Three ways with chicken

This month we are feeling poor (buying all the bits for a new bathroom will do that to you), so we're eating thriftily. Chicken fillets were on special offer at the butcher's this week, so that's what we've had for three dinners in the last five days. I'm not keen on eating the same thing over-again on successive days, so here are three ways with chicken pieces.



1. Chicken with sumac, za'aatar and lemon
This recipe came from the Ottolenghi recipe book. I marinated the chicken pieces in a mix of middle eastern spices (cinnamon, allspice, sumac) and lemon, then baked it in the oven with an approximation of za'aatar (I used a mix of sesame seeds, dried thyme and sea salt) and lemon slices on top. The lemon went soft and gave a delicious tang to the dish. I served this with couscous and some toasted pinenuts. It was a lot like a tagine: Perhaps not one of the most unusual-tasting recipes in the Ottolanghi recipe book, but easy, filling and certainly a very pleasant dinner.

2. Chicken and bacon burgers
I used the recipe for chicken and bacon sausage rolls from the Bourke Street Bakery book for these burgers. Instead of encasing them in puff pastry I grilled them up and served them in pitta breads with salad, potatoes and fried apple wedges. 'Junk' food but certainly no junk in them. Two chicken fillets and 3 rashers of smokey bacon made 4 burgers, so it was quite a thrifty dinner. The only other ingredients were a few breadcrumbs, a quarter of an onion, and a few spring onions. These burgers weren't quite as fantastic as the pork and fennel sausage roll mix that I adapted into burgers a couple of weeks ago, but they were meaty whilst feeling light on the calorie load.

3. Chicken rolls stuffed with orange, anchovies and chicory
I have a cook book which I've had for years - since my teens I think. It is one that my Mum bought us all as a job-lot for stocking fillers around the time she was trying to encourage us all to cook and fend for ourselves. The book's by Josceline Dimbleby and is called The Nearly Vegetarian Cookbook. It truely is a treasure trove of achieveable, delicious dinners.


We had left-over oranges still sitting in the fruit bowl from making Dan's birthday cake last week, and flicking through the book I spotted this recipe, which had the advantage that it would use the last of my special-offer chicken, some of the oranges, and the recipe described it as a 'delightful' dish. I decided to put my scepticism to one side (orange and anchovies didn't seem like natural partners) and give it a try.
I should have had more faith - it was lovely!
None of the individual flavours dominated the dish, which was subtle but well flavoured, and delicious served with wild rice and baby corn-on-the-cob. Dan liked it so much he licked the plate. Bad manners, but a ringing endorsement!
A first for me on this dish - I'd never used chicory in cooking before.

Here's the recipe:
Chicken rolls stuffed with orange, anchovies and chicory
Serves 2

2 Chicken breast fillets, skin removed
3 anchovy fillets (in oil or salt - drained and/or rinsed), finely chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1cm ginger root, finely chopped
1 medium chicory
Juice and zest of half an orange
150ml milk
5g cornflour, mixed to a paste with a little water
Parsley
Salt (go easy - the anchovies are salty) and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Place the chicken pieces (one at a time) in a plastic sandwich bag and bash them flat with a rolling pin. You need to get them to a thickness of about 1/2cm-1cm. Very theraputic!
Mix together the chicory, garlic, orange, ginger, anchovies and orange zest. Spoon this over the flattened chicken fillets and roll them up to encase the chicory mixture. Secure with a cocktail stick if necessary. Place the chicken rolls in an ovenproof dish and pour the orange juice around them. Cover the dish with foil and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes.
Once the chicken is cooked drain the liquid from the oven dish into a heavy based saucepan and keep the chicken warm while you make the sauce. Add the milk and cornflour paste to the cooking liquid from the chicken and bring it slowly to the boil, stirring all the time so that it doesn't catch. Once the sauce has thickened slightly add the parsley, pepper, and a small amount of salt.
Serve the chicken rolls with fried mushrooms (I loathe them so I left them off my plate), wild rice, lightly steamed baby corn, and spoon the sauce over the top.

A right royal weekend

Whilst I had very little inclination to spend a whole day watching the Royal wedding on TV, I was very grateful to William and Kate for getting married and thereby granting us all another lovely 4 day weekend. I could seriously get used to not working, not least because it gives me plenty of time to try out a few of the more complex recipes from some of my recipe books!

Some of the recipes from the Ottolenghi cook book have been on my list to try out for a while, and I managed two of those dishes over the weekend.

First I tried out the fried Seabass with labneh, pitta and pomegranate.



My budget didn't stretch to seabass this week, so I used coley instead. Its a chunkier fish, but if you can't afford the fancy stuff you just have to put up with that! Here in deepest, darkest Oxfordshire it is not possible to find labneh in the shops, and I hadn't realised ahead of time that I should allow 2 days to make it, so I was forced to improvise for that element. I started off with quite thick sheeps milk yoghurt and drained it through a piece of muslin cloth for an afternoon, and then used that as a spread. It wasn't quite the thickness of cheese, but nearly there, and at least the flavour was right. I spread this on toasted pitta breads, sprinkled a handful of pomegranate seeds over the top, fried the fish, and then topped the whole thing with a spoonful of homemade tomato salsa. I added some steamed spinach and a sprinkle of finely chopped fresh mint to the dish, which weren't in the recipe but were good additions. It was a fragrant and fruity dinner, perfect for a warm evening.

A couple of days later we had the turkey and sweetcorn meatballs with roast pepper sauce.

The sauce came out an amazing colour - almost fluorescent!



I'm a girl who doesn't much care for sweetcorn, but so many people had raved about this recipe all over the internet I felt I should try it out. And they were so right.

My corner of Oxfordshire failed me in sourcing turkey mince, so I used finely chopped chicken instead. Other than that I did this one 'by the book'. The chicken and sweetcorn meatballs are seasoned with a dash of ground cumin and served with a dipping sauce of roast peppers, chilli, and sweet chilli sauce.



I can see why there are so many blog posts out there raving about this recipe. Its easy to make and very yummy indeed. I appreciate that this snap does not make it look that way, so you'll have to trust me!

Its no surprise to me that I have so far loved pretty all the recipes by Ottolenghi which I have tried. What I'm really pleased about is that Dan is also becoming a massive fan. So convenient when our tastebuds agree!

An update 2 June: This week I made the meatballs again, but using turkey this time. Lovely. I served them up with cauliflower and pitta breads for dipping in the sauce. A very good combo.

Sweet or sour?

Over the last week I have made it my mission to discover if I do actually like Sweet 'n' Sour. For the last 31 years I have always thought I didn't, but I'd only ever had it out of a jar or from a dodgy takeaway. It seemed like time to discover if the real thing was more palatable.

I started out with a Thai sweet and sour recipe. It was subtle - basically just pineapple added to a prawn stirfry - and a good introduction to the concept for someone like me (ie someone who doesn't like gloopy sauces or pineapple very much!).
It was manageable, didn't put me off, but I wouldn't bother to make it again. It was just a little unexciting.

So, next up I thought I'd best go for the real deal - a Chinese version, complete with more pineapple (still not that keen), ketchup (don't like it), sugar and vinegar. It wasn't boding well, but I couldn't give up now! The trusty BBC came up with a recipe I thought I could handle; Simon Rimmer's Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls (find the recipe here).

The verdict? Definitely edible, but just not really my bag. I really liked the chicken meatballs, so I'll make those again, but sweet and sour sauce is not going to become a fixture in my life.

So there you have it. I tried it, and my Mum always said as long as I tried something I didn't have to eat it again if I really didn't like it.

And thinking of childhood things, I also made proper, baked in the oven Rice Pudding at the weekend. Such a childhood favourite for me - served with a spoon of homemade rasberry jam of course! Dan had never had the real deal. His rice pudding had always come out of a tin, which is frankly a horrible travesty of the concept!

Argentina

My Dad tells an interesting story about being on a ship that docked in Buenos Aires. They were carrying coal, but the next cargo was to be grain. After unloading the coal in Buenos Aires they had about 48 hours to the next port in which to completely clean the hold of any trace of coal dust.
However, red wine was super cheap in Argentina, and the sailors got so drunk on it that they gave themselves alcohol poisoning and were completely incapacitated. Dad and the other officer cadets worked round the clock to clean the ship, staying up working for the full 48 hours straight. He was 17 at the time and had only been in the navy for a year. He swears that it was the hard physical work like that experience, as well as the poor food once you'd been at sea for more than a week, which meant that he stopped growing almost as soon as he joined the merchant navy.

But anyway, I digress. This week I made an Argentinian dish - Empanadas. Hence the musing on my Dad's tales of his travels. They're the South American version of Cornish Pasties! The filling was a combination of chicken, onion, leek, paprika, cumin, stock, pear, and peach. My fear was that the pear and peach chunks would make these wierdly sweet for a dinner dish, but the stock and spices balanced out the sweetness of the fruit remarkably well. I cheated and bought ready-rolled puff pastry for the outside; the ultimate in convenience! I baked the empanadas in the oven and served them with green vegetables and a few new potatoes, but if you made smaller portions they would work well with a salad for lunch.

My other recipe this week was to take advantage of the last of the wild blackberries which I had picked at the weekend; Blackberry and apple souffle.
I actually made blackberry, apple and pear souffle as I already had some stewed apple and pear in the freezer so it seemed sensible to use that rather than starting from scratch!

Here's the recipe (enough for 2 souffles):
Blackberry and Apple Souffle


(Sorry for the horrible picture - souffles sink fast once they're out of the oven so you have to 'snap' and serve!)

120g blackberries
1/2 apple
squeeze of lemon juice
10g sugar

1 egg white
30g caster sugar

butter for greasing the souffle dishes

Grease the souffle dishes with a small amount of butter.
Preheat the oven to 200C and place a baking tray in the oven to warm.
Peel, core and dice the apple. Place in a saucepan with a squeeze of lemon, 10g sugar, a splash of water and the blackberries. Heat gently until the apples break down to a pulp, then take off the heat and allow to cool a little. Press the fruit mixture through a sieve to make a fine puree.
Put a tablespoon of fruit puree in the bottom of each souffle dish and put the rest to one side.
Whisk the egg white until stiff, then add the sugar and whisk again until it is a glossy meringue-like mix. Gently fold in the remaining fruit puree with a metal spoon, then spoon it into the souffle dishes.
Put the souffle dishes onto the preheated baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown on top.
I suggest serving this with vanilla icecream.

For a man who claims not to have sweet tooth Dan does seem to have a definite enthusiasm for fruit puddings. This one was declared to be a keeper. He almost licked the plate!

Cooking from the 'Axis of Evil'

Ridiculous statement. I do hate that kind of label. "War on Terror" also bugs the hell out of me. You can't wage war on a feeling for God's Sake!

But anyway, even if it is from the 'Axis of Evil' (please read Iran) the Chicken Fesanjan recipe which we had for dinner tonight was very delicious indeed. So at least they're eating well over there while we make our stupid sweeping statements about their nation.

Fesanjan is a stew of coarsely ground walnuts, a lovely subtle but warming mix of spices (cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, cardamom) and pomegranate molasses (you can get this quite cheaply in Sainsbury's), with chicken and onions. I served it up with rice and spinach and a few fresh pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the top. You can use duck instead of chicken.

Must make more middle eastern recipes - I just love the mix of flavours.

I got the original idea to make this when I had Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern recipe book from the library. Sadly, I had to return the book, but it turns out the internet is full of recipes for this dish, so just do a google hunt.

Sorry - rather short post! Turns out training for a half marathon is rather tiring, so I don't have much energy just now! The run is on sunday.

More Riverford recipes

I'm still working my way through the Riverford Farm cook book which I bought in Devon. Its an amazingly useful book. I LOVE the fact that its full of fantastic ideas for vegetables.

So...ta dah! This week we had Mexican one-pot courgettes. I only made one amendment to the recipe, and that was enforced; the cream we had in the fridge had gone off so I used sheep's yoghurt instead.

Sorry, no photos - I was too hungry! We had our courgettes (cooked up in one-pot with cinnamon sticks, cloves, pepper, chilli, coriander and mint, yoghurt and tinned tomatoes) with pork loin chops and new potatoes. We both thought this would be great with chicken and rice, and possibly also good cold for work lunches.

It was easy. It was pretty quick. Low effort. Tasty. What's not to like?

I forgot to post last week's recipe - One of my Dad's recipe cards picked up in the supermarket a while back. It was lemon and basil chicken with pasta. It meant that we could have the first crop of peas grown by my own fair hands in our little vegetable plot.
Here's the recipe:

Lemon and basil chicken (for 2)

2 chicken breasts
Handful of basil leaves
Approx 50g fresh peas (or defrosted frozen ones)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon yoghurt or creme fraiche
Enough pasta for 2 people

Dice the chicken then stir fry it until there is no more pink showing. Stir in all of the other ingredients. Season with salt and black pepper. I also added a pink of smoked paprika but you don't need to. Heat through. Serve with cooked pasta.

It was easy, quick, filling and refreshing on the tastebuds.

PS You will notice that a lot of my recipes recently have been low-effort quick dishes. My explanation (excuse?) is that I'm currently training for a half marathon in 4 weeks time. I'm spending silly amounts of time running, which doesn't leave a lot of energy for complicated cookery!
Next week marks the 52nd of this project, ie a WHOLE YEAR. Who'd have thought I'd keep going for so long? Lobster here I come......

curry for comfort

Families....who'd have'em?!

Last night I felt in the need for tasty, spicy comfort food. We had chicken in the fridge, rice in the cupboard, so chicken biriani was the decision. The BBC website came up with the recipe for me (simplified to aid preparation when feeling slightly befuddled), and it did the trick far better than a large slab of chocolate would have done (that was my fall back solution).

Here's the recipe. It was quick and easy. Perfect for a quick week-night supper. The only downside is that my hands still smell of curry spices.

Chicken Biriani for 2 people (fairly generous portions)

1 dessertspoon vegetable oil
125g basmati rice
1 medium onion (chopped)
4 garlic cloves (chopped)
2 teaspoons grated root ginger
2 chicken breasts (cut into bite sized chunks)
1/4 teaspoon hot chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
generous pinch grated nutmeg
150g sheeps yogurt (or any greek-style yoghurt)
60g sultanas
Handful of fresh coriander leaves (chopped)
salt to taste

Heat oil over a low heat and gently stirfry the onion, garlic and ginger until the onion softens.
In a separate pan pour boiling water over the rice (add a shake of salt if you like), bring back to the boil and simmer until nearly cooked - about 10 minutes.
Add the chicken pieces to the onion and garlic and stir fry for 4-5 minutes until there is no uncooked meat showing on the chunks.
Drain the rice and then rinse with a kettle full of boiling water.
Add the spices to the chicken mixture and stir for about 1 minute, then add the yogurt, sultanas, rice and salt to taste.
Stir to mix everything together, then cover, turn the heat down as low as it will go and leave for 4 or 5 minutes.
Add the coriander leaves and stir.
Remove from heat and allow to sit for another 5 minutes before serving.
Serve with yoghurt and mango chutney on the side. You could have some chopped up tomatoes and cucumber on the side too if you fancied them.

Tonight is Pancake Day! Hooray! I have made my pancake batter in readyness, so its pancakes for tea. With sugar and lemon, of course.
I suspect my pancake flipping will not be up-to-scratch, but I will be having a try anyway!

Jerk chicken recipe...since you asked nicely

Right then....I'm not sure how authentic this is, but here's my slightly adapted recipe for Jerk Chicken kebabs. Served with sticky rice and some veg its enough for 2 people for a main meal (on a hungry day - I had run a decent distance in the cold and it filled me up).

You will need:

2 chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces
6 cherry tomatoes
1 courgette (zucchini) sliced into chunks

6 skewers
oven proof dish

Marinade ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar (demerera)
1 garlic clove - crushed
1/4 onion - finely chopped
1 teaspoon vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)
Juice of 1/2 lime
pinch chilli flakes or chilli powder
approx tablespoon of water

Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Stir in the chicken until well coated with marinade. Leave to marinade for at least a couple of hours in the fridge (or overnight).
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Thread the meat, tomatoes, and courgette onto skewers, alternating meat and vegetables.
Arrange skewers in oven proof dish and bake in oven for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Cook the rice while they bake.

You could serve this with flatbreads instead of rice, or on their own as a starter.
Also, I'm sure the kebabs could be grilled or barbequed just as effectively.

Enjoy!