Soy Braised Chicken with leeks - gentle sweet flavours

This lovely, gently flavoured dish was inspired by a photograph of a similar dish that I spotted in the BBC Good Food magazine this month.

As I recall, the original recipe had spring onions in it and as I don't do very well with spring onions - my tummy sometimes rejects them - and had a leek waiting for me to find it a job to do, it seemed a fairly obvious swap.

I'm still getting back into the swing of cooking following on from a nasty bout of the flu.  Hence, I didn't really want to get involved in a long cooking procedure - so this recipe turned out to be perfect.  If you do the entire process all in one go, you could probably be in the kitchen for some three hours or more - but I split it into various instalments.  Well, it gave me a chance to have a bit of "downtime" inbetween the action.

We had bought an organic chicken earlier in the week, to have at the weekend.  However, neither of us were in any fit state to be making roast chicken, so it had gone into the freezer.  So as to make the most of the price of the chicken, I decided to joint it and make a stock for soup with the carcass.  I reckoned that I could get at least three meals from the one chicken, that way.  In fact, we've had two main meals and two lunches - with a leg still left to be used!

Once we'd taken son & heir to school, I got on with jointing the chicken (which I'm getting a lot better at!).  It's not often that I get the opportunity to use organic chicken (although it would always be my first choice, if I could afford it) and this one was a beauty.  The knife went through the breast meat like a hot knife through butter, which bode well for the tenderness of the cooked chicken.  It wasn't a corn fed chicken, but the fat was a lovely deep yellow colour.  I was surprised at how bruised the breast meat appeared to be in places - but I figure that milling around outside with its pals, I guess a chicken is bound to get bumps and scrapes.

The two breast fillets, a drumstick and a thigh went into a cling film covered bowl with the marinade and into the fridge for later.

The remainder of the carcass went into the slow cooker with a couple of carrots, some celery, an onion and a garlic clove, plus some herbs and a good quantity of water and some seasoning.  There it stayed for the day, chuckling away and making some beautiful stock.  I eventually stripped the chicken of all the tiny little bits of meat and made a Jewish-style chicken soup with the stock, which I'll blog soon.
 
It was a late pickup from school that day, so I needed to put the casserole together before we left to collect son & heir.

The chicken smelled wonderful as I browned the pieces in the frying pan and my hopes for a great dinner rose a little bit further.

It really wasn't a difficult procedure to get the casserole together and I finished with 10 minutes to go.  We turned the oven on as we left to pick up son & heir.  Once we got home, it was an easy matter of cooking some rice and broccoli - and serving it all up.

I had debated thickening the sauce, but looking at it, it seemed to me as though it would entirely change the character of the dish to have the sauce thick.  It was supposed to be light and fluid - and there was broccoli and rice to soak it up with, so I took a chance and left it.  Hubby would have preferred it thicker - I was anticipating that - but I was very pleased with it.

I very much liked the gentle flavours provided by the soy, mirrin and honey - which added to the flavour of the leek and broad beans, made it a balanced dish.  Or so I thought, anyway.  Hubby doesn't like broad beans much and would have preferred the sweetness of peas, rather than that slight bitterness that an un-shucked broad bean brings.  Yes, perhaps I should have shucked the broad beans, but can I refer you back to the flu comment?  Just the thought of sitting there shucking broad beans was enough to almost send me back to bed.

Son & heir appeared to enjoy the flavours, although he did agree with his Dad about the bitterness from the broad beans.  I couldn't register said bitterness at all - all I could predominantly taste was the sweetness from the mirrin and honey, with the saltiness of the soy sauce!

So, I would advise caution when making this recipe.  If your family is very anti thin sauces or bitter flavours, perhaps you should consider thickening the sauce with a little cornflour and using peas instead of broad beans.  Alternatively, you could make something completely different!

I would be very happy to have this recipe again - although sadly I doubt I'll be making it in quite the same way.  Bye bye broad beans and hello cornflour!  *wink* 

SOY BRAISED CHICKEN WITH LEEKS   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp mirrin
1 tbsp runny honey
a pinch of sea salt
2 boneless chicken breasts plus 1 thigh and 1 drumstick, skin on
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 leek, washed, halved lengthways and chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
100ml chicken stock
a good handful of frozen broad beans or peas.

Method :

1.  Put the soy sauce, mirrin, honey and sea salt into a bowl and stir to combine.

2.  Add the chicken pieces and stir to make sure they are all liberally covered with the marinade - then cover with cling film and leave for a minimum of half an hour.

3.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and brown the chicken pieces on a high heat.  Keep an eye on the chicken, as it will colour very quickly because of the sugars in the marinade.

4.  Once browned, place the chicken into a casserole dish.

5.  Add the onion to the frying pan and cook on a medium heat for 3-5 minutes, until softened.  Add the leek and ginger and stir to combine.

6.  Add the chicken stock and broad beans or peas.  Allow them to heat through and taste the sauce for seasoning.  If you think it is a little light on flavour or salt, add the remainder of the marinade and stir through.

7.  Decant the sauce and vegetables into the casserole dish, cover and put into a moderate oven (180degC/350degF/Gas 4) for 45 minutes to an hour.

8.  If, at the end of this time, you feel the sauce is either too liquid or not tasty enough, remove the chicken to a warmed bowl and cover with foil.  Either decant the sauce into a saucepan, or place the casserole dish (presuming it can cope with being on a direct heat) onto a gentle heat and reduce the sauce until it has reached a satisfactory consistency or the flavour has intensified sufficiently.

Serve with plain white rice and some steamed broccoli.

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Sirloin Steak & Broad Bean Salad - just jaw-droppingly good

I have to own up and say that this meal is seriously jumping the queue where blogging about various dinners is concerned.

The reason for this is the fact that these two steaks - both Westin Gourmet, one Hereford Sirloin steak and one Aberdeen Angus Sirloin steak - were just divine and went so well with the salad I had devised for them.  When a meal is so good that you're day dreaming about it for days afterwards, it demands to be shared.

The two steaks were part of the One Time Offer pack that I had received from Westin Gourmet to trial for them.  They were both just 5-6oz each, but their steak sizes include an 8-9 oz if you're after one a little bigger.

The steaks arrived vacuum packed, which always presents them in a not terribly flattering light as they tend to look a bit pulverised and grey.  They are obviously gasping for breath, as within fifteen minutes of being let out of their bag, they are re-inflating and looking a lot healthier as a rosy blush spreads across the meat.  By the time they were ready to be cooked, they looked as mouthwatering as any steak could.

Hubby isn't terribly keen on steak, so he opted for some peppered mackerel with an identical salad to the one accompanying the beef, which worked perfectly.

In the interests of taste testing, son and heir and I had half a steak each - which was quite convenient. It meant I could cut the fatty end off for me and leave the leaner end for son & heir, who has followed his father in not liking fat on his meat.  We were both bowled over by these steaks - and the look on son & heir's face when he heard it was steak for tea, was a picture.  He even ate every little bit of his salad!

The base salad, prior to including steak

The salad I devised comprised a nest of lamb's lettuce, liberally sprinkled with hulled broad beans (partly cooked, then cooled and taken from their leathery jackets), quickly cooked and chilled peas, chargrilled baby sweetcorn, chargrilled asparagus, baby Sweetfire chilli infused beetroot and some of those completely gorgeously adorable little Tomberry tomatoes.

With the addition of the Mary Berry (yes, THAT Mary Berry) and Daughter's Caesar Salad Dressing - which is our current favourite, the salad was perfect in substance and flavour to accompany something as strong as steak.

I do try to put some carbohydrate or another on the plate, as I find that unless I have some kind of carbs, I'm looking for something else to eat within an hour of dinner.  In this instance, I had found some baby Apache potatoes which I cooked in their jackets then tossed in butter and a small teaspoonful of mint sauce.  This is my method of choice for small potatoes (new potatoes included) when I don't have fresh mint to hand.  Apache potatoes are very jolly in their look, as they are a kind of skewbald colour (red and white) on the outside (well, dark red and light brown, in truth!) and the pinkness travels through to the inside of the potato.  The only negative I could find with these little lovelies was that the pinkness inside tends to translate to grey once cooked, but their flavour is very mild and goes well with more highly flavoured accompaniments.

The Aberdeen Angus side of the salad

So - getting back to the steak, both these steaks were utterly gorgeous in flavour and texture.  I cooked them both on a blisteringly hot griddle pan, having sprinkled one side with a little seasoning and a few drips of rapeseed oil.  They had probably around 3-4 minutes on one side, then 2-3 minutes on the other, which rendered them a perfect medium rare.

I rested them both for some 5-10 minutes while I assembled the salad, then sliced them and served.

The Hereford Steak side of the salad

There was a time that I could no more have eaten a medium rare steak than fly to the moon.  In those days, unless the steak was utterly ruined (also known as cooked all the way through - "well done" and then some) it wasn't going anywhere my mouth.  These days, I have learnt to appreciate both the flavour and the tenderness of a steak which has been treated a little better.  As time goes on and the ole teeth aren't what they used to be (and probably the jaw muscles, too!), a tender steak is a must.  These weren't quite butter-soft, but they weren't far away from that.

I began my taste test with the Hereford, which had the kind of beefy flavour that you have come to expect from a steak and that - for those meat eaters amongst us - renders you with half closed eyes and a beatific smile on your face while you chew appreciatively.  I really didn't think that the Aberdeen Angus could trump that - but it did.  My first taste was very definitely an "ohmagawd!" moment, with accompanying wide eyes of surprise.  I just wanted that steak to last for ever, it was THAT good.

Currently, the price on the Westin Gourmet website for the 5-6oz Aberdeen Angus steaks - two to a pack, is £13.17 for the two.  Not the cheapest of prices, but then not the most expensive I've seen, either.  As a treat - and boy, are they a treat - I'd say they were worth it - and don't forget, if you've someone in the family who isn't keen on steak, just serve them something else like the peppered mackerel, or maybe some sausages.  It all depends what you'd prefer.

SIRLOIN STEAK & BROAD BEAN SALAD  (serves 3)

Ingredients :

2 x 5-6oz Sirloin steaks
a drizzle of rapeseed or olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
a bag of Lamb's Lettuce leaves or salad leaves of choice
a small cupful of frozen or fresh broad beans
a smaller cupful of frozen or fresh peas
9 or so baby sweetcorn (fresh)
6 asparagus spears (fresh)
a pack of Sweetfire beetroot, or baby beetroot of your choice
a pack of Tomberry tomatoes, or cherry tomatoes.

Method :

1.  Boil some salted water in a medium sized pan and add the broad beans.  Cook for some 3-4 minutes, then remove from the water with a slotted spoon into a colander and run under the cold tap to stop the cooking process.  Set aside.

2.  Add the peas to the water and cook them for 3 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon, run under cold water in the same way as the broad beans, and reserve in a separate bowl to the broad beans.

3.  Add the baby corn to the water and cook for some 3-4 minutes.  Drain, discarding the water, and set the corn aside to cool.

4.  Take the broad beans and, pinching out an end of each bean's jacket, pinch the inner green bean from the jacket.  Keep the inner green bean and discard the leathery jacket.  This process does take time and will make your arms ache - but it's worth it!

5.  Heat a griddle pan on a high heat and, while it is heating, cut the baby sweetcorn into two longways.  Drizzle a little rapeseed oil over them and season lightly.

6.  Place the sweetcorn pieces onto the griddle pan once up to temperature and char-grill until well marked.  Reserve onto a plate to cool.

7.  Take the asparagus spears and place them onto the griddle pan.  Cook until well marked on all sides and soft in the middle, then remove to a plate and leave to cool.

7.  Take your steaks (which should be at room temperature) and, using some kitchen paper pat them dry.  Season with a little salt and pepper on one side, then drizzle with a little rapeseed oil on both sides.

8.  Place the steaks onto the griddle pan and leave them where they fall for around 4-5 minutes.  They should be fairly easy to remove from the griddle pan (without sticking) if they are done sufficiently, in which case turn them and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes for a medium rare steak.  Don't be turning them this way and that - just place them and leave them to cook.  Obviously, if you prefer your steak more cooked, them leave them for longer on each turn - and less for a more rare steak.

9.  When the steaks are done to your satisfaction, put them onto a warmed plate and reserve somewhere warm (under the grill or a warm oven) to rest until ready to serve.

10.  Assemble your salad on the plate however you prefer, then take the steaks and slice into attractive looking slices and lay on top of the salad.

Serve with minted new potatoes.

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Pasta Ratatouille Bake and how time flies!

I woke up this morning with two priorities in mind.  One was to bake some Muffins involving Quince in some way.  The other was to blog on the Ratatouille Bake we ate for dinner last night.

So far, it's got to 1.50pm and I've had a shower, had breakfast, been to Sainsbury's (extra-curricular trip, for flour), returned and caught up with my email whilst having a coffee, then had lunch, then had an extra-curricular trip to the Ashley Road to drop hubby off.  Only now, am I getting to one of those priorities.  Does this happen to everyone, or is it just me?

Yes, I could have got out of bed before 9 a.m. but I have been so totally dog-tired for the last two days that having a bit of a long sleep through was getting to be vital.  I'm always scared to become too tired, just in case - one day - my brain decides to melt as it did some 2 years ago when I had a mini stroke.  Don't want that to happen again, just in case next time it decides not to be mini!  Anyway.  Enough rambling about not having time - let's get on and tell you about the Pasta Ratatouille Bake.

I had tripped over this recipe on the Good Food Channel's website and it appealed to me for the following reasons :

1.  It provided three of your five-a-day vegetables in what appeared to be extremely palatable form;
2.  It used pasta, so was potentially a good alternative to using potatoes in a dish;
3.  It was oven baked with cheese melted over the top, which is very palatable for young Son.

I knew Son wouldn't enjoy the courgettes, but they were big enough for him to avoid.  I had hope that he would enjoy the broad beans, as they were a relatively new vegetable for him and, coming in frozen form, were easy to keep handy.

As it turned out, the dish was delicious and baked well with the pasta.  I used Spirali instead of the classic macaroni, largely because we already had some Spirali in the cupboard.  I also used Thyme instead of Basil, as my Basil plant had died over the last two days of sharp overnight frosts.  Even being kept in the kitchen didn't help it.  I admit that I also added a tablespoon of tomato ketchup to the sauce, just to add that little tang that the fresh tomato wasn't providing.  The last adjustment was that I grated over some sharp Cheddar cheese as well as the Parmesan, in order to up the cheese quota so as to appeal to Son.  The recipe makes a fair amount - way more than would feed 4 people - but nil desperandum as it made a lovely lunch the following day.

PASTA RATATOUILLE BAKE  (feeds 5-6)

Ingredients :

200g pasta (Spirali or Macaroni are good)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
4 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 courgettes, sliced (you may need 3, depending on how many you're feeding & the size of the courgettes.  Mine were big!)
200g broad beans (fresh, frozen or tinned)
1 tbps tomato ketchup
125ml vegetable stock (from a cube is fine, just don't add too much extra salt)
25g parmesan cheese, grated
10g sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Method :

1.  Preheat the oven to 180deg c/gas mark 4.

2.  Cook the pasta according to the instructions given on the packet and drain.

3.  Meanwhile, in a deep frying pan, heat the oil and cook the onion for 5-10 mins, until it's tender and golden.

4.  Add the garlic for the last 2-3 minutes and cook through.

5.  Stir in the herbs, tomatoes, courgettes, beans, stock, tomato ketchup and seasoning and simmer for 5 minutes.

6.  Combine the pasta with the vegetables and stir gently, then decant into a warmed casserole dish.

7.  Grate the cheese over the top, then oven-bake for 30-35 mins.

Excellent served with Sausages, Gammon, Pork Chops.