Cooking With Emily

Cooking with a ten year old is always an adventure.  Cooking with one who wants to learn, but thinks she knows what she is doing is a special kind of adventure.  Why do I do this to myself on Monday nights, when Mondays are filled with their own stresses?  I like to experiment on the weekends, and often my chef trainee is off visiting her dad.  I considered the week before I picked a day...Tuesdays are busy, Thursday is wine with the dayhome moms, so often supper is late (hey, a girl needs to unwind & vent a little every now & then!) and by Friday I just don't have the energy.
We were half way to organized this week, Emily chose a chicken dish out of one of her own cookbooks (Kids Cook 1-2-3) and I made sure we had chicken thawed.  Then we got home Monday evening & I re-read the recipe.  I knew it was supposed to bake for 90 minutes, but, I had neglected to note the 30 minute (to overnight) marinating process.  I guess my trainee isn't the only one who needs to read & re-read the recipe!
We quickly began skimming through cook books....solo I would have done a quick bread crumb coating and baked the bird, but there's not much learning there.  I flipped through the always reliable Company's Coming (Healthy Recipe Makeover) and found something that looked like it would be an adequate replacement recipe.  Thankfully Emily agreed.
I set her to measuring out the several ingredients for the milk & egg dip while I measured Rice Krispies and sesame seeds into the blender for the crumb coating.  I was short on sesame seeds (note to self- put them on the grocery list that you will leave on your desk) so I substituted with flax seeds.  The recipe called for an egg white, but I told Emily to use the whole egg (we'll deal with separating them another day, when it actually matters) and showed her an easy substitution for buttermilk by adding a splash of lemon juice to regular milk.  She thought that was gross.  She also made me measure in the Dijon mustard, because it smelled funny.  To save cooking time I quickly de-boned the chicken breasts I had thawed, putting the bones into a pot to simmer to make soup another day.

While Emily dipped and dredged and coated I asked her what she wanted for a side dish"Perogies" was her definite reply.  Surprisingly we had a few buried in the freezer and I glanced at the back of the package to see if there was a fast way to prepare them.  Baked in the oven? With the chicken?  Perfect.  Emily put her chicken into the oven & brushed the frozen perogies with olive oil.  I had beets in the fridge that needed to be cooked so I sauted them, putting together a bowl of carrot & celery sticks with raw broccoli for Emily, since she has yet to appreciate crisp, buttery, sweet beets....more for me that way.

Thinking on one's feet is an important skill, in the kitchen and in life.  Sometimes things don't work out the way we planned, sometimes we don't have all the ingredients we need and have to make do with what we do have on hand.  Story of my life...."Let's just make this work".  Learning to be flexible and to rethink things is a skill I hope I am teaching.  Those of us who cannot bend and flex a little are bound to be broken by life's storms.  And tolerance and compassion should not be taken for blind acceptance....but there I go, off on a tangent.  The lesson learned in the kitchen today was a corollary of the old saw "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade (or make gin & tonic)", "when the clock starts ticking, re-assess your plan".
Dinner was very good.  The chicken was not as crispy as I would have liked, and like a true chef Emily was concerned it didn't taste good when I added a little drizzle of Siracha to my piece.  It was fine, but I thought it needed something.  Next go-round I'd add some zing to the crumb coating.  And the discovery that perogies could be baked was a revelation.  I prefer them boiled then fried, but that's 2 pans to wash and somewhat time consuming.

Oven Fried Chicken

4 cups crisp rice cereal *                   1/4 teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoons sesame seeds               1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg white, beaten                             1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/3 cup buttermilk                              6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard                3 tablespoons corn starch

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Process cereal & sesame seeds in a food processer until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (* we had lots of this mixture left over, I think you could get away with 3-3 1/2 cups of cereal.  Then again, we only used 4 breasts too, so...)

Whisk together egg, buttermilk, Dijon, garlic powder, paprika, salt & pepper. 

Dredge the chicken into the corn starch, shake off excess, dip into buttermilk mixture and then press into cereal mixture until well coated.  Place on a greased, foil lined baking sheet.  

Bake at 425F for about 30 minutes, until golden.