Chicken and mushroom risotto

We love a risotto, especially on a work evening as it's quick, easy to make and filling.  This is one I put together last week and it was one of those scratch meals that just worked beautifully, so it has to go on here.

Ingredients
8 dried Porcini mushrooms
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
2 rashers of smoked back bacon
2 medium onions
4 cloves garlic, crushed and sliced thinly
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
½ cup of rice per person
½ teaspoon of dried oregano
12 chestnut mushrooms, cleaned and sliced1 glass dry white wine
1 litre chicken stock, dissolved in 500ml water initially.
2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan cheese a tablespoon of chopped basil to serve

Method
First, prepare the Porcini mushroom.  Place them in a small bowl, cover them in boiling water and leave them to steep for 30 minutes while you prep the rest of the veg.

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan big enough to hold all of the risotto. Season the chicken pieces to taste, then add them to the pan and fry until nicely browned.  Remove them from the pan keeping the cooking juices in the plan, cover the chicken with foil and keep it warm. 

Add the bacon and onions to the pan and fry until softened but not browned, then add the garlic and sauté over a high heat for 1 minute or until the garlic is cooked and the bacon is nicely browned.

Add the oregano and butter, melt it then add the rice, stir and  cook for 2 minutes, making sure the rice is well coated with cooking juices, oil and butter.

Drain the Porcini mushrooms, keeping the juice and add them to the pan with the fresh mushrooms and the white wine and season with a pinch of salt and ground black pepper.  Stir everything well, bring to a boil and cook over a medium heat until the wine has been adsorbed.

Put the chicken stock in another pan and keep it just off the boil. Add the mushroom water to the stock and make the liquid up to 1 litre.  Once the wine has been adsorbed, add the stock to the rice 2 ladlefuls at a time, waiting between each addition until the stock has been adsorbed.

Once the rice is just under cooked - it should still be slightly hard in the middle - add the chicken pieces and warm through.  Add the grated Parmesan and stir well to coat all the rice grains. Adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste and serve.

Quick onion chutney

Many of the chutney recipes take a long time to cook (and have ruined one of our best pans into the bargain) but this one takes about 30 minutes.  I had some lovely cheddar cheese (Montgomery cheddar - if you see it, buy it, a wonderful artisan cheddar totally unlike supermarket cheddar) and I wanted a cheese sandwich for lunch but had no chutney, so how to make my own?  I looked at the ingredients list on the chutney jar to get some idea of how much vinegar to use and came up with this.  It works for me, hope it does for you too.

Ingredients
½ tablespoon of olive oil
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
4 cherry tomatoes chopped
3 mushrooms, washed and chopped
3 teaspoons Worcester sauce
3 tablespoons malt vinegar
100ml tomato juice
½ teaspoon cumina pinch of dried thyme
a pinch of chilli flakes
1 dessert spoon of raisins

Method
Add the oil to a plan and heat over a low to medium flame.  Add the onions and fry until they are softened and maybe lightly browned - don't overcook them, you're looking for caramelized onions rather than fried, a lower heat for longer is much better than high here. 

When the onions are cooked, add the tomatoes and mushrooms and continue cooking over a low heat until everything is well cooked and nicely softened. 

Add the rest of the ingredients and turn the heat up to medium until the liquid is almost dry.  Turn the chutney into a suitable jar or container, leave to cool and then you can start eating it.  It's very good with cheese and cold meat, or try it with some pork or game pie.

Roasted, spice pineapple with Earl Grey ice cream

I had this when we went to Benares last year and it was truly stunning.  I wanted to recreate it and this is pretty close, not quite there, but close.  According to Naomi and Suzanne it still tastes delicious though so that's good enough for me.

Ingredients
For the ice cream
300ml full cream milk
300ml double cream
60ml liquid glucose
5 egg yolks
80g white caster sugar
13g Earl Grey leaf tea - best quality you can get

For the roasted, spice pineapple
1 large Pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into bite size chunks
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1.2 teaspoon ground mango
1 bay leaf crumbled into small pieces
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 tablespoons runny honey

MethodHeat the oven to 200°C
First, make the ice cream by putting the milk, cream and glucose syrup in a pan and bringing to the boil.  Meanwhile, put the egg yolks and caster sugar in a large heatproof bowl and combine until pale yellow and creamy.  Once the milks, cream and glucose comes to the boil, add to the egg and caster sugar mixing well with a balloon whisk to make the custard.  Add the Earl Grey leaves to this and leave to marinate for 45-60 minutes.  After the leaves have marinated, strain through a fine sieve and leave the mixture to cool in the 'fridge, then add to the ice cream maker and churn until frozen. Keep in the freezer as you would normal ice cream.

Now make the spiced pineapple.  Mix together the spices and the crushed bay leaf with the honey in a bowl, then add the pineapple chunks and coat well.  Put the whole lot in a roasting tray and roast on the top of the oven, turning 3 or 4 times until the pineapple is starting to char at the edges.  Rmove and leave to cool.

To serve, put a few pieces of pineapple on a plate with a couple of scoops of ice cream.

Paella

This is a cross between the traditional chicken and rabbit paella and the seafood paella yu can get on the southern Spanish beaches.  I'm sure there are as many different versions of this as there are cooks, so this is mine :)

Ingredients
1 red pepper, de-seeded and sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 boned chicken thighs chopped into 2cm cubes
8-12 good thick slices of Chorizo sausage
6 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
2 shallots, chopped
500ml stock, I used home made beef stock, but chicken works just as well
1 400g can butter beans
8 dessert spoons paella rice
1 pack king prawns
1 pack mixed seafood
1 pack boil in the bag mussels
a good sized bunch of flat leaf parsley

Method
Heat the oil in a large sauté pan and add the pepper slices.  Cook over  medium heat until softened and starting to take on some colour.  Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon, drain and keep until ready to serve.

Add the chicken and Chorizo to the pan and cook on a high heat until the chicken is well browned all over, then add the garlic and fry for an extra couple of minutes until the garlic takes on a touch of colour.

Drain the butter beans and add to the pan with the stock and the rice, cover and cook at a simmer until the rice has absorbed the liquid.  When the rice is cooked, add the prawns, seafood and mussels and warm through.

Chop the parsley and add it to he dish just before serving along with the red pepper, you need nothing else except a glass of good, crisp white wine and a nice sunny day (optional!)