from scratch

Chicken with 30 Cloves of Garlic

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Yes, you read it right, 30 cloves of garlic.  Before you imagine that you will stink enough to scare off a small town of vampires I promise you won’t, the garlic mellows and becomes almost sweet. This is a classic French dish, and it’s a classic for a reason.  Traditionally it’s made with a whole chicken, but I prefer chicken thighs

The garlic cooks gently in wine and the chicken juices until they are soft and delicious.  Cook them with their skin on and when cooked squeeze the soft garlic onto the bread you serve with this dish., they taste amazing.

I used a dish that could be used on the stove top and in the oven.  If you don’t have one just transfer to an oven proof dish before putting in the oven.

The whole dish is incredibly tasty, serve the soft  chicken with salad and crusty french bread, to spread the confit garlic on and mop up the sauce with it.

Ingredients

1 Kg Chicken thighs (skin on and bone in)

30 Cloves of garlic (about 3 bulbs, remove most of the papery outside, but leave on the tight pink/white skin around each clove)

250 mil White Wine

2 Sprigs of rosemary

25 Grams Butter

1 Tbsp Oil

Salt and pepper

Method

  • Pat the chicken dry with kitchen paper and season with salt and pepper
  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Celsius)
  • In a large oven proof dish heat the oil and butter together.  Over quite a high heat brown the chicken thighs on both sides (you might need to do this in a couple of batches, because if you crowd the pan the chicken won’t brown and you don’t want to lose the flavor)
  • When all the chicken has been browned add the wine and rosemary to the pan and scrape the bottom to release the yummy brown bits
  • Add the garlic cloves to the pan and stir well, before covering the dish with a lid (if your dish doesn’t have a lid, cover tightly with tin foil
  • Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes (maybe a little longer if the chicken thighs are large, just check they are cooked through)
  • Serve with salad and crusty bread, squeeze the garlic out of it’s papery cover onto the bread and spread with a knife, you can thank me later

Cranberry and Hazelnut Muffins

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Trapped at home on rainy miserable Saturday with a shitty cold I wanted something sweet but couldn’t face going out and having change out of my oodie (if don’t have one yet, get one they are fantastic in cold weather (I’m not advertising, but if any oodie makers would like to send me one I wouldn’t say no).

Anyway, after raiding the cupboards this is  what I came up with and they were delicious. I used Greek yoghurt because I has some that needed to be used up but could also use milk instead.  If you’re lactose intolerant you could swap the dairy for the same volume of stewed apple or mashed banana.  I’d also recommend toasting the hazelnuts in a dry pan first.  Its not mission critical if you’re pushed for time (or just can’t be arsed) but it does make them even tastier.

Makes 12

Ingredients

200 Grams Self raising flour (or 200 Grams of plain flour qnd 2 teaspoons of bsking powder if you don’t have self raising flour)

100 Grams Sugar

2 Eggs

200 Grams Yoghurt

50 Grams Hazelnuts

50 Grams Dried cranberries

100mil Oil or Melted butter

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line a muffin tin with muffin cases
  • Add all the dry ingredients to a large bowl
  • Mix all the wet ingredients together and mix well until fully combined
  • Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well making sure that the fruit and nuts are evenly distributed throughout the batter
  • If you have one of those fancy ice cream scoops you can use it to evenly distribute the batter into the muffin cases.  I dont have one. So I just used 2 dessert spoons to scoop and then scrape the batter in the cases.
  • Bske for 20-25 minutes and allow to cool.

Cherry Scones

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One of my favourite treats while I’m at work is a mid morning cherry scone.

Ingredients

450 Grams Self raising flour (hold back 1 tablespoon of flour to use to coat the fruit)

2 Tsps Baking powder

50 Grams Butter (chilled and cut into small cubes)

50 Grams Sugar

300 Mil Milk

100 Grams Glace Cherries (you can swap this for dried fruit if you prefer)

2 Eggs (beaten)

Method

Sift the flour and baking powder together, and add the butter. If you have a food processor whiz the butter and flour together until it resembles breadcrumbs. You can also use the rubbing in method if you don’t want to use a food processor.

Toss the cherries in 1 tablespoon of flour as this will help prevent them from clumping together. Add the cherries and sugar to the flour mix and stir to combine.

Add the eggs to the milk and stir before adding the dry mix and stir well until fully combined.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees (Celsius), and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Turn the scone mix onto a well floured surface and gently form into a ball (try not to handle the mix too much or you will end up with tougher scones, they’ll still taste good so you don’t need to be too precious about it).

Rub flour onto a rolling pin (or use a wine bottle if you don;t have one) and roll out the scone dough until it is about 2-3 cm thickness. Use a cookie cutter or glass to cut out the scones (how big you want to make them is up to you, I like a fairly substantial scone and this recipe made 8 scones, you can use a smaller cutter to make more dainty scones if you prefer).

Place the scones on the baking sheet and you can brush with a little milk if you want them to have a glaze (I don’t bother with this step, but you can do it if you a fancier scone). Bake for 15 minutes and then allow to cool on a wire rack.

Black Olive and Chilli Focaccia

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I made this as I needed to rage bake as I was totally pissed off.  Belfast has had far right knuckle draggers riot over the weekend and destroyed businesses owned by people who immigrated here for no other reason than the colour of their skin.  For the record, if you don’t know Belfast this is a tiny minority of fuckwits (many of whom had travelled here to start shit) and while these morons were destroying people’s livelihoods we also had the Feile (brilliant festival) with 10,000 people partying happily at an 80s-90s concert where everyone was welcome.

So at the weekends when you have a little bit more free time, make this and it takes time to prove while you get on with all those mundane tasks that steal your free time (yes laundry, I’m giving you serious side eye).  But hey, at least you have delicious freshly baked focaccia at the end of it all).

Ingredients

500 Grams Strong white flour

7 Grams Dried yeast

1 Tsp Salt

300-400 Mil Luke warm water

100 Grams Black Olives (well drained if in brine)

1 Large chilli pepper (sliced in 1/2 cm slices)

4-5 Tbsp Olive oil

Method

  • 1. Mix your yeast with 300ml of luke warm water and set to one side while you measure out the flour and add it to a large bowl
  • 2. Add a teaspoon of salt to one side of the (this will stop it coming into direct contact with the yeast and killing it). Make a well in the centre of the flour, add two tablespoons of olive oil and the water and yeast mix.
  • 3. Mix well, you may need to add more water, your dough should be quite soft and sticky, but not super wet
  • 4. Turn your dough onto a floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes. If you have a mixer with a dough hook you can also use this, but I enjoy kneading the bread
  • 5. Clean the bowl you were using, (I always give the bowl a quick wipe with a little oil to stop your dough sticking). Put your dough back in the bowl and cover with a tea towel and prove for one hour
  • 6. Grease an 8 x 12 inch tin with some olive oil and transfer the dough from the bowl to the tin. Stretch the dough out to fill the tin. Cover with a tea towel again and prove for 45 minutes
  • 7. Pre-heat your oven to 220 degree (Celsius). Remove the tea towel from your baking tin, and with your finger tips press little dimples into the dough. Gently press the olives and chilli slices into the dough
  • 8. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of olive oil across the top of the dough.
  • 9. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes

Chicken Marsala

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I love a fairly straightforward recipe that tastes so good people think you have spent hours on it.  This is one of them.

I don’t cook with booze that often, but if you get a chance to pick up of Marsala (fortified wine), you’ll be glad you did.

I used tiny little button mushrooms in this, but if you can’t get them just chop larger mushrooms roughly, you don’t need to get too fancy.  You can use chicken breasts for this recipe, but I opted for boneless, skinless chicken thighs became they’re cheaper and i think have more flavour.

Serves 4

600 Grams Chicken thighs

1 Onion or 2 shallots (finely chopped)

200 Grams Button mushrooms

75 Mil Marsala

250 Mil Chicken stock (it’s fine to use a stock cube dissolved in warm water)

Juice of 1 lemon

1-2 Cloves of garlic

2-3 Tbsp flour

50 Grams Butter

1 Tbsp Oil

Salt and pepper

Method

  • Spread the flour on a plate and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper
  • Coat the chicken in the seasoned flour
  • In a large pan, heat the oil and a large knob of butter over a medium heat until the butter starts to foam
  • Add the chicken to the pan and colour until golden brown on both sides. Remove from the pan set to one side
  • Next add the onion and mushrooms to the pan and cook for a few minutes before adding the garlic, stirring occasionally
  • Pour the stock, lemon juice, and Marsala to the pan and stir well to make sure all the yummy crusty chickeny bits on the base of the pan disolve into the liquid
  • Return the chicken and any juices back to the pan to finish cooking and the sauce reduces by about a third and the alcohol has evaporated off
  • Check the seasoning and you can add more salt and pepper if you think it needs it.  I love this with potatoes and greens, but its also great with crusty bread to mop up the delicious sauce

Courgette/Zucchini Bread

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This is actually more of a sweet loaf/tea bread, but you can kid yourself that this is slightly healthier than normal cake because it also incorporates vegetables. This is really good on it’s own, but I also like to spread cream cheese or butter on it.

The courgette/zuchini keeps the cake super moist and tender, and during the Summer when they courgettes are cheap and plentiful this is a good way to use them up if you are running out of ideas.

If you’re super organised and want to make a double batch this also freezes really well.

Ingredients

2 Eggs

125ml vegetable oil

350 Grams Courgettes, coarsely grated

300 Grams Plain flour

2 Tsp Cinnamon

1tsp baking powder

75g Walnuts (roughly chopped)

150g Dried cranberries or sultanas

75 Grams Brown sugar

1/4 Tsp Salt

(extra butter for greasing the loaf tin)

Method

  • Preheat your oven to 180 degree (Celsius), and line a 2lb loaf tin with parchment paper
  • Add the oil, sugar, and eggs to a large bowl and whisk until combined before adding the courgette
  • In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients before adding to the dry ingredients and mix well
  • Transfer the mix to the prepared baking tin and bake for 1 hour.  Test the loaf with a cocktail stick and if it comes out clean the loaf is cooked.  If it doesn’t give the loaf another 5 minutes in the oven before checking again

Blueberry and Lemon Scones

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I haven’t had the best luck with scones, usually they ended up like hockey pucks.

A friend who makes great ones advised me that secret is to handle scone dough as little as possible.  I decided to try this and instead of Irish version I was always taught to make using a cutter, I tried the American method when the dough baked in piece with sections marked out.

This did the job and these had a nice crust on the outside but stayed fluffy inside (yay, I have broken the scone curse placed on me by Sr Claire in 3rd year home economics for throwing dough).  I also gave these a cheeky wee lemon drizzle when the come out of the oven, that brings them to another level.

Serve these with lemon curd and whipped cream if you want to be posh (it’s sooo good), but these are also good with just butter.

You can use defrosted frozen blueberries which are cheaper, but remember to drain them well before adding to the mix so it doesn’t get too messy.  These also freeze well, but don’t use the lemon drizzle if you know you are going to freeze them.

Makes 8

Ingredients

150 Grams Blueberries

1 Lemon (juice and zest)

100 Grams Chilled butter (cut into small cubes)

1 Tsp Baking powder

350 Grams Self raising flours

200mil Milk

2-3 Tbsp. Icing sugar

Method

  • Preheat your oven to 220 degrees (Celsius), and line a baking sheet with parchment (or else grease the baking sheet well if you don’t have parchment)
  • Add the flour, baking powder and butter to a food processer and pulse until the mixture looks like bread crumbs.  If you don’t have a food processer, use the rubbing in method,  rubbing the flour and butter between your fingers until it looks like breadcrumbs
  • Grate the lemon zest wth a fine grater and add to the flour mix along with sugar and mix well.  Add the milk and stir the dough until it is just starting to come together, then gently mix in the blueberries so that they stay whole, but try to make sure they are evenly spread within the dough
  • Gather the dough in a ball, (it should be fairly soft dough).  So that I handled the dough as little as possible, I dusted a little flour onto the baking parchment and sat ball of dough in the centre.  Dust a rolling pin ( or wine bottle or what ever you have) with a little flour, and gently roll the dough out in a circle about 4 cm deep
  • With a sharp knife, score a deep cross into the dough, and then cut these quarters again until you end up with  8 evenly sizes segments (don’t cut the dough right through)
  • Bake for 10-15 minutes, and allow to cool slightly.  In a small bowl add the juice from the lemon you zested and add to the icing sugar and mix well before drizzle over the scones
  • Once cool break the scones into individual sections a serve with butter or lemon curd and cream

Biscoff Bon Bons (only 3 ingredients)

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I love a simple recipe, and if it doesn’t require a ton of ingredients even better.

These make a nice gift, and are fairly easy to make.  You need to reduce the Biscoff biscuits to fine crumbs.  You can do this by putting them into a plastic bag bashing the living daylights out of them (great as stress relief) . An easier way is to blitz them in a food precessor until you have fine crumbs, (you might have to do this in two batches). You can halve the recipe if you want to make a smaller batch.

If you want to make these a little bit more grown up can also add a tablespoon or two of your favourite booze.

Makes between 36-40

500 Grams (reduced to very fine crumbs)

250 Grams Cream cheese

300 Grams Dark chocolate

Method

  • Add the cookie crumbs and cream cheese to a large bowl and mix until thoroughly combined
  • Line or lightly grease a try. Take a small teaspoon of the mixture roll it into a ball about the size of a cherry, and place on the tray. I usually keep a bowl of water beside me when doing this, as its easier to do if your hands are slightly wet. Continue making small balls of the mixture and put on the prepared tray until it has used up.
  • Put the tray in the fridge and chill for 1 hour
  • Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a microwave proof dish. Microwave for 30 seconds at a time (stirring in between each blast so it doesn’t burn) until the chocolate has melted
  • Using 2 forks to lift the bon bons, dip into the chocolate and place back on the tray. Repeat until all the bon bons have been coated. Allow them to set for an hour in the fridge then transfer to an air tight container, or place in tiny paper cups if you’re feeling fancy

Easy Roast Vegetable and Feta Pasta

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Some evenings after work you just want something quick and tasty, and this is fairly healthy too.

Any leftovers are good to take to work for lunch the next day.

Serves 4

Ingredients

Feta cheese

350 Grams Cherry tomatoes (cut in half)

1 Courgette/zucchini

1 Red onion (cut into 1/2 cm slices)

2-3 Cloves of garlic (roughly chopped)

3-4 Sprigs of thyme, 1 teaspoon of dried thyme

2-3 Tbsp Olive oil

Black pepper

Enough pasta for 4 people

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Celsius)
  • Put the block of feta in a large baking dish and surround with the chopped vegetables, garlic and herbs
  • Drizzle the cheese and vegetables with olive oil and sprinkle with black pepper.
  • Bake for 30 minutes
  • 10 minutes before the baking dish is due to come out of the oven, put your pasta on to cook (cook according to instructions on the packet)
  • After 30 minutes remove the dish from the oven, a mash the feta cheese with back of large spoon. Take 1/2 a cup of the starchy water the pasta was cooking in and add this to the cheese and vegetables and stir well until until this creates a creamy sauce (add more water if you think it needs it.
  • Drain the pasta and stir through the sauce before serving

Moroccan Bread (Khobz)

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What I love about food is that it can transport you to different places or recall memories of places you visited and meals you enjoyed.

I visited Marrakesh six years ago and the place was an assault on the senses. The heat was like nothing I’d ever experienced, and the onslaught from traders left me a little stunned. What I did love was the food, which was too delicious and varied to cover in one post.

What I still crave was the delicious freshly made bread that was served everywhere. Perfect with tagines if you can’t face couscous, or great with houmous and olives, or soup for lunch.

I found a recipe from Cooking the Globe which is pretty much spot on for recreating what I remember. The ingredients and methods are straight forward. It does require a decent amount of kneading , but I don’t mind this as it allows me to burn off some stress and do some rage baking.

Ingredients

250 ml Warm Water (about skin temperature or luke warm, not too hot or it will kill the yeast)

500 Grams Plain flour (you can also use strong bread flour if this is what you have)

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Sugar

2 & 1/4 Tsp or 7 Gram Sachet of dried yeast

Method

  1. In a small bowl add the warm water, sugar and yeast and stir. Leave in a warm room for 10 minutes, it should start to foam (if it hasn’t done this your yeast is dead)
  2. In a large bowl combine the flour and salt, then gradually add the yeast mixture and work together until you get a soft dough (you may need to use a little more or less water)
  3. Turn onto a floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes until smooth (this is time to let your rage baking take hold) or if you’re well adnusted and have a stand mixer ou can use the dough hook. Divide into two equal size balls, cover with a slighlty damp tea towel and leave to rest for 10 minutes
  4. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Transfer the bread to the baking sheet, flatten slightly to about 2-3 cm thick, and and cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm room for an hour to rise
  5. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees. Uncover the bread and knick each loaf 4-5 times with a knife if you want to be totally authentic you can sprinkle with cornmeal or semolina. I didn’t have this and it was still fine
  6. Bake for 25 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when you tap them