Chicken Paprika

With the weather so cold this winter, another Crock Pot special. This one is a chicken dish (somewhat inspired by the famous hungarian dish) that is warming but still light.

Equipment

• Frying pan
• Crock Pot (slow cooker)
• Knife
• Chopping board
• Cup and spoon measures

Ingredients

• 1 can of chopped roma tomatoes
• 45g butter
• 6 chicken thighs (these work best, but 3 breasts will do if you need)
• 1 white or brown onion chopped
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Pepper
• 1/4 sour cream (this is optional, light sour cream also works)

Method

• Melt half the butter, in the frying pan on medium-high heat, and lightly brown the chicken on both sides in batches, then put into the crock pot. 
• Turn the pan down to medium-low, add the remaining butter to the frying pan, add onions and fry until soft. Add the paprika and cook for 1 minutes, then stir in the flour, stock and chopped tomatoes. Peel and chop the garlic, toss in and add the bay leaf, stir in the salt and pepper, then add it all to the Crock Pot.
• Cook on low for the day. 
• Remove the bay leaf, add the sour cream just before service if that option has been chosen.

Serve
Serve with Basmati Rice.

Daube of Beef Provencal

Sounds fancy, tastes lovely, and sophisticated enough to serve for a dinner party. And again a good crock pot recipe for the winter.

Equipment

• 1 chopping board
• 1 large chopping knife
• frying pan
• measuring cups and spoons
• string
• Medium sized bowl
• Colander
• Deep serving Bowl
• Whisk
• Crock Pot (slow cooker)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 125g thickly sliced pancetta
• 6 whole beef cheeks or 1kg of lean chuck steak
• 1 large white or brown onion
• 2 carrots
• 1 small butternut pumpkin (butternut squash)
• 1 1/2 cups red wine (make sure it's drinkable - bad wine makes a bad dish)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 stalks of parsley
• 1 spring thyme
• 2 tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of beef stock
• 1 orange or mandarin
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 30g butter (plus additional knob if you choose to make mash)
• 1 1/2 tbsp plain flour
• Bread rolls

Method

• Cut up the lean chuck steak into large cubes (beef cheeks can stay whole). Cube the pancetta.
• Cut up the onion, cut the tomato into quarters, thickly slice the carrot, and peel, de-seed and chop the butternut pumpkin into large chunks.
• Heat the oil in the frying pan, to a medium-high heat, then fry the pancetta for 2-3 minutes until the fat is transparent. Add the beef and brown it in batches over a high heat, putting the cooked meat into the Crock Pot. 
• Add the onions, and carrot, and cook slowly for five minutes, then add to the Crock Pot.
• Peel and smash your garlic cloves, put into the Crock Pot, and add the wine, chopped tomato, and beef stock.
• Create your own Bouquet Garni, by tying up your thyme, bay leaf and parsley. Add to the Crock Pot, with your salt and pepper.
• Wash your orange or mandarin, and then use your peeler with the orange skin to create an orange rind peel about 5 cm long. One is fine, but two is better. Add to the Crock Pot
• At this point, decide if you want to serve butternut pumpkin mash, or would like to serve it more as a stew with pumpkin pieces. If serving mash, put the pumpkin pieces into the medium-sized bowl with cold water, cover and put in the fridge, to cook before serving. Otherwise, just add the pumpkin pieces to the Crock Pot.

At this point, you can put the crock pot ceramic bowl and lid into the fridge if you are preparing this the night before, and take it out in the morning to cook.

• Put the Crock Pot on to slow cook for the day.
• Twenty minutes before, if making mash, put the pumpkin pieces into a pot of boiling water, with a pinch of salt, and boil for 15-20 minutes. Drain, add the additional knob of butter, then mash.
• Before serving, strain the stew through the colander over the medium-sized bowl, and place the beef, vegetables, etc into a deep serving bowl. Remove the bouquet garni and orange peel.
• Melt the butter in the microwave for 20 seconds, then whisk in the flour. Add to the medium bowl of stew juices, and whisk through, then pour over the beef, vegetables, etc in the serving bowl.

Serve

Serve the bowl of daube (with mash in another bowl if this option was chosen). Warm your bread rolls for 5 minutes in a medium oven.

Beef in Guinness

How can you fail with a name like that? This is a crock pot (slow cooker) meal that smells and tastes great. Your crock pot will need to be family sized to take the contents. Its a big amount of food, but it tastes even better the next day and freezes well too. You can start this the night before, or in the morning to eat that night.

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Frying pan
• Large chopping knife
• Chopping board
• Crock Pot (or slow cooker)
• Measuring cups and spoons

Ingredients:

• 1kg chuck steak
• 1/4 cup plain flour, plus 2 tablespoons extra
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 white or brown onion chopped
• 2 sticks celery, sliced
• 1 carrot cut into chunks
• 4 medium to large potatoes 
• 4 rashers of bacon
• 1 440m can of Guinness
• 1/2 cup of Beef Stock
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• Bread rolls to serve

Method

• Trim your chuck steak of as much fat as you can, cut your chuck steak into 3-4cm cubes. Place your 1/4 cup of flour into your large bowl, put in your chuck steak, and toss lightly so the chuck steak is dusted all over. Put the oil in the frying pan, heat it up to high, and brown the beef (basically seal each side, but don't cook all the way through), and put into the crock pot.
• Cut the rind and fat off the bacon, and dice it. Chop the onion into small pieces, slice the celery, and cut the carrot into chunky pieces. Fry the bacon for a minute or two on a high heat, then turn the heat in the frying pan down, and vegetables over a low heat, cook the onion, celery, and carrot through for five minutes to get a bit of colour. Stir through the 2 tablespoons of additional flour, then put the cooked bacon and vegetables into the crock pot.
• Peel and chop the potatoes and put them in the crock pot. 
• Empty the large bowl of remaining flour, and pour in the Guiness, tomato paste and beef stock, and stir to break up the tomato paste, and pour over the crock pot contents, and stir through gently. Add your pepper and salt

At this point, you can put the crock pot ceramic bowl and lid into the fridge if you are preparing this the night before, and take it out in the morning to cook.

• Put the crock pot on to cook on slow to cook all day. Half an hour before serving, taste the  stew, and add any extra salt and pepper you might require.

Serve

Warm up your bread rolls in the oven for five minutes, prior to service.

Baby Back Ribs a la Kelly

Baby Back Ribs. Bulletproof American comfort food. From my lovely friend Kelly who I miss terribly since she has gone back to North Carolina...

Equipment:

• Small bowl
• Chopping board
• Grill or BBQ
• Aluminium Foil
• Pastry brush

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar - firmly packed down
• 2 tablespoons mustard powder
• 2 teaspoons paprika (sweet)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 racks of pork baby back ribs (1.5-2kg)
• 1/2 cup of Barbecue sauce - KC Masterpiece original if you can

Method:

• Turn on the grill to a low-medium setting and cover the grill tray with foil OR Fire up the barbecue grill (not the hotplate) and work out where the heat is lower.
• Fire up the barbecue and work out where the heat is lower.
• In your bowl, combine the sugar, mustard powder, paprika, salt & pepper
• Rub the mixture evenly onto the ribs
• Place ribs on on the grill tray, and brush with barbecue sauce
• BBQ or grill for 25 minutes
• Flip the ribs, and brush on the rest of your barbecue sauce and cook for another 20 minutes.

Serving suggestion

Plate, clean fingers, lots of napkins and extra barbecue sauce :)

Shanghai-style Poached Chicken

Any time someone on television is entertaining people, they look effortless, perfectly made up, and their kitchen is spotless and under control. Nigella doesn't even break a sweat. This recipe lets you do all that, through pre-preparation - cook the dish in the early afternoon, and leave it. It is a classy, cold dish you can serve at any dinner party.

This kind of chicken is poached in a 'master stock', in other words simmered for a short amount of time and then rested in a flavoured stock. The flavour goes into the chicken, while keeping it nice and moist. The original recipe I tried was Kylie Kwong's poached chicken recipe, which you can find here. My adaptation is for chicken breasts which are easily portioned per guest and not as fiddly to prepare.

Equipment:

• 1 large saucepan or pot with a lid
• A sharp small knife
• A chopping board

Ingredients: for the Chicken

• 1 chicken breast per person (minimum of 4 but can take more - this is good cold, so over cook)
• 1 750ml bottle of shaoxing rice wine or a dry sherry (or a chicken stock if you don't like alcohol)
• 1 bulb of garlic - you need 10-12 cloves for the chicken.
• 1 knob of fresh ginger the length of your longest finger
• 1 bunch of spring onions (scallions)
• 2 anise stars (for a trace of that five-spice asian flavour wihout dryness)
• 4 tbsp salt - sea salt is best (cut this in half if you are using stock, as it already contains salt)
• 1 tsp coarsely ground pepper or peppercorns
• Cold tap water.

Ingredients: for the Sauce

• Kecap Manis (sweet indonesian Soy Sauce, available in most supermarkets) or 
• Light Soy sauce + 2 cloves chopped garlic (for a more savoury option).

Preparation

1. Pour your bottle of shaoxing/sherry and stock into the pot
2. Peel 10-12 cloves of garlic from your bulb - yes you really need that much - and put into the pot.
3. Take the skin off the fresh ginger and roughly slice it into long pieces, and put it into the pot.
4. Take out the two thinnest  spring onions and put to one side. Cut off and discard the root section and the dark green part of the rest of your spring onions. Cut up the white & very light green part of the spring onions into little onion rings, and put them in the pot. 
5. Check your chicken breasts don't have any bloody bits or large amounts of fat - trim these off, as they will spoil the presentation of the chicken. Put the chicken breasts to one side.
6. Add the two star anise, salt and pepper into the pot.
7. Add enough cold water to fill the put up half way.

Cooking Method:

1. Put the pan onto the smallest ring on your stove. Bring the pot to the boil, and let it boil for about five minutes to let the flavours infuse.
2. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and watch until the bubbles susbside, and the top of the stock mix is simmering - that means the surface is trembling and the stock turning over, but no bubbles are coming to the top.
3. Put the chicken breasts in quickly one after the other.
4. Check to make sure the stock is still simmering. You may have to turn it up to get the temperature up, and then back down again as soon as it is simmering. This is the bit you need to pay attention to - don't boil the chicken!
5. Cook for exactly 14 minutes from this point - don't overcook!
6. Take the pot off the heat, and put it aside with the lid on. 
7. You now need to leave it for at least 3 hours for it to finish cooking/integrating the flavours - I usually leave it until I'm ready to serve up.

To serve:
Five minutes before serving, take the chicken out of the stock, drain, and arrange on a platter. Chop up your last 2 spring onions into more small onion rings and rinse them in a seive separating the spring onions into little rings. Choose which of your two optional sauces to serve with the chicken.

1. The easiest is to serve with Kecap Manis, an Indonesian sweet soy sauce. 
2. The slightly more tricky option is to put 1/2 cup of light soy sauce and 2 cloves of garlic (chopped up finely) into a small pot and bring to the boil. 

Drizzle your sauce over your chicken, and sprinkle your washed spring onions over the top.

Accompaniments:
Best served with fresh rice (jasmine or basmati are good options). For greens, try steamed bok choy or chairman mao beans. Fresh chinese pickled cucumbers are a great garnish.