Caprese
Bottom to top layers: butter lettuce, heirloom tomato slice, buffalo mozzarella slice, a second tomato slice, drained capers, EVOO, chopped pitted Kalamata olives
Some fresh basil could also be added
Stuffed chicken
Pound boneless skinless chicken breast to ¼ to 1/8” thickness between wax paper or plastic wrap on cutting board
Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Place pesto paste on long end of flattened chicken, fold over sides, then roll up, secure with tooth picks if necessary
Prepare 3 small bowl: first with flour (about ¼ cup), second with a beaten egg, third with dry bread crumbs (about ½ cup)
Roll chicken in flour, egg and crumbs, then repeat egg and crumbs
Refrigerate chicken for 1-24 h
In skillet, brown chicken in 1 T butter plus some oil until golden brown all sides
Place in baking dish and bake ~20 min at 400° F or until chicken no longer pink
Remove from oven and (optional) slice diagonally into ~3 sections
Serve on platter
Pesto paste (recipe from A16’s Liza Shaw as printed in SFChron)
3 large garlic cloves
½ t chili flakes
1 t salt
¼ c EVOO
½ c toasted pine nuts
6 oz arugula (about 3 large handfuls)
½ c pitted Kalamata olives
3 packed T freshly grated aged pecorino
Pulse until a smooth paste forms the first 4 ingredients with half the pine nuts in food processor
Add arugula and pulse until homogenous
Add olives, pecorino and remaining nuts, pulse several times to form a chunky paste with chunks no bigger than a grain of rice
Can be kept in refrigerator several day packed in jar covered with EVOO
Hot German Potato Salad (this recipe is adapted from Rombauer and Becker, joy of cooking)
Cook 6 medium potatoes in water in covered sauce pan (to speed cooking, first microwave for 5 min)
Sauté together until brown 4 slices minced bacon*, ¼ c chopped onion, ¼ c chopped celery, 1 chopped dill pickle
Heat to boiling ¼ c water or stock, ½ c vinegar, ½ t sugar, ½ t salt, 1/8 t paprika, ¼ t dry mustard, when done pour into skillet
When potatoes are done, peel (optional), slice, place in serving bowl, add sauce, mix gentl
*For this meal, bacon was fried separately, then crumbled. This results in less fat in the salad. But in fact maybe it's better to include the fat--up to 2 T anyway.
Flan
Recipe based on "Easy Flan Recipe" at http://mexicanfood.about.com/od/sweetsanddesserts/r/easyflan.htm
Preheat oven to 325 F
Pour 1 c sugar in warm sauce pan over medium heat. Stir constantly until sugar becomes caramel. Quickly pour about 2-3 T of caramel into each ramekin, tilting to swirl the caramel around sides. Reheat caramel if it starts to harden.
Wisk 6 large eggs together, mix in 1-14 oz can sweetened condensed milk, 2-13 oz cans evaporated milk, then slowly 1.2 c sugar, vanilla. Blend smooth after each ingredient is added.
Pour custard into caramel lined ramekins. Place ramekins in large glass or ceramic baking dish and fill with 1-2 inches of hot water. Bake for 45 minutes in water bath. When done, a knife in center should come out cleanly. Be careful not to over bake.
Remove ramekins from oven and water and let cool in refrigerator for at least 1 h. Just before serving invert each ramekin onto a small plate letting the caramel sauce flow over the custard.
Caution: Baking time will be greatly extended unless hot water is used at start, also glass or ceramic baking dish--not metal.
Tip: Use knife around inside edge of each ramekin to facilitate custard removal when ramekin is inverted.
This recipe fills 12 ramekins of 4 oz size, so for 5 or 6 ramekins, make only half the recipe