Whole Chicken Roasted in Roman Clay Pot

Similar to other family recipes that we posted here, this dish isn’t much of a culinary innovation as it shows one of our favorite ways of cooking simple, great tasting and good looking food to be enjoyed by a whole family. Using the clay pot to cook things is a nice touch, and we tried to use different vegetables and herbs on different occasions, but we only cooked chicken in it. 

The result is a moist, very flavorful meat, and some nice, perfectly cooked veggies. This recipe is just about going crazy with the combinations you like while using the clay pot to ensure moist cooking. Just put the pot in water (both the pot and the lid) for 15 minutes and use it. Cook the meat with the lid on to be really moist, then in the end remove the lid to create a beautiful crust. By the way, my father-in-law uses a similar pot to slow cook some more elaborate and heavy dishes, and they work out very nice: pork leg and beans, smoked pork ribs with cabbage, and they taste amazing, especially on cold winter day with some mulled wine.

Enjoy!

Sweetcorn Fritters with Yogurt Dip

I was watching Gordon Ramsey's cooking show Ültimate Cookery Class and it was an episode about  TV dinners and dishes that you can put together with just a few ingredients that you usually have in your pantry. Awesome episode. This specific recipe doesn't sound like such a big deal, but the result is great, truly surprising.

For the fritters you will need:

• 1 tin of corn (I used a 360 g one)
• 1 egg
• 125 g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 6 tbsp milk
• 2 spring onions
• 1/2 bunch of coriander or parsley
• 1 chilli
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper

 For the dip you will need: 

• 200 g Greek yogurt
• 1 spring onion
• salt and pepper

Sift the flour and the baking powder in a large bowl, add the egg, salt, pepper, oilve oil and milk amd mix it all together. Them add the onion, coriander, chilli and the drained sweetcorn. With a spoon, place little fritters in a heated skillet with 2 tbsp of olive oil. You basically cook them like pancakes, American pancakes. In my skillet was room  for 4 fritters each time. Let them turn golden on both sides and serve with the dip (just mix the ingredients above for the dip, adding water only if you find it to thick . We let some of our fritters turn golden-brown because I feared they weren't cooked, but they turned out perfectly every time.

Enjoy!

The Return of the Vengeful Gnocchi- Gnocchi with Spicy Seafood Ragu

The previous gnocchi recipe, with butter and sage sauce

 Guess who’s back? I really felt like eating some more of this wonderful potato pasta, so I decided to give it a try with a nice, thick, red ragu sauce. Initially, I opted for rabbit, but I couldn’t find a decent piece of meat, so we’ll leave that for another time.

Regarding the pasta, this has been done before, check it out here (it actually went better then than now).

For the sauce:

200 grams of baby squids, 

200 grams of shrimp tails, 

2 small red onions, 

3 garlic cloves, 

2 tbs of fresh thyme leaves, 

6 mushrooms (I used champignon), 

2 tbs  dark sugar, 

1tsp chilli powder, 

½ glass of medium red wine, 

salt, pepper, olive oil.

So, on medium heat cook the onions (diced), mushrooms (finely sliced) and sugar, for about 5-6 minutes then add the diced garlic, thyme and chilli and cook for another minute. Add the squids then cook those for about 10 minutes, the put in the shrimp and give that 1-2 minutes. If you’re using frozen seafood, keep in mind that the meat will shrink and it will lose a lot of weight on the fire, so you can increase your quantities. 

Ok, next pour in the wine, lower heat, and let it simmer until the sauce thickens (shouldn’t be long). In the end, pour in the pasta, and mix everything for another minute, adding more of the gnocchi water if you feel the sauce is too thick. Plate your dish, then add some more thyme leaves for an extra kick. 

The previous gnocchi recipe, with butter and sage sauce

Enjoy!

Family Dinner: Whole Chicken Roast

This is a very easy and cozy dish to cook when you have family coming over or when you want to cook something that will last you more than just one meal (you know, when you get lazy the next day). We had this beautiful free range chicken form our selected farming sources (meaning my parents) and we chose some fried new /early potatoes as a side dish. I wouldn’t call this dish a recipe per say (it’s just about stuffing a chicken in the oven with some fried potatoes), but it’s actually about a very nice feeling that this dish gives me (you know, when something tastes like Christmas). 

The cooking time and the ingredients vary depending on the size and age of your chicken, the younger the better. If you’re using a supermarket meat, that will tend to cook faster. So, the main star, a 1-1.5 kilo chicken, I rubbed with a paste composed of: grinded cumin, grinded fennel seeds, black pepper, salt, crushed garlic (4 cloves for my chicken, use more if needed), juice from 1 lemon, 5- 6 tbs of olive oil. The inside of the poultry I stuffed with some tarragon and parsley leaves and garlic (whole).

Before rubbing the chicken with the above mentioned combo, I took some red beet juice and poured it over the meat, then, after I applied the paste, I grated some more beet over the chicken. Also, to protect the poultry, I cut some thick sections of beet that I placed on the bottom of the oven tray, so the chicken sat on those (those sections cooked very nice and tasted great, even if, initially I only wanted to use them as support). Feel free to drizzle the bottom of the tray with some wine (go rose on this one) or some stock, it will help keep the meat moist, but don’t overdo it, as you still want a crispy look on your meat. 

Put it in the oven, tray uncovered, at medium heat for how long it takes the meat to easily fall of the bone. Fry some potatoes (or make a celery/carrot puree, or cook some easy yams, or a quick green beans or peas side dish, everything works here, go wild with some sun dried tomatoes or artichokes, etc.), and, if you feel like it, whip a salad to go with it. And Merry Christmas J

Just kidding, enjoy!