Boring Chicken?

You have to be creative. Sometimes things may go wrong. Well, for you amateurs maybe... ;-)

The slightly over caramelised parts in the pic is (curly) parsley - maybe I should have covered it for a bit while it roasted... I didn't bother with the duck I did last week... (yes it was gorgeous ;-)) but that was covered with orange slices so it had protection... not that the caramelised parsley wasn't interesting to taste :-)

I thought to myself: 'Chicken with a nice caramel crust would be nice. Oh, and maybe some smoked paprika. I have lots of parsley too...'. At this point readers of Terry Pratchett would realise that I got hit by a random Thought particle which inspired me to combine all of these things! Amazing hey?

I made a butter paste with the parsley and paprika. This was inserted into the area between the skin and meat on the breasts (after a while in the fridge to cool down). You make a pocket using your hand, just work it in gently (the skin should be quite tough to break, but don't push it).

I smeared some on the outside of the bird and sprinkled on a ground mix of salt, vanilla flavoured sugar, sage and oregano.

I halved an onion and put it in the cavity before putting it in the onion, skin still on. After the roasting, I put it into the gravy (made from the pan juices, white wine and a little chicken stock).

I was pretty boring from then on, I roasted potatoes in duck fat and served it with the chicken, gravy and sprouts.

Sun Dried Tomato and Olive Bread

This is just a normal loaf of bread recipe. Made with organic flour no less.

Ok, and a couple of additions, I chopped up some sun dried tomatoes (that came in olive oil) and some black olives (that were in brine, how ironic...).

Plus, on top of the basic recipe I added a little sugar and some baking powder; just to see what happened really.








Looks quite nice no? It tastes great. It won't last for ling though... weird that...

Curry night

Marinade:
Lemon grass
Turmeric
Dried Chili
Paprika
Can of tomatoes (without the can)
Onion
Garlic cloves
Ground Fenugreek
Cumin
All whizzed up until it formed a nice paste.

Chunky pork chops, cut into... well, chunks.

There might be more in the marinade, I made it yesterday and marinaded the meat over night. I got a pizza to keep the wolves at the door... :-) Those two things combine to wipe my memory.

I removed the meat from the marinade, and took off all the marinade I could. In a sauce pan I fried a few mustard seeds until they popped and then added the meat. Once that had time to fry a little I added the marinade and then a couple of Kaffir lime leaves.

A little mound of rice and some coriander and all's well :-D

Bacon and Cabbage

This is another impulse thing. I was walking around the supermarket and picked up the things I felt like, no recipe really in my mind. In the back of my head I knew I had some pancetta lardons that were coming to the end of their time. I'd had a very average Thai the night before, but paid very un-average prices! Sadly I don't mean the good side of average :-(

Then a cabbage lunged at me! A savoy no less. You'd think they'd be more dignified... So I have pork and cabbage, what brilliantly intricate meal could I create...? I fried the bacon bits, and added a red onion and fried it some more (adding a little olive oil now). When they were bronzed I added the cabbage. Stirred it, popped on a lid... 7-10 mins later I added a splash of balsamic to deglaze and then served. S&P of course... and a little toasted sour dough bread drizzled with EVOO. Simple

Lamb and Basil Meat Balls

As usual my decisions for what to have for dinner were ruled by necessity. I had lots of basil slowly loosing their turgidity (not just a food blog, a lesson too :-)). So having lots of ragu too, I thought having meat balls would be fun.

I finely diced a small onion (and probably only used half) and added it to the organic lamb mince (400g). From this I could tell how much onion to add, I wanted the meat by itself to "hold" the onion i.e. after a brief mix with a hand there was no onion left in the bowl when I lifted the meat. To this I added a couple of cloves of finely diced/crushed garlic, salt & pepper, and as much basil as you can realistically fit in. I could have added a little cumin here, but my Lazy gene kicked in and I could be bothered to... blah blah blah... I then added an eggs and got stuck in with my hand until the egg was completely incorporated. Keeping my hands moist with a bit of water roll bits of the mix on the palm of your hand. The water should stop them sticking to you.


This is the little fellows who went into the fridge for tomorrow's consumption, they're about the size of large button mushrooms. They've also been lightly dusted with flour; That is, dunked in flour and gently thrown from hand to hand to get rid of the excess. this is supposed to protect them from getting too dry. It also helps brown them.

Pan fried quickly to brown, then pour off the fat [or transfer the balls to another pan with the ragu] add the ragu (this way you get the little flavoured caramelised bits) and leave for about 10 minutes or so? Basically the balls are nearly cooked through through the browning process (depending on the size of your balls). You could leave them slightly longer to help marry the flavours... I kept some back for lunch the next day instead :-)

I served these with bread. Me = Lazy

French Onion Soup

I stole this idea from a colleague at work. He was putting on a dinner party and asked me if I had a particular recipe I used. I didn't. So I looked around and found a few to see what the general deal was... I (we) ended up buying some beef bones from a butcher in Manchester one lunchtime, the plan was to put them to good use by making beef stock. I don't make by own stocks generally, not beef anyway.

I dumped the bones into a large saucepan and emptied in some water and salt. Boiled them for about 3-4 hours, skimming the top every 15-20 mins. I left it in the fridge over night so I could get the rest in the morning (it solidifies on top...).

For the soup I used 2 large white onions, half moon type cut and fried in a little butter and oil for around 20 mins. Til they got all nice and brown. Towards the end I put a little golden caster sugar in, just to add that little more caramel flavour. Plus a finely sliced clove of garlic.

A glass of white wine was used to deglaze the pan, and left to boil off until half the amount was left. Then in when a little smoked paprika, beef and chicken (bottled bouillon) stock. 30 mins simmer later it was ready.

To top it off I used some grilled ciabatta gran padano cheese on toast :-)

Toad in the Hole á la Nazca

No, that's not toad in the hole (TITH), that is where the story begins. Tempura. I usually make my own batters, but wanted to see what the packet stuff could do. I wasn't going to buy rice flour, I still have loads of other flours I need to get rid of (space is a concern...).

The tempura turned out really well, I got some raw tiger prawns, broccoli, button mushrooms and courgettes to fry. Mmm crunchy goodness.

Much crispy goodness later, I still had some mushrooms, courgette and batter left. Believe me, there was no room left in the inn!


I'm not the biggest fan of courgettes, I very rarely buy them. Watery and just a little dash of flavour. They were nice battered, but not as good as the competition.

I also had gone mad when buying sausages in the butchers, they had Toulouse, and black pudding sausages. I couldn't choose between them, so I bought both x-D

What better way to get rid of a few sausages that to TITH them. None! I hear you cry. (PS I've been reading lots of Cream Puff recently, her style is catching... you may have noticed).


So, there's a normal Yorkshire pudding mix (125ml/4oz flour, egg, salt and milk), with a little tempura mixed in (I kept it in the fridge), with the Nazca bit: paprika, S&P, garlic and fresh parsley. Lots of parsley. Waste not, want not.

I stir fried the courgette and mushroom to give them a little colour, and to cook off some of liquid in them.

I put a big ceramic dish in the oven on 230C, with a little sunflower oil and a dash of olive oil. Heat is key hear, I need the oil to get smoking hot rather than just burn. Then added the sausages. Put it back in the oven. A few mins later I whipped it out again to put in the courgette and mushroom mix. Maybe the constant opening didn't help, put I think it helps the dish recover from the cold sausages... anyway, once it was hot again I whipped the dish out and poured over the batter mix. Rolled it around, making sure there was a good even coating and put it back in the oven quick like!

20-30 mins later it was ready. I think the Tempura helped it crispen up, it wasn't as soggy as usual. The courgettes were nice and sweet, and the batter nice and herby. And the sausages...?
Mmmm sausagggggge *drools*