Thursday 29 September 2016

Hebridean chicken - two ways


Most people (in Scotland anyway) have heard of a dish called Chicken Balmoral, which is chicken breast stuffed with haggis. But I hadn't heard of Hebridean Chicken until I met my S. He talked about it for years and finally made it last week. It was delicious!

He allowed me to take photos as he was cooking - it's more putting 3 things together rather than a precise recipe, but it was so tasty I really wanted to share it.

Hebridean chicken is very similar to Balmoral chicken in that it's chicken breast stuffed with haggis, but the difference is that Hebridean chicken is also wrapped in smoked bacon. I don't eat bacon, so S made it two ways and wrapped mine in smoked salmon.

The ingredients are: 1 chicken breast per person, 1 handful of haggis per person, and enough slices of smoked bacon/salmon to wrap the whole breast. That's it.

I think that if haggis isn't available, black pudding might be a good substitute. 

Take the chicken breasts and slice them open
Like so.
Next, take a handful of haggis and roll it into a sausage.
Stuff the chicken with the haggis sausage
And wrap the whole thing in slices of smoked bacon

Or smoked salmon

Hebridean chicken two ways!

Next, wrap each breast in tinfoil and place on a baking tray.


This is then baked in a preheated oven in 200°C for a minimum of 30min. Serve with mashed potatoes, peppercorn sauce and peas. I think whisky sauce would also go well with this dish.

The chicken comes out incredibly juicy; the smoked bacon/salmon gives it amazing smokiness, and the haggis acts as flavouring; no spices required. The whole combination is just delightful!





Wednesday 28 September 2016

Golden milk - natural cold remedy



This time of year I'm all about staying warm. My favourite warming drink, which also happens to be a natural cold & flu remedy, is golden milk. Its combined ingredients have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and cough-soothing properties, not to mention that it tastes good, too, and is super simple to make. There are many variations out there, but I usually make my golden milk the following way:

Ingredients:
1 cup milk (dairy or vegan)
1 tsp honey (or maple suryp for a vegan version)
1 tsp coconut oil
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 good pinch cinnamon
+optional pinch of chilli powder, cayenne pepper or even black pepper

I gently heat up the milk - you don't want it boiling hot as it would affect the healing properties of the honey. 40°C is probably about right.
In the meantime I mix all the remaining ingredients in a mug to a smooth paste. I pour in the warm milk and mix again. That's it.

Great for those long evenings when I'm curled up under a blanket with a book, or cold stormy mornings when I wake up with a sore throat, or any time inbetween!

Tuesday 27 September 2016

Foraging - boletes


Boletes are quite a large family of mushrooms whose main characteristic is the lack of gills - they have spongy pores on the underside of their caps instead. They're not all edible, but many are - and can be utterly delicious. I have my favourites, but am not fussy at all. I think that a few sliced wild mushrooms of any kind, gently frying in butter, with a little chopped onion and some salt and pepper is the most heavenly smell in the world and the base of many gorgeous dishes.

We went to Callendar Park near Falkirk on Sunday for a nice walk, and found a handful, topped up with a few larger specimens found on our way from work last night. Aside from last week's chanterelles, I now have birch boletes, bay boletes, suede boletes and slippery jacks (a.k.a. sticky buns) in my freezer. It's very satisfying!


Suede bolete

And another one, hiding under twigs. Suede boletes are quite soft mushrooms so unfortunately worms like them a lot. This little guy however was perfect. 

Bay bolete. This size is perfect for pickling - although this time I didn't have enough of them to fill a jar. 


Another bay bolete.


Birch boletes with their unmistakeable birch-like stems and flesh that turns blue within seconds of being cut. I absolutely love them. They're flavourful and very dense, which means you are very unlikely to find a worm inside! 


Slippery jacks. It's the only mushroom I would peel (just the cap), as the skin is very sticky and impossible to clean.



Friday 23 September 2016

Foraging - chanterelles



Foraging is one of my passions, and foraging for mushrooms in particular is my ultimate delight. I am lucky enough to have been taught about mushrooms pretty much ever since I could walk, by my parents and grandparents during countless foraging trips. I most definitely don't know all the mushrooms, especially that Scotland has surprised me with many species I had never come across before, but the ones I do know, I know well. Fresh wild mushrooms are ridiculously expensive to buy (if you can find them in a shop in the first place), so knowing my mushrooms is one of my most valuable skills.

The other day I went for a walk along the field behind our house. It's a fairly large field, and it borders with a small forest. Around 20 minutes into my walk, I came across a lovely troop of mushrooms that turned out to be one of my favourite kinds - chanterelles. Many of them had been largely eaten by slugs but that doesn't bother me - I'm happy to share.



I picked them and brought them home; cleaned and weighed them - I had 180g which is a good amount for a meal. A note on cleaning mushrooms: you don't want to wash them with water as they will soak it up like sponges. Just brush off the visible dirt.




They are now sitting in the freezer, waiting  to be used - maybe in a risotto or a lovely creamy sauce. I will definitely be going back to that spot soon to see if any have grown back. I am also planning to expand my foraging area and hope to find other things, too!

Tuesday 20 September 2016

Garden update (in pictures)

We don't have much of a garden yet - it's all work in progress. We have only been in this house for two months, and most of our efforts have been focused on the house itself. Painting, furnishing etc. But we have managed to do a few things in the garden too. 

We moved in quite late in the season, so rather than running around like a headless chicken trying to force things to grow right away, I decided to take it easy and get the garden properly ready for next year. I discovered that I have heavy clay soil here, so solutions had to be found.

As far as gardening goes, I have much more enthusiasm than knowledge or experience, and I learn as I go - no doubt mistakes will be made but it's all part of the fun. 

I don't really have any ''before'' pictures, but here's the current state of affairs.

Curious Banjo exploring the garden for the first time.

Harvest of potatoes planted by the previous owners.

My herb ''garden'' - I couldn't wait, I had to plant something!

I have sage, rosemary, marjoram, oregano and a bay tree.

I also have a lavender plant - but no flowers this year.

I found these little things growing in the monoblock cracks. I transplanted them into a pot - I think they're blackberries but we shall see!


We had to plant this apple tree on a mound rather than in a hole due to the clay soil.

Boxes for raised beds my S built for me. They still need to be dug into the ground and filled in - we want to do this soon so the soil can rest over the winter. I have 3 large beds, two narrow ones along the fence (for climbers) and a small square one for strawberries.

Three large beds, 2.2m x 1.1m each.

Front of the house. We removed all the turf and replaced it with bark. The tiny lonely plant there is a Japanese quince. I will eventually add more shrubs to keep it company.

A pile of turf we removed - this will go on the bottom of the raised beds.

Front of the house - a small rock garden that we've tidied up a bit.

We have a small pond in the garden but it will have to go; we've decided it's not safe with a 4-year-old running around. 

Friday 16 September 2016

Utility room makeover



Ever since we bought this house I've been planning to re-do my kitchen. Not that it's bad at the moment, but the dark cabinets make the whole room look really dingy, and the granite-effect worktops mean that I can never tell whether they're dirty or not, it's impossible to see any splashes among all the ''granite'' spots. My dream kitchen has to be white with wooden worktops... But that is not going to happen any time soon as we need to save up for it first.

Now my utility room is a different story. It had the same cabinets and worktops as my kitchen, and was just as dark. But because it's ''only'' a utility room, I thought I would give it a try and transform it cheaply into something resembling the ideal. If it turned out horrible, I would have just keep the door shut and nobody would have to look at it really. But it actually turned out pretty well - and in total I only spent around £40. I bought two tubs of furniture paint, two rolls of wood-effect sticker type thing and a few metres of fabric.

And here's how it turned out!


From this...
To this!


Cats' litter trays and recycling bins are now out of sight


Worktop before
Worktop after

I even made simple little blinds






It still houses my washing/cleaning supplies, recycling bins, gardening stuff and cat's litter trays, and so it will never be pristine, but it feels a lot brighter and cleaner now, and I enjoy using it a lot more now.

Tuesday 13 September 2016

Aubergine Vindaloo for a cold, rainy day



We had a really bad storm here the other day. Even though our house isn't particularly cold, just looking at the wind and rain outside the window made me crave something really warm and spicy for dinner. So I browsed through the blog of my favourite cook/blogger, Jack Monroe - COOKING ON A BOOTSTRAP.  This blog, along with Jack's cookbooks, is my most trusted and most often used source of budget-friendly, simple and tasty recipes. I decided to make Jack's Aubergine and Lentil Vindaloo and it was sooo good I will definitely be making it again. Absolutely loved it.

This recipe served the 2 of us for dinner with a generous portion left for next day's lunch.

Ingredients:

3 onions, peeled and sliced
6 fat cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole
1 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1/4 of a star anise 
2 tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp vinegar 
2 small aubergines, diced or thinly sliced
100g red lentils, rinsed
A little oil for frying
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Cook the onions in a little oil on a low heat, until they're translucent. Add the garlic, aubergine and spices, along with a cup of water (Jack's recipe only calls for half a cup, but I found it not enough) and stir well.



Meanwhile, cook the lentils in unsalted water in a separate pan - they will only take a few minutes to soften. When cooked, rinse and drain.

Add the cooked lentils, the tomato paste and the vinegar to your aubergine pan and simmer for anything between 10-20min, until the aubergine bits are brown and soft. Done!




This worked amazingly well as a warming dish and will definitely be made a lot this autumn and winter. I am completely in love with it. 


Friday 9 September 2016

Chicken and vegetable biryani + tomato and onion gravy



One of my favourite cuisines without a doubt is Indian. These days however, with most of our money being spent on home/garden improvements, there's no budget left for luxuries such as occasional take-away meals so I decided to make my own versions of our favourite Indian dishes, as I wasn't ready to completely give them up. They don't pretend to be authentic, but they're tasty and work out so much cheaper than their take-away counterparts.

The other day I made this chicken and veg biryani. I had made it without meat in the past and it was utterly delicious, so it can definitely be easily made vegetarian.

This recipe is very versatile and you can really use whatever veg you have kicking about. It does take a while to prepare (though nothing complicated) so it's a weekend treat for us.

This recipe will serve 4-6 people depending on appetite. 

Biryani ingredients:

500g chicken breast 
A good pinch of curry powder (optional)
2 carrots or a sweet potato
2 handfuls of frozen or fresh cauliflower or broccoli florets
1 onion
A handful of green beans (trimmed) or mange tout or frozen peas
500g rice
A little vegetable oil

For the stock:
1l of chicken or vegetable stock or water
1/2 jar curry paste (tikka masala, rogan josh, madras...)
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tsp dried chilli flakes or 1 fresh chopped chilli
Salt to taste

First, dice the chicken, sprinkle with the curry powder (if using) and stir-fry in a pan in a little oil until golden-brown.

Pre-heat your oven to 220°C.
Peel and chop your veggies, except the beans/peas. Toss them in a large roasting tin with a glug of oil and roast in the pre-heated oven for 15-20min.

Meanwhile, prepare the stock - put all the stock ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

Take the roasting tin out of the oven and reduce the temperature to 190°C. Add all the other ingredients to the tin: beans/peas, fried chicken, uncooked rice and the hot stock. Cover the tin with foil and return to the oven for 30min.






This can be garnished with chopped coriander if you have any on hand, and served with poppadoms.

I like to serve mine with a tomato and onion gravy called shorba, or my version of it anyway.

Here's how I make it.

Gravy ingredients:

A glug of oil
1 large onion
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped or 3 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 fresh chilli pepper (dried is also fine)
1 tbsp ginger & garlic paste or equivalent amount of fresh garlic and ginger, grated
4 tbsp desiccated coconut
2 tbsp natural yoghurt
Salt to taste

Spices:

Powdered:
A good pinch of turmeric
1 tsp garam masala

Whole:
1 bay leaf (fresh or dried)
Seeds of 3 cardamom pods
Seeds of 2 star anise petals
3 cloves
1/2 cinnamon stick 



First, slice the onion and fry it together with the halved and de-seeded chilli in a little oil. When onion starts to turn golden, add all the remaining ingredients except the yogurt and the whole spices. Fry for another 7-10 minutes, stirring frequently.




Put 2 cups of cold water tin a blender and add the contents of the pan. Blend until smooth.

Put a small amount of oil in a clean pan and add the whole spices - fry for a couple of minutes until they release the aromas. Add the blended mixture and bring to a boil. The gravy is ready. Just before serving, stir in the yoghurt.