This recipe is taken from Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals. It’s a tale of two halves really; the chicken is brilliant, punchy mustard yet restrained creamy leeks. And the dauphinoise is… OK. And far too anchovy-y. Even as a fan I think these are too stinky. And the potatoes didn’t cook in time, so I’d much rather give it longer and do it right.
Mustard chicken with potato dauphinoise (serves 2): For the dauphinoise:
1 red onion
500g Maris Piper potatoes
¼ nutmeg
2 cloves garlic
150ml tub single cream
2 anchovies
Parmesan
1 bay leaf
Fresh thyme For the chicken:
A few sprigs of rosemary
2 chicken breasts
1 teaspoon English mustard
1 leek
2 cloves garlic
White wine
Splash of cream from the dauphinoise
1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
Preheat the oven to 220°C. Peel and halve the red onion. Leaving the skins on, slice the potatoes in the food processor along with the red onion. Tip into a sturdy roasting dish and grate over the nutmeg, crush in the garlic and pour in most of the cream. Add the anchovies and grate over a layer of parmesan. Add the bay and thyme and pour over 200ml boiling water. Give it a quick mix and cover with tin foil, then put on a medium hob.
Put a frying pan on a medium heat. Spread the mustard on the chicken and pat over the rosemary Season, drizzle over olive oil and put in one side of the pan.
Remove the tin foil from the potatoes and transfer it to the oven until it is golden brown and bubbling (about 15 minutes).
Trim the leeks and finely slice. Add to the other side of the chicken’s pan. After a couple of minutes frying crush the garlic into the leeks and stir about. The chicken probably needs flipping at this point, so after that add a few splashes of white wine. When the chicken is cooked through remove to a board to rest for a minute. Add the remaining cream to the leeks and stir in the mustard. Season to taste and serve with the chicken.
Nothing teaches you more than sitting there in person watching a pro do what they do best. There’s far communicated more in the tiny details of their actions while they’re in the zone than they could ever write down and explain to you. I’m a hopeless golfer but the few pro tournaments I’ve been to have been fascinating, for observing how a professional sizes himself up, mentally rehearses and pivots their body. And I felt like this when I was up close with Jean-Christophe Novelli while he prepared a simple, rustic dish.
I was invited to Jean-Christophe’s cookery academy by the British Potato Council. He is fronting a campaign promoting the thousands of varieties of potato out there that go ignored. The Many Faces of Potatoes is a great site packed with recipes, nutrition, and most intriguingly the Master Spud competition. Devise a quick, easy and brilliant potato dish and you could be in a TV advert with J-CN himself. An unusual prize!
I was there with Ute, Uyen and Selina, who all seemed to possess amazing cameras. My cameraphone felt conspicuous. I’m fairly convinced I came across as a massive potato geek, but then if you call your blog “Roast Potato” you have to play the game I guess. First Jean-Christophe explained how potatoes important to his life growing up, and how they so easily formed the basis of almost every meal. He then went on to say how wonderful and delicious the ingredient could be when treated with a light hand. He pointed out that recipes for mashed potato containing 1kg of potato to 200g butter are bound to taste nice, but then where has the potato flavour gone! He took great pains to ask not to peel them, as precious nutrients are contained there. I have to admit I was surprised just how nutritious potatoes are. But that’s the point of the campaign -to raise the potato’s status beyond that of just a carb or starch in the meal.
We were then treated to a platter of different potato varieties to really show them off. There was steamed Anyas, bright-red Rudolphs, rustic Desiree and many more. My favourite was the Marabel made into a golden and fluffy mash. The taste was amazing, nutty and buttery yet prepared with only a touch of seasoning. Most shockingly of all this variety is exclusive to Asda!
Then Chef Novelli prepared this wonderful potato dish below. It’s sticky, warming, hearty and dead easy to prepare. I really recommend it for this time of year when it’s still chilly in the evening and lamb is dirt cheap. It celebrates all the ingredients in it and tastes absolutely beautiful.
After the cooking demonstration I pressed Jean-Christophe for his perfect roast potato recipe, which he gladly shared with me. It’s a little unconventional, so I will definitely be trying it out – and of course blogging it – very soon. Watch this space!
Make sure you give the Many Faces of Potatoes site a browse and find a few more varieties for your cupboard.
Thanks to Food Urchin for recommending me to go in his absence!
Heat a little oil in a large lidded casserole dish. Season the lamb all over and quickly sear. Put the lid back on the casserole while it sears to retain heat and contain moisture.
While the lamb sears finely slice the celeriac, onion and potato. Jean-Christophe used a mandoline, but in the spirit of Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals I used a food processor for speed and consistency. Add these to the pan along with the herbs and stir well to allow the flavours to mingle. Again, pop the lid back on.
Squash and peel the garlic and add that to the pan as well. After a minute or two, add enough chicken stock to the pan to barely cover everything. You want enough to be soaked up a little, not to dilute what’s already there. Lid back on and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.
The veg should be knife-tender by now. Use a fish slice to lift off a chunk of the stew, poke the whole cheddar block (don’t bother slicing or grating) in and let the stew drop back on top of it. Let the stew cook for another 5 minutes and check for seasoning. Serve a big scoop of it with some green veg on the side.
*A low fat cheddar is preferable as the oils should remain contained within the cheese and not split in the casserole.
Got leftover red onion from making gravy? Add mushrooms for a great relish in a sausage sandwich. (No picture – it looks gruesome despite being very tasty).
Red onion and mushroom relish:
1 teaspoon sugar
2 red onions, finely sliced
¼ teaspoon baking powder
100ml beef stock
6 chestnut mushrooms, finely sliced
1 sprig thyme, leaves picked
1 teaspoon mustard
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon English mustard
1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup
Add the sugar to a wide saucepan on a medium heat. Allow to melt then add the onions with a little oil. Stir for a couple of minutes until starting to soften.
Stir in the baking powder and leave for a couple of minutes to colour. Gradually add the stock a splash at a time to deglaze the pan, then add the mushrooms and thyme.
When the mushrooms have browned, add the remaining ingredients and allow to bubble together for a couple of minutes. Check for seasoning and serve with something really savoury.
A little treat from 30 Minute Meals: a black forest affogato. If I can’t manage a dessert at an Italian restaurant, I’ll try and make room for an affogato – an espresso tipped over a vanilla ice cream. Simple but tasty. The addition of cherries and chocolate to this makes it brilliant. Give it a try!
Black forest affogato:
1 tablespoon of instant coffee
3 teaspoons sugar
Some shortbread, crumbled
A big scoop of good vanilla ice cream per person
A tin of cherries, drained
Some dark chocolate, chopped or grated
Put some shortbread at the bottom of the bowl. Plop some ice cream on top, dot with cherries and scatter liberally with chocolate.
Mix the coffee and sugar with boiling water, and splash over enough coffee to get things melting.
