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Archive for April, 2016

Chicken, date & lentil pilaf with saffron butter

Posted in Cheese, Food, tagged , , , , , , , , on 25 April 2016| 2 Comments »

Chicken, date & lentil pilaf with saffron butter

This tasted luxurious and refreshing with the saffron butter and orange, top notch treatment for your leftover roast chicken!

Wine Suggestion: This called for an Alsace Pinot Gris, well more specifically the Bott-Geyl Pinot d’Alsace “Metiss” which is actually a blend of all the Pinot’s you can think of plus Pinot Noir to form a layered and textured wine with lovely freshness and hints of spice that brought out the saffron and orange flavours. Bott-Geyl are a brilliant, biodynamic producer and I think each vintage they build upon the past and deliver even more. This bottle we had lying in our cellar, so they age nicely for a few years, if you can resist, but don’t worry, they taste just as good fresh and young.

Chicken, date & lentil brown rice pilaf with saffron butter – serves 6

  • 15g unsalted butter, plus an additional 30g for the saffron butter
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 300g brown basmati rice, washed until the water runs clear
  • 700ml chicken stock
  • 12 dates, pitted and sliced thinly, lengthways
  • finely grated zest of 1 orange and juice of ½
  • 200g Puy lentils, rinsed
  • good squeeze of lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 350g cooked chicken, torn in to pieces
  • 25g chopped, unsalted pistachios or toasted flaked almonds
  • 4 tbsp roughly chopped coriander leaves
  • generous pinch of saffron strands
  • 300g Greek yoghurt

Heat the 15g of butter in a heavy-based saucepan and sauté the onion until soft and lightly coloured. Add the garlic and continue to cook for another couple of minutes. Add the rice and stir until well coated with the butter and starting to toast. Add the chicken stock, dates, and orange zest and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for about 30 minutes by which time the stock will have become absorbed. If it starts to look dry add a little boiling water.

Meanwhile, cook the lentils in lots of boiling water until tender. They can take between 15-30 minutes so keep checking to ensure they don’t turn to mush. When cooked, drain and rinse in hot water and add to the rice. Fork through, season with salt and pepper and a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and quickly reheat the cooked chicken, then season. Gently fork through the rice and lentils along with the nuts, coriander and orange juice. Taste again for seasoning.

Quickly make the saffron butter by melting the 30g butter in a pan, add the saffron and stir so the butter takes on the colour.

Put the rice on a serving platter, spoon on some yoghurt,  pour on the saffron butter and serve.

(Original recipe from A Bird in the Hand by Diana Henry, Mitchell Beazley, 2015.)

 

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Roast Pork Loin, Porchetta Style

Posted in Food, Pork, tagged , , , , , on 20 April 2016| 1 Comment »

Roast Pork Loin, Porchetta Style – serves 6

Our favourite way to eat this pork is carved as thin as possible and stuffed into crusty bread rolls with some mayonnaise and salad. You need to marinate the meat the night before.

Wine Suggestion: Rich, round and white plus you have to make sure there is a good freshness too to cope with the pork fat. Naturally a good, oaked Chardonnay calls out but we’ve also tried some more unusual wines like the Adi Badenhorst’s Family White which is an amazing blend of 10 grapes from the Swartland in South Africa. It’s quite like a St Peray white in style with hints of aromatics, stone fruit and crisp apples alongside a rich nuttiness and layers of texture. A bit of a wine anoraks wine but we love it.

  • 2kg loin of pork, off the bone with skin removed and about 1cm of fat left on
  • 6 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 3 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
  • 4 rosemary sprigs, leaves chopped, plus more for the roasting tin
  • about 8 bay leaves

Lay the pork on a board with the flesh side up. Pierce all over with a sharp knife and fill the holes with the slivers of garlic. Rub the fennel & rosemary all over the flesh, along with some olive oil, pushing some into the holes with the garlic. Season generously with salt and pepper. Made a bed in a roasting tin with rosemary springs and bay leaves and put the pork on top with the fat side down. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bring to room temperature before cooking.

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/425ºF/gas mark 7.

Tie the loin at intervals with kitchen string, not too tight. Put into the roasting tin fat side up on top of the herbs (make sure the herbs are well tucked under or they will burn) and cook for 25 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 180ºC/350ºF/gas mark 4 and cook for 1 hour 40 minutes, basting occasionally.

Take out of the oven, cover with foil and rest for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

(Original recipe from Food from Plenty by Diana Henry, Mitchell Beazley, 2010.)

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Baked Pappardelle with Pancetta & Porcini

Posted in Food, Pasta, tagged , , , , , , on 9 April 2016| Leave a Comment »

Baked Pappardelle with Pancetta & Porcini

What a delicious hug of a recipe, a sort of fancy baked pasta. The crusty baked top, cheese, mushrooms and smoky ham are enough to make two people very happy. We also learned that even after many years of perfect béchamel you’re never to old to balls it up and have to start again. It was worth it!

Wine Suggestion: with all the earthy porcini and the rich sauce with Parmesan this begs for a Nebbiolo with a little bit of age so you get some of the leathery, mushroomy characters emerging. Ideally pick a Barolo or Barbaresco from a good vintage, but equally joyful with something like the Pira Luigi Langhe Nebbiolo which also has lovely youthful morello cherry fruit with hints of roses and truffles to compliment the pasta. Significantly, and importantly, Nebbiolo also has high tannins to work with the rich proteins in the Parmesan and high acidity to cut through the rich cheese, pancetta and butter.

Baked pappardelle with pancetta & porcini – serves 2

  • 500ml milk
  • 20g dried porcini
  • 40g butter
  • 25g plain flour
  • 100g pappardelle pasta
  • 50g thinly sliced pancetta, cut in 2cm pieces
  • 4-5 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas mark 6.

Warm the milk in a saucepan and soak the porcini in it for about 10 minutes. Drain the milk through a sieve over a bowl, pressing lightly on the porcini with the back of a ladle to extract all the milk. Set the mushrooms aside.

Rinse out the pan, then use to melt the butter. Tip in the flour, stir and cook gently for a few minutes without letting it colour. Pour in the porcini-infused milk and whisk vigorously until smooth. Cook over a very low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, for about 10 minutes or until thickened (not too thick). Season lightly with salt and generously with black pepper. Cover and set aside.

Cook the pasta in lots of salty boiling water until a little underdone. Drain, tip into a large bowl and mix with the sauce, porcini & pancetta pieces. Tip the mixture into a lightly-buttered dish and tap down lightly. Sprinkle 2 tbsp of Parmesan over the top and bake for 30-40 minutes or until bubbling and browned. Serve with the remaining cheese.

(Original recipe from The Good Cook by Simon Hopkinson, Random House, 2011.)

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