Chicken Roasted on Salt

   

I’d like to start this post with a confession: I’m not a big fan of chicken, maybe it’s because I get to eat it pretty often and it’s mostly fried. But this time, I actually was excited about cooking it, and for 2 reasons. First, because I got my hands on this beautiful organic, yellow, plump chicken at around 2,5 kilos. I don’t  say this easily, but this meat was just both gorgeous and delicious. 

The second reason to be excited was the fact that I wanted to cook the chicken on salt, a first in the YOUVEGOTMEAL kitchen. The cooking was a 2 step process, first marinating the meat and the roasting it on salt, on low heat in the oven.

Now, I decided to cut the chicken into pieces, but you can choose to cook it whole, that gives it a more grandiose look (in my case, our tiny oven couldn’t handle a whole chicken). I cut the meat into 5 pieces: 2 whole legs, 2 pieces of breast, each with its own wing attached, and the back of the chicken, that I used to make some stock for later use in the kitchen. For the marinate, use  some olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon, thyme, basil, garlic and pepper. Mix everything together and massage it into the meat, then leave the chicken to rest for 1 hour in the flavored juices. The cooking process is a piece of cake (or salt, if you prefer, that actually sounds easier than making cake). Prepare the baking tray by cutting a big enough piece of baking paper, pop it under some tap water, the just crumble it into your hands then return it to its original shape. This will help you handle it easier when you place it in the tray and it will protect it better from the heat (it will make cleaning the tray a piece of salt- see what I did there?). Next, take 1 kilo of salt and place it in an even layer in the tray and place the pieces of chicken on top, skin side up, and pour the remaining juices on the meat. 

Put the tray in a preheated oven, on medium-low heat and cook the chicken for about 80 minutes. You can check if it’s done by running a knife through the breast, if it goes in easily, remove it from the oven. Leave the meat to rest for 10 minutes before cutting it. I have no idea how the salt work, but the meat was tender, fresh and had a nice crisp on the outside and it didn’t taste like, well, salt. Definitely worth making. As a salad that suited the meat, we just  mixed some lettuce leaves (something called latuga bowl), chopped endives leaves, pomegranate seeds with a dressing made of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and honey – tangy, crunchy, sweet, perfect.

Enjoy,

Fried Shrimp and Spicy Broccoli

This recipe is one of the first ones that made us into thinking we should make a blog and one of the recipes we like cooking the most. It’s a very easy to make, delicious and packs a lot of flavor. And, hey, you’re eating broccoli, that’s gotta be healthy for you.

For the shrimps, we used frozen (500 grams), but you can use fresh. The idea of cooking the seafood is that you will both boil and fry it for short periods of time, so it doesn’t over cook.

Lemon and Garlic Chicken- Slow Roasted Goodness

This turned out to be the perfect dish for us during this weekend. The time spent preparing the ingredients is minimum, but the result is perfect. While the chicken is cooking, you have time to watch some bad TV to do other things around the house, but because is slow roasted, the chicken is very tender and juicy, so nobody will complain.

You use few ingredients, but with great impact and flavor:
1 free range chicken, cut into pieces
2 lemons, cut into chunks (we peeled most of the skin because it was very waxed)
7-8 garlic cloves
some thyme
1 glass of white wine
3 tbsp oil

Place the chicken in an oven tin, add the garlic, thyme and lemon, then the oil and rub the chicken on all sides to soak in the flavors, then pour the white wine. 

Cover the tin with foil and put in a preheated oven for 2 hours at low heat, as Nigella suggests :).

After 2 hours, remove the foil and let the chicken cook for another 45 minutes, at medium-high heat this time.
As you can see, we used free range chicken, it was pretty wild, a fatty compared to the ones we usually find in stores. The skin is thicker and it won't win first place in looks, but the taste is so much better. Cooking it this way just brings out the best in it.

The lemon, alongside the wine and the slow roasting, makes the chicken sooo tender, but also caramelises the skin in the end, when the foil has been removed. Delish!!! Try to think of a reason not to try it....see? No reason not to try it.

Enjoy,

Express Post: These Are The Good Days

Family time...cherry picking...simple cooking...reminiscing...daydreaming...fresh air...perfect days!

Cherries at their best

Carp on the Grill

Amazing spicy sausages

"Poale-n brau". Sort of a fried pie with sweet cheese filling. Yum.

Colourful flowers

Beef Burgers, Corn on the Cob and Spicy Broccoli Salad

… or how to smoke your neighbors out of their apartments and into yours…. Or how I discovered I need a new grill.

Good news everyone! (welcome back Futurama) We cooked again and it was delicious, and with a very nice feedback from our neighbors that, despite the smoke, asked us what we were cooking. This recipe feels like it should be cooked outside, but we managed to pull together nicely (sort of) with our trusty, old grill.

For the burgers: 

500 grams of minced beef meat, 

1 large egg, 

1 tbs of chopped fresh thyme, 

salt, pepper, 

spicy smoked paprika, 

1 tbs of mustard, 

4 tbs of bread crumbs. 

Mix all the ingredients together by hand, until they are all evenly distributed. Next, make some golf sized balls of the meat, that you flat into patties of about 2 cm thickness. Put them on a plate, sprinkle with olive oil and put in the fridge (this helps the ingredients bind). Cook the burgers of a very hot grill, medium heat, for 4-5 minutes on each side.

For the corn, drum roll please: you put it on a very hot grill and turn it when it starts to get some nice charred marks. For the corn, I mixed up some butter with some dried chipotle flakes, salt and dried garlic powder and topped the cob with this mix. 

The spicy kick and the also slightly sweet and smoky texture of the chilli went really well with the charred corn and the garlic taste, definitely something I will cook again.

For the salad: 

200 grams of broccoli flowers, 

200 grams of green beans (I used both yellow and green), 

half of a large, ripe tomato, 

lemon juice, 

olive oil, 

salt, pepper, 

dried chipotle flakes (or a fresh medium hot red chilli, finely diced), 

2-3 garlic cloves. 

Creating this may require some timing so, try and get everything to the finish line in about the same time. Boil the beans in salted water until they are just al dente, max 15 minutes, it takes considerably less if the beans are freshly picked or very young; remove from the water and set aside. 

For the broccoli, boil them in the green bean water for 2 minutes, leave them to dry out a bit, the coat them with oil and chipotle flakes and grill the broccoli flowers on the super hot grill until you get some nice marks. Cut the garlic into fine slices and fry them for 30 seconds in hot olive oil, quickly remove from the oil, the garlic will continue to cook even then and you want to make sure you get some nice (tiny) golden garlic chips. Cut the tomato, put the broccoli, beans and garlic on top and sprinkle some chopped sour weed (sheep's sorrel, red sorrel, field sorrel), after which pour some lemon juice and olive oil on the salad (don’t forget the salt and pepper and the red chilli, if you’re using that). 

The heat from the beans and broccoli will almost melt a very ripe tomato and sourness of the sorrel will bring a very nice kick to the dish.

Plate everything and grab yourself a nice, cold beer, you deserve it. After all you’ve made the neighbours notice you, and that can only be good…. Right?

Take care,

Mr. G.

Jamon Serrano Covered Turkey Roulade

I’m not a fan of cooking roulades, rolls or whatever you wanna call them. But I have to admit that they look nice on a plate and they give the possibility of pairing some interesting options as filling. In this case, I chose turkey meat because it is basically flavorless and thus, great for choosing strong spices or other ingredients to improve the dish. So the ingredients: about 400 grams of turkey meat, 4-5 mushrooms finely sliced (I used champignon), 1 medium onion, finely diced, 3-4 cloves garlic, 200 grams bacon, asparagus, jamon slices for covering the meat rolls, I used about 100 grams, thyme, olive oil, salt pepper.

So, about the turkey, I had an almost square piece of breast meat, that I cut in 2. For each piece, I cut it in the middle, but not all the way through (think it like it’s a book), then I tenderized the meat (to be read: beat it with a meat hammer which is also to be read rolling pin), reducing its thickness and creating 2 sheets of meat. 

For the filling, I diced the bacon, fried for 6-7 minutes on high heat, then added the onion, mushrooms and garlic, salt (taste your bacon, it may not be necessary) and pepper.

Cook this until the mushrooms have lost almost all their water (10-15 minutes). This is important because, otherwise, the water will come out of the roulade and flood the tray you’re cooking it in (or you can just cook the roll on a grill on top of the tray). Bacon wise, I diced the meat into medium chunks, you can try with a smaller size, it should give you a crispier outcome.

Before putting the filling in, I used the mortar and pestle to mash a couple tbs of thyme leaves into a paste to which I added some olive oil, and I rubbed the inside of the turkey meat with the resulting paste. After that, I put some filling on the meat (leave it to cool before this, it will make handling it a lot easier), and, in the middle, an asparagus spear that has decorative value when you slice the roll (I used the white type, green works better me thinks). Roll your turkey meat, and the cover it with some thin jamon slices (you could use prosciutto, pancetta, spek, or any other cured ham smoked or not) all the way around.

 Put this in the oven for 30- 40 minutes on high heat, and leave it to cool for 10 minutes when getting it out.
 We served it with tabbouleh, as shown in the previous post you can enjoy here. 

Have a great day,
Mr. G.

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!

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!

Pan Seared Tuna in Sesame and Poppy Seeds

You guys watch Discovey? Those shows about dangerous fishing, deadliest catch, or whatever? Did you ever imagine that one of those gigantic crabs or tunas or swordfishes found a way to your kitchen? No?  I’m gonna be honest and say that that fantasy is the only reason I watched those shows, I  REALLY don’t like fishing, but I also REALLY like fish. 

So imagine my joy when I managed to get my hands of this (rather small compared to its TV relatives) tuna, weighing around 2 kilograms. With this opportunity at hand, I decided to try and cook this fish using a technique that I saw being rather hip, namely pan searing it with a poppy seed coating. I added sesame to this mix, and (thanks to the genius of Gordon Ramsay) a couple of other ingredients. 

So, here they are:

•           The fish, I just cut some sections of it, this recipe works best with some pieces of tuna steak (if you have those in your fridge right now, I would really like to know where you live)
•           Sesame and poppy seeds
•           Soy sauce, light
•           Wasabi paste
•           Olive oil

Really heat up your oil, while it does that coat the fish in : 1. Soy sauce, 2. Wasabi (don’t go overboard with this one), 3. The seed combo. Fry the fish for 2- 3 minutes on each side, depending on the thickness of your cut.

If you are using pre-cut tuna steaks, you need to bring the meat to the point in which it has 1-2 centimeters of white on the sides and the rest of the meat still has a powerful, dark red (if the meat is overcooked, it will flake and be impossible to cut into sections).

As a side dish, I opted for cous-cous and some oven baked veggies. 

Quantity wise: cous-cous (just pick whatever quantity you need), 1 zucchini, 1 red bell-pepper, 2 medium red onions, 200 grams of cherry tomatoes, 2 tbs of fresh chopped coriander leaves.

For the grain, make sure you have some nice, hot, vegetable stock, pour that on top of the cous-cous until it covers it for about 2 centimeters, cover the cous cous with some cling film and wait for 10-15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed, mix around with a fork to fluff it up. 

As for the vegetables,  cut the first 2 in small cubes (2-3 centimeters), the onions in medium thickness rings and the tomatoes in half, coat everything in olive oil, salt and pepper and pop it into the oven at high heat (in a non stick tray or by using grease proof paper), cook for 40 minutes.

Add the coriander leaves on top after the veggies are done. Put all of the cooked dishes on a plate, make a ½ lemon, 4 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs white wine vinegar, salt pepper vinaigrette, and sprinkle that on your fish and side dishes generously. 

Enjoy!

Spinach and Ricotta Frittata | You've Got Meal!

This is a very nice dish for an weekend brunch, especially if you plan on putting it next to a nice sparkling wine (go for a medium dry rose Cremant de Bourgogne, you won’t regret it).

So for 2 (very generous) portions we used: 5 eggs, 100 grams of spinach, 100 grams of valerian salad, 200 grams of ricotta cheese, 2 medium onions, 3 cloves of garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Start by cooking the chopped onion in heavy base pan, on high heat for about 4 minutes, then add the chopped garlic and cook for another minute. Turn off heat, add the coarsely chopped spinach and valerian and mix until the herbs get start getting softer (it shouldn’t be more than 2 minutes). We used 2 separate ceramic pans for this dish, feel free to just use one oven appropriate pan then transfer the contents to a plate. 

So, put in the cooked onion and herbs, put the eggs (wisked with the salt and pepper) on top of those, and then just crumble some ricotta over. This goes  in the oven, high heat for 20 minutes or until the dish gets a light golden brown color. We paired the frittata with a very simple valerian, spring onion, radish salad, with a lemon juice – olive oil dressing.

Enjoy,

Family Dinner- Moist Roasted Baby Goat Legs

We went to my in-laws' on Sunday and we got surprised with some delicious oven roasted baby goat legs. Deboned, gorgeous- looking, moist and full of flavour.

It was marinated overnight with lots of spices and served with early new potatoes and spring salad. What else can you do when new potatoes are found at the Farmers' Market and they just melt in your mouth?

We also had a sauce to top it with: the sauce from cooking the meat, sour cream and herbs.

Enjoy!