chicken with beluga lentils

 A very tasty and easy one pot meal

• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 chicken drumsticks (skin on)*
• ½ teaspoon red chili flakes
• 250g leeks (cleaned and sliced)
• 5 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
• 250g beluga lentils (dry or precooked pack)*
  
• 250ml dry white wine
• 1 pack sun roasted tomatoes
• 500ml chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon chilli sauce
• salt and papper
• 1 large courgette (cut in half then sliced)
• optional: 
• 1 tablespoon chilli sauce
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (for garnish)

• * Also works with chicken breasts or thighs and other types of lentils 
• 
  
• Equipment: large lidded casserole dish that can go from stove top to oven
•  
  
  Heat the olive oil over medium high heat.
  
  Season the chicken drumsticks with salt and red chili flakes, then add the drumsticks to the casserole and brown on all sides, for about 5 minutes. 
  
  Transfer the chicken drumsticks to a plate and set aside.
  
  Turn the heat down to medium and add the leeks and garlic. Stir around a bit and cook for about 3 minutes or until the leeks soften and become translucent. Stir in the smoked paprika, then add the beluga lentils (if using dry lentils), sun dried tomatoes and white wine. Add the chicken broth, chilli sauce (if used), stir everything together and taste for seasoning. Adjust with salt and pepper as necessary. Preheat your oven to 180C. Cook the lentils for about 10 minutes, they will not be cooked through. Add the courgette to the pot (and lentils if using precooked), stir then place the chicken on top of everything. Place the casserole in the oven and cook for about 1 hour or until the lentils are cooked through. Garnish with fresh thyme (if used) and serve immediately.

•  

parmigiani melanzane (aubergine)

a great classical Italian vegetarian dish 

for 2 as a main (or 4 as a side dish)

• 1 large aubergine
• 1 bunch of basil, half stalks and leaves separated chopped, half left whole for garnish
  
• olive oil, for deep-frying
• 100g plain flour
• 1 free-range egg, beaten
• 200g buffalo mozzarella, grated
• 250 ml/7fl oz passata
• 200g/7oz Parmesan
• 1-2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced
• salt

Equipment: a small deep oven proof dish (about 16x12x6cm)

Slice the aubergine into thin slices (about 8 in all).

Place the flour and egg in two separate wide bowls. Heat the oil in a large frying pan.

Dredge aubergine rounds in the egg then the flour and drop immediately into the hot pan, turning half way, until they are soft and golden both sides. Remove the aubergine rounds with a slotted spoon and set aside on kitchen paper. Season with salt.

Fry the onion in a lidded saucepan until softened and clear.  Add the the passata, basil stalks and wine and simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes, or until thickened. 

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan.

Allow the sauce to cool slightly, then start layering in an oven dish: first a layer of aubergine, then half the passata, then the mozzarella and half the Parmesan. Top with the basil leaves then the remaining aubergine, remaining passata, pressing in the sliced tomatoes and finishing with the remaining parmesan.

Bake for at least 40 minutes until the top is golden.

Garnish with the basil leaves. 

Serve with crusty bread and a salad if a main course.

 

chicken and mustard sauce

 From Jay Rayner (a variation on rabbit in mustard sauce)

a very tasty and simple way of serving chicken

Serve with crusty bread (eg ciabatta) and greens as below (or a sharp green salad)

• onion 1, large, sliced into rings
• chicken thighs 6-8, bone-in, skin-on 
• it also works with boned skinless
  
• smoked bacon lardons 200g
• olive oil 2 tbsp
• sea salt and ground black pepper
• butter a couple of knobs
• chicken stock 400ml, from a cube
• double cream 100ml
• dijon mustard 
• greens (eg a mix of spring or savoy cabbage chopped and sprouting broccoli) 
• juniper berries (crushed) (optional)
  

Heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. You’re going to roast these chicken thighs hot and fast.

Put the sliced onion across the bottom of an oven pan. Place the chicken thighs on top, skin side up. Chuck the lardons over and around them. Dribble on a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, season liberally with salt and pepper and add 2 good knobs of butter.

Roast the chicken thighs in the oven for around 45 minutes, and certainly until the skin is crisp. Baste them every 15 minutes or so. Cover for the first half with foil, then remove this and give them 10 minutes skin side down so the backs also crisp up. Then turn back skin side up for another 10 minutes, so the skin is really crisp.

When the thighs are done, take them out of the pan, shaking off any caramelised rings of onion or lardons. and place in a dish dish to rest in a warm place. It will not get cold and will benefit hugely from the 15 minutes or so rest it will take to make the sauce.

For the greens: pour a dessertspoon of olive oil into a lidded saucepan heat gently, add the greens and shake up until they just start to sizzle.  Add the juniper berries if used, or a good grinf of pepper.  Keep on a low heat with the lid on and occasionally give the pan a good shake, until the broccoli is just softened: about 5-7 minutes. 

For the sauce: The pan will have caramelised onion and lots of fabulous juices in it. Put it on a medium heat and pour in the stock, scraping up everything from the bottom of the pan. Let it bubble away and reduce a little for 5 minutes.

Pour in the double cream and whisk to incorporate into the stock. Let it simmer and thicken further (but don’t let it boil).

Whisk in a good tablespoon of dijon mustard. Taste. If you think it can take more, add a teaspoon at a time. Dijon mustard is a very good emulsifier and it will bring the whole thing together.

Once it has thickened enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon, place the chicken thighs on warmed plates and pour the sauce in the tray over them, with the greens alongside.