Tipsy Chicken for an Autumn night ...

... or Coq au Vin as its known to most of the world; is one of my favourite ways to warm myself when the nights are drawing in, the winds begin to howl and you're convinced the drizzle may never leave London anytime before next June. Admittedly it requires some planning as you do have to let the chicken marinade overnight, but this week's trek home from bible study, getting home after 10 in cold, damp weather with cold, damp feet was all the motivation I needed to put some chicken legs out of the fridge and into the marinade before getting into bed and dreaming of warmer days.

The purists amoung you should feel free to cut out the potato slices from this dish entirely and substute them with the more traditional mashed potato by the side. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of mash and I do like the idea of one pot cooking - it leads to less mess and less washing up after all.

(Taken from the Leon cookbook and played with)

Serves 4
Ingrediants

4 Whole Chicken legs (Skin on)
1 Litre Red wine (if its too cheap to drink, its too cheap to cook with)
A bunch of thyme, tied with string
A sprig of rosemary
5 Bay leaves
180g streaky bacon, diced (I prefer unsmoked)
150g button mushrooms (or normal mushrooms, quartered)
2 Carrots, cut into 1cm dice
2 1/2tbsp Olive oil
8 very small Red Onions (think shallot size), peeled and quartered
500ml Chicken stock
400g Savoy Cabbage
4 cloves garlic
200g Potatoes, small and waxy, thinly sliced
2tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

Marinade the chicken with the red wine, bay leaves, thyme and rosemary for around 24 hours.

Next day, take the chicken out of the marinade and drain it but remember to keep the wine as well as the herbs.

Heat the oil in a deep pan until it is hot but not smoking. Fry off the bacon until it begins to brown, then add the mushrooms, garlic, carrots and onions. Keep frying until the mushrooms have started to brown and then use a slotted spoon to left everything out of the pan, leaving the oil on the heat.

Season the chicken well then lay them down in the pan, skin side down. When one side is browned, turn and continue cooking until both sides are nicely coloured. Pour in the marinade that you saved earlier one and simmer until reduced by half. Now add the chicken stock, bring up to a simmer again (skim here if needed) then stir in the mushrooms, onions, carrots, garlic, cabbage and potato slices.

Simmer gently until the meat start to fall away from the bones and the potatoes are cooked but not falling apart , normally 30 - 45mins. Then take off the heat and let rest with the lid on for 10 mins and finish with the chopped parsley.

i found it stores well both in the fridge and freezer, and the flavours seem to develop to be even better after getting time to sit.

Trippin' with rhubarb

So after a long day at work with yet another blinding headache and searing nausea, I suspect I had a moment of madness. I decided to go back to my cooking obsession to ease my aching head. Ribena has been talking recently about a desire to grow rhubarb and i got to thinking what use it could be other than the old school canteen staple - crumble. So in the end, this is what i came up with;

Pork Belly with Rhubarb

Serves 1 (Generously)

Handful of fresh sage
2 cloves of garlic
Olive Oil
Sesame Oil
230g (Aprox.) cut of boneless Pork belly
Lemon pepper
1/2tsp Harissa (As a small side note i would suggest that the quantity of harissa should be judged dependant on the strength of your harissa as this can vary immensely.)
All spice
150g (Aprox.) Rhubarb

Crush a little over half the sage in the pestle and mortar then add the garlic and pound together. Add 2tbsp of the olive oil and 1tbp of the sesame oil along with the harissa, a crunch of salt and black pepper and a healthy sprinkle of lemon pepper. Marinade the pork in this mix for about an hour.
Cut the rhubarb into inch long chunks and group onto the base of an oven proof dish, preferably not a metal one so as to avoid the metal-melting properties of rhubarb. Cover the rhubarb with the pork - tucking the edges of the meat around the vegtable. Scatter any remaining marinade onto the meat and toss over the remaining sage leaves. Drizzle a little olive oil, crunch on some black pepper and add a liberal sprinkle of all spice. Cover with grease proof paper (and a lid if your dish has one) and place into a preheated oven at 220 C for 15 minites. Then remove the lid and greaseproof paper and cook for another 30 minites; watching carefully as the sugar from the rhubarb should caramalise but dont let it burn.

I served this with quinoa (tossed in a touch of maple syrup and harissa), pak choi and roasted baby plum tomartoes. A decided success - i was expecting it to not work or be sour due to the rhubarb but it was wonderful.