Setting fire to the chicken on a bbq!

It was a lovely sunny day yesterday so I decided to get the BBQ out and cook some sardines that I had defrosted and de-scaled and gutted yesterday. I knew to place them on silver foil when on the BBQ otherwise the fish skin will burn and you get bits of fish stuck to the grill bars.

Once I had got the coals lit through piling up dried lavender cuttings and equally dried bits of pine tree gathered from the woods last year I got BBQ crazy and went and bought some chicken from my local butcher in the village. It didn't matter that there was only me. I wanted to cook meat and it was my fire! Out came the inner caveman or at least a Boy Scout memory or two. Ug me man! Ug my fire burning! The sardines would have to wait until last and I spatchcocked the chicken by taking out the back bone with some kitchen scissors.

Here are some pictures of the BBQ preparation. Previous to the flames there was lots of billowing grey smoke and a lot of fanning from me to get the flames going and the wood burnt down and the coals nice and hot.

Look at those embers! Just ready to cook some chicken. On with the grill rack and let's go get the chicken. I place the chicken on the bars and almost immediately the flames started and eventually, fearing my chicken to get incinerated, I remove the meat and added some silver foil before placing the chicken back on the BBQ.

The leg and thigh joints I'd bought separate from the whole chicken did get a bit burnt but were edible. The whole chicken was charred underneath on the bony bit but otherwise cooked well. I put the lid on the BBQ and left it to its own devices whilst I had a few beers.

The sardines proved a bit less food magazine perfect after cooking than I'd hoped for. Basically they fell to bits and I ended up picking the fish flesh off the bones and putting it into a bowl. Still undecided what to do with it. A few fishcakes maybe?

 

Two types of roast chicken for lunch.

It must be nearly summer.

Tonight I made use of two chicken meat ingredients and cooked them in different ways to enjoy together with some simple tomatoes, olives and two types of soft cheese. I can't pretend that I planned it all in advance. Really it just sort of came together by chance. First of all I noticed the chicken wings on a reduction at the local Co-op store and for under £1.50 I bought the packet of about ten wings.

First of all I sprinkled them with just a light dusting of Santo Domingo Pimenton de la Vera (M&S for £2) added some lemon zest and cooked them in sunflower oil for an hour and a half at gas mark 6. For the last half an hour I added some slivers of chorizo for taste and colour.

The with two hungry cats dodging about and hoping for a little Sunday afternoon treat I went out and purchased a whole chicken and boned the breasts and legs (tying the legs together to make a small compact joint). The cats got treated to a couple of tiny bits of raw chicken breasts. Then I put these in an oven- proof dish and saturated them in fresh lemon juice and gave all of the meat a good sprinkling of ground black pepper. The spare chicken wings got added to the other chicken based dish.

Both of the chicken dishes cooked for about an hour and a half at gas mark six with a couple of basting opportunities made use of to keep the cooking chicken moist.

Rosemary from the garden just for decoration purposes

For a simple supper I set the chicken on a plate with mixed olives, basil leaves, sliced tomatoes, French Brie and Le Rustique Camembert.

Daisy the plastic cow looked on in admiration during the whole process and my neighbours Jo and Georgina enjoyed a chicken treat this evening too. The pimento/paprika purchase was well worth it for the most sublime taste of Spanish cooking.

Saving money shopping local.

Being away from the temptation to shop at any Tesco store, I have been enjoying shopping locally in the village where we are particularly fortunate to have a range of independent shops including Thomas Glyn the greengrocer and The Ruddington Butcher. Glyn's greengrocers are very reasonable in price and the fruit and vegetables are always fresh. Plus if you happen to just want one potato and a couple of carrots it is no problem. Not that I often shop like that but the option is there. Like those at the butcher's round the corner the staff are always friendly and knowledgeable and the service is pleasant and quick.

I will give you an example of how I think I have saved money and time by shopping local. As I never set out to do a contrast and compare exercise I unfortunately I can't give a specific alternative example from a supermarket, but here goes. Firstly the shop is two minutes walk from my house so no brainer there. There are other alternatives a similar distance away for veg shopping and those are the local Co-operative store and a Sainsbury's Local store. The Sainsbury's is far too limited in choice and expensive and mainly the Co-operative store shopping gets a bit tempting to 'just get' something else whilst in store. Beer mainly.

So I had in mind a nice big chicken stew to try and beat this cold I have right now. Plenty of garlic and leeks. At Glyn's I sourced some ingredients based on the fact I only had ten pounds in my pocket in cash and a chicken needed to be bought too from that amount. The items below are what I purchased from Glyn's for the sum total of £2.94. The little bag of thyme was on offer at 45p and I had more than enough to flavour the chicken. I already had garlic in the house.

A medium sized fresh chicken cost me £6 from the local butcher. Interestingly I have brought very little meat since breaking up from work just over two weeks ago. The chicken has been my only meat purchase. I have been happy to do without it. Far too many food miles and time expenditure in going out to a large supermarket on the edge of town.

So far I have had three big bowls of flavoursome chicken stew and there is enough left for a few days more and it is the nicest tasting chicken I have had for while. In a large supermarket a chicken would probably about the same but I reckon double the amount on vegetables. One small step in saving for me and mankind. ;0)

Cooking, cooking, cooking...

I've a had a mad spate of cooking lately as there have been some good half price offers on at work and therefore I've been buying things I normally would love to eat but can't justify the cost of. Namely, bulk purchases of British lamb chops, chicken breast supremes, succulent lean rump and sirloin steaks. I must say that I have really enjoyed cooking and eating them!!

                              Chicken breast with pasta, creamy pear sauce and basil and mint leaves

This was the day I went a bit mad on the tapas front and started catering for twenty even though there was only lil old me. I didn't (couldn't) eat it all at once honest, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting inspired to create all the dishes. This was my first excursion down the route of making patatas bravas too,

One lot of tapas style food inspired me to make a reduced version later in the week along with a small three or four bite quiche I got cheap from the local Co-Op store. Nice snacky food. Tasty and easy to put together. The eggs were laid by my neighbour's hens and the home made mango chutney given to me as a gift by the local ironmongers. The tomatoes were bought at the village greengrocers and beat any Supermarket tomatoes hands down.

On another day of culinary fun I salivated at my lamb chops cooking in the oven and served them with some simple vegetables with fresh garden mint. I can't abide skinny lamb chops so I made sure the ones I bought were big and chunky.

I so rarely buy steaks that being able to get them half price in the last couple of weeks has turned me into being more of a carnivore than normal. I do like my steak quite bloody and have become addicted to Tesco's peppercorn sauce. Again simply served with a few vegetables and a glass or two of Merlot.

The other day I got inspired to make a vegetable dish (I know, shock horror! Phil does vegetable dish.) based on the French potato dish, Gratin Dauphinois; a bake of thinly sliced raw potatoes layered with cheese, crushed garlic, pepper, a flicker of nutmeg and covered with double cream and milk. In the traditional bake Gruyere cheese is used but I didn't have any so I used up what I had left of Parmesan and Brie. I also got my Dauphinois confused with a Boulanger dish and had already thinly sliced a lot of onion so I added that in the layering anyway. Didn't do any harm. The moment it comes out of the oven all bubbling hot and brown from the melted cheese is heavenly!

served with olives, peppers filled with ricotta cheese and some Spanish cured ham.

I always like to make a solid amount of food when I'm cooking but hate to waste food too. Often what I have left I will reheat the following day or offer my neighbour some. I don't know why but my neighbour's cat also seems to know exactly when the meat comes out of the fridge and he'll often get a small titbit before I start my cooking then he'll give himself a good lick all over and fall asleep contentedly by my window.

Guten Appetit!

This is a fun video with me demonstrating my German language skills after shopping at the Co-Op for a few bits ready to make a healthy chicken soup. Lots of veg too and pepper. Here is short list of foodstuffs in German. All nouns are written with a capital letter in German. I’m a bit obsessed with the German language at the moment as I am going to Germany on the 18^th of May to perform A Chip In The Sugar as part of a cultural exchange. See my other blog  for more details.

Das Gemüse = vegetables.

Die neue Kartoffel = new potatoes.

Die Karotte = carrot

Die Tomate =tomato

Der Lauch = leek

Der Pilz = mushroom

Die Zwiebel = onion

Das Vollkornbrot = wholemeal bread

Das Brot  = bread

Das Hähnchen = chicken

Die dicke Bohne = broad bean

Der Knoblauch = garlic

Das Bier = beer

Die Knabbereien = bar snacks

Die Suppe = soup

Der Gefrier – Kuhlschrank = fridge freezer

Guten Appetit = a good appetite

Today I even surprised myself by having a conversation – am telefon – with someone in Karlsruhe about the prices of tickets for travel on the tramway system in the city and the city environs. I was understood and I understood them!!!

Und nun, vorwarts gehe ich um das Hähnchen Suppe zu machen!

My Little Frenchy Kitchen

Entranced by another episode of ‘The Little Paris Kitchen’ featuring Rachel Khoo last night I thought I’d show off my French styled kitchen and the various objects I have collected over the years to feed my love of all things French. Alas, I live in rural Nottinghamshire not Paris but one can dream.

I had a bit of a tidy before I took the pictures and the interior isn’t as charmingly chaotic as Rachel Khoo’s tiny Parisian kitchen but it suits me. I sometimes listen to French radio stations (online) as I cook as a bit of fun background noise. My language skills aren’t enough to understand half of what is being said but I like the French sounds and get some of it. And when I’ve had a few glasses of Merlot I feel that I could walk out of the door and be in Paris itself.

Not that I’m obsessed or owt but, over the years, I have also built up a collection of modern French music on CDs and a movable feast of French language DVDs most of which seem to feature the lovely Audrey Tautou. Odd that. And then there’s a collection of books for Francophiles covering every aspect of French life and a big pile of France magazines and more cookery books about French Cooking. Oooh la la!

I was going to list them for you but got inspired to create an Eiffel Tower out of some of them instead. More fun.

I think I’m going to have severe withdrawal symptoms when Rachel Khoo’s six part programme is finished. I do hope that a video is produced. Last night’s programme interested me as a butcher because she went to the largest wholesale food market in Rungis, south of Paris and wowed the butchers (all but one) with her version of Steak Tartare. I also loved the cheeses at the award winning cheese shop and what she did with the goat’s cheese.

Tonight I am cooking a lemon and thyme chicken with some simple roasted vegetables. At the time of writing this it is still in the oven and smells great.

Minus eight and a house filled with the aroma of lemon and thyme chicken.

According to the local radio, tonight's temperature could be as low as minus eight and as I am feeling very peckish I have spent this afternoon oven roasting a succulent chicken filled with a whole lemon and fragrant thyme picked fresh from the garden and sprinkled lovingly over the partially cooked meat two thirds through the cooking process. I also prepared some roasting vegetables, peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic and placed them in the oven around the roasting bird around the same time. On gas mark seven they now had three quarters of an hour to cook through and flavour the chicken further. Furthermore, I lightly boiled a few new potatoes to add to the dish.

Next door's cat, Mr Harris, came in to check that all was well with the chicken and found it perfectly OK as he sniffed the air like a cat version of the Bisto kids. He also found it perfectly (and a bit alarmingly) OK to bite my fingers as I stroked his sweet little head affectionately. I think it was the strong smell of the thyme. He's never bit me before. Interestingly, I gave him a bit of the the cooked chicken when it had come out of the oven and had cooled down enough to be comfortable for a little cat's mouth to eat. He had a bit but didn't seem that fussed. He either wasn't hungry or the lemon and thyme flavours put him off.

Anyway, I enjoyed it and there is plenty left for another day or another dish to enjoy.