Chicken in Cider with Carrots & Peas

This is a delicious winter-time dish, but it is also one that suits almost any season. The original recipe was included in a book called Your Favourite Recipes by Theodora Fitzgibbon - one of my all-time favourite food-writers.

Theodora used to write a weekly column for the Irish Times and in addition to giving recipes, she would also write about the stories behind the dishes; hers were recipes you wanted to cook and taste. Most importantly, Theodora’s recipes always worked. The Christmas cake and pudding that I make every year are based on recipes that she provided, and even though I have tweaked them over the years, I still consider them to be Theodora’s.

 

I was so enamoured and influenced by Theodora that I even wanted to name my second daughter after her, but my husband was having none of it. In fairness, he has had to put up with the clutter of hundreds of cookbooks and all the gadgets and equipment that comes with my love of cookery, but I think he finally reached his tipping point when I wanted to start naming my children after my favourite food writers!

 

When you read the ingredients list for this recipe, they seem slightly strange – chicken in a cider, honey, soy sauce and cream sauce with carrots and peas just sounds a bit wrong, but trust me… it works. The cider and honey accentuate the natural sweetness of the carrots whilst the soy sauce adds a salty savoury element to proceedings.

 

Other than initially frying off the chicken, this dish cooks away quite happily by itself in the oven. You can easily double the quantities if you need to feed more people. This dish is wonderful served with some velvety soft mashed potatoes, but I also like it with crisp sautéed potatoes, as can be seen in the photographs accompanying this post.
 

Ingredients:

A splash of vegetable oil
35g butter
1 chicken cut into 4 or 4 chicken portions, skin on

2 medium onions, finely chopped

A sprig of thyme

25g flour

600ml dry cider

2tblsp honey

5-6 medium carrots, sliced into discs

2-3tblsp soy sauce

Sea salt & freshly ground pepper

To finish:

100g frozen peas

50ml cream
 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ Fan Oven 160C/Gas mark 4.

2. Heat the vegetable oil in an oven proof casserole dish on the hob, over a moderate heat. Add the onion and fry gently until softened but not coloured. Increase the heat season and then fry the chicken pieces for 3-4 minutes on each side until they are a rich golden colour.

3. Sprinkle the flour over the browned chicken and continue to cook for a further minute until the flour has cooked out. Pour over the cider, scraping the bottom of the dish with a wooden spoon to loosen any caramelised bits and give them a chance to incorporate into the sauce as the dish cooks in oven.

4. Add the thyme, honey, soy sauce and sliced carrots. Cover the casserole dish and place into the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes.

5. Five minutes before the cooking time has finished, add the peas and cream and stir through. When the cooking time has elapsed, remove from oven, taste, adjust seasoning as necessary and serve.
 

Serves 4.
 

 

Sussex Pond Pudding

When the temperatures begin to plummet, there is nothing quite like a good old-fashioned pudding to warm you up and provide that comfort food factor. I love steamed puddings and whilst they are incredibly filling and often tend to be quite sweet, they don’t always have to be heavy and stodgy.

Although many traditional steamed puddings use suet pastry or sponges made with beef suet, there are also many others that are based on sponge cake batters. These tend to be lighter to eat but because they have been steamed they retain their moistness and never dry out.

Suet is the hard raw fat that is found around the kidneys in cattle and has, historically, long been used as a fat. It is not often used these days except in steamed puddings or in traditional Christmas mincemeat.  Most Christmas Puddings use suet, but actually the recipe that I have been using for years and which has seen much tweaking and perfecting uses butter and not suet. However, in this recipe for Sussex Pond Pudding suet is used to make the pastry which encases the filling. The filling is unusual in that whole lemons are used – I have used two here but depending on how large your lemons are, you may only need one. The lemons are pricked all over with a skewer or small sharp knife and are used whole, skin and all. For this reason, it is preferable to use unwaxed lemons, or if you are unable to source these make sure that you give the skins a good wash and light scrub in some water to remove any waxy residue.

This is a beautiful pudding; warming and rich and very sweet, but this is tempered somewhat by the sour lemon juices which ooze out and intermingle with the sugar and butter as the pudding is steaming. I just love it and try not to think of how many calories each spoonful contains… but I am absolutely convinced that a little comforting treat like this every now and again is good for the soul and psyche, if not the waistline!

 

It is unclear how the pudding got its name, but I am convinced it must have something to do with the way the sweet and buttery lemon sauces oozes into a puddle when you turn the pudding out. The pudding then sits in the middle of this puddle or ‘pond’ of sauce waiting to be doled out to salivating diners. This is not an elegant or beautiful looking pudding, but because it tastes so incredibly delicious, this is largely irrelevant.

 

The great thing about steamed puddings is that they steam away quite happily on their own and all you have to do every 40-50 minutes is top up the hot/boiling water to maintain optimum steam levels. Also, although this pudding requires over three and half hours steaming, it doesn’t particularly matter if you exceed this a bit.
 

Ingredients:

Suet pastry:
225g self-raising flour
110g shredded suet (I used Atora)

150ml milk - or as I use - 150ml of half milk half water

Filling:

200g butter, cubed

200g soft brown sugar

2 lemons, pricked all over with a small sharp knife
 

Method:

1. Generously grease a 1.5ltr pudding bowl with butter and set aside.

2. Place the flour and suet in a large bowl and mix together so that the suet is evenly distributed. Make a well in the centre and add enough of the milk/water mixture to create a slightly soft dough.

3. Using a well-floured roiling pin, roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to make a large circle. Remove about ¼ of the dough by cutting out a wedge shaped piece and reserve this for the lid of the pudding. Place the rest of the dough in the pudding bowl, joining the cut edges together so that the inside of the bowl is completely lined. The pastry should be slightly higher than the top rim of the bowl.

4. Pack half the butter cubes and half the brown sugar into the pastry and sit the lemons on top of the butter and sugar in the pastry lined bowl. Pack the rest of the sugar and butter around the lemons.

5. Take the reserved pastry and roll out into a circle slightly larger than the top of the bowl. Place on top of the filling and press the edges together so that the filling is completely enclosed. Trim the edges with a sharp knife.

6. Place a piece of non-stick baking parchment  with a pleat  folded into it to allow for expansion over the pudding bowl  and then place a pleated sheet of tin foil over this. Tie the baking parchment and foil in place around the rim of the bowl using string, making sure that it is well secured.

7. Place the bowl in a large pan of simmering water so that the water comes half way up the outside of the bowl. Place the lid on top of the saucepan and simmer for 3 ½ hours, topping up the water levels every 30 minutes or so.  You can also use an electric steamer with a built in timer following the manufacturer steam in a dedicated steamer.

8. Remove from the saucepan/steamer and allow to sit for 10 minutes before removing the baking paper and foil and upturning onto a large serving plate. Serve immediately.

Serves 6-8.
 

Orange Yoghurt Cake with Pomegranate Syrup

This is such an unusual but delicious tasting cake and one that can be served as a dessert or eaten as a delicious treat in its own right. There is something so exotic about pomegranates, and perhaps, it is just me, but I think that they look so sensual and beautiful. Pomegranates are frequently used in Middle Eastern cookery where they are regularly employed in both sweet and savoury dishes. Although they were once hard to source in this country, they are now readily available to buy, especially in the Autumn. I just love them and the slightly decadent air they lend to those dishes in which they are used.

 

This cake is unusual in that it contains no butter but rather, richness is added by way of the inclusion of thick Greek style yoghurt. Now ... as anyone who knows me will testify ... I LOVE butter and it is therefore surprising that I didn't miss it in this cake. The cake still has a depth of flavour and a certain richness despite the fact that no butter is used. This makes it a perfect cake for those who want a little sweet treat but are trying to watch their saturated fat intake. The inclusion of the yoghurt and also some orange zest and also orange juice in the syrup gives the cake a real freshness; this is a cake to enliven even the most jaded palate.
 

As with most of the recipes I favour, this cake and the accompanying syrup are relatively simple to make. You don't absolutely have to make the syrup; you could instead just top the finished cake simply with some pomegranate seeds and a few slivered hazelnuts for added texture but ultimately, I do recommend that you make the syrup because it is SO tasty.

 

Ingredients:

Cake:
2 large eggs
225g caster sugar
225g Greek-style yoghurt (I used Glenisk)
Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
150g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g ground hazelnuts (or ground almonds)
Syrup:
Juice of 2 oranges
100g caster sugar
1 tblsp pomegranate molasses (optional)
Juice 1 pomegranate
To finish:
Seeds of 1 pomegranate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/Fan Oven 150C/Gas Mark 3. Grease and line a 20cm round, deep spring-form cake tin with baking parchment, place on a baking tray and set aside.
2. Place the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until the mixture is pale and has thickened (about 7-10 minutes).
3. Add the yoghurt and orange zest to the egg mixture and gently stir through using a large metal spoon. Sieve the flour and baking powder together and fold these into the yoghurt/egg mixture along with the ground hazelnuts/almonds. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, level the surface and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes until the cake is well-risen and a pale golden brown colour and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (NOTE: check the cake after 25 minutes and if it is browning too much cover the tin with some aluminium foil to stop it burning).
4. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin whilst you make the syrup.
Syrup:
5. Put all the ingredients into a small saucepan and bring up to the boil. Allow to bubble and reduce by about half or until the liquid is quite syrupy.
To finish:
6. Prick the cooling cake all over with a thin skewer and gently pour over the syrup. Allow to cool completely and then remove from the tin. Scatter over some fresh pomegranate seeds and serve.

Serves 8-10.
 

Lemon Bakewell Tarts

This is such a gorgeous recipe and a lovely variation on a classic Bakewell Tart. For anyone who loves lemon, these little tarts are an absolute must.

The combination of pastry flavoured with finely grated lemon zest, lemon curd and a lightly lemon flavoured frangipane results in a little cake-like tart which is packed full of zesty flavour.

A traditional Bakewell Tart consists of a pastry base (most commonly shortcrust pastry but purists would say that traditionally, it should be made with puff pastry and called Bakewell Pudding - NOT Bakewell Tart) and a layer of jam topped with an almond sponge or frangipane. Over the years I have made Bakewell Tarts using both shortcrust pastry and puff/flaky pastry, and on balance, I much prefer the shortcrust pastry, so the recipe that I give here uses it. I tend to use raspberry Jam when making Bakewell Tarts, because it's my favourite, but really ... any jam can be used. In the past, I have made an alternative to the traditional Bakewell using my homemade Seville Orange Marmalade where I also flavoured the sponge with some finely grated orange zest. This was wonderful served with some softly whipped cream laced with a little Irish whiskey.

Normally I prefer to make one large tart and slice it into portions for serving but here, I decided that I would make individual tarts. I toyed with using a cupcake tin to make them so that I would have very deep individual tarts but, in the end, decided to use the ancient mince pie tin that I inherited from my grandmother, which produced shallower tarts that I felt resulted in a better balance between thin pastry, lemon curd and frangipane.

 

I flavoured the pastry with a little finely grated lemon zest and filled the tarts with homemade lemon curd and a very lemony flavoured frangipane. Although it may not be traditional, I also drizzled over a small amount of lemon flavoured glace icing. I wouldn't include icing when making a traditional Bakewell as, in my opinion it makes everything just too sweet, but I think that it's lovely in this lemon version as the tartness of the lemon serves to 'cut through' the sweetness. If you prefer to leave the tarts plain, by all means do so.

 

You can make your own lemon curd, or use a good quality store bought version ... the only thing I will say In this regard is that lemon curd is actually very easy to make yourself and nothing tastes as good as homemade.

 

These little tarts were absolutely delicious and I really regretted not making a double batch of them because they were quickly snapped up by the hungry hoards at home.

 

This recipe is based on one that appeared in BBC Good Food Magazine - a magazine I have been buying for over 20 years and one that always contains delicious and reliable recipes. I have varied it a bit, but if you want to take a look at the original you can do so here.
 

Ingredients:

Lemon curd:
4 unwaxed lemons, juice and finely grated zest

200g caster sugar

100g butter, cubed

3 large eggs plus 1 yolk, lightly beaten

Shortcrust pastry:

200g plain flour

50g icing sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

85g butter, cubed

1 egg yolk

1-2tblsp cold water

Frangipane:

100g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

Finely grated zest of2 large lemons

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

85g ground almonds

25g plain flour

To finish:

150g icing sugar

Juice of ½ lemon
 

Method:

Lemon Curd:

1. Place the lemon juice, zest, sugar and butter into a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a saucepan of just simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water.

2. Stir the mixture occasionally until the butter has melted. Add the eggs into the lemon mixture and which together until everything is well incorporated. Cook for about 15 minutes stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened.

3. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely (NOTE: this makes more lemon cure than you need for this recipe, but an excess can be spooned into sterilised jars and stored in the fridge for 2-3 weeks).

Pastry:

4. Sieve the flour and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl and add the lemon zest. Add the butter and using your fingertips rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

5. Make a well in the centre and add the egg yolk and cold water. Using a fork, mix everything until it comes together and forms a dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and briefly knead and shape into a ball. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Frangipane:

6. Place the butter, sugar and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the ground almonds and flour and mix in thoroughly. Set aside.

To bake the tarts:

7. Preheat oven to 170C/Fan Oven 150C/Gas Mark 3.

8. Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out to a thickness of about 3mm. Stamp out rounds using a 6-7cm round fluted cookie stamp and use to line a 12 hole tart tray/patty tin. (This recipe makes about 18 individual sized tarts so you will need to use a second tray).

9. Place a teaspoonful of lemon curd on top of pastry for each tart and then top with a couple of tablespoons of frangipane, gently leveling the surface to neaten.

10. Bake in the preheated oven for 13-15 minutes until slightly risen and a light golden brown colour. Remove from oven and allow to cool in tart tray for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rick to finish cooling completely.

To finish:

11. Mix the icing sugar and lemon juice together to create an icing that is only very slightly runny, Drizzle over the tarts.

Makes 18-20 tarts .