Chicken dinners

This month Peter was sick, then I was sick, then Phoebe was sick, then I was sick again, then Phoebe was sick again. When Peter was first sick I thought he needed chicken soup. I trawled the internet and put together this version based on the best bits of all of them. I recommend you whip this up for the invalid in your house.
Into your stock pot, put one whole chicken, onion wedges, 3 cloves garlic, 1 carrot roughly chopped, bay leaves & a sprig of thyme, some lemon wedges, a couple of sticks of celery roughly chopped & some pink peppercorns (you can use black if you like). Your Le Creuset Dutch oven would be ideal if your chicken fitted in it. Mine didn't.
Cover the chicken with water. Cover the pot, & bring to the boil, turn off & leave for an hour without peeking. After an hour remove the chicken & set aside to cool, just until you can handle it. Add saffron strands to the stock pot & bring back to the boil. Remove the chicken meat from the bone & return the carcass to the pot. Simmer 3 hours to reduce & concentrate the flavour. When you're ready to serve boil a small quantity of egg pasta or noodles. Not a full serving - just a small handful per invalid. Steam seasonal vegetables. I used carrots, courgettes & broccoli - something colourful. You could probably poach these in the strained stock but I was concerned to retain the colour so I blanched & steamed. Strain the stock & reheat. In each soup dish put a handful of pasta, a handful of shredded chicken, a selection of the vegetables and pour over a couple of ladlefuls of the broth. This was everything it promised to be.
Use the left over chicken in a salad, risotto, pilaf, on sandwiches. I know a boy who would love a chicken sandwich with cranberry sauce or blueberry chutney. And freeze the left over broth for stock.
This got me thinking about the roast chicken and what a perfect meal that can be. Have a look at Jamie Oliver's perfect roast chicken. Carefully separate the skin from the meat so that you can put your hand under the skin and push in a handful of chopped herbs. Drizzle a little oil in. This will take your roast chicken to new heights. With our roast chicken we had carrots from the garden with beans & a selection of roast veg.
Then you have at least one more meal. This time I made a chicken pie (May 2009). Phoebe learned to make pastry & I think she'll be good at it as she has cool hands. And of course another batch of stock.
I have to tell you about our quince conserve. Remember those poached quinces last month. I kept some of the left over poaching liquor in the fridge and I discovered it has set so I transferred it to a jar and we're eating it on our toast. I have some quinces & am going to have a go at bonafide Quince Jelly this weekend so I'll let you know how I get on.
Last weekend we had people to dinner & Peter made herb bread sticks from a recipe in the latest Dish magazine. In the picture there was a red drink that reminded me of Campari soda in the seventies. So we served our bread sticks with Campari soda with a twist of lime & a sprig of mint.
As well as the carrots, which have been stunning (we have 3 colours - orange, white and a purple outer with orange inner), we've had a good rhubarb crop this summer. Peter has been eating stewed rhubarb every day for his breakfast. The tomatoes are making progress but it has been a disappointing year and I foresee an autumn batch of green tomato chutney coming up.

Risotto

Now that you have all that stock in the freezer you're ready to tackle risotto or any other one pot rice dish. Most cultures that eat rice seem to have one. Think pilau or pilaf (India, Middle East, Africa), paella (Spain), nasi goreng (Indonesia), and risotto from Italy.

This is a classic Sicilian risotto that gives you a good feel for how it works. Be brave about quantities of oil and wine. You'll get a really creamy risotto. You must use a good risotto rice - Arborio, Vialone Nano, or Carnaroli. Do NOT wash the rice and heat your stock first.

Start by softening your vegetable from the allium family - I usually use a leek but really whatever you have in the cupboard is good - onion, shallots.

If you are making a risotto with fish consider including half a finely chopped fennel bulb at this stage. stick of celery finely chopped adds good flavour. Once the onions are softened add the rice and cook for a minute or so to coat with the oil. Then add the wine (or if you are making risotto with fish then you could use Pernod).

Cook down the wine until evaporated and then start adding your hot stock, a ladle at a time. You want the liquid to be absorbed before adding the next ladleful. The point of the stirring is to release the starch which is what makes the risotto creamy so make sure you keep stirring. Use about 2 1/2 times liquid to rice. The trick is to add it slowly and stir to incorporate. Think of it as therapeutic. Draw up a stool to the stove. Ladle and stir, don't let anyone distract you. It will take about 18 minutes. Listen to your favourite music and pour yourself a glass of wine - you already have a bottle open.
If the meat or veg you are adding needs cooking, add it with the rice, if it is already coooked or just needs very light cooking, add it at the end. Once you feel your risotto is cooked, cover and let stand 2-3 minutes. Then stir through parmesan and a knob of butter. I sometimes like to add parsley because I like the colour. Let the diners add additional parmesan at the table to taste.

Start with something really simple like adding chopped ham & frozen peas. Or shredded chicken and mushrooms (you've just roasted a chicken to make the stock). Follow the basic rules then get the feel of how you like your risotto and then it will become your ultimate comfort food. This is home food not fancy restaurant fare.

As an aside this week made spelt rolls from Hugh's River Cottage autumn programme. I halved the flour & water and used 1 instant yeast sachet making eight rolls. These rolls smelled so good I was standing dribbling by the oven and the minute they came out I ripped into them risking blistered fingers. You need to discover them for yourself. I will be experimenting with this flour over the next few weeks.

Talking Stock

We started the week with the dinner that always follows roast chicken - chicken pie which could be called "Roast Chicken Leftover Pie". Basically you soften some onion (any type of onion or leek) in butter, add flour then instead of milk add some of the stock you made with your chicken carcass. Once it's thickened a little mix in your shredded leftover chicken with your finely chopped leftover veg and gravy if you have any. I usually add 1/2 a cup of frozen peas and/or sweetcorn and some finely sliced white button mushrooms. If it is too dry add some cream or more stock or even a little boiling water. Season to taste. Tip into a casserole dish and top with pastry. Bake at 175 C for about 1/2 an hour until the pastry top is golden.

This seems a good time to talk stock. You need to have a range of good stocks in your freezer. Always make chicken stock when you roast a chicken, you can get fish bones from your fishmonger and shin bones from your butcher. The basics are the same : onion, carrot, celery, leek and the herbs, thyme & bayleaf with peppercorns and even chilli flakes if you like, then for fish add fennel & mushroom and to the others you can add dried mushroom but be careful because they have a strong flavour. For a standard chicken carcass or 1kg beef or fish bones use 2-2 1/2 litres water. Bring to the boil & simmer for 2-3 hours. Simmer your fishbones or heads first for 20 mins & strain before adding veg. Roast the beef bones in a hot oven for 45 mins with some tomato puree or a squeeze of paste & water. Once cooked strain into a large bowl and when cooled skim off any fat before storing in fridge or freezer. You usually want to use 2-3 cups so I freeze in Glad 740 ml containers with a couple of smaller 280 ml batches for miscellaneous use. If you remember get it out the night before and defrost in the fridge. This saves power because it helps to keep the fridge cool and gives it a bit of a day off.

This week we used 250 ml chicken stock (chicken pie), 750 ml chicken stock (pilaf), 750 ml vegetable stock (minestrone), 1 l beef stock (French onion soup).

Can't let the week go by without mentioning figs. Two simple things to do with figs. One a starter & one a pudding.

The starter we first had at Capitol, (turn your speakers on...) one of our favourite restaurants in Wellington. Then Martin Bosley included a recipe in his Listener column this week. Cut the figs - two per person is ample - down through the stalk close to the bottom so that they open out in 4 quarters (as Nigella says "like young birds squawking to be fed worms by their Mummy"). Stuff them with your favourite blue cheese. We discovered a lovely French version of Gorgonzola, called St Agur, at Truffle - a lovely specialty food outlet tucked away at the back of Cuba St. Wrap each fig in a slice of prosciutto and bake in a very hot (250C) preheated oven for around 5 minutes. The combination of slightly sweet fruit, salty cheese and crispy ham is indescribable.

For afters, you can't go past Nigella's Figs for 1001 Nights. You will need vanilla sugar - keep a container of sugar with a vanila pod in it - and rosewater and orange flower water - don't worry about buying a whole bottle of these as we have more recipes using them to come. Nigella uses mascarpone but we have used creme fraiche.

Starters

This blog is a result of "conversations with my sister" (sounds like a good title for a memoir). I like to cook for family and friends and you often ask me for the recipe. Here it is. Please post questions and thoughts. And share your ideas & recipes.

So this week in the kitchen. We bought fish off the boat at the market on Sunday (more about this later) so we had pan fried warehou on Monday with Anastasia potatoes and beans. Phoebe cooked on Tuesday & Wednesday because it is school holidays. Thursday we had a pumpkin & chicken pilau. Making the most of the new season's pumpkins. Friday we made hamburgers (what we call "home made hamburgers" to distinguish from Wisconsin). Saturday we had roast chicken because we needed to replenish our chicken stock stocks. And of course we had roast pumpkin as well as potatoes, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, & carrots from the garden.
This morning up at sparrowhop (well there were sparrows hopping in our garden) and to the market. Bought some beautiful butterfish from the boat on Chaffers Wharf. Had intended to plant the bulbs (and Phoebe is very keen to get the bulbs out of the fridge) but weather prevailed so spent a fruitful afternoon in the kitchen.
For lunch made Digby's old faithful Kumara & Celery Soup (Digby Law A Soup Cookbook) in order to use some of the celery not used in the stock. Not really a fan of celery but love the soup.

Peter stewed some delectably pink rhubarb for his breakfasts & Phoebe baked Nigella's Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies while I made the bread. Had been meaning to try a beetroot pesto for ages so did that while Peter pickled the pickling onions we'd bought at the market.

Phoebe was out at a party. We started with the pesto spread on minitoasts followed by more pesto on the butterfish, resting on a bed of courgette on a red capsicum sauce -a variation on Annabel Langbein's Flash Roasted Fish from the Best of Annabel Langbein.