A Second Try

Since the stuffed chicken breast and endive salad that I made last weekend didn't quite come off as well as I liked, I decided to give it another shot last night.

For the stuffed chicken breast I went with basically the same composition of the stuffing, but toned down the basil bit. That's because rather than serve sun-dried tomato stuffing with tomato sauce I made fresh pesto for the pasta instead. I also added grated aged parmesan cheese to the stuffing, which succeeded in adding an additional earthy dimension to the flavor.

In the endive salad I dispensed with the radishes, substituted raisins for dates, and added parsley. The addition of the parsley was a mistake as combined with the endive the resulting flavor was too bitter. Still, it was a tasty fresh salad and worth continuing to refine.

Chicken Stuffing (Revised)
2 cups sundried tomato halves
1 jar seedless olives
3 cups white mushrooms
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
2 cups finely grated parmesan
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt
black pepper

Homemade Pesto
2 cups finely minced basil
1/3 cup finely minced garlic
3 Tbsp finely minced parsley
3 Tbsp finely chopped almonds
1/3 cup olive oil
salt
pepper

When I was making the pesto I minced too much garlic, parsley and almonds, so to avoid wasting them I invented what with a little work could become a great appetizer: garlic-almond-parsley balls! (GAP Balls?) Obviously need to work on the name...

Garlic Almond Parsley Balls
3 Tbsp finely minced garlic
3 Tbsp finely chopped almonds
3 Tbsp finely minced parsley
2 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp olive oil
water
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together the garlic, almonds, parsley, xantham gum, salt and oil. Slowly add water at a trickle until the mixture starts to thicken into a paste. Form the mixture into golf ball-sized balls. Fry in hot olive oil until evenly browned.