Chicken Tartiflette

I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers the ''Chicken Tonight'' ads. Large groups of people dancing around kitchens carrying jars singing about the joys of having ''chicken tonight''. Out of curiosity my mother bought a jar. I'm not quite sure what the flavour was meant to be. It was a dark cream colour with flecks of what I suspect was meant to be vegetables. Not a good start. It was added to pan fried chicken and served to us. I'm pretty sure there was a collective intake of breath as we contemplated eating it. It did not look appetising. Far from it. A cross between wall paper paste and melted soap.You can imagine what it tasted like. My memory is an overwhelming taste of garlic powder and MSG. I'm sure it was some kind of bechamel sauce...but it really did besmirch such an accolade. And it put me off chicken in white sauces for a long time.  I felt it was false advertising, the stuff they showed on the tv looked so good..what my mother gave me (and she is a fantastic cook) could have made me cry. 

I've had my eye on a recipe for a while, waiting for the right time to use it. There are just recipes that need an opening.  The planets have to align. The mood has to be on you. And mainly you need enough people to eat it. 
well, that time was last Friday night. It had been a lovely crisp autumnal day, the ivy getting more russet, the air more icy and the lure of the turf fire irresistible. (sometimes I do feel I'd be more at home in Emily Bronte's England that 21st century Ireland.) . I didn't want to spend hours cooking for the family, much rather crack open a bottle of red and chill on the couch, catching up with everyone's weekly news. Well, with the Bordeaux warming breathing nicely near the fire, the candles lit and the fire crackly I decided a one pan, creamy chicken dish was what the doctor ordered. This dish is yummy. It's based on a French dish called tartiflette (popular at aprés ski) It's got everything that is good and can, if eaten too often lead to heart problems (cream, butter, cheese) but for a Friday night family dinner it is the perfect dish (would also work nicely as a Monday dinner, using leftover chicken from a Sunday roast). Also, even thought it is full of high fat ingredients, a little goes a long way. The dish will serve 6 people easily. 

you will need:
700g potatoes
300g baby spinach
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves 
200g smoked bacon lardons
2 tbsp plain flour
butter for greasing
200ml double cream
200ml chicken stock
3 large chicken fillets (poached for 15 minutes in chicken stock ) shredded
250g Reblochon cheese, rind removed

1. Make up some stock and poach the fillets in it for 15 minutes. Leave to cool slightly, then shred.

2. Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Slice the potatoes  3mm thick and simmer in salted water for 5 minutes until just tender. Drain.

3. Put the spinach in a colander, pour over freshly boiled water from a kettle to wilt, then refresh under cold running water and squeeze dry.

4. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and soften the onions, for about 10 minutes. Stir through the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and put into a bowl.

5. Add the lardons to the pan and fry until starting to crisp. Add to the onion, then stir through the flour.

6. Lightly grease a large ovenproof dish with butter. Mix the cream with the stock (you can use the same stuff you used to poach the chicken) and season.

7. Put the chicken, onions and bacon and spinach and half of the cheese into the dish. Mix. Pour over the cream sauce. Layer the potatoes on top. Season with salt. 

8. Bake for 30 minutes then scatter over the remaining cheese and return to the oven for 15 minutes until 
golden and piping hot. 

Rain drops on roses and whiskers on kittens (no cats have been harmed in the making of this recipe)

Has anyone every watched The Sound of Music in its entirety  I don't really know what happens after the scene where the kids sing goodnight on the staircase. Even when I was little I thought it was pretty cringy. But what is lovely about the movie is the scenery of Austria. Salzberg looks like a beautiful place and I do plan on eventually getting around to visiting there. But the movie confused me in many respects. Mainly, why did the family sound both English and America, the only people with accents were the Nazis. And also..I had no ideal what schnitzel was. And if it should have been served with noodles. And could it really compare to the beauty of bright copper kettles. 

After some research (ok I googled it) schnitzel in German speaking countries means escalopes and is basically battered and breaded cuts of meat ranging from the original veal to chicken and pork. Many countries have versions of schnitzel, such as the Italian Parmigania and apanados in Colombia. Now I liked the sound of this. But I defo wouldn't serve it with noodles, carb overload. 

But breaded chicken (or veal if you can get it- the downside of living in the back of beyond) is yummy. Not the crap that comes in frozen boxes in the supermarket. Those breadcrumbs are suspiciously radioactive orange and the chicken is so overcooked and stringy that it could easily be mistaken for rubber bands if it was pulled apart. Plus, when a captain who sells similar fish products diversifies from ocean to land one has to wonder what qualifications he has. Especially as I would have similar distaste for his fishy products. Moving away from the soap box. (hey, at least I'm not singing my grievances to you..be thankful for small blessings)

This recipe serves four but can be adapted for larger or smaller numbers

You will need:

4 chicken fillets

150g fresh breadcrumbs

75g feta

2tbsp fresh thyme leaves

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp paprika

1 large free range egg

4tbsp olive oil

1. Flatten the chicken between 2 sheets of cling film using a rolling pin or meat hammer

2. Mix the breadcrumbs, crumbled feta, thyme, chili and paprika in a bowl.  Beat the large egg in a bowl.

3. dip each chicken in the egg, turning to coat, then coat in the breadcrumbs and transfer to a plate.

4. chill the schnitzels until you're ready to eat, then heat the oil in a frying pan and fry them 1 or 2 at a time for 4-5 minutes each side. 

5. cut into each schnitzel to make sure they're cooked through (nothing nastier or more dangerous than undercooked chicken).

6. Serve with a salad and lemon wedges to squeeze over. 

(I know - I'm a hypocrite, potato wedges are carbs BUT this was cooked for my dad who could not countenance dinner without some form of potato)

Summery wintery tomato bake

I love going shopping. Grocery shopping to be precise. I know, it's weird. I hear people complaining about having to do their weekly shops, groaning at the thought of finding a parking spot, navigating isles packed with screaming children and dealing with either sullen checkout assistants or smugly slow and stupid self-service machines. But I don't. I'd gladly spend a day or more wandering the isles of shops, big or small, global multinational or small boutique independent routing out new, interesting or hard to get ingredients. Or things that can only possibly be used for one recipe ever but can't be passed up. 

I will admit that when I go to France on holidays, I do get excited by seeing the large Intermarche, E.LeClerc or SuperU's on the edge's of town. Not to mention the tiny shops in every hamlet or town selling local specialities and fresh produce. Seriously..if a guy took me on a first date to a food shop I'd be pretty damn happy. 

But there are times when I go shopping and robotically buy the same things week in week out. The safe foods that are needed in the house in case my brain stops functioning and can't come up with a decent food combination. Stuff like yoghurt. And Ryvita. And pesto. (I wouldn't recommend that particular combination) ( oh and there is nothing wrong with shop bought pesto, it saves many a mundane meal)

In this robot shopping mode I tend to always put a few chicken fillets. I'm not a huge meat eater (mind out of the gutter there..) but chicken serves me well. Low fat and high in protein, easy to cook and versitile, there is literally very little you can't do with chicken. Apart from drink it (Don't ask). So I came home on Friday evening with enough chicken to feed a football team..the weekend was going to be a chicken fest. 

I've been going through a small Italian phase of late..it could have something to do with seeing Gino D'Acampo on TV last weekend and swooning over both him and the sheer gorgeousness of Rome. Italian food is very very simple, but what you need is fresh, great ingredients. This can be hard in Ireland...a lot of the ''Italian'' ingredients such as tomatoes and basil aren't at peak when sold in shops. The reality is these things thrive on sunshine, and we all know that is pretty rare in Ireland. If you're lucky and grow your own tomatoes,

then in a year like we've had, tomatoes are ripe and raring to go for Italian dishes. If not, you can use tinned versions (but do spend the extra money on a good brand, it's worth it).

This dish merges the best of summery Italian produce with the ease of winter comfort food. What could be better for weekend food? (Plus  this dish easily serves 4 and comes out at less than 400cals per serving - so pretty freaking healthy no?)

You will need:

3 Chicken fillets (or thighs or drumsticks, your choice!)

2 tbsp flour seasoned with 1 tsp chilli flakes, 1tsp paprika, 1tsp oregno, 1tsp basil, salt and pepper

2 onions, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

200g lardons (or chopped streaky rashers)

3 sprigs of rosmary, leafs pulled off and finely chopped

250ml cider

25 ml sherry vinegar

2 tsp fennel seeds

400g chopped tomatoes (you can use tinned)

400g cherry tomatoes

1. Preheat the oven to gas 5/190C. Dust the chicken in the flour.

 Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large pan or wok over a medium heat.  Brown the fillets one by own for 3/4 each side. Set aside in a roasting tin or casserole dish.

2. heat the remaining oil in the pan , add the pancetta and cook for 2 minutes until beginning to crisp then add the fennel seeds, onions and half the rosemary. cook for 5 mins until the onions soften. add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring for 4 minutes until golden. 

3. add the wine and vinegar, then bubble for 4 minutes until reduced by half.

4. add the tomatoes, and remaining rosemary, season and bring to the boil,. reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until the sauce has thicken. 

5. pour the sauce over the chicken, cover with foil and bake for 30 -40 minutes in the oven until cooked. 

6. Serve with mashed potato (no, not very Italian), Polenta or crusty ciabatta bread. 

Po-tay-to -v- Po-tat-o ..who cares? they is yummy.

I once said here that I could happily live on bread for the rest of my life. That was a bit of an absolute statement and should be qualified by saying, that along with the bread would have to be real Irish butter and all the French cheeses. ALL OF THEM. 
I have a bit of a thing for carbs really. Which doesn't sit well with weight loss or general fitness. I could seriously eat toast till I started to turn into crumbs and potatoes..oh man..I love potatoes. 
There is one upside to living in the country and coming from a self sufficient farming family, and that is, that since forever, we've grown our own vegetables. And, being Irish, that of course includes potatoes. My fathers particular favourites are Kerrs Pink, and when they grown well there is nothing more glorious. Steamed in their skins and decorated with blobs of smooth, creamy butter, it's the Kerrygold ad brought to life. But no one will be brining the horses to France..Someone probably has them turned into burgers already.

Apart from the unadulterated beauty of the natural simple potato, one of my favourite comfort foods (and pre-hangover, post club, attempts at after soakage) is curry cheese chips. 

Back in the day, at lunch on a Friday afternoon, me and my friends would head off down the avenue from our school (yes, it had an avenue, it was the former country residence of Lord Lucan - him of nanny killing fame) to the near video/shop shop to get our serving of curry cheese. Thats the school there..

 Gavin's shop was the bomb. Their chips will long and squigy..which is what you need for curry cheese chips out of a Styrofoam box. They give a good big serving, steaming hot, for, if my memory serves me right 3.50..it was sheer and utter gluttony. Perfect Friday food when you had to return to a draughty classroom for Irish and double history.  Eating them on the mall of a Friday, watching the lads play football during the summer or trying not to get pneumonia on a winters day is one of the most vivid memories I have of secondary school. I can still taste the packet curry..

Anyway, sometimes it's nice to revisit these stodge feasts. Hell, who doesn't like potatoes drenched in sauce and cheese?? (if you don't stop reading and get off my blog- we won't get along).

Last I week I wrote about the meatballs I made for a friends party, this is the potato recipe that went along with it. Ideally, you would eat these in fatman pants, under a blanket, on a couch, in front of a fire watching some trashy Bruce Willis movie (you may as well go all cheesy)

It's a simple recipe but includes all that is good about food. Potatoes. Spice. Cheese (eek cheese!), Ranch and BACON. and unless you've never chopped a potato, you can't go wrong!

You will need:
2 tbsp corn flour
2 tsp hot chilli powder
1tsp chilli flakes
1tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cumin
pinch of salt
1 lb of potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp worchestshire sauce
1 tbsp grill seasoning ( I used an American Steakhouse mix I got in Aldi)
grated cheese - to your liking
6 rashers cooked and chopped up

1. Mix together all the spices, corn flour and one table spoon of oil.
2. Chop the potatoes in wedges
3. In a large bowl, toss the potatoes in the spice mix

4. Line a baking tray with grease proof paper
5. Put the wedges on the tray and drizzle with the remaning oil
6. Preheat an oven to gas 7 and cook for 40 mins to an hour. 
7. Cook off the bacon and chop up.
8. Remove the potoates from the oven, add the bacon and cheese and return to the oven till the cheese has melted as is bubbling.

(the above pic is borrowed from google as I forgot to take a pic of the finished product - but you get the idea :) )

Home-made ranch dressing:
250 mls sour cream (or creme fraiche)
125ml buttermilk
I garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tbsp worchestshire sauce
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt
handleful chopped parsely leafs
1tsp feshly chopped chives.

Mix everything together, season and chill before serving with the spicy, cheesy potatoes. 

Snowflake Marshmallows :)

So I was feeling pretty freaking happy today. No, not working, but up at the crack of dawn and finished the final corrections to my Masters dissertation. By 10 o clock. Now what to do? Treadmill? yip..so that got me to 11. This not working craic leaves a lot of time to fill....So, I do what I usually do when I have time to spare and my muscles won't support more exercise. I opened up Pintrest. God, I LOVE pintrest..you can plan your perfect life from work, to wedding to babies in one neat little website. Seriously..if people were to follow me on it...well lets just say it'd scare away most of the single male population. Maybe I'm on to something there? Only the good ones would stick around? Anyway..one of my boards on there is for holiday foods and crafts. (I know, I know..how very American of me..but I didn't want to name it St.Patricks day/Easter/Bonefire night/Halloween/Christmas foods and crafts..) I love my holiday board, it has so much stuff that, in reality, I'll never get around to making, but once I've pinned it, I feel I've achieved something. So its all good.

Anyway, a few days past a friend posted a Christmas countdown on my fb page. Its no small understatement to say I ADORE Christmas. Its just so damn magical. All of it. And not it is not the holidays. It's Christmas. End of. If anyone, ANYONE, ever wishes me Happy Holidays I won't be held responsible for my actions. And I REALLY don't care how un-PC it is to say so. The  Christmas countdown put me in the mood for some Christmas pinning. So off I went. And I found the pin of all pins. 

I should say that last Christmas, instead of buying the usual bottle of wine/bath set/picture frame/ ''artistic'' ornament for my extended family my mother suggested we could make hampers. I liked the sound of this. When I was little, my parents both used to recieve hampers from their respective employers. They were great hampers, and lots of fun to open and rummage through. Plus, the baskets were massive and useful to play make-believe with (I was young ok). Anyways, as the years passed, and the companies became richer and were sold on to bigger corporations, the hampers became decidedly stinger . Until the stopped altogether. I missed them. So when I got the opportunity to make some myself I was delighted! It was time consuming but I think they went down well. Well, the home-made Baileys did anyways ;). 

In the hamper I included a jar of salted caramel hot chocolate powder.It was yummy. I kept some over for myself and made it over the Christmas. With some baileys whipped cream and a few marshmallows on top, it was better than anything Starbucks could have produced (that's a completely unfounded proclamation, as I have never, in fact, eaten or drank in Starbucks). 

Well while looking through the Christmas pins this time around, I found something that would be soooo awesome with the hot chocolate this time around. Marshmallows. Snowflake shaped marshmallows. Unfortunately, the link didn't lead to a very useful site, which told me to ''roll out the marshmallows and cut out snowflake shapes''. Well, that's all very well and good when you can buy rolled up marshmallows (hello???) But I needed to make them first!

Take one did not go well. It was a recipe from the BBC website and for whatever reason didn't set well. Personally I think there wasn't enough gelatine in the recipe.

Take two, I vaguely remembered a copy of Delicious Magazine having marshmallows on the cover YEARS ago. I wasn't sure if I'd saved the recipe, but thankfully it was at the back of my folder. Delicious Magazine is 10 years old this month, and I have to say there are the best magazine out there. Their recipes have NEVER let me down. Ever. You could be someone that burns toast, and if you follow their instructions, you'll have no bother! So I was pretty sure this would work for me 

NOTE: these marshmallows are plain white vanilla flavoured but you can add different flavours as you go. It's usually best to add fruit puree to make fruit flavoured ones. If you want to use alcohol to flavour your marshmallows add it in step five.



You will need:
120 ml liquid (cool)
23g powdered gelatine(2 sackets of Dr.Oetker powder)
440g caster sugar
160ml golder syrup
vegetable oil for greasing
4-5 tbsp cornflower and the same of icing sugar

1. pour the liquid into the bowl of a food mixer and sprinkle over the gelatine. Set aside to allow the gelatine to absorb the liquid.

2.meanwhile, put the caster sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan with enough water to cover. Stir thoroughly and brush down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush .

3. cook over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then turn up the heat to bring it to the boil. If you have a sugar thermometer, wait for it reach 130C. If you don't (like me) boil for 8 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool for 1 min. 

4. whisk the gelatine/liquid mixture (with a hand whisk) initial. Then use the actual stand mixer. add the syrup, slowly. Don't allow it to touch the whisk directly.The mixture should grown in volume (like a meringue)

5. Once all the syrup is added continue to whisk for 20 minutes. (add alcohol flavours now)

6. Line a baking tin with cling film and grease well. spoon the mixture into the tin with a greased spatula then cover with greased cling film and leave to set for 2 hours. 

7. once the marshmallows has set, the cling film and cut into snowflakes with an oiled cutter. if you don't have one you can use any shaped cookie cutter or alternatively use a greased knife to cut into cubes. it will be VERY sticky.

8. roll in the cornflour/icing sugar mix
9 They will keep in an airtight container for two weeks.