“My God, he looks like he’s beating a chicken.” Byron Nelson
Have you ever done aspatchcockona blessed chicken? A 40 garlic chicken recipe, ‘Roasted Butterflied Chicken’ at Pig Pig’s Corner, a delicious blog, had held my attention for a few days. Much inspired, and very brave in my own eyes, I bought a ‘whole‘ chicken, with the skin on the other day. A first for me! I am least comfortable handling non vegetarian raw material. In sheer fright, I stuffed the chicken into the freezer. Wasn’t geared up to handle it midweek with the kids all over the place. Last weekend I bravely ventured in ‘that’ direction, and then stared at the bird. UGH! 7am with a ‘skinny’ bird is no fun! …
… but first, I have something important to announce, & then back to the ‘Spatchcock’ story.
It’s the first Wednesday of September & I’m here to announce the 4 ingredients for Paper Chef. My dear friend Ilva, of the beautiful blog Lucillian Delights, featured on TIMES ONLINE as one of the 50 world’s best food blogs, asked me to be an ad hoc judge for this episode. Of course I’m delighted to do so.Paper Chef, an idea conceived by Owen of Tomatilla, was taken over by Ilva. It is a creative cooking competition that takes place every first whole weekend of the month. You can find information, dates, the current ingredient list, roundups and more here, and the rules & regulations here. I’ve chosen 3 regular ingredients – RICOTTA , DARK CHOCOLATE & GINGER…and I would like you to create a dish using these three, with any fourth ingredient that signifiesFALL (Autumn). Summer is behind us, & with the weather changing across the globe, I’d love to see the magic you work up with these.
You have until Tuesday noon (where you live) to send it to paperchef AT gmail DOT com. The roundup will be posted here and the winners will be announced first on the judges blog ( that’s me, he he) and then here. To quote Ilva, “Paper Chef is about being creative and discovering your non-limits in the kitchen, I promise that you will surprise yourself once you get going!”… OK, back to spatchcocking! Read a couple of tutorials and began to look for the ‘spine’. Hmmm, eventually took out a cleaver & pair of kitchen scissors, & removed what I believe was the spine & breast bone. SCARY! So many biology dissections later, so many meals later, I couldn’t tell the back from the front of a bird! Tweeted my agony & help was at hand. Robyn tweeted back… and then sent me a link too. By the time the hub woke up, he knew he was in trouble. One look at my face had him scurrying for cover. All well? I told him I killed a dead bird but we had to have it for lunch. A peep into the fridge later, and a ‘WOW‘ uttered by him seemed to make the world a better place again. OK! He stated the obvious! You had to remove the spine to flatten it obviously. Should have woken me up! Hmmmph! I did the best I could, but next time my friend the butcher shall be my spatchcocker!
In all that I found another recipe I had bookmarked for a whole chicken…chicken al mattone or chicken under a brick. Another yummy one, looked delicious. So, decided to get adventurous, and for lunch that day, chicken al mattone met the 40 garlic chicken. Delicious is the word … & disappeared very fast. Wasn’t sure if the kids would eat chicken with the skin on, so didn’t breathe a word. Didn’t have to. They wolfed it down. I tossed some potatoes in oil, vinegar & salt, and pushed them in the same pan alongside the chicken, placed a stone on the whole thing, and let it cook. Loved all the flavours that came through. Finished the chicken off on a hot grill pan over high flame for 5-7 minutes, drained the juices from the roasting pan, & let the potatoes finish off on the highest oven setting. Was a delicious meal; everything was polished off. Served it with a French Fougasse on the side, with a ricotta, walnut and Romesco filling. The ricotta is from a David Lebovitz recipe that I use often now, as soft cheese is my current obsession! It’s a simple recipe; you don’t need a candy thermometer, and ‘no fat yogurt’ works too.
40 GARLIC CHICKEN al MATTONE
adaptd from Roasted Butterflied Chicken @ PigPigsCorner
& Chicken al Mattone @ Bon Apetit Ingredients: 1 whole chicken with skin on,insides cleaned, about 1 kg 40 cloves of garlic, peeled, whole Juice of 3-4 limes; peels reserved Fresh Rosemary 8-10 sprigs, plus some for garnishing Salt, pepper, red chili flakes
Method: Spatchcock the chicken, ie remove the spine & breastbone so it can sit flat. Else ask the butcher to do it (which I will in future) 1st marinade : Juice of 2 limes, salt and pepper. Whisk together and rub well into chicken all over. Place in a flat dish, cling wrap & leave in fridge for an hour 2nd marinade: Mince 7 of the 40 garlic cloves, and whisk with 2 tbsps oil and 1 tbsp of finely chopped fresh rosemary. Again place, cling wrapped in fridge for 1-4 hours (You can even do this the previous night) Preheat the oven to 200C. Meanwhile heat a grill pan on high. Add a spoon of oil & place the chicken, skin side down, with a foil wrapped brick or heavy stone on top. Cook for 7-8 minutes till skin brown. Line a baking /roasting pan with foil and spread the remaining rosemary, garlic & lime peels over the base. Add any veggies you may wish to serve around the edges. Top with the foil wrapped brick, or heavy stone, and bake for 20-25 minutes. Take out pan, turn the chicken over, & bake for a further 15-20 minutes until juices run clear. Place the whole chicken skin side down on a hot grill pan to finish it off. Drain the juices, if any, from the roasting pan, and roast the potatoes and garlic on the highest oven setting till done. Serve the chicken in a flat dish, drizzled with a blend of olive oil, lime & chopped coriander/parsley/oregano, topped with fresh rosemary sprigs. Place the potatoes & garlic around. Serve with a bread and green salad.
“When life gives you lemons, find someone who’s life gives them vodka. Then party.”
There is an old lady who lives nearby, one of the kindest souls around, who is very fond of me. She makes it a point to stop by our home on her morning walks, at least twice a week, to make sure all is well with me. Constantly spoiling me with sweets & chocolates, this time she sent me a bag of limes off her lime tree. I love anything & everything citrus, & I was overjoyed! The basket of limes sang to me & then, along came Judy twittering about lemon curd!!
It’s been my first go at lemon curd (lime as in my case). I’ve drooled over Meeta @ WFLH ‘s fresh homemade lemon curd for long enough. It’s enticing & refreshing, as her posts always are, but have never had the courage to make it because of the ‘egg’ issues that I have. Egg yolk & me are not good friends, & I tend to associate eggy aromas with anything that uses egg yolk.Being a Daring Baker has made me use egg yolks more often than I would otherwise, & frankly, this has been a turning point in my baking obsession. I’ve yet to wander into eggy ice-creams which are equally tempting, but the Bavarian cream I did here made me change my eggy-huliar feelings to quite an extent. I gingerly tried a little bit & found that there was nothing too eggy there. Was twittering with Judy @ No Fear Entertainingthe other day, exchanging notes on summer vacations, kids, beaches & food of course. She mentioned she had just made lemon curd off Meeta’s recipe & it was delish. She was thoroughly cross-twittered to make sure eggy aromas didn’t feature in the curd, & I was sold on the idea. I made fresh lime curd the next morning thanks to my haul of fresh limes…
Fresh Homemade Lime Curd as adapted from What’s For Lunch Honey Ingredients 8-10 limes, zest & juice (increase lime juice if you think it isn’t tart enough.Meeta used 4 lemons) 100g unsalted butter, cut into pieces 4 eggs, beaten 450g fine granulated sugar Method
Set a fine strainer over a medium bowl, then set aside.
In a medium sized saucepan whisk together the juice, zest, sugar and eggs until incorporated and the sugar has dissolved.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and gently cook the mixture, stirring with a wooden spoon, until steaming. Make sure the curd does not boil. Stir frequently and continue to cook until the curd has thickened and the curd coats the back of the wooden spoon – approx 3-7 minutes.
Take the curd off the heat and then add the butter, stirring to incorporate it to the curd. Pour the curd mixture through the prepared strainer to make sure there are no lumps in the lemon curd.
Pour into warm sterile jars , cover and seal. Allow to come to room temperature, then refrigerate.
With rich curd on hand, could dessert be far away? So much lime curd needed a destination. Thought I’d put it into an ice-cream as Judy had made, but currently suffer from freezer overload. Next thought ‘lemon shortbread bars’. One thing led to another, & I finally thought ‘TART’. How would ‘tart and rich’ fresh lime curd taste in a nice tart? LOL, pretty much talking to myself, I set off to make a regular plain tart, & then found my bag of buckwheat next to plain flour. A combination of random ingredients later, I ended up with a nice, crisp tart shell, inaugurating the flan/tart pan my sis had just got for me! The result was a nice dessert which we enjoyed with unsweetend whipped cream. INDULGENT!!Am sending this picture off to Jugalbandi for CLICK: July 2009. (Bi-Colour) BUCKWHEAT CHOCOLATE TART SHELL Ingredients: 1/2 cup buckwheat flour 1/2 cup plain flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 3T cocoa 3T vanilla sugar 2/3 stick (75gms)cold butter, cut into pieces (or grated) 1/8 cup olive oil Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Place the flours, baking soda, cocoa & vanilla sugar in food processor. Pulse for 30 seconds.
Add in chilled butter (I like to grate frozen butter directly into the processor), and pulse till the mixture forms breadcrumbs.
Add in the olive oil & process for a further 30seconds till it all comes together in clumps. Put into a bowl & gather into a ball of dough. Do not knead.
Take a loose bottom tart/flan tin, & spread the dough around evenly with your fingers to cover the bottom & sides. (You could even chill the dough for 30 minutes & roll it out I think).
Bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes. Cool in tart pan for 30 minutes.
To finish:
Cover the baked tart shell with the lime curd, sprinkle flaked almonds if you like, & bake at 180C for 30 minutes/until you can see the curd beginning to set. Lightly top with a sheet of foil if beginning to brown too fast.
Cool completely on rack & chill for 6-8 hours. Slice & serve with unsweetened whipped cream.
When we were little girls , many many moons ago, a favourite winter pass-time was to make little dolls out of the bright red poppies that grew in our garden. The petals would fold down to make bright red dresses, & the capsule on top would look just like the head. Gave us hours of fascinating pleasure, whiling away time with silliness of this sort.
Cut back to now…a bag of black poppy seeds has been demanding my attention from time to time. In India we get a lot of white poppy seeds, known also as khush–khush, which are often added to kebabs & curries. Black poppy seeds as far as my brain worked, were harvested from fields of poppies grown in Afghanistan to make opium! Was intrigued & pleased as punch when I was the happy recipient of a bag of black poppy seeds from Ukraine. Man, I love that country. I’ve got bagfuls of sunflower seeds, coffee beans, black poppy seeds & sachets of vanilla sugar, limoncella sugar & other such exciting things in the bag from a friend. Just goes to make life more interesting. Now a while ago I made lemon poppy seed cookies from a cookie cookbook I own. There was something drastically wrong with the recipe because the dough flowed, & how! Probably a printing error, but I ended up adding double the flour & wept through the not so passionate day of baking. The cookies eventually got made, polished off by the kids & their friends, but me, I was cured of poppy seeds for a while. A month later, the poppy seeds began calling out to me again…this time I made some lemon poppy seed muffins. Came out very nice, but were the sort that tasted best out of the oven, warm. Never got down to blogging about them; even Picasa found them delicious enough & gobbled up the pictures. *SIGH*
And then one day I saw Patricia’s post about Lemon-Poppy Seed Cookies @ Technicolour Kitchen; it had me singing a heady poppy song. I had a mission on my mind & the time was NOW! Dived into the cupboard to locate the bag of poppy seeds, grabbed it, grabbed a sachet of vanilla as well, & began squeezing limes. Time to make these wonderful,citrusy bites.
Since antiquity, poppies have symbolized honor. Women in second century Crete cultivated poppy plants for opium and Hippocrates suggested opium in medicine. Islamic and Arabian countries used opium as a medicine and narcotic in the sixth century. By the 17th century, Asians used the poppy plant as an opiate. Europeans began trafficking the drug in the 19th century, culminating in the Opium Wars, in which China lost control of the industry. The Greeks used the seeds as flavoring for breads in the second century, and medieval Europeans used them as a condiment with breads.
Poppy Seeds are used to flavor breads, cakes, rolls, and cookies in European and Middle Eastern cooking. In Turkey, they are often ground and used in desserts. In India, the seeds are ground and used to thicken sauces. The seeds are also used in noodle, fish, and vegetable dishes in Jewish, German, and Slavic cooking.
What did I like about the recipe?Hmmmmmmm…everything actually. I loved flavouring the sugar.
Very Alice Merdichkind of thing…I did a similar thing for the Orange &Olive Oil Cake below & fell in love with the method!
The ‘Lime Poppy-seed Cookie’ is an elegant tea cookie, with a beautiful citrus flavour & a crispness that is endearing. It’s also a great cookie toinelegantly throw some nutella or praline-ganache mix on & munch on the go.
Also made for a handsome bite if you sandwiched a pair with chocolate ganache. YUM!! Left the kids begging for more!
Recipe forLemon Poppy Seed Cookiesfrom Patricia Scarpin @Technicolour Kitchen Ingredients: ¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice (I used lime juice) 1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature 1 ¼ cups (250g) sugar 1 large egg 2 teaspoons vanilla 4 teaspoons lemon zest (I used lime zest instead) 3 cups (420g) all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon poppy seeds + extra for topping
Method:
Preheat oven to 175ºC/350ºF; line 2 large baking sheets with baking paper.
In a small saucepan, bring lemon juice to a simmer and let reduce by half. Once it has reduced add ½ cup of butter (113g) and let melt, remove from heat and set aside.
In a mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. In another bowl whisk remaining ½ cup of butter (113g) and 1 cup of sugar (200g) together until smooth and creamy. Beat in egg and melted lemon-butter mixture, beat on medium-high with an electric mixer for 3 minutes, or until very light and pale in color. Mix in vanilla, poppy seeds and 3 teaspoons of lemon zest; once combined, add dry ingredients and mix on low until smooth, you may need to stir in the last 1/3 to 2/3 of a cup by hand. Blend until smooth.
In a plate, combine the remaining ¼ cup of sugar (50g) with 1 teaspoon of lemon zest – rub the sugar and zest between your fingertips to obtain a lemony sugar. Roll leveled ½ tablespoons of dough into small balls and place on a prepared cookie sheet, 5cm (2in) apart. Using a very slight moist glass, dip the bottom into sugar mixture and flatten cookies, follow by sprinkling a few poppy seeds and a pinch of the sugar+zest mix over the top of each cookie. (I sprinkled on some vanilla sugar as well).
Bake for 11-12 minutes (mine needed 14) or until perfectly golden around the edges. Let cool for a few minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire rack.
Makes 70 (I got about 50 because I think mine were slightly thicker or bigger)
“In summer, the song sings itself.” William Carlos Williams
Fusion of flavours…tantalizing the taste-buds!
I beat the heat with this explosive fruit salad. The flavours were refreshingly FRESH, & the dressing complimented the fruit beautifully. Inspired by entries for Beat the Heat that I saw at Ann @ Redacted Recipes, Nic @ Cherrapeno, & Elle’s @ Elle’s New England Kitchen, I set on a no cook trail this morning. Turned toEpicurious foundthis great sounding ‘no cook’ affair, with great reviews to match…& put this wonderful salad together.
The zing of lime, the freshness of mint…
Believe it or not, it did BEAT THE HEAT!
The temperature is down many, many notches, it’s been raining non-stop since the morning, & the dragon flies have been dancing all day!! YAY!! So this wonderful, wonderful salad is off to Grace @ The Southern Grace for her event, & just in the nick of time!Here’s my adaptation of the recipe I found at Epicurious.com
MANGO- NECTARINE SALAD
Ingredients: White fruit vinegar – 3 teaspoons ( I don’t own balsamic, even though I wish I did!) Fresh lemon juice – 3 teaspoons Brown sugar – 1 teaspoon Sea salt – 1 teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper – 1/4 teaspoon
Fresh ginger – 1 inch piece; minced fine Extra-virgin olive oil – 4 tablespoons Mango – 4-5; firm-ripe peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Nectarines – 3-4 / stoned & sliced Fresh mint leaves – a handful
Method:
Whisk together vinegar, lime juice, sugar, salt, and pepper until sugar is dissolved, then add oil, whisking until emulsified.
Add remaining ingredients and toss until coated. Garnish with fresh mint!
Anytime the perfume of orange and lemon groves wafts in the window; the human body has to feel suffused with a languorous well-being.”
Frances Mayes, Bella Tuscany
CITRUS is Tartelettes’ chosen flavour for this months’ edition of Sugar High Fridays , a monthly event created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess. One of my favourite flavours, I find myself using ‘citrus‘ , mostly lime, every single day, in one way or another. No day is complete with a squirt of lemon, or a splash of orange. It’s quite amazing how international a flavour citrus is. We’re talking marinades, salad dressings, desserts, chutneys, cookies, cakes, sauces, pickles, preserves…the list seems endless. For me, it’s fascinating to find CITRUS in so many avatars in blog land…lemon preserves inMoroccan stew@ Mike’s Table, pretty Lemon Madeleines @ Tartlettes, Marinada Davita @ Familiabencomo, Lime Green Chili Pickle @ Konkan World, Orange &Asparagus Salad @ No Special Effects, Candy Ravioli in Orange sauce@ Dhanggit’s Kitchen are among a few I can remember off the top of my head.
These are snapshots of some favourites from my blog & some yet to be posted…
And now onto my entry for the immensely talented TartlettesSHFevent. Made this ‘Tangy Fresh Lime Cake’ from a book I recently bought at a book fair. It’s the Readers Digest book on ‘CAKES 1,001 Classic Recipes from Around the World‘; has a collection of recipes from far & wide, with tonnes of variety thrown in. This cake is a simple, everyday tea cake; wasn’t as tangy as the book said even though I had increased the lime juice. So I decided to get it HIGH ON SUGAR for Tartlettes‘ & dressed it up with a saturated sugar-lime syrup.
Crystallized flowers from my winter garden added to the high…all ready to go off for SHF!!
The cake before it got dressed up… with a dusting of sugar
CRUMBS!! Who’s been eating my cake? The kids had slices as it got out of the oven…nice, moist & light!
All dressed up & somewhere to go…
The recipe as adapted from Readers Digest ‘Cakes’,pg 22
Preheat the oven to 180degrees C. Grease & flour an 8″ ring cake tin. I lined the bottom as well.
Sift the flour + baking powder + salt. Keep aside.
Cream the butter & sugar till light & fluffy.
Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition, followed by the vanilla & lime extract.
On slow speed, gradually beat in the flour mix + milk + lime juice + lime zest.
Spoon the batter into the prepared tin & bake for 25-30 minutes / till done.
Meanwhile, mix the Castor sugar + lime juice + food colour to get a thick syrup.
Once the cake is done, cool in pan for 10 minutes, & gently turn it out onto rack.
Poke the hot cake with a wooden skewer, & pour the syrup uniformly over it. Immediately place the flowers or garnishing & allow to cool completely on the rack.
The pictures are not too clear because I was experimenting with settings on the camera & messed up. By the time I downloaded the pictures & realised, the cake was half gone…such is life!!
This morning I found these pretty seeds on the ‘currypatta‘ tree; the leaves of which are very popular in Indian cuisine. I enjoy looking for ways to use fresh flowers etc from the garden as a centre piece for the table. I brought in a bunch for the table; thought they looked remarkably like speckled eggs!
“It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Yogurt PannaCotta…the healthier Option!
My love for pannacotta knows no bounds. This is one versatile dessert & absolutely sublime. The regular pannacotta is indulgent, creamy & quite the best thing that happened to my list of desserts recently. You can find my previous pannacotta posts here (Coffee) & here (Strawberry). Who can resist a pannacotta…& with a fruity, tangy lime sauce? YUM!!
Nutmeg flavouring the sauce…
This time I made it healthier too…by substituting a part of the cream with yogurt. It’s adapted from a recipe I chanced by while at Baking Bites & was sold on the idea. This recipe is one that can make an appearance more often, without me feeling guilty of so many calories. ( I have to add that DH loves the ‘authentic’ Italian one…he says that’s the real thing! Hmmmph, so much for my healthy attempt…but he lapped this one up nevertheless.)
This is a lovely healthy option of pannacotta…& is on its way to a delightful event…A Tasty Tools Blogging event! Every foodie is passionate about kitchen tools; adding taste to passion is Joelen @ Joelen’s Culinary Adventures. The focus this month is on the kitchen grater and “microplane”. These tools do a fine job grating spices, cheeses, various vegetables, etc.
Microplaner…my dream come true
I love it…the microplaner has taken precedence over all tools in my kitchen & is currently holding 1st place. I used it here for the lime rind, & used the nutmeg grater to grate some fresh nutmeg for the lime sauce ( recipe from All Recipes) ! Great fun for a GRATE event!!
Spice Grater…
Onto the ‘grate‘ recipe then…using my tasty tools!!
For the Yogurt PannaCotta
Ingredients:
Greek Yogurt – 2 cups (I used hung nonfat curd)
Cream – 1/2 cup (low fat) Buttermilk – 1/2 cup (or half cup milk with 1 tsp vinegar; left to stand for 10 minutes)
Gelatin – 3 tsp
Water – 2 tbsp
Sugar – 4- 5 tbsp
Lemon extract – 1/2 tsp
Rind of 2 limes
Method:
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together yogurt + cream + buttermilk.
In a small bowl, combine gelatin and water. Microwave gelatin and water for about 30-45 seconds, until gelatin is melted.
Stir in sugar, lemon extract & zest.
Whisk gelatin mixture thoroughly into yogurt mix.
Divide into 6-8 very lightly greased ramekins and refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours.
To unmould, dip ramekins in very hot water for a few seconds and invert on to plates.
For the lime dessert sauce:
White sugar – 1/2 cup Cornstarch – 1 tbsp Salt – 1/8 tsp Freshly grated nutmeg – 1/4 tsp Boiling water – 1 cup Butter – 1tbsp Zest of 1-2 limes Juice of 1-2 limes (as tangy as you want it) Yellow food colour
Method:
In large saucepan, stir together sugar, cornstarch, salt and nutmeg.
Gradually stir in boiling water, then simmer over low heat until thick, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat; stir in butter, lemon zest, lemon juice & colour, if desired, and cool.
Drizzle the cold sauce over the unmouldedpannacotta, garnish with a sprig of fresh mint
