Bocconcini di pollo con aceto alle mele

Just occured to me as I trawl my way through my cookbooks I might accidently learn a new language or two as I go....  It sounds so much nicer in Italian than - chicken bites wrapped in pancetta and sage with a cider vinegar dressing!

This lovely little dish is  from a book a dear friend gave me for my wedding anniversary a couple of years ago and I'm ashamed to say this is the first time I've cooked out of it. I've ooh'ed and ahh'ed and read it often enough but never got anything from page to plate before. Hopefully this will be the first of many. The book? Passione The Italian Cookbook by Gennaro Contaldo.

The recipe below is one he knocked up out of the blue when he found himself with some spare chicken breasts, as you do ;) Well I for one don't as a rule because most packs come with 4 breasts and I am usually feeding 5. Which is why I was so tickled with this recipe as you cut the breasts up into smaller bits, so making it easy to stretch.

It's so simple it barely needs instructions but her goes, I'm not going to specify quantities, you know how many you are feeding and how hungry you are -

skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into 3 to 4 chunks depending on size of breast
very thin slices of pancetta, cut in half, enough for one for each piece of chicken  (now I'm sure if all he had in his fridge was proscuitto as I did the recipe would be called something different, it works too)
fresh sage leaves (one for each chunk of chicken)
2 tablespoons of olive oil

for the dressing -

120ml extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp chopped fresh parsley
salt and fresh ground pepper

Simply lay a slice of your pancetta on your clean worksurface, top with a sage leave then wrap around a piece of chicken to encase it. Continue with the rest.  Then heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and and add the wrapped chicken. Turn the heat down a little and fry the chicken, turning often till the chicken is cooked through. Takes about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile whisk the dressing ingredients together to make the dressing and pour over the hot chicken.  (If serving cold serve the dressing seperately).

Simples....

In his book Gennaro suggests these as a starter or you could make ahead for party nibbles but I found with a lovely salad and some Rosemary Roasted Potatoes ( pre boil chunks of a nice potato like King Edward for 5 mins or so till just soft and fry on the hob with butter & oil and some chopped Rosemary to get browning started then toss in a few breadcrumbs and transfer to a hot oven for 20 mins or so, season well, yummy) it made a lovely main meal.  Another time I might ring the changes with a sprinkle of lemon zest and grating of parmesan over the pancetta too before rolling.  After all Gennaro was just messing with what he had in the fridge :)

As an aside, the plate you see the Bocconcini sitting in is part of a set that I 'liberated' from ebay.  They are very old and irreplacable and I'm terrified of breaking them but I'm also a very firm believer that you shouldn't keep things for best. Every day is 'best'! But only I'm allowed to wash them :)

Battata Hara

Coincidentally my next entry is another recipe from Yotam, not from is book though, this is one I tore out the newspaper a few weeks ago and have been waiting to try.  I was not dissapointed, I served it with some simply roasted Cod and Wilted Spinach but one of the comments was 'this is so scrummy yummy I could just eat a whole bowl of this'. So I'd say that was a success!

 

The recipe is as follows -

1 kg charlotte potatoes peeled and cut into 2cm dice

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp sunflower oil

7 garlic cloves peeled and crushed (I know it sounds a lot but go with it, it works!)

1 tsp pul biber (Turkish flaked chilli) or ½ tsp another flaked chilli

2 red peppers cut into 2cm dice

30 g chopped coriander

1 lemon plus 1 tbsp lemon juice

Maldon sea salt and black pepper

Heat the oven to 240C/465F/gas mark 9. Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil, throw in the potatoes and cook for three minutes. Drain and leave in a colander until completely dry.

Mix the potatoes with the oils, two teaspoons of salt and some black pepper, and spread on a medium roasting tray lined with tin foil; the potatoes should fit in snugly in one layer. Put them in the oven to roast and, after 10 minutes, stir in the garlic, pul biber, red pepper and half of the coriander. Return to the oven and roast for a further 25-30 minutes, until the potatoes are nicely coloured and completely tender. Stir once halfway through the cooking.
Remove the potatoes from the oven and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in the lemon zest and juice, taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
Serve warm or at room temperature, stirring in the remaining coriander at the last minute.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Introducing Yotam - Leek fritters

The first book from the shelf to undergo the 'shall I keep it?' test is Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty.  Not a fair test as I knew it would!  I love Yotam's recipes in the Guardian each Saturday and bought the book on the strength of that, but for some strange reason it's sat on my shelf looking rather pristine still.  So it's time it started earning it's shelf space and we started today with Leek Fritters.  The name for these sounds a little boring, but they are gorgeous. I will definately be making these again.  The following recipe is to serve 4, I halfed it quite easily as there was only 2 of us for lunch.

Ingredients -

450g leeks, trimmed weight.
5 shallots ( I used an onion)
150ml olive oil
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and sliced, or live a little and keeep the seeds in!
25g parsley leaves, finely chopped
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white
120g self raising flour
1tbsp baking powder
1 egg
150 mls milk
55 g butter, melted

For the sauce -

100g Greek Yoghurt
100g Soured Cream
2cloves crushed garlic
2 tbsp Lemon juice ( I used Lime and will stick with that, it's lovely)
3 tbsp olive oil (I forgot to put that in, not sure what difference it would make but's it's great without)
1/2 tsp salt
20g parsley leaves
30g coriander leaves
(or do as I did and just throw in what you have, I used mix of parsley, coriander & chive but no where near quantity specified I don't think)

Start by blitzing sauce ingredients together. Set aside for later.
Cut the leeks into thick slices  and saute with the shallots with half the oil until soft, about 15mins, combine with the chilli, parsley, sugar, salt  & spices and leave to cool (oops was fine warm)

Now to the eggs, (when I halfed the recipe I used 1 egg and whisked the whites and used the yolk in the batter.) Whisk the egg white to soft peaks and fold into the vegetables. In another bowl mix the flour, baking powder, whole egg (I'd throw the odd egg yolk in here too) milk and butter to form a batter then add to the vegetable mix.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in your largest frying pan and use about half the mix to form 4 fritters, cook for 2-3 mins a side till golden, keep warm while finishing the rest. You should end up with 8 large fritters. Having said that I got 6 out of my half mix, but maybe they were smaller than his.

Serve warm with the sauce drizzled over, delicious!

I sat and flicked through the book whilst enjoying my lunch and all I can say is I really don't think it will be long before it gets another airing :-)

Have a peek at the book here .....

Roast Mediterranean Vegetable Lasagne

I challenged my dear daughters sense of food adventure last week with what I thought was a most delicious fennel and squash lasagne.  So to restore order and keep the peace I promised to fulfil their request for their favourite veggie lasagne.  This is a relatively new addition to our repertoire but instantly became a favourite.  I was asked to provide some vegetarian option food at a friends wedding earlier this year and after scouring my books and not finding anything that excited me I turned to the web and came across this, courtesy of Delia Smith.  So on to the recipe ….
Ingredients
First on the list is 9 sheets spinach lasagne I personally ignore that and make my own pasta. I  find a 2 egg to 200g of 00 flour mix makes about the right amount for my lasagne dish.  And it gives me the chance to use one of my favourite kitchen toys ...

 

As it’s Tales from  the Table it wanted a photo shoot .....

Now on with the rest ….

• 3 oz. Mozzarella
  
• 1 small aubergine cut into 1” dice
  
• 2 medium courgettes cut into 1” dice
  
• 1 ¹⁄₄ oz. plain flour
  
• 1 lb. cherry tomatoes skinned (so the recipe says, I don’t bother!)
  
• 1 ¹⁄₂ oz. butter
  
• 1 small yellow pepper de-seeded and cut into 1 inch squares
  
• 1 pint milk
  
• 1 large onion sliced and cut into 1 inch  squares
  
• 1 bay leaf
  
• 2 garlic crushed
  
• 1 grating nutmeg
  
• 2 tablespoons basil leaves torn so that they stay quite visible
  
• 3 Tbsp. Parmesan grated
  
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2 oz. black olives chopped
  
• 1 Tbsp. Parmesan grated
  
• 1 Tbsp. capers
  
• Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 9 475F (240C)

Firstly chop all the aubergine, courgette, peppers and onions into 1 inch dice.
Then arrange the tomatoes, aubergine, courgettes, peppers and onion on a couple of roasting trays, sprinkle with the chopped garlic, basil and olive oil, toss everything around in the oil to get a good coating, and season with salt and pepper. Now place the trays in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the vegetables are toasted brown at the edges.
Meanwhile make the sauce by placing all the ingredients (except the cheese) in a small saucepan and whisking continuously over a medium heat until the sauce boils and thickens. Then turn the heat down to its lowest and let the sauce cook for 2 minutes. Then add the grated Parmesan. When the vegetables are done, remove them from the oven and stir in the chopped olives and the capers. I also stir in another good handful of Basil for good measure . Turn the oven down to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).
Now, into your lasagne dish pour one quarter of the sauce, followed by one third of the vegetable mixture. Then sprinkle in a third of the Mozzarella and follow this with a single layer of lasagne sheets. Repeat this process, ending up with a final layer of sauce and a good sprinkling of grated Parmesan. Then place the dish in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is crusty and golden. All this needs is a plain lettuce salad with a lemony dressing as an accompaniment according to Delia but I usually find some Garlic Bread on the side is expected too in this house!
And the finished result (here’s one I made earlier, tonight's was sabotaged before I could get a pic, which is a shame as it looked better, great start to the blog!)

So, why are we here?

I have a confession, I’m a compulsive cook book hoarder. One delightful member of my family has declared my precious collection a waste of space as she alleges I do not use them all. This blog is going to the proof, as I work my way through each and every one (not every recipe, I must work out how long that would take, that would prevent me ever buying a new book and I can’t have that!).

So it would appear to be bit bizarre that the first recipe I am going to talk about is not from these shelves but sourced on the internet. Note to self – stop googling till this challenge is done!
I will be back with that soon …

Welcome

Come in, have a seat, coffee & cake? please feel free to pop in and chat.

I'll be back later.....