La petite biscotte

Before flying to Germany this summer, I bought a magazine at the airport called “Cuisinez comme un chef” (Cook like a chef) with a few recipes from French celebrity, 2 Michelin-star chef Joël Robuchon. Usually I’m not a fan of “celebrity chef recipes” because I’ve been disappointed one too many times. Often these recipes are extremely complicated, require an arsenal of ingredients and spices which are either hard to get or are way too pricey and the end result is more often than not disappointing compared to the time and money invested.

I don’t know about you but when I want to cook something there is nothing that “turns me off” quicker than a huge list of ingredients. I don’t really like adding components (like spices) to a dish for the sake of it. If I use an ingredient I want to be able to taste it while eating.

I highly doubt that all those recipes have really been cooked and developed by the big chefs themselves. Just like the products you can buy which carry the name of a celebrity chef and often the stuff simply tastes gross and isn’t worth the money (Maki made an interesting post about this topic on her blog).

This time however I was pleasantly surprised. The recipe was quite simple, didn’t require $100 worth of ingredients and the outcome was actually very tasty. Of course the recipe itself was adapted to the summer months, but I don’t think that eating light food is only something you do in summer. I’m actually looking for healthy, low-calorie recipes the whole year round. And this is definitely one I’m going to cook regularly from now on. What’s great about those wraps is that you can either eat them as a main course or you can take them along for lunch at work.

Ingredients (recipe adapted from “cuisinez comme un chef”)

For the light Cesar dressing:

• 3 Tbsp light mayonnaise
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 clove of garlic (crushed) [optional]
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 2 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• salt and pepper

For the wraps:

• 2 tortillas (I used store bought ones that had a note of salsa)
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 carrot
• 2 big lettuce leaves
• 1 tomato
• 1/2 yellow pepper (or any colour you prefer)

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Preparation

1. Make the light Cesar dressing by mixing all the ingredients for the dressing mentioned above. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you added whole pieces of garlic, remove them before using the dressing.
2. Put a teaspoon of oil in a non-stick frying pan and heat it up well at medium-high heat.
3. Cut the chicken in bite sized pieces and put them in the hot pan. (Remember never put meat or fish in a pan that’s not hot, it turns the meat to rubber)
4. Cook the meat while stirring frequently. At the same time wash the yellow pepper and cut it into thin stripes. Add those to the meat and let everything cook together until the meat is nicely brown and the pepper stripes are soft. Add a little salt at the end and put aside.
5. Peel the carrots and cut them in julienne stripes. Wash and cut the tomato in slices. Peel the avocado, remove the core and slice it in stripes. Wash the lettuce leaves.
6. Cut two pieces of baking sheet the approximate size of a tortilla.
7. Cover one of those sheets with a tortilla. Start by covering the tortilla with one of the lettuce leaves and continue with a layer of 2-3 tomato slices. Be careful to put the ingredients in the middle of the tortilla rather than the sides else the filling won’t stay in the tortilla once wrapped.
8. Season the tortilla with some of the Cesar dressing. Now add lengthwise: the chicken and pepper, the carrot stripes and the avocado slices. Fold in the sides a little and then roll your tortilla using the paper as help when needed. The baking sheet is supposed to be wrapped around the tortilla at the end.
9. Repeat for the second tortilla.
10. Cut in a half and serve. Serves 2.

Bon appetit !