Poached chicken

I'm not sure why poaching isn't more popular. I have only ever poached eggs and even that I haven't done for a while, but it's a fantastic, fuss-free way of cooking a chicken, and ensures even the breast meat remains moist. It is a bit of a lengthy process, but as long as your careful to get the temperature right in the beginning, you can sit back and allow it to do its own thang. If you don't have Clementine any other citrus fruit would be fine.

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
2 onions, peeled & quartered
4 whole cloves of garlic, squashed
1 Glass of white wine
2 bay leaves
1 tsp of whole peppercorns
2 Clementine, halved & squished
2 sprigs of rosemary
Water

Method
Place everything in a large pot and cover with water.
Place over a medium high heat & bring to a very gentle simmer. No boiling or the chicken will be tough. Cook for 45 minutes (my chicken was small, so increase the cooking time for bigger birds - 1 hour will be plenty for a medium chicken).
Remove the pan from the heat, cover and leave for another hour. This will allow the chuck to continue cooking very gently. Then remove the chicken from the cooking liquor and allow to cool.
The broth should be strained, the veg discarded, and used for stock.

Gnudi with slow baked Tomatoes, Garlic, Parsley & Pine nuts

I recently made the mistake of trying to make Gnocci... It was a lot of effort and utterly disasterous! Gnocci should definitely be left to the experts. Gnuddi on the other hand is much simpler and rather delicious. They are little dumplings of Ricotta, coated in flour (i used Chickpea flour) which becomes crispy when fried. They are light and lovely and look just a little bit impressive. The only tip I would say is make sure that you season the ricotta, otherwise they will be a bit bland. The recipe is adapted from this gorgeous blog: the Kitchy Kitchen.

Ingredients

Ricotta

Chickpea flour

Salt & Pepper

2 cloves of Garlic, crushed

Slow baked tomatoes, a handfull each

2 tablespoons of Olive oil

Hard cheese such as Parmesan, grated

Half a small bunch of Parsely, roughly chopped

A handful of Pine nuts

Method

Start the night before and roll the ricotta into little dumplings. The easiest and cleanest way I found to do this was to use a couple of teaspoons and make little quinelles. Roll in the chickpea flour and leave on a baking sheet overnight.

The next day boil a pan of water. Shake off excess flour from the little dumplings and place into the water and cook until they rise to the surface (about 2 minutes). Scoop out gently and place onto a paper towel to drain. In a frying pan over a medium heat, fry the garlic until fragrant but still pale. Gently place the gnudi into the pan and cook until golden all over (you will need to turn them a few times). Also add the tomatoes to the pan (if using) so they can warm through. 

Serve topped with the Parmesan, pine nuts & parsley.

Chicken n beans

Beans arent so glamorous. They are however versatile and hearty and this recipe seems a bit of a treat despite its simplicity and ease. The spicing is key and really transforms a humble chicken thigh and a tin of beans into something very satisfying indeed. Mark this experimentation as quite a success, (my test subject can verify)!

Ingredients for 2

4 Chicken thighes

4 tablespoons of natural yoghurt

4 teaspoons of ground Coriander

4 teaspoons of fennel seeds

2 tablespoons of Olive oil

Salt

1 tin of Kidney beans (no need to drain)

1 large onion, roughly sliced

2-3 sprigs of fresh Rosemary, finely chopped

2 tablespoons of Olive oil

2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar

Half a cup of apple juice

Salt

Method

Marinate the chicken thighes in the yoghurt, and 2 teaspoons each of the ground coriander and fennel seeds, ensuring the chicken is well covered in the gloop. Leave for at least half an hour, longer if possible. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

After the marinating time is up, into a baking tray put 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and the remianing coriander & fennel seeds. Scrape the yoghurty mixture off of the chicken skin and place in the prepared baking tray, squidging it around so its well covered in the seasoned oil. Ensure the skin side is up and bake for 30 minutes. Once cooked give the chicken 15 minutes resting time under a veil of tin foil.

Whilst the chicken is cooking, start the beans by adding the onion, rosemary, olive oil and a sprinkle of salt to a frying pan over a medium heat and allow the onion to soften (5 mins or so once the pan has heated up). Add in the remaining ingredients, including the entire contents of the bean can and stir. Let this simmer whilst the chicken cooks stirring occasionally. The liquid should become almost syrupy by the time chicken is done. Season the beans to taste and serve in wide shallow bowls.

Cheese & Mustard French Toastie

This is hangover food, pure and simple. Yes. you could serve it with salad and yes, this may reassure your inner demon voice that at least you are consuming something not quite so beige. But honestly, this is beige brilliance! Comfort eating never tasted so awesome. Oh and a Wally (cockney slang for dill pickle) may just push it into the realms of heavenly. This one carries a public health warning though: only to be  applied to face when feeling truly sorry for oneself and rotten. 

You will need

Thick slices of a decent cheddar cheese

Grainy mustard, a good dollop

bread, 2 slices (I used, as always, seeded Rye)

1 egg, beaten

Butter, 1 large knob

Method

Make sandwich: bread, mustard, cheese, bread and squish together lightly. Put the beaten egg into a wide shallow dish (wide enough to accommodate the sarnie). Dip the sandwich in the egg on both sides and allow to reside there for a few minutes to soak up the egg. Meanwhile, in a frying pan heat the butter over a medium heat and when it's melted and bubbly fry the sandwich. Allow 2-3 minutes each side and then carefully turn more frequently, squidging the sarnie with a spatula as you go. How long it takes will depend on the density of the bread you use and the thickness of your slice. Rye bread is quite dense and it took me around 10 mins to get the golden, crispy shell and to be able to feel that the cheesey insides were melty.  

Chorizo Stew with Lemon Thyme & Lime Courgettes

I'm not entirely sure what a cliché is, although I use the word a lot. So here's the definition, in case you were wondering: "a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse". So in light of the above new found knowledge, I'm pretty sure that the term "one pot wonder" may well be a cliché. However I'm going to use it anyway, because this is one of that illustrious group. Or rather, it would have been if i could have fitted the courgettes into my stew pot. As it happened I couldn't, for fear of overflow, so instead I sautéed them with citrous flavours and they brought a light freshness to the stew which would otherwise have been missed. So the moral of the story.. sometimes it pays to have a small stew pot. It forced me to think up a new use for my courgette..Hooray!

Ingredients

Stew

200g Chorizo, roughly sliced 

70g Panceta, diced

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

2 heaped teaspoons of sweet Paprika

2 Bay leaves

1 Red Pepper, sliced into chunks

2 medium Onions, peeled & sliced

2 medium cloves of Garlic, Squashed & finely chopped

Fresh Thyme & Rosemary (a few sprigs of each), finely chopped

1 tablespoon of Olive Oil

Salt

Courgettes

1 Courgette, sliced

Zest of half a Lime

The leaves from 2 sprigs of Lemon Thyme

Olive Oil

Method

To start the Stew put the onions in a heavy bottomed pan over a medium heat and sweat in the olive oil and a little salt until translucent & beginning to burnish. Then add in the Chorizo, Panceta, Paprika & garlic. Allow to sizzle for about 5 mins stirring frequently before adding in the remaining ingredients. Allow the pot to simmer for an hour or so over a medium heat, stirring occasionally.

When you're almost ready to serve up, get going on the courgettes. 

Add all the ingredients to a shallow frying pan and fry over a medium heat until just soft and turning golden (about 10 minutes).

Serve the stew with the Courgettes on top along side some good bread or mash.

Blueberry, Beetroot & Pomegranate Smoothie

I am scared. Scared of change, of risk, of not meeting expectations, of letting you down, of not being about to cover costs, of losing (the dog, my keys, you, our home, the collective marbles) and of suddenly being naked in public. I am scared but I will never ever let the fear make my choices. That counts for all of the above, apart from the latter which forces me to carry spare undies with me wherever I go! The future is uncertain no matter how settled you are, there is always something that will trundle up behind you and clock you right in the bonce and send you hurtling into uncertainty. Please wake up out of the mental breakdown-age and realise it doesn't have to be so negative. Everything is going to be great.. It just may take some time to get to great. Sometimes things are difficult but anything worth having is hard to get and once we get there (and we will!) we'll appreciate it all the more because of the journey. Lets face it the ride so far has been pretty sweet, its about time we hit a bump!

This is a smoothie for taking on the world. Vitamin packed, unusually delicious and ridiculously purple (the photos don't do it justice).

You will need:

1 handful of Blueberries ( fresh or frozen)

1 cooked & peeled beetroot (not pickled!)

1 cup of Pomegranate juice (or enough juice to make it up to about 400 ml all in)

A squish of Lime if you have one

Method:

BLEND!! Blend like a crazy person, or not, up to you :) Decant and D-rink.

Chicken Noodles with Pickled Onions

After you've roasted a chicken, don't throw those bones away. Put them to use by popping them in a heavy sauce pan, covering with water and boil, low and slow for a few hours to make a wonderful home made stock. This can then be frozen or stored in the fridge for use as a base for soups, stews and maybe this...

Ingredients:
Chicken stock - at least a pint
Rice stick noodles
1 red onion, finely sliced
4 Spring onions, sliced
Juice of 1 Lime
Soy Sauce
Coriander leaves
Toasted Sesame seeds
Left over cooked chicken meat if you have it
Salt & Pepper

Method
Bring the chicken stock to the boil in a sauce pan. Add in the chicken if using and the rice sticks, cover and remove from the heat to allow the noodles to absorb the liquid.
In the meantime quick-pickle the onions, by putting them in a bowl and covering in lime juice, add a little salt and leave to stand for at least 5 mins, longer if possible.
Once the noodles are soft, season with a tablespoon or two of Soy Sauce and stir through the Coriander leaves.
Serve on warmed plates, topped with the pickled onions, sesame seeds & freshly ground black pepper (or chili if ya fancy).