I've started to scribble a few easy yet scrumptious recipes down in my diary, so if for some reason a quick dinner is needed wherever I find myself I'll have some good options. All of the diary entries are dead easy to make, inexpensive and taste pretty good too.
My latest addition is risotto, and I'm in love with it! I made risotto for the first time in my life about two months ago, and now I'm almost an expert. The recipe I follow is infinitely easier than all of those other ones that require constant stirring and leave you with a mess as often as a delicious dinner. You can follow the recipe below (which serves four), but feel free to make a few changes and chuck in whatever's in the fridge either - I even made an Irish breakfast risotto recently!
You will need:
25g butter
an onion
150g chicken
200g risotto rice
a teaspoon of fennel seeds
900ml of chicken stock
75g frozen peas
juice and grated rink of about half a lemon
2 tablespoons of double cream (or maybe a little bit more)
50g or so of grated Parmesan
2 tablespoons of chopped mint
salt and pepper
To cook:
Boil the kettle and pre-heat the oven to about 200 degrees. Chuck the butter into a pan. Throw in the chopped onion and the chicken and fry for a couple of minutes. Make up the chicken stock. Add the risotto rice and fennel seeds to the pan of chicken, butter and onion and stir it all about for a minute or so. Add the stock and the peas.
Put that mixture into a casserole dish, put the lid on and cook it for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it though - the goal is for the rice to be tender and all the liquid absorbed. When you get to that point you're almost there.
All that's left is to stir in the lemon juice and rind, cream and Parmesan, and add a bit of salt and pepper. Cover it up and leave it sitting for about two minutes, and stir in the mint just before serving. If you're watching what you're eating you might want to add only half of the Parmesan and put the rest on the table so more can be added if needed.
Let me know what other ingredients work for you in this risotto.
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Chicken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicken. Show all posts
Monday, May 11, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Barbecue, the continuing obsession
Honestly, there are some things i can do confidently and well. They are few and far between. I can play blackbird by the beatles on the guitar, i can navigate around MS excel like i'm in the olympics, and i can cook barbecue.
I learnt my trade from my dad, in the back garden, then from an early age, i sought more barbecue knowledge. I travelled the world, and spent some time in the darkest recesses of Queensland, plying my trade as a bbquer professionally. And now i returned to the rainiest country in the world, with the ability to cook summer food!
Ok, so, couple of quick caveats before we get onto the recipe:
1) This is for a gas barbecue. I'm fully aware that charcoal/wood/smokebox/etc bbqs offer a more authentic flavour, but let's please be realistic. We live in an apartment in Dublin. It's not a serious option. (also, the philosopy of this blog is 'good food, cheap')
2) I'm not going to tell you how to make bbq sauce. There's hundreds of recipes, and we've a list below of all the store-bought ones we've use.
BBQ Chicken Wings - Cheap, Cheerful, Awesome!
Buy your chicken wings from the butcher, they're the cheapest cut of chicken, so you'll get a good deal. (I paid 3 euro for 10 wings- makes 20 chicken pieces)
The wing will come in one piece, with 2 joints. Cut the wings at each joint, and throw away the wingtips. (If you're making stock, hang onto them, but i'll go into that another time)
Put the wings in a mixing bowl with a good dose of Olive oil, and salt and pepper. (You can throw other spices in at this point, but it's up to you - i normally add a tiny bit of cajun seasoning)
Mix them up until all the wings are oiled and seasoned. Put in oven at 160 degrees for 30-40 mins. At this point, they will be cooked through, and will be a light golden colour.
Take them out of the oven, and leave to cool for a little while. put them in the mixing bowl with a good dollop of bbq sauce. Again, mix around until they are nicely coated with the sauce.
Leave to marinate for as long as you have.
put these on the grill until the sauce on the outside browns, and blackens in spots.
You now have awesome bbq wings!
Safety Note
Cooking chicken on a barbecue is great, but you need to be conscious of the risks. Raw chicken can carry bacteria that causes food poisoning, so it is important that the raw chicken does not come into contact with anything that will be eaten uncooked.
Not too big a deal - use seperate plates for raw and cooked meat, wash all implements immediately after handling raw chicken, do make sure to wash your hands immediately after touching raw meat. It's obvious stuff.
I learnt my trade from my dad, in the back garden, then from an early age, i sought more barbecue knowledge. I travelled the world, and spent some time in the darkest recesses of Queensland, plying my trade as a bbquer professionally. And now i returned to the rainiest country in the world, with the ability to cook summer food!
Ok, so, couple of quick caveats before we get onto the recipe:
1) This is for a gas barbecue. I'm fully aware that charcoal/wood/smokebox/etc bbqs offer a more authentic flavour, but let's please be realistic. We live in an apartment in Dublin. It's not a serious option. (also, the philosopy of this blog is 'good food, cheap')
2) I'm not going to tell you how to make bbq sauce. There's hundreds of recipes, and we've a list below of all the store-bought ones we've use.
BBQ Chicken Wings - Cheap, Cheerful, Awesome!
Buy your chicken wings from the butcher, they're the cheapest cut of chicken, so you'll get a good deal. (I paid 3 euro for 10 wings- makes 20 chicken pieces)
The wing will come in one piece, with 2 joints. Cut the wings at each joint, and throw away the wingtips. (If you're making stock, hang onto them, but i'll go into that another time)
Put the wings in a mixing bowl with a good dose of Olive oil, and salt and pepper. (You can throw other spices in at this point, but it's up to you - i normally add a tiny bit of cajun seasoning)
Mix them up until all the wings are oiled and seasoned. Put in oven at 160 degrees for 30-40 mins. At this point, they will be cooked through, and will be a light golden colour.
Take them out of the oven, and leave to cool for a little while. put them in the mixing bowl with a good dollop of bbq sauce. Again, mix around until they are nicely coated with the sauce.
Leave to marinate for as long as you have.
put these on the grill until the sauce on the outside browns, and blackens in spots.
You now have awesome bbq wings!
Safety Note
Cooking chicken on a barbecue is great, but you need to be conscious of the risks. Raw chicken can carry bacteria that causes food poisoning, so it is important that the raw chicken does not come into contact with anything that will be eaten uncooked.
Not too big a deal - use seperate plates for raw and cooked meat, wash all implements immediately after handling raw chicken, do make sure to wash your hands immediately after touching raw meat. It's obvious stuff.
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