Prosciutto wrapped chicken with asparagus

I’ve been away recently and haven’t really had the chance to cook anything or eat anything particularly healthy. In fact during my trip away, I proceeded to eat more fast food than I have done in the past ten years! I was also visiting a city where pork was not served in any of the restaurants, so on my return I sought to satisfy my cured pork cravings.

The first morning back, I made an open bacon and egg sandwich with crispy smoked bacon rashers. Then in the evening I went for prosciutto wrapped chicken breasts with asparagus, and some pesto fusilli served on the side. This dish totally hit the spot; the salty prosciutto led itself as the perfect seasoning for the chicken.

If you cook the dish right you get crispy ham on the outside, a stretch of mozzarella and then succulent chicken on the inside. I know I worry about cooking chicken just right, the sight of raw chicken in the middle of a juicy breast is very off putting. But remember, when you pound the chicken, its flatter and will therefore cook much faster. In fact I think I could have got away with one minute less than the time I used.

If you don’t like asparagus you could serve this dish with another vegetable like strips of pan fried courgettes, green beans or fresh summer peas. Just toss them in a bit of olive oil and lemon after cooking to give it a fresh zing!

Ingredients
½ ball Mozzarella, sliced
2 Chicken breasts
4 slices Prosciutto di Parma
handful of Asparagus, trimmed
olive Oil
Lemon juice
1 cup of Pasta, cooked and tossed in ½ tbsp green Pesto
a bit of Parmesan to serve
1 tsp dried Oregano

Recipe

Take a long piece of cling film and place two prosciutto slices on it side by side, slightly overlapping. Leave a gap of about 5-10 cm and do the same with the other two slices. Place one chicken breast over the 2 slices, season with salt, pepper and a bit of oregano. Add a couple of slices of mozzarella and then wrap the edges of the prosciutto around the chicken to cover it. Do the same with the other chicken breast.

Now over the cling film and wrap it tightly around the chicken so all the bits inside don’t fall out. At this point you can separate the two breast pieces. Place the chicken on something sturdy and take a rolling pin or meat tenderiser and start bashing the chicken to flatten it out. The best thing about having it all wrapped up and ready to go means that it’s a lot easier to take out the package to cook, and while you’re bashing it, the breast is soaking up the flavour of the things around it. You can also prepare this in advance by putting the wrapped breast in the fridge until you need to cook it.

You want your chicken to be evenly flattened until it’s roughly 1cm thick, don’t worry if some bits are no longer covered with the ham. Heat a large frying pan with a bit of oil, and pan fry each side for 3-3 ½ minutes until ham is crispy and only starting to caramelise.

Lay on your vegetables of choice, sprinkle with grated parmesan and a squeeze of lemon. Enjoy. :)

Spice Crusted Tuna with Coconut, Leek and Ginger Sauce

Wow, it’s been a busy week. I haven’t been very active on my blog for a while as it’s been a bit mad at work recently. There have been lots of celebrations this week which meant going to bars and
restaurants in London.

On Monday night, I dined at the Groucho Club in Soho for a private event. We started with a lovely salad of fresh minted spring vegetable salad, soft goat’s curd, and crunchy walnuts topped with a vinaigrette dressing. The concept was great, but as a cheese fan, I found the vinaigrette over-powering the flavour of the goat’s curd. For mains we had a fairly straight forward, we had succulent Devon Red chicken breast, delicious cider and tarragon gravy, spinach mousse, and new potatoes served on the side. I thought the spinach mousse was a little bit bizarre in texture as it was a set almost jellied green thing. I don’t think it went down with the rest of the group either. The dessert was written on the menu as “Hot chocolate pudding with crème Chantilly”, but the reality was a chocolate fondant. Not that I was complaining mind you. :)

On Thursday night, a group of us went to a fantastic bar in Marylebone, called Purl. This was a prohibition style, dramatic, sophisticated, ‘molecular’ cocktail bar, with a list of reinvented classics such as “Colonel Sanders Boiler Maker” (Four Roses Bourbon, hay infused stout reduction, honey water & liquorish bitters) which comes in a small unmarked glass bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag.

As well as theatrical knockouts like the ‘Blue Blazer”; Four Roses Yellow Label thrown ablaze with Chase raspberry liqueur & Green Chartreuse. It was literally thrown ablaze as the bar tender came to our booth with two metallic pouring cups, he set alight the alcohol in one of them and proceeded to pour the flaming liquid into the other with the same theatrics as Moroccan tea makers. We had a little debate arguing that in cooking, one sets alcohol alight to cook off the alcohol. But on trying this drink we found it was perhaps even stronger than a chilled drink from the heat of the fire and the heat retaining properties of the metallic chalice it was served in. We proceeded to pass this drink round the table as everyone wanted a try.

After one cocktail, the group was already tipsy so we ordered some platters of meat and cheese which were both accompanied by fantastic chutney. The little pieces of pork pie on the meat platter were the star players in terms of food. Salty, rich meat wrapped in the obligatory thin strip of jelly, followed by suet pastry with the perfect crumble.

I am going travelling for business next week, so I won’t be cooking for a while. I do promise however, to take pictures and do some reviews of the food I will be sampling out and about. Not to mention the backlog of recipes I’ve made in the last month but have yet to post.

Today’s recipe though is one I made recently was a quick, fish dish of Spice crusted tuna with coconut leek and ginger sauce by Atul Kotchar whose food I absolutely adore. Like other Kotchar dishes this one is simple to prepare with seasonal ingredients but combines subtle flavours so intelligently that it takes my palate to new dimensions. The recipe is available on the BBC recipes website, and I’m not going to speak much about it because I think I’ve spoken enough already today. So enjoy!


Ingredients
small piece of fresh Ginger, peeled & grated
1 Lime, zest only
1 Lemon, zest and juice
1 tbsp Coriander seeds, toasted
1 tsp Cumin seeds, toasted
½ tsp dried Chilli flakes
2 tbsp Sesame seeds, toasted
Salt & Pepper
Cooking Oil
150g fresh Tuna steak
1 tsp black Mustard seeds
Another small piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into julienne
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 large Leek, cut into julienne
½ tsp Tumeric powder
300ml Coconut milk

Recipe
Place grated ginger, lime zest, lemon zest, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and dried chilli into a pestle and mortar. Grind well and smell it! Add the sesame seeds, salt and pepper, a bit of oil and make a thick paste.

Spread paste over the tuna steak to form a crust and leave to marinate for a few minutes. Heat a griddle until hot, place the tuna onto it and griddle for 2 minutes on each side. You want the tuna to be slightly pink in the middle. Then put to one side.

To make the sauce, fry the mustard seeds in some oil until they start to pop. Add ginger and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes until starting to brown, but not burn. Add leeks, turmeric powder and season. Saute for 3-4 minutes as everything turns yellow from the turmeric.

Add coconut milk and bring to a simmer until leeks have softened and the sauce has thickened slightly. Slice the tomatoes into half moon shapes, mix with lemon juice and stir into the sauce.

Assemble your dish. I put the tuna down with the sauce on top, but it’s probably better to put the sauce on the bottom with the tuna on top. I served this with a small mound of cooked basmati for a light dinner.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

Purple sprouting broccoli, oh how I love thee! The first time I learnt about PSB was when I started working as a customer services advisor at Abel and Cole. I started working there in January and even then I was getting lots of customers asking when the PSB was coming and to be honest I didn’t get what all the fuss is about, I mean it’s just broccoli right? So the first weekly staff veg bag we got with PSB, I tried it by blanching it, seasoning it and then letting butter melt over it and I instantly fell in love. Yes it’s a bit like broccoli but so tender, so sweet and it makes the water purple!

Since then PSB is the one veg that I don’t mind receiving for weeks on end. It’s so versatile, you can have it cold in salmon salads, blanch it and toss in some pasta with olive oil, steam it on the side of a roast dinner, I could go on. This time, I decided to use it in a stir fry with some sliced steak for a speedy after work, after run dinner. This is from a Jamie Oliver recipe on the internet; here, and it’s dead simple to make. Delicious too!

The coriander seeds give the dish depth, but I think it’s alright to do without it if you want the fresh flavours. I included it but made a couple of adaptations as you don’t really get red onions in a veg box often. I cooked the chilli with the onion, garlic and ginger, and left the seeds in as my boyfriend and I enjoy spicy food. If you want a medium heat, cook without the seeds, and for a mild stir fry, add the sliced chilli as a garnish at the end. I also made this dish with rice as the sauce releases a lot of juices that I want the rice to soak up, which don’t often happen with noodles.

Ingredients
200g purple sprouting Broccoli
sea Salt and freshly ground Black pepper
1 350g ribeye Steak (original called for 2 x 300g good-quality sirloin steaks)
2 tsp Coriander seeds
olive Oil
1 Onion, peeled and finely sliced (original called for 1 red onion)
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and finely sliced
a thumb-sized piece of fresh Ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3 tbsp Soy sauce
1 tsp Sesame oil
½ cup of Rice
finely sliced red chilli, to serve ( I cut my lengthways)

Recipe
Place the broccoli spears into a heatproof bowl and cover them with boiling water. Add a good pinch of salt and leave for 10 minutes. Drain and put to one side.

Slice the steaks into finger-sized strips and season with salt and pepper. Pound the coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar, then sprinkle over the meat so they stick to it and give it a lovely, fragrant flavour.

Heat a wok or large frying pan until very hot. Pour in a splash of olive oil and add the onions, garlic and ginger. Fry for a couple of minutes until the onions have softened a little. Drop in the seasoned pieces of beef and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Add the broccoli spears and fry for a further 2 minutes, stirring all the time.

Pour in the soy sauce and sesame oil. Toss in the pan until everything is well coated. Serve with egg noodles or steamed rice, with some sliced red chilli sprinkled over the top.

Lemon Roasted Chicken with Leek Potato Gratin and Honey Glazed Carrots

There’s nothing more classic on a Sunday than a roast chicken. For me, roast chicken is all about having tender, juicy flesh with salty, crispy skin accompanied with sweet carrots and savoury potatoes.

I find potato gratins perfect for chicken and other poultry as the onion, or leeks in my case, compliment the meat. At the same time I love using roast potatoes to mop up the last bits of gravy in the pan, so for special occasions like Christmas, or if I’m cooking poultry for Easter, I would do two types of potatoes, often a gratin and a roast.

But for your regular Sunday a gratin is perfect as you simply layer the potatoes and the softened rings of leek, pour over some stock and shove it in the oven with the chicken and forget about it. The ideal way to cook the gratin is to sit the chicken on a rack above the gratin to let the juices fall onto the potatoes. I didn’t do this as I wanted rich gravy for my chicken.

So underneath my chicken sat leeks, celery, carrots and a bay leaf. All ready to roast in the juices of the chicken for my gravy. I also prep my chicken a fair bit before cooking, whether it’s a roast or just sec tioning for something else. It’s not really necessary but I find it will yield better looking chicken pieces and it also give the gravy added meatiness.

Here’s a chart of chicken parts to aid in visualising (and naming) the parts I’m going to refer to. My prep varies as you can get chickens in various stages from the supermarkets, butchers and farmers markets. Generally though, I will remove the following to add to gravy; the knuckles, tail, and half/whole wing tip. If I’m provided with giblets, other innards and neck, I will store this for making a rich stock to use in a different dish, or to cover the potato gratin.

There’s normally a thick layer of fat near the bottom end of the chicken and I trim some of this off, not all of it though. I then shove that underneath the skin on top of the breasts with some chopped herbs. The idea is that during the roast, the fat will render away and moisten the breasts. If that fat isn’t there I will do the same with knobs of butter and herbs.

The skin of the chicken gets seasoned, herbed and topped with slices of lemon as I’m making a lemon roast this time. I normally shove half an onion and the rest of the lemon inside the chicken to steam the insides for added flavour. Whether you’re stuffing your chicken or not, it’s important to season the insides as well as juices get released from here. I also baste my chicken with remaining stock every 15-20 minutes of cooking time to add richness to the gravy and further moisten the breast meat, provided you start on a high temperature, this should not affect the crispiness of the skin.

So here is my version of the Classic Sunday roast chicken! Enjoy.

Ingredients
whole Chicken, prepped as described above
9 medium Carrots, one roughly chopped, the others peeled/scrubbed and topped.
5 large Potatoes, peeling and thinly sliced
2 Leeks, one thinly sliced, the other quartered
1 Lemon
2 stalks of Celery, roughly chopped
2 tbsp Honey

Butter
Salt & Pepper
Thyme
Bay leaf
Flour
White Wine (optional)

Recipe

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees.
Grease a baking dish for your potato gratin. Thinly slice one of the leeks and sauté this in a bit of butter on a frying pan until softened but not coloured. Layer your first lot of potatoes, then top with the softened leeks and season, then layer your next lot of potatoes. Keep going until you fill your baking dish, add knobs of butter to the top layer.

Add chopped one chopped leek, one chopped carrot and the celery to a larger baking dish. Prep your chicken then add any bits you’ve removed to the pan with a bay leaf. Add ½ cup water so the bottom doesn’t burn when you put it in the oven. Season butter with salt, pepper and thyme in a bowl, then with your hands from the neck of the chicken, carefully put your fingers in between the breast meat and skin until you reach the end of the breast, careful not to break the skin. Rub the butter on top of the breast meat using your fingers.

Season the skin and insides with salt and pepper. Cut three slices of lemon, squeeze the juice over the skin, then shove the rest of the lemon into the cavity of the chicken.

Roast your chicken for 10 minutes, then reduce to 180 degrees and cook for the remaining time. I use the standard 20 minutes per pound plus 20 minutes at the end. Add your potatoes this time also, uncovered to get crispy tops. If you have anything bigger than a 5lb chicken, I would recommend starting the potatoes on the bottom shelf covered with foil then remove the foil in the last 30 minutes.

For the carrots, heat a frying pan, add the carrots, the honey and pour boiling water until just covering the carrots. Cook on a medium-high heat with a lid on until carrots are tender and water has evaporated leaving a sticky glaze on the carrots.

When the chicken is cooked, set it on a board to rest and put the baking tray on the stove top. Add about 100ml of white wine and leave to cook for about 5 minutes when the alcohol has cooked off. Get a potato masher or fork and mash those vegetables in the pan, simmer for 5 minutes. Then strain the gravy into a saucepan. The vegetables should have thickened the gravy, but if it’s not to your desired thickness, whisk flour in now to thicken. Taste and keep warm.

Carve your chicken. If you’re cooking for two and have a small chicken, you can carve the whole breast off for each person. Or do as I did and carve a ‘supreme’, which is the breast and wing section as this ensures you get the most breast meat off the bird. The way to do this is to start at the heart shaped bottom tip of the bird, feel for the bone until the bottom when you get to the wishbone, which feels like an inverted triangle. Poke your knife around the wish bone to carve it out. Then take your knife and carve from the tip of the heart straight down. If you cooked your chicken all the way through, the breast meat will fall off on its own so you just need to help it along. When you get to the end of the bone section, you’ll find the joint for the wing, cut through the cartilage and you should have a whole supreme lying on the board with just the skin to separate it from the rest of the carcass. To carve just the breast, remove the wishbone and the wing first. Then carve the breast in the same way.

Assemble your dish on the plate, drizzle with lots of gravy and serve.