Author Archives: Fabric of Madness

Leek and Chicken Gratin with Pan Roasted Potatoes

03 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by in chicken, Vegetables

≈ Leave a comment

It’s been a while since last posting.  A few weekends spent with friends and not the usual routines.   A great time, though probably too much wine.  What the heck,  it doesn’t happen very often.  Tonight was a winter evening,  not too cold, but gloomy.   Definitely called for some comfort food.  So a quick search through the world of google,  and I decided on an Annabel Langbein recipe, with potatoes and a fresh cos salad.    A few changes to the recipe – of course – and very definitely a repeater…..

photo (9)AL’s recipe was for six, so I halved it as there was only Mr MWCED and myself.   We still had enough for a left-over dinner another night.   Cooking time is about 1-1/4 hours.
3 tbs butter
1 leek and medium banana shallots, thinly sliced (AL used only leeks, but I quite liked the mix)
salt and ground black pepper
6 skinless chicken thighs – original recipe suggested boneless – but ours were bone-in and I think they are tastier. Plus my package only had 5. As it was, we ate 2 – so go with whatever you think you need.
2 tsp dijon mustard
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
½ tsp salt
1/4 cup chicken stock – original calls for either cream or stock. We rarely, if ever, use cream in cooking, so no contest. But you might like it.
1 recipe Provençal Crust (see below) – not sure I can call my version Provençal as Mr MWCED doesn’t like anchovies so they were omitted

Heat butter in a heavy pan, add leek and shallots and season with salt and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring now and then, until softened and no longer bright green (about 15 minutes).

While the leek and shallots are cooking, place chicken in a bowl with mustard, worcestershire sauce, cayenne, thyme and salt and stir to combine. Allow to sit for 10 minutes while the leeks cook.

Remove cooked leek and shallots from heat and mix in chicken stock. Spread evenly in the base of a large, shallow baking dish. Arrange chicken thighs on top then cover with Provençal Crust. The gratin can be prepared in advance to this stage and chilled for several hours until needed.When ready to cook, preheat oven to 180°C. Bake until chicken is fully cooked through and crumbs are golden (about 1 hour) – maybe slightly longer with bone-in.  Our oven tends to need more heat, so I whacked it up to 220 C, which was fine. 

Provençal Crust

Prep time   10 mins
Makes        2½ cups – you will only use about half of this

½ loaf day-old rustic bread
4 cloves garlic
2 handfuls parsley leaves
1 tsp coarsely chopped rosemary leaves
2 tablespoons (or so) of olive oil (this is instead of anchovies and butter). I used a local chile infused oil from www.darcgrove.com – which I purchased a couple of weekends ago as couldn’t resiste the beautiful bottle shape
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
½ cup coarsely grated parmesan

Break bread into rough chunks, removing crusts if they are
very hard. Put into food processor with all other ingredients. Pulse until crumbly.
Provençal Crust will keep in a container in the fridge for up to a week or can be frozen.

PAN ROASTED POTATOES

photo (10)Ingredients
4-5 medium sized potatoes, or as many as it takes – we had a lot of little babies which were fine
2 T Olive Oil
2 T Butter
Salt and pepper
Pan Roasted Potatoes Directions
1. Wash and dry potatoes (I didn’t peel)
2. Cut potatoes up in small cubes, about 1/2 inch pieces
3. Heat non-stick pan on medium heat on stove top for a few minutes before adding oil and half of the butter.
4. Add potatoes, stir to coat with oil and season with salt and pepper.
5. Stir potatoes every 5-10 minutes, adding rest of butter as they cook.
6. Cook about a total of 30-45 minutes, or until they are browned to your personal satisfaction.

It worked out to be a great combination, and totally delicious.  Now,  what shall I cook for Sunday night?

 

Bacon & Lentil Soup

29 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Soup

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Our village has just started an annual festival for the olive harvest.  The first was last year and it was successful enough for the organisers to put a lot more effort into making it bigger and better.   One of the events is a night market in our town square.  A wonderful collection of olive producers, restaurants and craft stalls creating a great atmosphere and now attracting those from out of town as well as locals.   The evening was the perfect wintry night,  crisp and still.  As we walked down to the square we could see the lights twinkling and hear the live music.  Wandering around the square and the stalls the choices were wide – you could choose mulled wine, hot chocolate, locally brewed beer,  eat a great selection of foods and be tempted to buy all kinds of thing that you don’t need but certainly want.   I knew that by the time we got home it would be great to have a hot pot of soup ready and waiting, so earlier in the afternoon started cooking.   The night before, Friday, was the end of the week and my usual grocery shopping night.  I was un-inspired looking at the meats and ended up buying only a bacon hock.   Lucky that – as it was perfect for the soup.   The rest of the ingredients were pretty much dictated by what was in the pantry.  Most of the recipe ingredients below can easily be substituted – do whatever your taste buds or stores dictate.  Hard to go wrong.

Bacon & Lentil Soup

photo (8)

150 g puy lentils, washed and drained

150 g split red lentils, washed and drained

use any combination of split peas, lentils etc – puy lentils are good to use though as they keep their shape even when having been cooked for a long time

1 bacon hock,  around 700g – but don’t worry too much if it is smaller or larger

1 onion, chopped finely

2 to 3 carrots, finely diced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 tsp chopped fresh chilli – use more or less as you wish.  This amount just gave a bit of depth to the soup, though not ‘heat’

2 litres of water or stock – I used about 2 litres of chicken stock

1 can chopped Italian tomatoes – well,  don’t worry too much if they aren’t Italian!   Mine needed to be chopped – as they were whole.

Place onion, garlic, carrots, garlic, chilli and hock into a deep stock pot.  Add the can of tomatoes and then cover with the water or stock and add as much salt and pepper as you wish.  (If you are using bought stock then remember this may already be quite salty – better to under salt than over).

Bring to the boil, put a lid on the pan and then reduce heat and simmer very gently for around 1 to 2 hours until the lentils are tender and the meat is coming off the bone.      Once cooked, take the hock out of the pan.   Pull the skin off and then strip meat from the bone/s.    Take a couple of cups of the soup mixture and put through blender and add back to soup.  This gives a bit of texture rather than being too watery.  Add back the meat.   Taste, and add more salt/pepper if required.       At this stage you can cool and reheat later, or serve.   This probably makes enough for around 6 people.  It will certainly do us a couple of meals with a lunch thrown in.

Serve with crusty bread.  I made some herbed bread rolls – and they went perfectly with the soup.  Plus I even managed to have soft inside and crusty outside.  Yay,  I almost reach the bread making heights of Mr MWCED!

Enjoy.

 

 

Chicken and Leek Pies – hearty winter fare

22 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in chicken, Pies, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

The day didn’t get any warmer and thinking about dinner I decided we had to have something hearty and yummy.  I had some chicken thighs in the fridge (quelle surprise! – no not at all – we always have chicken thighs) and had to pop down to the village for a few other ingredients.  The walk was refreshing and by the time I returned Mr MWCED had lit the fire and was kicking back with a red wine.  I know I should have made the pastry, but bought is just so easy…….

The base recipe was off the Taste.com.au website.  Below is my take on it:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

450g chicken thigh fillets, trimmed

1 leek, thinly sliced

100g pumpkin, peeled and cut into tiny cubes – the original recipe had mushrooms, but they don’t get a look in at our house, so pumpkin was a perfect substitute

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

80ml (1/3 cup) pouring cream

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

handful of thyme and parsley, cut finely

40g (1/2 cup) grated gruyere – the magic fridge didn’t have gruyere so I subbed Mozzarella

2 sheets frozen shortcrust pastry, partially thawed

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, partially thawed

1 egg, lightly whisked

 

Heat oil in frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken for 3 minutes each side or until almost cooked through.  Transfer to a plate. Season. Cool and cut into 2cm pieces.

Image

Add leek and pumpkin to pan.  Stir for 5 minutes or until soft.  Add garlic  (add mushroom now if you are using instead of pumpkin). Stir in chicken, cream, mustard, thyme and parsley.  Add salt & pepper – as much as works for you.   Cook for 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked and sauce has thickened slightly.   Take off heat and cool.   Stir in cheese.

Image

Preheat oven to 220C.  I used four 12cm pie dishes,  these don’t require oiling, but yours might.  Cut four discs from the shortcrust pastry and line pans.  Prick bases with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden.    (The original recipe suggested removing pastry cases and placing on a lined baking tray – however I left them as is, and fully baked in the pie tins).

Divide chicken mixture among pastry cases.  Now cut four rounds from the puff pastry. (haha,  I think someone put some shortcrust back into the puff pastry bag, as it sure didn’t rise like it should have – worked fine though!)  Brush the edges with the egg.  Place over the chicken mixture, pressing edges to seal.   Cut whatever your artistic fancy demands to decorate the top of the pastry.  Brush with egg and place on top.  Cut a small slit in the top of the pieces. Bake for 10 minutes or until puffed and golden.      Let cool a few minutes and then take out of pans – lucky me my pans have a removable base.  Obviously this step is redundant if you decided to cook the pies out of the pan when you were at the stage of adding the filling and puff pastry tops.

Image

We ate two pies for dinner and froze two.   That will make a quick dinner one night during the week when the magic fridge doesn’t cut it.   Definitely tasty and got the thumbs up from Mr MWCED.