Easy Peasy Steamed Chicken (and Dessert)

Here's an easy one for you all and the beauty is you don't even need to follow my herby butter one, use whatever you want, chilli, garlic, herbs, the result will be the same, delicious simple and easy.

So, for mine today I took some fresh tarragon and lemon thyme and some soft butter.  Combine the herbs and the butter to make a patty and then divide to give you a patty to place into each breast.

Cut a good sized slit in the top of a good sized breast of chicken, season with salt and fresh ground black pepper, wrap in greaseproof paper and place into a steamer.

I was being lazy here now and used a bag of Uncle Ben's basmati rice, but you can use your own preference.  I made up a pint and a half of stock, chicken or vegetable, whatever you prefer.  You can if you prefer and if you are using chilli for instance, replace the pint of stock with a tin of coconut milk and say a 1/4 pint of stock the rice comes out deliciously creamy (but not today).



Place the rice in the bottom of the pan add 1 pint of warm stock 1/2 pint in reserve, in case you need it.

Place the steamer on top of the pan, (always a good idea to check that you have a pan that the steamer will fit snugly onto first) and then let the stock infuse the rice and steam the chicken for around 25 minutes.

While that's going on take a carrot, cucumber and spring onions and cut and shred into strips and set aside.  Prepare a tablespoon or two of rice or wine vinegar for the veg and set aside.





Turn off the heat and remove pan and steamer, the rice should now be fluffy and bulging with all that juice.  Unwrap the chicken (test to make sure fully cooked through and be careful to keep the melted juice for pouring over the chicken when plated.







Place the rice on a plate, slice the chicken, the herby mix should still be in the slit but the butter will have gone all through the chicken, and place on the rice.

Pour the rice or wine vinegar over the vegetables and place on the plate.......

 And the washing up is easy for this one too........



 And Now for Dessert.........

Fresh Fruit Puff Pastry Tartlets with Creme Fraiche

 Roll out a sheet of puff pastry

Cut two good sized circles out and place on a floured baking tray.  Draw a circle about a 1/4 inch in from the edge all the way around the pastry circles (you can just see it on the left hand circle), and prick the whole of the pastry inside the circle with a fork.

Add fruit of choice to the pastry inside the ring and sprinkle with sugar or sweetener to taste, of course you can choose not to do that if you want......  and brush the outer ring with milk.  The outer ring will rise, the centre with the filling should remain flat and baked under the fruit, well that's the theory anyway.....

Place the tartlets into a pre heated oven, 190 degrees, 170 if using a fan and who knows if your oven has other forms of measurements, you'll figure it out  and bake for around twenty minutes  and hopefully you will get something like this 

Add a dollop of your preferred scrumptiousness, ice cream, cream, or in this case Creme Fraiche and tuck in

Enjoy

Atlantic Cod in Butter and Lemon

A quick fish recipe for you, for two:

1 Large Cod Fillet

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2  a Red Chilli de-seeded and thinly sliced

1/2 a Yellow Pepper, thinly sliced

50 grams unsalted butter

Juice of half a lemon

Salt and Pepper

Add the butter, lemon juice, chilli and pepper to a good sized pan.  Soften the chilli and pepper.

Cut the lemon after squeezing, into quarters or slices and add to the pan

Cut the cod fillet in two and add to the pan and spoon some of the liquor over the fish cover and steam for 10 minutes occasionally spooning the liquor over the fish. Season with salt and ground white pepper.

Serve with vegetables of choice and for us it was Asparagus, green beans and crushed new potatoes with spring onion.

Enjoy

Leak and Potato Soup

This is one of my favourites and like most soups it is simple and easy to make!

What you will need:

4 decent size Leaks
1 small Red Onion (optional)
2 cloves Garlic (optional)
4 or five large potatoes
50 - 75 grams butter
Tablespoon (or two) of extra virgin olive oil

Herbs
Stock

60 - 90 fluid ozs water  (3 to 4 1/2 pints)
A Large pan

 Peel and slice the red onion and the garlic cloves
 Peel, and cut the potatoes into decent size chunks, wash and rinse off excess starch











Slice the leaks lengthways and then slice across,
 wash, clean and drain.













Place the butter in the pan on a low temperature, I cook on gas on the hob so this is fairly easy to control , and melt down the butter.  I like to add a table spoon or two of extra virgin olive oil at this stage too.

Place the red onion and garlic in the pan and sweat down for about 3 to 4 minutes, while you are doing this Leaks out of the water and should be draining.

Add the leaks to the onion and garlic stir well trying to coat all of the leaks with the melted butter and olive oil, make sure you get all the leaks off the side of the pan (they will just burn and dry out there on their own).  Once you have got the leaks coated in melted butter, on a really low heat, place the lid on the pan and allow the leaks to soften.





This, depending on the type of pan you are using,



and the convection into the pan can take  about 10 minutes, but do keep an eye on it if this is your first time.  Don't want them to dry out and shrivel up.  Your leaks should look like this.






A word about herbs and stock here.  I used to make my own stocks and when I have them I



always use fresh herbs, BUT, I have found the wonder of Knorr Stockpots, they are great, well at least I like them and they make a useful and hand addition to the store cupboard for emergencies!


So, once the leaks, onion and garlic have sweated down I add one herb infusion pot and for 60 - 90 fluid ozs water  (3 to 4 1/2 pints) two vegetable stock pots. Melt these down into the leaks and then add the water to the pan.


Once the water has been added, you can now add your potatoes.  I don't turn the heat up at this



stage, leave it where it is, place the lid on the pan and allow to gently simmer to cook the potatoes through.  I should have mentioned that you need a good firm potato but here and you need to be careful that you don't over cook as you want some decent sized bits in there when you serve it up.

This usually takes about twenty to thirty minutes and you are ready to go. (Just test the potatoes with a skewer)

If you like a smooth soup you can scoop out a bunch of leaks and potatoes and then use a kitchen blender in the pot to blend the remaining soup down, you can also add a touch of cream at that stage if you wish, adding the removed leaks and potato back into the mixture, once nice and smooth.  You should note though that if you do add cream to the pot you need to use the whole pot fairly quickly (not that it lasts long even if I am making it just for the two of us) but without the cream it will last a few days longer.  I usually put some in a Tupperware dish and take it to work for lunch over the course of a couple of days.

We like to serve it up immediately with a sprinkle of parsley and hot bread with melted butter or again drizzled with Extra Virgin Olive Oil on it straight out of the oven. (well, butter or oil goes on the bread after it comes out of the oven, naturally!)

Total Prep time:

Peeling, chopping and washing  15 mins

Sweating down in the pan: about 10 - 15 Mins

Cooking time: 20 - 30  mins



Enjoy