Slow-Cooked Irish Stout Chicken

Looking into my refrigerator and staring at all that I have left that needs to be cleared before I travel in less than a week’s time, I decided to make a chicken dish with whatever else I can combine together and stout or beer chicken came to mind hence  …

You may use just chicken legs cut into thighs & drumsticks pieces … I used one whole chicken which I already have in my fridge … cut into 8 pieces … coat the chicken pieces with 3 Tbsp cup seasoned flour … I put the flour in a zip-lock bag and toss the chicken about in the bag to get it coated with the flour

I used some whole shallots, baby carrots, a sprig of fresh Rosemary and 3 cloves chopped garlic

I have a pack (250g) of these chestnut mushrooms so I used these … you may use white button mushrooms

You will need 1can stout + 500ml chicken stock … I used Guinness Stout 

Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a Dutch Oven or a casserole dish and brown the flour coated chicken in batches, lift browned chicken out of pot onto a plate and set aside

Add the shallots & garlic into the pot and cook until slightly brown & fragrant

Return browned chicken pieces into pot then pour in the can of Stout … bring to a simmer

Pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil and transfer, covered, to a 180ºC pre-heated oven and bake for 40 minutes – 1 hour or until chicken is tender and sauce thickens

You may serve up the chicken with mashed potatoes or pasta or even some garlic bread/crusty loaf if you prefer a more complete meal with something more filling… I merely served it up with some mangetouts + cherry tomatoes panfried with some chopped garlic & soy sauce …. it was so tasty

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

This is a very good recipe for a dinner party as it’s easy to carve and serve

Lovely layers … juicy and relish!

RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 pork tenderloin (450g)

3 – 4 rashers streaky bacon, rind removed

10 – 15g butter

for the stuffing:

25g butter

1 med onion, finely chopped

¼tsp  thyme

¼tap aFW

75g mushrooms, finely chopped

110g fresh breadcrumbs

4 Tbsp chopped parsley

grated rind of a lemon

2 tsp lemon juice

1 egg, beaten with 2 Tbsp cream or top of the milk

for the gravy:

1 Tsp brown flour

about 275ml dry white wine or cider

salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste

Methods:

• Preheat oven to 180ºC
• With a sharp knife, split pork tenderloin into half lengthwise and using a rolling pin, batter the 2 halves to flatten and widen them slightly and season with salt & freshly ground pepper
• To make the stuffing, melt the butter in a pan and fry the onion and herbs gently for about 10 mins then add the mushrooms and raise the heat slightly …cook for further 3 – 4 minutes or until juices from mushrooms have almost evaporated 
• Spoon contents of pan into a bowl and add in the rest of the ingredients of the stuffing, mix well and season
• Spoon stuffing onto one half of the tenderloin, pat down to firm it slightly then place the other half of the tenderloin on top
• Spread some butter and season with freshly ground pepper then cover the top of the tenderloin with the rinded bacon
• Tie with string at 5cm intervals to keep it neat and tidy then transfer it carefully to a buttered roasting tin
• Bake near the top of the oven for 1 hour then place on the serving dish and keep warm
• To make the gravy, stir the flour into the pan juices, add the wine and some seasoning and let it bubble until syrupy 
• To serve, carve the meat into thick slices and pour over the gravy and serve with vegetable of your choice
• A garnish of fried apple rings would go well with it

Oat-Crusted Chicken with Sage

When you crave for some Southern Fried Chicken or Kentucky Fried Chicken or even Popeye’s Fried Chicken … STOP!! Try some of these healthy & insanely lip-smacking Oat-Crusted Chicien with Sage instead

I used 4 whole legs chopped into 4 thighs & 4 drumsticks … this is enough to serve 4 pax … I marinated the chicken with some seasoned salt for a couple hours

You will need 3 Tbsp of chopped fresh sage

Preheat the oven to 200ºC … then mix 2 tsp English Mustard with 3 – 4 Tbsp of skimmed milk

You will need approximately 1 cup rolled oats

Mix the rolled oats with the 2 Tbsp chopped sage and seasoning of some salt + freshly ground pepper

Brush the chicken pieces with the milk & mustard mixture

Pressed the milk coated chicken into the oats

Arrange the oat-coated chicken pieces onto a baking sheet and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes or until the juices run clear (not pink) when pierced in the thickest part

Whilst the chicken is baking, prepare your cream dressing … mix together ½ cup low-fat fromage frays with 1 tsp wholegrain mustard, balance of chopped sage and salt & pepper seasoning

Serve up the oat-crusted chicken with a drizzle of the fromage frais dressing and some vegetable/salad of your choice and garnish with some fresh sage …a simple healthy & fibre enriched delish meal

Slow-Cooked Fiery Lamb

Anything that says “fiery” definitely must have these hot stuff as one of the main ingredients … I’ve added a lot of these as we love it to be truly fiery … if you don’t like it spicy hot, then just use like 2 red & 2 green chillies

For the marinade, you will need, seeded & sliced red/green chillies (use amount that you are comfortable with), 2 tsp paprika, 2 cinnamon sticks (snapped in halves), 2 tsp dried oregano, 3 garlic cloves (peeled & roughly chopped), 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 Tbsp olive oil and salt & freshly ground pepper

4 lamb shanks (one shank per person) … I’m, however, using boneless shin here …mix all the marinade ingredients together and pour over the meat

Rub the marinade mixture into the lamb so that it is well flavoured … you may cook the lamb straight away but if you have the time, leave it to marinate for at least an hour or better still, overnight

2 carrots … peeled & sliced … I sliced it chunky but you may sliced it into rounds if you prefer

1 onion … thickly sliced

2 bay leaves

You will need 1 x 750ml bottle of read wine + 500ml chicken stock

Pre-heat oven to 16ºC …. heat up a casserole dish/dutch oven on the hob and add a couple tablespoon of olive oil , brown the lamb in it for about 6 minutes until coloured on all sides … lift lamb out onto plate and set aside

Add into the pot the chillies and cinnamon sticks from the marinade and then add in the carrots, onion and bay leaves and brown for a minute or two

Pour in the wine to deglaze the pot, scraping up any bits from the bottom then bring to the boil and cook for 7 – 8 minutes to reduce the liquid by half

Return the lamb (and any retained juice) to the casserole, sitting it atop the carrots/onion mixture and pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil and transfer, uncovered, to the preheated oven …. cook for 3 hours until the meat is tender and sauce reduced (if you find the top of the lamb looks like it is drying out, just baste and occasionally turn them)

Serve up the cooked lamb with some of the cooking juice spooned over it … garnish with some torn mint leaves, if you so desire (I personally actually had forgotten all about the garnish although I did have the torn mint leaves stand-by!!) … it is hard to take attractive pictures of meat braised in red wine as the dish become so dark . ..this picture certainly don’t do this lip-smacking dish justice … it is truly heavenly delish … some mashed potatoes or crusty loaf to soak up the juices would be ideal but we had it with some garlic fried rice since I had some cooked rice leftover from night before  :-)

Sticky Toffee Pudding

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING … Very British? Yes! Simply decadent? Double Yes!! Pick-me-up comfort food? ABSOLUTELY I’ve made 1 big + 1 medium pudding but the recipe quantity I’m going to give you here is good for making a medium pudding which may be cut into 9 squares

Pitted dates … you will need 175g of it … chopped

Put the chopped dates + 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda into a medium saucepan and pour over 300ml boiling water – the mixture will foam up as you see in the pic here so don’t panic :-p … set the pan over medium heat and simmer for 1 minute, remove from heat and leave to cool for 15 minutes

Meanwhile, heat oven to 180ºC then beat 75g butter + 175g caster sugar until light and fluffy

Gradually add 2 beaten eggs into creamed mixture, beating well after each addition

Gently fold in 175g self-raising flour …

… followed by the date mixture & 1 tsp vanilla extract then pour mixture into an 18cm square cake tin (greased with butter) and bake for about 35 minutes until springy to the touch or when a skewer inserted into middle of sponge comes out clean

Whilst pudding is baking, make the toffee sauce … put 200g soft dark brown muscovado sugar + 100g butter + 150ml double cream + 1 vanilla pod in a medium saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted then bring to the boil and simmer for about 5 minutes, until thick & toffee coloured

for the toffee sauce, you will need 200g of this soft, dark muscovado sugar

Spoon a little of the toffee sauce over the cooked pudding to coat the surface and return it to the oven for a couple minutes more so that the top turns sticky …

… cut sponge into squares and serve up with hot toffee sauce poured over + either vanilla custard or vanilla ice-cream as I did so … sinful but who cares because it is heavenly yummmmeh

Corned Beef Stuffed French Toast Sandwich

I baked my own 5-seeded wholemeal loaf … blanched a handful of fresh spinach, drain and squeeze out all the water …crumble some feta cheese … layer one side of the bread with the corned beef, spinach and crumbled feta cheese

Whip 4 eggs + 1/4 cup milk, seasoned with some salt & pepper and dip the assembled sandwiches in the egg mixture and let it soak up the egg mixture ,.. this quantity of egg mixture is for 2 sandwiches to serve 2 pax

Heat a pan with some butter and fry sandwiches until golden brown

Just look at that … an awesome savoury stuffed french toast perfect as an all-in-one light lunch

Chicken Stroganoff

I broke my wee pinkie so thought I’d make a simple meal which involves least preparation hence I decided on Chicken Stroganoff but I’d tweaked it a bit …. instead of sliced chicken I’d used pieces of whole chicken breasts and added spicy paprika instead of sweet paprika and used Crème fraîche instead of sour cream  … I had contemplated herbed cream cheese … maybe next time ;-)

As always, gather all your ingredients together … salt & pepper, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock, sliced mushroom, sliced onion & crème fraîche

heat pan with oil and brown the chicken breast until golden … 1 piece chicken breast per person so as you can see, I used only 2 pieces as there’re only 2 of us dining (2 wee flllet is for our furbabies)

Transfer chicken breast to a plate, heat rest of oil in pan over medium heat and add garlic, onions & mushroom and cook until onion is soft … then add in the paprika and stir to mix well for a further 1 minute

Add in the Worcestershire sauce and continue to simmer until liquid is reduced to half

Pour in the chicken stock and simmer for a couple minutes more … look at the awesome red paprika color!

Remove pan from heat and stir in the crème fraîche

Return the chicken breasts to the pan, along with any juices and continue cooking in the pre-heated oven for further 30 minutes or until chicken breasts is cooked through

Look at the rich red colour … so unlike the normal creamy look of a usual Chicken Stragonoff … simple yet tasty and I served up with a vegetable fried rice which I had omitted seasoning and left plain for it to soak up the scrumptious stroganoff sauce … (I forgot to garnish with chopped parsley which I did have some ready)!!

RECIPE

Ingredients:

                  2 tablespoons olive oil

            
2 – 4 (180g each) chicken breast, trimmed

            
1 medium brown onion, thinly sliced

            
1 garlic clove, crushed

            
200g cup mushrooms, sliced

            
2 teaspoons sweet/spicy paprika

            
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce

            
1 cup chicken stock

            
1 cup light sour cream / crème fraîche

            Steamed white rice, to serve

finely chopped fresh parsley, to garnish (optional)

Methods :

• Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C … heat half the oil in a pan over medium-high heat, add chicken and cook for 2 minutes each side or until light golden…transfer to a plate
  
• Reduce heat to medium….heat remaining oil in pan….add onion, garlic and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until onion is softened then add paprika …cook, stirring, for further 1 minute
• Add worcestershire sauce and simmer for 2 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half then add stock …simmer for 3 minutes … remove  panfrom heat then stir in sour cream and season with pepper
• Return chicken (and any juice) to pan… transfer to oven and bake, turning chicken occasionally, for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through
• Serve up with steamed rice or vegetable fried rice and garnish with chopped parsley, if desired

Salads with Boiled Eggs

We love salads with boiled eggs … but must be boiled eggs which has a fairly firm white and slightly runny yolks …. we love it if drizzle with a soy sauce dressing!

A BLT salad with a twist … with added boiled eggs …. again, firm white with slightly runny yolks .. drizzled with a zesty, robust Italian dressing!

Boiled eggs with firm white and a very slightly runny or soft yolk … boil your room temperature eggs for about 5 – 6 minutes depending on size of your eggs … reduce to 3 – 4 minutes if you wish to have a more runny yolk to go with your soldiers (soft boiled eggs)

Vegetarian Stir Fried Egg Noodles

When cooking stir-fried style everything gets cooked so quickly, you must have all your ingredients to go so organise your mise en place before you are set to cook!

1 tin Peking vegeatarian roast duck …. made mainly from wheat protein and shaped into gluten steaks ….this hand-made delicacy possesses the juicy and tender texture and taste of the infamous Peking roast duck … look at the texture, don’t it resemble that of a duck skin and meat!

from top left clockwise … 50g sliced fresh button mushrooms; julienned 1 big carrot; diagonally sliced 1 big/2 small leeks; thinly sliced 1 onion; 1 Tbsp chopped garlic

100g mung bean sprouts … I normally use more as I love bean sprouts

I used 250g egg noodles here, which I’ve blanched in hot water to soften it, drain and set aside … you may use any choice of noodles you desire … e.g. few packets of instant noodles (minus the sachet of seasoning); rice noodles; udon noodles; spaghetti noodles; etc

these ingredients are optional … I used 2 fried eggs, sliced into thin strips + sliced red chillies + golden fried shallots to garnish my noodles … would have been lovelier with some green colour of diagonally sliced spring onions but I didn’t have any at hand hence none was used …

in every Asian kitchen, a big wok like this is a MUST …. here, I heat up my wok then add couple tablespoons Canola oil to heated wok …

… then add onions & leeks … stir fry for 5 minutes until edges of both are a little golden …

…. add the chopped garlic … stir fry until garlic is slightly golden & fragrant …

…. add in the sliced mushrooms and stir fry for a couple minutes …

…. add in the julinned carrots, stir fry a further couple minutes and mix well …

… pour in the seasoning ….. I used a mixture of 1 Tbsp oyster sauce + a dash of fish sauce + 1 tsp light soy sauce + 1 tsp dark soy sauce + 1 tsp sesame oil + 1 Tbsp Shaoxing wine + a dash of pepper … stir to mix everything well …

… now add in the noodles …. stir fry and mix well and ensure all the ingredients is well distributed in the noodles then continue stir frying for about 5 minutes … if you find it too dry, add some water as you continue to stir fry and if necessary, cover and let it cook on low flame for 5 minutes to allow noodles to soften further …

… last but not least, add in the bean sprouts … stir fry and mix the noodles well for a further 5 minutes …

My Vegetarian Stir Fried Egg Noodles is now ready to be dished out and served up … yummeh

Garnish accordingly … how I wished I had some spring onions … an added green colour would make this dish look even more delectable

Crab Sticks Salad

A simple but very delicious salad … crab sticks, alfalfa sprouts, rocket & gem lettuce and drizzed with zesty, spicy Italian dressing … nice …. a similar crab sticks salad may be whipped up using only the Asian “dou miao”/pea shoots and it is very nice!