One pot cooking and making peas ap - pea - ling (groan!!) - Chicken and Peas

 

 

Here I am once again with a one pot wonder. I know that I should maybe blog about something that uses more pans, but chez Lola and Finn the emphasis at the moment is just having something good to eat without too much fuss. Finn starting school this week seems to have made life even more fraught between the hours of 4 and 7pm. I am not sure where the time goes at this point in the day. What I do know is that I blink and it is gone.

 

Finn, first day of school,  and with big sis Lola, who already seems to be monitoring his every move. Today he was sat next to Olivia, apparently. Not sure Lola rates Olivia very much...

 

So, it is for the reason of simplicity that I am blogging Tessa Kiros' recipe, chicken and peas, from her beautiful book 'Piri Piri Starfish'. If you own a Tessa Kiros book, you will know that they are works of art, with idiosyncratic messages, vibrant images of life and food and an all round sense of happiness. I would love to look at them even if I didn't like to cook. The fact that I do like to cook makes them all the better. 

 

Anyway, the matching of chicken and chorizo happens here again most pleasingly and the addition of peas gives a freshness and vibrancy in terms of taste and in colour. Lola and Finn ate most of this, though Finn being Finn skirted his way around most of the peas. He ate some peas though and this can only be seen as a rip roaring success, seeing as he seems averse to eating anything 'green'.

 

Chicken and Peas, adapted from 'Piri Piri Starfish' by Tessa Kiros

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad very well!

 

Ingredients:

 

5 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped (which I left out)

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

2 bay leaves

100g chorizo, chopped (I upped this from the 30g in the original recipe)

60g smoked bacon lardons

2 tbsp chopped parsley

4 chicken breasts (You could joint a chicken as suggested in the original recipe)

250ml white wine

3 tbsp chopped tomatoes

600g frozen peas

 

Method:

 

 

 

Heat the olive oil and add the onion, celery (if using), carrot and bay leaves, and saute until the onion is golden.

 

 

 

Add the chorizo and bacon and saute until the chorizo releases its oil and the bacon renders its fat.

 

 

 

Add the chicken and parsley and saute until the chicken is golden. Keep everything moving so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pan.

 

Season with salt and pepper at this point.

 

 

 

Add the wine and let it bubble up a little before adding the tomato.

 

Cover and simmer for about thirty minutes.

 

 

 

Take the lid off and add the peas, increase the heat and cook for another ten minutes or so until the peas are tender but still green.

 

There will be some residual liquid in the dish which is fine, as the peas will soak some of that up as you take it off the heat and leave it a little until you are ready to serve.

 

 

 

I served this with some orzo pasta, at the request of Lola and Finn who quite like the fact that it looks like 'big rice'. Personally, I'd be having this with potatoes, but that's because potatoes are possibly the greatest carb ever to grace the earth...