Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

How to make chicken interesting?! Hmmmmm - it's the protein we love to hate.... In our house hold we're rather partial to a portion of chicken - partly because the Boy That Cant Cook likes to up his lean proteins, but it also happens to be the most versatile of meats.

Mr Chicken is a chameleon - he can be dressed up in an exotic outfit from Thailand or India or is just as happy to partake in a more patriot dish like a good ol' Sunday roast.... whatever tickles your taste buds - you won't be hard pushed to find something that looks good on him.

Anyway - I'm digressing slightly - I wanted to come up with something tasty and healthy, that I could easily whip up after work. Now… we LOooooVE our creamy, saucy dishes, but to have something like this on a regular basis will result in a much larger waist line.

I once cooked a really yummy chicken, white wine, mushroom tarragon and cream sauce - which was divine - but had a million calories. So for something a touch more slimline, try this.... I promise it's just as good.......

What you’ll need (I haven’t actually weighed the ingredients before, so will judge on a very scientific measurement– handfuls!)

2 x diced chicken breasts

3 x handfuls of chestnut mushrooms – thinly sliced

1 x handful of dried porcini mushrooms

Half a tub of extra light Philadelphia – this stuff is brilliant and so low fat!

1 x onion

Handful of fresh tarragon (or dried is a good substitute – about 1tbls)

3 x fat cloves of garlic

Olive oil for frying

Boiled kettle

Place your dried mushrooms into a bowl and cover with boiled water – leave to hydrate (10-15mins).

Finely chop garlic and onion and fry over a medium heat in olive oil for a couple of minutes – add diced chicken and cook for around 5mins until all sides are sealed and no longer raw looking. Add your sliced mushrooms – season with salt and pepper, this will help the mushrooms reduce down.

Whilst that mixture is cooking down…. Drain your dried mushrooms over a bowl (to catch the mushroom liquor) and finely chop the rehydrated mushrooms, then add to and combine with the chicken mixture – sprinkle over half of your tarragon if you are using fresh. If you are using dried, add all of it.

Add a couple of ladles of the dried mushroom liquor and reduce down – then add in your Philadelphia and combine all together. Once warmed through it is ready to eat…

This is lovely served with new potatoes or you can have it with rice or cous cous… whatever your fancy!

It’s Gnocchi, not Nookie!

Pasta is a fantastic invention… it's cheap, goes with many, many things and is filling and comforting after a long hard day.... Now how many things can you buy for under a quid that are capable of that?!?! I think I'd have to admit that pasta is one of my favourite foods.... I know it has no flavour on its own, but it’s so versatile and quick to cook.

Homemade pasta is delicious, but can be fiddly and lengthy to make – so I thought I’d have a go at gnocchi – another great base for a whole host of sauces. What prompted me to make it, was once again I only had one humongous potato and not a lot else.

I switched on the laptop and found a super easy recipe…

• 500g potato
• 300g plain flour

I know, can you believe it?!

Peel your potato(es) and cook as you would when making mash, but when you come to the mashing, DONT add any cream/ butter/ milk etc… only seasoning. A ricer is great for this, as it gets the lumps out – I don’t have one, so The Boy That Can’t Cook gave me a helping hand.

Then once you have a very smooth mash consistency, mix in the flour and transfer onto a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes.

 

Once it looks like dough, cut into 4 and roll out each piece into a long thin(ish) shape - then cut into small pieces resembling a little rectangular lozenge.

When you come to cook your gnocchi, boil water as you would with pasta and drop in your pieces – they will fall to the bottom straight away and then float after a few minutes..... When they do, they're ready!!

I made a very simple tomato and mascarpone sauce to have with our gnocchi using:

• 1 clove of chopped garlic
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 3 tbls mascarpone
• 2 tbls balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbls brown sugar
• Basil or oregano – fresh or dried
• Seasoning

Simply fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil until soft and then add the chopped tomatoes and herbs. Once these have cooked down for around 10min, add in the mascarpone and mix until the sauce looks creamy and scrumptious.  

When your sauce is ready, transfer the gnocchi into the pan making sure all the sauce covers it – then serve!

Simple and delicious….

NB. I have to keep telling The Boy That Can’t Cook it’s called Gnocchi as he keeps referring to it as nookie – hence the title for this post!

Little Shop, Little Shop of Horrors!

I haven’t posted an update on the Scrumptious Veg Patch for ages and I’m very pleased to report that the recent glorious weather has resulted in a rather successful and flourishing bounty on our balcony. I’ve not only managed to water daily and feed our plants – I’ve also kept Mr Daisy from eating them – huge success me thinks J

Chilli - Sage - Tomato

The tomato plants were incredibly easy to grow and I didn’t realise how big they would actually become – so I put five of them up for adoption and my lovely work colleagues snapped them up quickly. I now have seven on our balcony – a far more manageable number… I hope! Very much looking forward to pasta sauces and fresh tomato salads – albeit still getting ahead of myself, there isn’t a tomato in sight yet!

The Tomato Family

The only thing I am slightly worried about is my courgette plant – it is HUGE – it reminds me of something from the Little Shop of Horrors…. Like it has a mind of its own and it certainly seems to be taking over our balcony. I’ll be keeping my eye on that one I think and see how we go – I hope we won’t have to give it away due to the fact it’s outgrown our small balcony… or that it might have swallowed up little unsuspecting Daisy whilst he’s innocently walking past… I’ll keep you posted.

Courgettes!

Pukka Maple Syrup Tart...

(Sorry couldn't resist the title)

This is an awesome Jamie Oliver recipe that I have made once before and loved so much I just had to make it again – although next time, I will definitely make sure it’s for a dinner party and not just The Boy That Can’t Cook and I… no wonder I’ve put on nearly a stone since starting this blog…. Grrr!

Serves 6-8…. Hmmm, or 2 for Sunday dinner and leftovers for a couple of days!

What you need… 

• Shortcrust pastry (Eek, I cheated and used ready made, but I am capable of making my own – promise!)
• 55g butter
• 340g maple syrup
•  3 tablespoons golden syrup
• 170g breadcrumbs, half fine, half coarse
• Zest of 2 oranges
• 2 Cox's apples grated
• Grated thumb-size piece of fresh ginger
• 2 handfuls of shelled pecan nuts

This is the recipe straight from his book ‘Jamie’s Dinners’ – I could rewrite it, but who better to tell you than the man himself…

First of all, make your pastry, then line a 28cm/11in loose-bottomed tart tin with it and place in the freezer for an hour. Preheat the over to 180C/350F/gas 4. Take the pastry case out of the freezer and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes, until lightly golden.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.

Heat the butter, maple syrup and golden syrup together in a pan, then mix in the breadcrumbs, orange zest, apples, ginger and half the pecan nuts. Spoon into the pastry case and sprinkle over the remaining pecans. Put back in the oven and bake for around 20 minutes. Lovely served with some cème fraiche or vanilla ice cream…

And here's one I made earlier...

We had ours with crème fraiche as I could imagine it’s rather sickly with ice-cream – but if you’ve got a sweet tooth, then by all means go ahead. It’s also even better the next day when the breadcrumbs have completely fattened and absorbed the sticky mixture…. So make sure you have leftovers!

Perfect Summertime Cocktail

The unexpected burst of beautiful weather seems to have sent North London into a summertime frenzy – girls floating around in maxi dresses and men in shorts with flip-flops – Upper Street in Islington has turned into a holiday destination overnight…

One of the great bars we happened to stumble by was Wax Jambu – great tasting cocktails – with one drawback… a London price tag. Here’s a tasty recipe I sneakily took note of, so you don't have to… a combination of your five a day and a sweet tasting summer tipple all in one:

Berry Blush

• Handful of fresh strawberries, raspberries and blackberries – muddled at the bottom of a long glass
• Splash of Giffard Crème de Fraise and Framboise (http://www.winedrop.co.uk/search.asp?types=yes&type=Liqueurs) (just one of these would do I’m sure)
• Top up with rose champagne – or similar fizz
• Add lots of ice and top with berries

Enjoy!

Lots of Room in The Larder

I have to admit, that where The Boy That Can’t Cook falls short with his culinary skills, he certainly makes up for with the long list of restaurants he’s frequented over the years (of not cooking).

One of these is The Larder Restaurant on St John Street in Clerkenwell – he must have been pretty chuffed with himself when pulling this out of the hat on one of our early dates, as I probably had one of THE best meals here and will always remember it with very fond memories. The Larder opened four years ago by husband and wife team – Nick and Louise Male – and offers a monthly changing, modern British menu featuring meat from nearby Smithfield Market as well as sustainably caught fish and locally grown veg… attributes that instantly make me like a restaurant!

On my first visit to Larder, I could tell how good the meat was…. I used to be the kind of person that would rather go for a veggie main – after years of horrible, gristly school dinners; I was always a bit dubious about the quality of meat and where it came from, so would happily go without. The only meat I could ever trust was what my parents bought from the local butchers – and when my Mum cooked it, I would only eat it if all the skin and fat had been removed…. brat no, fussy yes.

My confidence has grown since living in London and visiting nicer restaurants…. and on this particular time to Larder – I’m not sure why, but I ordered pork belly with black pudding…. Both things I had NEVER even tried and after I wolfed down the whole meal, I couldn’t believe why I had never eaten these two things before?!?! Well… on second thoughts, perhaps I know why I hadn’t eaten black pudding, which I am still slightly squeamish about, but gorgeous and succulent pork belly – I must have been mad. This visit opened my eyes to something amazing and I have been a pork belly lover ever since – so much so, I evened cooked it for Christmas dinner last year.

So tonight, we visited The Larder again… as soon as we sat down, the waitress brought over a selection of fresh bread and a small shot glass of homemade hummus - so simple, yet really well received. We then ordered a Chicken Liver Parfait (£5.80) to share – it was huge last time, so one is big enough even for us – this came with fresh, warm bread, tangy chutney and tiny silver skin onions and cornichons.

This is supposedly for one person?! Hmmm...

The menu is pretty vast and split between fish, meat and vegetarian – but we couldn’t come here without having pork belly again. This time is was slightly different and came with small roasted potatoes, spinach and crispy scampi (£16.50)… a strange combination I thought (and I must admit, not as good as the previous), but it was still very tasty.

There was no chance we were having a dessert – we were stuffed – especially being after Easter, we could barely waddle home. I would highly recommend this place…. it’s big and spacious, so great for a group of friends/ family or a work do, with huge hearty portions and it is soooo far away from being pretentious that you could mistake it for being a friendly pub.

The Larder Restaurant, 91-93 St John Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1M 4NU

www.thelarderrestaurant.com 020 7608 1558

One a Penny, Two a Penny…

It’s nearly that time of year for Hot Cross Buns – something I love…. especially toasted with a generous spread of butter….mmmm! I was flicking through a food magazine recently and came across a recipe – I was surprised how easy they are to make…. hence the title it gave ‘No-Fuss Hot Cross Buns’. They also require minimal ingredients – brilliant!

So I decided to give them a go when my Gran came round last Sunday for afternoon tea. All you need is:

500g plain flour

1 sachet of quick action yeast

¼ tsp mixed spices – I only had cinnamon, but this worked a treat!

Handful of raisins – or currents, whatever you have in the cupboard

350ml warm water

For the glaze and cross…

24 x thin strips of marzipan – about 50g in total

1 tbsp sugar dissolved in 2 tbsp of water

This recipe is really, really simple – all you need to do is put all the bun ingredients into a bowl and mix with the water until a dough is formed… this will be quite sticky. Then cover the bowl with a tea towel and place to one side for a minimum of 3 hours – apparently you can also leave overnight in the fridge.

Once you are ready to cook – preheat your oven to 180oC – cut the dough into 12, roll each piece into a ball (with the help of a floured work surface and floured hands) and drop into a 12-hole buttered cupcake or muffin tin.

Cook for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and place a marzipan cross over each bun – then place back into the oven for 5 minutes… this will brown the marzipan. Once your hot cross buns come out of the oven, brush each with your sugar glaze.

They can be eaten as soon as they come out (well, maybe once they’ve cooled slightly) or if you leave them to go cold, once you are ready to eat, cut them in half and toast under the grill.

These are traditionally eaten on Good Friday – but they’re too nice to restrict to one day of the year!!

I also made a Victoria sponge, flapjacks and some finger sandwiches – delicious, but we were ready to burst afterwards…

Hungry for Hummus!

I personally don't know anyone that doesn't like hummus – correct me if I’m wrong – but all of my close friends are hummus addicts and I will rarely go to a party or girls night-in and not find that at least one person has brought a tub with them. The silky and creamy texture with subtle notes of garlic is just divine and I could definitely devour a large amount in one go with crisp and crunchy crudités or hot pitta. The only problem with some shop bought hummus, is the strange/ acidic aftertaste that some can give you.... Sometimes repeating on you for the rest of the day - eww!

So I thought the best way to achieve something tasty and cut out any additives or horrid synthetic flavours, was by making my own – I found that it’s so simply and actually works out cheaper for a huge quantity. So for a super easy version - all you need is:

1 x tin of chickpeas - (this is the easy option, you can also buy dried chickpeas and prepare before hand)
1 x large clove of garlic - 2 if you want a stronger flavour
100g tahini (this is like peanut butter, but made from sesame seeds)
80ml Olive oil
Juice from 1/2 a limeA splash of water - add more if you want a thinner consistency

All you need to do is mix all the ingredients together and blend - so easy and so tasty!

You can also flavour your base hummus by adding some sun dried tomatoes before blending or a bunch of herbs..... This was one I made with a couple of handfuls of fresh basil leaves, then transferred into a serving bowl and sprinkled with sesame seeds and a drizzle of olive oil. 

I now always have a tin of chickpeas in the cupboard and tahini in the fridge for when I fancy whipping up a quick snack...