Mushroom, Bacon, & Spinach Crêpes with Chicken & Asparagus Risotto

I am so sorry for being absent the past week or two! I’ve been job hunting and also trying to get into shape, and with my cooking… You can’t really get fit with all the heavy crème, butter, and carbs I use ;}

It was recently my housemothers 57th birthday this past weekend! So my best friend Norah, who I live with, cooked her favorite meal. She only requested crêpes, but she also loves the risotto I make and I’ve been promising you guys that recipe for a while… So I thought why not kill two birds with one stone and give you two amazing recipes! Especially since I’ve been so inactive ;P We’ll start with the risotto, then lead into the crêpes.

Ingredients for risotto:

• 1.5 bushels of fresh asparagus
• 3 tenderized chicken breasts cut into cubes
• 4 to 5 garlic cloves, minced
• half a small onion
• half a stick of butter
• 2 cups of Arborio rice (very important that it’s Arborio!)
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• 2 lemon squeezes
• dash of balsamic vinegar
• 32 oz of organic chicken broth, or stock
• dash of heavy crème
• 1 to 2 cups of shredded Parmesan cheese (The good stuff! Not that imitation white powder crap, haha)

Now this recipe has the perfect balance of asparagus, chicken, and rice. It will also feed your whole family of 4 to 6 on it’s own! But this was a special occasion so we went a little overboard on the food front.

Cut your asparagus into 1-inch spears on the diagonal and set aside. Cube your chicken and cook with the garlic, onion, a squeeze of lemon, a dash of balsamic, salt, pepper, and a quarter stick of butter. Make sure the juices run clear, but also don’t overcook the chicken! It’s going to be thrown into the risotto the last ten minutes so any soft pinkness still in the chicken will surely cook out, don’t worry! Set that pan aside as well and make sure to not strain the juices, those are important!

Melt the rest of your butter in a very very big skillet or shallow pot. The one we use is easily 2 feet in diameter… So if you don’t have big enough kitchenware, maybe halve the recipe? Throw your two cups of rice into the simmering butter and cook for about 3 to 5 minutes, or until the grains start to turn translucent. You may need to add a little extra butter.

Throw in your asparagus and a cup or two of the chicken stock. You’re going to end up using all of it, but don’t add it all at once. As the rice absorbs it, slowly add more and pay attention. You have to constantly keep stirring this otherwise your rice will burn. It’s a little tedious but worth it I promise.

Once the asparagus is in with the rice, turn on your timer for 25 minutes. I’ve timed this out exactly, so you shouldn’t have any problems. Once the 25 minutes is up, you should be out of chicken stock; this is when you dump the rest of your precooked chicken and all its succulent juices into the mix! Stir, and then add a dash of heavy crème, 1 to 2 cups of grated Parmesan cheese and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Voila!



Ingredients for crêpes:

• 2 eggs + 1 egg yolk at room temperature
• .75 cup of milk
• .5 cup of water
• 1 cup of flour
• 3 tblsp melted butter
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• dash of oregano
• squeeze of lemon

Be very careful with this! We remade this better at least 3 times because of stupidity. Mix all your liquid ingredients together slowly, SLOWLY. You want to make as little air bubbles as possible. Do not whisk, I repeat… Do not whisk! This batter is very delicate and very liquid, so if you have a very low setting on your mixer use with caution. We stirred and folded by hand and strained the batter to get the lumps out which worked perfectly the third time around… Add the flour slowly, and afterwards cover it and let it stand for at least an hour for any bubbles you did form to release.

We had a trusty crepe maker that you just dip into the batter and it forms the perfect crepe, good luck to those of you with a skillet. All I can suggest is don’t use too much oil or butter to grease the pan and be careful!

Ingredients for filling:

• 1 box of frozen spinach, squeezed and patted dry
• half a small onion
• quarter stick of butter
• 2 large portabello mushroom heads, sliced thin
• 6 strips of cooked bacon, crumpled
• 1 cup of heavy crème
• dash of milk
• dash of chives
• dash of dill
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• squeeze of lemon
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• dash of Parmesan cheese, grated
• dash of flour

Start caramelizing your onions and then browning your mushrooms extra butter and remember not to overcrowd them! If there’s one thing that movie about Julia Child taught me, it was that! Throw in everything except for the milk and Parmesan and stir. Slowly add just a little bit of milk and then add the Parmesan. Cook for about 15 minutes more on low heat. If it’s not thickening up, add a little bit of flour slowly but surely and that should do the trick.

Spoon the filling into the crêpes, fold and set on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Sprinkle extra Parmesan or provolone on top and broil for about 3 to 5 minutes on low, watching very carefully so they don’t burn! As you can see from my photos, I was almost a second too late with those edges haha.
Phewf, what a long post! Sorry about all that rambling guys, but I hope you enjoy it! And I’ll try to be more active.

Later Food Lovers,
Justin Francis Kane
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Seared Chicken with an Onion & Peach Glaze

So the other night my friend Norah and I went to visit my father and his girlfriend Kim up in Queensbury NY. I wanted to try something a little different, so I came up with this Onion and Peach Seared Chicken Glaze. I hope you guys like it, it was a huge hit!

Ingredients:

• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 stick of butter
• 4 very ripe peaches
• 1 small yellow onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• splash of dry white wine
• dash of rosemary
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• dash of sugar

• jasmine Rice, 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of water.

First take half the stick of butter, dice the onion and garlic, and caramelize. Cut your peaches in half, and core out the center. We’re not trying to gnaw on those killer pits. Place the peaches cut side down, and cook on low for about 30 minutes. Remember to cover them with a lid so the moisture doesn’t escape. If it looks like they’re drying out, add a little water.

While that’s going, you’re gonna clean and tenderize your chicken, and I cut them into nice meaty chunks. Sprinkle on the rosemary, salt, and pepper and wait for the peaches to be done.

Throw the chicken in with peaches and let them cook till most of the juices run out, but not completely! Then remove the chicken onto a plate and wait.

Take 3 or 4 of the peach halves and set them aside to use as garnish later, they should be nice and mushy and the skins should be just about able to fall off. Pour the rest of the peaches and onion mixture into a pot on the back burner, add a good full cup of wine and let them simmer and bubble till it starts to thicken. Should take a good 15 minutes or so. Add a dash of sugar if it’s not sweet enough!

Use the skillet from before and use the rest of the butter, then throw the chicken back in. Leave it on high heat and let the sides of the chicken get nice and roasted toasted. Golden brown is what you want! Once they’re done, you can start plating the chicken.

You’re gonna strain the sauce from the back burner through a sifter or a colander if you have one, otherwise… Good luck, I hate chunky glaze. The sauce should be pink, and be very fragrant of onion and peach! Duh…

For the main staple I made some Jasmine rice, and also a nice bitter vegetable like asparagus with lemon pepper and white vinegar [Basically just my caramelized asparagus recipe, which as you can tell i'm very fond of!]. Brustlesprouts wouldn’t be a bad choice either! But it was nice to counterbalance the sweetness of the peaches. And for a starch filler, I pumped out some jasmine rice... Hope I don't need to explain how to cook that since you just need to follow the instructions ;P

Drip the sauce over the rice and chicken and voila! This was a great experiment, and I look forward to using other fruits like apples and pears. Have a good one guys! I've gotta run to the DMV today and see why the hell my license is suspended, oh the woes of me! Haha.

Later Food Lovers,
Justin Francis Kane
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Caramelized Asparagus

This is a quick little side that only takes 20 minutes! Hello to all my new followers p.s.!!! I’m literally blown away with how many new foodies I get to entertain! Before you know it, I’ll be on the cooking channel with my own show hahaha… First things first though, I need me a nice video camera to start puttin’ myself out on the youtube! Who wants to pay for it? ;D

Ingredients:

• a bushel of asparagus spears, fresh
• a cup or two of water
• half a small onion
• a clove of garlic
• a little butter
• dash of salt
• dash of pepper
• dash of balsamic vinegar
• squeeze of a tangerine

First I caramelize the onions and garlic, cut the hard ends off the asparagus, and throw em in the skillet! I add the balsamic vinegar, or you could use white vinegar, or any other kind you prefer! Even a nice salad dressing would go great as long as it’s oil and water based, not ranch or anything ;D I also cut the tangerine in half, squeeze em and put them cut side open on the skillet.

I cook them covered for about 15 minutes [when you see the juices evaporate, it’s time to add the water!], till they get pretty soft but not completely. And for the last five minutes I take the cover off, turn the heat on high, and char the edges for that super delicious burnt flavor.

Quick, easy, and you can do it with almost any harder vegetable; peppers, zucchini, green beans, ect.

Later food lovers!
Justin Francis Kane
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Shrimp Scampi with Fettucini Alfredo and a side of Asparagus and Shallots

In the spirit of cabin fever and getting another foot and a half of snow... My friends and I travelled up an hour north of Albany to the little quaint town of Queensbury, where my father lives. He's currently in Florida on vacation, so it was the perfect excuse to use his beautiful kitchen to entertain a few of my closest friends.

The only thing I don't recommend, is drinking too much before you have a chance to finish cooking it all! Haha... I definitely made some very stupid mistakes because of the champagne giggles I had.

So what I attempted to make was Shrimp Scampi with Fettucini and an Alfredo Sauce! It was good, the shrimps were superb but I forgot a main ingredient in the sauce. And I accompanied it with Asparagus and Shallots, which were a nice pair to the dish.


Ingredients:

• 2 bushels of asparagus with the hard ends removed
• 8 to 10 shallots, peeled
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• dash of salt
• dash of lemon pepper
• squeeze of lemon
• dash of white vinegar or wine

Cook the asparagus and shallots first in a large skillet with a cover for about 20 to 25 minutes. Squeeze in a lemon, add some garlic, lemon pepper and a dash of white vinegar or wine! These take the longest compared to the shrimp which take only 8 minutes max.

Uncover for the last 5 to 10 minutes and add a little water if the juices completely evaporate. This is just like my caramelized asparagus recipe except I added 8 or so shallots, which I love!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of raw shrimp, shelled and deveined.
• .5 stick of butter
• squeeze of lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
• a handfull of freshly chopped scallions
• dash of sea salt
• dash of pepper
• dash of red pepper
• Large bag of spinach fettucini
• 8 ounces of freshly grated parmesan
• 8 ounces of heavy creme

Start boiling your fettucini now and follow their instructions, remember to rinse with cool water so the noodles stop cooking and splash on a little extra virgin olive oil so they don't stick.

After you've peeled and deveined your shrimp, or you've boughten the kind that already are! Only 2 dollars extra a pound, but so worth it cause it can take forever! You're ready to fry em up!

Make sure you pat them dry with a paper towel, cover in all the spices, and throw on your garlic and chives! Roll em around a little bit. Put your butter in the skillet on high and once it's melted throw in your shrimp without overcrowding them! After 2 to 3 minutes flip each shrimp individually with tongs. It's the only way you'll be able to do it fast enough! Wait another two minutes, they should be nice and golden on each side. Depending on the size of your skillet it could take you two batches or so.

Set aside and squeeze a fresh lemon over top when they're done.

Now this is where I made my mistake! I was already 3 to 4 glasses of champagne deep at this point and feeling mighty silly talking with my friends and remembering the old days of high school and the like...

Take a small container of heavy creme and pour it slowly into your skillet that you fried the shrimp in. Put it to low heat so it doesn't bubble over! Now take your parmesan cheese and start sprinkling it in slowly till it melts and add a splash of chardonnay! If it's not thick enough, add a little sprinkling of flour slowly but surely. Make sure you scrape the bottom of your skillet with the wooden spoon your using to get all that delicious fried shrimp stuff out!

I forgot to add the cheese all together, I was wondering why my sauce was so runny and I had to keep adding so much flour haha... Don't drink and drive kids! ;P

Well I've got a really big day ahead of me tomorrow work wise, so hope you guys enjoy the recipe! Thanks again to Norah, Alyssa, and Tucker for making last night so much fun :D

Peace out girl scouts,
Justin Francis Kane
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