Friday, July 15, 2011

Lemon and Garlic Chicken

As it's getting colder it's nice to cook a whole roast and warm the house up with the heat of the oven. As we've all been sick lately I wanted something with lots of healthy garlic and was glad to find a whole roast chicken recipe.

But, this chicken is cooked in stock and wine on the stove top, not in the oven. But, oh well. It'll still taste great.

After stuffing it with fresh lemon, I rubbed the skin with some oil and seasonings. I browned some eschalots and garlic in the bottom of my cast iron pan then removed them and dropped in the chicken, breast down so the skin would start to crisp up. But, I didn't put enough oil in the bottom and all that happened was the skin sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Bugger.

After 5 minutes I turned it, pouring more oil in and browned the bottom of the chook. Another 5 min later and I re-added the garlic and eschalots with some stock and Riesling. Wait, no, I didn't have any Riesling, so I used a wine I have sitting on the bench waiting for me to be not-pregnant so I could drink it. I did the next best thing and cooked with it instead.

Now, the recipe states to simmer it covered for 30 min, then for another 30 min uncovered. I did this, but found that I was always basting the chicken in the stock and wine as I was scared the breast would dry out being out of the liquid. I suppose if the skin hadn't burnt off I wouldn't have worried about it as much, but I did this every 5 minutes.

Pulling the chicken out at the end the beautiful aroma of lemon greets me. I carve it up and we ate it with some polenta and my home grown cherry tomatoes. I loved the subtle hint of lemon through the chicken meat. I squeezed the cooked garlic out of their skins and stirred it through my polenta. Great!



While it didn't cure our colds, it filled our hungry tummies!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Creme Carmel

I don't think I've ever even eaten a Creme Caramel, let along made one. But I was looking for a dessert one week night and found I had all the ingredients, so I gave it a go.

It's actually pretty easy, a basic baked custard recipe as well as a caramel. Creme Caramel.....bit self-explanatory really....

Custard is something I make a lot as my son Noah loves it and it's a nice way to fill his tummy at the end of the night. I usually use only milk, but this recipe included cream to make it a bit richer. The only difference is the custard I make includes cornflour to thicken it and this one doesn't, but I suppose the cream did that job. Adding an extra egg yolk so it sets well when baking, I set the made custard aside while I made the caramel.

I've only made caramel a handful of times in my life, so it's something I'm still new at. Boil sugar and water till it's golden using a brush in water to brush down any crystals that form on the sides. Check. BE CAREFUL. Boiling sugar syrup is not a nice thing to get on your fingers.

When I removed the caramel from the heat I poured it directly into the ramekins. The recipe says to let it sit for a few moments to allow the syrup to begin to set. I think this is where I went wrong. I did let it sit for the allocated 5 minutes, but when I turned them out after cooking a lot of the caramel was stuck hard in the bottom of the ramekin. Even after dipping it into hot water to loosen it up a bit. Next time I won't leave it for so long before pouring the custard in.

Bake in a bain-marie. Check.

My oven is stupid and I had to bake for an extra 5 minutes.

Refrigerate till cold. Check.

As I mentioned, they didn't turn out easily, but a lot of caramel still came out with them, so it wasn't a huge loss. I really liked them, finding the custard quite smooth and delicate. I liked that the rich caramel didn't take over the custard either.

Hubby thought they were too rich but he thinks anything with flavor is too rich. Next time I make it I'll make a single serve. Might be tonight....