Uh oh ... someone let me back in the kitchen.
If you're wondering where the 200th parma spectacular is then you clearly haven't listened to last week's episode of our podcast, Clucking Around, or checked our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for the details (woah, all that self- promotion made me dizzy).
Long story short the 200th is gonna be a weekend thing, and to get everyone free on a weekend that isn't Grand Final weekend took some wangling, meaning we needed some non-official review posts in the meantime - but the 200th is scheduled for next weekend and should be uploaded sometime shortly thereafter, so be sure to stay tuned!
In the meantime, I've been experimenting. A few weeks ago the good people at Philadelphia (the cheese, not the state) contacted me telling me about a new product coming to Coles and Woolies soon - Grated Philly and Tasty.
I've been a Philadelphia fan for years - when Costco first opened a few years back the first thing I bought was a bulk-block of Philadelphia (around 2.5kgs) along with a bulk bag of bagels. For a few glorious weeks in late 2009 my life was consumed by cream cheesey goodness - So naturally when Philly offered me the chance to incorporate their new product into a parma I jumped at the chance.
Now I want to point out (in the interest of full disclosure) that we were not paid to write this review, but we did get a couple of bags of Philadelphia grated cheese on the house. Some bloggers get flown to holiday resorts on tropical islands. I get free cheese.
Rather than just knock up a standard parma I decided to do something different (we've already done a whole bunch of parmas in the past) and knock up an Aussie-style novelty parma. Now if you walk into most pubs that do novelty toppings the "Aussie" typically features bacon and egg, sometimes BBQ sauce - Don't ask me why it doesn't have Vegemite and beetroot, but the world can be a weird place sometimes.
I went out and stocked up on supplies...
- Chicken breast (1 per parma)
- Bacon (2 rashers per parma)
- Eggs (1 per parma and two for crumbing mixture)
- Breadcrumbs (I used Panko style crumbs, but whatever tickles your fancy)
- Napoli Sauce (Whatever your preferred brand of napoli will do, you could have a crack at making it yourself, but thats a lot of effort for 3 tablespoons worth per parma)
- Milk (for crumbing)
- Plain flour (also for crumbing)
- Whatever sides you desire with your parma
- Salt & pepper to taste
along with the reason we're all here - a bag of Philadelphia Grated Philly and Tasty cheese...
First step is to take your chicken breast & cut off the tenderloins. Now I like a bit of thickness to my parma and I feel bigger is better in this case - but if you want to be frugal you can slice the breast in half before the next step. Otherwise place the breast in between a few sheets of cling wrap and go to town with a meat mallet (or a rolling pin works fine as well)... Until it looks something like this -
Now prepare your fingers to get a little messy as we're about to set up your crumbing station.
Get two plates and a bowl, on one plate sprinkle some flour, along with a dash of salt & pepper to taste. On the second plate make a nice healthy layer of your crumbs. In the bowl crack two eggs and a dash of milk, then mix it all together with a fork until smooth.
Now lets get crumbing! Get your chicken and give it a light dusting on the plate of flour, then dunk it into the egg (make sure its completely covered) then into the crumbs. Flip it over a couple of times to be sure you get all-over coverage, by the end it should look something like this ...
Heat some oil in a fry pan (not enough to deep fry, but a healthy dash) to a medium heat and chuck on your schnitzel, it should make a very satisfying "TSHHHHH" sound as it hits the oil. Let it cook for a few minutes (use tongs to peek underneath and see how its going) then flip when its golden brown, looking something like this –
Once its cooked take it off the oil and give it a pat with paper towel to take away any excess.
Next up grab your napoli and give it a few healthy tablespoons - make sure that schnitzel is good and covered...
If you want to make it a BBQ parma now would be the time to give it a squirt of your choice of BBQ sauce, we're opting against that this time around but its your call.
Next up - the Philly, grab a few handfuls and make sure to give it a good, healthy coverage -
Crank up the oven (or grill, if you have one), chuck them under and watch the cheese melt.
While you're waiting grab your frying pan and fry up that delicious bacon...
Along with an egg. Now frying eggs have always been a mystery to me ... I don't know why but I can never do them justice. Scrambled? No problem? Omelettes? Hand me the pan - but fried eggs have always been a bit of an enigma. I gave it a crack (hah! egg puns) and it actually turned out pretty well.
Once the cheese has melted grab the parma out of the oven and chuck it on a plate - now we make our stack, pile on the bacon, top with the freshly fried egg and serve with your choice of sides (chips and garden salad seems to be a popular combo, but feel free to experiment. Mashed potato? Potato gems? Potato salad? Pasta salad? The options are endless - get creative!
Your finished product should look something like this -
Thoughts on the Philly?
Actually pretty good! (I know you must think I'm contractually obliged to say that, but I'm being honest) The Grated Philly and Tasty cheese mixture is spot on - the Philly's creamyness is off the charts, I normally like a tad more bite to my cheese but this takes it in a different direction, it’s just so damn smooth.
Everything else? Not to toot the horn of my own culinary skills but it all came out pretty well. The fried egg was actually one of the better ones I've produced (thanks to the YouTube video "how to fry an egg" ... you had some solid advice!) and the Japanese style panko crumbs gave it a fantastic crunch.
If you want to try the new grated Philly be sure to check out their Website for more cool recipes and their Facebook page for more info - I'm keen to give it another go and really get experimental with the toppings - A Sweet Chilli Philly parma? Hot damn that sounds tempting.
Well thats it from me for another week! I know its been a long time coming but we're heading out for our 200th parma review next weekend - It's gonna be fun so be sure to check it out (and if you want a little preview of where we're going it gets discussed at length on episode #2 of our podcast - Clucking Around).
Seeya!