Chicken liver pate OfficePest
Ingredients:
1 pack chicken livers
½ pack chopped shallots
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 bulb garlic
Finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
½ pack butter
French stick
Olive oil
Sea salt
1 chopped red onion
1 tsp sugar
Recipe:
Heat up the oven to around 180 degrees (low-medium heat), wrap the garlic bulb in tin foil, place on a baking tray and place in the over for 15 minutes. When cooked through, squeeze the garlic from the cloves into a blender.
In a frying pan, melt a knob of butter and add the livers. Cook them over a moderate heat for 4-5 minutes, then drain off any juices and place the livers in a blender. Wipe the frying pan, then melt some more butter and add the shallots, thyme and chopped garlic. Cook until the onions have softened slightly. Place them in a blender.
Leave the onions and livers to cool for half an hour then add the half pack of butter to the blender and blend until the pate is nice and fine. If you want a really smooth pate, pass it through a sieve. Otherwise just spoon it out into a dish and place it somewhere to cool. When it has cooled, put it in the fridge for 5-6 hours to set.
When you are ready to serve it, put a knob of butter, some olive oil and the sugar into a small saucepan then add the chopped red onion. Put a lid on the pan and let it simmer on a low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Thinly slice the french stick and place on a baking tray. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle sea salt over the bread then place in a hot oven for 3-4 minutes or until the bread is nice and crisp.
Serve a slice of the pate with some pieces of bread, some caramelised red onion and a leafy salad.
Chicken Curry (serves 2) OfficePest
Ingredients
Cumin Seeds
Ground Cumin
Ground Coriander
Garam Masala
Cinnamon
Chinese 5 Spice
Ground Fenugreek
Turmeric
½ Cinnamon Stick
2 Bay Leaves
3/4 Curry Leaves
1 Star Anise
(Blend these together with some oil to make a paste)
3cm Cubed Peeled Ginger
3 – 5 Green Chillies (depending on how hot you like it)
5/6 Cloves Garlic
1 Large Chopped Onion
1 Chopped Green Pepper
3 or 4 Whole Cloves of Garlic (skin off)
4 large Chicken Thighs (skin off)
2 Tins Chopped Tomatoes
Half a pint of Chicken Stock
Finely Chopped Fresh Coriander
Recipe
Firstly de-skin all of the chicken. It is essential that you do this as otherwise the fat will come out in the cooking. I like to keep the chicken skin and cook it in the oven to serve with the curry. Up to you.
Heat some oil in a pan until just smoking and add the Cumin Seeds. Let them pop. Next turn the heat down to a low simmer and add the spices, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, curry leaves and star anise. I find the best mix of spices is most to least as per the list above (lots of Cumin, little Turmeric).
Let that cook for 30 seconds or so then add the chopped onions, chopped pepper and whole cloves of garlic. Let them sweat down for 5 minutes until they onions are starting to go translucent, then add 3 or 4 teaspoons of the paste.
Let that cook for a couple of minutes and then add the chicken thighs. Cook them for a few minutes on either side until they’re starting to brown off. Now add the tomatoes and stock and give it a good stir. Take out the star anise and now put the lid onto the pan and let the curry simmer (stirring occasionally) for about 45 minutes (longer if you have big chicken thighs).
Salt the chicken skin and pop it into the oven (if you are going to cook it) for 10-15 minutes. To cook some basic pilau rice, add 5 cloves, 5 cardamon, 1 star anise and some turmeric to one cup of rice. Add one and half cups of water and bring to the boil. When boiling, add some salt, stir and turn down to a simmer with the lid on. Cook until the steam lessens significantly. You can tell it’s cooked by running a fork along the bottom of the pan. If it’s starting to stick, it’s cooked. Remove the pan from the heat and leave it for 2-3 minutes (this will finish the cooking and ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan).
Just before serving the curry, throw in the fresh coriander. Serve with an enormous stack of poppadoms, naan bread and the chicken skin.
Good BBQ marinade for pork/steak TheHillman
Good slug of Dark Soy sauce
Ground Pepper
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp honey
2 Crushed garlic cloves
Pour over either pork/steak and marinade for 24 to 36 hours
Cook a thick chop / steak on gas mark 3/4 for around 25 min or until juices run clear
Serve with mash potato, beans or gravy and corn on the cob
Gin sorbet crispycrumb
Lemon sorbet
Mango sorbet
Gin
Mix a single measure of gin with a serving of lemon sorbet and mix it til it's mushy.
Pop it back in the freezer for a bit until it's firmed up again, then remove.
Add a scoop of mango sorbet on the top and consume.
Don't use too much gin as it won't mix in properly with the sorbet!
Thai Mango Sticky Rice pudding. Smellavision
serves 4
Prepare a mango by cutting it into two 'steaks', arrange on the plate and slice thinly
Steam glutoneous rice in a muslin bag for thirty minutes.
Tin of Cocunut milk into a pan, couple of tablespoons of brown sugar (can substitute Maple syrup), and a stick of vanilla.
Heat, but do not bring to the boil.
Add to teaspoons of Cornflower to two teaspoons of water, make a paste and add this to the coconut.
Here's the fancy parts - pack the rice into a cone shape (I use a small funnel), and tip it onto the plate to form a little cone of rice, sprinkle some seaseme seeds over the top, pour a tablespoon of the sauce over the top of the rice, or provide a small shot glass of the sauce on the side.
Oriental roast chicken Dizzyisanegg
Serves 3-4 (maybe more depending on the size of bird used).
This is a piece of piss to make but turns out to be quite impressive and tasty.
Ingredients
1. 1 tbsp vegetable oil
2. 2 tsp Thai spice blend or Chinese five-spice powder
3. ½ tsp coarse salt
4. Grated zest and juice of 1 lime, plus extra 1 lime, halved
5. 1.5kg whole free-range chicken
6. 2 lemongrass stalks, bruised (is fresh, bashed if dried)
7. 4 thick slices fresh ginger
8. 2 lime leaves (look for Bart Spices dried lime leaves, from major supermarkets)
9. 200g carton coconut cream
10. 200ml chicken stock, hot
11. 1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan180°C/gas 6. Mix together the oil, spice blend, salt and lime zest and juice to make a paste. Rub the mixture onto the chicken skin.
2. Pop the lime halves into the body cavity, along with the lemongrass, ginger and lime leaves. Sit in a roasting tin and roast for 1½ hours, until the chicken is cooked through. Tip any juices inside the body cavity into the tin, then lift the chicken onto a plate and rest for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, pour the juices from the tin into a pot then stir the coconut cream, stock and curry paste into the juices, and cook over a medium heat for around 5 minutes, until hot. Carve the chicken and serve with the coconut gravy and some steamed greens like such as pak choi, and rice.
For the rice I usually go for sushi/Japanese rice. Soak it in cold water (enough to cover the rice and about an inch above) for around an hour or even longer before you start cooking it (easy enough for this dish since the chicken takes about an hour and a half or longer). Drain the cold water and add boiling water (again, cover the rice and about half an inch over that). Add salt. Bring to the boil and let it cook until you start to see holes develop on the surface. Add some more water, boil for a bit longer, a little more water if required then turn off the heat. Leave the rice covered for about ten minutes so that it steams and continues to cook. Once the water has been absorbed you should be left with some very nice sticky rice. If you've made too much put it in the fridge and make egg fried rice with it the next day.
Roasted Poussin with basil and bacon OfficePest
Ingredients
2 Poussin
1 pack streaky bacon
Basil
Spinach
Potatoes
1 bulb garlic
1 bottle red wine
½ pint chicken stock
Flour
Butter
Cream
Recipe
Chop the bulb of garlic through the middle so that you have chopped through all the cloves (you will need a very sharp knife). Drizzle one half with olive oil and put it into a tin foil packet. Cook this in the oven on gas mark 4 on the top shelf for about 30 minutes and then remove.
Carefully run your fingers under the skin of the poussin to release it from the flesh. Rub some butter with chopped basil under the skin. Stuff some spinach into the cavities. Wrap each of the birds in the streaky bacon. Put into a roasting tray into the oven (no foil) on gas mark 6 for 45-50 minutes.
Chop and boil the potatoes. When soft, add butter and cream and squeeze the cloves of roasted garlic into the potatoes and mash.
When the poussin are cooked, take them out of the tray to rest and drain any fat from the tray. Put the tray over a hob and add some flour. Mix this around with the remaining juices and then add some red wine to deglaze the tray. Let the alcohol cook out and then add some chicken stock. Keep stirring until the gravy has thickened.
Serve the chicken with the garlic mash and cover with the red wine gravy. You could even have some vegetables if you wanted, but hey…why ruin it?!
Roasted Pepper Bruschetta OfficePest
Ingredients
8 vine tomatoes
2 roasted sweet peppers
3 shallots
A handful of basil
1 clove of garlic
Olive oil
1 lemon
Balsamic Vinegar
Mozzarella
Recipe
Deseed the tomatoes and dice them. Roast the peppers in the oven until soft and the skins are starting to bubble. Take them out, deseed and dice them and add to the chopped tomatoes. Finely chop the shallots, garlic and basil and add to the mix. Squeeze in the lemon, add a glug of balsamic vinegar and add lots of olive oil. Mix it all together and leave the flavours to infuse for a couple of hours.
Cut some french stick into slices and drizzle with olive oil. Grill until toasted on both sides and then rub each slice with a garlic clove. Spoon the mixture onto the toasted bread and then add a slice of mozzarella to the top. Grill again until the mozzarella is starting to bubble and serve.
Sukhi's Curry. WeeCooper
2 med onions, 450gm chicken, a tin of tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon gram masala, fresh coriander.
Chop onions and garlic then fry until brown. Chop chicken then add to onions and garlic. Add tomatoes and give a good stir. Simmer for 5 mins. Add all the spices. Turn down and gently simmer for 45 - 60 mins. Add water if you think it's drying out too much for your taste. Pull apart the coriander into decent sizes then add to mix 5 mins before finished.
Spices can be tweaked to your liking.
