer the coated chicken cutlets to a plate.

4.  Cook the chicken.  In the same pan used to pickle the onion, heat a thin layer of canola oil on medium-high until hot.  Add the coated chicken cutlets and cook 3 to 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and cooked through.  Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.

5.  Make the salad.  Reserving 1 tablespoon of the pickling liquid, drain the pickled onion.  In a large bowl, combine the orange, fennel, beet and drained pickled onion.  Add the reserved pickling liquid; drizzle with olive oil and toss to coat.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Here's the final product of the other recipe I liked in this batch: 

Korean Beef Dukbokki with Quick Kimchi and Fresh Peas

Dukbokki is a Korean cylindrical rice cake.  We Taiwanese have a rice cake as well—ours is flat, but I think, for these purposes, the cylindrical rice cake really kicks butt, as they're easier to saute in shallow oil for a crunchy exterior and soft interior that is seriously addictive.

One part of this recipe is especially worth repeating/posting: the "quick kimchi" was truly tasty and took very little time.  I'm not able to eat super spicy foods, so I don't usually love kimchi, but this was incredibly refreshing.

Ingredients
1/2 pound Napa cabbage
1 clove garlic
1-2-inch piece of ginger
(up to) 2 teaspoons gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)
extra virgin olive oil

Directions
1.  Wash and dry the fresh produce.  Peel and mince the garlic and ginger.  Cut out and discard the core of the cabbage; thinly slice the leaves.
2.  In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, the garlic, the ginger, and as much gochugaru as you like, depending on how spicy you'd like the dish to be.  Stir in a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt to taste.  Set aside and let marinate, tossing occasionally, for at least ten minutes.

[Party] Game of Thrones Appetizer Party

It is that time of year again, friends.  Winter is coming.

Given that it's April, that phrase doesn't make much sense to anyone who doesn't watch Game of Thrones, which returned Sunday night for its fifth season.  Naturally, I held a Game of Throne Premiere Party and got sort of carried away... 

Yes, that is a picture of the official Game of Thrones cookbook, and yes, I did print out special Game of Thrones invitations.

The guest list was a lot larger than my typical dinner party, and there was no way I could cook dinner for everyone, so I went with a themed appetizer party instead, on the theory that I could make as many appetizers as possible, that my guests could each bring an appetizer or a bottle of wine, and, barring all else, we could order out to supplement.  I had a lot of fun sifting through the cookbook and cooking up a storm, then labeling everything.  And my guests seemed impressed (by the spread and the premiere episode).

Out of respect to the authors of the cookbook, I will only be posting a few select recipes they have already chosen to include on their website—they will come as standalone posts and eventually be linked to this one.

Sweetcorn Fritters (served in King's Landing)

Truth be told, I could eat sweet corn, straight, just by itself, and I totally have.  Add butter, and I'm happy as a clam.  This recipe is exclusive to the cookbook, but I highly recommend searching online for something similar—it's a mixture of cornmeal, flour, milk, and corn (and other ingredients . . . ), and it's super tasty finger food.  Perfect for any party.

Jerk "Dragon" Wings (Targaryen) - " . . . because the dragons are jerks."
Recipe in This Post

There's a bit of a story here, namely that quite a few of my friends are obsessed with jerk chicken.  Naturally, I accepted the challenge of making jerk "dragon" wings.  This warrants its own standalone post (a sad tale of caution will be involved), but suffice it to say the challenge was met.

Honeyed Chicken (served in Winterfell)

This recipe is available online at The Inn at the Crossroads, so I will blog about this in the future.  It's meant to be a whole roast chicken, but I flipped them to chicken wings for easy finger food.

Mini Cupcake-Tin Pork Pies (served at The Wall)

Though some have forgotten him, there was once a character named "Hot Pie" (friends with Arya and Gendry) and I am sure he made pork pies.  This is a cute take on his name (in addition to food that Jon Snow *swoons* eats). 

Apple Cakes (served at The Wall)

This recipe is available online at The Inn at the Crossroads.  I chose to use the "medieval" version-- the best way to describe is that they are giant apple fritters but much less sweet than we're used to in modern times.  They were super cute (although I think I accidentally made them twice as big as I should have), but my modern palate wasn't quite used to the lack of sugar.

Lemon Cakes (served at King's Landing) (Sansa's Favorite)

This recipe is available online at The Inn at the Crossroads, and I will definitely blog about this in the future.  This is the modern version, and it stayed moist and delicious for days afterwards.  Cake fit for a would-be queen, indeed.