Thursday, April 10, 2008

pollo alla senape!!

                                     

I mentioned a while back that we were moving house but surprise surprise we're still at our old abode!! Why? I hear you ask seen as we bought this standard semi - detached house off the plans nearly 2 years ago, we got the keys in December but what's been the big delay - our kitchen from Italy!!! It's times like these when the Italian culture drives me mad, we'll get it when they are ready!! I wouldn't mind but we are getting the bedroom and part of the sitting room too so it hasn't been an option to move in without the kitchen. Anyway it arrives tonight, well the boxes arrive and the Italian fitter is going to return next week as he is very busy - HELLLOOOOOO???? I'm really excited though as we just picked it out of a brochure last September which we don't have anymore so I can't even remember what it looks like so it doubles the excitement - God knows what I'm going to get:) but we got our present kitchen and bedroom from him so I'm not too worried!! All I remember is there is a 5 ring gas hob, extra large oven, full fridge, full freezer etc etc - a foodie kitchen heaven!! I shall post a pic when it is ready to go, probably next Christmas at the rate things are going!

Bruno is over at the new house at the moment helping him unload the millions of boxes so I have a roast chicken dinner waiting for him when he returns - I know, I really am wonderful;) I'm always looking for new roast chicken recipes as I tend to stick to the garlic, lemon, rosemary combo so I was delighted to see recipes in both Delicious and Taste Italia this month!! This one from TI was absolutely delicious but you have to love onions as much as I do and it's really simple which I love nearly as much as onions:)

what you need:

- 1 kg onions, peeled and sliced - I used red as I had no white and they were perfect.

 - 4 garlic cloves peeled

 - mustard ( I used good "ole" colemans)

 - chicken - I used organic from SQ

 - 5 tbsp chicken stock( I used 1 Kallo organic stock cube even though I know Sarah wouldn't agree but one word "children"!!!!!:)

 - 125 ml white wine

 - sea salt and black pepper

 - olive oil

what to do:

 - pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees

 - place the garlic and onions in an oven dish, season and pour in some olive oil.

 - using your hands cover the outside of the chicken with mustard, don't be afraid to use loads as you don't taste it but it gives loads of flavour. I always do this with roast beef and lamb too!

 -  place your chicken on top of your onions , season and drizzle with olive oil and cook for 35 mins.

 - the recipe doesn't include potatoes but I love one tray meals so I cooked some new potatoes cut into quarters in salted water until a little tender and then drained them and added to tray.

 - turn the chicken over, pour in the wine, add your potatoes and cook for another 25 mins!! I added my stock here too! Add more during cooking if onions are drying out!

 - turn the chicken again and cook for 10 mins until skin is golden and crispy and serve!!

                                                  

buon appetito!!
Posted by LOR&BRU at 21:31:58 | Permanent Link | Comments (10) |

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

pollo alla ricotta ed erbe!!

                                   
So, the coundown to Christmas has begun and how nice is this weather, it actually feels like Christmas. I was complaining last week that there was no Christmas atmosphere this year but since the weather became really cold and crisp it has turned all Christmassy:) The tree is up and the princess is amazed by it, we have to stand in front of it about 10 times a day and just point at all the lights and the babababababa balls, I know everyone says it but it really is so much better with little ones around. Our last day is this Sunday and we close until Jan 3rd - yipeeeeeeeeee!! It will be so nice to just relax because even if we are not in La Cucina there are always phone calls and one of us is always popping in just to keep an eye on things so it will be really nice just to switch off. I don't know how we will manage when we open a second business, we will have no life!!!!

I know most of you only have eyes for turkey at the moment but I'm sure a roast chicken might feature somewhere over the holidays and I wanted to share this recipe with you as an alternative to the regular roast chicken. This recipe is based on Ursula Ferrigno's spatchcock poussin recipe and I have to say it was one of the nicest recipes I have ever had for roast chicken, It was so tasty and the combination of flavours work so well together and it is really easy to prepare. I served it with roast potatoes done in goose fat which is available from all supermarkets these days.

                                        

what you need:

 - 1 medium to large chicken. I used an Organic, corn-fed chicken from Superquinn. There really is no comparison in taste and the main difference is the colour of the meat. The meat in the legs should be brown not white.

 - 2 tbsp olive oil

 - 4 rosemary sprigs

 - sea salt and black pepper

 - 350ml white wine - dry

 stuffing

 - 150g ricotta cheese

 - 55g gorgonzola cheese - I know a lot of people don't like blue cheese but you really don't taste it, it just adds a great flavour.

 - 55g grated parmesan cheese or fontina cheese

 - 4 slices mortadella finely chopped(optional) Mortadella is an Italian cold meat, it's available in Superquinn or any Italian deli.

 - a handful of fresh flat leaf parsley chopped

 - 1 tbsp marjoram - I haven't seen any of the fresh variety in Limerick???? I used dry that one of our Polish staff gave me.

 - 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage

 - 25g melted butter

what to do:

 - preheat the oven to 220 degrees

 - to make the stuffing, place the ricotta, parmesan, gorgonzola, mortadella, herbs and butter in a bowl and mix.

 - gently ease the skin from the breasts of the bird and spoon the stuffing into the area between the skin and meat. I rubbed whatever was left all over the outside of the bird. Brush the chicken with olive oil, season and top with a sprig of rosemary.

 - place the bird in an oven tray and pour over the wine. Roast for 25-30 mins, reduce the heat to 180 degrees and cook for a further 15 mins until the chicken is cooked through.

 - to make your potatoes, par-boil your potatoes in plenty of salted water. Heat your goose fat in a tray over a high heat, add a couple of sprigs of rosemary and unpeeled garlic cloves. Add your potatoes and transfer to the oven and cook  for 30-40 mins. 

                                

buon appetito!!
Posted by LOR&BRU at 14:49:26 | Permanent Link | Comments (7) |

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

POLLO ALLA MILANESE!!

 

Milanese is one of those dishes we often have when we want something quick, easy and tasty!! We usually have it with fillet or dare I say it "veal"and a bit of salad on the side. Even when I was in hospital with the princess "The MIL" sent it into me a couple of times, I'm afraid I just cannot do hospital food!!! I love the way they offer you a fry or salad for your tea - what a choice, I can't imagine a fry is going to help you recover faster;) I was there for 2 weeks and never ate the lunch or tea once, Bru used to arrive in twice a day laden down with foil containers full of minestrone soup and the likes. I think they thought I was some snobby "yung wan" but I brought them in a huge cake before I left and I was forgiven - I did eat my porridge every morning though:)

I've mentioned before that Panini Pollo is one of our most popular sandwiches, it's a toasted ciabatta with mayo, lettuce, tomato and this chicken recipe - definately not "authentic Italian". We make 20 of these fillets every 2 days much to the delight of the kitchen staff! We also use this recipe for our party chicken goujons, we just cut up the chicken into goujons first and then bread them and serve them with a pesto mayo and sun-dried mayo dip. There are a few variations of this recipe, you can check out Gino di Campo's recipe here, he serves it with a nice tomato & olive salad. He mentions about black olives, for a while we had a really nice Italian black olive in La Cucina but it didn't sell because of the colour, it was more of a purple colour than black but customers seemed to want the really black ones, he says the best olives are the aubergine coloured as the really black ones are dyed with squid ink - I never knew this and I prefer the purple ones as they have a lot more flavour so I might get them back and do some educating!!

Did anyone see Gino on Tubridy on Saturday night (I know the boring life I lead), I like him, I know he plays on the charming Italian a bit but it works and he's very entertaining! I loved his quote:
 
"Italian food is like Italian men - minimum effort and maximum satisfaction" and Ryan's response "with Irish men it's the other way round". - NO COMMENT;)



WHAT YOU NEED FOR BASIC RECIPE:

 - 2 chicken breasts - buy the biggest you can find

 - 2 eggs beaten

 - plain flour

 - 8 tbsp breadcrumbs - you can make your own or just use the fresh breadcrumbs available in most of the supermarkets. We make our own in La Cucina.

 - sea salt and black pepper

 - olive oil - we still have the olive oil for frying in La Cucina.


WHAT TO DO:

 - open out your chicken breasts like a butterfly and pound until quite thin and season. This is important because if the chicken is too thick your breadcrumbs will burn and the chicken will be raw in the middle. 

 - dip your chicken into the egg and then into breadcrumbs. Some recipes use flour before the egg, we don't but it's up to you.

 - fill the base of a pan with olive oil and add your chicken. The key to getting the golden colour is to cook it over a low heat.

I find this recipe fine with fillet or veal but with chicken I think it needs a little more so you can add some chopped flat leaf parsley or rosemary and Parmesan to the breadcrumbs and it makes it much tastier.

serve with any of these or all if you want:)

 french bean salad
 potato salad
 cherry tomato salad

 

BUON APPETITO!!
 
p.s here are a few new blogs I have found recently

proud Italian cook - Marie always leaves lovely comments on my blog and she cooks fab Italian food on hers especially the Limoncello Tart mmmmmm!!

2 new Irish blogs which is great to see - little bird eats and fruity cook. Check them all out and leave a comment or 2:)

Posted by LOR&BRU at 20:31:11 | Permanent Link | Comments (8) |
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