peas

Spicy Spanish Style Chicken

October 22, 2014 — Leave a comment

DSC_0730RECIPE_INFO1_0007Pure warming, hearty, comfort food – perfect for this time of year as the nights begin to draw in. Frying the chicken before roasting it helps to give it a nice crispy skin, and then cooking it in the sauce adds loads of lovely spicy, punchy flavour to the meat. I like to eat this with some simply cooked white rice and lots of crusty bread to mop up the delicious sauce. Easy to cook, nutritious, healthy, easy on the wallet and amazingly tasty – whats not to like!

Music I Cooked to:

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Ingredients

  • 2 red onions
  • 2 medium sized carrots
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 3 Chicken thighs (bone in)
  • 3 Chicken legs
  • Tin butter beans
  • 200g smoked ham (cubed or chopped) – ideally for authenticity use Panceta Adobado (Spanish pancetta). You could use normal pancetta… if you do, it would be good to marinade it in red wine vinegar, smoked paprika and garlic for a couple of hours beforehand. Link to Spanish Panceta HERE. Waitrose do an easy version HERE.
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tbsp Sun Dried Tomato paste
  • 2 tbsp chilli powder
  • 2 tbsp smoked paprika
  • Handful chopped parsley
  • Handful peas (fresh or frozen)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 100ml Chicken stock
  • 100ml Balsamic vinegar
  • 250ml red wine (spanish for extra authenticity)
  • Splash of red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar or honey

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Preparation Method:

  1. Finely dice and chop the onions, chilli, and garlic.
  2. Very finely slice the carrots
  3. Heat a frying pan with a tbsp of vegetable oil. At the same time pre-heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan.
  4. Fry the chicken pieces until they are nicely browned all over.
  5. Season the chicken with salt and pepper – cover with foil and set aside
  6. In the same pan fry the onion over a medium-high heat until they begin to brown.
  7. Add the carrots and fry for another 8 mins until the carrot begins to soften. Add a splash of red wine vinegar.
  8. Add the garlic and chilli and continue to fry for a further 5 mins.
  9. Add the red wine, balsamic vinegar and chicken stock. Turn down to a medium heat and cook for 5 mins
  10. Add the tomato puree, sun dried tomato paste, smoked paprika, chilli powder and stir in. Continue to reduce. You should end up with a thick sauce like consistency.
  11. Drain the butter beans and add to the sauce
  12. Add the chicken pieces to the sauce.
  13. Add the sugar. Simmer the whole mixture for a further 5 mins.
  14. Take the base mixture off the hob, cover with foil and place in the oven for around 30mins.
  15. After 25mins quickly fry the smoked ham in some oil for around 2mins
  16. After 30mins remove from the oven, take off the foil. Baste the chicken with the sauce, add the smoked ham to the pan and place back in the oven for another 10-15 mins until the chicken skin is nicely browned and crispy.
  17. For the last few minutes of cooking time place the peas into the pan
  18. Remove from the oven and sprinkle over the parsley
  19. To serve prepare some white rice, spoon the rice into a bowl and then place a piece of chicken meat with a generous helping of the rich, delicious sauce on top.

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Herb Crusted Lamb with Minted Peas, Pancetta, and Lettuce

April 28, 2014 — Leave a comment

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This dish is fast, simple, light, full of flavour and wonderful colours. A rack of lamb dish like this really is very quick to put together and makes a perfect fast lunch or dinner that tastes really fresh and succulent. The cool, sweet, subtle tastes and textures of the herbs and vegetables compliment the meaty, salty lamb and pancetta really well – and the herb crust on the lamb adds a wonderful textural element to the meat, and imparts some great extra flavour punchiness. Just a quick note for the sake of total disclosure – the vegetable part if this dish was inspired by the cooking of the immense Dominic Chapman from a recipe in which he pairs it with a confit of duck. I’ve changed the amounts and adjusted the flavours slightly, by omitting spring onion which he includes, as I felt the spring onion would be a flavour too far with the herb crust of the lamb. 

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 INGREDIENTS

Herb Crusted Lamb

  • Small, trimmed rack of lamb (mine was 300g)
  • 150g of dry bread crumbs
  • Sprig parsley
  • Sprig thyme
  • Sprig coriander
  • Sprig rosemary
  • 1 tablespoons English mustard
  • splash of olive oil

Braised peas, lettuce, bacon, mint

  • A large handful of garden peas
  • 4 baby gem lettuce leaves
  • 100g of diced Pancetta
  • 20g of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
  • 30g of butter

MUSIC I COOKED TO:

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Preparation Method:

  1. Place your herbs on a large chopping board and finely chop them together with the garlic.
  2. Add them to the bread crumbs in a bowl.
  3. Add light olive oil until the mixtures becomes well coated and fluid.
  4. Place mixture into a mortar and pestle and crush into a fine crust. Set aside.
  5. Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC
  6. Place lamb on a cutting board. Generously season the lamb with salt and pepper – ensuring it’s thoroughly coated all over.
  7. Heat some light, frying olive oil in an oven safe pan. Seal and brown the lamb all over.
  8. Transfer the lamb in the pan into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. Start to prepare the vegetables while the lamb is cooking.
  9. In a large pan, start to fry the diced bacon on a medium heat until golden. Remove the bacon from the pan and keep in a warm place until required.
  10. Remove the lamb from the oven and brush the top of the rack generously with the mustard. Dip the lamb into the crust mixture coating the top. Dip several times to ensure an even coating. Allow meat to rest for a bit.
  11. Place it back into the oven for 3 minutes, remove, and allow to rest until ready to serve.
  12. Increase the heat under the veg on the hob, add the butter and and small dash of water, stirring to emulsify in the pan. Add the 4 lettuce leaves and cook until just tender, but still green.
  13. Next, add the peas and return the bacon back to the pan and cook for 2 minutes. Strain off any excess liquid in a colander, season to taste and add the fresh chopped mint to finish
  14. Crave the lamb into individual chops.
  15. To serve place the lettuce leaves on the centre of the plate, next add the minted peas and Pancetta. Place one or two chops on top of the vegetables and Pancetta.

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