So it has been a good while since I've bloGGed. I would like to apologise as I've been so busy with my exam revision, but as I've got some free time before my next set of exams I thought I'd try and fill you in on my eating plans over the last two weeks or so. There's two recipes I'm very excited to share with you all, as I've never made them before. One is the Chicken Kiev and One is the Soft Chess Strawberry Summer Chicken (mouthful, but its the first ever dish I've named WOOO! haha). Anyway, I love Chicken Kievs filled with a lovely buttery garlic sauce, hence I attempted to make it from scratch, and it was definitly worth it! Second, is the Strawberry Summer Chicken. It sounds a bit crazy, but the inspirtation has come from the Great British Menu (BBC1) (my favourite cooking show of the year), and I wanted to up my cooking skills, so I decided to take on and try a whole new set of skills. I loved this experiment, It really pushed me to think out of the box, especially when it came down to the presentation. I've learned some key tips, so I hope you will enjoy trying it at hom and I urge you DOOOO try them. It's something pretty to look at and eat, doesn't take hours, and trust me when I say, You will feel proud of yourself in the KITCHEN!!!
CHICKEN KIEV WITH GARLIC BUTTER SAUCE ACCOMPANIED BY COLD PASTA SALAD FOR 2, preparation 30 minutes, cooking 25-30 minutes
Ingredients for Kiev's :- 2 Chicken Breasts, 2 Thick Slices of Bread (whatever you have at home), 2 Good tablespoons of margarine or butter, 5garlic cloves, parsley, salt and pepper.
1. Take 2 thick slices of bread, wrip it into peices and put into a grinder. Put the lid on and grind until all the bread has formed into breadcrumbs. Place all the breadcrumbs onto a large plate.
2. Next, finely chop five large cloves of garlic, and add it to the margarine or butter. Also add finely chopped parsley, about a tspn's worth. You may also use dry parsley, but fresh obviously gives it a nice flavour. A dash of Oregano works a treat in comparison to the parsley I found. Mix altogether and now you have the Garlic butter for the chicken.
3. Next take two chicken breasts, and you want to make an incision throught the middle. Cut into the middle as you would a bread role, so DO NOT cute it all the way through to the other side. Also do not cut it all the way through to the edge. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, so just a pinch and get the salt and pepper rubbed inside and outside. (use garlic salt if you have it). TIP GRINDED ROCK SALT AND PEPPER IS GREAT FOR THIS!
4.Now take a good helping of garlic butter, and put it inside the cut of the chicken, hence the butter is in the middle of the breast. Fill both Kievs equally. Use any remaining butter and rub it all over the chicken.
5. Take One Kiev, place it onto the breadcrumbs and coat the Kiev. Do this to both.
6. Let them chill for an hour in the fridge. (good for freezing to)
7.Preheat oven at 180*C. If fan assissted then 160*C. Lightly butter the tray to avoid the Kiev sticking, Cook for 25-30 minutes.
CHICKEN KIEV
Whilst the chicken is cooking, you can boil some penne pasta as a side for two. Wash it to remove the starch. Add two tomatoes, sweetcorn (about half a can), half of a medium onion, tspn of oregano, 2 big spoons of mayonnaise, and one big spoon of salad cream, salt and pepper to flavour. (stuff you generally find at home)
Soft Cheese Strawberry Summer Chicken
For 2 - Preparation 30 minutes Cook 22-25minutes
Ingredients: - 2 Chicken Breasts, Boursin Cheese, Sundried Tomatoes (optional)
Ingredients for Sauce: Tomato Strawberries, sugar, oregano, honey, salt, pepper, paprika, lemon
Cooking the chicken: - (EASY)
1. Right so you take you 2 chicken breast, cut the chicken through the middle, not all the way through but so that it opens like a book. Now you tenderise. So use either a rolling pin or a cooking mallet, and hit the chicken a fair amount of time, until its thined out a bit and gained surface area because your going to role it.
2. Once it has been flattened season with salt and pepper, and then cut a quarter of the boursine cheese and place it at one end in the middle of the chicken. Add three-four sundried tomatoes (optional).
3. You want to role it how you would a rap. So Start at the top, fold in the edge and then role, fold in the edge and role. This way no filling comes out the side.
4. Put it in the oven at 180*C 25minutes, and if fan assissted 160*C for 25 minutes.
CHICKEN DONE =))
Now the sauce is hard, in the sense its different to what I've done before. I WAS Really TRYING TO FOCUS ON THE PRESENTATION AS WELL AS COLOUR. I wanted a very clear vibrant red/pink sauce, which went well with the dish. This is how I went about doing it from the top of my head.
1. Take one medium to large tomato chopped up and add six to seven strawberries chopped. Blitz up in the blender.
2.Now in a small shallow pan put in a tspn of oil and put the the blitz mixture in. The mixture is quite cloudy you'll find, but thats normal. Its almost like a juice.
3.Now add oregano to this soupy sauce, and further reduce for 3 minutes.
4. Add rock salt, so probably about 6 turns of it, and a good helping of pepper. Add tbspn of lemon juice to make the soupy sauce, and a tspn of honey. You want the balance to be more sour, but still savoury. Its
not a dessert sauce, so keep levels of salt and pepper, higher than that of honey. Add a tspn of paprika.
5. 2 more minutes in the pan moving it around consistently.
6. Take a siv and now pass the soupy sauce through it, and you'll be left with pulp. Keep the pulp to one side as it has a lovely sweet peppered pickle texture.
7. Use the clear soup now, and add sugar table spoon at a time and keep the sauce moving. You should see the sauce go a brighter pinkish colour, and more see through. Keep tasting to see if the pepper and salt flavour is coming through. Once its at a sticky but runny sauce consistency, its done.
This takes about 15 minutes, on medium heat, so do it 15 minutes before you take the chicken out.
Presentation: I found that clean presentation is to do with not spreading food over hte plate, but building on elements, and when i say building I mean literally and upwards.
So I took the spoon of the tomato and strawberry pulp and and put to one side (but centre) of the plate. Use a spoon to press down and sweeped the spoon so I got a tear drop shape. I used a leaf of little gem letture, and placed it onto the sweep and the placed the chicken on the lettuce. Drizzled the sauce on top, and added some cherry tomatoes, adding to the vibrant colouring, and summery look.Yes it can be cleaner in my opinion but presentation is harder than it looks I've learnt!!
I made some pizza bread to go on the side, as I didn't have much at the flat. I know it doesn't quite go, but it was to fill the hunger spot. haha/
This dish is worth trying, because the texture of the boursin cheese once melted is amazingggg with the chicken. Boursin is a soft garlic and herb cheese that can be found in any supermarket in the cheese section. Very YUMMY!
HOPE YOU ENJOY MAKING THE RECIPES =)
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