Roast Spiced Hedgehog of Pork with Gooseberry sauce

Roasting a hedgehog?  Whatever next!  Oh, don't panic - I've not gone THAT exotic - my "Hedgehog" was a piece of hedgehog cut pork - i.e. hatch marks had been cut across the top surface of the piece of pork topside.

Farmer's Choice (Free Range) Ltd  contacted me again and asked whether I would like to devise a recipe for them to use on their new Facebook page for the Dorset and Bournemouth area (Farmers Choice Bournemouth & Dorset).  Naturally, I said yes please!  After all, the produce from Farmer's Choice is so good, why would anyone in their right mind turn them down?

Perfectly roasted and ready to carve

I, pretty much straight away, knew what I was going to go for.  I had been playing about in an imaginary way, with a recipe for spiced roast pork with a gooseberry sauce.  I'd been hoping that our little gooseberry bush would come up with the goods, but regrettably the birdies got there first.

Ready for the oven

I had also been waiting for a suitable piece of pork to turn up in the supermarket for a reasonable price, but that hadn't happened either.  So immediately I went to the pork joint section of the Farmer's Choice website and my eye was caught by the Pork Topside Hedgehog.  As it turned out, I couldn't have asked for a better cut.  With absolutely no waste and as lean as they come, this joint was perfect for everyone in the family and with careful but easy roasting, resulted in a super tender and flavoursome roast which wasn't dry at all.

My order, in the end, became the pork, some gooseberries, a bulb of fennel (also for the sauce) and a wild card entry of a bag of game meat for a game pie which I haven't made yet.  That's what happens when you give me the pick of a site full of produce, you see.  Personally, I think I was very restrained and I'm sure there are many who would have asked for a whole lot more.

The pork recipe was really incredibly simple.  I just wanted something to flavour the outside of the meat with and give it a lovely colour, rather than something to marinate the joint in for hours and provide a more overall kind of flavour input.

As such, the oil-based rub that I came up with - of olive oil, thyme, sweet smoked paprika, garlic, lemon juice and ye olde salt and pepper - was just perfect.  It was able to sink easily into the cut marks across the top of the pork and gave a beautiful colour once roasted.  The flavour was subtle but very much there, depending on how much of the outside of the pork you had on your fork.  Subtlety, folks, I'm all about the subtlety (and poetry, looking at that last sentence).  Well, where roast pork is concerned, anyway.

The roasting was as easy as falling off a log (and I've fallen off a few in my younger days, so I know how easy that is).  For a 1155g piece, I gave it one and a half hours at 180degC (350degF/Gas 4), then gave it a baste and checked the internal temperature was in the range of 77degC - 80degC (meat thermometer - SO useful!) and as such was likely to be done, but still fairly firm.  I then covered the roasting dish with a good layer of aluminium foil and put it back at the much reduced temperature of 130degC for another hour.  Once the hour was up, the whole package was rested for 20 minutes in a warm (but not hot) place.  The meat wasn't fall-apart tender, but I don't much like that in a roast pork joint.  It held together, but you could easily cut it with just a fork.  It was perfect.

You little beauties!

The gooseberry sauce was just wonderful.  The sharpness of the gooseberries cut through the richness of the pork and refreshed the palate, ending on a soft note of fennel which left you ready for the next bite.  The sauce is a little more time-consuming to make, but if you tackle it ahead of time (which I recommend, to give it time to cool) it really doesn't impinge on your day much at all.

The two recipes are really so simple that I don't even have any COOK'S TIPS for you, other than to recommend you keep hold of the fluffy tops and offcuts of your fennel to include in soup or stock, for which they are invaluable.

The finished gooseberry sauce, hiding its zing behind a benign appearance

Gooseberries and pork.  Mmmnnnn, our new favourite thing.  In fact, my hubby was so taken with the combination, he remarked that he hadn't ever had a better piece of roast pork in all his forty-mumble years.  Now that's quite a compliment.

ROAST SPICED HEDGEHOG OF PORK with GOOSEBERRY SAUCE   (Serves 4-5)

Ingredients :

For the gooseberry sauce :
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bulb of fennel, sliced finely and tops discarded
1 large banana shallot (or equivalent), diced finely
small pinch of salt
quarter of a tsp dried thyme
quarter of a tsp finely ground black pepper
quarter of a tsp vegetable stock powder
1 tbsp & 50ml water
125g dessert gooseberries, tops and tails removed
25g granulated sugar.

For the pork :
1kg or thereabouts topside of pork, mine was hedgehog cut
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
1 clove of garlic, grated
2 tsp lemon juice
pinch of sea salt
half a tsp freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Begin, ahead of time, by making the gooseberry sauce.  Heat a small pan and once hot, add the mustard seeds to toast.  Once they start to pop, decant into a small bowl and reserve.

2.  Heat the olive oil and add the fennel and shallot, plus the sea salt.  Cook gently until the shallot is transparent and the fennel has begun to soften.

2.  Add the pepper, dried thyme, vegetable stock and water.  Bring to a simmer and cook until the fennel is tender.

3.  Taking a stick blender, carefully blend until thoroughly combined, but still retaining texture.  Decant into a bowl and reserve.  Replace the pan onto the heat.

4.  Add the gooseberries directly to the pan and add a tablespoonful of water.  Cover the pan and allow the gooseberries to heat through, giving the pan a little shake every now and then, to prevent them from sticking.  This should only take around 5 minutes if the gooseberries are ripe.

5.  Once the berries are softened and their juice is beginning to escape, add the fennel mixture and mustard seeds and stir to combine.

6.  Add the sugar and remaining 50ml of water.  Stir well, then bring to a simmer and cook until the sauce has reduced to a loose jammy consistency.  Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary, likewise if you think the sauce needs more sugar, correct that too.  Be cautious with the sugar, as you want the sauce to stay tart and not become jam-like.

7.  Once you are happy with the flavour and consistency, decant into a bowl and allow to cool.

8.  Remove the pork from the fridge a good half hour ahead of time.

9.  Place into a roasting tin and mix the seasoning ingredients (oil, paprika, thyme, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper) together.

10.  Spoon the seasoning mix over the top of the pork and rub into all the cracks and crevices.

11.  Put into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for an hour and a half.

12.  Remove the pork from the oven and baste it with the juices, then cover with tinfoil and return to the oven.

13.  Turn the oven down to 130degC/250degF/Gas 2 and cook for another hour.

14.  Remove the pork from the oven and baste it again, then replace the tinfoil and leave it in a warm place to rest for 30 minutes, before carving.

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Rose Veal topside roast - super gorgeousness!

A quite disgracefully long time ago now (I've been SO remiss in not blogging stuff that needs to be blogged), I was contacted by the lovely Julie at Barcut Rose Veal in Wales, about taking some of their produce to try - and blog about.

Now those of you who have been reading along for a while will know about my own particular keenness for that jewel in the butcher's crown that is British Rose Veal.  Not only that, but the knock on effect that is finding a job for the many millions of bull calves to do, rather than be shot at just 2 days old (or less, in some cases).  These bull calves are a by-product (what a horrid thing to call a calf) of the already beleaguered dairy industry.  You see, the mother cows don't produce milk willy nilly for the whole of their lives.  No, they need to keep on having calves to stimulate the milk supply.  Now a heifer  calf (they're the female ones) are easy to find a job for as they can go straight back into the dairy business and have their own babies and supply their own milk.  But what happens to the boys? 

Some of Barcut's happy calves

In far too many cases, they are either shot at or very near to birth, or alternatively are sold on to be produced for beef (which they're not very good at, being of a breed that makes milk well and doesn't make beef well).  As a result, they - not in every case, it's true, but in most cases - aren't worth very much and aren't really valued as a "crop" as such.  In lots of particularly awful instances, the bull calves are sold at market where they're picked up by European (or further distant) purchasers who will then ship the animals huge distances to the kind of future that nobody in their right mind would wish for.

So how much better is it, for a calf to be bought by a local producer who takes care of them in an ethical manner - with large strawed pens, where they can play with their mates, eat to their hearts' content and be happy (most even spend time out at grass, in the field, in the sunshine) - before being taken to a local abattoir (the important bit about that being both local and British) at 8 months of age where they are killed humanely and their meat is valued by home cooks and chefs alike.   It's just a no-brainer, so far as I can see.

Barcut Rose Veal is just one of those ethical producers.  A quick look at their website's "Why our Rose Veal" page gives you all the assurances you could require.  So I was very excited to be the recipient of an enormous box of their beautiful, lean, Rose Veal.

As always, the quandary is what to do with the sudden rainfall of choice cuts of meat.  We had a gorgeous lean topside roasting joint, some braising steaks and some cubed topside.  Now we generally use 500g of meat per meal for the three of us - so we had at least five or six meals to think of!

The meat arrived exceptionally well packaged in vacuum sealed bags with freezer blocks to keep it cool - and looked as fresh as a daisy.  It felt almost sacrilegious to put it in the freezer, but as it is fresh and not previously frozen, in the freezer it went.  With the best will in the world, even my family can't eat five or six meals in one go.  Well, everything except the topside roasting joint.  That one's destination was marked out for our Sunday dinner almost as soon as I clapped eyes upon it.

Now I won't lie and say that I knew exactly what I was going to do with it, because when you've got the one go at an ingredient (who knows when I would find another piece of roasting Rose Veal as good as this one), you have to give your next move some serious consideration.  Or I do, at any rate.

Eventually - after much thought, a significant amount of changes of mind and some considerable research, I came to a conclusion.  I would prepare a rub, then roast the joint (hopefully) to a state where it remains just pink in the middle.

Now the rub I devised was one of my own concoction which I hoped would bring out the delicate flavour of the Rose Veal, without stamping all over its own characteristics.  It would be a terrible shame to lose the gentle flavour by heavy handedness in the dressing of it.  So, I put together some dried rosemary, fennel seeds, lemon zest, sea salt and ground white pepper into my pestle and mortar and gave everything a good crush, then brought it together with some lovely fruity rapeseed oil.  It smelled divine.

Rubbed all over the Rose Veal joint - into every nook and cranny - it looked suitably dressed and ready for the party.  I made a trivet in the roasting pan of whole carrots that had been sliced in half and added a sliced onion, on top of which balanced the Veal.

Into the oven at 200degC it went, for just 10 minutes.  Then the oven was turned right down to 160degC and I left it to chuckle along slowly (with the occasional pause for some basting) for around an hour and a half.  I tested the joint with a meat thermometer and waited until the internal temperature was up to a minimum of 65degC before removing from the oven and covering it in tin foil (still in the roasting tin), to rest in a warm place for around 30 minutes.

It looked incredible and smelled even better.  

When it came time to carve, the Rose Veal just accepted the carving knife without complaint.  You know how sometimes when you're carving a joint, your arm feels a bit like chewed string by the end of it all?  Not with this one.  The meat, although not as pink in the centre as I had hoped, was just so tender and so juicy it was making my mouth water.  My Dad introduced me (years ago) to the concept of "cutter's tasters" thanks to which I was able to tell that the herby, fruity rub had done its work well.  The flavour of the Veal was still there, just accentuated with layers of rosemary, fennel and lemon.  Naturally, I had saved the pan juices along with a little of the veal stock from the celeriac fondant, which together with some Sherry, made a completely fantastic gravy.

Oh my gosh but what a meal that was.  I served the Rose Veal with Duchesse potatoes, Chantenay carrots, broccoli, celeriac fondant (braised in veal stock with butter) and Yorkshire puddings, along with the glossy rich gravy that just brought everything together.

I look at these photographs of that meal and can remember every nuance of every flavour involved with that veal.  It fed the four of us (we had a visitor that day) with enough left over for a terrine of Rose Veal with Antipasti vegetables and asparagus the following day, served with salad.  So gorgeous!

Barcut Rose Veal are based near Abergele in Wales, so if you are in the area it is worthwhile visiting any of the shops on their website and enquiring.  They also sell wholesale, so if you and a few friends can get an order together and share the cost, it is also well worth doing - after all, the Rose Veal freezes perfectly.  Who knows, as the business progresses, they might even consider selling retail to the world at large.  Well, we can but hope!  For those of you on Facebook, you can support Barcut Rose Veal by visiting their page at https://www.facebook.com/barcutveal

ROSE VEAL TOPSIDE ROAST   (serves 6-7)

Ingredients :

1kg topside Rose Veal
1 tsp dried rosemary (chopped fine)
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
a pinch of sea salt
a large pinch of ground white pepper
1-2 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 chunky carrots, halved lengthwise
1 onion, sliced.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 200degC/400degF/Gas 6.

2.  Prepare a roasting tin by placing the carrots, cut side down to form a trivet, in the bottom of the roasting tin.  Scatter the onion rings on and around the carrots.

3.  Prepare the rub by placing the rosemary, fennel, lemon, salt and pepper into a pestle and mortar (or use a spice grinder) and give everything a good bash to release the oils.  Add the rapeseed oil and stir to combine.

4.  Rub the Rose Veal all over with the mixture, making sure to get it into all the nooks and crannies.

5.  Place the Veal onto the carrots and onions, making sure to keep the fat uppermost.  This will allow the fat, as it melts, to slowly baste the meat and keep it moist.

6.  Put the roasting tin and contents into the oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160degC/325degF/Gas 3 for another hour and a half - or until the inside temperature of the meat reaches a minimum of 65degC/149degF on a meat thermometer.

7.  Once the correct temperature is reached, remove from the oven and cover the meat and roasting tin with silver foil.  Keep in a warm place to rest for approximately 30 minutes, then carve.

Serve with roasted potatoes and vegetables of your choice, making sure to use the pan juices in your gravy (which is made extra delicious by the addition of a little Medium Sherry).

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Tapas meatballs in tomato & fennel sauce

It has been a long old trail to this recipe, if I'm honest.

I now have a reputation (in the family - not globally, you understand), for being a master meatball maker.  This is something of a turnaround from the days when I would suggest meatballs for dinner and be greeted with lukewarm interest and the remark "well, you're not very good at meatballs".  Let me tell you, though, that there have been many meatballs passed under the bridge between then and now.

I'm pretty sure that I told you in another meatball post how I really wanted to create a tapas-style meatball, able to be eaten on its own - tapas style - with a glass of wine and maybe some bread as accompaniments.

Well, with tonight's "I really must make something with that lamb mince and that fennel, before they both go off" dinner, I think I achieved it.

I used lamb mince for its superb flavour, but I'm sure it would work as well with pork mince.  Beef might be a tad too flavoursome for the fennel, but I imagine that turkey would work, although you'd lose some of the savouriness of the flavour.  Anyway, give it a go with whatever you've got - and let me know!

I recently made some lamb meatballs that involved fresh mint and grated carrot.  Now I was a bit dubious about the grated carrot, but I liked the idea of the sweetness it would bring, plus the added moistness.  One of the big problems with meatballs, is keeping them moist and juicy.  Nobody likes a dry, pasty meatball.

So when I was contemplating what to do with this lamb mince in conjunction with the fennel, I remembered the carrot meatballs and how successful they were.  Carrot was a definite, but I pondered on adding some of the fennel to the meatball mix.  Maybe if I grate some of the tougher, woody stems?  No - they probably wouldn't cook quickly enough even with being grated.  It needed something smaller and more tender.  The bulb I was definitely going to slice and put in the sauce - which left the green, ferny, frondy bits that taste so good in a much milder way and are more of a herb than the bulb.  If I chopped them finely, they would be perfect in the meatballs!  Sorted.

The recipe I used for the meatballs with carrot, also rolled them in seasoned flour which when browned gave the meatballs a lovely tasty coating that then dissolved a little in the sauce, thickening it as it went.  This solves the problem of "do I reduce the sauce further, or do I serve it thinner than I wanted, or shall I thicken it somehow?", so that method was a definite here too.

The sauce couldn't be any easier.  It gave me an excuse to use two cloves of garlic (we could use some garlic about the place, as we have cold and sore throat germs floating around!) and use up a long lost rasher of bacon.  Incidentally, the bacon - because it is cut into such fine strips - just melts away into the sauce lending it a special kind of saltiness and smokiness that you can't get any other way.  Yummy.

Now, a cook's tip is to watch the amount of salt you use in the seasoning of the flour and the meatballs.  Because you're using the bacon and if you're using a stock powder or cube that isn't reduced salt, you need to rein your salt sprinkling back.  This is why I recommend to taste before serving and adjust then if necessary.  You can't take it out if there's too much there to begin with!  I used the beautiful Essential Cuisine Lamb Stock powder which is naturally low in salt and saves any need for worrying.  Check out their website, as the fabulous stock powders really aren't expensive and last for absolutely ages - well, apart from the chicken version which disappeared at the rate of knots!

Son and heir was out on a sleepover and missed this one.  He's going to be very cross about that when he finds out, as this was his perfect kind of dinner.  Hubby thoroughly enjoyed his, even though he is poorly at the moment (see earlier comment about sore throat germs) and ate the lot, which he was seriously dubious about doing before he tasted it.  As for me, well I was busy congratulating myself over - finally - making the elusive tapas style meatballs, but I did pause to note that it tasted as good as I wanted it to - if not better.

TAPAS MEATBALLS IN TOMATO & FENNEL SAUCE    (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

600g lamb mince
1 medium carrot, top & tailed and grated
sea salt & black pepper
1 onion, chopped fine
1 rasher of smoked bacon, cut into fine strips
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 bulb of fennel, sliced finely and
1 tbsp fennel frondy tops, chopped finely
2 tbsp seasoned plain flour
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
500ml good quality tomato passata
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp of powder or half a cube of lamb stock
100ml cold water.

Method :

1.  It is very worthwhile making sure you have all the vegetables prepared before you roll the meatballs in flour, to avoid the meatballs sticking catastrophically to their plate.

2.  In a large bowl, add the lamb mince, the grated carrot and the frondy parts of the fennel.  Season with a little sea salt and a lot of black pepper and mix with your hands, making sure the component parts are all well combined.

3.  Place the seasoned flour onto a large plate and begin to roll your meatballs.  Larger meatballs will feed less people, smaller ones more people, so it is up to you what size you make them.  Place each meatball onto the plate, roll in the flour and continue until you have run out of meatball mix.

4.  Heat the rapeseed oil in a deep frying pan and add enough meatballs so that you aren't overcrowding the pan.  You want the heat to stay moderately high so as to cook the outside of the meatballs, without burning and without stewing in their own juice.  Cook the meatballs in batches, if necessary.  It is not necessary to cook them all the way through at this stage, so remove to a clean plate as they are done.

5.  Without wiping out the pan (you don't want to lose all that flavour), add the onion and bacon and cook on a moderate heat until the onion is transparent.  This should take 3-4 minutes.

6.  Add the garlic and cook, stirring well, for a minute.

7.  Add the fennel slices and stir to combine.  Cook until the fennel is beginning to demonstrate some softening.

8.  Add the tomato passata, tomato ketchup, water and stock powder or cube.  Stir well to combine, then put a lid on so as to allow some steam to escape but keep the heat in (half cocked, I call it!) and allow to simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

9.  Your sauce should have reduced a little and thickened a little.  Try the fennel to see whether it is soft and cook on for a little longer if not.  Taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary.

10.  Serve into warmed bowls, with bread for dipping and a side salad if you wish.

Printable version

Chicken & Fennel Ragu using a French chicken from Westin Gourmet

When Westin Gourmet offered me one of their "One time only" selection packs of meat, I didn't have to think twice.

After all, it really isn't every day that you have the potential for so many terrific dishes sent your way!

In the insulated cold box, there was real treasure :

• 1x 6oz Hereford Sirloin Steak
• 1x 6oz Aberdeen Angus Sirloin Steak
• 1x 1kg Packs of Steak Mince
• 2x 7-8oz Pork Loin Steaks
• 1x 1.5kg Whole Corn Fed Chicken
• 10x 4oz Gourmet Steak Burgers
• 24x Award Winning Cumberland Sausages.

Everything went into the freezer, apart from the chicken - which I'd got designs on using for the following two evenings' meals.  As you can imagine, you'll be seeing the name "Westin Gourmet" on a number of blog posts to come as I work my way through the pack!

It was a beautiful chicken - but I was considerably surprised to discover that it was a French chicken, rather than one of the many gorgeous British chickens that are available these days.  With the ordinary price being £9.68, I felt it would have been perfectly possible for Westin Gourmet to have sourced some British chicken and felt rather disappointed that they hadn't.

However, I had a beautiful plump corn-fed chicken sitting there just waiting to be made into something luscious, so I'd better get on with it.

I had decided that I would probably make the most of the chicken by, initially, cooking it in the slow cooker where a) it would be guaranteed to be tender and b) it would generate some lovely stock whilst cooking.  I could then use that stock in whatever recipes I decided upon.

So hence, it started its culinary journey by being tucked up in the slow cooker with two carrots, two celery sticks an onion, some garlic, some fresh sage, fresh parsley and a Knorr herb infusion stock pot which would bring additional parsley flavours, along with thyme and bay.

Don't you think it looks lovely, all cosied up with its pals?

I was cautious with the salt at this stage as the stock pot will have its own salt content and only seasoned the meat a little, but did give the whole thing a good sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.

Some 6 hours later, I had a chicken that was just falling apart and some truly gorgeous stock.

I divided the chicken up into two quantities - one amount which was heavy with breast meat (for the Chicken & Fennel Ragu) and the other which contained mostly leg meat for a Chicken & Sweetcorn pie for the following day.

In taking the chicken meat from the bones, it was absolutely apparent what good quality the meat was.  The difference between a standard supermarket chicken and this chicken was just chalk and cheese.  The meat was softly tender - the breast was almost butter-soft - and superbly moist.

One downside was my surprise at how bruised the meat was in places - and wondered about this poor old chicken's end.  It didn't appear to have come particularly comfortably, if the bruises were anything to go by.  Another reason for using a British chicken that has been despatched under our more humane welfare system, methinks - and something that Westin Gourmet would do well to investigate further.

Having drained the stock from the vegetables, I decanted a certain amount into a saucepan to reduce for the ragu's sauce and the rest went into the fridge for the pie.

Making the ragu after that was a relatively simple matter of sweating down the vegetables (onion, fennel and button mushrooms) and thickening the stock into a sauce with the addition of some cream and mushroom ketchup.

We had found some "out of the ordinary" pasta - Casarecce - in the supermarket and I had decided to give that a try-out with the ragu.  It certainly was robust and took considerably longer than it said on the packet to cook!  The Casarecce was interesting, however, in that it made a change from our standard Fusilli or Spirali pasta and also proved a good pairing with the ragu as it held the sauce perfectly.

Aside from the couple of niggles regarding the origin of the chicken and how it met its end, as above, I was overall very pleased with it.  The flavour was streets ahead of your standard chicken which, of course, you would expect but not necessarily receive.  It was good to find a product that almost lived up to the supplier's claims.

As for the Ragu, well, does "yum!" cover it?  Oh yes, I think so.

CHICKEN & FENNEL RAGU   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil

1 onion, sliced finely

2 bulbs fennel, cored and sliced finely

150g baby button mushrooms, each sliced into 3

400ml chicken stock (reduced home made is best, but a good shop-bought will do)

1 tsp tomato puree

1 tbsp mushroom ketchup (or if using Worcestershire sauce, slightly less)

2 tbsp double cream

1-2 tbsp cornflour, slaked with a small amount of water

half a previously cooked chicken, meat removed from the bones and sliced

sea salt to taste

freshly ground black pepper

finely chopped parsley, to serve.

Method :

1.   In a large frying pan, heat the oil and add the onion.  Cook on a gentle to medium heat until the onion is transparent, but not taking on colour.

2.  Add the sliced fennel and button mushrooms and continue to cook on a medium heat until the fennel has softened but is al dente.

3.  Add the chicken stock, tomato puree, mushroom ketchup and cream and season to taste.  Heat through until simmering.

4.  Simmer until the fennel is completely soft, then remove from the heat and add half the slaked cornflour.  Stir through quickly, then return to the heat to cook the cornflour out.  The sauce should thicken through this process.  Continue to add cornflour and stir until your preferred consistency is reached.

5.  Keep the sauce ticking over on a gentle heat and add the sliced chicken.  Allow it time to heat through properly, until piping hot.  You may need to increase the heat under the pan.  Try not to stir the mixture too often, or you might break the chicken pieces too much.

6.  Taste once more for seasoning and serve with plain boiled pasta and a sprinkling of chopped parsley.

Printable version

Chicken & Fennel Gratin

We love fennel.  It's worthwhile saying that straight away.

However, even if you're not keen on fennel, it'd be worthwhile making this Gratin dish - so long as you're keen on the combination of Lasagne and salad - as it makes a very satisfying (and rather more lightweight) alternative, that does a similar job.

Hubby was rather disappointed that the fennel seemed to have lost the majority of its flavour in the cooking process, however I quite liked that it had been rendered more subtle than in other recipes.  Fennel is one of those ingredients that seems to either be right up there at the front of the ingredient choir singing in a piercing tenor, or can be muscled out of the way by a big deep voiced bass of a tomato (for instance).  In this dish, however, I felt it added to a harmonious whole by providing the freshness and lightness that the rich sauce required.

As a springtime dish, I think this one absolutely fits the bill perfectly.  Not as heavy as the casseroles and stews we've been relying on to warm us both inside and out whilst the winter slowly progresses on ponderous feet.  This Gratin provides just enough comfort in its creamy sauce, robust chicken and cheesy goodness that we're happy to tuck into the accompanying salad and welcome the advent of fresh, uncooked vegetables into our lives again. Croutons of crunchy baguette pair with the earthiness of the walnuts, while our spirits are lifted by the wholegrain mustard and zing of cayenne pepper.

Did I like it?  Yeah, it was okay.  LOL  No, it was lovely!

Of necessity, I made some changes to the original recipe (which I found in a BBC Good Food magazine, but it doesn't appear to be on their website) as I was cooking the chicken from raw.  As such, it needed a lot longer in the oven so I didn't bother with the pre-cooking of the fennel and didn't add the topping until 25 minutes baking had passed by.  I also drizzled the topping with a little extra virgin olive oil, both for flavour and to encourage the croutons to crisp without going hard.

As an alternative to the laborious process of making a Lasagne, this would definitely get my vote.  I could see it being popular as a suppertime dish for an evening meal with friends, accompanied by a light, crisp white wine.

Even without the wine, everyone here cleared their plate and declared it to be a very great success.

 This recipe has been entered into the Recipe Lion March Blog Hop competition!

CHICKEN & FENNEL GRATIN   (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

2 bulbs of fennel
3 chicken breasts, skinless & boneless, cut into strips

100g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
350ml semi-skimmed milk 

2 rounded tsp wholegrain mustard
pinch of cayenne pepper
100g strong mature cheddar
6 slices baguette
30g walnuts, roughly chopped
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 190degC/375degF/Gas5.

2.  Trim the tops from the fennel, reserving the frondy bits to chop for the sauce.  Make sure that the fennel is washed well, as dirt can hide inbetween the layers.  Trim the bottom root part away, then cut in half and remove the remainder of the core and discard.  Slice into thin pieces and sprinkle into the bottom of a gratin dish.

3.  Trim any fat from each chicken breast and slice into decent sized even slices that will lay on top of the fennel comfortably.   Arrange the slices so that the majority (or all) of the fennel is covered.

4.  In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour.  Stir well and cook for a couple of minutes, but don't allow to brown.  Slowly add the milk, a little at a time, whisking like mad to avoid any lumps.  Increase the heat slowly - stirring and whisking all the time - until the sauce thickens and begins to boil.  You are looking for a sauce that is the consistency of a thick double cream.  One that will coat the back of a spoon, but still liquid enough to pour.  Reduce the heat immediately.

5.  Add the mustard and cayenne pepper, then two thirds of the grated cheese.  Stir well until the cheese is dissolved and the mustard and cayenne are evenly distributed.

6.  Add the chopped fronds from the fennel and adjust the seasoning (salt, more than pepper) if necessary.  Pour the sauce over the chicken and encourage it into the corners, so that every little bit of chicken and fennel is sealed under a blanket of sauce.


7.  Put into the oven to bake for 25 minutes.


8.  In the meantime, you can prepare the topping by cutting the baguette slices into small crouton squares and running a knife through the walnut pieces to reduce their size.


9.  Once the 25 minutes are up, remove from the oven just long enough to sprinkle the croutons, walnuts and cheese over and drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil across the top.


10.  Replace into the oven and bake again for another 25 minutes, or until the top is browned slightly and crunchy and the sauce is bubbling.


11.  Serve with a mixed salad.


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Chicken, bacon, chicken & prawns, chicken, pork, chicken twice over : Looks like it's chicken, this week!

I do seem to have gone a bit mad on the chicken in this week's Menu Plan, but that's just the way it happened.  ~shrug~  I suspect that it's part and parcel of trying to think of meals that aren't too "bad for you".  Inevitably, you wind up with an awful lot of chicken - especially as fish has rocketed in price just lately.

Now, to finish off last week - we had the Chicken, Fennel & Tomato Ragu on Sunday evening, which had a mixed reception.  A third of the way into making the dish, hubby announced that he's never found a chicken/tomato recipe that he's really enjoyed - and although he loves fennel, he wasn't sure how it would all come together.  Well, he was right in a lot of ways - although just after suffering from food poisoning wasn't perhaps the best time to try this recipe out!


Just cutting up the chicken had me wishing we'd had sausages for that meal instead, but I soldiered on.  Incidentally, I've discovered that when cutting up ingredients that are fresh from the fridge, they have the capacity to make my hands lose sensation.  You can't imagine how difficult it is to chop up chicken breasts when you can't hold the darned things still!  I've still got all my fingers though, so my strategy of dunking my hands in warm water to thaw them out, obviously worked.


The dish was nice enough - the fennel was lovely and made a very pleasant change.  Having been a bit acidic, the addition of a teaspoon of sugar helped to iron that out.  However, "okay" wasn't really what I was going for with it, regrettably.


Incidentally, the Maribell jacket potatoes were gorgeous.  Rub them with olive oil, cover with salt and pepper and roast in a hot oven for an hour - fabulous!


Now then, what different incarnations of chicken are we having for this week's menu plan?  I hear you ask.  Well, maybe you didn't, but I'm going to tell you anyway.  Here's how it shapes up :

Tuesday : Pesto chicken with roast tomatoes and couscous

Wednesday : New Potato Salad with Bacon & Goats' Cheese

Thursday : Spanish Paella-inspired ricey thing

Friday : Sticky chinese chicken & thai carrot salad

Saturday : Pork with lemongrass & cinnamon, with rice (from Adora's Box)

Sunday : Pot roast chicken, roast parsnips & potatoes, broccoli & peas

with sausagemeat stuffing balls

Monday : Coronation chicken, pitta bread and salad.

<insert short break to collect a glass of Canti Zinfandel Rose>

Now, where was I?  ~sips daintily~  Ah yes!  The Pesto Chicken.

It being Tuesday, we've done the shopping and so begins a new week of striving to produce delicious dinners that don't cost the earth, that everyone enjoys and (no point in lying) that will be interesting to blog about.

I must just recount what happened to us today though.  Hubby will probably have my hide for telling you this, but part-way through the shopping, I went back to the herbs aisle to see if some Basil had been put out as there wasn't any on our first pass.  As I turned around to go catch up with hubby, I saw an unaccompanied trolley that looked to have inside it everything that we'd selected earlier.  "How funny!" I thought.  Can't be OUR trolley, because hubby's driving that further up the shop - so I didn't say anything about it.  Fast forward to hubby loading the shopping into the car and looking for the sausage rolls he'd bought.  He came to the conclusion that he must have left a bag of shopping behind, but couldn't believe he could have done so, so we didn't go back to check.  Upon getting home and emptying out all the bags, he discovered that a whole bagful was missing.  "It's got the ham, the fruit fools, the cheese spread, the greek yoghurt ...." he was saying, when I got a flashback to that trolley I saw.  Sure enough, he'd made off with someone else's trolley (which had to be empty at the time, as we didn't have any odd shopping), leaving ours to sit - where I spotted it on my trip back for the Basil!  How much do I wish I'd have said about it?  It would have saved another trip (to Sainsbury's, this time) for shopping!  Still, it's quite funny, all the same.

So, after seemingly shopping all day, I made the Pesto Chicken and couscous.  My hand problem made stuffing the chicken breasts with the squidgy pesto/mascarpone mixture nigh on impossible, but at least some of it got in there!  I am so going to have to get a piping set!  It's a really lovely dish, this one, in that the chicken stays beautifully moist and the roast tomatoes are just divine.  The couscous was made after the style of Ottolenghi's Green Couscous, but to my own recipe this time.  I used all Italian flavourings, like basil, grana padano cheese and pine nuts along with sliced onion & mushroom fried in a little olive oil.  Add a squeeze of lemon just before serving and everyone approved.  Well, except for son & heir's hate of the humble mushroom.  He was able to remove his mushrooms fairly easily though.

Watch the blog, as I'll be detailing the recipe as my next blog post.

I'm really quite excited about tomorrow's salad, as it was created with the help of four or five Twitter pals, whose suggestions for "a salad that doesn't involve salad leaves" came together in the dish I'll be making on Wednesday.

It's going to involve Jersey Royal new potatoes - but roasted, not boiled.  Some gorgeous butcher's bacon grilled until crispy, mushrooms, roasted red onion and watercress & spinach salad (neither of which count as a "salad leaf", alright?), all dressed in a mustard & red wine dressing, with creamy goat's cheese crumbled over the top.  I can't wait!

Hubby has a recipe in mind for Thursday, which involves something along the lines of a Spanish Paella, except with just chicken and prawns.  You know when you have a picture in your mind and a flavour on your tongue, but you can't quite put it into words?  Well that's it.  We'll just have to wait and see what turns up at the end of it - but it should be good, as we've even invested in some saffron!

Oooh dear, then it's Friday.  ~quake~quiver~  I'm skeered of Friday, because Alfie the Amalfi Lemon Coloured Skoda goes in for his MOT.  I may very easily not have any fingernails left, after this day.  Nor any cash left in my bank account.  However, I will be having a lovely dinner - consisting of yummy Sticky Chinese chicken with a lovely Thai carrot salad, which involves rice noodles and peanuts.  Yum!

Photo c/o BBC Good Food website

The chicken is simplicity itself to make - I just need to remember to make it early so that it can marinade.  The salad is just a matter of grating a whole heap of carrots, soaking the rice noodles and assembling the rest of the ingredients.  I should be able to do that, even with a diabolical stress headache - which I anticipate being the owner of, by then.

Still, the happy news is that by Saturday it will all be over and we'll know where we stand regarding the work that Alfie needs to have done - and more to the point, how much it's going to cost!

To celebrate, I'm planning on making use of the lovely Adora's Box blog, where her Pork with Lemongrass and Cinnamon has caught my eye.  You can find the recipe here.  Looks good, doesn't it?  I'll let you know how I get on with it!

I've stayed away from roast dinners for quite some time now, and this coming Sunday we'll be having a pot roast chicken for two reasons.  One, because I am missing roast chicken, two, because I'm missing roast parsnips and three, because we can have Coronation chicken for tea on Monday!

Son & heir adores Coronation chicken and I have to admit that I'm a sucker for it myself.  Hubby isn't quite so enamoured of it, but I'm hoping that if I make sure that the pitta breads are more manageable than the usual "resembling a bus crash" that I usually turn out, he might look upon the whole experience in a more favourable light.  In fact, thinking on, I could always make them into Coronation chicken wraps, instead!  Still a bit messy and squidgy, but at least they're capable of being eaten with a knife and fork!  Do you know, I may well do that.

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