February 2021 Favourites list

February always seems to feel shorter than it is. You start on February the first with a brand new month and before you know it, it has slipped away and March is practically here. Here in the UK we had the announcement that we have a road map out of Lockdown 3.0 so there is a feeling of cautious optimism as we head into March.

I wonder if, like me, when you speak to family members, you prattle a little about what’s on TV, what you’ve been cooking and eating and reflect on where we are in the pandemic, and then sigh and say “I haven’t got any news”? It’s been a bit of a theme to conversations for a few months. This month has been slightly different as my parents and mother in law have been able to report getting their Covid vaccinations. I’ve breathed a sigh of relief as they’ve received their first jabs, and now hope the follow ups will come soon. I am waiting my turn, but watching the success of the UK vaccination programme has been heartening.

I was very lucky this month, as my friend Adey was good enough to write a guest post for this blog, his famous “weapons grade garlic” chicken. I would like to thank him and his partner Jools for the attention to detail, careful instructions and step by step photos. (Link to the post is featured below).

This month I will share with you some of my cooking creations in the photos to accompany this post. Some are “prettier” dishes than others. But they were all delicious. Home cooking has been such a comfort right now.

Food writing and articles:

A wonderfully evocative selection of diverse food writers share what comfort food means to them: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/covid-world-comfort-food.html

 

Food trends for 2021, to explore in lockdown: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/seaweed-bottarga-nigella-sherry-fermenting-coffee-b1784464.html  

The best traditional food from Scotland, by Kavey. Covering beef, haggis. Arbroath Smokies, Cullen Skink, Cranachan and Rowie. https://www.kaveyeats.com/the-best-traditional-food-from-scotland

Here's Kavey's guide to the best traditional food from England. Stilton, Cornish pasties, cream teas, Yorkshire pudding, Lancashire hotpot and strawberries in cream (of course!): https://www.kaveyeats.com/the-best-traditional-food-from-england

 

Here's your guide to Shrove Tuesday, including why Pancake Day is always on a Tuesday: https://metro.co.uk/2021/01/29/when-is-pancake-day-2021-and-why-is-it-always-on-a-tuesday-13978630/

Genevieve Ko is a chef, able to cook without a cookbook. But she’s resolved to follow recipes to the letter. Why? Because it gives you a better understanding of the culture behind the cuisine. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/dining/cookbook-recipe-resolutions.html

How the Japanese attitude to vegetables can change the way you cook and eat: https://heated.medium.com/the-best-vegetable-cooking-tip-ive-ever-received-was-also-the-simplest-28234b0011a7

 

A handwritten leather and rag paper cookbook from the 1830s got sold in a charity shop for £40. Is it the collected culinary secrets of an upper class household? And what are the recipes actually like? https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/historical-english-cake-recipes

Cooking and kitchen tips:

Ten tips on using baking powder and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) in the home: https://archive.is/rGGrU

Want to eat well on a budget? Here are Dr Rupy’s tips on what to have in your store cupboard. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/thrifty_cooking_storecupboard

Alton Brown’s 2016 food tip for better scrambled eggs is having a revival. The secret? Mayonnaise and water to create an emulsion. https://metro.co.uk/2021/01/25/chef-reveals-trick-to-make-perfect-scrambled-eggs-using-mayo-13959523/

Recipes:

A selection of sweet potato recipes showing just how versatile they are as an ingredient: https://www.stylist.co.uk/food-drink/best-sweet-potato-recipes/476723

Potatoes, parsnips and celeriac, Pamela Yung of London’s Flor restaurants shares her innovative recipes for winter veggies: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/jan/30/new-ways-with-winter-vegetables-recipes-parnsip-potato-fritters-celeriac-cake-winter-citrus-chicory-buttermilk-dressing

Pork belly with bay, cider and pears: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pork-belly-with-bay-cider-pears

Soup can be posh, so don't write it off. I like the look of this truffled parsnip soup with hazelnuts and bacon: https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/truffled-parsnip-soup-with-hazelnuts-and-bacon/

 

Meera Sodha's vegan recipe for Gujarati whole mung dal with sambharo (a sweet-sour cabbage and carrot relish): https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/jan/30/meera-sodha-vegan-recipe-for-gujarati-whole-mung-dal-with-sambharo

Quick pickled onions are easy to make and you can use them either as a garnish or topping for tacos, sandwiches or many other dishes. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-to-make-quick-pickled-red-onions

 

What you might have missed at Snig’s Kitchen

Adey’s Weapons Grade Garlic Griddled Chicken with Roasted Vegetables – a guest post from Adey (AKA @515mm on Twitter who is well worth following): https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2021/02/adeys-weapons-grade-garlic-griddled.html

TV:

It’s A Sin

The Pembrokeshire Murders

Film:

The Guilty

The Conversation

The Eichmann Show

Music:

Cold Fact – Rodriguez

Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka

 

Please note: as with every monthly Favourites List, all of these items have been selected by me simply because I love them. I do not receive any money, benefits in kind or other incentive for posting these links or recommendations.  

Adey’s Weapons Grade Garlic Griddled Chicken with Roasted Vegetables - guest post

Last year I shared an amazing recipe for Valentines' Day by my foodie friend Adrian Critten. We share a love of home cooking with big flavours. His lamb recipe with Parmesan champ and blackberry jus can be found here: http://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2019/02/adeys-lamb-with-parmesan-champ-and.html

Adey and I know each other through Twitter, where we frequently swap cooking tips, recipe links and food pictures. Adey can be found at his handle of @515mm, a reference to the bike frame he favours. Adey is also a wine buff who can always give you a great wine recommendation, no matter what you are cooking. His other interests include cycling, rugby, music and hi-fi. He doesn't understand my love for sushi, and I don't understand how wearing tight shorts perched on a razor-blade thin bike seat in the freezing cold can be fun. But we don't let it get in the way of our interest in food and home cooking. 

Adey is also an avid member of Foodie Twitter, where he engages in food chat with a passionate gang of food fans who love cooking, eating out, and bickering about our food preferences. 

Adey has shared with us his recipe for his "weapons grade" garlic griddled chicked with roasted vegetables. This is a recipe he has been working on for a little while, making refinements and tweaks. We share a love for the errant lily that is the garlic bulb, so I am delighted he has perfected the recipe. Thank you, Adey for sharing this on my blog as a guest post.

The photos are by Adey's wife and life partner Julia Harries. She's a highly skilled photographer who takes gorgeous photos of the Welsh countryside which is local to her. If you want to follow her on Twitter, her handle is @Joolsharries. I would like to thank her for her high quality photos accompanying this guest recipe post.

 

 

Adey’s Weapons Grade Garlic Griddled Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

I developed this dinner over a number of months. It cooked and ate very differently in the beginning and took twice as long to make.

Whilst experimenting for ways to cook meat involving:

i) the sunny flavours that I enjoy

ii) creating an accompaniment to robust red wine

iii) incorporating more vegetables into our diet

I hit upon the combinations of crispy chicken, garlic, lemon, fresh herbs, roasted peppers, toasted Parmesan and gooey tomato sauce. So here it is; pretty much store cupboard ingredients, readily available from all good supermarkets and your local Middle Eastern grocers.

Quantities are approximate, I'm more Nigella than Delia so don't worry about exact measures. You will need to alter the seasoning of the tomato sauce; a splash of vinegar perhaps, if it's lacking in acidity; a touch of sugar if it needs more sweetness; a squirt of ketchup if it needs both. It's your dinner, make it so you'll enjoy it.

I really meant it about the robust red wine.

Serves 2; generously.

Chicken thighs: 500g boneless, opened up to sit flat and dried with a cloth                  or kitchen roll

Red peppers:    2 (if you can, find those awesome sweet pointy ones)

Courgette:         2 big ones say about 6-700g in total

Aubergine:         1 big one or 2 little ones

Salad leaves:    a bag of whatever you like that looks pretty on the plate

Passata:            about 300g (much faster and tastier than tinned tomato)

Red wine:          about 200ml of something hefty but cheap. Gotsta love                   Aldi here.

Lemon juice:      from 1 medium lemon

Garlic:                4 fat cloves at least (1 for the sauce)

Red chilli:          as hot as you want it. I don't do hot, so I use about half a                        mild one.

Fresh thyme:     say a small handful on the stems (I grow it in a tub in the                           garden)

Fresh rosemary: a sprig say 10cm long retaining 2cm for the sauce (I have                             a bush in my garden)

Bay leaf:            1 (I have a tree. You guessed it, it's in my garden) 

Dried herbs:      for the roast veg; anything really, herbes de Provence,                                    mixed Italian, but avoid anything minty

Olive oil:            50ml of the good stuff for the sauce & on the leaves,

                          75ml of the basic cooking stuff for the chicken and veg

Unsalted butter: 50g ish. Good for the sauce, excellent for melting over the                     finished chicken if you want your guest(s) to go "Ooooo"

Parmesan:                 about 30g grated finely with a microplane

Balsamic vinegar:  30ml maybe; some for the sauce, some for the leaves

Tomato puree:   15ml ish, just a squirt really

Salt and pepper:     the tidy grindy gear, for preference

You will need:

An oven with a grill. Two gas burners or electric rings. A pan in which to make a tomato sauce. A pan in which to cook the chicken. 2 large baking sheets/trays

Special kit:

A stovetop griddle pan and a microplane. You can use a frying pan if you have to, but the chicken will turn out a bit differently. Not appalling, just different. (You’ll need a lower temperature so the lemon juice doesn’t burn before the chicken cooks through.)

You can use a knife and salt to grind down your garlic into a paste if you want to. Microplaning is faster for larger quantities, but I get the thrill of your chef skills, so knock yourself out. Careful you don't burn your now salty garlic when you make the tomato sauce though.

'Planed Parmesan gives us an amazing, polished veneer of cheese on the surface of the aubergine, but if you haven't got one, well, I'll never know unless you tell me, so use the finest cheese grater you’ve got.

Method:

Put the oven on 180C, put the music on - some Django Rheinhart perhaps - pour yourself a glass of something nourishing and have a good mouthful. Dinner will take a bit of time, this is best done with company.

Top and tail the courgettes, take about 1/4 of the skin off in 2 long strips from the sides and bin it. (See the aubergine photos) Of what remains, slice thickly. Depending on the size of your courgette, they may be 1/4 or 1/3 of the diameter. We're aiming for large, oblong slices about 5mm thick and 100mm long to stack into a tower. In a large bowl, toss the courgette in a little olive oil, salt & pepper. Place on a baking tray and sprinkle over some dried herbs. Get it in the oven now.

 

Top, tail and remove the cores of the red peppers. Slice the main body into 4 big squares, the bottoms and tops. In the big bowl, toss the peppers in some seasoned olive oil, arrange on a 2nd baking tray, sprinkle with herbs, put it in the oven.

 

Top and tail the aubergine. Cut 2 sections of the skin off down the long axis of the veg. (see image) Carefully cut the aubergine down the long axis into four equally thick slices. This is not easy, so take your time and plan the job. Rub the cut slices with olive oil. Be careful as aubergine soaks up oil like a sponge. Season and herb it up. Turn them over and do the other side.

 

By now the peppers will have shrunk a touch during cooking, so you *should* just about have enough room to arrange the aubergine on the baking tray next to them. Do it and get them in the oven.

Time for the sauce.

I've used a medium frying pan here, I'd recommend a medium saucepan. On a low-medium heat, warm 15ml of good olive oil with 12g unsalted butter. Finely mince/microplane a clove of garlic and cook it very gently in the butter/oil. As soon as you smell cooking garlic, squirt in 15ml of tomato puree, cook that for a few seconds then add the passata. Season with a couple of twists of salt and turn up the heat. Once it's boiling, add the red wine, the bay leaf and the top 2cm of the rosemary sprig. Bring back to the boil, then simmer on a fairly low heat until it goes nice and thick, stirring occasionally. This will take a little time, so whilst that's looking after itself, we can see to the chicken.

Drink your drink; dehydration is a killer.

  

On a medium heat, warm up that griddle pan. We'll need it smoking hot by the end, so we need it warmed up ready.

Finely chop as much chilli as you like. I've found that half the one you see in the image is quite enough for me, thank you. Microplane/grind

3 (or more) fat cloves of garlic, squeeze that lemon, chop the fresh herbs. Pour 30ml of cooking olive oil into our big mixing bowl, add the lemon juice, garlic, chilli and herbs. Grind in a generous amount of salt and pepper and mix it all up with a finger.

 

Add the patted dry chicken thighs and get them coated in the marinade. Set aside and see to your sauce. 

Remove the rosemary, bin it and have a taste to see how reduced your sauce is. Is it thick yet? Add a couple of teaspoons of the Balsamic vinegar, stir it up, wait for a bit and taste again. Your sauce should be tangy, full bodied and strong, very tomatoey, slightly sweet and a little bit herby. Cook it down until it's pleasingly thick, remove the bay leaf and adjust the seasoning if it needs it. When it's ready, cover and turn off the heat.

Meanwhile, the vegetables are probably done by now. Take a big swallow of that drink, you'll be busy from here on in. 

When they are all soft and browned, move the courgette and peppers to the same tray and put it on the floor of the oven to keep warm. Turn the oven off and switch the grill on to medium-high. Turn the griddle pan up full gas.

Arrange the now roasted aubergine into soldiers and grate/plane the Parmesan cheese over them. Place under the grill, but keep your eye on it. Pop your plates into the oven to warm up a bit.

When the griddle pan is hot and I mean smoking, lay the chicken in, smooth side down. It will smoke and hiss like crazy, this is a good thing.

 

Check on the aubergine. When it’s covered in a delicious shiny brown veneer of melted Parmesan, turn off the grill and move it lower into the oven.

Warm your sauce up gently, check the seasoning, sweet/acid balance, this is your last chance to make any adjustment. To give it a shine and a luxurious feel, whisk 12g of butter into it, if you fancy.

Check the chicken and see if it's ready to turn. If it's still sticking to the ridges it isn't quite ready yet. Once it'll pull free with little effort, turn the chicken over. Pull the warmed plates out of the oven.

Put a spot of sauce on each plate and then lay in alternating layers:

3 slices of courgette; spot of sauce; 2 slices of pepper; sauce; 3 courgette and so on until all the veg and sauce are used. If it wasn’t earlier, the aubergine should be ready by now. When it is, turn off the grill and lay two slices of aubergine each on top of the vegetable tower.

Slide some salad onto the plate and dress with Balsamic and olive oil

When the chicken is cooked through, turn the pan off and cut some really thin slices of the butter ready. Pile the chicken on the plates, lay on the butter so it melts pleasingly into the smoking hot chicken, grind on a final flourish of salt and strut triumphantly to the dining table.

 

Bask in the lavish praise of your significant other. Enjoy your dinner!

Addendum

If you don’t want to use wine in the sauce, use vegetable stock instead, but easy on the salt when you add the passata.

Chop chillies or black olives into the tomato sauce if you like. Green aren’t great with the sweetness of the Balsamic IME though.

If you like your chicken very lemony, grate some peel into the marinade with the juice.

If you wanted a wine recommendation, I favour a robust red from Languedoc, Ribera del Duero or Sicily. Sturdy whites would work well too.