Italian-Asian Fusion

Seriously? Italian and Asian? Well, sort of. If you count the egg roll wrappers sold in the produce section of your supermarket as an Asian ingredient, then yes.

But technically, it's pasta. Shall we recount the Marco Polo legend about bringing pasta from China to Italy? Nah - this is a cooking blog.

Anyway, I did this recipe once before on TV and called it "Italian Chicken Bundles." With all of the changes in television technology, I needed a high definition version of the dish and in the process renamed the bundles "purses."

Perhaps I should have led with this: This recipe is one of my all-time favorites. When I was in the personal chef business, my clients loved this dish. It's designed to be an appetizer or first course, but most of the people who've tried my recipe report back that they made a dinner out of them.

Here's a picture of what it looks like. I think you'll see that, based on appearances alone, it's a beautiful dish. Tasting the filling will confirm it.

Your muffin tin is the perfect vessel to make the "purses." While the egg roll wrappers may seem to be sturdy pieces of pasta, they actually tear quite easily, so it's important to be gentle while pushing the wrapper into the muffin cup. Try to center it so that when you go to close it, the ends of the wrapper come together uniformly. It will make for a good looking bundle or purse after it finishes baking.

The ingredients in the filling are fairly mild, especially with the ricotta cheese and chicken. So I jazzed up the dish by placing the purse in a pool of spicy marinara. If spicy isn't your thing, then a regular tomato sauce or pasta sauce will do.

Here's the video followed by the recipe:

1 1/2 cups chicken breasts, cooked and cubed (bite sized)
3 large green onions, sliced thin
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium to large garlic clove, minced
2/3 cup gated Parmesan cheese
2 spinach bunches, washed, stemmed, steamed and minced
8 ounces Ricotta cheese
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons butter
12 egg roll wrappers

Marinara sauce for serving

 

Preheat the oven to 350.

Cook chicken and green onions in the oil over medium-high heat until chicken is lightly browned and onions are soft. Add garlic and cook one minute longer.Let cool slightly then combine 1/2 of the Parmesan with the spinach, ricotta, oregano and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper.
 
In a 12-cup muffin tin, brush melted butter into 10 of the 12 muffin cups, reserving half of the melted butter for later. Carefully press one egg roll wrapper into a muffin cup and fill with the chicken mixture. Close egg roll wrapper over filling by gathering the ends and gently twisting. Brush with some of the remaining melted butter.
 
Continue until all 10 muffin tins are filled.
 
Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.
 

Serve in a pool of marinara sauce and garnish with additional Parmesan cheese and Italian parsley sprigs.

Chicken Divan - A Classic Recreated

French technique and cuisine is de rigeur in culinary school. All of your knife cuts have French names; many cooking methods are French. And there are only two answers that are acceptable in the kitchen of a French chef: Oui, Chef; and Non, Chef! 

When it comes to technique, culinary students are never in doubt: either they embrace it or they simply endure it until they get out of school.

I've encountered similar feelings toward French cuisine when cooking for clients or heading up restaurant kitchens. And most of the objections I hear are centered on the richness of the food, particularly the sauces. They are perceived to be made from mounds of butter and buckets of cream.

I set out to disprove that a couple of months ago when I cooked Chicken in Vinegar Sauce, adapting a recipe from the famous French chef, Jacques Pepin. There wasn't a hint of butter or a drop of cream. Rather we used the piquant flavor of red wine vinegar tamed by some other ingredients to create a luxurious vegetable sauce.

And once again, this week, to those who turn up their noses at French food, I say, "Au contrere!"

Chicken Divan my way uses only a couple of tablespoons of butter and a scant quarter cup of cream. The primary ingredient in this sauce is chicken stock. I used the butter with flour to create a roux to thicken the sauce and the cream gave the sauce some body.

There is one other technique in this recipe I'd like to call to your attention and that is blanching and shocking vegetables in order to set the color. In this recipe I use broccoli with longer stems than I might use in other recipes. I cooked the florets in boiling salted water just until they were tender and then "shocked" them in ice water to stop the cooking and set the brilliant green color.

I highly recommend this for two reasons: The first I already gave you and that is that the color is important as a part of the presentation of the dish. That's because we eat with our eyes first. The second is that the vegetable is not overcooked, soggy or limp. Rather it is crisp and retains that vegetal flavor that we look for in perfectly cooked broccoli.

Here's the video, followed by the recipe:

Chicken Divan

1 medium bunch broccoli
1 14 0z can chicken broth (low sodium)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
dash white pepper
1/4 cup cream
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 1/2 Tbsp dry white wine
4 large chicken breast halves, boneless and skinless

Cut broccoli into long florets with stems. Boil briefly in lots of salted water just until crisp and tender. Drain, then refresh in ice water to set the color. Drain again and pat dry.

In a small saucepan, boil chicken broth until reduced by half to about 1 cup.

In a medium skillet saute chicken breasts in a 2 Tbsp butter until each side is nicely browned. Remove chicken and add remaining butter and blend with flour to make a roux. Add salt and white pepper. Add reduced chicken broth and cook, stirring until mixture thickens and bubbles. Stir in the cream, the Parmesan cheese and wine. Remove from heat.

Serve chicken breasts, placing broccoli on top and pour sauce over the meat and vegetables.