Category: oregano

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chicken food garlic lemon onion oregano paprika parsley potatoes

chimichurri chicken with patatas bravas

chimichurri chicken with patatas bravas

England may be out of the World Cup, but there’s still lots of excuses to throw a football party. For people who enjoy a cooking challenge, it presents opportunities to burrow through the regional cookbooks and get inspired. Will you serve the Nigerian jollof rice? German Bratwurst? Australian shrimp? Ghanaian fufu?

Here’s a pair of great Latin-flavoured dishes in celebration of Argentina and Spain. First up is a butterflied chicken breast bursting with vibrant lemon and garlic, partnered with a herby, sharp chimichurri sauce. And as a foil for for that, some fiery patatas bravas made with Britain’s best Jersey Royals.

These dishes scale up really well for a party, football-flavoured or otherwise: the chicken is a breast per person, and I make mine on a George Foreman grill so there’s always a couple on the go. You can make miles of the chimichurri sauce and leave it out for people to help themselves. And you can make a big vat of patatas bravas which is perfectly good at room temperature.

The brining stage for the chicken isn’t essential; but it does help keep the chicken marvellously moist and is another stage at which you can add layers of flavour.

Want more football-themed party food ideas? Check out Waitrose’s page here. My recipes are inspired by theirs:

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chimichurri chicken with patatas bravas

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the brine:

  • Water mixed with 8% salt
  • 2 tablespoons golden syrup
  • 10 black peppercorns
  • 1 star anise
  • 4 skinless chicken breast fillets

For the chicken:

  • 4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
  • 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
  • Grated zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 red onion roughly chopped
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

For the chimichurri Sauce:

  • Pinch chilli flakes
  • 25 g flat leaf parsley roughly chopped
  • 15 g oregano roughly chopped
  • 750 g Jersey Royal Potatoes halved
  • 1 onion thinly sliced
  • 190 g chorizo diced
  • 6 tomatoes roughly chopped

For the patatas bravas:

  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • Squeeze of lemon juice
  • 25 g flat-leaf parsley roughly chopped

Instructions

  • Combine the brine ingredients and leave the chicken brining for 6 hours. Drain and pat dry when ready.
  • For the chimichurri sauce, bash all the ingredients together in a pestle and mortar. Set aside, seasoning with a little salt and a good grinding of black pepper, adding a little olive oil to bring together.
  • Cook the potatoes in a large pan of boiling water for 15 minutes until tender. Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, heat the oil and cook the onion and chorizo together for 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes and add to the pan with the chorizo and cook for a further 10 minutes.
  • Place the chicken on clingfilm over a chopping board and slice through each fillet horizontally, making sure not to cut all the way through, then open out. Add another layer of clingfilm and bash lightly with a rolling pin to flatten further. Scatter over the garlic, paprika, lemon zest then rub in with a little olive oil and salt & pepper.
  • Grill, barbecue or fry your chicken until thoroughly cooked through. Back at your potatoes, add the tomatoes, chilli and paprika and cook for a further 5 minutes. Squeeze over lemon juice and scatter over parsley.

 

Waitrose compensated me for this post and gave me some party stuff to play with.

Categories
bbq chicken cumin food oregano paprika salt sweetcorn

southeast spatchcock chook with booze-braised sweetcorn

For Mrs. Spud’s birthday and the weather hitting decent heights at last, I wanted to come up with a BBQ featuring some special treats. I thought about cooking a whole chicken and grilling some sweetcorn.

Steven Raichlen’s Barbecue Bible

Thankfully experimenting with the barbecue is really taking off in this country. We’ve always lacked the predictable weather and sustained dry spells to really explore but we’re gradually catching on. The explosion of diner-style and burger / rib joints, with even Jamie Oliver getting in on the act is further proof of the growing interest. In particular it’s worth listening to our American cousins who pretty much have nailed down this cuisine as their own. With dozens of regional variations in cut, technique, rub, baste and flavouring there’s plenty to study. If you want to know more about American BBQ I recommend checking out Steven Raichlen, and I strongly recommend his Barbecue Bible book which is packed with great inspiration. It’s from this book that my chicken recipe started to take shape.

all rubbed, ready for the fridge

I’ve had fun with dry-brining before. The meat juices are drawn out by the salt element, the flavourings dissolve in the liquid that breaks down muscle proteins and get reasorbed back into the meat. The repetition of this process leaves the meat wonderfully seasoned and keeps it juicy, so I was definitely going to use something similar here. Pulling together some of my favourite spices to combine into a rub I left the chicken overnight. In honour of my corner of the country I’ve called it Southeast style. Spatchcocked to cook reasonably quickly and evenly, and allowed to scorch on the BBQ it gave a smoky, sweet flavour with spicy depth. Really tasty. And my top tip for grilling white meat? Get one of those spray bottles from a garden centre. Fill it with apple juice, and with one squirt you can cool off flare-ups and leave behind a sweet glaze into the bargain.

I paired it with some grilled and braised sweetcorn. With undertones of Bourbon and meaty to boot, my first attempt at barbecuing corn was one I’ll be doing again.

Southeast spatchcock chook with booze-braised sweetcorn (serves 4 with plenty of leftover chicken):

1 medium chicken

For the rub:

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon brown sugar

½ tablespoon dried oregano

½ tablespoon smoked paprika

Grated zest of ½ a lemon

For the sweetcorn gravy:

500ml chicken stock

1 tablespoon BBQ sauce

10g butter

20ml Southern Comfort

4 corn-on-the-cob

  1. Free the chicken from its packaging, remove any string and open the chicken out. Turn it over so the breast is face-down, and use a strong pair of scissors to cut down the spine. You can then turn the chicken back over the other way and press down firmly on the breastbone until you hear a sickening crunch. Use two skewers, each corner to corner to hold it open. Combine all the salt ingredients and rub all over the bird. Leave in the fridge uncovered overnight.
  2. The next day, light your barbecue and once the flames die down and the charcoal is covered with white ash place your chicken over the grill. Turn and rotate often to cook evenly. It will take between 40 – 60 minutes to cook depending on about a hundred variables. You can only be sure if it’s done with a meat thermometer reading 75°C. I recommend the Heston branded one, but any will do.
  3. While the chicken cooks make your sweetcorn gravy. Combine all the ingredients and bring to a simmer (you may find this quicker and easier to get this started on a regular hob). Dip your sweetcorn in the gravy and transfer the corn and your pan to a hot BBQ. As it starts to char and pop you’ll want to turn it, but just before you do give it a dip in your gravy and then back on the grill. Repeat until charred on all sides, then place them in your gravy pan and cover for 5 minutes to cook through. Strain off the liquor to serve on the side, carve the chicken and serve with a panzanella and potato salad.
Categories
beef chilli coriander cumin food onion oregano tomato

11 minute chilli

I’m a big fan of chilli, I’ve probably cooked it more than anything else. I particularly like ones that sit there and blip away under their own steam for hours. I was looking forward to cooking a chilli tonight.

But I’d had a rotten evening. Little Miss Spud was rotten sick and was in no mood for going to bed. There were many changes of clothes (for me and her), things to wash, bottles to fetch… Eventually she dozed off, and it was time to cook. I reached for the takeaway menus… but didn’t. I had planned on doing a chilli and gosh darnit, a chilli I was going to make.

I floated the idea on Twitter about cooking a chilli in 10 minutes. “Not enough time”, scoffed Gary Dickenson. “It can’t be done!” wailed Food Urchin. “Keep us posted” urged Simon Loves Food. Well, that was that – no turning back now. I had to do it.

The problem is to develop those flavours does take time. There needed to be some sneaky shortcuts in there to amp it up and cut down the cooking time, hence the ingredients list is fairly long – but generally full of store cupboard stuff. The hard bit is that it’s one of those dishes where you keep adding stuff but by bit and each part needs to come back to the simmer. So I drew together some ideas that I’ve flirted with before: frying mince to release the oils and then add the onion to that, and creating a thick tomato paste packed with flavourings to form a flavour base. So I cooked these parts separately and combined them at the end.

And I have to say it was really tasty, and really worth it. Of course it’s not the same as a slow-simmered chilli ticking away for hours, and it would’ve been nice to stick some kidney beans in there (I just didn’t have any to hand) to nod back to the ‘usual’ recipe. But it’s a good alternative and great for busy weekday evenings. Oh, and it came out at 11 minutes rather than 10, but I can live with that.

11 minute chilli (serves 2):

400g beef mince

Two cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tin of tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 onion, peeled and sliced into half-moons

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon oregano

A large handful of tortilla chips

150ml boiling hot beef stock

Mushroom ketchup

Frank’s Red Hot Sauce (or other chilli sauce you like)

  1. Preheat your oven to top whack, and get two frying pans over a high heat.
  2. Add a splash of oil to both pans. Pop the mince in one of them and let sizzle and stir occasionally to colour all over. Meanwhile in the other pan crush in the garlic and 10 seconds later throw in the tomatoes, puree, and paprika. Keep stirring this too when you have a minute. Both pans should be bubbling fairly furiously.
  3. When the mince is coloured all over it will probably have released some fat. Throw the onions into this along with the cumin, coriander, chilli powder and oregano. Add a pinch of salt and keep stirring.
  4. Scatter the tortilla chips in one layer and pop in the oven for a couple of minutes to warm through and become really brittle.
  5. Now add the beef stock to the mince and again keep stirring and shaking. By now the tomato paste should be quite thick and pulpy, so add this to the mince mixture.
  6. Keep the heat high as you bring it all together and allow it to reduce naturally. Add a shake or two of both mushroom ketchup and hot sauce and check for seasoning. When you’re happy with it serve with the tortillas, grated cheese, soured cream, guacamole, etc. etc. whatever things you like to serve with chilli.
Categories
beef cumin oregano paprika tomato

beef chilli

Sometimes you see a recipe on TV and you have to do it immediately. And so it was with Jamie Cooks Summer, where Jamie Oliver cruises around a festival and cooks a bit. He made a chilli with a big slab of brisket as opposed to mince, rubbed it with spices and then braised it in tomatoes for hours. Watching the tender meat pull apart with a spoon is guaranteed mouth-watering.

I couldn’t find reasonably priced brisket (what’s happened to the price of brisket?!) so I used a large chunk of casserole steak instead, which still gave the same loose texture and great taste. I also added peppers and kidney beans to mine to round it out a bit. I left out the absurd amount of chillies that Jamie puts in every recipe, but still left plenty of tongue-tickling heat in there. It’s a great fun recipe though and a big hit for a party.

Beef chilli (serves 6):

800g casserole steak, scored

Paprika

Oregano

Cumin

Chilli powder

2 tins of tomatoes

2 large onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 red peppers, sliced

1 tin kidney beans, drained

  1. Get a large lidded casserole dish on a low hob, and a large frying pan on a high heat with a splash of oil.
  2. Rub a dusting each of oregano, paprika, cumin and chill into the meat with a sprinkle of salt. Make sure it’s well massaged in and sear the meat all over in the frying pan to get a lovely spicy crust on it.
  3. While this is searing, add the tomatoes to the casserole and half as much water again. Remove the meat to the side for a minute while you fry the onions and garlic until softened, then chuck the onions, garlic, meat and peppers into the pan. Stick the lid on, turn the heat down and simmer for 2 hours.
  4. Add the beans and cook out for another hour, or until the beef just falls apart. Serve with wraps, guacamole, salsa and rice.
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