Schlemmertopf Chicken

When giving people kitchen equipment as gifts, I would advise to either a) give something small and useful for every day cooking or b) make sure they actually want and have space for what you are giving them. Kitchens get cluttered really, really quickly, and we do not have much space to spare in ours. Therefore, the following item was eyed with immense skepticism when it first appeared in our house.

It had been discovered in a charity shop at a bargain price, and the giver assured us that it would supply us with the most succulent chicken that would fall off the bone by simply looking at it. So I smiled and found a corner to shove it into while wondering why they couldn't have found some teaspoons to give us.

We are always losing teaspoons. I think they must hang out with the odd socks somewhere. And the scissors.

Several months later I decided to finally give this baby a shot, and asked my husband to google what we had to do with the thing. Lots of instructional videos came up in German. Great. Basically we learned we had to soak the lid first for 15 minutes and then but the filled dish in a cold oven. Um, ok. No real timings given, so we just kind of winged it. Well, I winged it - my husband was busy hiding from the three children after spending two days looking after them.

In went the lid to soak, reflecting the inside of our kitchen light. I noticed Gregg's now has ceiling lights in their bakeries like ours, because we have similarly classy taste in decor.

I cut some vegetables up to add some flavour and placed them in the bottom of the dish: an onion, a few peeled cloves of garlic, a couple carrots, and a parsnip.

Then I put on the chicken. Plenty of salt, sage, and rosemary went on top. If I was a real foodie I'd have herb gardens on my windowsill, but instead I have Tesco's selection of dried herbs at my disposal.

I just barely managed to fit the lid over the top, then put the whole thing in the oven, switched my fan/convection oven on to 170C, and set the timer to two hours.

When I lifted the lid it looked like this:

Yes, I made the picture small because it looked kind of gross. I like a nicely browned chicken and this obviously wasn't as the whole thing had steam circulating round it the whole time. The good news was that all the juices stayed in it, it was fully cooked, and this thing, this SCHLEMMERTOPF, meant the chicken was pretty impossible to dry out, even when cooking it breast side up. And I didn't have to add any butter or oil - the veg at the bottom cooked in the juices and the meat was juicy and tender. Real healthy like, yo. After we'd hacked it apart it looked like this:

So yes, it was good, just not for a person who likes a crispy skin. The flavours definitely all transferred through, and I am now curious to try the SCHLEMMERTOPF dish with other casserole type things...I just need to find a recipe that isn't in German...or I need to learn German.

Slow Cooker Beer & Brown Sugar Pulled Chicken

My mother wrote to me the other day to say as a result of my brother's most recent visit she had been left with a supply of beer in her fridge. Not a beer drinker herself, she tried to find some other culinary use for it and ended up making beer bread in her new bread machine.  "ummm...it tastes like beer" she complained. I suggested that next time she use it for stew or even for chicken. I'd never actually used it for chicken before, but I had heard stories.

Within a day, I had been sent a link by a friend for a slow cooker chicken recipe that called for 12 ounces of beer, a divine sign that it was time for me to try cooking chicken with beer if ever there was one. I find signs in odd places. I don't use our slow cooker a huge amount, as I do find it tends to make its contents more watery than I'd like, but as we had great success last week with some pulled pork in our slow cooker I thought I'd give it a shot. The recipe was simple enough: but all ingredients in together in slow cooker and cook on low for four hours. Sounded good to me. So in I put some tomato puree:

I did manage to take it out of the measuring cup, by the way.

Then some soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, and worcester sauce. They all looked like the same thing going in, but they are very different, trust me.

Then I put in some paprika. I was too lazy to get out another measuring spoon so I put about a third of a Tablespoon in (in other words, a teaspoon - unless you are in Australia, where those crazies put 4 teaspoons in a Tablespoon).

The recipe called for chilli powder, so I got this bad baby out from our spice tin. Our spice tin is deceptive - on the outside it looks like a huge tin of chocolate biscuits but inside are gems like this. The spices are great, but if I was actually looking for a chocolate biscuit I'd be most heartbreakingly disappointed.

The recipe called for garlic powder, but we don't really do that in these parts, so in went some fresh garlic.

And for sweetness, some brown sugar. Any hard, dried lumps thankfully won't cause any problems here.

A quick stir, and then I had to stop for a while. Why? Because I didn't have any beer. I had done my daily shop at 9am just after the school drop-off, and here in Scotland you can't buy booze until 10am. So ironically they force me to shop later in the day for my tipple, making me more likely to say to myself "gosh, I do fancy a drink now!" and buy more booze. Silly lawmakers.

A few hours later I made my purchase of this from my local off license. In this case I chose it because the bottle was small (I only needed 12 oz) and it seemed to suggest it would be stronger in flavour than the other beers they stocked. I don't think I've ever actually tasted this beer. The recipe suggested that the more booze in the beer, the more tenderizing power it has, but I'm not sure I buy that.

In went most of it. I briefly contemplated trying the rest of it, but didn't think it would be smart to head out on the school run with beer on my breath. Not that they have breathalysers for people riding the bus, but it's not exactly smiled upon.

Last of all, in went the chicken. On went the lid, and the dial was set to "low".

Four ridiculously frustrating hours of childcare later, I opened the lid to this:

And because I am no photographer, that looks disgusting. It smelled nice, I can assure you, and it didn't look as gross in person. I removed the chicken and put it in a separate bowl.

Again, I AM NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER. Using two forks I shredded the chicken like so:

I also added back in some of the juices from the pot until it looked manageably soggy but not too drippy.

Then all we did was slice open some rolls and put in some of this tastiness. We served salad on the side so we didn't feel like complete carnivores, and all five family members ate it. Score. My husband even had some barbeque sauce atop his, and raved through the whole meal.

An easy workday dinner and a great use of the slow cooker. 

If you want to see what this looks like with pretty pictures and to get the original recipe, just go here. 

Or, if you want to make them without going to another website, just do as follows: 

Slow Cooker Beer and Brown Sugar

Pulled Chicken Sliders

Ingredients

¼ cup tomato puree

3 Tbs soy sauce

3 Tbs balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp chipotle chili powder

1 tsp paprika

2 cloves garlic (or a tsp of powder if you have it - the garlic doesn't totally soften in the cooker)

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

12 ounces beer 

6 boneless skinless chicken thigh fillets

Directions

In your slow cooker bowl, mix together the tomato paste, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, chipotle powder, paprika, garlic and brown sugar.

Add the chicken and beer. Cook on low for 4 hours or until chicken pulls

apart easy with a fork.

Using two forks, shred chicken and add as much or as little of the juices from the pot as you wish.

Serve on rolls with salad.

PS

I now have it on good authority that the leftover juices in the pot when reduced make a wonderful sauce - I will certainly try this next time I make it.

Chicken Fajitas

"Hmmm...what should we make for dinner?" I asked my children.

"Thai wraps...NO...FAJITA WRAPS!!!" my son shouted out.

Ohhhh...yes...wise boy. This we shall make. I think this might even be my favourite meal.  It certainly makes the top ten. It has spice, contains a respectable number of vegetables, and does not require my children to use cutlery (that's silverware to you yankees). It is a bit shopping heavy (ripe avocados, I am looking at you), but so worthwhile. I also love ordering it at restaurants; I get so excited to hear the sizzling plate as it travels from the kitchen to my table, causing heads to turn as it does. And there's the fun of assembly - a dose of the still hot pepper mix, a spoonful of guacamole, a dollop of sour cream, a dash of salsa, all added together in your own preferred proportions, each texture and flavour balancing out another. Heaven, I tell you.

We have been making this meal for many years, so we don't really follow a recipe as such any more, we just do a rough mix of the same things each time. Starting with this stuff. 

Above are the basic ingredients for the chicken, pepper, and onion mix.  If you want to be really clever, you prep all the spicy meat marinade the day before and let the flavours soak in. In all the 10 or so years I've been making this, I think I've done that all of one time. Occasionally I manage to do it on the morning of the day I'm making it, but usually it's just the first thing I do on the evening we're eating it. I've never noticed much of a difference. I mean, the spice packets you get at the supermarket are great, and you don't have to marinate the meat in those, do you?

So first, I put in some coriander seed for grinding up in my mortar and pestle.

Then in went cumin. Plenty of cumin.

Then just a hint of star anise. This much is usually enough - a little carries a long way.

I then add some paprika, oregano, and lots of garlic. I usually put as many as 10 cloves in, certainly no fewer than 6. I used to put in chilli peppers, but now with three little kids I just use paprika to add similar flavour without the heat of chilli, and thus avoid my children wiping their tongues on paper towels in an effort to lesson the effects of those burning oils in their mouths. We've been known to stick hot sauce on the table for the adults. If you think I'm missing a crucial spice, though, let me know.

Then in goes juice from a couple of limes - this time I used three as I had a big bag of them, but I've been known to just use one.

All that, with a bit of salt and a dash of vegetable oil, gets mixed up with the sliced chicken breast and put in the fridge to marinate. Oh, and some onion too.

I sliced it fairly thick so that it was easy for my daughter to pick it out of hers. And we had a guest coming, and I didn't know if he was an onion hater, so I thought I'd make it easy for him if he was.

But he wasn't.

Anyway, it's how they chop them in restaurants too.

And in a separate bowl, I sliced up some pepper. I always make sure to "accidentally" leave this bowl within reach of my kids, because they both love raw pepper. My daughter avoids eating cooked pepper, but she'll eat a whole raw pepper by herself quite easily. So I leave this out for a while and they "steal" slices (their giggling and crunching give them away), and this way I get my kids to eat the peppers, if not necessarily inside their wraps.

So while those slowly disappeared at the side, I made the dough for the tortilla wraps. Just like I did for Thai wraps (http://calwellcooking.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/stephs-thai-wraps.html), only this time I just used white bread flour.

And no, I don't know how to do fancy links. All this blogging is still new to me.

While those rested, I made the guacamole. Now I know a lot of people swear by specific recipes and methods for their guacamole. I can't promise mine is the best, but we like it. A lot. One of the best things about it is how easy it is generally to make. I do mine partially in the food processor, but it really isn't necessary - up until last year I just did it by hand.

So you just need onion, avocados, lime, fresh coriander/cilantro, and tomatoes. Chilli is optional, but, you know. Kids. Sheesh.

I don't particularly like the texture of raw onion, so I blitzed mine with some avocado and the coriander/cilantro in the food processor with the juice of a lime.

This gave me a nice base for the rest of it and prevented any huge clumps of leafy greens too.

Then I just mashed in the rest of the avocado with some salt. This helps keep it all a nice texture - not too smooth like a puree, and not too lumpy either.

And I stirred in some chopped tomatoes too.

Once this was all done, I put on clingfilm right on the surface to prevent browning and stuck it in the fridge.

Then I rolled out and cooked the tortillas.

Using the same frying pan, I cleaned out the flour and then dumped in my chicken marinade. Then a baby started squawking and my husband took over.

On top of the cooked chicken went the peppers.

And once that was done, we set in on the table with the tortillas, the guacamole, some sour cream, and some salsa from a shop across town that specialises in spicy Central American food. I have never made a salsa that I thought comparable to a good shop-bought jar, so I leave that condiment to the experts. I am, of course, willing to try any recipe you have for salsa if you think you have a good one. Oh, and you may just notice that bag of crisps sneaking in the shot too - my husband and my kids like the crunch they add to the wraps and put these inside, but I prefer them on the side.

Everyone assembled their own wraps and all were happy with clean plates at the end of dinner. I don't have a recipe to post, really, as it is so variable, so just go try it yourself with your own spices!

Have a good Hogmanay, everyone! If you are looking for me on New Year's Eve, hopefully I'll be sleeping my way into 2014. 

Sunday Roast Chicken, Root Veg, Stuffing, Cauliflower Cheese, and Gravy

The other week I read some mindless poll about the tradition of Sunday roasts in Britain.  Their traditions spans decades, but is apparently a dying one, as only a tiny percentage still make a roast on the Sabbath.  My older colleagues speak of how you could smell everyone's roasts on a Sunday stroll when they were growing up, but nowadays people are more likely to head down to Toby Carvery (which I hear is family friendly and tasty too).  After I trek over to the Farmers Market on a Saturday and come back laden with produce, I rarely have the energy to cook anything that day, so last night we opted for heating up some frozen veggie chilli I had made a couple weeks ago.

But when I opened the fridge today, this little guy was looking at me.

I do associate roast chicken with Sundays, certainly.  Quite frequently during my childhood my mother would roast 2 chickens on a Sunday, 1 to eat and the other to pick at during the week.  To this day my mother's face still lights up at the prospect of cold chicken sandwiches.  Nigella regularly praises the simple glory of a roast chicken, and who am I to argue with her?

The weather was projected to by awful (quite dramatically awful south of the border) so I decided it was a good day to settle in after church and prepare a feast that would last us at least a couple days.

First I prepped the chicken by sticking half a lemon in its cavity and smearing a bit of butter and olive oil onto the skin.  The oven is preheated to a low heat (160 or 170) and the bird gets a slow cooking over a couple of hours to ensure tender meat.  First, he goes in upside down.  This means the fat from the legs drips down into the breast to keep them juicy, rather than straight into the pan going to waste.  Clever, eh?

And onto the veggies!  Today I opted for parsnips, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  Just a bit of peeling and slicing and...

Voila!  Doused in oil, into the oven they go too.

That in itself is usually enough work for me, and I leave the meal at that.  But I had some stale bread and a few other essentials, so I decided to knock up some stuffing too.  I don't stuff the bird itself for two reasons:
1) The inside of the bird doesn't always get to a high enough temperature to cook the stuffing and prevent bacteria getting in
2) You don't get a crusty top on the stuffing if you cook it inside the bird

So gathering these things together..

I cooked some celery and onion in some butter and cut up the bread and toasted it a little to ensure it would absorb all the flavours.

Once the onion and celery were sufficiently softened, I added the bread cubes

Then in went parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.  Just think of it as Simon and Garfunkel stuffing.  This is the most simple version of stuffing that we do, but mushrooms, sausage, and chestnuts are other regular guests in our stuffing.

Then in went an egg and some chicken stock from a cube.

And into the dish it went, going into the oven not to long before the chicken was due to come out.

On to the cauliflower cheese.

I never had tasted this dish until I came to the UK, and my version is less cheesy than most, being basically a white sauce with a bit of cheese in it rather than cheese with a bit of white sauce in it as most recipes I've read seem to be.  I think because this is the version I learned from watching my husband make it.

So you start with a roux of equal parts butter and flour

The oven beeped - time to flip the bird.  Oy!  Don't be rude.  You turn it over to brown the skin on the side people eat.  I usually end up tearing the skin somewhere when I do this, but others manage to do it gracefully.

Back to the white sauce.  Then keep adding milk and whisking until it's a bit too runny, then heat it to thicken it.  Sorry, that's the best I can do as I am not too scientific here.  That's probably why I mess it up a lot.

Once you add nutmeg it'll look like this.  Seasoning is good too, here.

Then take it off the heat and add some cheese (cheddar in this case).

Stir in the uncooked cauliflower.

And put it into a baking dish and into the oven until browned.  It'll be good, I promise.

Looks like the chicken is done. I check the juices run clear, but my mother likes to wiggle the legs.  I never know how they are supposed to wiggle, which is why I check the juices.

See, doesn't the cauliflower look goooood?  That's an onion gravy my husband made there, and the cooked stuffing.

Oh, and these guys.  They dried out a bit too much, but they were still good.

As you can see, there was a lot of food, so no running around cooking tomorrow night, we've got leftovers, hooray!!!!  I'll probably add something green tomorrow, though.