Nourished

Chicken

Blackening Spice

Blackened Fish (or Chicken)

Since I have eschewed meat, I’ve been eating predominantly fish.  Hardly a hardship I hear you cry, especially when the fish I buy is usually some gorgeous (ethically sourced) bit of wild fish, such as sea trout, or halibut.  But still, fish several times a week can become a little bit uninspiring.  In Antigua I spotted a blackened flying fish burger, with a brioche bun, and a spiced remoulade – I think I must have eaten it three or four times in the remaining days before I had to fly home.


I scoured the net for blackening mixtures, and then played around with a few different recipes – they were pretty consistent in their ingredients, and after a little trial and error with the thirteen year old, we settled on the following mixture. This batch is enough to make about 8 fillets of fish, so don’t pop it all into the plate in one go, and you should have enough left to make a further meal.

Ingredients:
3 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp chilli powder

1½ tsp cumin
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp thyme
2 tsp oregano
4 tsp onion powder
4 tsp garlic powder
1½ Tbs golden granulated sugar
3 tsp salt
4 tsp black pepper
Method:
Mix all of the ingredients together.  Coat the meat or fish in the blackening spice, and cook in a skillet, or heavy frying pan, until the fish or meat is cooked. #simples
Notes:
  • You can up the oregano and thyme if you prefer a grassier mixture – we found it overwhelmed the balance if any greater than this, but the joy of blackening spice is that you can adapt it to suit your personal tastes
  • Ditto the sugar, we’ve made it with the sugar, and without – it’s definitely nicer when it’s included as it adds a caramel edge to the blackening
  • Although this blend sounds as though it will be quite hot, it’s more of a fragrant tingling heat, than a blow-your-socks-off, palate-numbing combination.  The heat comes predominantly from the black pepper, so if you want to make it truly spicy, you might consider upping the chilli powder
  • Yes, part of the gig is that you actually have to blacken your food!  I usually pop it into a high heat first, blackening on both sides, before turning it down and allowing the fish to cook through.

Casserole

Chicken Casserole with Fennel, Lemon, Garlic and Mushrooms

I’ve no idea where this idea came from, as I’d originally intended to make a chicken chasseur.   When I opened the fridge though, I had an excellent head of fennel, amazing lemons, some beautiful pink garlic and some of my new favourite king oyster mushrooms. It reminded me of one of my absolute favourite summer lunches – finely sliced fennel, served with a garlic and lemon dressing, and seared chicken breasts which have been marinated in garlic and lemon juice.  I think it just seemed logical to give it a go…


Not everything is going to work each time you take a punt, but I’m sure there’s a similar Greek dish that I think contain olives…  As I’ve never been to Greece, it’s not something I’ve tasted, but it seemed to make sense in a Mediterranean kind of way…

Ingredients:

4 good organic chicken breasts
4 king oyster mushrooms
1/2 a large head of fennel
2 shallots
3 tablespoons of plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic
800ml good chicken stock

Method:

  • Butterfly the chicken breasts and cut them in half lengthways 
  • Dust the breasts in well-seasoned flour
  • Heat a tablespoon of butter and olive oil in a pan, and fry the breast until crusty and golden – do not move them around in the pan, you want the crust to stay on the chicken.  Only fry up to three breasts at a time too, so that you don’t overcrowd the pan
  • Removed the chicken and set aside 
  • Roughly chop half a large head of fennel into rough dice
  • Cut of about 1/4 of the king oyster mushroom and set the tops aside, roughly dice the remaining 3/4 of the stalk
  • Chop an equivalent amount of shallots roughly, and then sauté the mushrooms, fennel, two garlic cloves finely sliced and shallots in the pan, scraping up the chicken juices.  Do add more butter or oil if the pan is too dry
  • When everything has softened, deglaze the pan with about a glass of marsala
  • Add 1/2 bottle of white wine to the pan 
  • Finely slice the mushroom tops – I didn’t fry them, I poached them in the pan and in the white wine – because king oyster mushrooms are so flesh and meaty, I wanted to keep them tender
  • Peel a lemon and cut into segments – I cut mine lengthways vertically, then into quarters, then cut the quarters into halves horizontally
  • Put the chicken and lemon segments back into the dish, and add 500ml of good chicken stock
  • Put the casserole dish into the oven for at least an hour, I left mine at 160ºC for two hours.  If you needed it faster, you could raise the temperature up to 180ºC
  • I served mine with green beans.
Notes:
  • If you don’t like lemon chicken, you’re going to loathe this, avoid at all costs
  • If you like lemon chicken, you’re going to LOVE this… It’s much more complex than lemon chicken, the chicken stock adds a certain savouriness that rounds out the sourness of the lemon segments
  • You could easily add marinated olives to this, the saltiness would add another flavour dimension (in fact I even have lemon stuffed olives in my pantry, perhaps I’ll add them next time!)
Chop the fennel and 3/4 of the mushroom stalk into rough dice.
Slice the top of the mushroom top into slices.
The chicken, before it goes into the oven
Chicken casserole with fennel, lemon, garlic and mushrooms

Angela Hartnett

Fettuccini with lardons and chestnuts…

I came across this great little recipe by Angela Hartnett, in the Guardian…  Angela comes form an Italian family, and often talks about the dishes she learnt at her Nonna’s side…  As well as running Murano’s, she is working with Luke Holder, Head Chef at Limewood Hotel on a new venture showcasing New Forest produce.

I particuarly liked the sound of the chestnuts in this, and it seemed a good way to use up any you might have lurking after Christmas…  This makes a fantastic lunch dish.

Ingredients:
375g dried fettuccine
50ml olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
6 rashers of back bacon, roughly chopped (I used pancetta, sliced into lardons)
1 small leek, washed and finely sliced
100g ricotta
1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
6 cooked chestnuts, sliced

Season a pan of water and bring it to the boil. Add the pasta and cook as instructed on the packet – usually for about seven minutes – until it is al dente.

Add the oil, garlic and bacon to another large pan and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced leek and cook for about five minutes, until soft.

When the pasta is ready, drain well and toss it in with the leek and bacon. Add the ricotta and flat-leaf parsley and mix through. Check the seasoning to taste and finish with the sliced chestnuts.

Serve immediately.

Notes:
Do make sure you use dried pasta – the surface texture is much rougher than fresh egg pasta, and the sauce clings to it much better.
Look at your ricotta before you use it – like a dolt I didn’t mix mine until smooth with a little of the starchy pasta water, which would have made the sauce more unctuous.  Nor did I spoon it into little mouthfuls within the pasta… Instead, I stirred it in, straight from the fridge.  Don’t do that – though it doesn’t alter the flavour, it does make the sauce very slightly grainy… But hey – now I’ve warned you…
If you want to pimp your pasta (for dinner perhaps), you could also sauté a chicken breast to serve on top… Yes, I had too!  Hubby had been in the gym and was suspiciously eyeing the low meat quotient.  I think there’s more than enough flavour from the pancetta though to forgo it, and we could all do with eating less meat….

The ‘pimped’ fettuccini, with sautéd chicken breast
Fettuccini, with lardons and chestnuts
Do use dry fettuccini, you can see the rougher surface of the dried variety

You can find more delicious recipes by Angela in her books >