Category Archives: Chicken

Cheese, Chicken, Desserts, Salads, Salmon

Christmas 2018

December 31, 2018 needarecipe Leave a comment

Florence, Damien, Marie-Danielle and Graham

We spent an informal Christmas Day this year in the company of two good friends, Florence and her son, Damien. We also decided to keep it simple, so we kicked off with smoked wild salmon from Olsen Bornholm, a specialist smoke house and curers, just a mile from where we live. But we dressed it up a bit and turned it into Julie’s Salmon and Prawn with Lime. This is such an easy recipe and it’s been a huge success every time we’ve done it. Damien was more impressed with Marie-Danielle’s hat. And a mighty fine hat it was too! Florence, Damien, Marie-Danielle and Graham

For the main course, we cooked Chicken in a Salt Crust (or Poulet a l’ail en Croute de Sel if you want me to be pedantic). It’s a simple, straightforward recipe and I know from experience that the salt crust takes a bit of breaking. In fact, I often employ the help of a hammer. So it was a racing certainty that Damien would find this amusing. Nothing like getting someone involved in the kitchen at an early age – even if it is only with a hammer!

Happy 2019 from Marie-Danielle and Graham Florence lives in the heart of Paris and she had brought with her some truly wonderful cheeses that we took our time over. She also brought the deserts – delicious hand-made cakes from one of the best patisseries in the capital. We would have been happy if she had just brought herself and Damien, but the cheese and desserts were an added bonus.

Incidentally, I used Florence (with her permission) as a model for one of the characters in my book Web of Tangled Blood. It’s the story of a couple struggling to understand their past as they search for their long lost son.

So, finally, I hope you’ve enjoyed following this blog. I leave you at the end of 2018 with all my best wishes for the year ahead. May you enjoy health and happiness. Everything else will follow from there.

Chicken, Culinary Tips

Cooking tender Chicken

February 23, 2018 needarecipe Leave a comment

Chicken paillard Many people avoid chicken breasts because they find them dry, tasteless and boring. Others choose the breast (preferably without the skin) and avoid the darker meat of the leg and thigh. Personally, I’m in the breast meat camp while my wife is in the dark meat camp. I’m perfectly happy with properly cooked, flavourful white meat on my plate. But when eating out, that becomes a problem because properly cooked chicken breast is hard to find.

Overcooked chicken breast can be found in restaurants around the world. People often choose a plain chicken breast as the option that raises the least dietary fears. With no fat, no sauce and scant seasoning, a chicken breast provides the diner with guilt-free, bland protein.

But it doesn’t have to be like that! It’s both possible, and easy to produce a tender chicken breast that even the dark meat eaters would be happy with. There’s no secret, but there is one cardinal rule: don’t overcook the chicken.

In its natural state, a chicken breast is tapered, but if you make it the same thickness end-to-end you’ll achieve a more consistent finish. To do so, you can pound the breast into a paillard. The word comes from the French ‘paillarde’, from Monsieur Paillard, a late 19th century French restaurateur. It is, in fact, a scallop, especially of veal or chicken, that is pounded flat and grilled or sautéed quickly.

Chicken paillard So, working with one piece at a time, place the chicken between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound with a mallet, a rolling pin, or the bottom of a skillet to an even ½-inch thickness. The paillards will now only take a few minutes in a skillet or frying pan to cook.

I add about 2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet. Once the oil is hot, I cook the chicken until golden brown on one side – 2 to 3 minutes. (Reduce the heat if the meat starts to become very dark.) Turn the chicken and cook until cooked through – about another 30-60 seconds. Let the cooked meat rest for a few minutes to ensure that it will will be fully cooked, but not dry.

If you want to ‘tart-up’ your chicken breast, add some shaved Parmesan or a smear of black olive tapenade and a lemon wedge on the side.

Chicken, Slow Cooking

Let it cook itself

January 29, 2016 needarecipe Leave a comment

Granny's Slow-baked Chicken Sometimes you know you have a busy afternoon planned so you want dinner to cook itself. And so it can with Granny’s Slow-baked Chicken. This is a dead easy way to cook a chicken while you have a sleep, or go jogging, or whatever else turns you on.

The other day was such a day. Marie-Danielle and I wanted to go looking for a new bathroom cabinet but we had guests coming to dinner. No problem… after a Tomato and Mozzarella Salad (ready in less than 10 minutes), we dug into a corn fed farm-raised chicken so juicy and tender, it could have won prizes in any juicy and tender chicken competition!

While we were out looking for our bathroom cabinet (which we didn’t find!) I slow-baked the bird in one of those German clay pots called Römertopf (don’t worry, the recipe allows you to use other casserole-style pots, particularly a cast iron Dutch Oven). Into the pot went whole garlic cloves, a quartered lemon, and fresh herbs from an amazing nearby outlet called ‘Grand Frais’ which specialises in fresh and seasonal produce.

Even before we served the chicken, our guests were salivating at the aromas coming from the kitchen. After the tomato salad, I took care of the carving and brought the platter of chicken portions to the table with sides of mashed potatoes and Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries. The chicken also gave out a gravy boat of golden brown cooking juices, in which the softened garlic cloves were paddling about, ready to have their pungent-sweet pulp smooched out and used as a condiment.

Our guests declared that the chicken was hands-down the best they’d ever had. I have trouble deciding whether my chicken was really as good as that, but it was pretty close, and I have a feeling that Granny’s Slow-baked Chicken will make frequent appearances on our menu. It is an extremely easy and foolproof recipe since the chicken cooks in its own steam and at such a low temperature, there is no risk of it overcooking or drying out. All you really need is good ingredients and time.

Chicken, Personal Stuff, Salads

Welcome to the cousins!

April 8, 2014 needarecipe Leave a comment

Monday saw us having lunch with M-D’s cousin, Jean-Louis and his partner, France, who live on the east of Paris. Also, M-D’s sister, Christine, came down from Lille in northern France. We had planned eating at about 1 o’clock, but circumstances worked against all of us!

First of all, the chicken that we had planned cooking in its salt crust was decidedly “off”. Though it was a farm-bred, corn-fed beasty that was well in date, there was something going on inside it that shouldn’t have been, and it became very obvious when we removed the packaging! So I dumped it straight in the garbage and drove to the store to get a replacement.

As I was gone, Christine rang from her car. She was stuck in a jam just outside Lille due to an accident. Then we had a call from Jean-Louis… they had been advised of a parcel delivery that still hadn’t arrived, so he was having to wait before they could leave the house.

To cut a long story short, we had a long “apperitif” with Jean-Louis and France while we waited for Christine, and then sat down to eat just before 3pm! Fortunately, the Chicken in Salt Crust is a very tolerant recipe that can stand a lot of messing round. We had started it late, so it sat happily in its little salt ‘oven’ while we enjoyed a Tomato and Mozzarella Salad starter (except that I used Feta, for a change!). This is a great starter because it’s fresh, tasty, easy to make and (apart from adding the vinaigrette dressing) can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge. Be sure to serve some nice fresh chunky bread with it to mop up the dressing… it’s far too good to waste.

So, at about 3pm, the “bomb” that held the chicken was presented to the table. Of course, it takes a degree in mechanical engineering to open it, so it doesn’t get undressed at the table – it goes back to the kitchen to be exposed and dissected! As it happened, France had never seen one before, so she joined me in the kitchen and attacked the crust with a large, dangerous-looking carving knife.

After a few minutes of cursing and hacking, she succeeded in exposing “the beast” and then left me to carve and present it to the other diners! The joy of this dish is that the chicken is “loaded” with Boursin cheese between skin and flesh and this melts to create a really succulent chicken with rich flavours. It might seem like a waste of coarse sea salt, but I can assure you that the end result is well worth it.

With the chicken, we served a Ratatouille and, for fun, some “curly potatoes”! M-D discovered a little gadget that drills the inside from vegetables, leaving a core like a spiral of vegetable. So I par-boiled the spirals and then sautéed them. Visually they looked great, and they tasted good too! There was very little left of either the chicken or the vegetables when we had all finished.

Since Jean-Louis and France don’t drink alcohol, there were just three of us sharing the excellent bottle of Pinot Noir that hit the spot nicely for all the courses. After the cheeses, we served Gâteau Creusois and a Carpaccio d’Oranges à la Cannelle (Orange slices with cinnamon) – something we’ve done a couple of times recently (we must stop being lazy and falling back on all the simple recipes!), However, it’s a nice simple, refreshing and tasty way to finish a meal – which just left me loading the dishwasher while the others had coffee and chocolates! – Hmmm – and they say a woman’s work is never done!!

Lovely way to spend a Monday amonst friends!

Cheese, Chicken, Fish, Salmon, Seafood, Wine

Tastes of the Sea and the Salt Air

February 8, 2014 needarecipe Leave a comment

Last night, our friends Bruno and Jill came for dinner and we followed a sort of loose “sea & salt” theme throughout. We kicked off (as we always do) with an apéritif. “Apéritif” is a French word derived from the Latin verb aperire, which means “to open.” So an apéritif is an alcoholic beverage usually served before a meal to stimulate the appetite, and is therefore usually dry rather than sweet. Common choices for an apéritif are vermouth, champagne, pastis, gin, rak?, fino, amontillado or other styles of dry sherry and any still, dry, light white wine. The word also refers to a snack that precedes a meal. This includes an amuse-bouche, such as crackers, cheese, pâté or olives.

Our own apéritifs will always include a light, dry wine (or champagne) which we often flavour with ‘Crême de Something’ (depending on the person’s choice). We discovered a long time ago that ‘Crême de ….” costs a bomb in UK! We searched hard and all we found was a Black Raspberry Liqueur made by Chambord. A bottle of just 20cl (about one-third of a pint) cost us over £10 (€12 – $16). So now, when we come from France by car, we load up with 50cl (¾ pint) bottles which we buy for about €3 each (£2.50 – $4).

We have a great selection now of Crême de Pamplemousse Rose (pink grapefruit), Crême de Pêche de Vigne (Vine Peaches), Crême de Framboise (Raspberry), Crême de Mûres (Blackberries) and Crême de Fruits Rouges (Red Fruits). Curiously, what I don’t have is the all-time classic, Crême de Cassis (Blackcurrant) which was the original drink.

White wine with Crême de Cassis is known as “Kir” in France and is a popular apéritif drink named after Félix Kir (1876–1968), mayor of Dijon in Burgundy, who popularized the drink by offering it at receptions to visiting delegations. Besides treating his international guests well, he was also promoting two vital economic products of the region – blackcurrants and white wine.

So, due to our collection of different flavour liqueurs, we can offer guests a choice and, in fact, outside France it can be a great talking point as guests sample first one and then another! Last night, we served our Kirs using a lovely crisp Chardonnay that we happen to have sitting in the fridge. And as an amuse-bouche, we also served large green-lipped mussels from New Zealand. We buy these already cooked from the local supermarket and I then finely chop garlic, sprinkle it over the mussels in their shells and drizzle a generous amount of Salad dressing over them. They are really delicious and our guests certainly seemed to appreciate them.

For a starter course, we once again resorted to Julie’s Salmon & Prawn with Lime which has become a real favourite. Jill cleverly guessed all the ingredients in the salad dressing and also spotted the horseradish and crême fraîche mixture for what it was. The salmon was wild Pacific Keta Salmon (sometimes known as chum or dog salmon for its dog-like teeth). It has a lower fat content than other salmon but is a really rich, tasty and healthy fish. With the fish starter, we served the same Duc de Morny 2012 Picpoul de Pinet that we served last week when we had “the Steves” with us.

The main course was the “salty” end of the recipe with Chicken in a salt crust otherwise known as Poulet a l’ail et aux Fines Herbes en croute de Sel Parfumée. This is a great way to serve chicken since it always comes out tender and succulent and the taste is just out of this world.

In fact, you start with a chicken (nice corn-fed, free range one for us) and you insert Boursin Soft Cheese with Garlic and Herbs (Boursin Ail et Fines Herbes) between the skin and the flesh. During the cooking process, this “melts” into and around the flesh leaving a taste that has to be tried to be believed.

Once the chicken has been treated with the Boursin, you build a complete casing for it using coarse salt, flour, rosemary, thyme, baies, peppercorns and egg whites. It ends up looking like a bomb, but part of the fun of this recipe (and, yes, food should be fun too!) is, prior to serving, showing your guests the cooked “bomb” and seeing if any of them can guess what’s inside. Then, of course, you take it back to the kitchen and remove the salt crust (which takes a certain amount of brute force and muscle!)

Once you have opened up the crust, you will find (every time without fail) a perfectly cooked golden brown bird, ready to be segmented and served in portions or, very simply, placed on a serving dish and carved at the table. We served ours with mini Brussels sprouts and new potatoes. No need for any sort of sauce or gravy, the moist chicken meat was more than enough – particularly when helped down with a couple of bottles of Domaine du Landetran, L’Ame des Schistes 2010 (well, come on, be fair, there were four of us!).

After the cheese, we had planned serving M-D’s “Parfait” but Bruno had made a chocolate cake so we got stuck into that instead… and very good it was too. (Particularly washed down with a glass or Maas a Miel).

And so passed a very pleasant evening in good company. Bruno and Jill found their way home at about 1:30am and I eventually got to bed at 2:45am after clearing the mess I had made in the kitchen (better that than face it the next morning!)

Entertaining is fun, particularly with people you like… and we really DO like all our guests. They are all different. They all have different tastes. The conversations are always different. But the one common factor is a convivial evening spent around the table with good food and decent wine. It makes life worth living!

Chicken, Desserts, Indian Food, Isle of Man, Japanese Cuisine, Personal Stuff

From The Rock to the Land of Wine

September 21, 2013 needarecipe Leave a comment

Back again in France after an eventful last few weeks on The Island. We’re spoilt brats, getting the best of both worlds again. Having enjoyed a fabulous summer of sun and blue skies on The Isle of Man, we are now enjoying a late summer here in France (while UK is suffering heavy rain and high winds!).

But, before we left, it was the forthcoming winter we were afraid of because we had a leak somewhere on the roof or in the gutters that had percolated into the bedrooms and left a trail of water and mould (don’t you just love old houses!). Our neighbours, Terry and Julie had the same problem so we shared the costs and had a scaffold erected across both houses and called in the roofing guys. And, since the scaffold was already up, we decided it was an ideal time to paint the fronts of the houses too! Now, with rain and high winds on The Island, we shall see if our leaks have been cured (or not!).

Before leaving the island, Terry and Julie invited us to theirs for a splendid roast dinner. Never has so much good grub been served to so few without collapsing the table! It was delicious and, for me, brought back great memories of pork crackling and roast spuds and parsnips and oh so much more. I suspect we also did some considerable damage to Terry’s stock of wine. There seemed to be a lot of empty bottles rattling round at the end! (Reminder to myself: I need to get Julie’s recipe for the starter… a lovely little salad with a vinaigrette that was as light as fairy wings and as tasty as … well, anything you can possibly imagine!)

Postscript: Got it!!!!…. Julie’s Salmon & Prawn with Lime

tajine Also, before leaving the island, Bruno and Jill invited us to theirs for a dinner. Bruno had prepared a great tajine for us. A tagine is a dish from North Africa that is named after the special earthenware pot in which it is cooked. The traditional pot is formed entirely of a heavy clay and consists of two parts: a base unit that is flat and circular with low sides and a large cone-shaped cover that sits on the base during cooking. The cover is designed to return all condensation to the bottom. With the cover removed, the base can be taken to the table for serving.

Typically, a tagine is a rich stew of meat, which can include beef, chicken, fish, or lamb, and most often also includes vegetables or fruit. Bruno’s was a chicken tajine and darn tasty it was too!

The only disagreeable part of the evening was that I had taken round a summer pudding and, since it was the first I had made from our home on The Isle of Man, had used a plain stainless steel dish that I wasn’t used to (as opposed to the fluted Tupperware dish we have used for summer puddings when in France). So the summer pudding looked like a splodge of red mud instead of a nicely-shaped invitation to taste its inner delights! I’m not in competition with Bruno to beat the unbelievable apple flan he brought when they came to ours, but it would have been nice to have come up with something halfway presentable! Ah well – better luck next time, Graham!

Haggis Neeps and Tatties Also before leaving, we had a pleasant evening with my brother Steve and my sister-in-law, Jeanette. They’re great at keeping an eye on the house while we are away, not to mention forwarding the mail, looking after my car and much more. For some reason, however, the whole summer had passed by without the four of us having a quiet evening together. So, since Steve and Jeanette had been to Scotland earlier in the year and had brought us back a haggis, I decided to do my famous Haggis, Neeps and Tatties as a starter, followed by Rich Gravy Lamb and finished with a nice Fresh Fruit Salad. All very simple but wallowing in taste!

Our trip back to France was not without its unwanted “highlights”! At Charles de Gaulle airport our suitcases didn’t appear on the baggage carousel and we were obliged to seek the help of the lost luggage office. It eventually transpired that someone down below (turning the cogs of the baggage handling machinery) had switched off whatever brain cells he might have had and had decided that our cases (and a few others) should be sent back to Manchester (our transit airport). Fortunately he was stopped in time and ‘requested’ (rather firmly) to engage brain and send the cases up!

One hour later, the lady in the lost luggage office got a big hug and we got our cases back… only to find that the railway line between the airport and Paris was being repaired so we had to get a bus into central Paris and then a train out to Acheres where we live. We eventually walked through the door just a few minutes short of midnight. However, fortune smiled on us just a little bit because I had envisaged a possible delay and had made a couple of baguette sandwiches before leaving The Island, just in case we were too late to get to the restaurant … Any port in a storm!

sashimi Since being back, we have, of course, been to our “local” – Happy Sushi – where we were greeted with kisses and big smiles (makes a pleasant change from the surly faces in the airport restaurant at Manchester!). Their maki sushi (for me) and sashimi (for M-D) with sushi rice is a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach! Though we are always happy to be on The Isle of Man, we’re always glad to be back in France so we can make the occasional foray into Japanese cuisine in relaxed surroundings. (In fact, we went again a few days ago with M-D’s sister, Christine).

Mind you, it also works in reverse; while we are in France we dream of getting an “Indian fix” at The Royal India, our favourite Indian restaurant on The Isle of Man where the owner, Jose Verananickal, is both friendly and professional and the food is perfectly balanced.

Like I said at the beginning, we’re spoilt brats, getting the best of both worlds!

Chicken, Salads, Salmon, Vegetables

The End of Summer

September 13, 2011 needarecipe Leave a comment

While the UK (and the poor old Isle of Man) is suffering from 80mph (130kph) winds and floods, here in France, the weather is a very pleasant 27C with just a gentle cooling breeze to take the edge off the heat. But even so, I sense that the summer is coming to an end. The birds are circling and the fields are being harvested (us country folk know about things like that!)

Meanwhile we’re making the best of what good weather we still have. We’re eating salads like Caesar Salad or Salade Niçoise at lunch time and simple fayre in the evenings like Chicken and Ham Soup or Leek and Smoked Salmon Rolls

Often the simplest of meals are the most satisfying. M-D and I have just had a salad that was nothing more than a cooked chicken breast and Marinated Carrot Salad.Simple, yet tasty and filling (and very few of those nasty calories!). I just finished adding a recipe to the site for Roast Belly Pork Dinner. Now that’s serious comfort food! But maybe I can wait till those dark winter evenings!

M-D is busy planning for our return to the Isle of Man in about 3 weeks. She’s digging out all sorts of stuff that we have duplicated here in France (like a wok, for example) and creating a “heap” for us to take with us. We’ll be going by car this time, so we can carry lots of stuff (including the obligatory cases of wine!).

Until August we lived in a small apartment when we were on the Isle of Man. However, we decided that we needed somewhere bigger since our families are always made welcome. Within six weeks we had found the right house, bought it, moved in and rented out the apartment! But it took a bit of a toll on us physically and mentally so we came back to France for a rest.

Now it’s time to go back and sort out everything we didn’t manage to get done before – like a couple of extensions to the phone line and a desk each and…. a wok, it seems!

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