I’m no stranger to stroganoff, usually with beef. But here’s a recipe to ring the changes and try a different technique into the mix: smoked chicken stroganoff.
If you haven’t smoked meat before, you just need a wok with a lid. You add your smoking flavourings to a tin foil pouch, along with some rice to slow the burning process down, and set your meat perched above it. I use wooden skewers as a trivet to hold it over the smoking pouch.
One word of warning though: it can stink up the joint, so make sure you vent your area really well (or even better, do it outside over a gas stove or barbecue).
Check for doneness using a probe thermometer. You’re looking for something in the high sixties, about 68C. It’ll take on a neat bronze finish.
This was a great ingredient for the stroganoff: a powerful smoked chicken against creamy yet sharp sauce.
Combine the smoking ingredients in a tin foil pouch. Lay in the bottom of a wok, lay skewers on top and rest the chicken on top of that. Line the wok lid with foil and cover. Turn on a medium heat and leave for 15 - 25 minutes or until the chicken has reached 68C. Put to one side.
Get a frying pan over a medium heat and add a splash of oil. Add the mushrooms and onions, and stir fry for 3 - 5 minutes or until starting to colour. Add the brandy and deglaze the frying pan. Add the creme fraiche and gherkins, slice the chicken and add to the pan too. Stir to combine. Cook for another 3 - 4 minutes until thickened, and season to taste. Garnish with parsley and paprika. Serve with rice.
Those lovely people at Vouchercodes.co.uk asked me to come up with a family-friendly money-saving recipe. Just for them I made roasted vegetable chilli with parmesan wedges. They filmed it to boot. Watch the whole recipe below on YouTube:
Fun fact: I wasn’t going to make wedges, it was supposed to be polenta fingers. Unfortunately the wrong ingredients were delivered! Disaster. A quick rummage around the store cupboard and I settled on (what else) potatoes instead.
First the veg prep: peel and quarter the onion, thickly slice the courgette, half the peppers and deseed, and quarter the lime. Cut the potatoes into wedges.
Get a large casserole dish over a low heat, the oven on to 180C, and a saucepan over a medium heat.
Lay the wedges in a single layer on a baking tray. Scatter over half the parmesan with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes, turning occasionally.
Put the fennel seeds, cumin seeds, garlic and onion into the food processor with a pinch of salt and whizz to a paste, then add the tomatoes to blitz further. Add to the large casserole pan. Add the paprika and chilli powder.
Add the courgettes and peppers to the baking tray, season with salt, pepper and oil and put in the oven for 20 minutes until softened.
In the saucepan, dry fry the cumin seeds for a minute to get nice and aromatic, then add the kidney beans and their juices. Allow this to simmer away. After 5 minutes add it to the tomato pan.
Wipe out the kidney bean pan and add the rice and coconut milk. Simmer until the rice is tender, then leave covered until needed.
5 minutes before they're done, scatter the remaining parmesan over the potatoes and allow to crisp.
Roughly chop the griddled veg and also add to the tomato pan.
Check the chilli for seasoning and then serve with rice, potatoes, lime wedges and a blob of creme fraiche.
That’s a hell of a list. The odd one out in this list is the Kitchen Wizz Pro, a beast of a food processor, but more on that in a future post. I’ve also used my trusty chef’s knife, easily the best knife I’ve ever used. Most of them are Salter’s / HoMedics to celebrate the launch of their new range of Heston gadgets. It’s fair to say they’re a mixed bag.
The initial range of Heston By Salter tools are all solid: the probe thermometer, kitchen timer, fridge thermometer, oven thermometer, measuring jug, scales; all good. Some of the newer items feel superfluous. First up the adjustable rolling pin. It comes with discs that adjust the height of the pin from the surface. Genius! I was looking forward to this. As someone who is mostly terrible at pastry the ability to roll out to a consistent thickness really appealed to me. Unfortunately the pastry stuck immediately to the pin and made a complete mess. After prodding it for a while I transferred it to the pastry dish for baking and rolled it up loosely around the pin. Again it all stuck to the pin and essentially turned my smooth-plasticine dough to a patchwork quilt. Just look at the pastry in the picture, that’s supposed to be 3mm but it’s more like a centimetre! Very disappointing.
The whisk is much better, being well-balanced, sturdy and comfortable to hold when whisking an egg custard over a bain marie. The measuring spoons are a cute gimmick, in that you slide the compartment to the right measurement (e.g. 1 teaspoon, ½ tablespoon) and then drag a little lid over the powder to level it off. But a couple of things bothered me: my fingers were a little greasy from handling butter and I just couldn’t work it without putting everything down, washing hands and re-measuring. And I can’t get past the price: £17.99 RRP for two spoons when the same thing is achieved with a £1 (or less) set of plastic measuring spoons available anywhere, with the help of any knife for levelling.
Rounding out the collection are the spatulas which are quickly becoming two of my favourite things in the kitchen: with one curved end for sculpting and smoothing, and a firmer end for flipping and scraping. I use a lot of non-stick bakeware, frying pans and saucepans so having something to poke at the edges of something to flip it over is really handy. Again though I have to wince at the price: £17.99 for two spatulas isn’t great value.
All the equipment in the range is well made and thoughtfully designed, but these items are just not as “must have” as the original kitchen gadgets. They’d make great gifts though.
I used all these tools and more in making Heston’s lemon tart. There’s an awful lot of Heston in this; he spent years at the Fat Duck perfecting the ‘wobble’ in his cakes. It comes down to temperature – a tart at 70°C is perfectly set. And of course, he’s right. It’s a brilliant dessert, and the probe thermometer is the most essential gadget of them all. Just one niggle: serving with creme fraiche is a complete waste of time. Totally gets lost against the lemon flavour – don’t bother.
Start with the pastry: blitz the icing sugar and yolks together and set aside. In a mixer mix the flour, butter and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the vanilla, lemon and yolk mixture and continue to mix until you have a smooth, soft dough. Mould into a rectangle and allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. After resting, roll the pastry to 3mm (ha ha) and line it in your 20cm tart tin. Prick with a fork all over and freeze for 30 minutes. Blind bake the base for 40 minutes and trim off the excess pastry. Drop the oven to 120°C.
Place the eggs and egg yolks in a bain marie and whisk together until it reaches 62°C (mine took about 10 minutes). At this point strain through a sieve, remove the bubbles from the surface with a metal spoon and pour into the pastry case. Bake until the filling reaches 70°C. Allow to cool to room temperature.
When ready to serve, sprinkle over the caster sugar and caramelise with a blow torch. Serve with creme fraiche if you like.
Practically every element of this could be substituted: the definition of a store-cupboard clearout dinner! Change the chorizo for another cooked meat, throw in another cheese and it’s off in another direction altogether. A blue cheese and salami version could be pretty good too…
Chorizo and red onion penne bake (serves 2):
250g chorizo, cut into chunks
250g penne
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
200ml creme fraiche
150g Port Salut, diced
3 roasted red onions*
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Boil the pasta until al dente.
Mix the creme fraiche, mustard, onion and cheese together and add the penne. Add a splash of the pasta cooking water to make a nice slippery sauce. Pour into a baking dish and put in the oven for 20 mins or until starting to colour. Allow to rest for a couple of minutes out of the oven before serving.
*If you don’t have any roasted onions (I had some left over from this recipe) either chuck some in a hot oven for 30 mins or fry them for a few minutes before adding to the pasta.
