Tom Kha Gai

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Tom Yum yum

Real Tom Yum or Tom Kha Gai soups are supposed to use galangal ( a type of ginger) and Kaffir lime leaves. I didn't have either of these things, however, I did use tamarind and lemongrass and various other delicious things, and I think I got a really good flavour from this makey-uppy version of the Thai classic. It was also really really quick and nice and filling. I'm not sure about the authenticity of using potatoes but I know they are used in some Thai cooking (like in Massaman curry) so its not that off the wall!

Ingredients

1 litre good chicken stock

1 dessert spoon tamarind paste

1 tin coconut milk

1 stalk lemon grass (bashed with a rolling pin to release the oils)

2 red chilies (de seeded and chopped)

about 4 c0riander roots (finely chopped)

2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1 inch piece of ginger (finely grated)

2 dessert spoons of fish or oyster sauce

1 dessert spoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 large chicken fillet (thinly sliced)

about 6 small new potatoes (sliced)

about 8 cherry tomatoes

mangetout or broccoli or green beans or whatever green vegetable you have

1 lime

a handful coriander leaves

Start by adding the tamarind to the hot stock and stirring well. Drain through a sieve so any of the solid bits of tamarind don't go into the dish. Put the stock in a pot with the coconut milk and add the chillies, garlic, ginger, coriander roots, lemongrass, 2 0r 3 kaffir lime leaves if you have them (I didn't), the soy and oyster sauce, the sugar, potatoes and chicken. Bring all of this up to simmer and cook for about 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute, then add the green veg and cook for two minutes. Test the chicken and potatoes but they should be well cooked by now if they were sliced thinly. Take the soup off the heat. Roll the lime firmly on a table top to release the juices and make it easier to squeeze. Then cut it in half and squeeze all of the juice into the pot. Remove the lemongrass stalk. Roughly tear up the coriander leaves and add to the pot. Serve immediately

You can vary the vegetables you use, spring onions and mushrooms could go in at the end, but I think it is important to use tomatoes. So satisfying and delicious!

Chicken Savoyarde

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This is another recipe I cooked over Christmas in the Peak District in Yorkshire. It's from Tasamin Day-Lewis cook book 'Supper for a Song'. I did find the title of the book slightly misleading as the ingredients for this recipe can testify. The emphasis of the book is more towards using up leftovers - or making more then one meal using the same ingredient. She has some great ideas for leftover mash - mmmm mash. Tamasin does make the very good point that often cheap ingredients are a false economy - both for you and for the farmers and animals involved. You can't make a silk purse from a velour bag you got in Penny's, so the saying goes! 

I followed the recipe faithfully - so here's the link to Tamasins version. It's a wonderful rich dish and if you like Spaghetti carbonara - you're sure to be pretty fond of this too.

In other VERY exciting news, I'm off to the Cooks Academy for four weeks starting in the morning. I hope I can sleep. I'm hoping to be able to write a few posts about my time in the school - and if you're on twitter I shall be tweeting regularly about my progress.

Chicken Rice

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Inspired by a meal I never ate in Singapore

On my travels in Thailand there were some anti government demonstrations that closed down all the airports. I had to travel overland through Thailand and Malaysia to get to Singapore to make a flight. The trip down was great fun and met some great people along the way, who were all in a similar position to me. So really felt like a bonus as I got to visit Kuala Lumpur and see parts of Malaysia. Also I got to visit my friend Alan who was living in Singapore at the time. This is the most incredible city for food - every corner is overflowing with amazing places to eat, every kind of food imaginable - super extra bonus food!

Alan's friends insisted on taking us to eat 'Chicken Rice' that she'd always had growing up. After some driving we arrived at the place only to discover it was closed, we found something else equally delicious to eat in an old golf club. The idea of the dish however never left me. This recipe is based on what I think chicken rice would have been like!

Ingredients

1 chicken

2 onions - peeled and halved

3 carrots - peeled and halved

2 sticks of celery - halved

1 thumbs length of ginger finely sliced

6 cloves of garlic gently crushed

1 red chili finely sliced
2 cups of rice (I used basmati) but any fragrant rice would be good

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 scallions finely sliced

1) Put the chicken, onions, carrots, celery, ginger, garlic and chili in a large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Leave to simmer gently covered for about 2 hours.

2) Remove chicken and veg from the pot. Discard pieces of ginger, celery and most of the garlic.

3) Add the rice into the stock then bring to the boil. Simmer until the rice is cooked. 

4) Meanwhile shred the chicken, and chop up the carrots.

5) When the rice is nearly cooked add back in 4/5s chicken, carrots and add in the soy sauce. Serve scattered with some scallions and the remaining shredded chicken.

Perfect for a grey wintry day - oh yes! This dish is only a little Asian but very delicious

Lemon and Thyme Roasted Chicken

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Chicken a la Stephen

Trying to look like we were just having a casual conversation instead of gossiping in work, me and Stephen started talking about the best way to roast a chicken. His suggestion sounded fresh with a touch of spring, so I gave it a shot!

This recipe comes from Stephen but possibly he thinks via Jamie Oliver - but I might give Stephen credit. It’s a really wonderful dish.

Stephen is the namesake for Stephen my canary - so if you haven’t met him already here a photo of his cute little yellow self. He was found by Stephen M, who was working late, one cold Sunday evening in May. He was hopping up Pearse Street, cold and lost. He opened the door of our office and in he came where he revived well and I adopted him the next day. Seems strange to put a photo of him in the same post as a roast chicken recipe, oh well! He eats boiled eggs so it’s the same thing really!

Ingredients
1 medium chicken
1 lemon
small bunch of fresh thyme
3 oz butter
1 red onion
3 parsnips
2 carrots
3 sticks of celery
1/2 a turnip

Wash the chicken inside and out - then pat dry. Pre-heat your oven to Gas mark 5. Peel your veg and chop into large chunks . Put into a large baking dish along with a good grind of black pepper, some salt and a few sprigs of thyme.

Make the herb butter by combining the zest of the lemon with the butter and 3 tablespoons of fresh thyme. Then gently press the butter in between the skin and the top of the breast - the skin needs a small amount of convincing.

Place the chicken on top of your bed of vegetables - give the outside of the chicken a little seasoning also. Cover the whole thing in tin foil, then cook in the middle of the oven for 2 hours.

Remove the tinfoil, drain away the excess juice and retain for gravy later. Pop back in the oven for another 30 mins to brown and allow the skin to crisp.

After 30 mins - remove chicken and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes, while the meat is resting take the veg to the top shelf of the oven and crank up the heat to gas mark 8/9 to get a nice crisp finish to your root veg.

Prepare the gravy - in the roasting tin, throw a large dash of sherry, scrape of all the nice juicy bits with your wooden spoon. Then mix in one heaped tablespoon of plain flour. Mix well so that it forms a paste with the sherry. Then the juices from the chicken that you removed earlier would have separated. Drain off the excess fat from the top, then stir the juices into your flour mixture a little at a time, until well incorporated, continue doing this until you have a nice thick gravy. Check the seasoning.

Then carve your chicken, a good sharp carving knife is always good to have around. Serve on a bed of roasted veg drizzled with gravy, the lemon. A fresh and subtle lemon flavor will be throughout the meat and gravy, the edges of your veg will be caramelised and crispy - wonderful! The butter above the breast made it fantastically moist and tasty.

Thanks Stephen, Lola declared it - the best roast chicken she’s ever had

Chicken soup

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For your sick chicken

I've been languishing in bed for the past three days- thank God for laptops! I even missed our St.Patrick's day party, which sounded like it went with a bang judging by the noises coming from downstairs and the state of my friends coming upstairs to pay me a visit. When Lu and I first lived together in College, I introduced her to the joys of a good chicken soup, which, according to my mother can cure everything from a broken heart to a broken toe, but its definitely the best comfort for a cold or flu.

So Lu, like the great friend she is came home from work last night and cooked me this, my Mum's chicken soup special. Joy! I had some for dinner and just ate this delicious bowl of goodness for my lunch-in-bed. I feel better already!

Ingredients:

4 chicken legs

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 inch cube of fresh ginger, grated

1 red chilli, chopped and de-seeded

about 2 1/2 litres water

2 carrots, cut in half

2 sticks celery, cut in half

1 bay leaf

6 whole black peppercorns

In your largest pot, saute the onion, garlic, ginger and chili in some olive oil until the onion is translucent. Add the chicken legs and the water (the water should cover the chicken legs by about 1 inch, and will probably reach the top of your pot), followed by the rest of the ingredients. Bring to the boil, and then simmer at a low heat for anything from 1 -2 hours. depending on how long you have.

Remove the chicken legs from the broth and strip away all the meat. Discard the skin and bones and shred the chicken meat. Return this to the pot. Fish out the peppercorns. You can eat the carrots and celery too if you like, of leave them out if you don't fancy it.

Serve with noodles, rice, dumplings, or just by itself. Its nice garnished with spring onions.

Make a huge pot and eat it for a couple of days... until your cold is all gone!

Porridge Chicken

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A step back in time Happy New Year - here's the first post of 2010 - and our 99th!

A while back somebody asked me what my favorite child hood food was. So up there with gammon steaks with pineapple, with mash and peas, was porridge chicken - maybe not the most attractive of names - but that is my mothers sense of humor.

I cooked a nice batch of this up and made it with bake potatoes and peas. Baked potatoes are good as they can cook along in the oven with the chicken. Also this was one of the recipes I took in my old Home Economics copy when I left home to go to college. The list makes for some interesting reading including great classics - like Sheppard’s pie, spaghetti bolognaise, macaroni cheese, barbecue sauce, chicken and mushroom pie (mash topping of course) and Chocolate biscuit cake.

Ingredients
1oz of plain flour
6 tablespoons of grated cheese – cheddar or similar
4oz of porridge oats
4oz butter or margarine melted
6 Chicken joints – like legs and thighs are perfect
Salt and Pepper

Melt your butter your butter in a large ovenproof dish or tin. Pat your chicken pieces dry on paper towels and then toss in the melted butter to coat. In a separate bowl combine all the other ingredients and season. Toss each piece of chicken in the mixture before returning to the ovenproof dish. Cook for 30 mins before turning and bake for a further 30 mins – till golden and crispy. Serve with baked potato and green salad or peas. I like to coat my baked potatoes in olive oil and some rock salt before baking to ensure a nice crispy skin – also don’t forget to prick your potatoes well before baking as they will explode – I can vouch for that!

Chicken Broth

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The loveliness of Leftovers

This soup really is a thin broth, and can also be used like a stock to make risottos, other soups, etc. Its is a great way to use the remains of your Sunday roast and make two (or three) meals out of one bird! I make a much more substantial version using a raw chicken, which I will blog as soon as someone in the house gets a cold, so far this winter we have been spared! This version comes from my mother, who got it from her mother, who also gave us the recipe for borscht. Its real authentic Jewish chicken soup and is great for cheering you up and curing all ills.

I made this on Sunday after we had roast chicken for dinner on Saturday. I could have added noodles, rice, sweetcorn, other types of veg or matzo balls ( I will get my mum to demonstrate these soon, they are a classic accompaniment) to bulk it out a bit, but I kind of like the simpleness of this, garnish with a few chopped scallions and your away! Just make sure you have it with bread if your hungry.

Ingredients

1 chicken carcass with some left over meat still on it

1 carrot

1 stick celery

1 white onion

6 pepper corns

Bay Leaf

about 3 Litres cold water

2 or 3 spring onions

Get the biggest pot you own and place your chicken carcass (with as much meat left on it as possible) in it. I even save the leg bones from peoples plates and put them in too. Any skin or gristle is also welcome, it will be strained out later and it all adds flavour.

Cover the carcass with cold water until it is just covered. The amount of water will depend on the size of your pot and your chicken. Peel the onion and the carrot, chop them in half and add to the pot. Half your stick of celery and throw that in too, along with the pepper corns and bay leaf.

Bring the whole thing to the boil, turn down the heat until you have a good energetic simmer, cover and leave to cook for at least an 1 1/2 hours, more if possible. The liquid will reduce, but you don't want it to reduce too much, or you will have no soup left! You should end up with about half the liquid you had originally. Remove the carcass and all the bones and veg and strain the liquid through a sieve and back into a pot. Place the carcass on a chopping board or plate and remove all of the meat that you can find. Add this back in to the soup. Taste and season.

If the chicken didn't have very much flavour to begin with, you won't have a flavourful soup. You can get around this by adding half a chicken stock cube or stock pot, don't be ashamed!

Serve and garnish with chopped spring onions.

Roast Chicken with apricot and white clonakilty pudding stuffing

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Post pub roastiness

It was a Saturday afternoon. Lu and I were very much looking forward to a certain television show that will remain nameless, but for convenience I will code name 'The Y Element' (say no more, its shameful, I know), both our respective boyfriends were coming over and in a snap inspired decision we knew that a traditional roast was the order of the day.

This was the easiest ever to make, as we just stuffed it, surrounded it with vegetables, shoved the whole thing in the oven and repaired to the local for a few well deserved pre-prandial Guinnesses. We returned to a house that smelled amazing, made some gravy and were all sat down in front of the fire and the box by 8pm.

I'm going to go through it step by step, starting with the stuffing. A long post but worth it!

Stuffing ingredients:

1 red onion

4 cloves garlic

A few sprigs fresh sage

2/3 pack of breadcrumbs

3 oz butter

about 10 dried apricots

1/2 a Clonakilty white pudding

Begin by chopping the onion, garlic and sage. melt the butter in a saucepan and add the onion and garlic. Cover and sweat until they are soft and translucent. add the sage and breadcrumbs and mix well so that the butter soaks in to the crumbs. If you need more butter of crumbs, now is the time. Finely chop the apricots and mix them in. Then slice and crumble the white pudding and mix this in too. Allow to cool for about 15 mins and use to stuff your chicken.

Chicken prep:

Drizzle olive oil on the bird and sprinkle with salt. Then rub the salt well into the skin. This will make sure it is lovely and crisp. Slice 3 cloves of garlic in half lengthwise. Use the point of a knife to make 6 slits in the skin of the chicken, and push the garlic slivers in underneath the skin.

Veggies:

We used carrots, parsnips and new potatoes (which we didn't bother to peel).

Peel the parsnips and carrots and cut them into long pieces of roughly the same size. Get your roomiest roasting dish and drizzle it with olive oil. In the middle of the dish, build a sort of platform of parsnips and carrots, and place the chicken on top of this. Scatter the remaining veg, including the new potatoes (or peeled old potatoes, cut into smaller pieces).

Place the whole thing in the oven at 190c for 1 1/2 -2 hours, or until the skin is golden brown and crispy and the juices run clear when you poke a skewer in under the chicken's leg

Gravy:

At this point, take the chicken out and place it in a different dish. Ditto the veg. Put it back into a very low oven to keep it warm while you make the gravy.

Cook up whatever green veg you are using (Broccoli is my personal fave) and reserve to cooking water. Place your roasting tray which you used to cook the chicken onto a low heat on your stove. Sprinkle 2 tbsps flour into the pan juices and stir it around until its all mixed together with the juices, little burned bits, stray pieces of garlic and escaped stuffing. All of this will make your gravy more delish. add some of the water from the veg, and a good glug of white or red wine. Bring to a simmer and stir until it has thickened. I prefer my gravy to be nice an light and thin rather than gloopy and brown like Bisto. If you need to get more flavour in to the gravy, you can add half a chicken stock cube, a few drops of Worcester or soy sauce, and of course, salt and pepper.

Carve your bird and serve!

I love to use the carcass of the chicken to make a gorgeous roast chicken broth. Recipe to follow in next post!

Chicken, Roquefort & Brocolli Bake

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The Pie of Dreams 'Leftovers, you're leftovers include Roquefort? You've lost your way Lola-lu's kitchen' I hear you say. These leftovers are remains from last weeks dinner party. We asked everyone to bring some cheese for after. We had 12 guests for dinner, and most of them brought two cheese, so by my calculation that's close to 24 cheeses. So after the pate, the pie, the meringues, the other cake, we sadly didn't manage to make our way through 24 different pieces of cheese. So joy of joy all the following week I had to eat cheese, I mean I HAD to, would be wasteful otherwise. We'll dedicate this recipe to Brian as he was the man who brought the Roquefort - fancy pants! Thanks

Ingredients (LO) stands for leftovers
1 block of Roquefort (LO)
4 chicken legs and 4 chicken thighs
I large yellow onion
A bunch of chives Cream (LO)
Baby potatoes (LO)
Some milk
1 head of broccoli
1 dessert spoon of flour
1 dessert spoon of butter
I slice of bread crumbed (LO)
salt pepper the usual suspects
A glug of sherry (optional)

Bake your chicken in the oven gas mark 4 for 40 mins. Remove skin and bones and set aside. Fry your onions until translucent in some butter. Then stir in the flour, slowly add some of milk till smooth repeat with more milk and then some cream, then some sherry, until you have a nice sauce. Season with salt & pepper. Steam your broccoli Cut your Roquefort into cubes. Put it and the cooked chicken into an oven proof dish. Scatter about some chopped chives and also pop in your little bits of broccoli too. Pour over your sherry cream sauce. In a bowl gently crush your new potatoes. Arrange these on top of your dish and sprinkle over the bread crumbs. Bake in the oven at gas mark 5 until golden and bubbly, about 40 mins.

All the cheese melts into the sauce, making it a little runnier then I expected, so next time. I'll make the sauce a little thicker to compensate. This pie was winner.PS This should really be called 'Pie of Nightmares' due to the crazy dreams I had that night, but if I called it that you wouldn't have read the recipe, now would you!