pollo a la dolchelatte

Chicken is so versatile but by itself it can be a bit bland. If using a chicken fillet simply cutting a slice to make a cavity in the breast makes a great pocket to pack flavour into the meat.

Using salty and strong flavoured dolchelatte is perfect for this purpose. Tht being said Gorgonzola, Stilton and Roquefort all perfectly suitable for the job.

I also add some herbal flavour inn the for, of 2 dried bay leaves.

Ingredients

chicken breast
2 slices of dolchelatte cheese
2 bay leaves
olive oil
salt and pepper

vegetables to serve with

Method

Cut a slit in the chicken to make a pocket. Stuff the pocket with the dolchelatte and bay leaves. rub the outside with olive oil and season well. Place in an oven proof dish and put in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Serve with fresh vegetables - I had new potatoes, chanterelle carrots and French beans

Spaghetti with Muscles and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Spaghetti with Muscles and Sun Dried Tomatoes

I came home on Friday expecting a nice piece of white fish or a whole sea bass or something - ritual in our house is to buy what looks good at the fishmonger on a Friday and make it up from there. Judging from the purchase of ready cooked muscles I guess the fishermen hadn't had a good week!!

Whilst cooking your own can add a bit more flavour to the muscle the ready cooked variety are pretty cheap (85 pence for a pack at our supermarket) and a few bits of careful ingredient adding and a really nice, tasty meal can be prepared without much fuss.

Ingredients

wholewheat spaghetti (enough for 2)
2 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
pack of ready cooked muscles
6 sun dried tomatoes
150g of reduced fat creme fraiche
half a glass of white wine
basil leaves

Method

Start by boiling some water and getting the sundried tomatoes on to soak (they need about 10 - 15 minutes to refresh them otherwise they can be a bit leathery).

Get the spaghetti on the boil - mine takes about 10 - 12 minutes to cook which is plenty of time to prepare the sauce.

Finely chop the shallots and garlic and add to a hot pan with 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Let the shallots soften rather than fry to a crisp. Add a dash of sea salt at this stage.

Next remove the sun dried tomatoes from the soak and slice into thin strips and add to the pan. After the pan is back up to the heat add the white wine and the muscles - make sure you don't overcook the muscles as they only really need heating through.

Drain the spaghetti and add the contents of the pan to the spaghetti pan. Give a good stir, the olive oil should evenly coat the spaghetti. Then add the creme fraiche and a good bit of black pepper. Stir well.

Serve with the ripped basil leaves on top. Great with the rest of the bottle of wine.

Chilli and Olive Foccacia

Chilli and Olive Foccacia

This is a great big flavoursome bread that used up a jar of olives that I have had hanging about for a while and some pimento peppers to add a bit of zing. The key ingredient is the oil that the olives had been stored in, rather than just using olive oil using the herbed oil that the olives were preserved in.

Ingredients

500g Organic White Bread Flour
one sachet of dried fast action yeast
18 de-stoned olives
12 pimento peppers
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 dried bay leaves
50ml herbed oil (from the olive jar)
1 teaspoon sea salt
300ml warm water

Method

mix the flour, salt, oregano, bay leaves and fast action yeast in a bowl then

Mix the olives, 6 of the pimentos and herbed oil into the bowl then gradually add the water bringing the flour mix around it until a dough has formed.

Kneed the dough on an oiled surface until the dough is elastic in texture.

Place the dough mix into a round flan dish and cover with a damp tea towel in a warm place for 45 minutes. The focaccia should rise. Dust with oregano and the rest of the pimento peppers. Place in a warm oven (200 degrees C) for about 30 minutes.

Turn out into a wire rack and let cool.

I served this with a chorizo butter bean stew (see separate post).

Chicken Liver Spaghetti

Chicken Liver Spaghetti

This is quick and dead tasty

Ingredients

300g Chicken Livers (trimmed of sinew etc.)
plain flour (to dust the chicken livers in)
A finely chopped red onion
2 cloves of crushed garlic
Slug of brandy
150ml Double Cream
50 grammes Grated parmesan cheese
chopped parsley
wholemeal spaghetti

Method

Get the pasta on the go first
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan add the onion and then the crushed garlic. Fry for 1 minute.
Dust the chicken livers in flour and add a few at a time to the frying pan.
After 5 minutes flambee by adding the brandy and then lighting the liquor.
Take off the heat and add the double cream and then throw in the parmesan cheese.
Stir in the chopped parsley and then mix with the spaghetti.

Italian Style Salmon and Cannellini Beans

Italian Style Salmon and Cannellini Beans

This is a fantastic, healthy dinner which goes marvelously with a glass of sauvignon blanc.

It is really easy to pull together and is a nice taste to zing up winter.

Ingredients

fish
300g salmon fillet
salt and pepper
juice of half a lemon

beans
tin of Cannellini Beans
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
3 cloves of garlic
100ml water
juices of half a lemon
olive oil
chopped parsley
3 chopped spring onions

tomatoes
200g cherry tomatoes
a finely chopped shallot
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
12 torn basil leaves
salt, pepper
olive oil


Method

Start by putting the beans, rosemary and whole, peeled cloves of garlic and water in a saucepan and very gently heat until just starting to reach a boil then remove from the heat. The purpose of this is to infuse the flavors.

For the cherry tomatoes, cut them in half and place in a bowl with the shallot (finely chopped). Add the red wine vinegar and a glug of olive oil and stir and let stand whilst you prepare the rest of the meal.

Skin the salmon, cut into healthy size chunks (about the width of 2 fingers), season with salt and paper and coat in olive oil and place in a searing hot pan until just cooked through, squeeze over the lemon juice 30 seconds before removing from the pan.

Whilst the salmon is cooking drain the beans and remove the garlic cloves and sprigs of rosemary. Discard the sprigs of rosemary (don't worry if a few leaves stay with the beans) and mash the garlic in the lemon juice. Add the chopped parsley and spring onion to the beans and lemon juice and garlic. Mix well with a glug of olive oil.

Just before serving, season the tomatoes with salt and vinegar then add the ripped basil leaves mix well with a little more olive oil.

Serve and enjoy.

Rabbit Risotto

Rabbit Risotto

Last nights rabbit was stripped of any extra meat (particularly the fore legs) and then added to a litre of water and a couple of bay leaves and boiled to make some stock.

This was used as the stock for a risotto which was warmed to just short of boiling for the risotto making.

Fry a chopped red onion in olive oil until soft and add a crushed clove of garlic.

Fry a cup of arborio risotto rice for 3 minutes or until the rice starts to go see through. Add a glass of white wine and wait for it to be absorbed by the rice.

Add a small ladle of stock at a time replenishing when absorbed by the rice. Continue until the rice has become soft.

Add a chopped red pepper (helps with the colour) and half a dozen chopped mushrooms.

Stir through a tablespoon of grated parmesan and a knob of goats butter. Season to taste.

Vegetable Ragu Pasta

place in a roasting dish 9 cherry tomatoes, half a courgette, a sliced green pepper and a sliced yellow pepper, half a winter squash (chopped into chunks) and 6 mushrooms.

Coat in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Roast for 40 mins

Blitz with a hand blender until a pulp

Fold in a 250ml tub of creme fresh - this is the ragu

Boil some spaghetti, drain then mix in the vegetable ragu and heat through for 3 mins.

I served it with some boiled asparagus (entirely optional) and threw over a few ripped basil leaves