Tag Archives: vegetables

Herb Roasted Chicken

19 Sunday Apr 2015

Posted by in chicken, Vegetables

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Another weekend, my cooking days, another chicken recipe.  Yes, we eat a lot of chicken in our household, red meat hardly gets a look-in.  Though from time to time a rare to medium beef steak can be seen, especially when number one son (and only) is home.  Saturday night, getting a little frosty as winter starts to make its chilly breath known, and thinking something heartwarming could be the choice.  Has to be easy though, tonight I don’t feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen.  I have chicken thighs, lots of vegetables and decide to make Herb Roasted Chicken.  The recipe is from www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/herb_roasted_chicken_thighs_with_potatoes, which I chose because not only did the recipe seem to be just what i wanted, but I liked their picture. ( And it only takes one dish.)  Enticed by pictures of food……..what soulless human would you be if you weren’t??

A plateful of Herb Roasted Chicken, Roasted Balsamic Carrots and Basil Tomato (sans courgette)

A plateful of Herb Roasted Chicken, Roasted Balsamic Carrots and Basil Tomato (sans courgette)

Ingredients
Vinaigrette:

  • 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar – I didn’t have any so subbed Cabernet Sauvignon Verjuice which happened to be in the pantry asking to be used
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (less or more depending on how much you like mustard) definitely 2+ for us
  • 1 teaspoon dried herbes de provence (can sub Italian seasoning or dry thyme or 1 Tbsp of fresh chopped herbs such as thyme or tarragon)
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt – table salt for us
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Chicken:

  • 2 pounds chicken thighs, bone in, skin-on, trimmed of excess fat – my chicken thighs were bone-out, skin-off, so I left the excess fat on – not that there was much
  • 1 teaspoon of kosher salt – table salt was fine
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • 3 large Yukon gold potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), peeled and thinly sliced (1/8-inch thick or less)
  • 1 cup sliced, peeled shallots (can sub thinly sliced onion that have soaked in water for 10 min) – I didn’t have shallots, so used onion. I have never soaked an onion in water before (oh ye of little experience) – and was astounded how cloudy the water was afterwards
  • 3 to 4 whole garlic cloves, crushed and peeled – I didn’t crush, just cut into long slim slices
  • Several whole sprigs of fresh tarragon or thyme (optional) – my garden gave me thyme and oregano
  • More salt and pepper to taste

Method
1 Preheat oven to 375°F. Sprinkle all sides of chicken thighs with kosher salt and set aside. I didn’t do this – the less salt the better is my motto – and I don’t think it had any negative result on the end result
2 In a small bowl whisk together the red wine vinegar or substitute, olive oil, Dijon mustard, herbes de provence, 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
3 Spread a teaspoon of olive oil over the bottom of a large (9×13-inch) casserole dish. Cover the bottom of the dish with the thinly sliced potatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Distribute the sliced shallots over the potatoes, and sprinkle again with a little salt and pepper.
4 Place the chicken thighs, skin-side up, on top of the shallots. (Or the side upwards where the skin would have been!). Wedge the garlic cloves between pieces of chicken. If you have fresh herbs such as tarragon or thyme, you can wedge them in along the border, between the chicken pieces and the dish. (I put the herbs everywhere the garlic was – not just along the sides of the dish). Whisk the vinaigrette again and pour it over the chicken, spreading it with your fingers to make sure the chicken is well coated.
5 Bake uncovered in a 375°F oven for 50 minutes, or until the thighs are well browned and cooked through. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Remember that without skin the chicken won’t quite have that same ‘browned’ look – but you should manage some colour.

ribboned courgette and basil tomatoes, ready to be added to the roasting carrots.....

ribboned courgette and basil tomatoes, ready to be added to the roasting carrots…..

I decided to serve roasted carrots, ribboned/roasted courgette and tomatoes with basil. The combination was delicious………

Bacon & Lentil Soup

29 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Soup

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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.

 

 

More Pumpkin……this time it’s Risotto

08 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by in Pumpkin, Rice, Walnuts

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Saturday night, what to cook, what to cook, make it reasonably quick so we are done and dusted in time to watch the rugby. Tonight it was All Blacks vs England. We were expecting it to be a tougher game than the media were predicting, though figured the All Blacks were going to win. (Win they did, but it wasn’t pretty.)

So, back to the kitchen. I had chicken, but in the end felt like veggie. That called for a quick look in the fridge to see what was on hand. Found some pumpkin and a few brussel sprouts along with some basil leaves and there is always plenty of parmesan in our fridge. On the bench I had some walnuts which had been shelled last week and some standby chicken stock in the pantry. Quick check of the rice supplies, and I figured we were good to go with a Pumpkin, Walnut and Basil Risotto. Mmmm mmm, tastebuds were getting excited.

 

PumpkinRisotto2

PumpkinRissotto3

 

 

This is a recipe that doesn’t really need exact ingredients, and you can substitute/add/delete as much as you wish. But for the record here is an approximation of the ingredients used for this risotto:

 

One and a half cups of arborio rice (makes about 3 cups cooked – enough for about 4)
Some pumpkin – I had a small green pumpkin
Brussel sprouts – there were about 6 looking lonely in the fridge. I cut off the ends and discarded some of the outer leaves. Pulled off the best leaves and discarded the centres as well.
1 medium onion – diced
garlic cloves – I used 7. 6 to roast whole, and 1 peeled and cut finely.
parmesan – grated there was about one cup, plus some shavings for decoration
parsley – about 1 cup chopped finely
walnuts – a handful
chicken stock – if you have ‘real’ chicken stock – this would be perfect. My standby is the jelly like little stockpots. If Marco Pierre White is on the packet then it must be good, even if just for the eye candy moment. The packet says one little pot makes about 2 cups, but I think you can stretch it to 3 if you need to. As everyone knows stock should be hot when you ladle it in a bit at a time into your risotto. But don’t stress, I didn’t. And I reckon Mr MWCED probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Butter – about 50 grams
Chilli – about 1/3 of long red chilli – chopped, no seeds. It gave just a hint of chilli heat, so use whatever you wish to make it hotter, or omit
White wine – whatever you happen to be drinking, hopefully good and hopefully dry. I was enjoying a Villa Maria 2012 Chardonnay – felt a trifle piqued to have to give some away to the risotto!
basil leaves – about a handful, cut at serving time as garnish
olive oil

First up, peel and cut the pumpkin into cubes and put into a roasting pan with 6 of the garlic cloves. Drizzle over olive oil and salt and pepper. Put into a hot oven for about 30/40 minutes. You might want to take out the garlic cloves a little sooner than the pumpkin, otherwise they tend to overcook. You want the pumpkin to be soft. (You could peel the pumpkin after it has been roasted, whichever you prefer).
When the pumpkin is done, let it cool a bit. Put about half the cubes into a food processor. Skin the garlic cloves and put roasted garlic into processor. Whizz. Maybe add a little water, it should end up being nice and smooth, similar to a thick pumpkin soup consistency.
Put the handful of walnuts into the roasting pan the pumpkin has just come out of. The oil in the pan should be enough to mix into the walnuts. Roast them for about 10 minutes. When cooled, chop into medium/small pieces.
In your favourite pan, put a little olive oil and the butter. Heat and when spitting put in the arborio. Stir so rice doesn’t stick and until it starts to colour. Then add the onion, one chopped garlic clove (the one you didn’t roast)and the chilli. Keep stirring for a couple of minutes. Add a slosh of wine, keep the heat up so that the alcohol evaporates, just leaving that lovely wine taste. Keep stirring. After a couple of minutes add some of the chicken stock, about 1/4 of a cupful. As the rice begins to absorb the stock keep adding a little more. After about half the stock has been used, add the pumpkin puree and 2/3 of the chopped parsley.

PumpkinRisotto1Oh my, see how delicious that colour is looking now. The rice has probably been cooking about 15 minutes now – it is starting to plump up but probably still a bit undercooked. Keep stirring and ensure the mixture is constantly kept topped up with liquid. At this stage add the brussel sprout leaves and a handful or so of the grated parmesan. The aim is to have a risotto which is creamy but not too liquid. Salt & pepper to taste. Keep checking the rice, and once it is ‘al-dente’ you are ready to serve. That means it should be firm when bitten, don’t overcook it so it is soft and mushy.
Pile it into your chosen bowl, add some of the walnuts, basil, parmesan slivers and parsley to decorate. We usually put little bowls of grated parmesan and parlsey on the table for more top ups, plus tonight I also added a bowl of the roasted walnuts.

PumpkinRisotto4As there were 2 of us we now have a lot of leftover risotto. I feel arancini coming up………