Jointing a chicken is a skill I've wanted to master for ages. I've kept hearing how much more economical it is to do this, instead of buying separate chicken pieces. However, I always imagined it to be really complicated. Well, making Rachel's chicken and leek pie gave me the perfect excuse to learn. I trawled the internet, hoping to find a clip of Rachel herself demonstrating - but couldn't. Instead, I found this old clip of Delia showing how it's done
Slightly off-putting, as she begins by saying that the best way to joint a chicken is to get the butcher to do it for you. Doesn't inspire confidence! However, her instructions are clear, and the whole thing much easier than I imagined. Here's how I did it...
1. Make sure you've got a really sharp knife to start with. Locate the 'parson's nose', as shown here. Make a cut through this.
2. Stand the chicken in a vertical position, and starting with your original cut, slit right down through the backbone. Open the chicken out flat, like a book, with the skin side down.
3. Now cut through the breastbone to halve your chicken.
4. Turn your half chicken over, and stretch the legs out with your hands. You'll see a distinct white line appear in the middle - cut through this to produce a quartered chicken.
5. To divide your chicken into 6, turn over the quartered leg portion. You'll see an obvious piece of white fat. Move this aside, and you'll again see a white line. Cut through this.
Hope that makes sense. If it doesn't, watch Delia!
The chicken pie itself is quite easy. You cook your chicken portions with stock, wine and herbs and saute some leeks in butter. A sauce is made from the chicken poaching liquid; cream; and mustard. The chicken meat is pulled from the bones and mixed into the sauce, with the sautéed leeks. The mixture is then poured into pie dishes, topped with puff pastry and baked. It makes a really rich, comforting meal. I will say that although this recipe uses a whole chicken, you probably don't need to. You could add extra vegetables to bulk it out, and make for a more economical recipe. You could also use leftover roast chicken, and this would save a lot of time and effort in preparing the meat.
In other escapades, I had a go at Rachel's 'Cherry Crumble Cake'. I was off to a charity race night - the sort of event where you watch videos of horse races and place your bets. We were provided with a fish & chip supper, but were allowed to take our own accompaniments. I wanted to take something fairly 'desert like', but easy to eat with fingers. This perfectly fitted the bill. I'll include the recipe here, as I think it's a really useful one, and one which I'm sure I'll make a lot. I actually replaced the cherries with a portion of stewed apple, which tasted great. The crumble topping disappeared a bit and lost its crunch - I don't know it this was because of the wetness of the apple. But I think I'd make a double quantity of topping next time. Oh, I've also just spotted half a jar of mincemeat in the fridge - I'd like to try this for the filling another time.
- 350g (12oz) stoned cherries (fresh, canned or frozen - not glace)
- 150g (5oz) self-raising flour
- Pinch of ground cinnamon
- 50g (2oz) caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 30mls (1fl oz) milk
- 100g (3 1/2oz) butter, melted
- Icing sugar, for dusting (optional)
For the crumble topping
- 25g (1oz) plain flour
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 25g (1oz) caster sugar
- 25g (1oz) butter, cubed
- 20cm (8in) diameter spring-form/loose-bottomed tin
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F/GM4. Butter the sides of the cake tin, and line the base with greaseproof paper.
- Sift flour and cinnamon into a large bowl, add sugar, mix together and make a well in the centre.
- Whisk eggs; milk and melted butter together in another bowl, then pour into the dry ingredients and combine with a wooden spoon or whisk. Beat well to make a thick, smooth batter, then spoon into cake tin and spread evenly. Scatter cherries over mixture, and gently press in with the back of a fork.
- To make the topping, tip all the ingredients into a bowl. Rub in the butter with your fingertips to make a crumb-like mixture, then scatter the topping over the cherries.
- Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the top is lightly golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Leave in the tin for about 10 minutes, until cool enough to handle, then run a knife around the edge and remove the cake from the tin. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
- Dust with icing sugar if you wish, then serve.
(Sorry, no photos, it was all gobbled up too fast!)
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