Breakfast For Dinner

I've been saving the recipe for a long time. A good friend actually cut it out of a magazine and gave it to me with the idea that she thought it would be interesting to watch me make it on my television program.

I've made other versions of French Toast on my program, including my most frequently requested version of "Creme Brulee French Toast." Overnight guests at my house crave this for Sunday morning breakfast and I always oblige.

But making a dish that's normally sweet into a savory one can frequently present challenges. Yet this one was a bit easier, in that I thought of it more akin to "Croque Monsieur" than I did to French Toast. For those of you who may not know Croque Monsieur, it's basically a batter dipped and pan friend ham and cheese sandwich.

The difference with this dish was that there was no real batter -- just beaten eggs. But the approach to the "sandwich" part of the dish presented the greatest challenge. The recipe calls for ciabatta bread -- a crusty bread from the Veneto region of Italy, characterized by large air holes in the body of the bread. The recipe calls for creating a pocket in the bread, but that's not always so easy, especially with ciabatta.

If you were to use two slices of the bread and just lay the cheese between them, problem solved -- since ciabatta was the original bread of choice when panini sandwiches became all the rage.

The other difference is that this recipe is adapted from Cooking Light, so many of the ingredients were low-fat and I changed those to what you would normally use to make a non-dietetic dish.

I decided to take a different tach and use a roll made in the ciabatta style, but called a "torta roll." I found them at Costco. Because they are relatively thin, they became the perfect vehicle for this dish, since the cheese will melt easily.

Take a look for yourself in this week's video:

And here's the recipe:

1/4 cup apple cider

1 tsp cornstarch

6 tsp unsalted butter, divided use

2 Tbsp shallots, finely chopped

2 cups Macintosh apples, cut into small cubes

1/4 cup maple syrup

6 Ciabatta or Torta rolls

3 oz Gruyere or Swiss cheese slices

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/4 tsp salt

nutmeg and black pepper to taste

2 large eggs

3 Tbsp toasted and chopped pecan halves

Combine cider and cornstarch in a small bowl. Melt 2 tsp butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallots and cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add the cider-cornstarch mixture, apples and maple syrup, bring to a boil, stirring, then reduce heat to low and cook until apples begin to soften - about 3 minutes. Set aside.

Cut a pocket in the ciabatta or torta rolls and stuff a half slice of the cheese into each one.

Combine the buttermilk, whole milk, salt, nutmeg, pepper, and eggs in a shallow dish and whisk well.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Melt 2 tsp butter and begin addition egg-dipped ciabatta to the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side until lightly browned. Repeat until all of the rolls have been cooked.

Place one roll on a plate and top with the apple-maple syrup mixture and garnish with toasted pecans.

(Recipe adapted from Cooking Light)

Fragrant Cuisine - Easy Indian

If I ask most people around here if they like curry, the most common reaction is a wrinkled nose and a vigorous head shaking. That's because most of them have not had a properly-made curry. In Montana the number of people from South Asia is not that large and so good curries are few and far between.

I encountered the similar reactions among many of my personal chef clients, but convinced enough of them to try two of my dishes that I called "Two Introductions to Curry." One was a beef stew with mild curry spicing and the other was pan roasted pork chops with curry added to a peach sauce. Not only was I pleased with their reactions, I converted quite a few clients from those wrinkled nose expressions to regular requests to repeat the dishes in their bi-weekly orders.

Why do I bring this up since this week's recipe has nothing to do with curry? Only because this week's dish also falls into the category of Indian cuisine -- a cuisine noted for its use of curry, from very mild to very very hot.

Chicken Biryani is a simple stew that includes fragrant spicing so characteristic of Indian cuisine and that's one of the reasons I chose it. I just love the aromas in my kitchen while this dish cooks. It does have a little bit of a kick, since it includes dried chilies and some jalapeño. But, as in all of my recipes, you can feel free to add or subtract the heat. Just remember that once you add it -- you really can't subtract it.

Biryani is actually a word that comes from ancient Persian and it means "fried," which I find interesting because nothing except the garnish in this dish is fried (the shallots).

In any case, I urge you to try this dish, especially if you're unfamiliar with Indian cuisine. It's a good introductory dish. And remember you can control the heat level by adding or subtracting the chilies and jalapeños before you begin cooking.

Here's the video and the recipe:

1 cup Basmati rice 2 Tbsp canola oil 2 tsp coriander seeds 3 dried chili peppers (Chili de Arbol, if available) 1 1/2 Tbsp Kosher salt 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped 4 chicken thighs, skinless, bone in 4 chicken drumsticks, skinless, bone in 1 large yellow onion, chopped 1 2-inch piece of ginger root 1 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded, finely chopped 1/4 cup slice almonds, toasted (for garnish) fried shallots (for garnish) chopped cilantro (for garnish) Heat oven to 350. Put the rice in a bowl and cover with water and soak for 20 minutes, rinse and repeat. Drain then set aside. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the coriander seeds and crushed chilies and cook, stirring occasionally until fragrant, about a minute and a half. Add the salt, cinnamon, garlic, chicken pieces, onion, ginger and jalapeño and cook, stirring frequently until the onion softens, about another 6 minutes or so. Stir in the reserved rice and 1-1/14 cups of hot water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover the pot and transfer to the preheated oven. Cook until the rice is tender and the chicken is cooked through -- about 35 minutes. Transfer the pot to a rack and let it sit covered for at least 5 minutes. Uncover, fluff the rice with a fork and transfer to a serving planner, garnishing with toasted slivered almonds, fried shallots and chopped cilantro.