Chicken, Fennel, and White Wine Risotto

There is something about making and eating risotto that feels rather luxurious and indulgent. Once you have chopped a few ingredients, you can stand with a glass of something in one hand, chatting to friends, or flicking through a fancy magazine. Once it gets going all you really have to do is add stock and stir; it couldn't be simpler. And, for what turns out to be such a gorgeous dinner, it can be extremely good value for money.

Here I use boned and skinned chicken leg pieces from the butchers, which are much cheaper than the breast meat, and stay much moister I think. However buying chicken thighs and then skinning and boning them yourself would be cheaper still if you have the time.

Fennel has become one of my most recent loves. I hadn't eaten it before a couple of years ago. It has a slight aniseed flavour which shouldn't put you off (I still hate liquorice and sambucca). When it is cooked, particularly in this recipe, the flavour becomes mellow, fresh and slightly lemony. Fennel seeds are something that can be used a lot in other dishes so it is worth having as a kitchen basic.

Ingredients Serve 2
2- 3 CHICKEN THIGHS: skinned and boned, chopped into bitesize, but not too small, pieces
1 SMALL FENNEL BULB: sliced with feathery green tops kept aside for garnishing
2 SHALLOTS: finely chopped
1 GARLIC CLOVE: finely chopped/crushed
1 TEASPOON FENNEL SEEDS: crushed in a pestle and mortar to release the flavour
1 LARGE GLASS OF DRY WHITE WINE
OLIVE OIL/SALT/PEPPER
PARMESAN: a great store cupboard ingredient that really lasts, don't be put off by the expense!
1 LADLE FULL OF RISOTTO RICE
500 ML CHICKEN STOCK the real stuff heated, or add chicken stock cube to 500 ml boiling water.

1|  On a high heat, brown off your chicken pieces in a large non-stick pan. It doesn't matter if they are completely cooked through at this stage. Once white, starting to brown, set aside for later.

2| In the same pan gently cook your shallot, garlic and fennel seeds for 1-2 minutes, mixing all together.

3| Turn up the heat and add your fennel, mix together and cook for another couple of minutes before adding half the glass of wine. Let the wine cook down.

4| Add your rice, stir together, and add the remainder of the wine, continuing to stir on this high heat for a couple of minutes.

5| Turn the heat down a fraction and add one or two ladles of your heated stock. At this stage we are going to slowly add all of the stock until absorbed by the rice. With the heat too high, the rice will cook too quickly on the outside. Too low, and you'll be there all night long. So don't rush it but just keep everything at a nice simmer. Stir and add more stock after the previous ladle seems to be absorbed. This process should take about 40 minutes but will vary.

6| When it starts to appear more like it should, take a taste. When you have a lovely oozy consistency but the rice still has a slight bite to it, add your chicken pieces and continue to cook for another couple of minutes. If you have run out of stock by this point, you can always add more boiling water.

7| Once you think the rice has cooked, turn down the heat, grate a generous helping of parmesan over the top, and season to taste with salt and pepper. (Parmesan can be quite salty so taste, before adding the salt.)

8| Serve into bowls, with feathery garnish on top, some crunchy bread and a glass of your remaining wine... If you haven't drunk it all whilst cooking that is.

Other ideas/variations:

Chorizo:
Buying from a butcher or deli, you can buy inch thick slices of this gorgeous Spanish sausage and have chopped into bitesize pieces. Add in at same time as garlic and shallot. Flavour and colour your stock with a few strands of saffron. Add a handful of frozen peas at the end for more colour and use delicious Spanish cheese Manchego instead of Parmesan. Basically a very stripped back Paella, but still delicious and indulgent.

Fillet of Beef and Mushroom:
If you're really looking to impress and show off, a mushroom risotto served with fillet of beef is heavenly. Use a spoon of dried porcini mushrooms at the garlic/shallot stage, before adding chopped chestnut mushrooms, or wild mushrooms if you are feeling more adventurous. For this recipe, I would definitely pinch a glass of my mother's Vermouth, Noilly Prat, for a more intense flavour. Lashings of parmesan and a knob of butter at the end are essential. I would serve the finest fillet steaks on the side, cooked pink; slicing and cooking in the risotto just isn't going to work.

Beef Featherblade Casserole

We're all so busy that sometimes when it comes to cooking all we want to do is to chuck everything in a pan and let it do its thing, and with this recipe you really can, and still be blessed with a delicious meal... But then again it can also be nice to get completely into what you're making and escape from everything else for an hour or two, if you can afford the time.

In France you can't buy stewing steak already cut into pieces, so I bought a delicious kilo of featherblade (paleron in French)- so-called because each slice looks like a feather- and decided to butcher it myself, with a little help from Andrew over facetime! I shall provide tips here for what is quite simple butchery if you have the time and patience; if you perish the thought then just buy a kilo of already diced chuck or featherblade steak and skip to where I put it all together in the casserole dish!

This cut is a lot cheaper in England than in France, about £10.99 a kilo in Andrew's and gives eight good portions, so is amazing value for money. Even better that line of fat, that makes the blade of the "feather", which I cut out and add to the stew, gives the most amazing flavour... with the vegetables, a bay leaf and a few cloves (my magical ingredient in all stews) this dish is quite simply beautiful winter soul food. 

You will need... 

1 kilo featherblade steak in a piece, or diced by your butcher, or 1 kilo any stewing steak from a butchers so you know that it's well matured and full of flavour | 1 clove of garlic | 1 shallot | 1 stick of celery | 1 leek | 1 carrot | 3 tomatoes | 1 litre of chicken or beef stock | 3 cloves | 2 bay leaves

 1  Pre heat the oven to 160C. Chop the shallot, garlic and celery and fry in a large casserole dish on a gentle heat.

 2  Meanwhile chop the carrot, celery and tomatoes and add to the pan.

3  If you're dicing/preparing your own piece of beef, turn off the heat, as it might take a little while. SKIP TO STEP 7 if you're not preparing yourself!

4  Lay your piece of featherblade flat, fat side up. Try gently pulling the fat from one of the corners, gently using the point of a very sharp knife to help lift it slightly. At the point you should see the fat lifting, leaving a thin layer of membrane underneath, this is ok and can be left on- it will disappear when you cook the beef.

So continue running that point of the knife down the line that is made between where the membrane and fat meet, while you are gently pulling the fat away with the two hands.  If you just relax you'll find the two actions helping each other: as opposed to cutting into the meat you are releasing that layer of fat, to enable you to pull it away.

5 Fat removed, we need to take out that feather "blade" which is a sheet/piece of grizzle that runs through the cut. Again patience and using the point of the knife in a gentle manner is key. The action remains the same, although it feels a little more tricky, removing something from inside. So start slow running the point of the knife, down the line of the grizzle so you've got something to hold on to a little.

Once you have that it becomes a little easier to use the knife to help you pull the fat away from the meat as opposed to slicing into the meat and hoping for the best. You want to have as little meat on that fat as possible, you don't want to waste anything.  Just relax and feel your away around. Once you have cut away quite a lot nearest to the edge- the side where my hand is in the picture- you can make a cut down that side of the meat so that you are able to begin to open up the meat. This just makes it easier to see what's going on in there!

It's not the end of the world if you leave more meat on the fat than wanted but have a little look at this next picture to see what you're aiming for!

6 So fat and grizzle placed to one side, and the piece of meat opened up, you can start dicing it.

Cut into two pieces, then cut long strips and just dice across. You don't want pieces too small because the meat is so tender they will just cook down into mush. 

7 Turn the heat back on and add the diced meat to the pan as well as the cloves, bay leaves and stock. Top up with water if the meat isn't covered. Bring to the boil and place in the preheated oven with the lid on.

8 The meat will definitely be cooked after two hours, and if you want to eat at this stage I would mix up about a tablespoon of cornflour (gluten free) in the same amount of melted butter, with a little water added, and stir this into the casserole, bringing the cassserole to the boil on the hob to reduce that sauce down.

9 If you can wait, I would reduce the heat on the oven to 110C and cook for another two hours. You can then remove the two pieces of fat if they haven't completely melted away and also the bay leaves and cloves and then serve with rice or mashed potato. Each time you heat that casserole up during the week it is going to reduce down even more and become even more delicious.

Pancetta and Mushroom Orzo Pasta

My housemate Sarah came back to uni with a lovely new cookbook, River Cottage: Veg Everyday, which has hundreds of gorgeous recipes for side dishes, soups and vegetable dishes in their own right. I would definitely recommend it if you're in a bit of a food rut and if you're trying to be more healthy for January  as the majority of recipes are really healthy. Of course, if like me you love your meat you can always incorporate meat into a dish somehow! Sarah and I loved the look of the Mushroom Orzo pasta so we decided to try it, but add some diced pancetta which just gives it a really gorgeous depth of flavour.

Ingredients to serve 2

150g orzo pasta (This pasta is almost like risotto rice in texture and to look at.)

1 tablespoons of olive oil 

knob of butter 

250g mushrooms (Hugh used 500g but we thought this was kind of crazy as that's a whole punnet each...)

2 garlic cloves finely chopped 

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar 

about 75ml dry white wine (we used Chat-En-Oeuf which is nice and not too expensive) 

about 50ml creme fraiche 

salt and pepper to season 

a few sprigs of thyme, leaves only 

good handful of chopped parsley 

200g pancetta diced (your butcher/delicatessen will slice you a piece to the thickness you wish (approx 2cm) for you to chop up at home as you wish. You could also use smoked streaky bacon as a cheaper alternative.) 

Start by bringing a pan of salted-water to the boil ready to cook your pasta later. Heat the olive oil and butter in a large pan, and cook your mushrooms on a high heat, turning often so they don't burn. In another pan fry your pancetta pieces. 

When the mushrooms are nearly cooked add the pasta to the pan for approximately 7 minutes or until it tastes al dente.When the pancetta is cooked and crispy drain into a bowl lined with kitchen roll to soak up any access fat. 

Back to the mushrooms... Add the garlic, thyme and balsamic vinegar, stirring for a minute or two. Add the wine and cook until there is hardly any liquid left. 

Add the crême fraiche, reduce the heat slightly and stir until it is just about simmering. Season with salt and pepper. If it isn't cooked already, wait to drain your pasta, then add to the mushroom mix with the pancetta. 

Stir and serve with lots of chopped parsley on top with some crusty bread and oils. 

Lamb Rogan Josh Curry

It has to be said from the start that I am not professing to be any good at cooking authentic curries... But this recipe is definitely a healthier and cheaper option to your Indian takeaway, and probably quicker too if your Indian restaurant is as busy as the ones in York!

The basis of this recipe is the Waitrose Rogan Josh curry paste which I think is a really good quality and flavour. Cooking for just myself I used 2 tablespoons, leaving plenty for another time. A friend told me her mum had used just half a jar for a family of four, so you do get your money's worth out of it! After the curry paste, all you need to buy is some good quality diced lamb from your butcher (200g per person is plenty), some chopped onion, garlic, fresh coriander and tinned chopped tomatoes. Again you can buy a pack of four Waitrose tinned tomatoes for just £2. Cooking for one, I only used half a jar, so that's just 25p... I meant it when I said this recipe was a lot cheaper than a take away! Its also nice that you can use up all the ingredients at another point in the week so nothing gets wasted. If you like your curries hot, I would definitely add some chopped chilli. 

The method for this couldn't be simpler or quicker: 1. Fry off some onion and garlic in a pan for 2 minutes on a medium high heat. 

2. Add your curry paste, stirring for another 2 minutes. 

3 Add your lamb and cook till brown for about five minutes. 

4. Add your chopped tomatoes and reduce down. At this point I would add a cup of water, not too much, but enough just to make sure your sauce isn't too thick or rich. 5. Reduce the heat slightly and let the curry gently simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. This is particularly important that you let it cook for enough time because at this time of year lamb isn't as tender as it is in the spring. 6. At this point I would cook your rice or any accompaniments. 7. When everything is cooked, stir in your chopped coriander and serve immediately! 

    

I actually ordered poppadoms and naan bread from the takeaway as a friend was getting one (unfortunately she doesn't like lamb!) but the supermarkets have plenty of products in this line on sale. 

NB: If you were being super lazy, Andrew's sell delicious fresh curry sauces which you can just add to the meat, letting you skip a few stages above... Unfortunately I was too many miles away to pop in and get one! 

Sticky Sweet Chilli Chicken Wings

The thought of food excites me on the hour, but these... my god, you have to make them!! I knocked this recipe together because I didn't really have much food in, and had some sweet chilli sauce in the fridge. Chicken wings are also cheaper than chips, so this recipe makes for pure comfort food heaven without the usual guilt of spending money on a takeaway or not knowing where it has come from- I know mine has come from a happy farm in North Suffolk :) 

Ingredients 

4 chicken wings per person (it was one of those days so I went for 6) | good shake of soy sauce | 1 clove of garlic finely, chopped | very generous shake/squeeze of sweet chilli sauce 

Preheat the oven to 180C | Pour over the garlic and soy sauce and massage into the chicken. | Wash hands, pour over enough sweet chilli sauce to cover the chicken and again massage in. | Always add more sauce if you think the chicken needs it.

Place the chicken on a foil lined baking tray and place in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn after 15 minutes, adding a drop of sauce to the other side. This leaves plenty of time to prepare an accompaniment such as noodles or rice. I just boiled some rice and added some fried onion and mushroom, adding soy sauce and rice wine for flavour. If you're feeling guilty you could always make a little noodle salad, but where's the fun in that?

Remove from the oven and eat immediately. Apart from a fork for the rice, chicken that tastes this good should only ever be eaten with fingers, so get stuck in! These wings are very sticky so back-up kitchen roll is probably a good idea.

I am writing this as I wait for my girlfriends to get ready for a night out and am seriously contemplating preparing these for when I get in later! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do...

L x