Lemon Roast Chicken

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Today I made Nigella’s Lemon Roast Chicken just for myself.

No, I didn’t eat it all, but I bought a wonderful free range chicken last Sunday and it was still sitting in my fridge today, because I was never home in time during the week to roast it and there was no room in the freezer for it. As the date on it said I had to make it today and D. is out for a leaving do from work, I thought I’d just have to treat myself and have it anyways.



I wanted a simple, no faff recipe and I remembered seeing this one in Nigella’s Feast. It is very similar to my own standard roast chicken recipe, apart from that I usually add half an onion and some garlic to the cavity and sprinkle some paprika on the chicken before roasting, but I decided to go with Nigella’s even simpler version as she had never once failed me yet. Oh, and I usually baste my chicken a couple of times, so it won’t dry out, but even with not basting the chicken was good and not dry at all.

So, without further ado, here is and if anybody can tell me how to take a really good picture of a whole roasted chicken, please do, as I think it never looks as good as it smells and tastes.



Lemon Roast Chicken

1 chicken (1 1/2kg), at room temperature
1 lemon
1 tbsp Maldon salt
20-25 gr butter
olive oil

Preheat your oven to 220C/Gas 7.

Wash your chicken inside and out and pat dry with a paper towel.

Place the chicken, breast side up, in a roasting tin and rub the cavity with some of the salt.

Place half of the lemon in the cavity and rub the chicken with the butter and drizzle with a little olive oil.

Place in the middle of your oven and roast for 1 1/4 hours.

Remove from the oven and squeeze the juice of the other lemon half all over. Be careful when you do this as the hot fat at the bottom of the pan will start spluttering.

Sprinkle with the rest of the salt and allow to rest for 15 minutes before carving.

Enjoy!

If you have a bigger or smaller chicken you can calculate the times as given in this recipe.

Yet Another Cake - Guinness Cake

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I promise there'll be something else for the next post!

Now, you don't usually find me drinking on my own, in my kitchen, in the middle of the day, but today was different because I was baking Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake from her Feast - Food that Celebrates Life cookbook.



The recipe calls for 250ml (1cup) of Guinness, but unable to buy a single can of the stuff in the supermarket and not wanting to buy a four pack, I bought a bottle of Williams Bros Brewing Co's Midnight Sun instead. Of course there was still half a bottle left, so I couldn't let it go to waste and that's why I was drinking on my own in the middle of the day.

Midnight Sun is described on the bottle as a rich, dark & spicy Porter style beer and there was a mention of chocolate malt and a hint of root ginger, so I guessed it'd make a perfect substitute. The beer on its own was a bit too strong and bitter for me, but than I'm not a serious beer drinker and maybe some of it was down to it being the middle of the day. It did have a nice malty sweetness to it as well though, and I'm sure that if you like Stout you'd really enjoy this!

Well, the cake is for my colleagues birthday tomorrow, so I haven't been able to try it yet, but it was fun and easy to make (I have never before made a cake in a saucepan and of course I got to have a drink in the afternoon.) , the 'dough' tasted great (Yes, I did lick the whisk when I was finished.) and it smells and looks great. I'll let you know what it tastes like next time, as I'll make sure I'll get a slice at work tomorrow. As far as I can tell from the few crumbs that stuck to the springform, it's a great cake though, really dark and chocolaty but not too sweet.

Happy Birthday A.!



Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake

Cake:
250ml Guinness (I used Midnight Sun Porter)
250gr butter, unsalted and cut into slices
75gr cocoa powder
400gr caster sugar
1 x 142ml pot sour cream
2 eggs
1tbsp vanilla essence
275gr plain flour
2 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Frosting:
300gr cream cheese
150gr icing sugar
125ml double cream

Preheat your oven to 180C/Gas 4.

Butter and line a 23cm springform pan (mine is 25cm and worked fine).

In a large, wide saucepan heat the Guinness and butter, until melted.

Add the sugar and cocoa and whisk until the sugar has melted.

Remove from heat.



Beat together the sour cream, eggs and vanilla essence and pour into the pan, whisk until well combined.

Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda and whisk until smooth.

Pour into the prepared springform pan and bake in the middle of the oven for 45-60 minutes, until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Don't remove from the pan until the cake is completely cool.

Once cool the cake can be iced.

For the frosting, whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve in the confectioners sugar and continue to whip until combined.

Add the double cream and whip again until the frosting is spreadable.

Spread over the top of the cake. I only made 2/3 of the icing and thought it was plenty.

Enjoy!

Let them eat soup!

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As everyone who has been watching the UK news at the beginning of the week will know (well most people in the UK will actually know from their own experience), it has been raining and raining and raining here in Yorkshire.

Well, I have to say it has been hideous and I certainly didn't feel like singing. Maybe if Gene Kelly had been around to accompany me I would have burst into song and dance, but as that wasn't the case the only remedy I could think of was to wrap up warm, light a fire, make soup and of course eat it!



When I was in New York in December I had a wonderful Chicken and Corn Chowder, so now my quest is to come up with a recipe to match it. I haven't quite perfected it, but nevertheless this was pretty good and in my opinion well worth posting. I took the Sweetcorn Chowder recipe from 'Nigella Express' as the basis and added and adapted a little here and there to come up with this. It served two of us, plus one portion to take to work for lunch the next day.


Quick Chicken and Corn Chowder

500gr frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
2 spring onions, cleaned and roughly chopped
1 small clove of garlic, peeled
35gr cornmeal or semolina
1 litre hot vegetable stock
1 chicken breast fillet, cooked and shredded
1 pinch of cayenne pepper, or to taste
salt, to taste
pepper, to taste
1 red chili, seeds removed and finely chopped

200gr lightly salted tortilla chips
some grated cheddar

Preheat your oven to 200C/Gas 6/400F.

Drain any liquid that might have collected while defrosting from the sweetcorn and place it in a food processor together with the spring onions, garlic, cornmeal (semolina) and blend until mushy.

Scrape the mix into a heavy bottomed pan, add the vegetable stock, stir and bring to a simmer. Season to taste with cayenne, salt and pepper.

Lower the heat and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the soup is simmering spread your tortillas on a baking sheet and sprinkle with as much or as little cheddar as you like, warm them through in your oven until the cheese has melted. It should take about 5 minutes

Add the shredded cooked chicken to the soup (I fried mine on low heat while the soup was simmering, but you could use left over roast chicken as well) and heat through.

Fill some bowls with the soup and top with a few of the tortilla chips and sprinkle with chili.

Serve the rest of the tortilla chips on the side.

Fabulous Fudge

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I usually don't do the whole resolutions for the new year bit, as they just get forgotten, but well this time I did and that's to update this blog more often than I have been doing.

It might have been more fitting to post this recipe before the holidays as it makes a great home-made present (in fact I made it as a Secret Santa present), but who says that fudge is only for Christmas. I could eat this at anytime of the year. Using good quality dark chocolate (I use Green & Blacks) means that it is very rich and chocolaty. I found it hard to resist.

This is a recipe from Nigella Lawson's 'Nigella Express' book, therefore it is quick and simple and you won't need to fuss about with a sugar thermometer.



Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

350g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped roughly
1 (397g) can condensed milk
30g butter
pinch of salt
150g pistachios, roughly chopped or bashed with a rolling pin

In a large heavy-based pan, melt the chocolate together with the condensed milk, butter and salt. Keep the heat low and stir continuously.

Once the chocolate is melted and has mixed with the other ingredients stir in the pistachios and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a 23cm square foil tray or a tray lined with baking paper. Smooth the top.

Let the mixture cool and then place it in the fridge until fully set. Once it is hard, turn it out onto a chopping board and cut into small pieces.

You can keep the pieces of fudge in the freezer and don't even need to defrost them before eating.