MSK Chicken Schnitzel with Bacon & White Wine

Cooked By Paul Tonight

Yesterday we went to Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire to the My Secret Kitchen annual convention, it was a very inspiring day with Holly Bell from GBBO, who was a lovely guest speaker.

Tonight's dinner was inspired from a recipe from the Nigella Express cook book but with a MSK twist.

Chicken

2 teaspoons MSK Oak Smoked Rapeseed Oil

1 teaspoon MSK Wild Garlic Secret Spice

4 Chicken escalopes approx 125g each.

If you only have chicken breasts then slice them 3/4 through the middle and open up, mine looked heart shaped. Place the Chicken breast between two pieces cling film on flatten with a rolling pin.

4 rashers Streaky Bacon - finely chopped

100ml White Wine

Pasta accompaniment 

50g dried pasta per person

3 dessert spoons MSK Tapenade with Smoked Garlic 

• Add the wild garlic and oak smoked rapeseed oil to the frying pan and add the finely chopped bacon, fry until the bacon is crisp and remove the bacon. Drain on kitchen roll and set aside.
• Bring a pan of water to the boil Dont salt the water and cook the pasta until tender.
• Fry the Chicken escalopes for about 4 minutes on each side, check that the juices run clear, also like to make a cut into the middle to make sure that the chicken pieces are cooked through with no pinkness.
• Drain the pasta and stir in the tapenade with smoked Garlic making sure the pasta is well coated.
• Serve pasta into the bowls and place a Chicken piece onto each serving.
• Return the bacon to the frying pan and pour in the white wine, simmer gently for 3-4 minutes and pour over the chicken pieces.

Don't be tempted to add additional seasoning as the bacon can be salty.

Lorraine Pascale Dream Like Shortbread

Has anyone watched the Great British Bake Off for Comic relief this week. I have always loved cooking, especially baking & it is great to see the nation so enthused with the baking bug. 

The show is addictive and I can't quite put my finger on why? for me one of the reasons is the great presenting duo of Mary Berry & Paul Hollywood, don't you just love Paul Hollywoods eyes, how lovely is to the competitors & he can bake he ticks all the boxes.

On Monday the first challenge was Shortbread which is one of my favourites, so this afternoon after baking cookies for Abi I decided to make some using the Lorraine Pascale Dreamlike Shortbread.

Ingredients

• 130g/4½oz butter, softened
• 60g/2½oz caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
• 130g/4½oz plain flour ( substitute up to 30g flour for custard powder for a creamier taste )
• 60g/2½oz rice flour
• pinch salt

Preparation method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the plain flour, rice flour and salt, and stir well until the mixture is smooth and uniform. (I find it easiest to keep pressing the mixture against the side of the bowl to mix it.)
2. Bring the mixture together and press into a 20cm/8in loose-bottomed cake tin, smoothing it with the back of a spoon. Crimp the edges by pressing with the tips of two fingers, then score into eight pieces with a knife and prick each triangle three times with a fork. Put in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
3. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.
4. Remove the shortbread from the fridge and bake in the oven for 30–35 minutes, or until pale golden-brown.
5. Remove the shortbread from the oven and sprinkle over some caster sugar. Leave to 
   cool in the tin for a few minutes before removing it from the tin and cooling on a wire rack.
   
   
   When I bake this recipe I usually make individual biscuits, to do this I layout a sheet of cling film & roll the dough into a sausage & wrap loosely in the cling film and roll out the sausage and chill for 20 minutes.
   
   
   After listening to some of Mary Berrys comments she was talking about adding some cornflour, so today when I was making the shortbread I substituted 30g of the flour for 30g Custard Powder. This gave a creamier vanilla taste with the same light texture.

Lorraine Pascale's "Big yummy double Choc Chip Cookies"

Lorraine Pascale's "Big yummy double Choc Chip Cookies"

My daughter  is studying hard for her 'A' levels as well as doing extra shifts at her part time job these past few weeks, on her way out to work this afternoon she asked if I would bake her some cookies to dunk in milk  and so I thought I'd bake her one of her favorites Lorraine Pascale's "Big yummy double Choc Chip Cookies"


This recipe comes from Lorraine's "Baking Made Easy" book that was released to coincide with her TV series.  I came across Lorraine's programme completely by chance as a repeat on one of the food channels last year and instantly fell in love with her cooking style and the relaxed way in which she presents her show. So purchasing her books was a must.

I love cookery books with lots of pictures, Lorraine's books always achieve an excellent balance, but also in the instructions for these cookies she tells you that ' the tops will crack' I love these  thoughtfully little notes.

The recipe states this makes eight large American-style cookies, but as you can see I got over a dozen large cookies from the recipe.

Big yummy double choc chip cookies
By Lorraine Pascale

110g butter
200g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
seeds of 1 vanilla pod or 2 drops of vanilla extract
165g plain
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
30g cocoa powder
100g milk chocolate chips
100g dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5/190°C and line your baking trays.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together until combined. Add in the egg and vanilla and
mix well. It might look like the mixture has curdled but just give it a good mix and it will come good.

Add the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder and mix until the dough comes together. (It will be quite stiff)

Add the chocolate chips and mash everything together with a wooden spoon.

Divide the mixture into balls and space evenly on your trays. Bake in the oven for between 10-12 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray, they will be very soft but will harden up.

Welsh Cakes

Over the last couple of weeks I have heard a couple of people talking about Welsh Cakes, Until then I had never heard of these little regional treats. Well with the wonders of google I found a recipe and have just made my first batch of welsh cakes.
I did a little research into the history of Welsh Cakes.

A Brief History of Welsh Cakes

“A griddle-bread, circular with deckle edges about 50-70mm diameter, 10-15mm deep. Flavour and texture: Close soft, texture, rich flavour.

Pice ar y maen (Welsh for ‘cakes on the stone’, where they are also known as cacennau cri) have become so well known outside their native area that they are simply termed Welsh cakes. They are a Welsh variant on the theme of flat griddle-breads and scones found throughout western and northern Britain.  The recipe now used, leavened with baking powder, cannot date much before the mid-nineteenth century when this ingredient was first introduced. They were known in Glamorgan at the end of that century and they were baked either on a griddle or in a Dutch oven, a three-sided tin over that was placed directly before the flames of the kitchen fire (Tibbott, 1976). They are still very popular and widely made.” Quoted from the Taste of Britain by Laura Mason and Catherine Brown

Ingredients

• 225g/8oz Self-raising Flour, sieved
  1/4 tsp Mixed Spice
• 110g/4oz  Salted butter
• 1 Egg
• 50g Sultanas
• Splash of Milk
• 85g/3oz Caster sugar
• extra butter, for greasing

Preparation method

1. Rub the fat into the sieved flour to make breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, dried fruit and then the egg. Mix to combine, then form a ball of dough, using a splash of milk if needed.
2. Roll out the pastry until it is a 5mm/¼in thick and cut into rounds with a 7.5-10cm/3-4in fluted 
   cutter.
3. You now need a bakestone or a heavy iron griddle. Rub it with butter and wipe the excess away. Put it on to a direct heat and wait until it heats up, place the Welsh cakes on the griddle, turning once. They need about 2-3 minutes each side. Each side needs to be caramel brown before turning although some people I know like them almost burnt.
4. Remove from the pan and dust with caster sugar while still warm. Some people leave out the dried fruit, and split them when cool and sandwich them together with jam.
   
   
   

   
   

   This is the recipe that I used and it was very easy to make up, but I don't have a griddle so I made my Welsh Cakes in my Paella pan, and I found there is a very fine timing between Caramel brown and burnt when using the Paella pan and frying in butter, but they tasted fabulous served warm with Homemade Strawberry jam.
   
   

Italian Chicken Bake

One of my aims for 2013 is to try at least one new recipe a week, this weekend is a great opportunity as we are all at home this weekend together. A recipe that caught my eye in a foodie magazine this week was from the recipe book by Fay Ripley What's for Dinner.

1tbsp Olive oil
3 Skinless Chicken breasts, diced
2 Cloves of Garlic peeled & thinly sliced
1  Onion peeled & diced
2 x 200g tin chopped tomatoes
125g Mozzarella Ball - reduced fat if you can get it 
2 tsp Dried Oregano
50g Chorizo or Pepperoni
Salt & freshly ground Black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas mark 6. In a frying pan, fry the onion in the oil until translucent.
2. Add the diced chicken and fry for 5 minutes.

3. Add the garlic and oregano and fry for 1-2 minutes before pouring in the tomatoes. 

4. Let it gently bubble for 5 more minutes.
5. Pop the lot into an ovenproof dish and top it first with the mozzarella, then with the pepperoni. I found a Lasagne dish was the perfect size.
6. Bake for 25 minutes.

7. Serve with Garlic bread. 

This was a very flavoursome dinner, but the 2 tins of chopped tomatoes made the bake very runny. Next time I would add some tiny pasta that would absorb some of the excess juice.

Red Onion Marmalade

A few weeks ago I joined up with My Secret Kitchen as a consultant, for those of you that have never attended a MSK food tasting you are missing a treat, friends getting together to share and explore new foods, what could be better, why would you not want to try it. December is a very busy month, as is the beginning of January so today is the first opportunity I have had to experiment with my new kit.
I love spending time in the kitchen and today is an ideal day, it's cold and bright but threatening to snow so I decided to make some comfort food, Red Onion Marmalade this is great with cheese and crackers or as a relish to serve with sausages and garlic mashed potatoes.

Red Onion Marmalade

1kg red onions
1/2 tsp MSK Secret Wild Garlic Spice
4 tbsp MSK Oak Smoked Rapeseed Oil
2 tsp mustard seeds
Generous grating of MSK Lemon & Chipotle spiced sea salt and Szechuan pepper
3 sprigs Fresh Thyme
75g Light Muscovado Sugar
2 tbsp MSK Balsamic Reduction
2 tbsp MSK Red Wine & Port Finishing Sauce
75ml White Wine
1 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
75ml water
Knob of Butter

This recipe makes 600ml / 1 pint

Peel and cut the onions in half and slice thinly
In a frying pan or wok heat the MSK Oak smoked rapeseed oil 
Add the Onion, MSK Wild Garlic Spice, Mustard Seeds, sprigs of Thyme to the oil in the pan. Stir in a generous grating of MSK Szechuan Pepper and MSK Lemon & Chipotle Spiced Sea Salt.
Gently cook, uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring often.
The onions will have reduced, so cook for a further 15 minutes occasionally stirring until they just begin to caramelise. Lower the heat if the onions start to stick.
Stir in the Light Muscovado Sugar, MSK Balsamic Reduction, MSK Red Wine & Port Finishing Sauce, White Wine, Red Wine Vinegar and the water.
Continue cooking the mixture gently bubbling for 20 / 25 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mixture is caramelised but still moist.
Remove the Thyme Springs and stir in a knob of Butter.
While the marmalade is still warm, spoon the mixture into clean sterilised jars.

This will keep for 4 - 8 weeks in a cool place.

Luscious Lemon Curd

I have just finished making two large meringues for a summer fruit Pavlova which is the alternative pudding for New Years Eve.

I was left with the dilemma of what to do with 6 egg Yolks, it is such a waste just too throw them away, after a quick search on Google " 6 egg yolk recipes " I came across a great post which contained an amazing resource for using up egg yolks.

I absolutely Love Lemon Curd & have never made it before, probably because I would have been left with 6 egg whites & not known what to do with them either !

Ingredients:

• 6 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 4-5 lemons)
• 2 tbsps grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter (1 stick butter), cut into 1/8-in slices

Preparation:

1. Add 1-inch of water to a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. In a medium metal bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar for about 2 minutes until smooth. Whisk in the lemon juice and zest until combined.
2. Place the mixing bowl on top of saucepan (the bowl should be wide enough to fit on top of the saucepan, but shouldn't be touching the simmering water). Stir the mixture constantly with a rubber spatula, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl as you stir, until it begins to thicken, and will coat the back of a spoon. This will take approximately 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Whisk in the butter, one slice at a time. Wait until each piece almost disappears before adding the next. Spoon into clean glass containers and allow to cool with a piece of plastic wrap laid on the surface to prevent a skin from forming.

Refrigerate until needed. This lemon curd will keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

Homemade Lemon Curd, the jars& Lids are from Lakeland