The first Autumn storm - Something warming needed

After a Summer that felt like it would never end it was only fitting that as November approaches, an Autumn storm crashed the party. After a week of warnings about the remnants of hurricane Gonzalo hitting the UK with high winds and rain it turned out to be a bit of a damp squib in the South East of England. Nevertheless, the temperature fell from its balmy 20C to a much more Autumnal level and thoughts turned to a warming supper.

A trawl through the fridge revealed some chorizo that would  soon reach its best before date. This triggered an idea so I popped up to the shops for some chicken thighs. On my return I put a large cast iron casserole pot on the stove and put the heat up high. I added a little oil and then browned off  the thighs having cut some deep cuts into each to help them soak up the flavours of the dish. Once these were browned I removed them from the pan and finished them with a blowlamp to give them a little char grilled flavour to bring to the party.

I turned the heat down on the pan and added around 400 g of diced chorizo to brown. I then grabbed a bag of shallots from the vegetable rack. The smaller variety as these are
 what I happened to have.

I peeled and very coarsely chopped  8 of these and added them to the pan

Next I added two sticks of chopped cellery, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 5 medium thickly cut carrots,  and 150 g of sliced mushrooms. I then added 350 ml of red wine and a litre of chicken stock along with a bouquet garni. Once this had come to the boil I popped it into the oven for 2.5 hours at 150C. The result was a warm, rich casserole that went perfectly with some butter beans in a light cream sauce. Eager to sample this comforting dish I clean forgot to take a photograph but trust me, it was a perfect meal for a blustery day. Bring on the winter.

Such FUN !!!

We have eaten out for the last couple of nights so I couldn't play. A couple of days ago some Zorbit arrived and I mixed 1 part sesame oil with 3 parts Zorbit to produce an intense sesame oil flavoured powder that melts on the tongue but had nothing to use it on. Last night my wife was out so I got to play with 'The Beast' (pet name for the new chamber vacuum sealer) and the sous vide. Our local market has a fruit stall that has a 'British' front and a mysterious back shelf, behind the people serving frequented by the owners of the local Asian and Indian restaurant owners on a Saturday morning. The odd intrepid British adventurer like me takes an occasional expedition here to look at the wonderful fauna and wonder at what you do with it. Once in a while an ingredient looks familiar, such as the fenugreek leaves otherwise known as methi that I purchased this week. These slightly sad looking leaves, thrown into a food processor with garlic, a few birds eye green chilies and olive oil (plus a little salt and pepper) turn into a dark green sauce to compliment chicken or a meaty fish such as monk fish. This blended sauce was added to some filleted chicken thighs and cooked for 2 hours at 70C last night before being plunged into an ice bath and left in the fridge (BIG saving time as the next purchase is a second hand blast freezer)

Tonight, I took this cooked but cold chicken, cut it into 0.7cm slices, and stir fried it with some 'Instant Pickles' from the Beast . This let me pickle turnips in maple syrup and five spice and celery (julienne) and white onion in lime juice and olive oil. These were then added to the chicken and cooked through for about 5 minutes before I added some fresh baby spinach leaves and served the dish onto a basmati rice. The result was a popcorn of flavours, the spiced chicken, the piquant celery (took on more of the lime) and the olive oil pickled onions counterpointed by the sweet turnips. All crunchy and exciting to support the warm in both spice and heat chicken. Finally, I put a few pinches of the sesame oil powder over the dish. All in all it took less than 8 minutes from slice to serve (yes I know the chicken took 2 hours to cook yesterday but I was enjoying London Pride at the club at that time). No photographs, it wasn't an art work, stir fry and rice rarely is unless you spend 10 minutes arranging stuff with tweezers but the flavours .......

Two Way Chicken with Fennel

Time for a Sunday roast but I wanted to use the sous vide. After a little hunt around I found this rather interesting recipe that I could bend a little.

I took a small chicken and removed the legs and wings and took out the wishbone. I now pressed the crown flatter and placed it in a vac pac bag with a clementine .I still have a few, slightly dry examples kicking around after Christmas. No good for eating but perfect for adding a little flavour. I added some thyme, rosemary and a star anise prior to sealing the bag an popping it in to the sous vide at 70C for 2 hours.

The legs and wings went into an oiled tray with a little sea salt. Covered in foil it went into the fan oven at 120C for 2 hours. The recipe called for a second oven to cook off potatoes and garlic at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes at the end. Knowing the meat would need resting, I popped the potatoes, thyme and a bulb of garlic, broken into cloves (don't peel the cloves.) in about 10 minutes before the end of the chicken roasting, removed the foil from the chicken and knocked the temperature up to 180C. This crisped off the skin on the legs and the wings before I took them out to rest, back under foil for 20 minutes.

Just prior to this I thinly sliced the fennel (a mandolin is best for this) into a non-metallic bowl. A good pinch of sea salt, the zest and juice of a lemon were then added. This was left for around 20 minutes. Once the chicken was resting I placed a frying pan on the heat with some oil and butter. I removed the crown from the sous vide. Dried it and placed it in the now browning butter and oil mix. Once it was fried off on all sides and had taken on a good colour I placed it in foil to rest.

Next step was to wash the fennel in a bowl of cold water and then leave it to drain in a sieve. Once drained I placed it back in a bowl.  I removed the garlic cloves from the oven and popped the potatoes back in for a few more minutes while I finished off the dish. I squeezed the garlic out of the cloves into the fennel and mixed the two together.

Finally, to the plating up. I carved thick slices of the breast from the crown and served these with the leg and wing, some roasted potato and the fennel salad for a simple but very tasty alternative to the traditional roast.

The wine? A Cold Harbour Sauvignon Blanc 2012. A great light wine (10.5%) that means you can enjoy an extra glass or two on a Sunday without worrying about the effect on Monday morning. School night wine :)