Cordon Bleu

This was the last thing I thought I would be cooking after the holiday.  To be honest, I was so used to not-cooking after being cooked for such a long time, I felt like I couldn't be bothered to cook proper meals again.  Oh well...  I had to start at some point.   Husband and kids were hungry so I did what I had to do.   I went to look in my freezer to see what I can find in there, hoping that there is a frozen pizza somewhere hidden or forgotten so I wouldn't have to do much work.  The only thing I could find was some frozen meat including some beef fillets cut for Cordon Bleu.  I have to say, I get these delivered as a part of a package but I have never used them in a real Cordon Bleu, except once. Mainly because I was too lazy to do the work.  Stuffing it, frying it, etc.  It just looked too complicated.  I ended up cooking them as schnitzels or chop them into something else.  This time somehow,  I had the ingredients at home although we had not yet done a proper grocery shopping.  I already had the Gruyere and some Turkey ham.  I have done this once before from a recipe book but it didn't quite work that time, but this trial turned out to be a success.  Meat was cooked perfectly and was soft.  Kids loved it. (Surprisingly!)
I did it really quickly in a very simplified way so if you have the ingredients then go for it.  Below recipe is adapted from Betty Bossi Fleischküche cookbook.

Cordon Bleu

(Makes 3)

3 pieces of beef or veal fillet, sliced into two thin pieces each.  You can leave them attached from one side so it would be easier to close them up. 

100 g Gruyere Cheese (should make about 3 large slices to fill up each steak)

3 pieces of Turkey ham or usual ham

1/2 tablespoon of mustard

Salt and freshly milled pepper

12-14 toothpicks to close up the steaks

To fry:

3 tablespoons of flour

1 egg beaten

1 cup of breadcrumbs (keep the pack near by just in case you may need more depending on the size of your steaks)

Oil 

Prepare your fillets on a chopping board so it's easy for you to work on (See picture).  First brush a little bit of mustard on the insides of the fillets.  Then put the ham on one side. Next the slices of Gruyere on top of the ham.  Try not to stuff the fillets too much, otherwise you won't be able to close them up well and cheese will melt out of the steaks during cooking. The proper way is to wrap the cheese in the ham and then put it on the fillet, however I was in a rush.  Mine looked like this.

Last is to close up those steaks with toothpicks as in the photo above.  Then season them on both sides with some salt and pepper.

When you are done start preparing for frying in this order.  

Put your flour on a flat plate.  

Put your beaten egg on a slightly deep plate. 

Put the breadcrumbs on a flat plate.  

Then put them right next to each other in the same order.  Flour, egg, breadcrumbs. 

Then heat up the oil in a non stick pan.  Don't need to use too much oil, just enough to cover the base of the pan. Start preparing your steaks for the final round. 

First roll the steak on flour, then dip it in the egg and last, roll it on breadcrumbs.  Next onto the frying pan with oil.  Fry 5 minutes on each side over medium heat.  This is very important to get tender meat. 

I served this with some oven baked potato wedges, which I will post here soon.  For now I leave you with Cordon Bleu. 

Venetian Liver

This is one of my favorite liver recipes. I have two favorite ones and the other one is a Turkish recipe.  Next liver recipe I write will be for sure the Turkish one, but this time I am writing about the Venetian liver.  Venetian liver recipe is a classic and you can find in many Italian restaurants.  This is a recipe that I adapted from a German version that I found somewhere.  I used veal liver to make this one.  In the meantime I found some other versions on the web. This one on the Epicurious site here looks like a good one too but I haven't tried it yet.  If you want to give it a go please let me know what you thought of it.
I made some rice with this one but you can have it also only with some bread, because it tastes really good. 

Venetian Liver

500 gr liver from veal, sliced.
2-3 medium size red onions, sliced
1-2 sage leaves
50 ml Balsamic vinegar
20-30 ml red wine
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
a handful of chopped parsley

Make sure you have everything ready before you start, because you have to cook everything really fast over high heat.
Start with heating butter and olive oil in a pan over high temperature. When it's hot enough, put in the liver and stir-fry it for about a minute.  Take it out and put it on a plate.  Don't worry if it's not cooked, it is supposed to look still red and raw.  If you want the liver to stay soft do not ever overcook it.  After you take the liver out of the pan, put in the onions and fry them until they are soft and slightly brown.  Add the balsamic vinegar, wine and the sage leaves.  Reduce the heat to medium and cook it for another 2-3 minutes.  Add the liver back in and cook for another minute or two.  Add some salt and pepper before you taste.  Liver should stay soft like this and it will be cooked enough.  Before you serve it sprinkle some chopped parsley on top.  Enjoy it with some rice or bread.