10-22-13-cordon-bleu

 

Last week I picked up some brie-stuffed dates and a small wedge of a saga blue pecan caramel torte at the grocers.

Victor consumed the dates over the course of a few days, but the wedge of torte just sat there in the ‘fridge. It was a total impulse-buy at the store – and neither of us are wine-and-cheese-appetizer folks. It looked really good – it was an impulse buy I didn’t need.

So… after looking at it in the ‘fridge for a week, I decided I needed to do something with it. We have a no remorse rule at the house. If we buy it – we eat it. A chicken cordon bleu came to mind – and I ran with it.

Now… a sweet caramelly cheese isn’t the most natural accompaniment to a cordon bleu, but – what the heck. I’ve done weirder…

And this is one weird that worked well! I put the wedge of torte in a small saucepan – it was about 4 ounces – and added a bit of heavy cream. I’m already dealing with cheese and caramel – I’m not worrying about a couple more calories at this point.

I let the tote melt into the cream and then let it simmer just a bit to thicken.

Meanwhile, I breaded some chicken cutlets with panko and corn meal and fried them. I then fried up some thin slices of ham.

The ham went on top of the chicken, the sauce went on top of the ham.

We both cleaned our plates. We practically licked them clean. There was a definite caramel undertone to the sauce but it wasn’t overly-sweet. It was just sweet enough. The saga blue came through but it didn’t overpower, either. Everything balanced – the crunch of the chicken, the saltiness of the ham, the sweet and tart of the sauce.

Spinach and farro on the side.

I probably won’t be picking up any tortes in the near future, but if I do and I have leftovers, I know what I can do.