Category: food

chicken week

No pics – hands were too yukky and covered in chickeny stuff!

I’ve wanted to support local butchers and producers for along time, but there’s never been a convenient way for me to do this. I want to help them, but they won’t meet me halfway with their 9am – 4pm opening times, and Saturday isn’t easy for me. Ideally they’d be open late one night a week. Then, out for a walk the other day I found a butcher near me that opens at 8am, just enough time to scrape my shopping in before work. So I popped in there.

It was so nice to chat to a knowledgeable guy who clearly cared about the meat he was handling, and wanted to tell me so much about his produce and what offers he had on. I was only in there for a whole bird, but I knew I would be coming back next week.

So, I decided to have a chicken week this week; buy a whole bird (£6) and get various meals out of it. Before that I have to part it, so I set to.

First the breast: I peel back the skin, then make an incision down the breastbone, then go down and around following the body either side and remove the breast/supreme. A little trim here and there and I’ve got two lovely plump pieces of meat.

Then the legs: an icision in a circle around the hip joint, then twist and pull for the rest.

Finally the wings: another simple twist and pull.

Then I’m left with a lovely carcass with some dark meat on that I’ll roast and stock later on. The whole process took less than ten minutes, and just felt right. It felt like the way things should be done, rather than prepacked sweaty grey flesh with a tampon underneath.

I’ll be back with the chicken recipes in the week. Tomorrow is Yaki Soba, which I’ve blogged before, but made with the legs from here. I’ll pic how they roast up.

bread food

french baguette

Another week, another adventure in breadery. This week, the humble french stick.

Made with the usual bread ingredients, but there was a careful folding process: after rising it was rolled flat then folded back in itself and left to rise a little longer. I repeated this three times and it seems the net result is a softer bread, a lighter texture and a gentler crust. Perfect with pâté!

food pork

roast pork

Delicious, savoury roast pork. The porky prince of Sundays. Except I had this on Saturday. Er…..

I watched Jamie’s programme on British pork, and immediately raced out for some Freedom Food British shoulder of pork from Sainsbury’s. Can’t recall ever having roast with shoulder before, usually loin or leg. So it was an experiment.

Following Jamie’s recipe, I scored the fat for crackling and smeared it with coarse salt. It went in the oven on a very high heat, then after half an hour turned it down to a normal-ish 180C. At this point the skin was all puffed up. After another hour I piled the baking tray with celery, carrots, red onions, sage and bay and plonked the pork back on top. After about another hour and a half the pork was as above, golden-dark and dripping with flavour. Crucially it was also possible to pull the meat apart with fingers – therefore done. I put the meat to one side and covered with foil to rest. (I didn’t actually eat it for perhaps another hour and a half).

Meanwhile the tray went on the hob and I put a splash of Marsala in with the veg, scraping away to get all the yummy black bits off the bottom. Once reduced I added veg stock and stirred until I was left with a thick, rich dark gravy. After pushing through a sieve I had a gloriously savoury meat juice.

Served with cabbage, carrots and – what else? – roast potatoes, it was great. Nice one Jamie – support British pigs!

chorizo food pasta peas

chorizo hot pot

One of those “Feed Your Family For A Fiver” things from Sainsbury’s. I can’t help but embellish though.

Two onions (two onions? Insanity!) and my old friend, sliced chorizo are fried together til crispy. Then tinned tomatoes, veg stock and some conchiglie are added. This is where I chuck in oregano and paprika, cos it just sounds too bland. Twenty minutes later there’s frozen peas in there, and once they’re done, we’re done.

To my surprise it didn’t need any seasoning at all. Nice one J Sains.