Jamie Oliver's Empire Chicken

I'm not a great one for watching TV but I will watch cookery shows ad nauseum, Billy tells me the only things I'll watch are Cookery programs and things like The Biggest Loser and Operation Transformation - no shock to me that one of these leads to the other! But anyway moving swiftly along....

I was watching Jamie Oliver's Great Britain one night and I loved the look of his Empire Chicken recipe which was right up my street as I love spicing things up.This recipe which combines your traditional roast chicken, spuds and gravy with some eastern spices truly sizzles. We;'ve made it a couple of times now once just for ourselves and another time we doubled everything up as we had some people coming for Sunday lunch a few weeks ago, they loved it as much as we did.

Ideally start the chicken marinading the day before.
Slash the chicken’s legs a few times right down to the bone. Get a roasting tray slightly bigger than the chicken, then add all of the marinade ingredients and mix together well. Put on a pair of clean rubber gloves, then really massage those flavours over and inside the chicken so it’s smeared everywhere. If leaving overnight cover and put in the fridge.

For the chicken and marinade• 1.4kg free-range chicken
• 1 heaped tablespoon each finely grated garlic, fresh ginger and fresh red chilli
• 1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée
• 1 heaped teaspoon each of ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala and ground cumin
• 2 heaped teaspoons natural yoghurt
• 2 lemons, one to be stabbed in a few places and placed in the chicken.
• 2 level teaspoons sea salt    

For the Bombay Style Potatoes

 800g new potatoes
• sea salt and ground pepper
• 1 lemon
• 2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil
• a knob of butter
• 1 heaped teaspoon each
of black mustard seeds,( I couldn't get black mustard seeds so used regular ones), cumin seeds, garam masala and turmeric
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 small bunch of fresh coriander

 

For the Gravy:

 1 stick of cinnamon
• 3 small red onions, peeled
• 10 cloves
• 3 tablespoons each of white wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce
• 3 level tablespoons plain flour
• 500ml organic chicken stock
• optional: natural yoghurt,to serve



Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and organize your shelves so the roasting tray can sit right at the bottom, the chicken can sit directly above it, right on the bars of the shelf, and the potatoes can go at the top. Halve any larger potatoes, then parboil them in a large pan of salted boiling water with a whole lemon for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Drain the potatoes then let them steam dry. Stab the lemon a few times with a sharp knife and put it right into the chicken’s cavity. Move the chicken to a plate.

Roughly chop the onions and add to the roasting tray along with the cinnamon stick, cloves, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce, then whisk in the flour. Pour in the stock or water, then place this right at the bottom of the oven. Place the chicken straight on to the bars of the middle shelf, above the roasting tray. Cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.

Put another sturdy roasting tray over a medium heat and add the olive oil, a knob of butter, the mustard and cumin seeds, garam masala and turmeric – work quickly because if the fat gets too hot the mustard seeds will pop everywhere. Halve a bulb of garlic and add it straight to the pan, with the sliced chilli and chopped tomatoes. Add your drained potatoes to the tray, mix everything together, then season well. Finely slice and scatter in the coriander stalks, and keep the leaves in a bowl of water for later. After the chicken has been in for 40 minutes, put the potatoes in.

Once the chicken is cooked, move it to a board and carefully peel off the dark charred bits to reveal perfect chicken underneath. Pass the gravy through a coarse sieve into a pan, whisking any sticky goodness from the pan as you go. Bring to the boil and either cook and thicken or thin down with water to your preference. Put it into a serving bowl and drizzle over a little yoghurt. Get your potatoes out of the oven and put them into a serving bowl, then serve the chicken on a board next to the sizzling roasties and hot gravy. Sprinkle the reserved coriander leaves over everything.

We had it with some corn on the cob and green beans and it was absolutely scrummy!

Jamie's Confit Duck with Lentils

A couple of weeks ago I had an appointment with a periodontist in Cork - wasn't looking forward to that but I certainly salivated at the prospect of visiting the English Market. As Billy said I'm one of the few women he knows who doesn't go clothes/shoe/bag shopping when I get a couple of spare hours in the Big Smoke, nope I head for Cork Art Supplies and the English Market and I'm as happy as a pig in poop for ages afterwards.

I always stock up on the things that aren't easily available here - bloody impossible to get!. Plump little Quails, Skeaghamore Duck legs and breasts, fresh rabbit and beautifully creamy Mozarella from Toonsbridge dairy in Macroom, usually some delicious cheeses and a nice crusty bread or two also.

So yesterday I was in Tesco's and I picked up the latest Jamie (Oliver) magazine. Now I have to admit he wouldn't be one of my hero chefs but glancing thru the magazine I noticed a recipe for Duck confit and the duck legs that were in my freezer called to me and said "Confit me, confit me". Now, I have never confit-ed anything before - is confit-ed a real verb????? But jamie's recipe sounded ok, apart from calling for duck fat - didn't have any so I checked out another couple of duck confit recipes when I got home and The Cliff House cookbook had confit duck legs but confit-ed in sunflower oil so I subbed the sunflower oil for the duck fat.

Here's what's needed:

Recipe is not strictly true to Jamie's one and has been altered a little.
Serves 2

2 Duck legs
A few Juniper berries
A few allspice berries
A couple cloves garlic peeled and crushed.
A sprig of rosemary.
A leafy sprig of thyme.
About a tablespoon of coarse sea salt. Next time I might reduce this as himself thought it was a tad too salty and truth be told he wasn't wrong.

Here's what you'll need to do:

Put duck in a flat dish.
Bash the juniper, allspice, garlic together in a pestle and mortar. Mix with the salt and scatter over the duck. Tear the herbs over the duck and rub all into the duck.
Cover with clingfilm and leave to marinate in fridge for about 12 hours or overnight.

Next day, rinse the duck under cold water and pat dry with kitchen towel.
Place a large heavy deep pan over a low heat and place the duck legs in, cover with sunflower oil. Bring to a soft boil and then simmer on the very lowest heat for 2 to 2 and half hours.
When the time is up take the pan off the heat and leave the duck to cool. The meat should pull apart easily.

Keep the remaining oil for roasties etc.

The duck legs can now be preserved but I used mine for dinner tonight so when I needed them I just fried them in a hot dry pan till the skin got crispy and the meat was heated through.

Jamie's mag recommended serving them with Lentils and red onion gravy.
The lentils were fab, unctuous even - though i did read somewhere lately that one should not use the term "unctuous" in food blogging, well whether or not they were flippin' unctuous so the unctuous stays!!!!

THE LENTIL RECIPE!

For 2 generous servings

125g puy lentils
2 rashers smoked streaky bacon
Olive oil
Small red onion, finely chopped
Small carrot finely chopped
1 celery stick finely chopped
A bouquet garni
About 1/2 litre hot chicken stock
100g baby spinach
Red wine vinegar

Soak the lentils in cold water for about 10 mins, then drain well.
Add a little oil to a large pan and fry the bacon till golden.
Add the veg and cook over a medium heat till softened, but not coloured.
Add the bouquet garni, lentils and stock.
Bring to the boil and then simmer for about 45 mins till lentils are soft. Add some extra stock if too dry.
remove the bouquet garni from the lentils and stir in the spinach. Cook for a few more mins, taste and season with some salt, pepper, a dash of olive oil and the red vinegar.

Absolutely scrummylicious!!!!