aragula | Cecile's Cuisine

After spending a week having copious breakfast, I tried to resume to my school breakfast this Monday ( smoothies or cereal bars), but was not satisfied and was famined by the time 10am came. So last night I decided to make some crustless quiches.
At first I thought of making one of my favorite, Asparagus and Boursin crustless quiches but since I had other ingredients on hand, i decided to play a bit.

My quiche may not look that appetizing, but it was very good and very satisfying. I think next time I will however place arugula at the bottom of the quiche and not at the top for esthetic reason.

Ingredients for 6 individual quiches:

6 tbsp of sun-dried tomatoes ( the soft ones, or the one preserved in olive oil)
6 tbsp of shredded parmesan
8 oz. of fat-free ham ( sliced thinly and cut in small squares)
3 oz. of fresh arugula chopped
5 eggs
2 1/2 cups of milk
dash of pepper

Turn the oven to 400.
Place the large round tray on a medium perforated sheet.
Divide the ham among each round.
Continue with the parmesan and finally the sun-dried tomatoes.
Divide the arugula equally in each round.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and the milk. Season lightly with some pepper.
Pour the egg mixture in each round equally.
Bake in a warm oven for 25 minutes.
Eat warm or cold.

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!

The other day while picking up a few steaks for my family at the Fresh Market, I ran across a packet of Maple Roasted Peanuts. I am a huge fan of peanut. They are the best snack. I usually buy Aunt Ruby’s Peanuts because they are not too salty and they are so crunchy. But today when I saw those peanuts brittle, I thought I would give them a try. Yum, they were good, but a bit spicy and a bit too hard on my teeth. So I decided that I could use them when cooking. Yesterday, as I got home from a cooking class, I was so hungry that I set up to prepare my dinner even though it was 10 pm. Yeah.. that’s me;-) And since I had some left-over arugula salad and a Granny Smith Apple, I thought a salad would be great. That’s when I thought that using those peanuts as the coating for my chicken would counter the sourness of the apple.

Ingredients for 2: 2 chicken breasts, 1 pack of “Redhead Bacon Peanut Brittles”, 5 tbsp of maple syrup, 1/4 cup of white wine, 1/4 tsp of chipotle pepper, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of pepper.

First clean your chicken breast so that it is clean of any fat and any nerves. Place the chicken breast on the roulpat, one at a time, and flip the roulpat over the chicken breast. With a rolling pin, pound the chicken to tenderize it and to even it out ( it will be flatter). Repeat the same process for the other chicken breast. Place the chicken breasts in a ziploc bag and set aside. In a small bowl, add the wine, 2 tbsp of maple syrup, the salt, pepper and chipotle pepper and mix well. Pour the mixture over the chicken in a ziploc bag and let the chicken marinade for a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of 2 hours.

Once the chicken is ready to be cooked, remove the breasts from the ziploc bag and place them on a round mold or a flexipan. Set aside.

In chopper, empty the content of the peanut brittle, add 2-3 tbsp of maple syrup, 1/8 tsp of chipotle pepper and chop well to get a coarse paste.

Coat both chicken breasts with this paste. Cook in a warm oven at 400 for 13-15 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the salad.

Ingredients for 2: 3 tbsp of champagne vinegar, 1 tbsp of maple syrup, 4 tbsp of walnut oil, 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/8 tsp of pepper. A box of arragula sald, 1/4 of an apple sliced thinly.

Add all the ingredients mentionned above except for the salad and the apple, and mix well to emulsify. Add the salad and the sliced apple, and stir to coat.

When the chicken has cooked, remove the pan from the oven and let the chicken stand for 5 minutes for the chicken to reabsorbe the juices. Slice the chicken thinly.