Category Archives: bread

roast chicken with petits pois a la francais

Posted by Gary in bread, chicken, food, lettuce, peas and tagged with ,

roast chicken with petits pois a la francais and sourdough bread

Sometimes, when you’re cooking dinner you just know it’s going to be good, you can feel it. This was one of those times.

It was an excuse to eat peas, this one: the peas are a recipe from attending Waitrose Cookery School recently (more on that in a future post). I know it’s a classical French recipe but this is just so damn tasty. This from someone who isn’t that bothered about peas. Seriously, they’re amazing. Try this on their own. I would of course usually roast a chicken in my favourite Heston way, but on this occasion I was caught short and had to cook the chicken on the quick and roasted it in the traditional way. It was fine, but I do miss the succulence afforded by lovely brined meat. All that aside, this combination of chicken and braised peas is just brill. The gravy is inspired by a method described in Alex Mackay’s new book Everybody, Everyday.

By the way, note only the breasts were required for this recipe. I used the other parts of chicken for meals elsewhere in the week.

Roast chicken with petits pois a la français (serves 4):

For the chicken:

1.7kg chicken

1 onions, quartered

1 head of garlic, halved horizontally

For the peas:

25g butter

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

4 rashers bacon, sliced

1 sprig of rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped

250g petits pois

2 little gem lettuces, shredded

A large handful of parsley, finely chopped

For the gravy:

600ml chicken stock

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon cornflour

Sourdough bread, to serve

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  2. Free the chicken from its trussing, put it in a roasting tray, slather it in olive oil and season well. Pop a quarter of the onion and half the garlic in the cavity, and scatter the remaining alliums around the chicken. Pop in the oven for 1 hour to 1hr 30mins, until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast reads 70°C+. Allow to rest, covered, for at least 15 mins before carving (only the breasts are required for this recipe).
  3. When the chicken has been in for about 30 mins, melt the butter in a large saucepan and gently fry the onion for a couple of minutes until softened. Add the bacon and rosemary and cook for a couple more minutes, then add the peas and lettuce. Cover and allow to raise for 30 mins, stirring occasionally. When the peas are tender check for seasoning and add the parsley.
  4. For the gravy, boil the stock and soy together until reduced by a quarter. Mix the cornflour with a splash of water and whisk this in. When the chicken has been removed from the oven add the juices from the pan to the gravy. Serve everything together with sourdough bread to soak up the gravy.

chocolate banana bread

Posted by Gary in banana, bread, chocolate, food, walnut and tagged with

chocolate banana bread

Isn’t it great when things just work out? I had some bananas blackening on my windowsill, and the next day some nice person emails me a bunch of Cadbury’s Fairtrade recipes, including this one for chocolate banana bread. Serendipity. I don’t even particularly like bananas, but I seem to be cooking a lot with them lately.

This was lovely – exactly what you’d epxect – but not quite chocolatey enough for me, so I slathered it in chocolate spread (Fairtrade of course). Perhaps I’ll just add more chocolate next time.

Fairtrade Fortnight is 27th February – 11th March. Find out more here.

Chocolate banana bread:

75g Cadbury Dairy Milk Fairtrade milk chocolate

250g self-raising flour

Pinch of salt

1 level teaspoon baking powder

150g Fairtrade caster sugar

100g butter, softened, plus extra to serve

50g walnuts chopped

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Finely grated zest of 1 Fairtrade orange

475g Fairtrade whole bananas (about 4 small ones), peeled

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Lightly oil and line a loaf tin with parchment paper.
  2. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar, butter and nuts rub it in until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
  3. Whisk the eggs, vanilla extract and orange zest in another bowl. Add the Fairtrade bananas and mash. Then melt the Cadbury Dairy Milk Fairtrade milk chocolate and fold it into the banana mixture.
  4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the banana mixture. Gently but thoroughly bring all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon, then pour into the prepared loaf tin. Smooth the top and bake in the oven for 1- 1 ¼ hours or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  5. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing the cake from the tin. Serve sliced and buttered

walnut & banana loaf

Posted by Gary in banana, bread, cake, food, walnut and tagged with

walnut and banana loaf with chocolate orange butter

I’ve never been a fan of banana. At all. But this year my daughter has developed a voracious appetite for them, which is great that she’s eating foods that I don’t, but on the other side means you occasionally get a few bananas knocking about at the end of their ripey life.

So Mrs Spud made some banana muffins and thy were great. So much so, I’m almost a complete convert to bananas in a dessert now. Still not sold on the fruit in it’s raw state, but baked I am fine with.

Hence a year ago I would never have attempted this, a walnut and banana loaf recipe from Jamie’s Great Britain. Someone in the office said I had to try it, so I did. It’s a fabulous teatime treat, all dark and fudgy, combined with this decadent chocolate orange butter.

Walnut and banana loaf with chocolate orange butter (serves 16 (apparently)):

100g walnut pieces, toasted

125g dark brown sugar

125g soft butter

2 eggs

100g plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

5 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

For the butter:

100g dark chocolate

100g butter

75g icing sugar

Zest of 2 oranges

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Bung the walnuts in the oven for 5 minutes and tip them out to cool.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until pale. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then sift in the dry ingredients. Mix to combine into a smooth batter then stir in the walnuts and bananas. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for an hour or until a skewer leaves it clean.
  3. While that cooks, prepare the butter by creaming the butter and sugar together. Melt the chocolate gently in the microwave for a minute at a time until smooth. Grate in the orange zest then stir into the butter. Serve the cake in slabs, smeared with chocolate butter.

panzanella

Posted by Gary in basil, bread, capers, cucumber, red onion, red wine vinegar, tomato and tagged with

panzanella

I’ve eyed up a panzanella for ages, spotting a particularly nice one in Tony & Giorgio. Yet I’ve not got round to it, until Simon Hopkinson chided me from the couch to give it a go. I have no idea why I’ve left it so long, it’s exactly the sort of food I love and the food I love the Italians for. It’s a Tuscan bread salad with onions, tomato and cucumber, mixed together with vinegar and oil left to marinate.

I’ve added my own tweak by roasting the bread first; I think you get more interesting flavours and the bread doesn’t completely break down. Sharp and fresh, yet rounded and satisfying at the same time. I can’t recommend it enough. Not bad for a peasant dish.

Simon Hopkinson’s original recipe can be found here.

Panzanella (serves 4):

5 slices stale sourdough bread

6 ripe tomatoes, peeled

1 red onion, finely sliced

1 cucumber, cut into chunks

1 tablespoon capers

Extra virgin olive oil

Red wine vinegar

Handful chopped basil

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  2. Cut the bread into large croutons, drizzle with a little oil, toss over some seas salt and pepper and roast on a baking tray for 10 minutes until just starting to colour.
  3. Add the toasted bread to a large bowl with the remaining ingredients. Stir well and add more oil, vinegar, salt and pepper until you’re happy with it. You can eat straight away but it loves to sit around and let the flavours mingle, so eat it the next day if you like.

stuffed focaccia

Posted by Gary in bread, celeriac, olives, parmesan, parsley, peppers and tagged with

stuffed focaccia

OK, OK, so it’s not a focaccia. But the idea’s there. It’s actually a boule de campagne but serving the same purpose. Reminds me a lot of a muffuleta. (Obviously the sandwich in the pic is missing it’s lid). It’s a stunning feast from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals.

I bloomin’ love sandwiches like this, every mouthful’s different. A deli in a bap! The remoulade is tangy and fun too, I’d recommend that alongside some barbecued meat on its own.

Jamie also served this with some mozzarella dressed with pesto and followed it with a grapefruit granita, but the two parts here are brill as they are.

Stuffed focaccia (serves 4):

For the focaccia:

1 large boule de campagne

450g jar of peppers

1 teaspoon capers, drained

Handful of sun-dried tomatoes

Handful mixed olives

A few cherry tomatoes, halved

3 or 4 cornichons

Small bunch of parsley

Half a lemon

Sprinkle of parmesan

For the remoulade:

600g celeriac

1 pear

Handful of parsley

1 teaspoon French mustard

1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

  1. Get your food processor out and whack in the coarse grater. Peel and quarter the celeriac, then pass this, the pear and the parsley through the grater (you may have to do it in stages if the bowl fills up). Mix together the mustards and vinegar with some extra virgin olive oil and pour this all over the grated veg. Taste for seasoning and leave to marry together while you make your sandwich.
  2. Pop the bread in a low oven just to gently warm through and get a lovely crust while you prepare the filling. Pop all the ingredients on a large chopping board and run through the lot several times with your longest knife. Keep going until everything is roughly thumb-sized – any bigger and it lollops out of the bap while you’re eating. Squeeze over a lemon and pour over a little extra virgin olive oil, and spread the filling over your warmed loaf. Grate over some parmesan and serve with the remoulade.

leon meatballs

Posted by Gary in bread, harissa, lamb, oregano, parsley, tomato and tagged with

leon meatballs

I was overjoyed to discover there was a Leon on my “doorstep” – Bluewater to be precise. Well it’ s not in London, so that’s a start. The family and I went there and tried out a bunch of things. It was little unconventional but healthy, hearty and good fun. The hands-down dish of the day was the meatballs, who have been praised by all sorts, including some Gordon Ramsay chap.

I was ecstatic to discover the recipe on the Guardian website. Trying it myself, it was a recipes of ups and downs. The sauce was a disaster, calling for 1½ tablespoons of harissa. Even taking it down to a teaspoon was still volcanic. Maybe I possess the hottest harissa on the planet, I don’t know. The sauce was ruined though, burning hot. The meatballs themselves was lovely though – the clever bit is torn-up soggy pitta breads, giving a earthy, toasted flavour that’d be really hard to put your finger on if you didn’t know what was in them.

So meatballs = yes, sauce = no.

(Incidentally, the leftovers made for a mean moussaka the following week topped with grilled aubergine and bechamel!)

Leon meatballs (makes loads and loads, serves about 6 – 8):

For the meatballs:

6 pitta breads

120ml milk

1kg minced lamb

A small bunch of parsley, finely chopped

A small handful of mint, finely chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

For the sauce:

30ml olive oil

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 x 800g tins of chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon harissa

A handful of basil, chopped

A handful of parsley, chopped

Salt and pepper

  1. Rip the flatbread into pieces and soak in the milk for 10 minutes. Then put the bread into a mixing bowl, add the mince and stir in the parsley, mint, oregano, garlic and some seasoning.
  2. Mix well, then roll the mixture into walnut-sized balls.
  3. On a griddle pan, brown the balls quickly – it’s all about colouring them and not cooking them through … five minutes total cooking time with about three turns on the griddle.
  4. To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and gently fry the crushed garlic. Tip in the chopped tomatoes and harissa and simmer for 25-30 minutes, until the sauce has reduced. Put in the meatballs and continue to simmer for a further 20 minutes with a lid on until the sauce looks about right.
  5. Lastly, stir in the herbs and have a final seasoning check.

chicken and bacon salad

Posted by Gary in bacon, bread, chicken, food, lettuce, onion

chicken and bacon salad

It’s a real mothership this one, a monster among salads. I’ve piled it here on to a huge plate so everyone can help themselves. The name undersells it somewhat. The brining of the chicken is not vital, but will give lots of moisture to the final dish.

Chicken and bacon salad (serves 4 – 6 with no other accompaniments):

4 chicken breasts, sliced into fingery pieces

2 tablespoons golden syrup

1 star anise

3 cloves

1 red onion, diced

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

4 rashers of bacon, sliced into strips

Half a french stick

2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

2 little gems lettuces, broken up

Handful of other interesting leaves, something bitter is good

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

Splash of milk

Heavy-handed dash of Worcestershire sauce

Couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

  1. Prepare a brine of 8% salt solution, adding the syrup, star anise and cloves. Plop the chicken in and soak for at least 4 hours. Drain well and rinse under cold water.
  2. Cover the onion in vinegar and a sprinkle of salt and leave to marinate while you get on with the rest. Get the oven on 180°C.
  3. Begin to fry the bacon in batches so the pan isn’t crowding until browned and crisp, draining on kitchen roll as you go. Once this lot’s done make a start on frying the chicken until cooked through.
  4. Tear up the bread, and toss in a baking tray with salt, pepper, oil and the pumpkin seeds. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
  5. Mix the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce and oil together, adding milk if necessary to make a gloopy dressing. Check for seasoning too.
  6. Scrunch up the onions to drain the liquid off, then combine the chicken, bacon, bread and seeds with the lettuce. Drizzle over the sauce and toss well to combine.

broad bean and artichoke salad

Posted by Gary in artichoke, bread, broad beans, food, lettuce, parmesan

broad bean and artichoke salad on ciabatta

Felt like something quick, easy and wholesome for dinner tonight. I found this recipe on Merchant Gourmet’s site and had a bash. It was very filling and had lots of earthy flavours going on, but I didn’t feel the mint added anything and yet there was still something missing. A really sticky-sweet balsamic dressing might do the trick, or perhaps a little grated apple.

Not a bad start, but needs some work.

Broad bean and artichoke salad:

6 tablespoons pumpkin seed oil

100g parmesan shavings

1 ciabatta loaf

400g grilled artichokes

finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

300g frozen broad beans

1 little gem lettuce, finely shredded

handful fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

  1. Boil the broad beans for 4-5 mins until tender. While draining add a little pumpkin oil and lemon juice, tossing around to coat.
  2. Lightly brush the cut sides of the ciabatta with 4 tbsp of the Pumpkin Seed Oil and place cut side up on the grill pan and scatter with salt flakes. Lightly grill for 1-2 minutes until pale golden and crisp.
  3. Meanwhile place the artichoke hearts into a bowl with the lemon rind and juice, remaining Pumpkin Seed Oil, broad beans, little gem, mint and parmesan and toss together. Season generously with a little salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper and toss again.
  4. Serve the salad on the warm toasted ciabatta.

chickpea and bread soup

Posted by Gary in bread, fennel, food, tomato and tagged with

chickpea and bread soup

Another corker from Ottolenghi’s Plenty. In many ways it reminds me of Jamie’s minestrone and is no worse for that. It’s full-flavoured and packed with vegetables, the chickpeas and bread giving it real sustenance beyond starter-course fare. I also toasted a few extra pieces of bread to float as croutons on top, because I can never get enough bread. (Incidentally, Morrisons supermarket do an amazing sourdough loaf – amazing).

I won’t go into ingredients or technique here; the whole thing is listed on the Guardian’s website.