Chicken in Cider

Clearly, my brother is the one whose good at photography in my family. You can find him over at http://findmatthewcoleman.tumblr.com. Clearly, I've already made this recipe unappetizing just through my inherent ability to capture washed out colour and blurred form. The thing is that the recipe is really simple, and the taste is incredible - the sharp bite of the cider the perfect foil to that thick oozy texture of the cream sauce. It's one pot cooking as well, which apparently people like. I did it for a couple of people again, because dishes like this cooked for one are a little bleak. If your life is a little bleak and you have no one to share it with, perk up - you can have the rest for leftovers tomorrow you massive, massive loser.

You'll need...

2 chicken thighs, boned, but keep the bones

500ml of a good dry cider, for example I used Frome Valley

6 or so chestnut mushrooms

few sprigs of thyme

2 carrots, peeled and chopped to chunks

1 leek, cleaned and chopped

quite a few new potatoes, I used fir, halved

3 heaped tbsp of creme fraiche

Take your chicken and bones and saute them in a little oil until lightly browned on each side. Remove and set aside and replace with the leeks. Give these a couple of minutes of light sizzling, then add your carrot and potatos and give them a similar amount of time.

Next pour in the cider, reintroduce the chicken and add a couple of sprigs of thyme, bring to a light simmer, cover and allow to bubble slowly for half an hour.

I did some washing up and watched television for half an hour. You can do whatever you like.

Go back to the pot, remove the chicken and keep warm. Add the creme fraiche and turn up the heat a little. You're looking to reduce it down to a thicker consistency, like a sauce instead of a soup. Add thyme and some seasoning around now, and when the sauce reaches the desired thickness, add the chicken back and get ready to serve.

So incredibly easy, and delicious to boot.

FOLLLLLOWWWWWWWWWWWERS!

I got over a hundred. I feel I should celebrate.

I don't drink champagne though...

Borcht Video Recipe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua7MuzWJbxc&feature=player_embedded

Yeah.

Luke is a new contributor. He is a vegetarian who likes cooking borscht but doesn’t like surfing. If you want to recreate the soup, please gather these things…

500g beetroot

500g potatoes

1 large onion

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 pints of stock

soured cream for adding and swirling.

yeah. then just follow him.

Doughnut Recipe

I've never been one for sweet things. I don't eat dessert, don't like cute animals and get on very well with societies arseholes. But this means I have a hole in my cookery experience, and this saddens me. I will endeavour to improve myself on this front with the help of this blog. Truthfully though, I didn't enjoy making this, and at one point threw some dough across the room out of frustration. This made me feel better, but then I had to clean it up, which made me feel worse. I probably wouldn't make this if i was you, but they honestly tasted delicious. Really quite delicious. Yeah, actually do make them.

Take these ingredients...

2 sachets of dry yeast

quarter cup of warm water

1 and a half cups of milk, heated to just under boiling point, then cooled to lukewarm

5 cups flour, or six or seven, sieved.

3 eggs

half a cup of caster sugar

third of a cup of butter

1 tsp of salt

a very lot of vegetable oil for deep frying

And for the topping...lots of caster sugar and cinnamon

Firstly, add the yeast into the water in a big bowl and let it dissolve. Then add the milk, the sugar, the butter, salt, eggs and three cups of the flour. Whisk it into a thin batter, then add another couple of cups of flour and blend until smooth. At this point it should be dryish, like a bread dough. It wasn't when I did it. It was wet and stuck to me. If it's like this with you, add more flour until it isn't. Beat until smooth, then cover and let proof in a warm area for about an hour.

After an hour, its time to roll it out and cut it to shape. Flour your surface and your pin. I used a rum bottle, because I'm a real bad boy. If you can't roll this without it sticking to everything, then you haven't used enough flour. This is the point I started getting aggressive with the dough. Don't do the same. Roll out the dough to about quarter of an inch thick. Then either take a cutter or a knife and cut out circles, or alternatively roll it into little sausage shapes. Set aside, covered for another half an hour to forty minutes on a floured tray/s.

Now heat up a saucepan to about half way with the oil and bring up to temperature. It's ready when you drop a bit of bread into it and it bubbles and browns nicely.

Drop your doughnuts into the oil and fry for a minute or so then turn and do likewise on the other side, or until they get to the desired colouring. Take out, dry on kitchen paper and then roll in your cinnamon sugar concoction and get started on the next, then the next, then the next, then the next.

You will die fat.

xx.

doughnut mountain.

Cod Chowder

Hi...I use film as an inspiration for tonight's meal. Please watch the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEX3D54CHew

Chowder is very nice, and also very easy. Why not cook it? I've included enough food so you can eat it with someone else. Because that's what I did. It's nice to share.

You'll need...

500g of cod, filleted, skinned, boned and chopped into big chunks

a couple of slices of middle bacon

a leek

3 medium white potatoes, peeled and chopped into even cubes

4 blocks frozen spinach

big handful of frozen peas

small tin of evaporated milk

half a cup of full fat milk

spoonful of butter

half a cup of water/fish stock

plenty of salt and pepper

parsley to garnish

Fry the bacon until crispy, drag it out allow to cool. Chop into little chunks and set aside until the dish is finished. Add the butter to the pan and saute the leeks until softened. Add the potatoes and stir for half a minute or so, then add enough water/stock to cover. Simmer gently until the potatoes are well cooked.

Now it's time for the milk, the evaporated milk and the spinach and simmer until the spinach blocks have melted. At this point, it might still be a little thin, and if it is, maybe you could crush up a potato or two in the soup. This should do the trick.

Now drop the cod into the pot. Give it ten minutes or so, then add your peas and give it another couple of minutes or so, until the peas are done. Adjust your seasonings accordingly and turn out into a bowl, topping with parsley and the bacon. Proceed to shit your pants with joy.

New Video Recipe: Mackerel Rice Bowl

Mackerel Rice Recipe

We did another video recipe. This time it's makerel rice bowl. This time she quite likes it. Wahey!

To do likewise, you will need...

1 cup of japanese rice

1 and a half cups to cook the rice in

1 or two smoked mackerel fillets, depending on how hungry you are

2 or three spring onions

half a cup of peas

2 tbsp of soy sauce

2 tbsp of mirin

large pinch of sugar

Beef and Green Bean Stew

These rich meat stews are quite a staple for me. Ten minutes preperation and I can disappear for a couple of hours and come back to a rich, intensely flavoured dish. This kind of thing is perfect for batch jobs as well and is cheap as free papers and sunlight. This must, must, must be paired with some turkish/middle eastern bread, to scoop up all the meaty, sweet juices.

So you’ll need…

200g beef, a stewing cut, like shin, cut into half inch cubes

100g green beans, topped and tailed

4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

garlic clove, chopped

red onion, peeled and chopped fine

half teaspoon of ras al hanout (spice mix)

1 tsp of red wine vinegar

1 bay leaf

half a cup of water/stock

salt and pepper

a few pitted black olives

handful of parsley to garnish

Firstly, season the beef with salt and pepper, then fry until browned. Fry in batches rather than all at once if space is an issue in the pan. It just won’t brown properly if it doesn’t have enough space. Once browned, remove the meat and set aside.

Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened. Add the ras al hanout, allow it to cook out for a minute or two and then add your vinegar, bay leaf, tomatoes and stock/water. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to it’s lowest setting. Reintroduce the meat, cover the pan with a lid/cling film/tin foil and allow the contents to gently bubble for two hours or until the meat is melting and tender. At this point, add the green beans and olives to the saucepan and give them fifteen minutes or so.

Serve with a chunk of bread, maybe some rice, scattered with parsley.