Sautéed Chicken with Tarragon Sauce and Skinny Fr...

I usually work on Saturday but fortunately I don’t start until the afternoon. That means I have just enough time to watch Saturday Morning Kitchen and the lovely James Martin. A few weeks ago he prepared this dish. Instantly I knew what we would be having for dinner that night. In fact we love this so much we have had it every week since. It is warm and comforting – perfect for these cold, blustery winter nights. It also has a few of my favourite ingredients in it: Mushrooms, Chicken, Cream, and Tarragon! What’s not to like?

It’s probably for the best that we are not in possession of a deep fat fryer. The combination of my desire to attempt to deep fry every chocolate bar known to mankind and my accident-proneness make the idea of owning such a device more than a little scary. Using oven chips makes this an even easier, but no less tasty, dish to prepare.

In fact this is exactly what I am making for dinner tonight – my mouth is already watering! Oh, while watching the show the addition of the egg yolks was explained as adding richness to the dish and helping to slightly thicken the sauce. In fact the sauce is so good I guarantee you’ll be tempted to lick the plate!

Sautéed Chicken with Tarragon Sauce and Skinny Fries courtesy of James Martin and the BBC Food website

Ingredients

For the chicken

1 Tbsp vegetable oil (I used olive oil)

50g butter

4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, cut into chunks

2 shallots, finely sliced

125g pearl or baby onions

125g baby button mushrooms (I used chestnut mushrooms which I cut into thirds)

200ml white wine (plus an extra glass to drink while cooking 🙂 )

300ml chicken stock

150ml double cream

2 free-range egg yolks

salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 tsp fresh tarragon finely chopped (I used dried tarragon and kept the measurements about the same – but taste as you add it as it does have a strong flavour)

For the Fries

4 large chipping potatoes, peeled and cut into fine chips

vegetable oil, for deep frying

sea salt to taste

OR

you can used oven ready chips and just pop them in the oven and cook according to package directions

Directions

For the chicken: heat a frying pan until medium-hot. Add the oil, half the butter and the chicken and fry until golden-brown and nearly cooked through (approx 3-4 minutes)

Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Add the shallots to the pan and gently fry for 2-3 minutes until translucent

Increase the heat and add the remaining butter, pearl/baby onions and mushrooms. Cook for 2-3 minutes until golden-brown

Add the white wine and cook until reduced in volume by half, then add the chicken stock and bring to the boil

Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the chicken and return to the boil

Cook for 2 more minutes or until the chicken is cooked through

In a bowl, whisk the cream and egg yolks together. Add to the pan and stir through. Remove from the heat and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper

Finally, stir the tarragon through the sauce and keep warm until ready to serve

For the skinny fries:

Heat a deep fat fryer to 180C / 350F (Caution: hot oil can be dangerous. Don’t leave unattended)

Add the chips amd fry for 4-5 minutes until golden-brown and cooked through

Drain on kitchen paper then sprinkle with sea salt

To serve: spoon the chicken onto the plate then pile the fries alongside

Enjoy!

Blueberry Pancakes and Country Walks...

Shorne Woods Country Park

This weekend the sun finally came out providing the perfect opportunity for a country walk. My husband and I decided to go to one of our favourite places – Shorne Woods Country Park. It’s a beautiful place for a walk and has a good mixture of trails from gentle and easy going to slightly more rigorous ones including the infamous Cardiac Hill. It really was a joy to be outside in the fresh air listening to the bird song and watching dogs happily retrieving sticks for their owners.

After a lengthy hike our appetites were in full swing. What better way to ‘celebrate’ our walk then by going home and having freshly made blueberry pancakes with a generous helping of Canadian Maple Syrup. A pot of freshly brewed Kicking Horse Coffee on the side made this a real North American treat.

Here is the Blueberry Pancake recipe I used courtesy of the BBC GoodFood website.

American Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients

• 200g self-raising flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 egg

• 300ml milk

• knob butter
• 150g pack blueberries

• sunflower oil or a little butter for cooking

• golden or maple syrup

Method

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Beat the egg with the milk, make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and whisk in the milk to make a thick smooth batter. Beat in the melted butter, and gently stir in half the blueberries.

2. Heat a teaspoon of oil or small knob of butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Drop a large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan to make pancakes about 7.5cm across. Make three or four pancakes at a time. Cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat until small bubbles appear on the surface of each pancake, then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden. Cover with kitchen paper to keep warm while you use up the rest of the batter. Serve with golden syrup and the rest of the blueberries.

Enjoy!

Shorne Woods

Canadian Maple Syrup

Blueberry Pancakes

Spicy Cashew and Cucumber Salad: The Perfect Picni...

The weather here in the UK has been absolutely amazing. It’s been hot and sunny now for weeks and I dare say we are getting used to seeing the sun. It makes a nice change from the usual grey drizzle of an English summer.

So to celebrate the end of a tough work week and get out in nature, my husband and I are going into the Kent countryside tomorrow to find the perfect place for a picnic. The big question is what type of food to bring. Sandwiches are always good. A selection of nibbles maybe? Quiche, potato salad and some hummus and vegetable sticks would also go down a treat.

Thinking about it we decided we wanted to try something completely different. Looking at the many recipes I have bookmarked to try, I found the perfect picnic recipe from last week’s Saturday Morning Kitchen. The guest chef was Bill Granger who made a wonderful looking meal of Spicy Chicken Thighs With Cucumber and Cashew Salad.

The recipe is actually in two parts. The first step is to create a marinade for some boneless chicken thighs. Once prepared, the chicken thighs are left to marinate in the fridge for about 20 minutes. Only 1/2 of the marinade is used for this. The rest of the marinade is used as a base to create a salad dressing for a cucumber and cashew nut salad with vermicelli rice noodles. This salad is served cold while the chicken thighs are served fresh off the grill.

We actually don’t want to make the dish with the chicken thighs for tomorrow’s picnic. We only want to make the salad! It seems like it will be light and refreshing with just the right amount of heat. I may play around with the recipe tonight so it’s ready to go when we leave first thing in the morning. I may add some shredded carrot to it as well, just to give it a bit more crunch and colour.

We are approaching tomorrow with an open mind so we aren’t really sure where we will end up. The one thing we do know is that we will have some delicious food to eat when we get to wherever we are going!

I hope you are all making the most of this glorious picnic weather. Please drop me a line and tell me about your perfect picnic foods.

Good Friends, Sunshine And Olive Tapenade....

As we get older it can become difficult to maintain friendships. There always seems to be something getting in the way of us reaching for the phone or writing a card or letter. Social networking sites don’t really help matters either. Sure we can ‘see’ what our friends have been up to, and keep tabs on their profile but it isn’t the same. It isn’t meaningful communication.

I met my best friend Jessica when we were 16 and had just finished an exam. We walked home together and talked about all sorts of things. A few days later she surprised me by giving me a call and inviting me to a David Bowie concert. It was the beginning of an extremely special and wonderful friendship that has lasted for the better part of 23 years.

Over the past 5 years however it felt like we were starting to drift apart. We both live on different continents and it was becoming increasing difficult to find the time to visit one another. Family commitments and work pressures also played their role, but somehow we managed to keep our friendship going.

I was absolutely overjoyed when I got a message from Jess saying that she was coming over to the UK to visit. It had been far too long! We had a wonderful time together and it really felt like no time had passed at all between us. The weather was on our side and we went for long walks in the country, explored farmers markets, visited some of Kent’s most exciting attractions (sadly we didn’t make it to Tea Pot Island in Maidstone – that has been saved for the next visit!) and hung out in the garden drinking wine and eating good food. We also had a short break in Bruges which gave us the opportunity to explore a wonderful city together. The food was excellent and I can’t say enough about the beer – delicious!

One of the first nights she was here, Jess prepared a wonderful little appetizer for us to eat in the garden. I had never had Tapenade before and I can’t believe how easy it is to make. This is definitely something to enjoy with good friends and good wine. Don’t forget to make a toast to the beauty of true friendship.

Jess’s Friendship and Sunshine Tapenade

Ingredients:

1 x 250 gram container of pitted Kalamata olives (you can use any kind of olives – just make sure they are pitted before you put them in the blender!).

1 clove of garlic.

Drizzle of Olive oil (mixture should be slightly moist and easy to spread).

Pinch of sea salt.

Black pepper to taste.

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a blender and mix well.

Spread on baguette slices and gently warm in the oven.

Serve with red wine in the garden and enjoy with good friends!

Jess’s Friendship and Sunshine Tapenade

Delicious Creamed Leeks – an easy recipe....

I have always loved leeks but usually I have them chopped up in soups. A few months ago I discovered a recipe for creamed leeks and thought I would give it a whirl. The result is that now my husband and I are eating them 2-3 times a week. We have become creamed leek addicts!

It is a wonderful side dish that works especially well with chicken. I have also used them as a topping for veggie burgers and have spread them liberally over mashed potatoes.

Do try to use organically grown leeks if you can.

Recipe for Creamed Leeks (serves 2-3)

2-3 medium to large leeks finely chopped.

add to pan with a knob of butter and stir for 3-4 minutes until leeks have softened.

add 2 Tablespoons of cream and salt and pepper to taste.

Yes it’s thats simple!

Enjoy!

Banana Bread: Old Favourite, New Favourite!...

I know we are already well into the New Year but I am still recovering from all the fuss and general craziness of the holiday season. During the holidays I was able to spend a bit more time in the kitchen trying out different recipes and experimenting with some new kitchen gadgets.  However, I was so caught up in exploring the new and different that I neglected a few things in my kitchen.

The main casualty of my neglect was a bunch of bananas which were almost at the point of no return. Not wanting to waste them, I found myself going back to one of my all time favourite recipes – Banana Bread.

Banana Bread is one of the easiest things to make. What is so wonderful is that you can have it just as it is OR you can jazz it up a bit if you want. Here are just some of the things I love to add to a basic Banana Bread recipe:

• Chopped Walnuts or Pecans
• Fresh Blueberries or Raspberries (you can also use frozen)
• Grated Courgette (Zucchini)
• Grated Carrot
• Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

For this particular recipe – which is a low fat version – my husband and I decided to add 2 Heaping Tablespoons of Un-Sweetened Coco Powder and approximately 9 Glace Cherries cut into quarters. We also used a spring form cake tin rather than a loaf tin. The results were simply amazing and ok we confess… not as low fat as it could have been. However it was absolutely divine with a cup of tea and an episode of Columbo.

I found the recipe on the following site; lowfatcooking.about.com, which is brilliant. Have a go with the recipe as it is – or add a little something extra. Then sit back, relax and enjoy!

For low fat banana bread recipe click here

I have also written out the recipe below.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, softened or 1/4 cup trans-fat free shortening
• 2 large eggs or 1/2 cup egg substitute
• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about 3 small bananas)
• 1/3 cup plain fat-free yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spoon flour gently into measuring cups and level with a knife. Stir flour, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. Put aside. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl and beat at low speed with a mixer until well blended. Add one egg at a time and blend well after each one. Add in mashed banana, yogurt and vanilla extract, beat until blended. Add flour mixture and blend until just moist. Do not over-mix. Spray an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour batter into pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes (until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean). Remove from pan after 10 minutes or so and cool on a wire rack.

Yield: one loaf, 14 slices.