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Post by lagatta on Jun 17, 2014 23:36:16 GMT
Already slaughtered, I mean. I'm thinking of braising it. I could conceivably also cook it in my little convection oven, though I'd have to flatten it a bit. I do have some reduced chicken stock, so that encourages braising (with shots of white wine and lemon or lime juice)
Any brilliant ideas? I think I'd like something a bit spicy; that is appealing in the summer heat. I'm not cooking it tonight; probably tomorrow, if not, the next day.
These chickens are very good.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2014 3:18:28 GMT
When in doubt, I always cook with wine, red or white. With aromatics (garlic, onion, lemon, herbs or spices). I add a vegetable (mushrooms, dried or fresh, pearl onions, artichokes). Lots of parsley, and something to soak up the juices (rice, pasta or great baguette. I know you must be able to get good bread, lagatta).
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Post by lagatta on Jun 18, 2014 10:23:22 GMT
I can get wonderful bread; baguettes are obvious and there are also Middle Eastern breads that I like very much for sopping. Another good sopping bread is Portuguese broa, made of a mixture of wheat and corn (maize) flour.
A nice alternative to wine is a little bottle of cider. Cider here is fermented, this for the benefit of those benighted souls dwelling where it simply means unfiltered apple juice.
That will freeze nicely too. Unless I have guests, I can't usually eat my way through a whole chicken before it goes slightly off, especially in the summer heat. So I pack up some "ready meals" in small plastic containers.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2014 11:22:39 GMT
Stewing in beer provides interesting flavour variations, usually quite tasty.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2014 14:46:37 GMT
That will freeze nicely too. Unless I have guests, I can't usually eat my way through a whole chicken before it goes slightly off, especially in the summer heat. So I pack up some "ready meals" in small plastic containers. Girl after my own heart. I always cook extra of any stew, etc. I make, and place it in the freezer in portions for my husband when I'm away (at least 50% of the time). Speaking of cider, I make a great Norman cod dish, poached in a good cider with julienned carrot, leek and celery. Now that I've reminded myself, maybe for supper tonight. |
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Post by lagatta on Jun 18, 2014 17:17:17 GMT
Have you got the recipe for that one? Remember, put it under "recipes".
Kerouac, yes, and we have some really good beers now.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2014 19:20:22 GMT
Scarcely a recipe, basically just what I wrote there. Saute the vegetables in butter, add cider and fish, poach. Add cream to finish.
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Post by lagatta on Jun 20, 2014 2:22:44 GMT
lizzyfaire, that is exactly what I imagined, including the dollop of cream.
Well, I cooked the little organic chicken and its two extra legs (cuisses de poulet, I mean the drumstick and the thigh), as I wanted a higher proportion of dark meat. Though I wanted to braise a whole, small chicken as, with a good quality chicken, this also provides good quality breast meat for those who prefer that. I needed fresh ginger and was wandering around Jean-Talon Market, also dropping off five egg cartons to the vendor, and bought not only the ginger, but a good-sized leek, some carrots and two little punnets of mushrooms that had simply dried out a bit "because of the wind" said the vendor.
I have an odd contraption a friend offloaded to me called an electric wok. It is useless for true wok cooking, but fine for such a slow braise. I did a finely-chopped mixture of carrots and (slightly dried out) celery, no onions as I was going to use a leek, sautéed this a bit, also did this with the garlic as I didn't want it to be too harsh - this is a gentle dish. I slightly browned the entire small chicken and the two cuisses I'd bought.
I had some concentrated chicken stock (with aromatic vegetables) and boiled it down further, also some limes. Braised chicken and carrot-celery mixture in this. Later added leek, cut into small bits, garlic (pre-sautéed so as not to be too harsh) and a good bit of fresh ginger. I added some saffron I had in a cupboard. After I removed the meat, I added mushrooms to the veg mixture.
Afterwards, everything divided up into threes: (glass containers), meat, vegetables with stock and bones. These are all in the fridge right now, but I'll freeze at least half the stuff in small containers.
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Post by lagatta on Dec 1, 2014 15:20:40 GMT
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