Pollo en Salsa de Ajo (Chicken in Garlic Sauce)

OK, it has been ages since I blogged, far too long indeed. I hope to now bombard you with loads of new recipes. I hit a little cooking rut and lost my foody mojo, but a holiday to Menorca and a new Spanish cookbook and I am all fired up. This recipe is taken from the World Kitchen - Spain cook book.

Pollo en Salsa de Ajo

Chicken in Garlic Sauce

Serves 4

1kg boneless, skinned chicken thighs

1 tblsp sweet paprika - pimenton

2 tblsp olive oil

8 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

60ml Fino sherry

125ml chicken stock

1 bay leaf

2 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Trim fat from chicken and cut each thigh into thirds. Combine in a bowl with the paprika, S&P to fully coat.

Heat half the oil in a frying pan and over high heat fry the garlic for 1-2 minutes. Remove from pan.

Now add the rest of the oil and fry the chicken in batches for 5 mins or until brown.

Return all the chicken to the pan and add the sherry, boil for 30 seconds, then add the stock and bay leaf. Cover and simmer from 10 mins.

Make a picada, by squeezing the garlic from it's skin and pound in a pestle and morter with the parsley.

Stir the paste into the pan and cook covered for a further 10 mins.

I served this with oven roasted peppers and potato chunks.

A very delicious dish, the picada really helps to thicken and freshen the dish. It is not overpowered with sherry or garlic.

Mexican Chicken Stew

Another one from the hallowed pages of Good Food Mag, with a couple of minor changes to suit my store cupboard. Quite a low fat but tasty dish.

Mexican Chicken Stew

1 medium onion chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp dark brown sugar

2 dried chipotle peppers - re-hydrated and chopped.

400g can chopped tomatoes

2 skinless chicken breasts

1 small red onion - sliced into rings

Veg oil

Fry the onion in a pan with a little oil until soft, add the garlic,

Stir in the sugar, tomatoes and chipotle.

Put chicken into the pan and spoon over the sauce, simmer gently for 20 mins - add a little water if gets too dry.

Remove chicken and shred with 2 forks then stir back into the sauce.

Serve on a bed of rice and scatter the red onion rings on top.

A lovely dish, but in future I will be adding a couple more chipotles or even a few chilli flakes as there was not much of a kick to it. The chipotles added a really nice smokey flavour and on the whole the dish was very fresh.

Mushroom and Caramelised Red Onion Tart

I found this recipe from the inspiring blog of Kevin at Closet Cooking and modified it to suit what was in my larder at the time:-

Mushroom & Caramelised Red Onion Tart

1 large red onion thinly sliced

250g Mushrooms sliced - I used bog standard closed cup

1 clove garlic - chopped

1/2 tsp thyme

1 sheet puff pastry

1/2 cup grated Emmenthal cheese

Oil and Butter

S&P

1 tsp Sugar

Garlic and Herb Light soft cheese

Menorcan Herb Gin - 1 shot

Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the onion and sugar and slowly cook until caramelised, about 20 minutes.

Add a little melted butter and then the mushrooms and cook until soft and slightly browned.

Add garlic, thyme, S&P

I was using a very good non-stick frying pan, so there was no real need to de-glaze, but I did loosen up the whole mixture by adding a shot of the thick Menorcan Herb Gin (I did not want to open a bottle of wine just to de-glaze and I had finished off the cooking sherry so this was my only option!)

Roll out the puff pastry and score around the edges about 3cm in.

Spread the soft cheese over the base, I used about half of a 175g pack. Pour the mushroom and onion mixture over and scatter the Emmenthal over the top.

Bake in an oven at 180oc for about 15 mins.

Serve with a lovely fresh salad.

This tart was deliciously sweet and tasty, the combination of sweet herb gin and red onions went together well whilst the sharper nutty Emmenthal cut through it.

French Style Chicken With Peas & Pancetta

My take on another great recipe from June 2010 Good Food Magazine

French Style Chicken with Peas & Pancetta

6 rashers of dry cured smoked Pancetta - chunky chopped

6 Chicken thighs and drumsticks - skin on if being naughty, skin off if being good

2 cloves of garlic - thinly sliced

1 onion chopped (should have been a bunch of spring onions, but I forgot them)

300ml Chicken stock

250g Frozen peas

1 Little Gem lettuce, rough shred

2 tbsp half fat Creme Fraiche

In a large pan add a little oil and gently fry the chicken skin side down to get it golden and crispy, turn over and continue frying for about 10 mins in total.

Meanwhile use another frying pan to crisp up the Pancetta.

In the main pan remove the chicken whilst you pour off any excess fat and then fry the onion and garlic briefly.

Add the chicken stock, bacon and return the chicken to the pan. Cover and simmer for about 20 mins.

Turn up the heat and add the peas and lettuce for about 4 minutes until the lettuce has wilted.

Stir in the creme fraiche and serve.

I served with crushed new potatoes.

This was a really very delicious dish as well as being colourful. Good Food suggest using skinless boneless chicken thighs which would make the cooking time shorter and saves you having to man handle the drumsticks in order to get all that lovely tender meat off!

Italian Pork Patties

With excitment I opened this months Good Food magazine and found loads of recipes just crying out to be tried, here is the first of many.

Italian Pork Patties

500g Pork mince

50g Fresh breadcrumbs

50g grated Parmesan

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1 crushed garlic clove

Zest of one lemon

Mix breadcrumbs, mince, Parmesan, parsley, garlic and lemon zest in a bowl - Good Food says to add water to moisten the breadcrumbs first, I just added an egg to bind it all together.

Season well, I also added a little sage.

Form into 8 flatish patties

Add a little oil to a frying pan and over a moderate heat fry for 7 mins each side until they have a lovely crisp golden outer.

I served with the recommended potato wedges baked in a pan with a coating of oil, lemon juice, S&P and a simple salad.

The patties were so soft and light and very tasty, nothing stodgy about them at all. The lemon was a lovely twist although hubby thought it was too overpowering. I can imagine these will be a very welcome change when used on a BBQ over the usual burnt beef burgers.

Hearty Pasta Soup

Yet another super simple recipe from Good Food.

Hearty Pasta Soup

1 tbs Olive Oil

2 Carrots - chopped.

1 Large Onion - chopped

1 ltr Veg stock

400g can chopped tomatoes

200g frozen peas & broad beans

250g pack fresh filled tortellini. I used goats cheese and caramelised onion

Chopped basil leaves

Grated Parmesan

Heat oil in a pan and fry the carrots and onions for 5 mins. Add stock and tomatoes, simmer for 10 mins. Add peas and broad beans.

Once veg is tender, add the pasta. Return to the boil and simmer for 2 mins.

Serve with basil and Parmesan on top.

Hubby whipped up a batch of Rosemary and sea salt Focaccia to go with the soup and very nice it was too.

Cheesy Leek & Bacon Tart

I think I am going backwards in my cooking skills and I am trying to find the easiest meal out there. This one is a total cheat but ends up very delish and almost looks like you tried with it. Another from the Good Food archives.

Cheesy Leek and Bacon Tart

1 roll pre-made puff pastry

150g tub Philidelphia Light with Garlic & Herbs soft cheese

3 leeks - sliced into 5mm rings

5 rashers smoked bacon

100g Emmental cheese - grated

Heat a pan and fry in a little oil the leeks until just soft.

Unroll the pastry and put onto a baking tray

Spread the Philly over the pastry about 3cm from the edges (First time I cooked this it was a little too cheesy so second time around I cut back on some of the Philly)

Once the leeks have cooled put them on to the pastry along with the bacon that has been cut into little bits.

Add the grated Emmental and roll the edges up then pop into the oven at 190oc for 15 mins.

Looks and tastes fantastic! Next time I will try with mushrooms in place of bacon.

With the left over Philly from my second attempt I spread it over some pork loins, just before they went into the oven for 15 minutes, it really turned them around and made a possible boring meal a little more exciting. Have also tried adding Philly to pasta - don't try unless you like a claggy mess.