Sunday, October 16, 2005

Chicken Cordon Bleu

This weekend's main course was Chicken Cordon Bleu. Pretty tasty, rich as befits a three umami dish. I'm afraid the chicken breasts were my master, as I was unable to pound them thin enough to make for a decent roll. The four 'cordons' were big honking fat things, and I had to cook things twice as long as the recipe called for. But the taste and moistness were spot on, so in all, a success.

I got to thinking tonight about the 'umami' notes in this dish, both with the pork and the sodium from the ham curing, and the swiss cheese. This makes this a very filling, hearty dish. I got to wondering if I could make a similar trifecta of umami with some variations. How about chicken (not very umami, but a good base), pork (lowering the sodium content, but retaining the umami traits of pork) and tomatoes (one of the few vegetables with a high umami quotient)? I thought I'd dice the chicken, shred the pork, rough dice the tomatoes, and cook them in a light oil, like EVOO or saflower oil. Then toss this in with some pasta, such as farfalle. Or maybe make a layered dish like ravioli. Or wrap the umami mix in a corn tortilla! Ooo, getting excited here!


No comments:

Post a Comment