Saturday tea time and Paella to finish

Friday evening had been a lousy drive up, traffic jams all the way took about 7 hours, but when I got here there was a welcoming red wine and an Italian meal waiting.  1^st off was a nice selection of Anti pasta, followed by pumpkin ravioli, and finished with a sea bass baked in foil with white wine and lemon.

We then watched Gordon Ramsey, well the girls did, I snoozed.

Saturday morning I was up at 06:00 and fiddled about with the Internet connections as Linda is having problems with her connections LoL!

We then had a few things to do, and then it was off to the Turkish butchers to get some chicken for the Paella and also a leg of lamb for Sunday Dinner.

 

We next headed to the market to get the fish and shell fish for the Paella.

 

I always like the Kiel market it has a vast array of different fish, they may not have it when you want it as they didn't have any rascasse when I made my Bouillabaisse a couple of months ago.

But they had some nice sword fish, prawns and mussels, it is a pleasure just to walk up and down the stalls, I also had a matjes brotchen for my lunch.

 

 

Fish purchased it was off home to watch Saturday kitchen and then get started on making the stock and making the scones


A very British cream tea

I had been in a discussion about making scones, I have never in my life made scones and there are so many diverse recipes, I had decided to try a variety of recipes some with egg and milk, some with buttermilk and egg and finally buttermilk and no egg. The later were meant to have had fruit in them  (cranberries) but I forgot, it was to be a baking session pitted with a plethora of mistakes but in the end all came out better than expected and the girls certainly enjoyed their Kiel clotted cream tea.

The ingredients

 

I used Mary Berries recipe and I thought I had followed it very well, but I was making half the quantity and though halving most of the ingredients I had forgot to half the amount of butter and milk and eggs, what a dumbo, I wondered why the mixture was so runny , but she had said it should be sticky, well it sure was that.

 

So batch one finished, I started on the second one this time making with buttermilk and egg mixture, the final one being made just with buttermilk and no egg.

The 2 final batches turned out fantastic, the first batch being more moist spread, but tasted fantastic.

   At the front the first batch made with the rather too moist mixture 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 So after all of these years I have made my first scones and we had a royal cream tea with 3 different jams and tea in a warmed pot, oh how genteel.

Janice laying it on a bit thick

 

Next was the

Paella

Chicken stock

6 chicken wings and the skin and off cuts from the chicken legs.

1 onion diced

5cm piece of leek diced

Small piece of celeriac or a stick of celery diced

1 carrot diced

1 tbsp. of dried soup vegetables

1 tsp. of white pepper corns

1 bunch of herbs

1 tsp. of vegetable stock powder (I prefer using this as opposed to using salt)

 First make your stock (you don’t have to but I always like to make my own, it is so satisfying. While at the Turks, I bought some chicken wings, these along with the skin and bones from 3 legs went into the stock pot along with some dried root veg, a piece of leek, a carrot and some diced celeriac. Added a teaspoon of white pepper corns, the bunch of herbs, a diced onion, and a crushed clove of garlic and a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder. 

Top up with cold water bring to the boil, skim and drop to a simmer.

The Paella

First a bit about the Paella, the name comes from the pan that this rice dish is cooked in, there are many claimants to the original version, but it is clear that it was a peasant dish that can contain anything, in coastal areas it will have more or only fish. Inland it will be a meat one, containing rabbit, chicken and to make up for a lack of protein often snails, I like this but have seen when I add them the girls tend  to leave them on the side of their plates.

I first had Paella back in  1969 while dish washing my way through France and Spain, it was in either Lorette de mar or it could have been Blane's or even Tarragona  but no matter it was at a market place on a scorching hot afternoon and I bought a portion for a few Peseta’s, life was good in those days, it was so cheap to live in Spain and if you couldn’t get a place in a hostel, you could sleep on the beach, that was if you could keep out of the way of Franco’s Garda.

I was later to become more involved in the making of Paella, my Sister in Law is Spanish and it was from her that I learnt to cook a Paella Valencia, this is the seafood variation.

You shall require:

3 chicken legs skinned and jointed

 

1 piece of sword fish (cut into 3)

1 piece of salmon or as in this case sea trout  (cut into 3)

 A good double handful of mussels

about 15 Prawns

1 onion diced

1 clove of garlic pressed

1 red pepper deseeded and sliced

8cm piece of chorizo sliced

 

 A good pinch of saffron

1 level tsp. sweet smoked paprika

(mix the two above ingredients together in a cup with some warm chicken stock)

600g of paella rice

 

2 tomato’s halved and grated (this will leave you with just the skin, this is the part you do not need)

Heat the olive oil and fry the onions and garlic.

 add the chorizo and heat until it releases its colour, push to one side of the pan,












put the chicken pieces into the paella and brown, reduce the heat and fry for about 10 minutes, remove and set aside. 

Return the onions and chorizo back to the pan, add the tomato,

now add the rice,

stir in to coat all over with oil, add the chicken and pour in the stock until it is all covered, finally add the cup of saffron/paprika stock, add a handful of peas (or cut green beans), give it a final stir (you shouldn't stir it any more, but if you like I needed to have the Paella over two rings you will need to turn the pan at regular intervals so that the whole of the pan gets evenly heated.

Cover with aluminium foil and over a low heat (it should bubble not boil) allow it to absorb the liquid. about 20 minutes before it is  finished put the fish and decorate with strips of red peppers.

Then bury the mussels into the rice and arrange the prawns evenly around the pan.

When the fish is cooked, the mussels open, turn off the heat and cover with a clean tea towel and allow to stand so that the rice absorbs any remaining liquid. (it is traditionally covered with newspaper).

There should be a firm crust on the base of the Paella (the socarrat) , it is meant to be there, it is an integral part of the dish and it is one of the best parts of the meal

Drink with a crisp white wine , Ole!!!

Slow Cooker Jerked Chicken

Linda’s train was supposed to be getting in at about 20:15 so I decided I would make a meal that it wouldn’t matter if the train was late (as it happened it was early and I was sitting drinking a beer in a pub). I decided on the slow cooker and chicken, I had been reading about Jerked seasoning in a recipe book from St Lucia (I was there in 1994) and though this could be adapted for the Slow cooker. So here is an easy recipe.

Jerked Chicken, mushroom and paprika  done in the slow cooker

Ingredients

3 chicken legs (whole legs with a bit of the backbone on it, this gives the dish more taste)

Handful of freeze dried soup vegetable

1L of vegetable stock

1 large Spanish onion diced

1 large clove of garlic chopped

White of 1 leek sliced into fine rings

1 bunch of spring onions (greens cut into rolls)

500g of mushrooms quartered

1 bouquet garni /sage, rosemary, thyme, bay leafs, marjoram and oregano

Jerked dried herbs and spices made into a rub (cayenne chilli powder, dried oregano, dried rosemary, pimento powder, cinnamon powder, dried wild garlic, coriander, celery salt, smoked paprika powder, sugar, pepper, sea salt)

1 piece of mace

6-7 sundried tomatoes in oil (diced)

1 jar of grilled sweet paprika in oil (you can get them already sliced, you can also make them yourself)

Method

Cut each leg into 2 portions rub with the jerked spice mixture.

Fry the onions, leeks and garlic until translucent.

Put the dried soup veg in the bottom of a slow cooker and add the onion, leek, garlic mixture, in the same pan, fry the chicken portions (as I was using a small pan I done them 2 at a time).  Adding these to the slow cooker along with the tomatoes, spring onion tops, mushrooms and bouquets garni

Deglaze the pan with some of the stock;

pour this into the slow cooker along with the remainder of the stock. Turn on to high set the timer for 5 hours and forget about it (go to the pub for a couple of pints, I did as I needed to see that there had been no suicides after Germany's defeat at the hands of Italy.

1 hour before it is finished add the roasted paprika cut into strips.

Serve with rice or bulgar wheat.

I made bulgar, I sautéed spring onions, garlic and shallots stired this into the bulgar, added stock (1 cup of bulgar to 2 cups of vegetable stock), then stir in dried wild garlic and plenty of mint. Cover and allow to stand to absorb the stock

There is plenty of sauce in this dish, you can also wind up the heat and make it a bit hotter by adding a chopped chilli (habaneros or the like) into the onion, leek mixture, but I wanted the sweetness of the grilled paprika to come through, so let the jerked seasoning do its job.

 Note:  Jerked chicken would be normally grilled in a smoker made out of an oil drum cut in half and blackened on this home made BBQ, but done my way in the slow cooker, the meat is wonderful and tender, the sauce is fantastic (I think that I will cut down on the amount of liquid next time)and plenty left after 2 meals to make a soup. It was fiery but not blow your head off and sweet from the roasted paprika, in most recipes molasses is used, but as I am diabetic I dispensed with it. It also does not have that smoky flavour of a true Jamaican street jerked chicken, but hell I live in a flat.

This done 2 main meals for us and I took the liquid into work on Monday and it was eaten as a hearty stew for lunch, with some whole grain rye and sunflower bread.

A Geordie take on Avgolemono!

1.5L of asparagus stock*

0,5L of chicken stock

1/2 cooked chicken (I use a one from the market with the skin and bones removed and both the leg and breast meat diced)

A handful (1/2 mug) of long grained rice

2 large eggs

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp. of oregano

S&P to taste

Herbs to finish (chives)

Bring the 2 stocks together stir and take out a ladle full set aside

Add the skin and bones, bring to the boil for 10 minutes, grate in the lemon zest  and then remove the skin and bones with a slotted spoon, discard.

Now add the rice or rice noodles, cook until, well, cooked.

In the meantime whisk the egg and add the lemon juice

Take 2 ladles of hot soup and mix it with the cold soup that you have set aside (should be tepid). Dribble this into the egg/lemon mixture, whisking all of the time. Add this to the stock in the pan,

add the diced chicken,

Cook until it has thickened a little, add the herbs (oregano is nice, but so are any Mediterranean fresh herbs) taste and adjust the seasoning. Add some chives in a soup bowl and ladle in the hot soup. Serve with loads of fresh crusty bread.

*I cook my asparagus in a stock made from the peelings and off cuts from the asparagus and a good vegetable stock; this intensifies the flavours and can be frozen. It is great for making asparagus soup at a later date or as in this case adding another level to a time old soup “Avgolemono”, this I had in the 70s for the first time in Pathos (before it was built up).

NB Traditional Avgolemono used long grained rice and all chicken stock. Every Cypriot house hold or taverna has its own “real Avgolemono” made to a century old recipe, handed down by word of mouth from mother to daughter. I have heard this anecdotal piece of ballyhoo, applied to hundreds of recipes from many countries all over the world. Many accompanied with a curse or fear of death LoL. But it does sound nice.