Sherried rhubarb crumble - only for grown ups!

As most of you know, we grow rhubarb in our garden.  It all started with the one plant - called Ruby - who grew so much we had to split her in half and so she spawned her daughter, RubyTwo.  Well, the years have gone past and the pair of them are now busting out of the brick planters they are in and three times a year (or more) threaten world domination unless we harvest them and share them around the neighbours.  So, as you can imagine, obtaining rhubarb isn't exactly a challenge.  In fact, for this recipe, hubby went out and cut the 500g required and it was in the oven half an hour later. Can't get a lot fresher than that!

With this crumble, I wanted very much to just celebrate the joy that is rhubarb.  Not dilute it with apple, or confuse matters by adding blackberries.  No, I wanted it to be simply rhubarb.  Our rhubarb is so tasty - it's a champagne variety - that I always think it's a shame to mask its deliciousness with other flavours.

However, that didn't stop me from having a rush of blood to the head and adding sherry.  *chuckle*  Well, I figured that as we've had a rhubarb trifle with sherry in the past - which was delicious, why not?  I used a medium sherry - Harvey's Bristol Cream, in fact.  It definitely lent the dish a certain something and I'd definitely do that again.

What did it taste like?  Oh, it was beautiful.  Sweet, sharp, deep rich flavours of rhubarb with the slight headiness of sherry, balanced against the buttery, oaty, slightly toffee flavoured crumble that just melted in the mouth. Heavenly. Especially with vanilla custard, which is just the perfect accompaniment.

I have two Cook's Tips for you, which are as follows :

Lots of crumble recipes tell you to pre-cook the fruit, but I didn't want rhubarb slush, I wanted pieces of rhubarb that still had their shape and a little of the crunch.  Cutting the pieces slightly smaller than usual, managed to achieve that very nicely across the 30 minute cooking time.   If however, you prefer your rhubarb to be softer then make sure to cook it on for another 10 minutes or so.

I'm sure we've all made fruit crumbles that wind up being all juice.  For me, too much juice can almost ruin a crumble as it tends to steam the underside of the crumble top and you end up with a yukky sludgy uncooked layer and the fruit swimming in juice.  To offset this, I mixed in some cornflour (or perhaps corn starch where you are) with the raw fruit and sugar, which has the effect of thickening the juice and so preventing both the sludge and the pool.  You don't even notice it's there, so it's a sneaky tip to remember for fruit pies, too!

Maybe the very next time you lay your hands on some rhubarb, you can give this crumble a go.  Your family will thank you!

SHERRIED RHUBARB CRUMBLE    (serves 4-5)

Ingredients :

500g rhubarb, washed, dried and cut into 1cm pieces
100g caster sugar
1 tbsp cornflour
3-4 tbsp of medium sweet sherry.

For the crumble :

130g self raising flour
50g light brown muscovado sugar
30g rolled porridge oats
90g slightly salted, chilled butter.

Method :

Pre-heat your oven to 190degC/375degF/Gas 5.

Place the chopped rhubarb into a deep sided casserole or baking dish. Sprinkle over the caster sugar and cornflour and mix together thoroughly until each piece of rhubarb is coated.

Sprinkle the sherry over the rhubarb and set aside while you make the crumble.

Weigh the self raising flour, muscovado sugar and porridge oats into a large bowl and lightly stir together.

Cut the butter into small pieces and rub it into the dry ingredients until everything is buttery and breadcrumb-like.

Spread the crumble across the top of the fruit mix and level the surface without pressing down or compacting the crumble at all.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or 40 minutes if you like your fruit softer.

Serve with vanilla custard, or double cream if you must.  *wink*

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Chicken in a Marsala & mustard cream sauce - as easy as winking!

Chicken in a Marsala & mustard cream sauce is quite probably my absolute favourite chicken dish from my repertoire. I've used Marsala wine, our home made Mead and even sherry in it, with excellent results for all three. I've also swapped out the wholegrain mustard for Dijon and loved that version too. So, it's a very flexible and forgiving recipe that provides incredibly yummy results.

Right at this moment, I'm on a white meat only diet following on from a really bad gout attack and I'm so glad that I remembered this one. Eating just chicken, turkey and white fish can get a bit ho hum, even after just a week. So it was nice to have chicken with a lovely unctuous, tasty sauce and I'm only surprised that I haven't got around to blogging it before now!

Another good thing about this recipe is that if you ever find yourself with no onions but a tub of cream in the fridge and chicken in the freezer, you're half way there. It's not often, these days, you find a recipe that doesn't include onion. I've often pondered on including a sauteed onion or maybe some garlic in the sauce but always reject the idea on the basis that the sauce is so good without it, why mess with perfection?

As for Cook's Notes, there's really only one you need to be aware of which is to monitor the temperature of the pan when you're frying the chicken. Of course, you don't want your chicken to burn, but equally you really don't want it to be more than a gentle golden brown or your sauce could end up a little bitter. It all depends on your particular pan. You know it best, so just keep your eye on it during the cooking.

Mmmmnnn, I could eat this all over again today if I had the chicken!

CHICKEN IN A MARSALA & MUSTARD CREAM SAUCE (serves 3)

Ingredients :

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

a pinch of sea salt
1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
120ml Marsala wine (or Mead, or Sherry)
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
100ml water
1 tsp low salt chicken stock granules (or half a low salt stock cube)
a pinch of ground black pepper
1 tsp thyme
150ml double cream
1 tsp cornflour, let down with a small amount of water.

Method :

Trim each chicken breast of any gristle or fat, then slice each breast through horizontally from the thick end to the thin end, creating two thin halves.

Place the olive or rapeseed oil into a frying pan and heat until sizzly. Gently lay each chicken breast down - and leave it alone apart from to sprinkle with a small amount of sea salt. You are aiming to achieve some colour on the chicken breasts, so they will need to stay in one position until they achieve a lovely golden colour.

Flip each breast over onto the other side and again, leave it alone to cook and gain colour for another few minutes.

Remove the chicken to a warmed plate, it doesn't matter if it isn't quite cooked through - it will finish cooking once it is in the sauce.

Pour the wine into the pan and deglaze by stirring and releasing any crispy bits that may be stuck to the pan. All these are flavour!

Once the wine has reduced by half, add the mustard, water, stock granules, black pepper and thyme. Stir thoroughly to combine.

Add the cream and stir through, then return the chicken to the pan, together with any juices that have accumulated under the chicken. Stir gently and allow the sauce to simmer.

When you are satisfied that the chicken is cooked through, if necessary add the cornflour/water mix and stir to combine. Once the sauce has thickened to your preferred consistency, serve with a selection of steamed vegetables and new potatoes.

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Pork tenderloin stuffed with sherry soaked prunes and chestnuts, in a mushroom cream sauce.

During our usual weekly board meeting (when we decide what to eat for the coming week), hubby stated that he had a fancy for roast pork for dinner on Sunday.  That caught my attention, as I love a good roast shoulder of pork (locally sourced in England of course) with a little bit of stuffing and apple sauce.

However, that wasn't what he had in mind.  His idea of "roast pork" is to roast a pork tenderloin.

Now you have to salt this preference with the knowledge of both his and son & heir's dislike of fat on meat.  For him, a shoulder of pork is full of (what he describes as) "globby bits" that at best just turn him right off and at worst make him want to heave.  For me, I can wade my way through any amount of said "globby bits" for some pork with lovely roasty flavour.  It's horses for courses - and as I'm in the minority, it is rare we ever have a piece of fatty pork as a Sunday roast.  However, any pork in a storm (see what I did, there?) is better than no pork at all.

During the week, I started to think about how I could make this dull as ditchwater piece of pork interesting.  Oh come on.  I know that a pork tenderloin is lovely and lean with no "globby bits" and a gentle flavour, but you have to agree with me surely - it's a bit incredibly dull as just roast pork.

It took two days (no, seriously - two days!) before I had a sudden brainwave.  Stuff it, I thought.  No, not "stuff it" as in "oh forget about it, I just don't care any more", but "stuff it" as in "put stuffing inside it".  Aha!  I was onto a winner here.

I finally decided (having gone through many permutations of stuffing in my mind) that it would be good to use up some of the ingredients left over from Christmas, plus to capitalise on the pork's tendency to be rather sweet - but without overdoing it.

So I settled on using prunes and chestnuts.  Both would go well with pork and we had both of them in the house already.  Then, though, I had the most brilliant of brainwaves - why not soak the prunes in sherry?  Ho, yes!  I could use the remaining sherry to bolster the flavour of the mushroom sauce (which was also hubby's choice) and it would add another layer of flavour to the stuffing.

The tenderloin, all stuffed and ready for the oven

Quite by accident (and I don't mind admitting it), I discovered that leaving the prunes to soak for 24 hours is by far and away the better option.  I discovered this by running out of the will to live around about the time I should have been making dinner, on the Sunday.  So we ordered in a pizza and dinner got bumped over until Monday - by which time, the prunes were softly unctuous and gorgeous and I'd recovered.  Hence, if you can remember, do put them to soak with plenty of time to spare!  It's worth it, honest.

.... and all roasted, rested, carved and ready to eat!

The other little tip I have for you, is regarding the soaked porcini mushrooms.  When you take them out of their water to chop, try not to disturb the water too much.  That way, when you come to pouring the water into the sauce ingredients, any grit that has come from the mushrooms won't have been stirred up and wind up in your sauce.  Also, leave the very dregs in the bottom of the bowl - don't add them to your sauce, for the very same reason.  I think most people hate getting grit in between their teeth - and dentistry is terribly expensive these days - so it's worth doing.

Oh, and another point is to watch how much salt you use in seasoning.  It is very worthwhile getting to know how much salt is in a stock cube, so that you can allow for it when making your dishes.  I use all kinds of different stocks - home made, cubes, jelly and powder - and it can really affect the end result if there isn't enough - or even worse, there's too much - salt in the food.  In this instance, because it is difficult to find pork stock, I've used a Knorr Pork stock cube, which are fairly salty and don't come in the low salt variety.

So what did it taste like?

The sage & onion roast potatoes - simply scrumptious!

Well, the pork could have been a little more tender, but it was perfectly nice and very edible indeed.  The chestnut & prune stuffing worked perfectly.  The chestnuts gave that earthy nuttiness while the sherry soaked prune delivered a sweet, vaguely spicy edge to a perfect triumvirate of flavours.  With the sage and onion roast potatoes - which were also designed to match up with the pork flavour perfectly - and some fresh steamed vegetables all bathed in the beautifully intense and creamy sauce, it was heaven.

I might begin to alter my opinion of pork tenderloin, if it always tasted that good!

PORK TENDERLOIN, STUFFED WITH SHERRY SOAKED PRUNES & CHESTNUTS, IN A MUSHROOM CREAM SAUCE WITH SAGE & ONION ROAST POTATOES   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

10 or so prunes, halved
Medium sherry, enough to cover the prunes
2 tbsp of dried porcini mushrooms (optional)
4 medium Maris Piper potatoes, peeled, rinsed and cut into chunks of approx 1 inch
150g shallots, peeled, topped and tailed
1-2 tsp dried sage 
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
700g pork tenderloin, in one piece
10 or so chestnuts, sliced finely
a length of butcher's string
250g chestnut mushrooms
a pork stock cube, divided into 2 pieces
a knob of unsalted butter
1 tbsp mushroom ketchup (or Worcestershire sauce)
150ml double cream
3 heaped tsp Bisto Best pork gravy granules.

Method :

1.  The day before you are due to make the dish, place the halved prunes into a small bowl and pour in enough Sherry to just cover them.  Cover with a plate (not cling film - you want them to breathe a bit) and leave to absorb the sherry.

2.  Approximately an hour or so before you are due to make the dish, place the dried porcini mushrooms into another small bowl and cover with boiling water.  Cover with cling film and leave to soften.

3.  Place the potato pieces into a large bowl and add 1 tbsp of the oil.  Add all but one of the shallots.  Season well with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper and add the dried sage.  Toss with a spoon to ensure every piece is covered with both oil, herbs and seasoning.

4.  Pour out onto a roasting tray and arrange so that the shallots are in the centre of the tray, where they will be protected from the fiercest heat.

5.  Place on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven at 200degC/400degF/Gas 6 for 30-35 minutes.  You may need to turn the roasting tray part way through cooking, for an even roast.  If the potatoes are cooking faster than the pork, it is possible to take them out of the oven and keep them warm (under the grill, in my case), then put them back in 10 minutes or so before the pork is due to finish, to crisp up.

6.  So, take the tenderloin and carefully trim away any gristle or fat.

7.  Carefully cut through from the side, so that you can stuff the tenderloin - but making sure not to perforate the other side with the knife.

8.  Lay on a layer of sliced chestnuts, then a layer of soaked prunes, then a final layer of sliced chestnuts.  Sprinkle with a tiny pinch of sea salt & a little black pepper.

9.  Take the piece of butcher's string and, starting at one end, loop it at intervals and pull tight to hold the stuffing in place.  Tie off at the opposite end.

10.  Place the tenderloin into a roasting tin and pour over one of the tbsp of oil.  Pour over the remaining sherry from the prunes.

11.  Take two or three of the chestnut mushrooms and chop into small pieces.  Sprinkle them on either side of the pork.

12.  Place half of the stock cube into 200ml of hot water and once dissolved, pour into the roasting dish, then cover lightly with silver foil and place into the oven on the lower shelf, for 30 minutes.

13.  Whilst the pork and potatoes are cooking, prepare the sauce by adding the knob of unsalted butter to a saucepan.  Melt it on a moderate heat and add the one shallot, which should have been chopped finely.  Cook until soft and transparent, but not in any way coloured.  

14.  Add the remainder of the mushrooms - including the drained porcini (but reserve the liquid).  Cook until the mushrooms are softened.

15.  Add 250ml of boiling water, the mushroom liquid and crumble the remaining half of the stock cube into the pan.  Add the mushroom ketchup and stir until the stock has dissolved and bring to a gentle boil.

16.  When the pork has had its 30 minutes, remove the covering silver foil and spoon the majority of the cooking juices (including the mushrooms) into the pan containing the sauce.

17.  Replace the pork back into the oven for another 10 minutes, to gain a bit of colour.

18.  Remove from the oven and cover with silver foil, to rest.

19.  Continue to cook the sauce until it has reduced by almost half and the flavours have intensified to the point where you're thinking that it is really too intense.  Add the double cream and stir through.  Taste for seasoning - you're more likely to need pepper than salt, as the stock cube will probably have been salty.

20.  Before the sauce has time to heat back up, add the gravy granules and stir to combine.  As the sauce heats through, the granules will cause it to thicken and put a bit of an edge back into the flavour.  Set aside to keep warm while you serve.

Serve the pork sliced, with the sauce, roast potatoes and a selection of steamed vegetables.

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Chicken Casserole with olives & raisins

There now - I bet that got your attention.  Chicken casserole with olives and raisins?  Curious!

Well, that's the reaction it engendered in me when I saw it.  Maybe I'm the only one.  ~shrug~

I'm always in the market for another chicken casserole recipe - after all, it's one of the mainstays of our week's menus - or used to be!  Since chicken is apparently particularly bad where being inflammatory is concerned, I'm thinking that perhaps it's going to appear rather less in the future.

However, I'm still getting my head around the anti-inflammatory thing - and I have got two growing lads to feed.

I found the recipe on Good Food Channel's website and immediately was struck by the novelty value of raisins and olives being included in a casserole that, apparently, didn't contain the middle eastern spices that are more usually found in conjunction with this type of fruit.  Not only that, but the recipe also includes 100ml of dry sherry which is another unusual bedmate.


However, I could see how they would all potentially sit agreeably together, particularly with the tomatoes and green peppers that the recipe also demanded.


The end result was very nice indeed.  I was careful to ensure that the sauce stayed good and substantial and no one flavour stood out from any other.  We ate the casserole with some sweet potato wedges which were a great foil for the savouriness of the chicken mixture.  However, I can't help but think that some plain rice and maybe some green beans would be just as good.


CHICKEN CASSEROLE WITH OLIVES & RAISINS  (serves 3)


Ingredients :


2 tbsp olive oil
3 skinless chicken breasts
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp tomato puree
100ml dry sherry
3 cloves
2 green peppers, sliced
2 carrots, sliced finely
100ml chicken stock (I used Knorr Chicken Stock Pots)
1-2 tbsp raisins
1 handful pitted green olives.

Method :


1.  Pre-heat your oven to 200deg C/400deg F/Gas 6.

2.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken breasts on each side for 3-5 minutes until golden.  Transfer to a casserole dish, leaving behind as much of the fat as possible.

3.  Add the onions to the frying pan and cook on a medium heat until softened.  Add the garlic and flour and cook for a minute more.

4.  Stir in the tomato puree, sherry and stock, stirring or whisking to ensure all lumps are mixed in.  Add the cloves, carrots and green peppers and bring to a gentle simmer, then pour over the chicken.

5.  Cover the dish and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

6.  Remove from the oven and stir in the raisins and olives, then replace and cook for another 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and tender.

Serve.

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