Author Archives: whatkimcookednext

I was inspired by our recent visit to the Waterside Inn to cook duck…..well that and the fact that they had crown of duck on special offer at Sainsbury’s – £5, a bargain! It is fantastic that you can buy this nifty little chap, which is virtually just the breast with the wing tips so cheaply these days. I do bemoan the loss of the legs as I adore a nice confit, but this is a quick hit, so we can save the confit for another day. I am cooking my crown of duck with maple syrup and whisky marmalade (the whisky is optional). You will need 1 crown of duck for 2 people. First of all, pre-heat the oven to 190C/170C for a Fan oven, Gas mark 5. Then  place the crown in a large frying pan, and cook skin side down for a couple of minutes until the skin  is brown, place the duck in a roasting try and drizzle a least 2 tablespoons of maple syrup over the breast, roast for 45 minutes, whilst this is roasting mix 2 tablespoons of chunky seville marmalade with 1 tablespoon of whicky, take the duck out and smear the marmalade mixture all over the duck, place back in the oven for 30  minutes (or 40 if you don’t like your duck pink). Take out of the oven and do rest it for 10 minutes before serving (the duck, not you, although a glass of red wine and your feet up is always nice!). I love this served with new potatoes and mint butter and green peas.

Big thanks to Pete Russell for the following article. Pete is a fellow foodie and now resident in California we will be looking to him and the lovely Linda for lots more New World items. Read on….

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday.

To be truthful, for Pleasant Valley read Tri-Valley, that area bounded by California’s Central Valley to the east and the Diablo Range Segment of the mighty Pacific Mountain System to the west, and centered on the only gap in the Diablo Range, about 20 miles east of San Francisco. So what was pleasant about our Sunday? We had considerable success with our new 3-burner BBQ grill, no mean feat considering the wind that whistles through that gap on its way from the great Pacific Ocean to the Central Valley, California’s (and the USA’s) major growing area. You see, our previous outdoor grill struggled to overcome the wind chill of the area, and we’d all but given up cooking outdoors. 

 So armed with French Sherberts, we set about creating Fire-Roasted Garlic-Herb Chicken. The Chicken is moistened inserting a herb butter between the flesh and the skin, basted with a roasted garlic paste, and cooked on the BBQ grill using the indirect heat method. We partnered the Chicken with Roasted Summer Vegetables and Creamy Parmesan Orzo.   The proper Chefs amongst you will now be able to repeat our success, but for ordinary mortals (like ourselves), here’s what you do to prepare a meal for two. 

 Firstly, to ready yourself for your ordeal, construct your French Sherbert.   Take equal quantities of gin, cointreau, freshly squeezed orange and freshly squeezed lime juices, pour into a cocktail shaker with about 6 larges cubes of ice and shake aggressively for about 15 to 20 secs or until your arm falls off. Strain into a 5oz cocktail glass and garnish with segment of lime. I use a 1oz (30ml) pour, so that makes 4oz of cocktail which fits nicely in the 5oz glass. This cocktail produces a fresh tingle on the tongue reminiscent of lemon sherbert, and according to an acquaintance, is ‘fabulous, I could drink buckets of it’. Freshened by the Sherbert, the prep can now begin.  For the roasted garlic paste, about 120ml, you’ll need: 2 heads of garlic, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon of kosher salt (oi-vey) (Not sure we can get this, Pete, is ordinary salt ok?), a child’s handful of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, ground black pepper, pinch of cayenne pepper, 3 tablespoons water.

1. Preheat an oven to about 400F. 
2. Trim the pointed ends of the garlic heads until all or most of the cloves are exposed, usually about a quarter down the head. Place the heads, cut side up on about a 6 inch square of aluminum foil and top with a little of the oil. Wrap the foil around the garlic so that it is completely enclosed.
3. Place near the middle of the oven and cook for 35 to 40 mins. 
4. Unwrap and allow to cool for 10 minutes or so. 
5. Cut the whole heads in half, lengthwise and squeeze the roasted garlic from their skins. 
6. If the Sherbert has gone to head, good quality roasted garlic cloves or puree is available in most good supermarkets. 
7. Now, mash the roasted garlic with a fork, adding all the remaining ingredients. 
8. Put aside to be used later to baste the chicken.

For the provencale herb butter, assemble:

• 1 tablespoons dried basil
• 1 tablespoon crushed fennel seeds
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoons garlic salt
• 1 teaspoon crushed, dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground, dried orange peel
• 1 tablespoon softened, salted butter.

1. Mix all the herbs together in a bowl and mash 1 tablespoon into the softened butter. Set both the remaining rub and the herb butter aside to use with the chicken.

Finally, for the chicken you’ll need:

• 1 fresh chicken, cavity excavated, about 3.5 to 4 lbs
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary or thyme leaves
• an instant read thermometer to check doneness of the chicken.

1. Preheat the BBQ grill to 350F using the outside burners. You’ll be cooking using the indirect method so be sure that you have at least 1 burner unlit. Of course, it the weather is inclement, you can use an indoor oven.
2. Separate the skin from the breast and the legs of the chicken by gently inserting an index finger under the skin at the neck end. By gently moving your finger around, separate the skin from the meat. Gradually ease your whole hand under the skin, loosening the skin from the breast legs and drumsticks. 
3. Spoon the herb butter evenly under the skin by rubbing the skin to spread the butter. Spoon the remaining rub into the chicken cavity and rub it all around the walls. 
4. Tie the chicken legs together with kitchen twine, and rub the vegetable oil onto the outside of the chicken.
5. Mix the garlic paste and fresh herbs into a bowl and put aside.

You’ve completed all the chicken prep now, and the grill should be at the or about 350F, so you can go ahead and cook the chicken: 

1. Brush the grill grate and coat with oil. Remember, this is grill grate with no burner lit beneath it.
2. Place the chicken on the grill over the unlit burner and cover the grill. Set a timer for 40 mins. Note that the chicken will be done when an instant read thermometer, inserted into the thickest part of a breast, reads 170F; this should be in about 60 to 75 mins.
3. Dependant upon how confident and macho you’re feeling, you may wish to take this opportunity to mix another French Sherbert, however, the side dishes do now need attention!
4. When the 40 min timer expires, start basting the chicken with the garlic/herb paste and start the orzo. Baste chicken again after a further 10 mins.
5. When chicken is cooked (170F in middle of breast), remove chicken from grill, cover with foil and leave to rest for 15 mins. Leave 1 grill burner on and start cooking veggies.
6. When chicken is rested, carve and serve with the veggies and orzo.

For the grilled summer vegetables you’ll need:

• 1.5 lb assorted summer veg, cut into 2 cm (between 1/2 and 1 inch) cubes. Choose from summer squash, courgette/zucchini, red onion, red/yellow peppers, etc.
• 1 tablespoon olive oil.
• salt & pepper, a grill wok (see picture).

1. Coat the vegetables with oil and season with salt & pepper. I fond this easiest by placing all the ingredients into a plastic freezer bag and shaking it until the veggies are coated. Set aside until needed.
2. While the chicken is resting, coat the grill wok with oil, empty the veg into wok and place on a grill grate over an active burner at cook for 15 mins.
3. Remove and serve with chicken and orzo.

For the orzo: (for those like me who said “What the *** is orzo?” it is a very fine pasta, looks a bit like pearl barley!)

• 1/2 tablespoon butter, 100g orzo
• 160 ml chicken stock
• 160 ml water
• 15g grated Parmesan
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil
• salt & pepper, 2 teaspoons toasted pine nuts.

1. Heat the butter in a medium saucepan over a medium heat.
2. Add orzo, cook for 3 mins, stirring constantly.
3. Stir in stock and water, bring to the boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is absorbed and orzo is done, about 15 mins.
5. Remove from heat, stir in parmesan, basil, salt & pepper.
6. Sprinkle pine nuts over and serve with chicken and veggies.

We had a bottle of local (Livermore Valley) 2004 zinfandel which was soft enough not to overpower the orzo, but robust enough to counter the roast garlic chicken and veggies.  You should have enough chicken left over for a chicken Caesar salad lunch for two, and two Nigella chicken pies.

Thanks Pete, you might have enough left to make my chicken and ham pot pie  recipe to follow this week as an homage to The Archers veal and ham pie. You can follow Pete on his own blog site  http://russep3.tumblr.com/ for more of his excellent commentaries and recipes

Contact me, guest bloggers for your moment in the sun….you know you want to

 

You don’t need implements of torture to cook this impressive little dish, it is great for supper and also good for a dinner party, but do remember to check with your guests how they like their lamb cooked, as not everyone likes it pink in the middle. Cooking in the heats of the “Good Housekeeping Cook of the Year” contest a few years ago, there was an appalling woman, who snuck around  trying to sabotage everyone else’s food so much that she forgot to put on her own oven and served virtually raw rack of lamb. She tried to cover it up by saying that was how she liked it and ate a chop to demonstrate in a Twilight sort of way, but no-one believed her – cheats never prosper – well not unless they’re playing Monopoly. 

 Anyway….all you need for this is…. a rack of lamb, approximately 6 to 8 chops, if much bigger take care to adjust the cooking time, 2 large tablespoons of mint jelly and that’s it! pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 6, 200C/180 fan. Place the mint jelly in a large frying pan over a medium heat, as the jelly starts to melt, place the rack of lamb in the pan, and baste with the jelly as it starts to caramelise, keep doing this for about 5 minutes until the whole of the rack of lamb is covered in a lovely gooey sauce. Remove the lamb and scrape the rest of the sauce over it and place in an oven proof dish in the pre-heate dovern for 25 to 30 minutes . You will need to check on the weight and size of your joint for exact cooking times, but this should give you nice pink chops with a lovely caramelised, brown outside. Serve with any of your favourite vegetables. How easy was that? This works for lamb fillet but has a much shorter cooking time. You can also vary the jelly, it is wonderful with redcurrant and also with chilli jelly, recipe for home-made jellies coming next week., get your jelly bags ready

I love Thai food, especially the sort you get served on a hot beach near Phuket with a foot massage for dessert. However, you can’t have it all, and this is a really easy recipe to re-create some of those flavours, if not the glorious delight of toe rubbing. I always keep a large bag of shelled, uncooked prawns in the freezer (Costco does a fantastic deal), because they come in so handy for a dish like this that as virtually all the other ingredients may come from your store cupboard.

So you will need, l piece of lemon grass, peeled and chopped, fresh is best but the bottled stuff is fine  450g/1lb of defrosted or fresh raw prawns that have been de-veined, that means removing that funny black line, which is in fact its digestive tract, and believe me you don’t want to eat what that prawn has been eating!  2 tablespoons of green curry paste, we are really lucky as there is a brilliant Thai food store in Maidenhead, just next to the market where you can buy fresh ingredients and great curry pastes. My favourite is Mae Ploy, they make a variety of flavours which keep in the fridge for ages. However, all supermarkets have a Thai section now and green curry paste is very easy to come by. Of course, you can make your own, but even in Thailand most people buy it! If you would like a recipe, send me a message. You will also need 5 kaffir lime leaves or the zest of two limes.  You can buy fresh kaffir lime leaves and keep them in the freezer and chuck them in straight from it.  It wouldn’t be a Thai dish without fish sauce, it’s funny isn’t it? Like shrimp paste, it’s truly disgusting on its own, but tastes amazing in the curry. Sorry, I digress, you need 2 tablespoons of fish sauce, again most supermarkets have it, if you can’t get it, light soya sauce will do. 2 teaspoons of soft brown sugar and a tin of coconut milk, (splash out calorie-wise and get the whole fat one, the low-fat simply isn’t as creamy and doesn’t have the body). To garnish you need either Thai basil, or fresh english basil finely chopped.

Method: In a  frying pan or a wok, add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil and over a medium heat, fry the curry paste for a moment, add the lemon grass, kaffir leaves, fish sauce, sugar and coconut, reduce the heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Now, the brilliant thing about this dish is that if you are cooking for a dinner party, you can do all this in advance and then when you are ready to cook, bring the sauce back to a simmer, add the prawns and cook for 5 minutes, add the basil and then serve with steamed jasmine rice. Simple! I sometimes garnish this with some fried chopped red chillies and chopped cashew nuts, but you don’t have to. This dish also works with chopped chicken breast, too.

To cook your Jasmine rice (Serves 2-4): Rinse 100g of rice under the cold tap until the water runs clear, place in a  saucepan and add 200 mls of cold water. Bring to the boil and then cover with a tight fitting lid and place on the very lowest possible heat for 7 to 10 minutes until the excess water has steamed off. Turn off the heat and leave for a further 5 minutes. For different flavours, add a kaffir lime leaf to the water or replace some of the water with coconut milk or chicken stock. Don’t forget that Jasmine rice is meant to be sticky and is a different consistency to long grain and basmati. Enjoy and try and get someone to give you that foot rub!