Chicken Challenge

A close personal friend of mine recently threw down a challenge to make an exotic marinated chicken recipe and today's blog entry is about the recipe I made to respond to this. 

The week had ended in quite a sombre way as I had learned that an old friend, who I met during my uni days and kept in touch with after graduation, had lost his two year battle with cancer on St George's Day. Another hero the late, great England Batsman Denis Compton also passed away on St George's Day in 1997. However this friend of mine was a hero much closer to home. 

The choice of music to go with the cooking was David Bowie's 1977 album "Heroes". Bowie himself also lost a battle with the same type of cancer that my friend had. I first heard the album on the original vinyl in Autumn 2004 while studying a degree in my parents'cobweb ridden attic. It was on the degree I was studying for that I first met my friend. I noticed when I visited his student house in the City a few months later after first making friends that he too owned a copy of this album. It was one of the many connections I shared with him over the years. He is gone too soon. 

The album, which I chose to listen to as a tribute to him, can be heard at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mO2pGEUc5-vrZZDGEi9uJI33xEZfYGCh0

The ingredients of this recipe are as follows:

Four Chicken Thighs.

The marinade is made from:

Half a cup of Olive Oil.
The juice of two Lemons.
Six Garlic Cloves, peeled and sliced very finely into small cubes. 
One teaspoon of Black Pepper. 
One teaspoon of Ground Cumin.
One teaspoon of Paprika.
One teaspoon of Turmeric.
One teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon. 
One teaspoon of Garlic Salt.
One teaspoon of Chilli Flakes. 
One ripe White Onion, peeled and sliced finely into small squares. 

The method for this recipe is:

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together in a measuring jug or bowl. 

2. Use a brush to cover the Chicken Thighs with the marinade ingredients. 

3. Place the marinated Chicken Thighs and excess marinade on a baking tray with high sides. Cover the tray with clingfilm and leave for one or two hours to allow the flavours to infuse. 

4. Cook in the oven on Gas Mark Seven for forty minutes. 

5. Serve with a side of your choice. I found that homemade Peas Fried Rice, which I made by boiling some Brown Rice for fifteen minutes and Garden Peas for five minutes before lightly frying them and the Rice with some Soy Sauce, went well with this recipe. 

The recipe was made special by the marinade fusing with the skin of the chicken thighs to create a golden brown colour and a taste that balanced sweet and sour in just the right way. 

The thighs have it- a golden, crispy Chicken with plenty of Peas Fried Rice.

The Golden Goose Flies Low

The title of today's blog entry comes from a quote by Ax, one half of the legendary World Wrestling Federation Tag Team Demolition, before he and his partner went out and won the Tag Team Championship at Wrestlemania IV in 1988. Although the result was scripted, as it was sports entertainment not sport, the complete quote he says about the Golden Goose flying low and taking the chance to grab it is a powerful metaphor for taking opportunities in life. 

Thirty two years later in the early months of the third decade of twenty first century there's an  illness that restricts our movement in ways unimaginable even two months ago. However, despite what we may be told, the words from 1988 still apply today if we look hard enough and do not believe everything we are told by those who claim to hold all the keys. 

On the player on this particular evening in Spring 2020 was Styx's 1983 record "Kilroy Was Here". The album is a concept album that paints the picture of a bleak future in which rock music is banned by totalitarian rulers and a shady body called the "MMM (the Majority for Musical Morality)" who do the government's bidding. The story's central character is  Robert Orin Charles Kilroy. He is a former rock star who has been imprisoned by MMM leader Dr. Everett Righteous.  Kilroy escapes using a disguise, an episode which is described in the gleefully bouncy opening song "Mr. Roboto". As a good friend pointed out recently, the present situation appears to have made musicians and celebrities vanish from headlines, concert halls and theatres and so caused indirectly some of the events depicted in this album.  This in turn has made the record appear much more vital and relevant than it ever was upon original release. It's certainly a case of great art only appearing so some time after it was produced.  

A link to this record if you'd like to listen is at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k9NPYPA_LLBWBqBs-DWhVJp5qmqfwgmSo

One of the positives of the situation we all face is that it has made me realise the benefits of local food suppliers. For example for this recipe of a Goose and Duck Egg Rosti I acquired the Eggs from a local dealer within walking distance with all other fresh vegetable ingredients obtained from my newly re-opened and reborn Greengrocers just two minutes away on foot. Both businesses add value to the local community and their produce is top-drawer. 

The ingredients are as follows:

Eight Ounces of Halloumi.
1 Onion, topped, tailed, peeled and the cut into cubes.
1 Teaspoon of Black Pepper.
1 Teaspoon of Dried Chives.
Eight Ounces of shredded Sweetheart Cabbage. 
3 Spring Onion, topped, tailed and sliced thinly. 
1 White Potato, peeled and grated. 
1 Duck Egg
1 Goose Egg 
Tablespoon of Olive Oil
Cress to garnish.

The method is as follows:

1. In a Le Cresceut or a deep frying pan fry the Onions in rapeseed oil on a medium heat for around 10 minutes. 

2. Add the Chives, Black Pepper, Shredded Cabbage, Spring Onion and Grated Potato. Fry for a further 10 minutes stirring constantly to avoid sticking. 

3. Add the Duck Egg and half of the Halloumi and stir it into the mixture to create a ball.

4. Meanwhile fry the Goose Egg for around seven minutes on a medium heat in a separate frying pan. 

5. Lay the remaining Halloumi out on a plate with the cress to garnish. 

6. Top the Halloumi and the Cress with the ball of Rosti. Place the Goose Egg on top of the Rosti.

The thick yolk of the Goose Egg when mixed with the Rosti and stray Halloumi pieces gave this recipe a rich taste. It was a recipe with plenty of protein from the yolks of both eggs and goodness with the greens. It certainly helped my positive mindset, which was enhanced by a telephone call from a close personal friend later that evening. 

The base of Halloumi and Cress just before the Rosti and Goose Egg are added.

Simnel when you’re winning?

The second of my traditional Easter Recipes this weekend was a Simnel Cake. The topping of this cake features a layer of Marzipan topped by some extra balls of Marzipan and a cross to remind us all of the origins of this cake. There is debate as to how many balls should be on top of a Simnel Cake. Some say it should be twelve to get proper symmetry and to represent each of the twelve apostles. Others say that it should be eleven balls to represent eleven of the apostles as the twelfth and excluded one is the traitorous Judas Iscariot. 

The ingredients of the cake are as follows:

For the cake itself: 

175 grams of Unsalted Butter.
175 grams of Demarera Sugar. 
3 beaten Free Range Eggs.
A teaspoon of All Spice. 
A teaspoon of Vanilla Essence. 
175 grams of Plain Flour. 
500 grams of mixed Peel and Sultanas.

25 grams of diced Lemon Rind.

2 tablespoons of Apricot Jam 

For the topping: 

A block of Rolling Marzipan.

On the player was more of the Big O this time in the shape of the 1988 compilation "The Legendary Roy Orbison" which was no doubt released to cash in on his well-deserved renewed level of success. It focuses on his excellent sixties hits including "Love Hurts" which includes perhaps the best arrangement of Piano and Strings on any record ever. 

So to the method which goes as follows:

1. Cream the Butter and Sugar until a mixture with a fluffy texture is created. 

2. Gradually beat in the Eggs to the mixture. 

3.Add the Allspice and Vanilla Essence. 

4. Stir in the Flour.

5. Add the Fruit and stir in until a thick paste is created. 

6. Put half the mixture into a greased cake tin and add the Apricot Jam atop it.

7. Then put other half of the mixture on top of the mixture and Apricot Jam already in the cake tin. 

8. Cook for one and three quarter hours on Gas Mark 1.

9. Turn out onto a rack and leave to cool. Put a skewer into the cake; if the skewer comes out clean apart from any Apricot Jam then it is done. If it does not then return to the oven for a further ten minutes.

10. Once the cake is cooled roll out the Marzipan and use two thirds of it to cover top of the cake and then use the remainder to create twelve balls representing the Apostles as well as a cross shape to decorate the top of the cake.

This cake is sweet and rich with a taste sensation that, if you think hard enough, can take you to better places away from all of this. 

They were all yellow; the chosen twelve sit atop the cake with a rudimentary cross in the middle. 

Neapolitan Easter

One product of this disturbing lockdown is that many people have been baking, if they have been lucky enough to get hold of any flour. On Instagram and Facebook I have seen some excellent and very professional efforts at baking bread. On a tropical Good Friday I decided to throw my hat into the ring by making a bread that is known in Italy, especially Naples, as a savoury Easter Treat. The usual process is to make a circular bread with a hole in and fill it with ham, hard-boiled eggs and some cheese.

The ingredients for my take on this bread were:

6 slices of Prosciutto cut into small squares. 

8 ounces of Chilli Cheese cut into small cubes. 

6 sprigs of Rosemary 

6 cups of Wholemeal Bread Flour

1 sachet of Yeast 

0.1 litres of Olive Oil 

2 cups water

On the player was Roy Orbison's final and greatest studio album "Mystery Girl" produced by the great Jeff Lynne and featuring songs by stars such as Elvis Costello, Bono and the Edge. It finds the Big O in typically engaging voice with many of the songs coming up to the quality of his memorable and long run of 1960s hit singles. I first heard the record while riding in my Dad's aged Fiat Uno as he and my mum transported me to play some junior cricket for a Peak District Team in the summer of '94. The album has stuck with me ever since. 

The method for this recipe was as follows: 

1. Combine the flour, yeast and Rosemary in a mixing bowl.

2. Gradually add the Olive Oil.

3. Then add the Cheese and Prosciutto pieces. 

4. Then add the water until all the ingredients are mixed together.to form a ball. 

5. Knead into a flat circle.
6. Punch a hole in the middle.

7. Leave in the refrigerator for 2 hours then get out for 45 minutes and bake on Gas Mark 5 for 45 minutes before serving hot or cold. 

The results of this project gave a bread that was slightly crunchy on the outside yet moist and very rich and flavoursome on the inside.

Survival Soup

The situation that has arisen since my last blog post is, in most of our lifetimes, unprecedented. Unlike during the War it is not the threat of invasion from a foreign power that has so curtailed our daily lives, but a microscopic army of disease that has caused a disturbance to our liberty. 

The closest thing to this in my lifetime was when in 2001 the foot and mouth outbreak saw the government close a lot of regular footpaths and parks, which meant I was able to find new places to walk closer to the home I lived in at the time.

The present scenario has brought a similar opportunity as it has allowed me to discover lots of new paths, within easy walking distance of my home, for the Dogg and I to exercise that few people seem to know of. This in turn means we get our daily exercise at a safe distance from anybody else and there is no risk of us causing what the state might term irresponsible harm by not following their social distancing rules. 

In one such place I found an enormous colony of Primroses growing on an embankment above a decaying railway line. They glowed luminously in the late spring light like the lines of an iridescent yellow marker pen dancing off an otherwise bland page of writing. 

Different times have called for different recipes. My emphasis is not so much on cooking for pleasure but more on cooking recipes that are nourishing, are able to last some time and they can be made pretty cheaply. 

Today's recipe is a type of soup that ticks all those boxes. 

On the player while making this soup was Nick Drake's final record, 1973's Pink Moon. Despite being around 26 minutes long he says a lot in a short space of time. The record contains sparse acoustic guitar and piano and is a classic case of less is more. Aside from the familiar title track, which was used in a car advert, you have the hypnotic chant of "Know" and the expansive "Things Behind the Sun" and "Parasite" as well as the assertive "Road". I got this record for my twenty-first birthday after I had just finished my first degree. My professional life, what little of it there was at that time,was at a crossroads just as it is today. 

In recent months the Dogg and I have made some connections with the Mysterious East. A Mysterious East that is just twenty minutes' drive away in normal circumstances. One thing I do know about this situation is that in the fullness of time the events that are unfolding will make this connection much stronger. The soup recipe is one taken from these connections and is as follows:

• Leaves and Stems of four Beetroot chopped finely.
• Four Sliced Shallots.
• Teaspoon of  dried Oregano.
• Teaspoon of Garlic Salt.
• Half a pint of Vegetable Stock.

The method is as follows:

1. Fry the Vegetables and herbs gently for twenty minutes in cooking in a Le Cresceut or a deep frying pan or wok.
2. Add the Vegetable Stock.
3. Simmer for thirty minutes.

Despite this recipe being seemingly nothing more than the leftovers from some Beetroot I baked with a shoulder of Gammon, the soup is full of natural goodness from the leaves and stems while the Oregano and Garlic Salt give it a real kick. The batch I made is enough for several helpings that have lasted a few days already. The soup is also surprisingly filling compared to a lot of the tinned dross that ignorant, self-centred delinquents have foolishly panic-bought from their local supermarkets. 

All the goodness- the soup ready to serve and steaming away. 

There's a kind of #Hash

Later that evening we were to watch the original Terminator Movie starring, among others, Mr Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger. With the exception of a few bits in Terminator 3, for me there were only ever two Terminator Movies; the first one and the second one. Sometimes the first two films suffer from over-familiarity . However watching the first one again with the lights off on a dark January evening with no interruptions made me realise how dark, chilling and in some ways prophetic the film was when taking into account our over dependence on technology today. The film is therefore just as relevant then as it is now. 

Seeing as Arnie is originally from Austria I decided to make something that is popular in his native country and I went for a Tiroler Grostel that's popular in the South Tryol Region of Austria. The recipe a kind of hash that is a little more exotic than some of our native hashes. 

The soundtrack today was more Zappa this time a live album released in 1991 called "Make a Jazz Noise Here". It is a deft mix of musical dexterity, strong guitar work, tight playing and sardonic humour. It is one three live albums that Zappa culled from his last world tour in 1988. 

The Ingredients

3 Small White Potatoes sliced as thinly as possible. 
3 Banana Shallots, peeled, topped, tailed and sliced width-ways. 
250 grams of Diced Beef.
250 grams of Diced Pork.
5 tablespoons of Rapeseed Oil or as needed. 
A tablespoon of Black Pepper. 
5 tablespoons of freshly chopped Parsley. 
1 tablespoon of dried Marjoram. 
1​ tablespoon of Caraway Seeds.
2 Eggs.
Salad leaves, such as Rocket, to serve on. 

The method

1. Heat the Oil in a frying pan and add the Potatoes. Fry until they are golden brown and fairly soft. 

2. In a separate frying pan fry the Shallots until they are translucent. 

3. Add the Beef, Pork and herbs to the pan with the Potatoes and fry until the Beef and Pork are cooked fully. Add the Shallots and then continue to fry on a low heat stirring very regularly. 

4. In the pan which contained the Shallots fry the two eggs for around five minutes while trying to make sure the Yolks remain runny. 

5. Serve the meat and potato mixture on a bed of Salad Leaves and divide this between two serving plates. Add a Fried Egg to the top of each serving.

There's a real earthy yet light taste to this recipe and it had the feel of something very different but is also comforting on a chilly Winter's Evening. For me it is the Diced Shallots, Pork and Caraway Seeds that really make the meal.

1. 

   A fried egg sitting pretty on top of the meal. 

   
   

   
   

The Empire Bites Back

The second week of January 2020 was as intense and action-packed as expected but also much more rewarding than expected. It mixed moments of intellectual excitement, clean-hitting during Cricket training and compromising body postures at a local village hall. 

Some comfort food was on the menu by the time Saturday 18 January rolled round. During the morning The Dogg and I discovered a new route through a familiar local wood and for our troubles were chased by a strange wolf-dog. The Dogg also succeeded in flushing an exotic-looking Mandarin Duck at a pond we walked passed. It was so muddy round and about that by the time we got home we were dirty enough to resemble some of the iconic pictures of mud -painted Rugby Union players from the 1970s, where every game seemed to take place on a a very damp day in January. 

Once we were cleaned up I searched my memory and recalled a retro biscuit recipe for something known as Empire Biscuits. These were the sort of biscuits your Gran might have made when she was a kid in the days when the United Kingdom genuinely had an Empire. 

Some inspiring music was playing in the background in the form of Frank Zappa's 1988 album "Guitar". The album is exactly what it says on the cover; a long collection of Zappa's guitar solos culled from various sources over the years. It succeeds in holding the listener's fascination for its entire length, as Zappa is such an accomplished an eclectic axe man that he keeps the music totally fresh throughout the album's duration. 

The ingredients of  this recipe are as follows:

Biscuit Base

• 130 grams of Caster Sugar
• 250 grams of Unsalted Butter
• 1 Egg, beaten. 
• 500 grams of  Plain Flour

Filling 

• Jar of Strawberry Jam. 

Topping

• 200 grams of Icing Sugar
• Few teaspoons of  water
• Glace Cherries.

Method 

• Pre-heat your oven to 180°c (or 160°c for a fan assisted oven). If using a Gas Oven pre-heat to Gas Mark 4. 
•  Line two baking trays with greased cooking foil. 
• Cream the Unsalted Butter and Sugar until it is very fluffy.
• Add the egg and mix until combined.
• Gradually add the Self-Raising Flour until a dough is formed. Knead the dough into a ball and then place in the fridge for around twenty minutes. 
• Roll the dough on a floured surface to around 1cm thick. Using a round cutter, cut the biscuits out and transfer them to the greased baking trays. 
• Bake for around 20 minutes until the biscuits become solid and golden. 
• When the biscuits are totally cool add the jam to the underside of half of them and attach them to the other halves to form a sandwich. 
• Prepare the icing by stirring the icing sugar and water slowly together until you have a thick paste. Spread the icing evenly over each of the biscuits and add the glace cherry. 
• Put the biscuits in the fridge for twelve hours to ensure the icing solidifies. After twelve hours remove from the fridge and serve once at room temperature. 

As the winter sun rolled into the lounge last Sunday Afternoon I took the time to chomp on one of the biscuits and reflect on how far that we'd all come in the last fifteen months. We had made a memorable start but the best was coming.