JC's Gastroblog

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6. Put a roasting pan, one that will hold the chicken comfortably, into the oven to heat, also.

Pick the best young leaves from the tips of the tarragon stalks and reserve them to add to the sauce when it’s made. Cram the remaining tarragon (whole, no need to chop) along with 100g of the butter into the cavity of the chicken.

When the roasting pan is hot, add the remaining 25g butter so that it melts then put the chicken into the pan. Season the skin of the chicken lightly with salt and pepper and return it to the oven to roast. While the chicken is roasting, chop the reserved tarragon leaves. Cooking time will naturally vary depending on chicken size but 50 minutes to one hour 10 minutes usually does it; check using the tried and trusted thigh-piercing technique and make sure the juices run clear.

Remove the chicken from the oven. The butter will have been well flavoured by the tarragon and most will have flowed from the body cavity into the pan. Tilt the chicken to encourage the remaining juices out, then keep it warm while you make the sauce.

Put the roasting pan with the tarragon-flavoured butter onto a gentle heat and stir in the flour. Cook the butter in the flour for a couple of minutes. Now you are essentially making a white sauce but with water. (I was tempted to use chicken stock once. Don’t – it’s better with water.) Add the water gradually, stirring between additions to avoid lumps. When all the water is added, increase the heat slightly and bring to simmering point. Simmer for a couple of minutes to cook out any raw flour taste. Season with salt, papper and the reserved, chopped tarragon.

Collect any juices running from the chicken while resting and when you carve it and stir them into the sauce.

Method

Briefly fry the curry paste over medium heat until fragrant. Reduce the heat and add the coconut milk. Cook, continuing to stir until a thin film of oil develops on top. Skim off the oil and discard it.

Add the chicken pieces together with all the other ingredients (except the Thai aubergines, if you have them) and bring to the boil. Cook until the chicken begins to change colour. (Beans can go in with everything else.) Once simmering again, add the Thai aubergines and continue to cook until th echicken pieces are done.

Serve with boiled Thai fragrant rice.

Method

In a small bowl mix together the sugar, rice and tea leaves. Line the base and sides of a large sauté pan or wok with foil. Sprinkle the tea mixture over the foil and cover with another layer of foil. Place a lid on the pan and the pan on the heat. When the tea mixture begins to smoke, remove the lid and place the chicken on top of the foil. Season the chicken and drizzle over the oil. Place the lid back on the pan and leave to smoke for 12-15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Using tongs, remove the chicken from the pan and place it on a clean board. Cut each chicken breast into slices on the diagonal.

James Martin serves this on a chorizo and artichoke pilaff.

Method

Crumble the blue cheese and moisten it with 2 tbs. of the cream. Mix this to a paste (ignoring the colour!) and season lightly with a little salt and pepper.

Finely chop the shallot. Use a sauté pan that has a lid and will take the 4 chicken breasts comfortably. Melt the butter over medium heat, add the chicken breasts and brown them lightly on both sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and gently soften the shallot in the sauté pan without allowing it to colour. Return the chicken breasts to the pan moving them around a little to get them into the shallots. Cover the pan with the lid, lower the heat and cook the chicken covered until just cooked through (about 10 mins but test them – it depends how big your breasts are ). There should now be some liquid in the bottom of the pan. Remove the chicken breasts and keep them warm while you finish the sauce.

Increase the heat and reduce the pan juices until they become slightly syrupy. Add the white wine and repeat the reduction process down to about one third. Add the cream and bring gently to simmering point stirring all the time. Lower the heat add stir in the blue cheese mixture until it dissolves. Adjust the seasoning (bearing in mind that blue cheese is inherently salty).

Serve the chicken breasts either nouvelle cuisine style on top of the sauce or “vielle cuisine” style underneath the sauce.

Method

Clean the chicken and season it inside and out with salt and pepper. Reserve the giblets if there are any.

Melt the butter over moderate heat and cook the onion until soft and translucent. Add the bacon and cook for a further 2 – 3 minutes. Remove the onion and bacon from the pan and reserve it while you lightly brown the chicken all over in the same pan. Return the onion and bacon mixture to the chicken and flame it all with the calvados. Add the chicken neck, gizzard and heart to the pan. (Be careful to omit the liver.) Sprinkle in the celery leaves and add the cider. Bring the liquid to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.

Turn the chicken on its side, cover the pan closely and cook over a very low heat for 20 – 25 minutes. Now turn the chicken onto its other side and cook for a further 20 – 25 minutes still covered. Finally, turn the chicken onto its back and cook covered for another 10 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a serving dish and keep warm while you make the sauce. Strain the cooking liquid and reduce it slightly. Remove the pan from the heat. Beat the egg yolks into the cream and mix in a few spoonfuls of the warm cooking liquid. Whisk the egg and cream mixture into the cooking liquid and return the pan to a low heat. Stirring constantly, cook the sauce until it has thickened. Be very careful not to let it approach boiling as it will curdle.

A garnish of fried apple rings, about ¼ inch thick goes well with this.

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Prepare the preserved lemon/limes by removing any core and seeds before roughly chopping them. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into chunks of about 1½ cms. Select a flame and oven proof pan (like a roasting tray) that will take the chicken pieces snugly in a single layer. Make a cartouche to fit the pan loosely. (I use a teflon non-stick sheet but greaseproof paper is more traditional!)

Grind up all the spices either in a pestle and mortar or, preferably, using a powered spice grinder to save your arms. Once you have a fine powder, add these to the flour and toss the lot into a large polythene bag. Close the bag firmly and shake well to mix. Now add the chicken to the bag and toss well again to coat all the chicken with the seasoned flour mixture. Tip everything out onto a plate. (You’re going to use any excess flour mixture later.)

Heat your chosen pan on the hob and add the olive oil. Gently shake any excess flour from the chicken pieces and brown them on all sides in the hot oil. Once browned, remove them to a plate, lower the heat and add the fennel, onion, lemon/limes and rosemary. Sweat these gently for about five mins until softened. Stir in the excess seasoned flour, then add the farika/bulghur wheat and stir well again. Add the alcohol stirring well until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add the sweet potato chunks and stir once again.

Add the chicken stock up to the same level as the grains and vegetables. (Use extra water if necessary.) Cover the vegetable mixture with the loose-fitting cartouche, oiled lightly (if necessary) to prevent sticking. Arrange the chicken pieces in a single layer on top and cook in the oven for about 45 mins until the skin crisps.

Serve with dollops of soured cream or crème fraîche. (If your fennel had some nice feathery tops, chop these and sprinkle them over too.)

Method

Blanch the courgette strips briefly in boiling water to make them supple. Drain them and allow them to cool.

In a food processor, blitz together the coriander, mint, garlic, spring onions, chilli, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper. Loosen the paste with a little olive oil. Add this marinade paste to the chicken pieces and mix well. Allow to sit for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

When you’re ready to go (preferably with a barbecue), thread the skewers with courgette strips woven between chicken pieces. Grill for between 5 and 10 minutes turning regularly until cooked.

Method

Put the bay leaves in a coffee grinder with the thyme and blitz to a powder. Scatter half the salt in a dish. Rub the garlic all over the duck and lay it, skin-side down, on top of the salt. Scatter the herb mixture evenly over the duck, then sprinkle over the remaining salt. Refrigerate for 12 hours, then turn the duck over and return to the fridge for a further 12 hours. The salt will have liquified.

Rinse the duck in cold water and pat dry. On the stove top, gently melt the fat in a pan in which the duck pieces just fit comfortably. When hot, add the duck, which must be covered with fat; if it is not, add lard until it is fully covered. When just trembling but not boiling, keep it this way and cook for 1 hour. Push in a skewer at the thickest point; it should slide in easily. If not, check again after 10 minutes.

Transfer the confit to a plastic container or sterilized preserving jar. Ladle the fat over the confit through a fine sieve, being careful not to ladel any of the juices from the bottom of the cooking dish. Allow to cool completely then seal with a lid and refrigerate for a good couple of weeks (to allow the flavour to develop) until needed.

You can now set about making a wonderful Cassoulet .

Alternatively, you could use the Duck Confit in its ouw right. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. To serve, remove the duck from the fat and place on a baking tray for 1 hour to come to room temperature. Pour off any melted fat from the tray and roast, skin-side down, for 20 minutes, turning it skin-side up to serve.

Melt the stored fat from the container and bring to the boil before straining back through a sieve into a bowl to keep in the fridge to use for another confit. It can be used 3 times before it becomes too salty.

Method

Clean the chicken and cut it up into eight pieces (thighs, drumsticks, wings with some breast and the remaining breast portions). Make stock out of the remaing carcass and giblets.

Prepare the bacon and button onions. Choose a pan that you can put in the oven. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4. Cut the bacon into lardons (about 1 1/2 ins. by 1/4 in. square). Fry these in 1/2 oz. butter until the fat runs and they are brown and getting crisp. Remove the lardons from the pan, keeping the fat, and drain them on kitchen paper. Brown the onions in the reserved fat over moderate heat shaking occasionally, then bake them in the oven for about 15 mins. until barely tender. Remove them from the fat and set them aside.

While the onions are baking, brown the chicken pieces in butter. Pour off most of the fat and flame the chicken in the brandy. Put the chicken in a heavy enamelled pan with the lardons, bouquet garni, thyme and garlic.

Reduce the wine to about 10 fl. oz. Stir the flour into the fat remaining in the frying pan scraping in any browned pieces. Blend in the reduced wine gradually and add the chicken stock. Bring to the boil, simmer for a few minutes to thicken it and strain it over the chicken in the casserole. Bring this back to a simmer, cover with the lid and cook it in the centre of the oven.

Meanwhile prepare the mushrooms. Cook the chopped shallots in 1 oz. butter for about 30 secs to soften them. Add the mushrooms (whole if small, quartered if large) and cook for 2 – 3 mins. Add them to the reserved onions.

After cooking the chicken for about 30 mins., add the onions and mushrooms and cook for a further 15 mins. or until tender.

I like to serve this with steamed green beans and loads of mashed potato to soak up the sauce.

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas 2.

While the oven is heating, butcher the chicken. Remove the skin and bone from the breasts and legs (just joint the wings). (Make chicken stock from the carcass.) Cut the chicken meat into large-bite-size pieces.

Fill a large polythene bag with the flour, coriander and cumin and add several grindings of salt and pepper. Put the chicken pieces into the bag and clamp the top keeping as much air in the bag as possible. Now shake the lot to coat the chicken with the seasoned flour. Tip everything out onto a plate reserving the excess flour which will be used later.

Shake excess flour from the chicken pieces before browning them in the olive oil. As they brown, remove them to a tagine (a lidded casserole will do as a substitute). Once all the chicken has browned, add the onion to the same oil and fry over medum heat to soften. Lower the heat and stir in the remaining seasoned flour. Cook this gently for a couple of minutes to develop the flavours. Stirring all the time, add the water, increase the heat a little and bring to the boil. Pour this over the chicken and add the cinnamon stick. Cover and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

Remove the tagine from the oven and stir in the chick peas and sweet potato dice. Return it to the oven for a further 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the preserved lemon (skin only – discard the flesh) into small chunks. After the 25 minutes, remove the tagine and stir in the preserved lemon. Return the tagine to the oven for a final 10 minutes to develop the flavour of the preserved lemon.

Serve this with some couscous.