Porridge. Sounds boring, doesn’t it?

I don’t get excited about breakfast. It takes a while for my stomach to wake up, so I usually force down some plain Oatsosimple made with water or half muesli, half plan oats. Basically, bland fuel to see me through until lunchtime.

I spotted these two-minute simple twists on porridge (OK, oatmeal) on one of my favourite blogs, A Beautiful Mess. Elsie’s been blogging about fashion and DIY for ages and has now added a food section too.  I love her styling – look how pretty she makes porridge!

Breakfast today was a porridge with a spoon of cashew butter and a spoon of damson jam stirred through. That all-America PB&J combo. I never would have thought of doing that in a million years, but it was absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to try out the baked oatmeal recipes when my hunger allows 30 mins preparation time rather than two.

 

Konditor and Cook’s lemon chiffon cake

Psst…have you heard the one about the top secret celeb who couldn’t eat her Konditor and Cook lemon chiffon cake? Well, I nabbed a leftover slice of the diva’s gateau this afternoon and it was bloody lovely! Layers of light lemon sponge filled with a just-the-right-side-of-sickly lemon frosting. Decadence indeed.

I’ve been meaning to try their famous curly-wurly cake (dark chocolate with vanilla bean frosting) ever since reading about it on Adventures of a Foodie – it’s definitely top of my treats list now!

And look, here’s the recipe for curly wurly cake! I’ve got to give that a go sometime.

One girl, one chicken: two minute chicken wrap

Meal five: spicy chicken wrap

I feel like chicken for lunch, like chicken for lunch, chicken for lunch.

No, of course I don’t. I don’t care if I never eat chicken again. I actually really smell like chicken now. But apparently, one meal from the wretched carcass per day isn’t enough. The meat is not disappearing fast enough. I’ve got to up my intake, so lunch it is.

Two-minute chicken wrap

Ingredients
One portion of cold poached chicken
One wrap
Your favourite sauce, dressing or pate (I used mushroom pate in a tube – possibly my favourite foodie guilty pleasure!)
Lettuce
One tomatoe
One spring onion
Salt and pepper

Start – 30 seconds*

Take one wrap (I like wholemeal or seeded) and lay on a plate. Spread with something wet – mayo, hummus, mushroom pate, cream cheese…

31-45 seconds

Shred lettuce and lay down the cenre of the wrap

46-90 seconds

Chop one spring onion and one tomato. Arrange in the centre of the wrap.

91-105 seconds

Shred chicken, add to your narrow pile of food and season with salt and pepper.

106-120 seconds

Roll that wrap! (from Never Enough Thyme)

PS I know this isn’t a very exciting recipe (I’m cringing at even calling it a recipe), but I just wanted to be realistic about how to use up this chicken. But by using your own home-poached chicken meat, you can eat something fresh, tasty and delicious in two minutes which knocks the socks off a shop-bought sarnie or ready meal. I’m planning another post about the wonder of wraps (with actual recipes!) soon.

* Obviously, I haven’t timed any of this. That would be ridiculous.

One girl, one chicken: Caeser salad

Meal four: Caeser salad

I heard a rumour that there’s no point ordering a Caeser salad in a pizza restaurant in a bid to be healthy because it has just as many calories. Salad doesn’t have to be seen as a punishment. This is no limp-lettuce-and-lemon-juice affair, but that’s why it tastes so good. Anchovies, parmesan and panchetta: this is proper savoury on savoury action.

Ingredients:
For the salad
One portion poached chicken (or one chicken breast, oven baked, cooled and cut into cubes)
Cos lettuce
Four anchovies
Shaved Parmesan
Panchetta or bacon bits, pan fried (optional)

Mix salad ingredients together in a bowl, then top with dressing (preferably homemade, as below!)

For the dressing
Two anchovies, drained and finely chopped
Half teaspoon minced garlic
One teaspoon wholegrain mustard
Two tablespoons plain yoghurt
One teaspoon white wine vinegar
Two teaspoons olive oil
One tablespoon grated Parmesan or similar
Black pepper

Mix everything together. It should have the consistency of yoghurt, so thin with a little water if necessary.

One girl, one chicken: Moroccan chicken cous cous

Sick of that leftover chicken yet? Add some Moroccan spice with some ready made harissa paste – a fragrant mixture of chillies, garlic, tomato and other spices.

Ingredients:
One portion of couscous
One portion of leftover poached or roast chicken
Two spring onions, roughly chopped
Four dried apricots, chopped
One tsp harissa paste
A handful of pumpkin seeds, mixed seeds or sliced almonds
A handful of parsley, chopped

What to do:
1. Make up the couscous by following the instructions on the packet. Replace the water with hot stock, if you have any.
2. When the couscous is ready, stir in the spring onions, apricots and harissa paste. Cover the couscous again to keep it warm.
3. Heat the chicken in a frying pan or in the microwave until it is piping hot. Stir it into the couscous.
4. Toast the seeds or nuts in a dry frying pan, then stir it into the couscous along with the parsley.

Yes, you could make this with pan-fried chicken breast as a quick post-work meal, but believe me – poached chicken and stock make the perfect base for those Middle Eastern sweet and spicy flavours.

One girl, one chicken: chicken and mushroom risotto

Meal two: chicken and mushroom risotto

Honestly, this has to be one of the nicest things I have ever made. It’s based on Jamie Oliver’s basic risotto recipe.

Poached chicken and mushroom risotto

You will need:

About 500 ml stock
A knob of butter
One tablespoon olive oil
Half an onion, finely chopped
A clove of garlic, finely chopped
A handful of mushrooms, finely chopped
One portion of poached chicken
100g risotto rice
A small glass of white wine
Salt and Pepper
Grano padano cheese

Heat the stock in a small pan on the hob and let it simmer gently.
Melt the butter and olive oil in a frying pan. Keeping the heat low, add the onion and garlic to the pan and let it cook slowly for 10 minutes.
Turn the heat to medium, add the mushrooms and chicken and cook for three minutes.
Add the rice and stir thoroughly so it is coated in fat.
When the rice is translucent, add the wine and stir until it has all been absorbed.
Add a ladle of hot stock and stir. Turn the heat down to a simmer. Keep stirring until all of the stock has been absorbed before adding another ladle.
Keep stiring, stiring, stiring, adding more stock once each ladle has been absorbed. It will take around 15 minutes.
Test if the risotto is cooked by biting into a grain of rice. It should be soft with a slight bite in the centre. If you run out of stock, add water.
Serve topped with graded cheese and a side salad.

I poured the brine from the olive jar all over my plate just as I served. Not recommended. Despite that, it was totally gorgeous. Cooking with fresh stock is magical. It gives everything such a dept of flavour and adds a slight sweetness, too. Yum.

One girl, one chicken: ‘roast’ dinner

Meal one: A roast for one

Wow, that sounds so pathetic. A roast should be eaten at a dining table crowded with family, not eaten off your knees in front of a repeat of a 1998 episode of Grand Designs, right? Nah! You can do a decent roast for one without too much hassle thanks to the glorious versatility of the poached chicken. Yes, I know, it’s poached, not roast. Work with me.

It all comes down to the gravy. Personally, I can’t be bothered to roast potatoes just for me, so I make some mash (boil potatoes, add butter, milk, finely chopped garlic, salt and pepper and mash with a fork) and boil some veggies. Easy, standard fare. It’s the killer gravy that brings it all together.

You will need:

Pancetta – about 50g. You could use chopped up bacon bits, or just an extra teaspoon of butter instead. You need some fat to thicken up your gravy.

Finely chopped mushrooms – optional

One teaspoon of butter

One tablespoon of flour

Fresh chicken stock

Half a glass of white wine – also optional, but will make it so much nicer

Seasoning

Fry the pancetta and finely chopped mushrooms in the butter for five minutes.
Add the flour to the fat, mix thoroughly, and let it cook for one minute.
Add a few spoonfuls of magical stock and stir like mad. Add more stock and/or half a glass of white wine. You should have about twice as much liquid in your pan as you think you need.
Cook on a medium heat for a few minutes, or until your gravy is sufficiently reduced. Season to taste.

You’ll need to blitz your chicken in the microwave, or add it to the gravy to heat through throughly.

I don't know how to make roasts look nice in photos, OK?

OK, so there’s no stuffing or crispy, roast chicken skin, but it’s not bad for a roast you could knock up on a Monday night.

One girl, one chicken: the poaching

So, step one: poaching the chicken! If you’ve got a slow cooker, you’re sorted: poaching a chicken in a slow cooker. Even if not, it’s still super-easy:

I used a 1.5kg chicken (free range, of course). To be honest, I don’t actually know how long I can stretch it out for. I’ll let you know. Cliffhanger.

Put the chicken in a big pan and cover it with cold water.

Add a selection of the following:
A peeled, quartered onion
A halved lemon
One or two carrots, snapped in half
One or two sticks of celery, snapped in half
Eight or so whole peppercorns
Two or three bay leaves
A pinch or two of salt

I added all of the above except the celery, and the whole thing took under five minutes to prepare. You could get more creative but I deliberately kept the flavours simple so I’m left with a versatile protein to play with over the next few days.

Put the pan on the hob over a high heat until it is boiling, then cover and simmer for at least 90 minutes (or as long as possible). Remove the pan from the heat, then move the chicken into a large bowl using a couple of forks. It will probably fall apart because it’s so beautifully tender.

When the chicken has cooled slightly, attack that carcass. If you’re picky, separate the white and dark meat, but I just mix it in together. It’s a messy job, but fingers are the best option. Add any gross bits (skin, bone and gristle) back to the pan of poaching liquid (stock), bring back to the boil and let it bubble away without the lid for another 20 minutes or so (this really depends on how much stock you want). Let it cool a little, skim the scum off the top, strain through a sieve and ditch the veg.

Et voila! You have yourself some tasty, tender chicken and some proper, homemade stock.

Slow cookers are COOL

I ♥ my slow cooker. There, I said it. It’s an embarrassing appliance to rely on: a 1970’s mum thing, used to create old fashioned food like stews and soups from cheap cuts of meat. But, honestly, that’s my favourite kind of food and the stuff I was raised on.

Slow cookers definitely don’t suit everyone. If you turn off all your appliances before you leave your house, you’re not going to like it. If you don’t like freezing stuff or keeping leftovers in your fridge, it’s not for you. But if the idea of getting home from work on a chilly night to beef that’s been simmering in red wine all day, then what are you waiting for?

When my friend Craig was given a slow cooker by his ma, I realised that there’s one thing I use my slow cooker for more than anything else: poaching chicken. It’s so simple, it’s barely even a recipe.

Slow cooker poached chicken

Ingredients
One whole chicken or a few whole chicken legs (you’ve got to use two at least to make it worthwhile, I think)
One onion, peeled and quartered
One or two carrots, snapped in half
Half a lemon
Salt and pepper

What to do:
1. Put the whole lot in the slow cooker and cooker for about eight hours. If you want to make stock, too, add up to a litre of water. If you’re not bothered about stock, add about a cup. That’s it.

If you want the stock, remove the meat then strain the juices through the sieve. Unless you’re making soup, ditch the veggies. When the meat has cooled a little, pick it off the bone and serve with veggies and gravy as a makeshift roast, or add to risotto, salads or sandwiches. More on poached chicken to come – I’m a little obsessed.

A Jordanian feast

I needed to create a meal-like vehicle to legitimise the intense number of Jordanian biscuits that my sister and I were eating following her recent trip to Amman. Non-Arabic websites seem to clump all Middle Eastern food together, but we found a twist on a hummus recipe that my sister thought looked similar to something she’d eaten in Amman.

Msabaha
This recipe involves making hummus, then layering it with hot chickpeas, yoghurt, oil and an extra dressing. Nothing beats homemade hummus, but this was extra yummy.

Falafel
I made this recipe, and, as it wasn’t brilliant, I won’t write it out here. The seasoning was nice, but it fell apart when I fried it so I wouldn’t do this again. I don’t like deep frying and suspect the oil wasn’t hot enough. I might try an oven-baked falafel recipe next time (no, I’ll probably just buy ready made)

We had salad, flatbread with za’atar (a herb and spice mixture) and a spicy, garlicky dressing too, washed down with many biscuits, savoury and sweet. An Arabian night of delights.