The last week's recipes - in a nutshell!

Minced Beef & Onion Pie

You remember how I was hoping that the week would stay as planned and not fall apart at the seams?  Yes, well, that was a bit of a forlorn hope as it turned out.

It all started off well, with the Posh Porks.

From there, the meal plan all went to proverbial worms.

I can't remember why, but instead of having the Leek & Bacon Bake on the Wednesday, we wound up having Fish & Chips.  Which was all very nice, plus being very naughty of course!

Pie making

Thursday's Minced Beef & Onion Pie happened most creditably, but with a slight change to the vegetable list in that we used up the Tenderstem Broccoli, instead of breaking into a Swede.

Hubby did a great job with the pie and declared it a very simple thing to create, so will be doing another variation on another day.  Sounds good!  He used shop-bought shortcrust pastry, plus shop-bought liquid gravy to pep up the mince mixture.  So creation of the pie filling was simply a matter of cooking some onion until it was soft and beginning to brown, then browning the mince.  Add in the gravy and a few other flavourings such as Mushroom Ketchup, Worcester Sauce, ground black pepper, reduce the sauce to the right consistency and bingo!  One pie.

The lovely-looking Chicken, Tenderstem & Cheesy Dumpling Casserole got bumped in favour of the Leek & Bacon Bake.  Well, you see, we were building up for Son & heir's birthday on the Monday by then - and organising his diary for two sleepovers and a day spent at Splashdown (an indoor water park) plus all the normal shopping etc.  So time was becoming something of a premium and the bake was easier to produce than the casserole.


As it turned out, I was a bit disappointed by the Bake.  It was the second time of cooking it and the first time we'd really liked it.  I'm not sure what went wrong this time - unless it was because I didn't have quite enough creme fraiche, which left the whole thing rather dry.  I had thought that one pot was the full amount of 300ml, but saw - too late - that it was 200ml instead.

Goodness knows, it was a simple enough recipe - you simply fry off the bacon, slice the leeks into the bottom of a baking dish, cover with the bacon, seasoning and creme fraiche. Then in goes a layer of grated cheese, breadcrumbs, finishing with more cheese - and into the oven. Not much to go wrong there!


For me, though, the dryness was an issue plus the bacon seemed incredibly salty and the leeks over-oniony.  It may well be that I just wasn't in the right mood for this one this time, so until I make it again and it goes well, I won't blog it just yet.  I like to only blog the recipes that have been successful for me, because then at least I know what I'm recommending is good!


Saturday was a sleepover night, so we all had Pizza.  It was just easier that way.  There aren't many children out there who don't like Pizza, whereas there are many more who are liable to be picky over a chicken casserole or a toad in the hole.  The pizzas went down without a murmur and all were sufficiently fed.  Can't ask for more than that.

Sunday's roast chicken was lovely - it really is so much better to buy a £6 chicken and have it go for two meals, than buy a £3-4 small chicken.  Unfortunately, doing a whole roast dinner - even with help from my sous chef with the cutting, chopping and peeling - was a teensy bit beyond me at the moment.


It was as much as I could do, to hobble from the kitchen to the dining table at the end of the cooking.  All of which brought home to me how much of a downward turn the Arthritis has taken just at the moment.  Pondering on it that evening, we suddenly remembered that my Glucosamine supplements had run out last Wednesday and we had forgotten to get some in the Friday shopping.  It is too much of a co-incidence for that to be anything but a contributory factor to the increase in pain I was experiencing - so we made sure to get some when shopping on Tuesday!


Son & heir's birthday dawned on the Monday and a very disgruntled birthday boy made his way dejectedly off to school.  He'd decided to leave opening his presents until he got home that evening, on the reckoning that getting the presents then having to leave them again five minutes later, would be worse than having to wait.  I think that was a very adult decision, from a 13yr old.

It was the taste that counted - not the decoration!

Still, he was full of the birthday spirit once school was over and got stuck into opening his presents with gusto.  I think he was pleased with the loot that he scored - and even got lashed into his Chocolate & Beetroot Birthday Cake.  He did have the good grace to apologise for his "can't you leave the beetroot out" comment, when I was half-way through making the thing at the weekend.


The other half of the roast chicken went down well in its incarnation as Coronation Chicken wraps and everyone felt just that little bit pleasantly nauseous as one does when too much rich food has been consumed.  I think, for Son & heir, the can of Root Beer was probably the last straw, however following a little lay down he rallied and spent the next half an hour peppering the bathroom door with foam bullets from his new Nerf Gun, followed up by an hour or so getting to grips with his new Ebow for his electric guitar, winding up the festivities with a few numbers on his new electronic keyboard.


*phew!*  I think we made it!

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Adaptable meal planning to include a birthday

It's son & heir's 13th birthday on Halloween - the 31st October.  Yes, he's a Halloween baby - and we brought him home from the hospital on Guy Fawkes' Night.  There's two dates I'll never forget!

As a consequence, this week's meal planning is going to have to be adaptable in the extreme owing to the rate at which our plans have changed.  So far, I think we're onto Plan E or F - all of which might change, depending on when his friends are available.

However, we have a plan at the moment - and I'm hoping it'll hold!

Here's how it's looking :

Tues : Posh Porks, carrots, tenderstem broccoli & white rice

Weds : Leek & Bacon Bake, celeriac mash, carrots & peas

Thurs : Minced Beef & Onion Pie, carrots, swede & green beans

Fri : Chicken & Cheesy Dumpling casserole

Sat : Toad in the hole, chips & baked beans

Sun : Roast Chicken, chipolatas, roast potatoes & parsnips, carrots, broccoli,

Sage & Onion Stuffing, bread sauce & Yorkshire puddings

Mon : Coronation Chicken Wraps with chips.

Tonight's Posh Porks (which you may recall was scheduled for last week, but never made it) may very well be under threat already, as we forgot to take the pork out of the freezer this morning.  So we may opt for Fish & Chips tonight and move it on to tomorrow.  However, all that is actually okay as it is good to have a dinner "in hand" so to speak (and a relatively easy dinner too) just in case plans change.

However, let's assume that plans don't change, the pork defrosts in time and the plan continues, with Wednesday offering a reprise of another dish I first cooked before I was writing Rhubarb & Ginger.  It involves cutting the leeks into little logs and laying them into a baking dish.  Add bacon, creme fraiche, breadcrumbs and cheese and bake.  I can remember that we all very much enjoyed this the last time around, so see no reason why it shouldn't go down well again.

I was planning on using up the other half of the celeriac (a good source of Vit. K) with some mashing potatoes for celeriac mash and pairing it with some carrots (for Vit. A and beta-carotene) and peas (Vit. C).  Simple, but very nice with it - and has the added benefit of getting lots of lovely vegetables into a reluctant teenager.  If only he knew how good for him all these lovely vegetables were - and began to look at them in a different light - it would make my meal planning a whole different affair!

Artist's impression : Beef & Onion Pie

Thursday brings a new venture for hubby.  He's going to have a go at making rough puff pastry - and converting it into a Minced Beef & Onion Pie.  He's never made a pie from scratch before, so we'll both be interested in the results!  We're pairing his pie with the ever-popular carrot, some swede and green beans.  Goodness, but the boys won't be getting scurvy this week!

Friday's casserole is a recipe I discovered when I was learning more about the lovely Tenderstem Broccoli and was browsing the website dedicated to it.   You can find the original recipe here - and plenty more!

I like the sound of the casserole part with its chicken, shallots, bacon & carrots.  The boys like the sound of the herby cheddar dumplings.  We all love Tenderstem Broccoli, so sounds like a deal, to me!

My last effort - let's hope it's better than this!

Now we're getting into delicate territory from the Plan's point of view, come Saturday.  Son & heir plus a pal, are supposed to be spending the day at a local tourist attraction.  Because of his new-found age and responsibility (yes, I am crossing my fingers as I say that) he's going to be allowed to go without parental accompaniment.  Needless to say, we'll be on the end of the telephone ready to bail him out should anything untoward occur, so of necessity, Saturday's dinner needs to be simple.

So maybe hubby's first go at making Toad in the Hole isn't such a great idea for that night?  *chuckle*  Pray for calm seas and a following wind - we'll get through it somehow.

Sunday is demonstrating all the tell-tale signs of a day in which the parents of the birthday boy are going to be needing to de-stress.  Probably in an armchair with regular applications of coffee, tea and as we go through to the evening, a light alcoholic beverage.  So I'm gong to be making a no-holds-barred, full blown, going for it kind of roast dinner.  I must need my head examining, but I'm told that the key to successful production is in the preparation, so I'll be doing all I can before kick-off is announced.

At last, on Monday (and the day upon which poor old birthday boy has to return to school) the long-awaited birthday will dawn.  He's already said that he doesn't want to receive any birthday presents until he returns home from school, but we'll see how long that resolve lasts!

I did ask him what he wanted for dinner on his birthday and didn't get much response.  As a result, we're having my interpretation of his favourite dinner of the moment - Coronation Chicken Wraps.   I know, in the past, he's said that he could eat these until he was sick - and we'll prevent him from getting that far - but hopefully, they'll be well received.  Add to that a huge slice of chocolate birthday cake (ssssshhhh! Don't tell!) and - fingers crossed - we're sorted for the week.

Oh!  One quick note before I go - last night's Full English Breakfast (eaten at dinnertime) was divine.  Top marks to hubby for a superb dinner - and yes, I did make it through the lot.  Just.

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Happiness is .. Pot Roasting a Chicken.

You'll all know that I’ve not been very well for the last few days, which is why you haven’t heard from me recently.  As I've said in my last blog post, this caused a bit of an upset in the menu planning line.  However, one dish that very definitely made it to fruition was the Pot Roast Chicken we had for dinner last Sunday.

I really love cooking pot-roast chicken.  There’s something so homely and comforting about having a chicken chuckling in a stock pot on your cooker.  I think it’s also the smell of the herbs and vegetables that go to make up the stock ingredients, combined with the knowledge that the chicken will emerge from its bath both subtly flavoured and succulent. 

I always roast the chicken for a half hour at 200deg prior to dunking it into its bath of gorgeous stock ingredients.  I think it imparts some of the “roasted chicken” flavour without resulting in the sulphurous effect that can be brought about by just roasting alone.

For the stock, you can use anything you like - carrot, any type of herb you have handy, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, the choices are endless.  I used what I had at the time, which was onions, garlic, celery, thyme, parsley, basil, black peppercorns and included a star anise for that lovely and very distinctive flavour it imparts.  The smell, as the chicken cooked, just improved as the 90 minutes (it was a big chicken!) went on.

Once the cooking time is up, I remove the chicken from the stock and place it on a plate, swathed in silver foil, to keep warm and just rest.  I could do with a bit of a lie down when I come out of the bath sometimes, so why should my chicken be any different?  I just don’t indulge in the silver foil for myself, you understand – although it is an idea, especially on a cold day.

Getting back to the chicken, after removing some stock to make the gravy with – it makes superb gravy - the stock is strained and allowed to cool before freezing.  I can thoroughly recommend Ramen noodles made with your own chicken stock, as a lovely mid-week lunch!

I served the first half of our chicken with some steamed Jersey Royals, roast parsnips, broccoli and carrots, plus some sausage meat balls that I'd made.  Unfortunately they didn't really work, as we couldn't get the butcher's sausages that I was originally intending to use - and the Tesco's substitutes just didn't compare, being all pasty and pappily nasty.  I'll have another go at those for the next chicken, but make sure I get some good quality sausagemeat, this time!

POT ROAST CHICKEN (Serves 6 - or two separate dinners, for 3, one hot/one cold).

Ingredients :

A chicken, minus giblets and trussing string

a tbsp of olive oil

salt & black pepper

herbs of your choice

stock ingredients of your choice, but must include : an onion, a garlic clove, two sticks of celery and a handful of parsley.  After that, it's up to you.

Enough water to fill your saucepan or stock pot.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 200degC.

2.  Taking a suitably sized roasting tin or dish, place the chicken inside and pour over it the olive oil, season with the salt and pepper and add whatever herbs you've decided to use, to add to the flavour and aromatics.  I like thyme, rosemary and lemon - at this stage.

3.  Place the chicken into the oven to roast for 30mins - 45 mins depending on the size.  I like to see the top of the chicken has become golden and crispy, before removing from the oven.

4.  When the time is up, remove the chicken from the oven and place it into a large saucepan or stock pot.  Add the juices from the roasting pan, plus the vegetables and herbs, packing them in around the sides and remember to season again.

5.  Fill the saucepan with water to the point where the top of the chicken is just about to be submerged - but not quite.  Place on the heat and wait for the liquid to boil.

6.  Once boiling, reduce the heat to the minimum required to keep the liquid simmering very gently.

7.  Cook in this way (with a lid on) for the next 60-90 mins (again, depending on the size).  I think it is fairly difficult to overcook a chicken this way, but do the classic "looking for pinkness" test when you remove the chicken from the stock, just to be sure that your chicken isn't undercooked.

8.  Once the cooking time is up, remove the chicken from the stock (as above) and place on a plate.  Swathe it in silver foil and leave in a warm place for it to rest.

9.  In the meantime, put the stock through a sieve and remove enough of the stock to make a delicious gravy with.  The remainder can be set aside to cool, after which it can be frozen for use in a multitude of ways.

Serve your chicken!

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Successes and failures - a typical cooking week or so!

What BBC Good Food thought it should look like.

Now, where was I when it all went pear-shaped?

Aaah yes, it was Friday of the week before last (how DOES the time slip past so quickly?) and we were due to have the Sticky Chinese Chicken and Thai Carrot Salad.  Hmmmn, well, that all went very much to worms, I'm afraid.

The chicken went well enough - although it was far from "sticky", but very nicely flavoured all the same.  The Thai Carrot Salad was just such a disaster!  The dressing seemed to be weighted very heavily in the Fish Sauce direction and, having spent over a week trying to purchase rice vermicelli noodles, found that they didn't react in the way that the instructions on the packet intimated that they would.  The carrot mixture, on it's own, was barely edible - but having introduced the noodles to the equation, it became totally inedible.  So that wasn't a successful attempt - which was very disappointing, after the spectacular success of the New Potato, Bacon & Goat's Cheese salad.

The Pork with Lemongrass & Cinnamon didn't happen, which was a shame, but I just didn't feel up to making it.

However, the Pot Roast Chicken just had to be made as the dinner for the following day was relying upon it - not to mention Sunday's dinner!

I really love cooking pot-roast chicken.  There’s something so homely and comforting about having a chicken chuckling in a stock pot on your cooker.  I think it’s also the smell of the herbs and vegetables that go to make up the stock ingredients, combined with the knowledge that the chicken will emerge from its bath both subtly flavoured and succulent. 

I always roast the chicken for a half hour at 200deg prior to dunking it into its bath of gorgeous stock ingredients.  I think it imparts some of the “roasted chicken” flavour without resulting in the sulphurous effect that can be brought about by just roasting alone.

For the stock, I used onions, garlic, celery, thyme, parsley, basil, black peppercorns and included a star anise for that lovely and very distinctive flavour it imparts.  The smell, as the chicken cooked, just improved as the 90 minutes (it was a big chicken!) went on.

I'll be blogging the whole process as my next blog post, hopefully!

The sausagemeat balls were a bit of a disaster, unfortunately, as we didn't manage to get sausages from our local butcher - and the Tesco versions we did get were pretty darned pallid.  I'll have another go when I can get the butcher's sausages I was after to begin with.

It was very worthwhile taking the trouble to cook that chicken, even though I was feeling so rough, as the Coronation Chicken wraps we had on the following day were spectacular.  I included some lovely avocado in the wraps for us grown-ups - Son & heir has yet to obtain a liking for avocado - and with the lovely fresh crunchy lettuce they were just the job.

Which brings us to the start of this week's fare.

Rather cunningly, we decided to deviate from my self-set rule of not cooking separate dinners for everyone, and bought Son & heir a frozen pizza to have while we had a rather delicious Porcini Mushroom risotto.  Made by hubby's own fair hand, it contained the lovely chestnut mushrooms as well as the usual shallots and other ingredients.  For me, I was challenged a little bit by the grittiness of the dried Porcini.  As hard as you try to avoid including any grit from them, it just isn't possible to filter it all out - even with leaving the last of the soaking juice behind in the bowl.   Some people are challenged by fat in their food, I'm challenged by grit.  If an omelette includes even the tiniest bit of eggshell, I'm afraid that's enough to stop me stone cold dead in my tracks - and probably bring what I have eaten, back.  It's really such a shame, as the risotto was just SO mushroomy and gorgeous.  I loved the flavours - but could have done with having a comedy set of teeth, i.e. removeable, in order to eat it.

The next meal on the list was a Chicken & Cauliflower Curry.  For some reason, I decided to go about this curry by blitzing the onion, garlic and chilli before frying them off.  I suspect it's too much food t.v. that planted this particular idea in my mind.  I really don't know why I did it, because in the past whenever hubby has made a curry this way, I haven't really liked it because it leaves the sauce quite textural and almost gritty (again).  In fact, part-way through the cooking of this curry (shortly after the addition of some yoghurt, which promptly split) I was seriously considering consigning it to the bin.  However, I persevered and once the cauliflower began to cook, the whole thing came together quite nicely.  It wasn't bad, but I have to admit that I much prefer the "slice onions, fry, add garlic & chilli, fry, add spices, fry" approach to making a curry!

All was safe and sound by the following day's meal.  I have cooked the Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta Bake dozens of times now.  However, this time was a little different in that hubby was cooking.  I had to write the recipe out, as our printer has given up the ghost, and he even managed to read my writing correctly.  He turned out a lovely rendition of the dish - and for once, not having cooked it, I suppose - I could understand why the whole family like it so much!

We're up to Friday now, and owing to certain things happening rather suddenly (which I won't go into here, as I'm sure you'd be bored by it all), the planned Stromboli (regrettably, I failed to keep a note of the website which fired up my interest in the dish, or you could have seen it) fell by the wayside when I ran out of time in which to prove the dough required.  Pizza managed to fall into the gap again.

Yesterday, Saturday, I had planned on making a Quiche Lorraine.  Following a bit of comparing and contrasting various Quiche Lorraine recipes - from those with an ingredients list a mile long, to those with four or five ingredients - I decided on a fairly plain recipe.  I knew that the ingredients I had - Burford Brown eggs, Butcher's Bacon and a lovely strong piece of mature cheddar, were probably enough.  I will admit to adding a pinch of nutmeg, but that just seemed to make sense at the time!

The end result was a quiche of quite glorious proportions and taste, too - which I'll be blogging second on the to-do-list.  With a fairly simple salad, it made for a lovely meal.

Tonight's dinner is going to be roast bacon - I bought a lovely little roasting joint from Spring Fields Butchers on Friday - together with a Pasta Ratatouille bake.  I was after something a bit nicer than your average fare, but that was easy to prepare.  Hopefully I hit that nail on the head - I'll let you know later!

So far, I've boiled the little chap in some apple juice and water - approx 50/50 dimensions - with some thyme, a cinnamon stick and some pepper.  It smelled lovely when I got it out of it's bath to go into the roasting pan.  I'm currently cooking it long and slow - it will probably have had about two and a half hours in the roasting tin, by the time dinner is ready.  Fingers crossed, it will be falling apart tender by then.

All of which just leaves Monday.  I'm taking the car back to the garage to have the work done for the MOT pass on Monday, so we needed something easy to make and flexible - just in case we got the "come and get the car" call right at an inopportune moment from the dinner's point of view.

There's really only two meals that fall easily into that category - either spaghetti bolognese or chilli con carne.  As we've had a number of pasta dishes just lately, we opted for the chilli.  Hubby will be cooking that one as he's the Chilli-meister, so I'll be able to sit back and lick the wounds that the MOT will have undoubtedly caused.  If I had the money, I'd buy a new car every year, just so that I didn't have to go through this MOT nightmare annually.  It'd be worth it, I'm sure!

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So! What's on the menu list for this week, then?

Isabella Plantation, Richmond Park

This week, we shall mostly be thinking about fresh flavours, lighter flavours and trying a few new things.  Well, it IS spring - and if ever there was a time to cast off those heavy (but cosy) old overcoats of casseroles, dumplings, heavy sauces and old favourites such as Chilli con Carne, it's now.

Now is a time to lighten the load (not only around our waistlines) and wake up our tastebuds with tastes and textures that we haven't experienced for the last few cold and damp months.

So, out goes our reliance upon root vegetables, heavy stocks and sauces - and in comes citrus flavours, braising and salads.

I'm certainly ready for a change - and this week's menu reflects that.

As ever, my week kicks off on a Tuesday when I went to Spring Fields Catering Butchers to buy some chicken breasts and pork steaks.  The five chicken breasts were still priced at an incredibly reasonable £5 for the lot, but the pork steaks just amazed me.  £2.99 for six - and as he was cutting them from the huge piece of loin of pork, I couldn't quite believe my eyes.  In fact, I had to check what I'd got when I arrived home, such was my amazement.  If you were to buy the equivalent from your local Supermarket, I'm sure you wouldn't see much change out of £6.  Just superb value.

So Tuesday's dinner was Citrus Paprika Chicken with a watercress, rocket & spinach salad together with cherry tomatoes and avocado.  The carbohydrate aspect came in the form of some diced potatoes which were roasted in their jackets alongside the chicken, having been doused in the chicken's marinade.

Apart from the oven suddenly deciding to roast everything super-hot (and subsequently burning the edges of the spuds) this all came together really easily.  However, its reception wasn't quite universal.  I really liked it, hubby wasn't so keen and son just seemed ambivalent towards the whole meal.  However, I do think that it was more of a "girl's food" dinner, than a real "man's dish" - even though it contained an entire chicken breast each!

Wednesday should bring about a change from "girl food" to real "man food", with the pork steaks braised in cider & mustard, with mashed potatoes, carrots and broccoli.  Goodness, but I'm looking forward to this one, having seen the loveliness of the pork.  I'm also going to be using a bottle of the gorgeous Sheppy's Dabinett single variety cider which I've used before with very good results.  Fingers crossed!


Thursday requires a simple, quick to cook dish as I'll have been at work during the day.  Hence, I've booked in a Creamy Linguine with prosciutto, lemon and basil, which I expect we'll have with garlic bread.  Now, don't tell everyone, but this will be the very first time I've ever cooked with prosciutto.  *blush*  I'm really quite excited to be adding another first to my repertoire.

Picture c/o BBC Good Food website

You might remember that I booked in Bobotie on last week's menu list, but it got bumped off when I ran out of steam and plumped for fish & chips.  Well, I've gone off the idea of Bobotie now, but I've still got the minced lamb in the freezer.  So, on Friday we'll be making use of it in a lamb meatball traybake.

This is where the mince is made into some tasty meatballs with onion and mint, which are then roasted off in the oven alongside some onions, courgettes, butternut squash pieces, sweet potato wedges, cherry tomatoes - and some feta is crumbled over at the last minute.  It just appealed to the desire for some fresher, less complicated flavours - and I'm hoping it will suit that just fine.  Son and heir won't like the courgettes or cherry tomatoes, of course, but then he'll have the butternut and sweet potato to console himself with.  I may also throw in a couple of mushrooms - it's the kind of meal where anything that will roast can be added as an afterthought.


Saturday is hubby's day for cooking - and he's promised us a risotto.  Yum!  I'm not sure what type of risotto - and neither is he - but he's leaving it to providence and seeing what is in the supermarket on the day.  If nothing else, the produce will be fresh when it goes into the pot!

Photo c/o BBC Good Food website

Speaking of pots, on Sunday I've booked in another pot roasted chicken - except this time, instead of the usual roasted accompaniments, we're going to be having gnocchi and tenderstem broccoli.  Now there's a brave break from tradition for you!


Which brings us to the last day of this week's menu list, which is Monday - or "cold chicken day" as I expect it is becoming known.  I think it is always such a terrible waste of some really quite glorious cold cooked chicken (which is one of my favourite flavours in the universe) to put it into some curry, or pasta, or make it into a pie.  So, this Monday is going to be all about the chicken - right up until we reach the carrot fritters.  To give them their proper title, "carrot, cumin & feta fritters" which will be served with coriander yoghurt and a side salad.  I thought it would be an intriguing accompaniment to that delicious cold chicken - and far more interesting than a boring old potato salad!


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What's for dinner this week, then?

Very good question!

This week's menu's have largely been brought to you care of Delia Smith's "Frugal Food" and the BBC Good Food website, with one element of Jamie Oliver.  The week's programme began to write itself fairly early on in the previous week, when I got down to having a serious (as opposed to a quick flick through) look through Delia's recipe book.

Incidentally, can anyone tell me the difference between a "cookery book" and a "recipe book"?  The Cambridge Dictionary defines a "cookbook" as "a book containing recipes which tell you how to prepare and cook particular dishes", whereas it doesn't carry a definition for "recipe book".  I'd have thought that a "cookery book" contained paragraphs on "how to" as well as recipes (as with "The Constance Spry Cookery Book"), whereas a "recipe book" is just the recipes.  Maybe I'm wrong in that, though?  There seems to be almost as many descriptions for books regarding cookery as there are books!

So, anyway, I digress.

Here's what's on the menu this week :

Tuesday (which is tonight, as I write this blog) : this is a Delia night.  We had Devilled Chicken Pieces with onion rice.

This is the photo that went with the
recipe - but it's not how they looked
when I'd finished making them!

This was an experiment on two counts.  Firstly, as a first go at Delia's recipe for Devilled Chicken Drumsticks (albeit we had pieces) and secondly, as a first go at having chicken pieces (i.e. drumsticks & thighs) instead of breast fillets.  Because of the hike in price of frozen breast of chicken fillets, it has now become almost impossible for us to afford them and, because we have so many chicken recipes, I was keen to find a replacement.  I pondered on buying a whole chicken and jointing it - but I could immediately see that would be a non-starter on a busy day.  A bag of frozen drumsticks and thighs cost less than an entire chicken (and provide you with 5 of each, drumstick and thigh) and have the benefit of being extra-tasty in comparison to a breast fillet.  Of course, you can't stuff them, but you can use them in casseroles and stand-alone roast type dishes such as the Devilled Chicken.

Well, it proved a success.  Not exactly a resounding success - but that was down to Son's difficulty with handling chicken on the bone, rather than any other problem.  The recipe is a good one (I'll blog it eventually!) and although - next time - I might add a little more spiciness to the devilling, it was suitably finger-licking good.  I gave Son a drumstick and a thigh.  The drumstick he coped with just fine, the thigh was a little more challenging.  However, it's nothing that a little practice won't cure.

The onion rice, however, was more than a little ho-hum.  I won't bother blogging that one as we definitely won't be trying it again.  It was just too bland and uninteresting, even though I tarted it up with some cinnamon bark and broad beans.  I'm sure I can make a vegetable rice that will provide more interest.

Wednesday : Spirali al Pesto Rosso

Please don't pick me up on my Italian - it's just a humorous "at home" name for Spirali pasta with Red Pesto and Kielbasa sausage.  I'm looking forward to this one, as we've bought a red pesto which involves walnut and which should go with the Kielbasa (Hunter's Sausage) really well.  It's hubby's first cooking night, so fingers crossed it goes well for him!

[Edited on Wednesday evening, to say that the Kielbasa sausage (Hunter's Sausage) is TDF (to die for) and the Pesto (Red Pepper and Walnut, made by Dress Italian) is absolutely lovely.  I have rarely seen such a simple pasta dish wolfed in shorter time!]

Mace, bagged up
and ready for export

Thursday : Rissoles, potato wedges and peas

Thursday is hubby's second cooking night and tonight he's attempting to re-create a taste from his past - Rissoles.  The recipe he's using is another Delia one, which also uses ground Mace.  Now, I can't remember the last time I ever used Mace in anything so I was intrigued to have a sniff once we'd bought some.  Immediately my mind travelled to Rice Pudding, not Rissoles, so it'll be interesting to see what the Mace brings to the Pork Mince that is being used.

Friday : Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta Bake

By dint of the frequent requests, not to mention the puppy-dog eyes that accompany them, we will be indulging in gorgeously spicy tomatoey pasta with sausage pieces, broccoli and that creamy, gooey, cheesy mass that is melted mozzarella.  *sigh*  Happy happy.

This is the Jamie Oliver inspired one, which I have blogged about on a previous occasion back in September, but you can find its recipe here.

Saturday : Tuna & Lemon Pasta with garlic bread

Photo from BBC Good Food
Wonder what my version will look like?

It's another "eat on your lap, whilst watching Strictly Come Dancing" job again.  We've not had this one before and the idea of tuna alongside lemon, with fine green beans and pasta shells, appeals to my taste buds.  In fact, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Sunday : Pot Roast Chicken, roast potatoes & parsnips, carrots & green vegetables with Yorkshire Puddings.

I just have to try the pot roasting method on another chicken.  It was SUCH a resounding success the first time, I have to check and see whether that was just a fluke!

I'm also going to attempt to make my own yorkshire puddings.  I haven't told you about the disaster, nay tragedy, that was my Toad in the Hole - and I never will.  Suffice to say that I'm not holding out much hope for wonderfully risen Yorkies.  However, I'll keep on trying because one day - one day - I'll make it.  One day.

Photo from BBC Good Food

Monday : Lemon & Chilli Chicken Noodles

I think maybe I'm coming down with a cold or something, because I have a serious yearning for all things lemony at the moment.  I'm not sure what a yearning for noodles means, but I seem to have a constant hankering for those, too!  This is another BBC Good Food recipe which makes admirably good use of the other half of the chicken from Sunday.  I just hope that the fresh stir-fry mix I buy on Friday will last until Monday!

Apart from a marked lean towards the pasta, I think this week's dishes are a little more balanced than last week's "heavy on the Yorkshire pudding" week!

Pot Roast Chicken

This blog post first appeared in the Bournemouth Echo newspaper's "Taste" supplement.  You can see it here.

I MAY NEVER ROAST A CHICKEN AGAIN

To roast .. or to poach, this is the question!

After last night’s Pot Roast Chicken, I should think that this bold statement is a very strong possibility.  Poached in a rich, flavoursome home made stock, with fresh vegetables alongside, all thoughts of dry over-done chicken are cast into history by this revelation of a cooking method.

I was pondering on why I haven’t ever given the Pot-Roast a try (well, except with the slow-cooker, but that’s somewhat different).  I have come to the conclusion that it is for fear – particularly with a chicken – that the bird will emerge from the pot looking rather too much like one’s big toe does after too long immersed in a hot bath.  A flabby, wrinkly chicken isn’t the most appetising prospect.   What?  You mean to say that your toes don’t go all flabby and wrinkly?  Oh dear, it must just be mine then.

Incidentally, and going back to the beginning of the story, a quite lovely coincidence happened with regard to my Pot-Roast Chicken.  I had discovered the recipe when I was trawling various recipe websites, looking for inspiration for the next week’s menu list.  Up popped this recipe for Pot-Roast Chicken, which appeared to be a) economical and b) by Delia Smith.  That was two points in its favour.  Fast forward to Saturday morning, when I went to the Library to return my books and choose my new batch.  There, sitting quietly on the shelf, was Delia Smith’s “Frugal Food”.  Well, the word “frugal” attracted my attention to begin with, and realising it was one of Delia’s made me tuck it under my arm and bring it home.  Lo and behold, what is in there but the very recipe for Pot-Roast Chicken.  Ta-daaa!  Amazing.

I got in a bit of a tizzy over the cooking of the Pot-Roast, as it seemed to involve a number of different processes – not to mention I was producing roast potatoes & parsnips, Yorkshire puddings and cabbage alongside.  So I wrote out a programme, to make sure it arrived at around 5.50-6 p.m. :

3.40    Trim & prepare chicken

3.50    Oven bake chicken for 30 mins and prepare vegetables.

4.20    Put chicken in pot plus veg and cook 1 hr.

4.50    Par boil potatoes & parsnips, put tray in to heat

5.00    Put potatoes & parsnips in to roast.

5.20    Put Yorkshire puds in, veg to keep warm, gravy to reduce in small pan, carve chicken.

5.40    Put cabbage on to cook.

It may not appear to be much of a plan, but I knew that without it I’d spend a large part of my time working out times, just so that I could keep everything happening when it should!

Trimming and preparing the chicken was just a few minutes’ work - piercing an onion with cloves and parking it in the cavity, seasoning and rubbing the chicken with butter, before popping into the oven to brown.

It was important to prepare the vegetables - two carrots, a leek cut into four, two garlic cloves and some parsley, before the chicken finished it’s oven roasting, as they had to accompany it into the pot.

Mindful of Masterchef’s constant challenge to “get some flavour into your food”, I thought that poaching the chicken in plain old water was a bit under-achieving.  (Sorry, Delia!).  So I quickly defrosted a couple of blocks of home made chicken stock, which I topped up with water – and poached the bird in that.  Apart from the odd cruise past to make sure all was well under the lid, it had enough moisture, no veggies had emerged etc., it was a remarkably well-behaved way of cooking.  I can’t help but think it is probably more economic than running the oven for an hour and half, too.  It mostly chuckled along on a gentle heat for the hour it was poaching.  Of course, I blew any advantage along those lines by roasting potatoes and parsnips, plus making Yorkshire puddings – but it’s worth remembering for next time!

The chicken was delicious.  Moist and without that odd sulphurous tone that an ordinarily roast chicken has, it was a pleasure to eat – not to mention the added notes from the stock and vegetables.  I served the carrots and leek pieces alongside the chicken and both had benefited from their languishing in the tasty stock.  The gravy, though!  Oh, the gravy!  I scooped out three or four ladlefuls of stock into a smaller saucepan and reduced it down to make the gravy.  Oh boy, but it would be the base for a truly gorgeous chicken soup.  Regrettably though, I shall have to keep the extra stock for the next chicken – although next time, I shall definitely put the carcase into the slow cooker and make up the next batch of stock.

Dessert was something of an experiment.  I had been given a bag full of Quinces from a friend who grew them for the decorative effect in the garden, but not for use.  I have never tangled with Quince before and for all that I’d seen many recipes that involved their use, I hadn’t any great plan for them.  Because of this, I firstly investigated how best to keep them – would Quince freeze, for example.  Having cut them in half and oven-roasted them covered, with a little sugar, I was able to squeeze the core and pips out and discard them.  This resulted in a gorgeously aromatic little bowl of extremely tart fruit flesh.  The taste – once you stop wincing from the sourness – is slightly reminiscent of apple.  I knew I had a cooking apple in the fridge, which was looking for a home.

Cue one Apple & Quince Sponge pudding, with the fruit in a gorgeously tart layer below a sponge made with foraged Chestnut roasted crumbs, which was an absolute treat with some vanilla ice cream.