Recipe: Chicken on the bone - Pomodoro

Nearly forgot this, Made a pot of leek and potato soup at the weekend that went down well with Charlie and Holly who made home made cheese croutons to go with it.

Also made a quick Chicken Pomodoro with thigh and leg pieces, using chicken with the bone still in really does intensify the flavour, so this is what you'll need, and this was for three adults and two ravenous kids who really like their chicken.

3 or 4 (each) thigh and leg pieces
1 large or two small onions
Mushrooms optional
2 or 3 mixed peppers
handful of cherry or other small tomatoes
Lemon zest
Dried Bay leave
Salt
Thyme
Olive oil
Ready pack of Pomodoro
1/4 to 1/2 cup of chicken stock

I started off adding a tablespoon or two to the pan and browning in batches and all over, the chicken pieces .











While cooking the chicken I add the lemon zest, thyme and bay leaves along with some Maldon salt to a grinder or you can cheat and buy Jamie Olivers' all in one grinder  and grind this in while browning the chicken.  Once browned, remove the chicken from the pan an set aside.





Peel and roughly chop your onions add to the pan and start to sweat down for about 5 minutes, adding a touch more olive oil if required.

Roughly deseed your peppers and slice longways and then in half, chunky but manageable. Add to pan once onions have started to turn soft. After about two minutes frying the peppers with the onions










and if  using mushrooms, again roughly chop and again keeping thick as you don't want these or the peppers to turn to mush, add to the pan and stir for a couple of minutes browning the mushrooms.

Now, it's time to return the chicken to the pan along with a carton of Pomodoro, and the handful of cherry tomatoes and if necessary a 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of chicken stock, (you won't always need the stock, so you need to decide for yourself).








Cover with lid and place in a pr-heated oven, about 160- 170 degrees and cook for thirty minutes to finish of the chicken.  After thirty minutes remove the lid and let the skin roast on top of the chicken.  Serve the dish up on the table with chunky bread and let folks dip in for meat, veg and ju... enjoy

Quick and easy Schnitzel

Haven't made this for a while and for some strange reason not many supermarkets actually sell schnitzel, still a hang over from veal I suspect, personally, never had a problem with it, but there you go....

So, here's what you will need;

For the schnitzels

2 decent sized pork chops
1 egg
3-4 tablespoons of plain flour
2 cups of breadcrumbs

For the sauce

1 large onion
1 courgette (zucchini)
6 large mushrooms sliced
1 green pepper
1 x500g packet of sieved tomatoes
1 tin of plum tomatoes
2-3 tablespoons of Worcester sauce
1 tablespoon of tomato puree
Chopped Basil




Lets do the sauce first

slice and dice the onion
slice and quarter the courgette
slice the onions (not to thin)
slice and dice the pepper


Heat some olive oil in a large pan and add the chopped vegetables and sweat down until soft, throw in any fresh tomatoes you may have that need to be used.








Add the tablespoon of tomato puree, tin of chopped tomatoes and the carton of sieved tomatoes, the Worcester sauce and some of the chopped Basil, stir well , cover and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes.










Now for the Schnitzels

Take the chops, one at a time of course, and place on a decent board on a solid worktop.  Take a meat tenderiser and beat the bejesus out of them to thin them down and double in size.











dust the schnitzels in the plain flour

dip the schnitzels into the beaten egg
dip the schnitzels in the breadcrumbs

















Add some oil to a pan and heat, add the schnitzels to the pan and gently fry on both sides until golden brown about 4 or 5 minutes on either side.  It shouldn't take long if the schnitzels are thin enough.








Once cooked, served up with the sauce and sprinkle some basil on top of the sauce ......

enjoy.....

Tip: for larger photographs, click on the photo

Pork Chops, Onion, Peppers and Tomatoes

Looked in the fridge tonight, didn't know what I fancied!

Took four pork chops browned off in some sunflower oil, chopped up a green and yellow pepper and a few chestnut mushrooms and a tore a bunch of basil leaves.












Remove the chops once brown

Add the veg to the pan and sweat down

Put the chops back in with the veg and cover with a 400 gram tin of chopped tomatoes and add the basil

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes

Serve and enjoy.

Sliced Chicken with Courgette Mushroom and Leaks

This is a favourite of Ishbel and me and the kids and grand kids and takes about 30 mins.  So anyone who says it takes to long to cook a proper meal or who say they cannot cook, needs to give this a try, simplicity with taste.  It contains 4 of your '5 a day' vegetables and with no effort.


This recipe is for two but as you will see can easily be added to for a larger group feeding.


What you need:
Mashed potatoes:


Take about 4 or 5 large potatoes peel and cut into quarters.  Rinse through a couple of times to get rid of excess starch.


Place on hob, cook, drain and mash, takes about 30 mins.  






Vegetables:
As soon as the potatoes are on the hob prepare your Veg:


1 Leak thinly sliced 
6 decent sized mushrooms thinly sliced 
1 large Courgette (Zucchini) sliced into circles and then quartered
cup full of chopped parsley 


Add all of the above to a pan with a large knob of unsalted butter 






and sweat down, you can if you want add a glass of white wine (while sweating off the veg add a large glass of white wine to a pan and reduce to burn off the alcohol on a high heat.  Once the alcohol has been burnt off, add remaining wine to vegetables - this is entirely optional).


Add Salt and ground black pepper to taste


Once sweated down add 1/2 pint of good chicken stock 


Chicken:
Take two decent size boneless chick breasts and slice thinly across.


Add chicken to vegetables stir and put  lid on pan on a low heat cook until the potatoes are cooked and mashed.

Serve up the mash add the chicken and vegetables garnish with a couple of sprigs of parsley and enjoy!

Cooks Tip:  If you have a resting plate for your spoon use it, it avoids burning said item on the hob!!

Perfect Beef Casserole with Mushrooms

decided to make a Beef casserole today with Mushrooms.

Took One punnet of large chestnut mushrooms cut into quarters and added to hot pan with large dollop of butter.

Added: finely chopped red peppers, chilli, Garlic, Mint, Coriander and some dried tomatoes.

Crushed some Cumin and Carraway seeds cracked black pepper, sea salt   Paprika  and some Brown sugar and finished off with some dried rose petals

Sweated it all down in the butter and added a few dried rose petals

Set aside once cooked and mushrooms tender.


Beef:  Has been marinading in Worcester sauce red wine, cornflour and Paprika with salt and pepper and any dried herbs that take your fancy.

Nice hot pan and some oil: Brown of the meat in batches, not to much in the pan at one time and don't worry about the pan sticking, it tends to do this when you are browning off meat with cornflour, reduce the heat if need be.

Remove each batch of meat once browned.

Once all the meat is browned , pour in half a bottle of nice red wine and begin  to de-glaze the bottom of the pan and get all those bits of it but leave them in.  Add the meat and the mushrooms back to the pan and bring to a quick boil on the hob to burn of the alcohol.  Turn off the heat Boil the kettle and top up the casserole with boiling water. Add a couple of bay leaves.

Place in oven at 50 to 100 degrees and slow cook for a couple of hours and I guarantee you will have the tenderest casserole EVER

Sorry that there are no measurements, never use them I just add what I think will go well together and taste as I go along, usually works for me......

The whole thing took about 35 mins to prepare, cook on the hob until ready to go into the oven

Beef and Mushroom Casserole