It’s a snap making quickie meals with thin pieces of meat; a recipe for Asian Pork Cutlets with Asparagus and Turkey Cutlets with Almond Sauce are favorites. Although the following recipe is a bit more involved – more along the lines of a piccata – chicken cutlets simply sautéed with leftover veggies also makes a good, impromptu meal.
Frying tomatoes and capers.
I’ve used the pre-packs of chicken cutlets in the past but the pieces seem irregular; half the chicken is paper thin and the other often the thickness of a smartphone – it’s impossible to cook the meat to perfection. It’s easy to slice a chicken breast through the center horizontally, especially if the meat is partially frozen, so why bother to buy the pre-packs anyway.
I selected Pine Manor young chicken from Whole Foods, which were juicy and tender; not as bland as other chicken breasts used in the past. Bell & Evans and Maverick Ranch are other favorite chicken brands I use.
Coat weather’s history and sweater season’s vanishing, but – sadly – my winter gut remains. So I’ve been upping my crunches, pounding the pavement, and hitting the gym on a more consistent basis, sharing dumbbells with folks in the same “banish the jiggle” mode as myself.
Using fresh grated nutmeg impacts the final flavor profile.
Literally. Cathy Banish, a good friend and fellow gym rat, and I have worked out together for years, but never discuss the subject of exercise. We figure we’re working out, why extend the agony by talking about it. Our ongoing thirty year conversation thread, which we pick up as naturally as one would a piece of chocolate, revolves around eating; and while sweating on stair masters or treadmills, we discuss this favorite subject.
Like twins who wear the same sized clothes and exchange wardrobe pieces, Cathy and I have identical palates, which is remarkable if you consider the average human has close to 10,000 taste buds. We’re also adventurous eaters, so the diversity of Ann Arbor’s groceries and restaurants is a mecca for us. If she raves about a restaurant or recipe, I know I will love it.
Don't allow your garlic to burn!
One thing we never discuss, however, are calories or fat grams. Why spoil the fun? So she surprised me with her inquiries into a low-fat Alfredo I’d made and blogged about 2 years ago. She wondered if it was worthy of her palate and a spin around the kitchen; could yogurt possibly replace heavy cream in an alfredo recipe?
Yes and no. Nothing can replace the unctuous, salivating flavors of copious amounts of butter and heavy cream piqued by a pedigreed Reggiano. (The word bears repeating: nothing.) But if you’re trying to trim the sails, the following recipe merits attention. The sauce is not some factory-produced, fat-free “creamy and flavorful” goo. It has enough natural fat and flavor so your body chemistry won’t go into denial, sending you scurrying to the freezer to grab Ben & Jerry’s “Chunky Monkey”, after crashing from your synthetic high.
After my conversation with Cathy at the gym, memories of that yogurt Alfredo haunted so I made it again. This time, however, I dressed it up with the addition of chicken and I substituted broccoli for the peas. I ran into Cathy a couple of days later and she, too, had made the recipe adding shrimp and keeping the peas; she was surprised she enjoyed the dish so much and plans to keep it in her recipe repetoire.
DiSpirito’s recipe serves 4; but after an hour-plus workout, Richard and I polished off the dish without pause. And here lies the conundrum; there is nothing quite like the ravenous hunger felt after a heart pounding routine.
Incidentally, Cathy and I aren’t the only people who discuss food over reps. I’m regularly inspired while eavesdropping on recipe exchanges between friends as they sweat. I surmise we’re all in this together, earning the right to enjoy, and not fret, over the next meal.
Select the center cut of cod fillets; 1 1/2 inches thick.
Between the recipes that Achla Karmani shared at her Northern Indian Cooking Class, such as Chicken Biryani, and Sid Sharma, a reader who generously shares favorite recipes from his mother country, such as his Curried Striped Bass, I’m amassing quite a array of authentic Indian recipes that are relatively easy to reproduce in your own home kitchen.
Aromatic sauce of stock, coconut milk, ginger, garlic and cilantro for poaching cod.
The following recipe was sent to me from Sid, who explained the dish comes together quickly and is delicious. Sid was right; the slow simmer of thick cod fillets in a bath of curry, coconut milk and aromatics was sublime.
The original recipe was penned Alaska Cod Saag Curry, saag being a catch-all for describing a green-leafed dish in Indian and Pakistani cuisine. Make sure you cook up a pot of rice to soak up the sauce.
I eliminated the heavy cream from the original recipe, and used whole milk coconut milk instead of lite. As well, I reduced the sauce longer, to insure it was thick enough, and didn’t find the sauce needed more than 5 ounces of spinach. Finally request a thick cut piece of cod.
Food writer by trade, curious cook by design.
The past 30 years have witnessed a raucous race from my professional to
home kitchen - persnickety customers, petulant children and piles of dirty dishes
lie in my wake. A scary ride, indeed, but I survived. And the dinnerFeeds - well - they
are my story. Welcome to my site! More about Peggy and this site...
Taste buds prickle; wanderlust triggered. An Argentine barbecue (asado)
enticed me to Patagonia. A friend gave me a vial of ground sumac berries--4 months later I was
waking at dawn to the "Call To Prayer" in Turkey. Porcini to Tuscany, and so on. Read more about my chronicles of
trips and favorite associated recipes. Browse my travel recipes...
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