triple lemon chicken

some time ago i was spring cleaning the herb patch, and got rid of the two thymes that had gone a bit wild. the other was lemon thyme and while handling the plant i got this amazing lemon fragrance and got thinking that it would be a shame to toss all of it...so i saved some and figured out a way to use it.

took out some whole grain spelt pasta.

grated the zest of one organic lemon.

minced some thyme and mixed it with lemon zest.

squeezed the juice of the lemon on a few calamata olives.

placed some thyme springs even in the pasta water.

browned the chicken cutlets on high heat with some thyme sprigs.

poured in the olives and lemon juice, then added some cream and brought everything to a boil. the cutlets were quite thin so they were cooked pretty fast. you could do this with any part of chicken, and adjust the heat and cooking time accordingly.

before serving i took the cutlets out and poured the drained pasta into the sauce. served with iceberg-cuke-tomato salad with lemon vinaigrette. triple lemon? 1:lemon thyme, 2:lemon zest, 3: lemon juice. not a friend of olives, just leave them out. this is super easy and you have dinner in 15 mins.

easiest roast chicken & veggies, dessert

another take-along lunch...very easy and not too bad for you, lots of veggies, or all veggies if that is what you like.

the difficult part was to grate the peel of one lemon, mix that with 1 tsp crushed black pepper and salt...

...then rub that on the chicken, and put the chicken in one of those oven bags...

...and place the bag next to roughly diced veggies, potatoes washed with peel on, carrots and parsnips peeled and diced, one fennel sliced into 1cm slices. 45 mins in 200C oven and you're done.

certain someone chose oregano as the herb.

i got two lunches and some munches of this.

dessert was on the easy line as well, quark, 2 bananas...

...seeds of half a pomegranate, some milk and an immersion blender.

garnished with more pomegranate seeds.

my take on divan

anna olson's fresh is on tv again and as i don't have much to do in the afternoons i tend to watch it, when i rememeber it's on, that is. the other day anna was making a turkey divan. the dish looked interesting enough to try, since turkey isn't as readily available over here as it is in the US and canada, i decided to make one with chicken. i had not known that there is a dish called divan and that it is, in fact, usually make with chicken...live and learn.







i wanted my divan to have more veggies in it, so i added a carrot, spring onion and zucchini. didn't use bell pepper, i do like the taste but i get serious heartburn from it.







started by sauteeing the minced onion, cubed carrot and finely chopped stem of the broccoli (waste not...) in some rapeseed oil and butter for a few minutes before adding the flour.







then added 2 cups vegetable stock (no chicken stock in the pantry nor freezer), ½ cup grated swiss cheese, ½ cup white wine (certain someone's unfinished bottle), ½ cup cream and 2 tsp dijon mustard, ½ tsp dried thyme and some crushed black pepper.

i found out from several recipes that a divan dish usually has serious amounts of mayonnaise in it as well...like this one. not entirely a bad idea, but just calories you really don't need. i don't have anything against mayonnaise, but have it with something you can really taste it in, and not a whole cup (2,5 dl!)







i don't like mushy veggies, so i added the bite-size zucchini...







...and minced spring onion and parsley with chopped chicken (5 cutlets that i had browned earlier) to the pan and mixed well. turned off the heat but left the pan on the stove. some recipes suggest that you use any leftover chicken, or turkey, and why not? i guess you could even use tofu if you wanted to go vegetarian.







the broccoli got just a dip in boiling water, because boiled to oblivion broccoli is rather disgusting, i wanted it to still have some bite left when the dish came out of the oven.







after placing the quickly blanced broccoli in an oven dish, i poured the "sauce" on top...







...and added ½ cup grated cheese and 2 tbsp breadcrumbs mixture on top (left out the oil from anna's recipe).







20 mins in 200C oven and i had lunch. anna suggests that you serve this with either pasta or rice but i had it as is. i though that the added veggies made this a complete meal, but it would certainly feed more if served with pasta or rice. this batch fed certain someone and i twice with generous portions.







just because i haven't been posting (like, for ages) doesn't mean i've been idle (ahem...you might still be right if you thought that). i've been meaning to clean and organize the kitchen cupboards at the shack for the longest time. i figured that this type of cleaningn wouldn't include heavy lifting, the spice jars are light enough to manage with the left hand as well. this is the messy spice cabinet before...







...and after. i did go thru everything and tossed it if 2 yrs had gone since best-by date.







before shot of the canned goods fighting the machinery.







they look more at peace now...







while i was at it, i cleaned other cabinets as well. i did have to toss some items but not as much as i had feared. it's amazing how much more space there is when what you have is in order...sugars, nuts, teas and coffee here

orange (color) chicken

choosing the right pan/pot to make this dish is probably the hardest part...you want a pan with at least 2 inch side and a lid.







the chicken didn't make it in this picture as raw chicken really isn't that photogenic... but along with 500 gr chicken (any kind without the bones) here is what went in:

2 dl cooking cream (as light or heavy as you want)
2 nectarines (a bit on the raw side is fine)
1 sweet potato (a small one or half of a bif one)
4 medium carrots
200 gr sweet corn (in a can or frozen)
curry paste to taste (i used one heaping tbsp)







practiced my zen by chopping everything to bite size pieces.







then browned the chicken, quite lightly as can be seen before adding the carrots for a few minutes...







...before adding the cream and curry paste and let cook for 5 mins before...







...adding the sweet potato and nectarines and letting simmer for 15 mins.







when the veggies were done, i added the corn and turned off the heat, you really don't need to cook the corn, just get it warmed.







this batch serves four. i didn't bother with rice or pasta as there was plenty of veggies, but you could cook some and i bet this would serve up to 6. while eating this i thought that coconut milk might work as a replacement for the cream...

cottage food II: grilled lemon herby chicken, raspberry tart, and others

i've been back and forth at the cottage, as i had leave last week. cottage is always, well mostly anyways, about simple food. here, grilling flat chicken (martha calls it spatchcocked, how to here) while enjoying the scenery.







before you go thinking i've used semi-rotten meat...that bluish color comes from sage and thyme that i put under the skin with very thin slices of lemon.







about half an hour into grilling the birds (on medium-low) i noticed all the fat on the gridle...and remembered that there was some left-over boiled potatoes in the fridge. the chicken fat did wonders on the potatoes, just don't tell your cardiologist! total time for the chicken was about 45 mins.







made a poor man's greek salad (no olives) to go with the chicken, basil on the side. if it had been me, mom and certain someone the basil would have been in the salad (basil works surprisingly well with feta cheese), but for some reason dad will not eat "greens" in a salad...go figure.







naturally, i did make a stock from the backbones. the sage and thyme gave a strong flavor, the stock'll make a great soup later on (it frozen now).







mom then...not sure her medication is alright, the amount of energy she has, wears me out. she's been in the woods for weeks now, picking this and that, and these raspberries. the wild kind is far superior to the garden variety, so sweet and bursting with flavor. as there was so much berries, i needed to figure out what to do with them...







...and a recipe for blueberry tartlets in maku magazine gave me this idea...(it seems that the recipe isn't on the website yet.)
i made the crust with all-purpose flour and some oats, butter and one yolk. there really isn't a recipe but any shortbread type crust will do.






for the custard layer i used half of a vanilla pod, scraped the seeds and blended them into sugar with the blade of a knife, the seeds will distribute more evenly into liquid or flour. i learned this trick from tv (the great educator!), a danish cooking show called "the sweet life". like the name says it's all about the sweet goodness...now, if danish wasn't so hard on my ears...







this trick (the cling film right on the surface of the custard) i learned from anna, i think...







the crust could have been a tad thinner, other than that, perfect summer tart. the glaze was made with jelly sugar that doesn't have any animal products in it.







from sweet to savory, as mentioned earlier, the chaterelles are plentyful. here, sauteed with onions and butter (let your conscience tell how much you can use), the longer in lower heat, the better.







a slaw with carrots, white cabbage, root celeriac, flat-leaf parsley, chives and mayo.







mom's potatoes...from the ground into a pot in 5 mins, they taste amazing, but new potatoes usually do. or maybe it's the fact that mom buried fish parings into the ground with the seed potatoes...







my new favourite, giant white onions grilled on low heat, for a long time. you could use butter, but it's really not necessary, tiny amount of oil will do. i've contemplated on adding some balsamic reduction to this but so far it's just perfect as is.







i have a handy electric grill at the cottage, perfect for the onions, and keeping other (gas)grilled goods warm.