Pan seared chicken with red wine & mushrooms

Image courtesy of blog.water2wine.com

A very simple dish that focuses primarily on flavour from our sauce which is made primarily from mushroom and red wine reduction. It does take a bit of time to make the sauce, but ideally no longer than the chicken takes to cook, so it can be preapred all in one go.

I've left accompaniments absent as its quite a generic dish you can serve pretty much what you like with it. I would however reccomend mash or champ potatoes, and some root vegetables such as carrots, celeriac etc.

This recipe concentrates on doing the chicken in one pan and cooking in the oven, and using a seperate pan for the sauce. There is however nothing stopping you from doing it all in the one pan and not using the oven at all. Its up to you really. If you have a big enough pan, then go for it.

Ingredients
(serves 2)

2 Chicken breasts (skin on with wing bone) or 4 chicken thighs (deboned and skin on)
3 rashers smoked bacon (2 intact one chopped to 1cm square)
150g chopped muchrooms. (Ill leave the choice up to you but a mix of wild and closed cup works for me.)
6 shallots or 2 small onions (chopped to a 1cm dice)
Tsp tomato puree (optional)
Red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar (3 tbsp)
Glass and a half of red wine or port
250ml chicken stock
3 cloves crushed garlic
Generous handful of rosemary & thyme
tsp demerera sugar
Salt & pepper
tbsp butter

250 ml chicken stock

Chicken

Place one rasher of bacon under the skin of each chicken breast or 1.2 of a rasher under the skin of each thigh. Add some of the herbs int he same fashion (when stripped from the stem).

Sear the chicken in a pan skin side down. When coloured flip over and repeat for underside, then put on tray or in pan in the oven at 170C until cooked. This should give you enough time to cook the sauce.

For the sauce

In a saucepan saute onions / shallots,  chopped bacon and mushrooms until coloured, then add garlic. When they all begin to soften, Add the herbs, then add the vinegar and sugar until a syrup forms, (you can add the optional tomato puree at this point) then add the wine and reduce by half. Add the stock and reduce by half once again. When the sauce has reduced enough that it tastes to yourliking, fold in a little bit of butterand keep it moving to finish the sauce.

Lamb Loin Steak with courghette puree & cabbage & smoked bacon

This dish provides a year round availability of ingredients, and versatility that can be utilised for other meats such as pork or even duck. Aside from this recipe being very flavoursome and hearty, its also healthy and if you shop around for your ingredients it wont break the bank.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

4 Lamb Loin steaks or chops (alternatives pork loin, pork chops, duck breast, chicken thighs, turkey steak)
6 Leaves savoy cabbage (or seasonal variant)
100g Smoked bacon (chopped) (You can get bacon trimmings or cooking bacon for cheapness)
3 Courghettes
6 Cherry tomatoes
100g smoked ham
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch mace (optional)
Half a handful fresh rosemary
3 cloves garlic crushed
Sea Salt
Cracked black pepper or crushed peppercorns
100g butter

Preparation (2 or 3 hours before eating):

Courgette Puree

Chop off the tops and bottoms of the courgettes and cut lengthways. Put on baking tray and season with olive oil, and salt and pepper. Throw the tomatoes into the same tray, then put grill on moderate heat (not too hot) and grill until courgettes begin to brown at the edges. Turn them over at this point for about 4 minutes then remove from heat and allow to cool.

While the courgettes are grilling chop the ham into small pieces and put in food processor with about a teaspoon of the rosemary and a garlic clove, and the butter, along with the cinnamon, nutmeg and the mace. When the courgettes have rested put them in also and allow the food processor the mulch it down to a puree. Taste at this point and season if necessary with salt and pepper. Remove from food processor and into a pan for reheating later. For added freshness you can add lemon juice and / or zest to the puree, but this is purely optional. This will work with all of the meats mentioned above however. Lamb and lemon are indeed best of friends.

Take the lamb chops (or other meat) and crush the cooked tomatoes, garlic and rosemary into a paste and smear it onto the lamb. Don't worry about it being a unfiorm paste, keeping the crushed appearance of the tomatoes will add the rustic element to the dish, and give an embellishment and charm. Season the other side of the lamb first with salt and pepper first though. Put into a container or wrap in cling film to marinade for about 2-3 hours to absorb the flavours for when we cook it later. Dont worry about refrigerating it either. Given that our Lamb is a red meat, helping it to age at room temperature will develop its flavour also. In the case of turkey pork or chicken however, keeping it cool is prudent.

Chop and wash the cabbage as finely as you are happy with, then cook the cabbge for 3-4 mins in boiling salted water until bright green. Strain and cool down in cold (or ice) water as quickly as possible for later use.

Put your feet up for a few hours and take time to reward yourself with a hot beverage.

Service:

Heat a heavy bottomed frying pan and set your grill to the same setting as when you grilled the courgettes earlier. add some olive oil to the pan (tsp) and sear the bottom (non tomato side) of the lamb. take the pan and put it under the grill. When the lamb is done to your liking (nice and pink for me) remove from grill and allow to rest for a few minutes. Putting a lid on the pan as it cools gradually will help keep the meat moist.

Put a fire under the puree pan to reheat. Stir occasionally until piping hot.

In a separate pan sear off the chopped bacon then add the cabbage, season well and add the remaining 50g of butter just before serving.

Et voila. Serve quickly and devour.