Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Prosciutto

This recipe is especially for my dear friend, Belinda, who apparently has a surplus of boneless, skinless chicken breasts in her freezer.   It is one of my favorites from Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food, published in the US as Food Revolution, where, for some bizarre reason, the Parmesan was omitted from the recipe.  I can’t imagine why.

Ingredients

2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme

30g or 1 oz Parmesan cheese

2 skinless chicken breasts

Freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon

4-5 slices of prosciutto or Parma ham – about 70g or 2.5 oz

Olive oil

Method

Pick the thyme leaves off the stalks.   If there are some very fine stalks which just break when you try to remove the leaves, just chop those up and group with the leaves. Grate your Parmesan.

Lay some cling film on a cutting board and place the breasts on the plastic.  Carefully score the underside of the chicken breasts in a criss-cross fashion with a small knife.

Season with a little pepper (You don’t need salt as the prosciutto and Parmesan are quite salty).  Lay your breasts next to each other and sprinkle over most of the thyme leaves.

Grate a little lemon zest over them.

Put half of the Parmesan on each breast.

Lay two prosciutto slices on each chicken breast, overlapping them slightly. If there happens to be a fifth slice in your package, as mine had, cut it in half and put one piece on each breast on top of the other two slices.

Put a square of plastic wrap over each breast and give them a few really good bashes with the bottom of a saucepan until they are about ½ inch or 1cm thick.

This  is the fun part!  Give it a jolly good bash. 

Put a frying pan over a medium heat. Remove the plastic wrap and carefully transfer the chicken breasts, prosciutto-side down, into the pan.

Drizzle over some olive oil. Cook for three minutes on each side, turning halfway through.

Either serve the chicken breasts whole or cut them into thick slices and pile them on a plate.   Serve with lemon wedges for squeezing over and a sprinkle of the few leftover thyme leaves. 

Enjoy!

Pan-roasted Asparagus with Lemon and Butter

This is the easiest recipe when you are in a hurry.   Fresh asparagus require very little cooking and lemon, butter, sea salt and black pepper make the simplest of seasonings which allow the vegetable to shine.  You will want to eat these one at a time with your fingers.  Then lick them clean.

Ingredients

450g or 1 lb fresh asparagus

Juice of 1/4 lemon

20g or 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Sea salt

Black pepper

Olive oil

Method

Cut the woody ends off of the asparagus, usually at least 2-3 inches or 5-6 cm.

Heat a non-stick skillet to roasting, and throw in the asparagus.  Drizzle with olive oil.  Leave the asparagus to brown, stirring occasionally.  

This will take just a few minutes if your fire is high enough and your pan is hot enough.  Sprinkle with sea salt and a good couple of grinds of fresh black pepper.  Just keep tossing them around.

When the asparagus is nicely caramelized and brown in places, turn your fire off and add the butter.  

Squeeze the lemon juice into the hot pan and stir the asparagus around until the butter melts.  Taste one and add more salt if necessary.  Serve!  This goes great with the Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Prosciutto.

Enjoy!

Toffee with Chocolate and Almond Slivers

Toasted almonds on the bottom, salted toffee in the middle and more almonds and semi-sweet chocolate on top. Break this apart like peanut brittle with a little hammer. Buttery, sweet and salty, and delicious. 

So, my house-hunting trip to Cairo was indeed canceled.  We had been blessed by an invitation to share Thanksgiving with a family there on Friday and I was planning to make this to bring, to share, since I wouldn’t have a proper kitchen in the serviced apartment.  I decided to make it anyway, because, so rich are my blessings, I have been graced with another invitation to share Thanksgiving here in Kuala Lumpur.  Since I have an actual kitchen and oven, I will also make an apple pie.  And green beans, just like my grandmothers used to make, to bring as well.

May you all be blessed richly with friends and family who love you this Thanksgiving.  I am firmly convinced there is no greater blessing than friends and family who love you!  I am more grateful than I can express.  Surely, I do not have my family with me, but they are safe and I hope that they also know how much they are loved by me and how much I wish we could be together. 

Ingredients

2 rounded cups or 300g of slivered almonds

2 cups or 450g unsalted butter

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 cups or 450g sugar

1/8 cup or 30ml light corn syrup

1/3 cup or 80ml water

1 1/2 rounded cups or 290g semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

Toast the almond slivers in a dry non-stick frying pan over a medium heat.  Stir or toss them frequently to make sure they brown evenly. 

It's hard to see how toasted these are but they were darker than the photo makes them appear. 

Line a baking pan with sides  (minimum 15 1/2in x10 1/2in or 40cm x 27cm) with foil.  Butter the foil liberally.

Sprinkle half of the toasted almonds on the foil.

Ah, see! They look more toasted in the natural light.

In a heavy saucepan, add butter, salt, sugar, corn syrup, and water. Cook over medium-high heat.

Cook the mixture until it reaches 290-300 degrees using a candy thermometer, which is the soft crack stage. Be really careful at this step, at 280 it goes really fast, and can burn in mere seconds. 

Pour the mixture immediately over the almonds. Set a timer for five minutes and let it cool until it is firm but still hot.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee.  Set your timer for two minutes and, when it rings, spread the chocolate all over the toffee.

Sprinkle with remaining toasted almond slivers.  Chill in the refrigerator until it hardens completely.

Peel the toffee off of the foil and turn it over.  Gently break it into pieces with a small hammer. 

Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container, with waxed or parchment paper between the layers.  Or serve immediately!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who is celebrating this weekend!

Adapted from this recipe, but originally from Pinterest and The Idea Room.  I tried to find the original post on Pinterest but I don’t really understand how it works, I guess.