Persevere and it will happen. Cod baked in the Oven with Potatoes

Sounds like the advice I give to the kids that I teach, or to Finn when he's complaining that he still hasn't scored this season (unglamorous job being a left back) or Lola, trying to make her way through several hours of homework for Year 6 exams instead of actually having a childhood. I don't know if perseverance does actually pay off. God knows I've persevered playing the lottery for decades and I'm still here, scratching about on this cold rock somewhere off mainland Europe instead of living the jet set lifestyle that I know I am born to live. Maybe next week that loft apartment in New York, that lake front property in Annecy, and/or that pearlescent Greek villa, hanging precariously on a hillside where the oregano grows wild and the blue sea and golden sun provide the backdrop...

Talking of Greece, and perseverance, regular readers of this blog will know that I have all but given up trying to feed fish to the fam. Fish has become a solitary eating activity, which is ok I suppose, but it would be better for us all round if we ate more fish than we do now. The defrosting of the freezer revealed some long forgotten cod, bought because it was dirt cheap, hurled in the freezer and then forgotten about. I wasn't going to throw it out. I'd make something with it and if need's be, any that was leftover I would nuke in the microwave the next day, to the despair of my fellow teaching colleagues if the smell of the last fish that was nuked in the staff room microwave (not by me) was anything to go by. But, no. It was eaten. I mean, there wasn't rapturous applause at the end of the meal, but it was, more or less, eaten. Phill even said he liked it. It may not seem like a victory, but it feels like one.

The recipe was taken from and gently adapted from 'Cretan Cooking' by Maria and Nikos Psilakis, which I bought when I was, funnily enough, on holiday in Crete, about 7 or 8 years ago now. The recipe is pretty faff free, except for the prep of the potatoes, but I found the whole slicing thing very therapeutic, so there you go. The original recipe calls for salt cod, and for that you would have to add in soaking time. Because I used 'ordinary' cod, there wasn't that issue.

Cod in the Oven with Potatoes adapted from 'Cretan Cooking' by Maria and Nikos Psilakis

Serves Mum, Dad, Lola and Finn

Ingredients:

2lb cod or any firm white fish, cut to fit the size of the pan you are using (though try to keep the pieces of fish a reasonably consistent size to ensure even cooking).

1lb waxy potatoes

2 finely chopped onions

2/3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp of oregano

1 tsp thyme

zest of a lemon

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

plenty of salt and freshly ground pepper

Method:

Boil the potatoes in salted water (you can peel them before hand if you like but I didn't bother) until they are almost cooked. Leave until they are cool enough to handle, and then slice into rounds about half a cm thick.

Preheat the oven to 180c.

Pour a little olive oil in the bottom of a suitable baking dish/pan that will hold everything reasonably snugly, then place a layer of potatoes on the bottom. Season well, and sprinkle on some of the chopped onion, the chopped garlic, a bit of lemon zest and a little of the oregano and garlic. Repeat the process a second time.

Place the cod onto the potato layers, and season well.

Pour the tinned tomatoes over the cod.

Then, as much as is possible, place a layer of potatoes over the fish, and season as before. Repeat the process. Season, and brush over a little olive oil. It might be that you have potatoes left over - I didn't, but if I had, I'd have kept them and when I was feeling peckish, lashed them in with some beaten egg, seasoning and loads of chopped spring onions and created a sumptuous omelette cum frittata affair. Anyway, not for the first time, I digress...

Place into the centre of the oven for about 25/30 mins. You want the potatoes to be cooked and beginning to brown on the top and the cod to be flaking and yielding (a little poke about with a knife will let you know whether that is the case).

Serve with a green salad and some crusty bread to soak up the delicious sauce.

A Posh Pie - Potato, Camembert and Pancetta Pithivier

I am a bit of a sucker for a pie, to be honest. And though this has taken a bit of a French turn and the pie has become a pithivier, it does not matter; a tasty mixture encased in golden pastry will always be a winner.

When given the opportunity to cook with Tesco Cypriot New Potatoes, I thought about how I had eaten them in the past. They don't necessarily need much attention, simply steamed with a little butter and some parsley and they are glorious. But I was thinking about what they would go well with, and then thought about a salad I had had with new style potatoes when I was in Normandy. And then I got to thinking about pies again and I kind of came up with this.

So, to France and the reason I discovered the combination of potato and Camembert. I sat down at a little bistro, sipping a cold Chablis and after the perusal of the menu I decided on a warm potato salad, anticipating little potatoes, absorbing a tangy vinaigrette and a green salad. But the menu did not mention the slices of Camembert, which oozed pleasingly on the plate. The combination of potato and warm Camembert was sumptuous.

Fast forward to now. Once I resolved to recreate this delicious salad accompaniment as a pie, for the filling I resolved to gild the lily further by frying off some pancetta once I had boiled, cooled and sliced the potatoes. I also thought that the addition of some fresh thyme would make this even tastier. You could substitute the bacon for onions, for leeks. Maybe sub the Camembert for a piece of Brie. All would compliment the potatoes wonderfully. Wrapping the pastry around the filling is a bit fiddly. It would be a neater job to take two pieces of ready rolled pastry and seal them together around the filling, but whatever you decide to do, do not seal the pastry too tightly around the filling so that you get the ooze as you cut into the pithivier. The potatoes take on the flavours of the bacon and the thyme, and with a salad accompanying this, it makes a tasty satisfying evening meal.

Cypriot New Potatoes are available in Tesco stores right now, until the end of March.

Potato, Camembert and Pancetta Pithivier

Serves two, generously

Ingredients:

A Camembert

100g Tesco Cypriot New Potatoes

70g pancetta

Fresh thyme

1 pack of ready rolled puff pastry (2 would make a neater job but would result in quite a lot of leftover pastry, which could be used for another recipe)

1 egg, for egg wash.

Method:

Boil the potatoes in salted water until just cooked. Drain and leave to cool, then slice into rounds about 1/2 cm thick.

Fry off the pancetta in a little olive oil. Once cooked, leave to cool.

Pre-heat the oven to 190c

Take the Camembert and slice it across the middle.

Unroll the pastry and place it onto a work surface. I kept it on the greaseproof paper it came wrapped in.

Place one half of the Camembert on top of the pastry. Brush the surrounding pastry with some beaten egg.

Pile the sliced potato onto the Camembert. Scatter the pancetta over the potatoes and then add some fresh thyme leaves.

Place the top of the Camembert onto the potato/pancetta mixture. It will be precarious!

Bring the pastry up and over/around the Camembert, or if you are using two pieces of pastry, bring the edges together. Seal the edges as neatly and as firmly as possible, cutting off any surplus pastry. Brush the top with egg and season with sea salt and black pepper. Score the top, pithivier style and pierce the top to allow any steam to escape.

Carefully place the pastry onto a baking sheet and place in the middle of the oven. Cook for approximately 20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and puffed up. The pastry will spread in the oven and there might be some oozing of the filling.

Leave to cool slightly, as the filling will be very hot! Serve with a salad.

The Future is Bright - Chicken with Lemon and Thyme #BrightFutures

Amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it’s easy to forget about the things that really matter, in my case, spending enough quality time with my children, as I know that by teaching them and investing in them, you create bright futures for all that come into contact with them, either directly or indirectly. We talk about waste; we talk about caring for the environment; we talk about helping those less fortunate than us.

That is why I am enthusiastic about the idea of promoting a #BrightFuture, Unilever’s drive to promote sustainability, ethical practice and their dedication to improving people’s lives across the world. As this is a food blog, I want to talk about the ways in which you can create brighter futures for others by thinking seriously about how we buy, treat and consume food.

Unilever’s involvement with Rainforest Alliance certified products is one way in which you can do something pretty great by doing very little. A PG cuppa, for example, and a sit down with those who you love is an immediate hit of kindness and an example of caring for those around you, whilst supporting those in the tea plantations around the world who wish to farm sustainably. Making a simple choice of putting a Rainforest Alliance banana into your child’s lunchbox means that you are thinking about the health and wellbeing of your children as well as helping those on banana plantations have a better life. Crumbling a Knorr stock cube to make a chicken stock is supporting the idea of farming sustainability because of their desire to improving agricultural practices in the production of their goods.

So what do I do? What can we do?

Seasonality

I buy in season. Buying strawberries in winter is crazy because they take like wet cotton wool and have been flown half way around the world. The taste of the first strawberry from the garden in late spring/early summer, when it has been gently warmed by the sun is the stuff that makes us foodies swoon with delight… and most kids too.

Buy what I need.

I can’t get to the supermarket in the week as I am usually hiding behind a veritable ‘Great Wall of China’ of exercise books. So, I do it all online, but only after planning what I intend to cook for the week and buying just what I need. I used to throw out loads and feel guilty about the (wo)manpower that had been wasted to make it, the energy needed, the fact that people are starving in many parts of the world and I am filling a bin full of food that, with more forethought, could have produced a tasty meal.

Leftovers are pretty fabulous.

The joy of making that oversize cottage pie/lasagne/chilli is that you get to put what’s leftover into a plastic container and take it to work the next day. Bung it in the microwave, wait for the ping and hey presto, you’ve avoided wasting petrol and additional costs by not going to the pie shop (if you’re me, that is…)

Sustainability and Ethical Practice

The selecting of products which support growers and producers is something that can be easily accomplished. You’re probably supporting many of these great causes already by buying products that support producers worldwide and happily, many of these products are not necessarily more expensive than those that are not as ethically orientated. Win win. However, it’s worth considering those products that might be dearer, especially something like chicken, which tastes so much better when there has been ethical treatment of the chook before it reaches the bright lights of the fridge section.

Talking of chicken, and this is where there has to be a recipe, for this is a food blog, I love getting all of us sat down round the table sometime of a weekend and having a really good meal. Brighter futures start at home; those moments where I can spend quality time with Lola and Finn, chatting, laughing, teaching, caring… Cooking is one of the ways that I show my love and in my own way I am creating a safe, happy environment which I hope that will encourage my children to pass on as they grow.

Easter Chicken with Thyme and Garlic, adapted from ‘Eat Greek for a Week’ by Tonia Buxton

Ingredients:

1.5kg free range/organic/corn-fed chicken

2 lemons (unavoidable air miles, due to a lack of Mediterranean climate…)

1 bay leaf

3tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp thyme leaves

Approximately 40 cloves of garlic (unpeeled, thankfully)

2 large onions (or you could use 10 peeled shallots)

150ml white wine

250ml chicken stock (I used a Knorr stock cube – see my preamble)

100ml Greek yoghurt (many small producers make their own versions of ‘Greek’ yoghurt)

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 180c Put a lemon and a bay leaf into the cavity of the chicken. Season the chicken all over, including the inside. Brush the oil over the chicken skin and season it with salt and pepper. Sprinkle one tbsp. of the thyme leaves over the chicken.

Place the cloves of garlic and the onions in the bottom of a large ovenproof casserole and put the chicken on top.

Cut the remaining lemon into quarters and tuck them in under the bird.

Pour over the wine and the chicken stock, then cover with a tight fitting lid. Put the casserole onto a moderate heat until it reaches a simmer, then, place in the oven for about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours. Ensure the chicken is cooked through by piercing the thickest part of the leg with a skewer or knife to see if the juices run clear.

Carefully remove the chicken, onions and garlic to a warmed dish, leaving the ‘sauce’ in the bottom of the casserole. Cover with foil. Skim the sauce for any fat that has risen to the surface then add the remaining thyme and the yoghurt to make a ‘creamy’ sauce. Bring to the boil for a couple of minutes, season to taste and then pour the sauce into a warmed jug.

Serve the chicken with the sauce and whatever suitable accompaniments you fancy.

 This post is an entry for BritMums #brightFuture Challenge, sponsored by Unilever and linking to http://www.brightfuture.unilever.com.

Bloody Great! Chicken with Marsala, Olives and Blood Oranges

So, here I am continuing to bore you with my new found virtuosity. I have no idea whether this recipe is truly healthy, whatever that means, but my word… it made me feel good. In fact, the fact that I was able to muster this up on a school night is testament not only to my new found energy (well…actually, I don’t know whether I would take it that far. I merely decided to swerve the marking of year 9 books in order to eat because I was that hungry I could have eaten my own arms) but also the ease in which this amazing tasting dish can be created. Yes, even on a school night.

This divine tasting dish is from Diana Henry’s ‘A Bird in the Hand’. It is likely, due to amount of chicken that is being eaten in the household lately, that I will be cooking my way through this frankly fabulous tome of chicken recipes. I haven’t read one yet that I know I wouldn’t like. This recipe uses that seemingly rare beast, the blood orange, which is a particular favourite of mine, their sanguine juice and flesh slightly acidic tang adding colour and flavour to anything and everything. I got mine from the local farm shop, Windy Arbour, in Billinge.

I used chicken breasts on the bone for this one, instead of jointed chicken pieces. Personally I’d have been happy with any part of the chicken but I seem to be surrounded by people who don’t want to deal with too much in the way of bones, so chicken breasts it is. What I will say though is the way of cooking this kept the chicken incredibly moist and seemed to infuse flavour into what I think is sometimes the blandest cut of the bird. Anyway, happy bubs, happy Phill, happy me.

I served this cooked with spelt which had initially been sautéed with onions, and then braised in chicken stock, finished with a sprinkling of parsley. All together it was seriously delish and it’s one that I will be cooking again, as soon as the blood oranges make their welcome appearance.

Chicken with Marsala, Olives and Blood Oranges from ‘A Bird in the Hand’ by Diana Henry

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad, twice (4 – 6 people)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium British free-range chicken, jointed into 8 (I used chicken supremes)

2 small red onions, halved and cut into crescent moon-shaped slices

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

100ml dry Marsala

Juice 1 blood orange, plus 2 blood oranges

8 fresh thyme sprigs (I used 1 ½ tsp of dried thyme)

1-2 large handfuls good quality green olives

A little caster sugar

Heat the oven to 190°C/fan170°C/gas 5.

On the hob, heat the olive oil in a broad, shallow casserole or ovenproof pan in which the chicken joints can lie in a single layer (I used my oval cast iron casserole) Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then brown on both sides, skin-side first, over a medium-high heat. Be careful not to turn the chicken pieces over before they come away easily from the base of the pan, otherwise you will tear the skin. Transfer to a plate.

Drain off all but a couple of tablespoons of the oil, then add the onions to the pan. Cook over a low-medium heat for around 5 minutes or until the onions begin to soften. Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add the marsala to the pan and scrape up all any flavourful sticky bits on the bottom. Add the blood orange juice. Return the chicken – and any meat juices – to the pan, skin-side up. Season, then add the dried thyme. Bring to the boil, then take the pan off the heat and put it in the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut a slice off the bottom and top of each whole blood orange so they have a flat base on which to sit. Using a very sharp knife, cut the peel and pith from each orange, working around the fruit and cutting in broad slices from top to bottom. Slice the oranges into rounds and pick out any pips.

Take the chicken out of the oven, then add the olives and lay over the sliced blood oranges (the oranges should stay on top, out of the liquid). Sprinkle the orange slices with a little sugar, then return the pan to the oven and cook for another 20 minutes. The juices should have reduced, the orange slices should be golden, even caramelised in patches, and the chicken should be cooked through.

Spoon over some of the juices, then serve immediately. I served this with pearled spelt, cooked with onions in chicken stock.

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The first post of 2016 and, I hope, not the last - Herbed Pork Loin with Prosciutto

So, my new year’s resolution is conveniently vague and is basically to try to ‘do stuff better’. This could encompass such aspects as eating better, trying harder to do the things I enjoy, more exercise, stop buying shoes… whatever. I think a general malaise has set in, due to modern life being, frankly, rubbish and whilst I don’t want to sound like a miserable old cow, one of the quotations that I learned for my German Literature A level examination, 23 years ago, was ‘fur die Tretmulle bestimmt’ from ‘Und Sagte kein einziges Wort’ by Heinrich Boll. This phrase kept coming back to me towards the end of 2015. Basically, destined for the treadmill. And I've gotta get off that treadmill.

So here is a blog post about a pretty yum, easy and satisfying meal that we actually sat round the table for, (and there we have another little, but crucial, activity that went by the by last year and needs to return: Eating together and having a bit of a conversation about ‘stuff’). In the spirit of trying to ‘get back’, I returned to the tried and tested brilliance of the Barefoot Contessa, who, no matter which dish I pick from one of her gloriously colourful and luscious books, the end result will make you look pretty adept.

This recipe is from her last book, ‘Make it Ahead’, which appeals to the organised person with not a lot of time and who wants to party on with her guests. I already have not a lot of time; now I just need to be organised and have a party.

Herbed Pork Tenderloin (with Apple Chutney which I did not make because I had some to use up) from 'Make it Ahead' by Ina Garten

My alterations/additions are in red

Ingredients:

I halved the recipe below - except for the prosciutto, of which I used 10 slices

2 pork tenderloins (also known as pork fillet) (2 1/2 to 3 pounds total)
1 tablespoon minced (chopped!) fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves

1/2 tbsp. (chopped) fresh sage
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Good olive oil
10 to 12 slices prosciutto

 Apple Chutney (I used apple sauce, left over from Christmas)

Method

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Cut any sinew or excess fat from the pork loin and pat dry.

Chop the rosemary, the sage and the thyme then add ½ tsp of salt and ½ of ground black pepper to the herbs. Combine.

It’s probably easier to lay out the slices of prosciutto, overlapping each other, onto a baking tray, in preparation for laying the herbed loin onto it.

Coat the loin in a little olive oil and rub the herb and seasoning mixture all around it. Place it onto the prosciutto and pull the prosciutto over the loin, a bit like a blanket. Carefully turn the loin over so the prosciutto ends are tucked under the loin.

Place in the oven for about 25 minutes and then if you have a thermometer, check that the internal temperature is … I just cooked mine for 25 minutes and took a chance, to be honest. Pork loin is seriously chewy if you over cook it.

The Barefoot Contessa serves this with an apple chutney which, let’s face it, is a pretty fab idea. I used the last of the apple sauce with Calvados from Christmas which counteracted the saltiness of the prosciutto fabulously.