hello and welcome thank you for joining us again today James is our guest thank you very much for coming my pleasure you had a long way to walk I know this our neighbor I'm gonna treat you while we're talking and cooking here with a little bit of a snack tortilla chip with smoked salmon the herp cream cheese and some capers nice enjoy that while we're working hard right it is gonna be parmigiano day we'll do a eggplant parmesan and a chicken parmesan and we'll do one of them with a little bit of a twist very easy to make yes it is a little bit of work but not too much so no panic we're gonna start not with the eggplant we're gonna start with the tomato sauce what I'm using here is just a strained tomato right out of the bottle there's nothing weathered no spices yet I like to do my own so we're gonna just add a little bit of salt a little bit of pepper and some oregano dried of course you can add fresh as well a little parmesan and then I'm gonna chop some fresh basil and put that in here too and we're going to keep some of the leaves for later and we'll add a fresh after this sauce has cooked for a little while it's one of those really really fragrant herbs isn't it with just a chorus chop and we're gonna put it right into here give it a stir and put it on small on low to medium heat what I like to do but that's preference is once it's nicely cooked and warm I'll put a little bit of cream in it just to make it to take that acid away just the touch and it makes it a little creamier a little more rosy looking so we'll get that going and while it is warming up we'll cut our eggplant you wash it will cut the tip off and then just do hot little slices you probably want about two slices per person as they get smaller towards the back of course you can't maybe three per person and you should have plenty and all we're gonna do with that is salt and pepper it and we'll whisk a couple of eggs forget them credit I'm using the plain bread from those places at it because I think we're adding lots of aromas and flavors in the process with cheese's and birds and so on our pan is heating up here a little bit of oil I'm saying a little bit I really mean quite a bit because you do 1,000 to fry rather than burn to the bottom of your pan matter what kind of oil I'll use vegetable oil because it's neutral it doesn't add or do anything for flavor much it just does the trick it makes it nice and crunchy you can use olive oil nothing wrong with that so give it a nice coating with bread crumbs in your egg first I know there's a more elegant way of doing that the people who know what they're doing they do that separately one hand is in the egg the other hand is only in the crumbs so you don't end up with this but here I go that's what I do we're going to put that in the fry pan so we'll put these in the fry pan let them sizzle there a little bit there we go turn that up just a touch we don't need to worry about cooking it all the way through and soft quite yet because they will go in the oven we just want this nice crust with the breading that makes it taste so yummy let's see what our water is doing ready for the spaghetti so as soon as we have everything else together we can get the pasta cooking as well okay so here comes the first little batch we're gonna put this on some paper towel for a quick minute so we don't bring in too much of the oil that we fried it in and from there it can go in our pan where it's going to be waiting for the tomato sauce and a nice cheese's to go on so while the tomato sauce is cooking I want it to add just a little bit of cream to it so now all that's missing to get this in the oven because we want to bake it for about 30-40 minutes is our tomato sauce and a bit of cheese and then we're almost there bring the sauce over and we'll just ladle some have you tried the salmon yet you try excellent you're like what is in the cream cheese oh that's a big secret okay pepper a little bit of salt chives parsley green onions lemon juice that's it it's delicious it is good isn't it so simple but it's really really nice to eat I love smoked salmon but I noticed yeah even if someone didn't like smoked salmon they would really enjoy this I think so - its - oh it's a wild salmon I love that and it's a beautiful color - we're gonna have your choice that sauce because it'll be you who will feed in the end so if you don't like the tomato sauce we're gonna have a problem no pressure and this is it tomato sauce on top of that we're gonna just mix a bit of cheese and using a cheddar mix and some parmesan edible the cream is a great addition yes yes cream so no it's a 35% yeah the whipping cream hey not every day is a fasting day right so you want to make sure you got a little bit of parmesan mixed on top of that because it gives it a nice and crispy crust off in the oven it goes 400 degrees 380 degrees we'll set that at say 400 and now chicken I thought I'll show you something today because we're all a little concerned about pricing for meat that obviously went up significantly over the last couple of years didn't it I mean just beyond imagination so buying chicken breasts is one thing and it's premium meat so it's premium price but very often we can get chicken breasts whole skin on bone in at a much better price and nothing keeps you from buying that instead of the already filleted chicken breast and cutting that fillet out cutting the chicken breast out and use the bones and the remaining meat to cook a nice chicken noodle soup because there is nothing like a home-cooked chicken noodle soup maybe we'll get to do that in one of the shows one day so really easy just cut along that bone that breast bone and don't worry about I'm being generous here leaving some meat on that bone because we want it for the chicken noodle soup later on so you don't need to fret too much doing this perfect perfect just as long as you get close to the bone stay close to it and you cut your chicken breast off and then you can decide later on if you want to leave the skin on or not some people love it I do and some people prefer the skinless what's your preference on chicken we like skin I don't know depends on the dish yes yeah true yes that's very true so for the chicken parmesan we're going to take that skin off and you can see it just peels off easily I cut the tender out because I wonder a bit more even in chicken breast for my parmesan so we have one the tender but it's gone yes well if you'll find it in that soup you know yes and I don't add that in the very beginning when the bones go in to make that beautiful stock I added in the last five minutes and and just let it simmer a little bit so it doesn't dry out but that's a nice cut for little slices of white meat in your soup and you'll appreciate them in there too yeah so I'll take those off the fillet chicken breast as well and there we go now for one of those I thought I'll show you something that I think tastes good it's not traditional and it's not really the Italian way of the chicken parmesan I just think it's it tastes fantastic we've all heard of Cordon Bleu we do cheese and and ham filling in an in a breaded chicken and nothing keeps you from doing that for a parmesan as well so if you want to add a little bit of something yeah it really really really tastes quite nice make sure you don't cut all the way through so your spices and your Pam doesn't fall out a little bit of salt both sides pepper today we're gonna put some anchovy paste in it it's hard to identify even what you did to it but when you taste it you'll see it turns out just really nice and not too much just a little bit and then we get our ham we all like him so we're gonna pack some in there fold that over and here you go and the other two all we need is salt and pepper and then we do the breading and they're ready to go in the fry pan should probably turn that up a little bit there we go so that doesn't happen again we're adding we still have a little bit of egg left from breading the eggplant I'll add a little one egg to it and some parmesan into the breadcrumbs now with the chicken I like to use a bit of flour at first so the egg makes the breadcrumbs stick a little better 2v2 the meat flower first egg next and breadcrumbs last one so I know flower in the eggplant the eggplant is a pretty drawing piece it's not as juicy on the outside as a chicken so it absorbs it as it is and I find what needs to get the moisture taken care of and here if you just hold this together properly you don't even need to put a pick in to hold it together it'll and you handle it carefully in the pan it won't fall apart but you can put a little skewer a little wooden skewer or middle skewer in it to hold it together okay so now we're ready to get this into the pan a little bit more oil we want that nice and medium hot so it doesn't go soggy on us and you can feel the heat when you just hold your hand over it will put the thicker piece in first it says it's quite happy and maybe we'll leave it in a half a minute longer or so there we go and with this chicken different from the eggplant we want this cooked through all the way because it'll just go in the oven for the cheese to melt we're not cooking the chicken anymore so this we're going to properly cook all the way through so let's see what the other side is doing coming along very nicely we'll turn that heat up just for a little bit yep that's looking good spaghetti sauce is bubbling wonderfully I'm smelling good I'm gonna add a touch of Parmesan to it make it a little easier that can't be wrong so almost time to put our spaghetti and let's see what our chickens doing look at that beautiful golden crust that's what you want we need about 15 minutes for those to cook nice and al dente in a few seconds those noodles are gonna fold into the boiling water and we're gonna bring the chicken to our baking dish and here we go one two happy chickens and our butterfly version with the ham in it I'm gonna move this over so we've got some room for our tomato sauce and maybe just a little spoonful on each I smell that basil and I'm loving mmm no you probably know that I like pepper so I always give it a one extra twist feel free and volkov it with some cheese now you can take shredded cheese you can use a thick slice of cheese you can do layered small thin slices of cheese anything you like and like a mozzarella mix because it melts beautifully and fast and then on top just like on the eggplant I'll sprinkle some parmesan there's some extra crisp we'll put that in the oven just as long as it takes to get the cheese to melt three four or five minutes and then we're gonna go taste it my timer reminded me that the eggplant is almost ready to come out of the oven the chickens gonna be a couple more minutes we're perfect for time and when we come back we'll show you how we serve the whole dish see you then James let's eat yeah I know I know I know so maybe we'll start by taking our spaghetti from the stove drain them there we go and I thought we're gonna try two different versions sometimes with the tomato sauce on your parmesan chicken there is enough tomato flavor and some people like just butter some people like me I just like butter on spaghetti a lot but some of us prefer the tomato sauce we'll put some on one portion and we'll get the butter going first just a few flakes you can use olive oil as well whatever you like better Marie that's butter so it can melt in the spaghetti and nice and hot more to come I know you like Bowser so we're not gonna forget by the way is in basil basil basil basil tomato come on tomato tomato yeah I can never figure out what the basil basil is about so I say usually basil it just surprised myself by saying fast basil basil we're just gonna put a few pieces of fresh leaf on top this one actually we'll move this to the side I wanted to add something that I tried traveling and Italy you've been in Italy to arraign yes yeah the food there is fantastic too everywhere you go one of the things I learned there was using arugula as is and just using it L is on a on a dish just stir it in nothing done to it and for color I just want to chop up some onion some tomatoes if you want a really pretty picture go with multicolored tomatoes great in the summer when you can go and pick them in your garden but no no and that's the only thing that ever grows for me consistently no problems that works for me so there you go one just butter and some arugula and tomatoes and the other one with tomato sauce and basil both are gonna taste great with the chicken I'll leave those here while I get my pans out of the ovens now that's nice and hot and here we go your chicken parmesan I am hungry too now I have to admit it and our eggplant there that baked just beautifully as well so I think we're gonna have a nice dish so we're gonna start with now this we know is the cotton blue style chicken with the anchovy paste a little a little bit of different version oh yeah that's beautiful and tender and I can tell it's juicy look at that one chicken good eggplant always nice to be first with baked dishes if you can get that nice piece that has the most cheese on it and both pastas to try yeah a little bit of everything good that sounds good to me I've always been getting a little bit of anything I just love that arugula now on I've seen it in Italy again just put on uh none steak even or an roasted chicken just a handful and as you mix it in your food you stir it in and it warms up a little bit but it isn't all wilt not like we do the wilted spinach it still has a bit of a bite to it and because it has that spice it's just heaven okay like basil I won't forget well let me first them out there we go let's try this and see if it tastes as good as it looks where'd it go first dilemma yes I know that's a big problem isn't it I think I'm gonna go with the aubergine first of all how do you say that in French then when it's a parmesan aubergine parmesan maybe the aubergine I don't know okay I think we're both gonna pass my French is so long ago it's embarrassing it's terrible let's see how our ham looks hmm look at this oh that looks beautiful slice that up a little bit hmm you know I want to try this did you want some extra cheese to go on top we go perfect okay you can time just in time have you tried yet the eggplant yeah very hot right now away from that I'll go with the chicken for us okay can still taste other things yeah mm-hmm hot as in heat not spicy Oh No yeah hot as yeah a lot of moisture in the full male jeans so that's why that's the heat stay which one was me well both so far so good I love the fact that thee I've seen recently eggplant parmesan where it wasn't breaded mm-hmm my mind it's gotta be graduate oh you want that texture yes yeah I like that too I agree with uh I was not only concern from it when I heard eggplant parmesan oh okay me breading it oh yeah hmm Wow I'm tempted to talk with my mouth full I have to say I like them both but because I'm a meat lover I'd prefer the chicken over the eggplant like we have a lot of people who don't like meat so that's really gonna be a nice meal on a vegetarian side what I love most is butter on spaghetti and the arugula that's my favorite piece in all this that was really good yeah we tend to always just put tomato sauce that's delicious you almost don't need it if there's enough sauce with the meat okay well I hope everybody's gonna try this out it's worth it it's delicious so I hope you had some fun James thank you so much for being patient and joining us anything perfect thanks a lot and we'll see you soon you you