Roast chicken with lemon and herbs / Roman tomato salad

From Chicken the best ever recipe collection
Serves 4

Ingredients

1.3kg chicken
1 unwaxed lemon, halved
small bunch of fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
15g butter, softened
60-90ml chicken stock or water
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Season the chicken inside and out with salt and pepper

Squeeze the juice of one lemon half and then place the juice, the squeezed lemon half, the thyme and bay leaf in the chicken cavity. Tie the legs with string and rub the breast with butter.

Place the chicken on a rack in a roasting tin. Squeeze over the juice of the other lemon half. Roast the chicken for 1 hour, basting two or three times until the juices run clear when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced with a knife or skewer.

Pour the juices from the cavity into the roasting tin and transfer the chicken to a carving board. Cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.

Skim off the fat from the cooking juices. Add the stock or water and boiler a medium heat, scraping the base of the in until slightly reduced. Strain and serve with the chicken.

From Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup pitted green and black olives, halved
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
3 anchovy fillets, drained and chopped
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and drained
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
8 fresh basil leaves, shredded
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound vine-ripened tomatoes (about 3 tomatoes)

Cook the balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over low heat until thick, syrupy, and measuring 1/4 cup, about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Combine the olives, parsley, anchovies, capers, garlic, basil, pepper, and olive oil in a small bowl and toss to combine.

Haven’t been doing much cooking for a while because of work, the Spawn and the trip back home. So with the beginning of a new year and no work commitments for the weekend, I decided to go back to my usual pastime. Had a craving for roast chicken because I had some at Cafe Rouge and thought I should expand my repertoire of roasting chicken to the French way. Butter makes the breast extremely moist and flavoursome. All in all quite happy with my effort. Moist, tasty chicken. What more can you ask for?

Proper chicken caesar salad

From Jamie at Home
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 whole free-range or organic chicken legs, skin on
1 loaf ciabatta bread (about 9 ounces), torn into thumb-sized pieces
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and roughly chopped
Olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
12 thin slices pancetta or bacon
1/4 clove peeled garlic
4 anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained
3 ounces freshly grated Parmesan, plus a few shavings to serve
1 heaped tablespoon creme fraiche
1 lemon, juiced
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 or 3 heads romaine lettuce, outer leaves discarded
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Place the chicken legs in a snug-fitting roasting pan with the pieces of torn-up bread. Sprinkle with the chopped rosemary, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix with your hands to make sure everything is well coated, then lift the chicken legs up to the top, so they sit above the bread. This way, the bread will soak up all the lovely juices from the chicken, giving you the best croutons! Pop the pan into the preheated oven.

After 45 minutes the chicken should be nicely cooked. Take the pan out of the oven, drape the pancetta or bacon over the chicken and croutons, and put back for another 15 to 20 minutes for everything to crisp up. The chicken legs are ready when you can pinch the meat off the bone easily. When they’re cooked, remove the pan from the oven and set it aside for the chicken to cool down slightly.

Pound the garlic and anchovy fillets in a pestle and mortar or a Flavor Shaker until you have a pulp. Scrape into a bowl and whisk in the Parmesan, creme fraiche, lemon juice and 3 times as much extra-virgin olive oil as lemon juice. Season dressing, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Pull the chicken meat off the leg bones – you can use 2 forks to do this, or your hands if you’re tough like me – and tear it up roughly with the croutons and the bacon. Wash, spin dry and separate the lettuce leaves, tear them up and toss with the chicken, croutons, bacon and creamy, cheesy dressing. Scatter with some Parmesan shavings.

One of my go-to dishes for dinner parties. The bread, when it soaks up the chicken juices, is absolutely heavenly

Mackerel with warm cauliflower and caper salad

From BBC Good Food
Serves 2

Ingredients
300g cauliflower , cut into florets
1 lemon
4 tsp capers , rinsed
½ small bunch flat-leaf parsley , chopped
½ small bunch mint , chopped
2 tsp olive oil
1 small garlic clove , crushed
2 large or 4 small mackerel fillets

Heat the grill and bring a pan of water to the boil. Drop the cauliflower into the water, then cook for 4-5 mins until just tender. Zest and juice half the lemon, then mix with the capers, parsley, mint, olive oil and garlic in a salad bowl. When the cauliflower is cooked, drain, then stir into the herby dressing with some seasoning while still hot.

Put the mackerel on a baking tray, zest the remaining lemon half over it, season, then grill for a couple of mins on each side. Cut the lemon into wedges. Serve alongside the mackerel and cauliflower salad.

I have been eating smoked mackerel for the longest time, and I have never encountered fresh mackerel until Marks and Sparks started selling it. As you can see, I am quite hooked on it. I think my first encounter with it is when my mom grilled and served it as part of a Japanese meal.

Anyway, there’s nothing much you really need to do with the fish aside from grilling it with a bit of sea salt, black pepper and lemon. What matters is what comes with it, and I think this cauliflower salad is a pretty robust salad to go with it, especially with the capers.

Avocado crayfish (prawn) cocktail

From Nigella Express
Serves 2
Ingredients

1 tomato
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp sherry vinegar
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
75g cooked peeled crayfish tails
1 ripe avocado
1 tsp chopped fresh coriander

Halve the tomato, scoop out and discard the seeds, and chop well what’s left, dropping the pieces into a bowl with the salt, sherry vinegar and olive oil. Whisk to make a dressing

Just before you want to eat stir the crayfish tails into the dressing.

Halve the avocado, remove the stone and spoon the crayfish tomato mixture into the hollows where the stone went, sprinkle with the coriander and serve at once.

I know this is more of a summer dish than a winter one but I had leftover avocado resulting from making avocado pesto pasta. Saw this simple recipe in Nigella and the rest of history. Nice natural flavours. Definitely more for summer than winter; I was starving in the office and had to eat a chocolate bar and a muffin to survive the afternoon and the gym session.

Pan-fried red mullet (trout) with crispy breadcrumbs and a herby tomato salad

From Cook with Jamie
Serves 4

Ingredients

for the tomato salad
3 big handfuls of mixed tomatoes, chopped into irregular chunks
good-quality extra virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and finely chopped
a small bunch of fennel tops or dill, finely chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 red mullet fillets, scaled and pin boned
flour, for dusting
olive oil

for the crispy breadcrumbs
olive oil
4 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked and finely chopped
200g stale breadcrumbs
2 dried red chillies, crumbled,
zest of 1 lemon

Put your chopped tomatoes into a big bowl with a couple of generous glugs of extra virgin olive oil and a splash of vinegar. Season generously with salt and pepper. Bow taste, tweak, taste, tweak…I usually add a bit more vinegar, salt or live oil until the tomatoes and their juices sing in my mouth. This is a normal thing to do, so just be confident! Add the basil and fennel tops or dill to your tomato salad and mix in.

Season the fish fillets, then dip them in a little flour to dust them on both side,s shaking off any excess. Heat a glug of olive oil in a medium hot frying pan and , once hot, place the fish skin-side down in the pan, lightly pressing the fillets down using a dish slice. Fry for 3 minutes or until the skin is bright orangey golden and crisp. Turn the fish over and fry for a minute on the other side until just cooked.

Remove your fish to a plate while you make your crispy breadcrumbs. Add a little extra oil to the juices in the pan, then add your thyme, breadcrumbs, chilli and lemon zest. Toss around and fry until lightly golden and crispy; this will take around 3 or 4 minutes.

Divide the tomato salad between four plates and ether lay 2 of your fish fillets over the top of each salad or break the fillets up and scatter over the tomatoes.

Sadly, I couldn’t find any red mullet at Waitrose; I had to make do with trout which I think works as well. I like his style of food, it’s recipes that one can easily cook at home. I like the combination of ingredients in this recipe, the fish is complemented by the sweet and sour flavours in the tomato salad and the crispy spicy taste of the bread. I prefer to use generous chunks of bread. Just remember to use a warm plate for the dish as the fish loses its heat really quickly.

Fusilli salad

From The Silver Spoon
Serves 4

Ingredients

4 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced
16 fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove
olive oil for drizzling
350g fusilli
80g canned tuna in oil, drained and flaked
12 black olives, stoned and halved
120g mozzarella cheese, diced
salt

Put the tomatoes, basil and garlic in a serving bowl, drizzle with oil and season with salt. Cook the pasta in a large pan of salted, boiling water until al dente, then drain. Remove and discard the garlic, then tip the fusilli into the bowl. Add the tuna, olives and mozzarella, toss and serve.

Had a craving for pasta today and so I went through my cookbooks to find a good summery pasta dish. This is what I came up with. Really simple and the key to this dish is really the freshness and quality of the ingredients.

Tuna, tomato and rocket pasta salad

From Bowl Food

Serves 4
Ingredients
350g dried fettucine
350g tuna steaks
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, drained, roughly chopped, reserving 2 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup sun-dried capsicums, drained and roughly chopped
100g capers, drained
1 cup black olives, pitted and quartered
100g baby rocket leaves

Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain. Meanwhile, lightly brush a chargrill plate with oil and cook the tuna for 1-2 minutes each side (it should be rare in the middle) or until cooked to your liking. Cut the tuna into 2.5cm cubes. Keep warm.

Heat the reserved sun-dried tomato oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the tomato, garlic, capsicum, capers and olives, and cook, stirring, for 5-6 minutes, or until the mixture is heated through.

Place the pasta, tomato mixture and rocket in a large bowl, season and toss to combine. Divide among four serving plates and top with the tuna. Serve with lemon wedges and shaved parmesan, if desired.

Too warm today to cook anything complex; so it’s a simple and healthy salad for Saturday lunch. I didn’t add the pasta as I prefer to eat the tuna with ciabatta bread.

Andalucian pork

Ingredients

2 tbsp Paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
2 tbsp Olive oil
500g Pork fillet, trimmed
2 Lemons, cut into wedges, to serve

Method

1. Mix the paprika, oregano, garlic and salt with the olive oil to make a thick paste.

2. Spread the paste evenly over the pork, cover and marinate in the fridge, ideally overnight.

3. Cut the meat into slices on the diagonal.

4. Heat a griddle or large heavy frying pan until very hot. Cook the pork for 3-4 minutes on each side until cooked through.

5. Serve at once with the lemon wedges

This is a Spanish dish, and one of the simplest pork dishes you can possibly cook. All you need to do is marinate the pork a few hours in advance and cook it. Done. I think it’s also an excellent marinate for BBQs although I haven’t actually tried it.

Oh and my improvisation on this recipe is adding lime juice (3 tsp) to the juices in the pan, mix well and use it as a salad dressing. You might need to add a bit more salt to taste.

Baked trout and pasta salad with horseradish dressing

Ingredients

1 trout fillet
1/2 tbsp of lemon juice
1/2 tsp of dried dill

For the dressing
1/2 tbsp horseradish sauce
1 tbsp cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp dried dill

Cooked pasta for 1 person (left to cool)
Portion of baby spinach for 1 person

Mix the dressing ingredients well
Season trout with lemon juice, dill, salt and pepper and baked in a grill for 4 minutes until the fish is just cooked. Flake the fillet.

Add half of the dressing to the spinach and mix well. Add the cooked pasta and the flaked trout. Add a dollop of the dressing on top and serve

This is something I made up while rummaging through my fridge to cook with trout (the ones I bought from Marks and Sparks). The horseradish dressing goes really well with the trout and the spinach.

Seared Scallops on Herbed Couscous Salad

Why couscous? I’m tired of rice and I’m tired of pasta, so I’ve decided to move to couscous.

Why scallops? I’ve a cute little fish shop in my new neighborhood owned by an old and kindly Jewish man who talks about his fish and seafood with so much love and pride that I want to visit his shop everyday just to have a chat with him! So I bought scallops from him because I watched some scallops being cooked on TV last night.

Herbed couscous salad
Ingredients:
-1/2 cup of uncooked couscous
-1/2 cup of boiling water
-extra virgin olive oil
– a handful of parsley leaves, finely chopped.
– 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
– red pepper flakes
-10 cherry tomatoes, halfed
– 2 handfuls of walnuts, toasted
– 1 tsp of lemon zest, finely grated
– 1/2 tsp of garlic powder
– sea salt and ground pepper to taste

Method:
1. Put uncooked couscous in bowl, drizzle with olive oil and rub it into the grains. Pour 1 cup of boiling water into the bowl and cover for 10 minutes or until all water is absorbed. Fluff with a fork to remove lumps. Set aside to cool.

2. Add lemon juice, 2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic powder and lemon zest into a bowl and mix well. Add to couscous and toss to coat.

3. Fold in walnuts and then cherry tomatoes.

4. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour for the flavours to emerge.

Seared Scallops
Ingredients:
– 10 fresh scallops (washed and patted dry with paper towel)
– sea salt

Method:
1. Heat frying pan till very hot.
2. Put some grapeseed oil and heat till hot (I used grapeseed because it has a high boiling point and it’s healthy, but I guess butter or regular vegetable oil will work too.)
3. Season the scallops with sea salt.
4. Place scallops into frying pan. Each side should be seared for about 30 seconds or until a golden brown crust is formed.
5. Serve with chilled couscous salad.

n.b: my scallops are not seared well enough. I was a little scared. It should be more golden brown than the picture.

I’m so proud of this dish, and my own invention!
Jeff’s rating: 9/10!