Chicken in a garlic, herb and olive sauce

From GoodFood 101 Mediterranean Dishes
Serves 6

Ingredients
225ml olive oil
2 small chickens, each cut into 8 pieces (skin left on)
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
3 bay leaves
1/2 pint dry white wine
12 manzanilla green olives
mashed potato and frisee salad, to serve

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan, then fry the chicken over a high heat for about 5 minutes on each side until browned.

Add the garlic, thyme and bay leaves, then add the wine – take care as it will splutter so put the lid on quickly. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 – 20 minutes until the chicken is tender. Season with salt. Stir in the olives and serve with mash and salad.

Mustard pork chops

From Nigella Express
Serves 2
Ingredients

2 pork chops
2 tsp garlic oil
125ml cider
1 tbsp grainy mustard
75ml double cream

Cut the fat or rind off the chops, and then bash them briefly but brutally with a rolling pin between two pieces of clingfilm to make them thinner.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and cook the chops over a moderately high heat for about 5 minutes a side. Remove them to a warmed plate

Pour the cider into the pan, still over the heat, to de-glaze the pan. Let it bubble away for a minute or so, then add the mustard and stir in the cream.

Let the sauce continue cooking for a few minutes before pouring over each plated pork chop. If you are having gnocchi with it, make sure you turn them in the pan to absorb any spare juices before adding them to your plates.

This is the kind of French food I absolutely adore: French bistro food, meat with a good sauce. Simple to make and very pleasing on a cold rainy autumn/winter afternoon.

My only modification to this dish is the use of normal dijon mustard rather than grainy mustard. Don’t see the point of buying a new bottle of mustard just for this recipe. I guess it would be better with the grainy mustard, adds a bit more bite to the pork.

I have a lot of sauce left over and so I am saving it up for more gnocchi goodness on a work night.

I added pork and apple sausage to the sauce with the gnocchi and it’s absolutely heavenly.

Oven baked salmon fillets with a parsley cream sauce

Ingredients
Serves 1-2

2 salmon fillets

1 shallot, finely chopped
4 tbsp fish stock
5 tbsp single cream
1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 250 degrees

Place salmon fillets on an oiled baking tray. Season with salt and pepper and bake in the oven for 8 -10 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter at medium heat and add the shallots. Cook until softened. Add the fish stock. Bring to the boil and continue boiling till reduced by half. Add the cream and chopped parsley. Continue boiling until reduced by half or to the desired consistency.

Place the salmon on a plate and spoon the parsley cream sauce over the fish.

This is a basic cream sauce that I have been using all my life (at least from the time I started cooking) for my fish dishes when I am too lazy to cook anything too complicated. It’s based on a French cream sauce but I modified it over the years. The trick for this sauce is: don’t add too much cream because you don’t want it to be watery. Just add a small amount for starts, and if you think it’s too thick, add a bit more. It’s a pain trying to reduce it when you’ve added too much cream. You can use fresh dill or sorrel as well with this sauce recipe; or any herbs that goes with your fish.

Basic tomato sauce

From Jamie’s Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook

Ingredients

1 large clove garlic, chopped finely
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small dried red chilli
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 x 400g tins of Italian plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 handful of basil or marjoram (or both), roughly chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

In a thick-bottomed pan, gently fry the garlic with the olive oil, and then add the chilli, oregano and tomatoes. Mix gently, but do not break up the tomatoes as this will release the pips, which will make the sauce slightly bitter. By leaving the tomatoes whole and letting the mixture cook slowly you’ll get a nice sweet sauce.
Bring to the boil and simmer gently for an hour. Add the vinegar, then stir and chop up the tomatoes in the sauce.

Now add fresh basil or marjoram (or both), season well to taste, and add 2-3 tablespoons of your best extra virgin olive oil.

I have been using this basic tomato sauce by Jamie Oliver for the longest time now, as a sauce for pasta dishes with chargrilled chicken breasts or cod fish or as a sauce for cheese bakes. My dad loves ravioli and usually when I return from London, I bring back with me packs of stuffed ravioli. This time, it’s cheese tomato and basil ravioli and spinach and ricotta cheese ravioli. For lunch today, I made this basic tomato sauce to go with the cheese, tomato and basil ravioli.

After years of experimenting with this tomato sauce, I have settled on the following modifications: adding chopped onions and celery to the garlic initially; adding sundried tomatoes to the tomato mixture and adding capers as a final touch to the sauce. Basically, this recipe lends itself to a whole load of variations so experiment!