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My Mother’s Chicken Casserole

I love Chicken and this classic recipe, passed to me by my mother, is a wonderful way to cook it. Not only is it simple to make from common ingredients but you can prepare the entire dish in one pot and leave it to cook, while you get on with a good book, watch a couple of episodes of your favorite show etc.  The combination of flavors which go into the mix and the stages used in its cooking render the chicken, full of flavor. It’s also a great alternative to roasted chicken and a brilliant meal for a Fall or Winter evening

Ingredients (for 4)

The key ingredients for the Casserole

The key ingredients for the Casserole

  • 4 Chicken Leg Quarters
  • 3 tbsp flour
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/4 tsp dried thyme
  • 3 tbsp sunflower or similar vegetable oil
  • 1 onion roughly diced
  • 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and sliced
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped in rounds
  • 1 can of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 cup of dry white wine
  • 1 pint of chicken stock
  • 2 tsp of honey
  • Juice and Grated rind of 1 lemon
  • Salt and Pepper to season
Grated lemon

Grated lemon

Method

  • First a tip:  Pour the flour, paprika, thyme and seasoning into a large Ziploc bag, pop in the Chicken leg quarters, zip the bag and shake until the chicken is coated
  • Heat the oil in a large pan and fry both sides of the coated chicken until it is golden brown then remove the chicken and put aside
  • Add the carrots, celery and onion to the pan the chicken was cooked in and fry in the same oil for 10 minutes, adding the chopped tomatoes, stirring and frying for another 2 minutes, then pour the fried vegetables and tomato into a casserole dish adding the honey, stock, wine, lemon juice and grated lemon. Season and bring the sauce to the boil

    The 4 stages of cooking the casserole

    The 4 stages of cooking the casserole

  • Add the chicken to the sauce, then cover the dish and place in an oven preheated to 350 f / 180 c cooking for 1 hour

Just perfect served with fresh fluffy boiled potatoes and a squeeze or two from a wedge of lemon. This chicken meal is soft moist and melt in your mouth and I bet, like me, you’ll find yourself making it over and over again…

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Smashing Smorgasburg- a Brit in Brooklyn

I have always been interested in food trends and travel so it was with excited anticipation I checked out Smorgasburg in Brooklyn, New York on Halloween. This is a must for street food lovers that started in 2011 as an off shoot to Brooklyn Flea. It is held every weekend outdoors until 21 November at  East River State Park (Kent Avenue & N 7th Street) on the Williamsburg waterfront. In the Winter Smorgasburg & Brooklyn Flea go under cover at Industry City, Sunset Park ( 241 37th Street, Brooklyn).

Manhattan skyline from Smorgasborg

Manhattan skyline from Smorgasburg

I met over 50 vendors selling a wide cornucopia of street food from classic American fare of burgers, sliders, grilled cheese sandwiches, pulled pork, smoked brisket, porchetta, ribs, mac n cheese, jerky, lobster rolls  to more regional specialities such as  soapillas (New Mexico),  cheesesteak (Philadelphia, New Jersey),  parm (Italian American), battered cheese curds (New York), fried chicken & andouille gumbo  and po’ boys (New Orleans, Louisiana), oysters (Rhode Island, Maine, Nova Scotia, Canada). There were different cuisines represented including dosa’s (fermented rice & lentil stuffed pancakes from South India), pho (Vietnamese noodle soup), mofon (mashed plantain, garlic, adobo spices from Puerto Rico), arepas ( Columbian stuffed wraps made of corn or quinoa), campo seco (Italian dried sausage), and  starwurst  – ( German sausage with onion sauce). I was surprised to see scotch eggs – a British classic of boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, dipped in breadcrumbs and fried. I was even more surprised to find out it was a Frenchman who visited London, tried them and decided to bring them back to New York! They had some interesting flavours including Moroccan mergeuez sausage, Mexican chorizo & deep fried brussel sprouts as a veggie option!

A British classic from a Frenchman in New York!

Scotch Eggs from a Frenchman in New York!

With so many options to choose from I decided I would try the two stands with the longest lines, one sweet, one savoury. I started with Home Frite – hand cut fries served with a range of interesting dips. The most popular dip was lemon garlic aioli but I decided to try the vendor’s favourite, chipotle ranch which was tangy, creamy with a chilli kick and a great pairing with the fries.

Take a dip with a chip/fry

Take a dip with a chip/fry

Fries by Home Frite

Neat Frite!

Neat Frite!

For my sweet fix there were many American classics on offer including donuts, cookies, whoopee pies, and cheesecakes. I decided to try something I have never had before- butter cakes from Gooey & Co, a speciality from St Louis Missouri created in 1930’s. They were bite sized layered cake bites with a cake base, custard middle layer and crispy crumble top. They were sweet, gooey and quite indulgent but a perfect finale.

I would have loved to taste more at Smorgasburg so in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger I’ll be back!

Chocolate & original - a gooey sweet dessert

Chocolate & original – a gooey sweet dessert

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Q. What can you do with 2 Over Ripe Bananas 2 Small Monkeys refuse to touch?

Just perfect food for runners looking to replace their lost calories, after today’s NY Marathon!

simsalb's avatartaste2taste

One of my Monkeys (sorry, Kids) will not touch a banana with the slightest sign of ripeness. The other, won’t even eat bananas.

Squishy Bananas - Squishy Bananas – “to throw, or not to throw, that is the question?”

Rather than chuck soft blackened bananas in the trash, I’ve come up with a way to magically transform them into something so delicious that even my resident banana hater will consume it and ask for more

The solution to the squishy banana problem? Fresh baked Banana Walnut & Honey Loaf

It’s fun to make and even more entertaining, if you can rope the banana agnostic into making it with you. What’s more it only takes 20 minutes to prepare, excluding baking time

Ingredients

The Essential Ingredients The Essential Ingredients

  • A couple of regular very soft peeled bananas
  • 3 oz Butter
  • 7 oz of Plain Flour, 1.5 tsp of Baking Powder, a 1/2 tsp of Salt (if you are in the UK, all you need is 7 oz of Self…

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