December recipe: Winter chicken hotpot

Winter chicken hotpot

This casserole is warming, easy to make, and a versatile user-up of odds and ends of vegetables. In this version I’ve used chicken pieces, although you could also make it with leftover turkey if you have a lot of turkey to use up after the Big Day. It’s a complete meal cooked in one pan, so the washing up is minimal, and if you use tinned pulses it will take under an hour to make.

You can vary the vegetables as you choose, depending on what you like and what you happen to have available. Carrot, parsnip, turnip, swede* and cooking apple would all be quite at home. Similarly, you could use butter beans or haricot beans instead of chick peas.  It’s the sort of recipe that’s more of a general guide than a set of specific instructions, and will probably be different every time you cook it. Here’s the version I made the other day, in the middle of a busy week.

Winter chicken hotpot (serves 2)

2 oz (approx 50 g) dried chick peas, or twice the weight of tinned chick peas

Two chicken pieces (wings, drumsticks or thighs all work well)

8 oz (approx 250 g) butternut squash

4 oz (approx 125 g) leeks

Half a red pepper

2 oz (approx 50 g) mushrooms

1 small onion

1 clove garlic

Approximately 0.25 pint (approx 150 ml) water

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon medlar jelly** (optional)

1 lb (approx 450 g) potatoes

Soak the chick peas in cold water overnight. Rinse the soaked chick peas three or four times, then put them in a saucepan, cover with cold water, bring to the boil and then simmer for about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes until tender. If using tinned chick peas, follow the instructions on the tin.

If using chicken wings, halve them at the ‘elbow’ joint. This is quite easy with a sharp and strong cook’s knife. I find it easier to cut just on the lower side of the joint, where the wing has two small bones instead of the single thick bone in the upper part of the wing.

Peel the butternut squash, scoop out the seeds in the core, and cut the rest into chunks about 1.5 - 2 cm (0.5 - 1 inch) cubed.

Trim, wash and slice the leeks.

Remove the seeds from the red pepper and cut into pieces about 1.5 cm (about 0.5 inch) square.

Peel the mushrooms. Quarter them if small, or slice them if large.

Peel and chop the onion. Peel and crush the garlic.

Peel the potatoes and chop them into dice about 1 cm (about 0.5 inch) cubed.

Brown the chicken pieces in cooking oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.

Add the chopped onion, squash, leeks, pepper and mushrooms. Fry until the vegetables are starting to colour. Stir in the crushed garlic.

Add the cooked chick peas and diced potatoes, along with the water, paprika and medlar jelly. Season with salt and black pepper.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes until the chicken and vegetables are all cooked. Stir from time to time, especially towards the end of the cooking time, as the potatoes tend to stick to the bottom of the pan when they are nearly cooked. If it starts to get dry, add a bit more water. 

*I believe previous discussions here established that the root vegetable that’s called ‘swede’ in the UK is called ‘rutabaga’ in the US

**Recipe for medlar jelly.  Crab-apple jelly or redcurrant jelly work equally well.

February recipe: Apple lattice tart

Apple lattice tart

Apples are generally associated with late summer and autumn, and indeed the peak of the English apple season is in September and October. However, many apple varieties, especially cooking apples, store for several months, and so some apple varieties are effectively in season all winter.

This pretty apple tart can be made with any variety of cooking apples, so it can be enjoyed right through the autumn and winter. Here’s the recipe.

Apple lattice tart

Pastry

4 oz (approx 125 g) strong plain flour

1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) icing sugar

2 oz (approx 50 g) butter

1.5 oz (approx 35 g) lard

Filling

1 lb (approx 450 g) cooking apples

2 Tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoon) golden syrup

Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) ground cinnamon

Grease a shallow flan dish about 7 to 8 inches (about 18 to 20 cm) in diameter.

Peel and core the cooking apples. Chop into chunks about half an inch (approx 1-1.5 cm) cubed.

Put the apple chunks, lemon juice, golden syrup and cinnamon in a saucepan. Cover and cook gently for about 15 minutes (the time will vary according to the apple variety) until the apples are soft.

Rub the butter and lard into the flour and icing sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add about a tablespoon (about 15 ml) of cold water and mix with a knife. The mixture will start to stick together. Squash it into a ball of dough.

Cut off about a quarter of the dough and set aside.  Roll out the other three-quarters into a circle and line the flan dish.

Spread the cooked apples in the pastry case.

Roll out the remaining pastry and cut into strips.  Lay the strips crosswise on top of the apple filling to form a lattice.

Bake in a hot oven at about 190 C for about 30-35 minutes until the pastry is golden.

Serve hot or cold, with natural yoghurt, cream or ice cream.

I normally expect to get 6 slices out of this quantity, but it depends how big a slice you like.

Note that the pastry is quite firm when cold, but when hot the pastry is very crumbly and will tend to fall apart.  If you’re serving the tart in a situation where you need it to stay in neat slices when cut, I recommend serving it cold!

If there is any left over the tart will keep for several days at room temperature.  I’ve never tried freezing it.

January recipe: Stuffed cabbage leaves

Stuffed cabbage leaves

This recipe is loosely based on the classic Greek dish dolmas, stuffed vine leaves.  Vines, and by extension vine leaves, don’t tend to be a staple crop in Britain, although I daresay they are obtainable from specialist shops if you look hard enough.  However, the handsome dark green Savoy cabbages make a satisfactory wrapping for the filling.  This is a colourful, mildly spicy dish to cheer up a grey winter day, which is very convenient as Savoy cabbages are at their best in the middle of winter.  Here’s the recipe.

Stuffed cabbage leaves (serves 2)

Approximately 12 oz (approximately 350 g) Savoy cabbage

8 oz (approx 220 g) lamb mince or beef mince

Half an onion

1 oz long-grain rice

2 Tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoon) chutney*

2 oz (approx 50 g) raisins

Half a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) paprika

2 teaspoons (2 x 5 ml spoon) cornflour

Cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet (or use leftover cooked rice).

Separate 8 large leaves from the cabbage, trying not to tear them (the odd rip doesn’t matter).  Cut out the hard base of the stalk from each leaf, leaving a V-shaped slot.

Blanch the cabbage leaves for 2 minutes in boiling water.  Drain, then leave to cool.

Shred the remaining cabbage finely.  Peel and chop the onion.

Fry the minced lamb or beef in olive oil over a medium heat until browned.

Add the onion and shredded cabbage, and fry gently for another few minutes until the vegetables are starting to soften and colour.

Remove from the heat. Stir in the cooked rice, chutney and raisins. Season with salt and pepper.

Divide the mixture between the 8 blanched cabbage leaves, and fold each leaf over the filling to make a parcel.

Put the parcels in a single layer in a casserole dish.

If the tomatoes are very coarse, or if you want a smooth sauce, liquidise the chopped tomatoes.  Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, paprika and cornflour.  Pour this over the cabbage parcels in the casserole.

Put a lid on the casserole and cook in a moderately hot oven at about 180 C for about 45 minutes, until the cabbage is tender and the sauce has thickened.

Serve with long-grain rice.

I don’t think this would freeze very well, although I’ve never tried.  

 

*Home-made tomato chutney works well in this dish

December recipe: Medlar jelly

 

Medlars

The medlar is an unusual fruit. Related to the rose family, the fruit looks a little like a gigantic brown rose hip.  The fruits can be harvested after the first frost or left to fall off the tree by themselves. 

When first harvested, medlars have hard white flesh and are quite inedible. They have to be left in a cool dry place to ‘blet’, a sort of ripening process, for a few weeks. During the bletting process, the hard white flesh softens to a deep brown paste.

Unbletted medlars (left), partially bletted medlars (middle) and bletted medlars (right)

Once bletted, medlars can be eaten raw, although it’s a fiddly job to pick out the seeds.  I prefer to turn them into medlar jelly.  This amber-coloured aromatic jelly is delicious with cold meats, especially poultry. (So it could come in handy in a few days’ time as an accompaniment to the remains of the Christmas turkey).  It’s a fairly straightforward process, although it’s time-consuming because of the wait for the juice to strain.  Here’s my recipe.

Medlar Jelly

Bletted medlars, approximately 3 lb (approx. 1.5 kg)

Water, 1 pint per 1 lb fruit (approx. 1.25 litres per 1 kg)

Granulated sugar, 1 lb per 1 pint of strained juice (approx. 800g per 1 litre)

Rind and juice of half a lemon per 1 pint of strained juice (per approx. 550 ml)

Sort the medlars.  They are bletted when they are dark brown and feel soft all over.  If when you cut the fruit up you find that a small part of the fruit is still hard (as with the medlars in the middle of the photograph above) it’s OK as long as most of the fruit is bletted.

Wash the medlars.

Cut the medlars into quarters and put them in a large saucepan, making a note of the weight of fruit.

Add 1 pint of water per 1 lb of medlars (approx. 1.25 litres per 1 kg).  Put a lid on the saucepan and bring to the boil.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 1 hour until the medlars are soft and pulpy.  Remove from the heat.

Hang a jelly bag or a double layer of cotton or muslin cloth over a large bowl.  I use two old tea towels tied to the legs of an upturned stool (see photo).  Pour the contents of the saucepan into the jelly bag or cloth so that the juice drains into the bowl.  Leave to strain for a couple of hours (or overnight, if this is more convenient).

Straining the medlar pulp

When all the juice has strained through, discard the pulp.

Measure the amount of juice.

Put 1 pint of juice in a large saucepan with 1 lb of granulated sugar (approx. 800g sugar per 1 litre juice). Add the rind and juice of half a lemon. Heat gently, stirring all the time, until the sugar has dissolved.

Add about a teaspoon of butter (I am told this helps to prevent the jelly sticking to the pan, and have never been brave enough to try missing it out to see what happens).

 

Bring to the boil.  It should boil at a full rolling boil, i.e. bubbles should cover the whole surface of the jelly and it should boil hard enough to spit occasionally.  Don’t lean over the pan, and keep pets and small children out of the way, as a spit of boiling jelly can give an unpleasant burn.

Boil until the jelly reaches setting point.  Test for set by dripping a teaspoon of jelly onto a cold plate.  It should form a pool (if it forms a bead, the jelly is done; take it off the heat immediately).  Push the pool with your finger.  If it wrinkles, the jelly has reached setting point.  If not, boil for another 2 minutes and test again.  I find it usually takes about 15-20 minutes to reach setting point.

Remove from the heat.  Pour into a heatproof jug, then use the jug to pour into jars.  Cover and seal immediately.  I use cling film and then a screw-top lid.

The jelly is ready for use as soon as it has cooled down, and will keep in a cupboard for at least a couple of years.

Medlar jelly