Recipe: Succulent Chicken Breast Rigatoni (aka Teriyaki Mac n Cheese)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

This recipe is really nothing more that a bit of chopping and mixing, simple and tasty. The key is succulent chicken and pasta a touch softer than al dente. You don’t want it to come out as if it came form a tin can, but make it too al dente and it all becomes to much effort to eat!!

Who likes sucking on a cross between a rubber bullet and a piece of chalk? Meh . . .  not so much! Who likes raw chicken? Nobody! 

So, the key to succulent chicken, is not to over cook it! 

Teriyaki Mac and Cheese is fast and simple comfort food, some soft cheese and some cured Mediterranean sausage and you’re ready for bliss!

ingredients (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts (cut into chicken tenders, and left to marinate)

400g rigatoni pasta (dry weight)

for the marinade

1 tbsp teriyaki sauce

1 tbsp medium peri peri sauce

1 tbsp chilli sauce

for the sauce

2 onions (diced and cooked translucent)

50ml EVO

50g italian salami (diced)

50g chorizo (diced)

200g soft cheese

2tbsp garlic onion reduction

for the spring onion vinaigrette (enough for 8)

250ml EVO

200ml cider vingar

1 tbsp sugar

4 spring onions (chopped into thin rings)

This dish is, as with most cooking (specially with pasta), all about timing! Definitely don’t want hard chewy chicken and soggy pasta. It’s about a smooth sauce with a little kick, succulent and tasty chicken, with morsels of Mediterranean cured meats, all mixed with a pasta that holds a little shape and plenty of sauce . . . . now we’re talking!!

Before starting put a kettle of water on to boil.

chicken

Pull the centre piece out of the breast, the kind of mini breast (the bit you make chicken tenders with), and cut the remaining breast into 3 slices the same size, put it all into a food bag or a take away box with the marinade, 30mins is fine, while you put the kids down or a have a glass of wine. Thinking about it the kids will love this recipe! When you feel the chicken is ready put the olive oil into a medium hot frying pan, and using tongs shake off the excess marinade and put it into the pan. Keep the excess marinade. Turn the chicken once to colour each side. The chicken pieces should be golden when you turn them and should be cooked on the outside. Put them on a plate to one side.

rigatoni

Add 2L of boiling water to a pot, add 1tbsp salt and bring the water to the boil. Add the pasta and boil for 9-10min, the pack I had said 12-14mins but if you put it in that long it would come out as mush at the end. Secondly it’ll be inedible if you keep it for lunch tomorrow. Whereas if it’s al dente, it will be fine for tomorrows lunch!! : )

sauce

Using the pan from the chicken, fry off the onions until translucent.

Then add the diced cured meat, and let it render a little fat into the pan. 

Add 2 tbsp of garlic onion reduction (alternatively 1/2 a crumbled chicken stock and a little garlic salt, and 200ml water). Then add the soft cheese and stir in until all the lumps have gone. Add a little water if it’s too thick. It should be the same consistency as cream. Turn the heat down until it’s bubbling lightly, then cut chicken tenders into 1/3’s with a pair of scissors add them to the sauce.

Leave for about 5 mins then turn off the heat and wiat for the pasta.

to serve

Once the pasta is ready drain it and add it to the sauce. Mix well. Serve immediately.

If it’s come out a little under seasoned you can grate some parmesan on it but it shouldn’t need it.

A touch of parsley for that retro garnish look? It’s up to you!!

Personally I went with a rather sharp vinaigrette and spring onion to balance the cheese sauce and compliment the spiciness.

Experiment - Recipe: Beef Shortribs w/ Cinnamon and Orange (& beef dripping)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab
 
I often see recipes that look or sound so enticing, with ingredients that I kinda sit there and go . . .  yeah, right, so I'll be trying that out some time soon . . . . NOT! So when I do come across things that I've been meaning to get around to experimenting with, I'll more often buy them than not! What is life for if not for experimenting!!


A quick look around the ol' interweb thingy, scan through a few of me cookbooks and it's clear - unsurprisingly - that a slooow braise is in order. . .

ingredients (serves 2-4)
for the short ribs  - G2 / 150C / 4hrs
short rib cut (one piece cut into 4 ribs, coated in EVO and salt)
3 onions (cut into sixths)
2 peppers (coarse chop)
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 bulb garlic (crushed)
10g thyme
peel of 1/2 an orange
1 large chilli (rings, seeds and all)
a good slug of EVO

for the dripping
this is a by-product of browning the ribs

for the stock
2 beef stock cubes
1L water

apparatus / equipment
coarse sieve (frying basket)
cartouche

cartouche
To make a cartouche fold a piece of baking paper into a dart. The point of the dart is the centre of the final cartouche.
Cut the other end off in an arc. The centre to the arc is the diameter of you pot!! (Make it a touch larger than the pot)
This does of course assume your pot is round.

short ribs
Coat in oil, salt and brown - fat side first to render the fat.
Once browned nicely, remove to baking tray, and pour excess fat into a second pot (dripping)
Add the onions and garlic to the fat and brown off; then add to baking tray with the rest of the ingredients.
Deglaze the pan with the stock and add to the baking tray (half way up ribs)
Cover with a cartouche - (allows moisture escape, stops skin forming, stops meat drying out)
Roast in pre-heated oven.

dripping
Let any excess fat in the secondary pan solidify, store in a container.

notes
G2 / 150C / 4hrs? Thought . . . maybe that'll turn out stringy, that was my first instinct.
Was pretty gooey and soft after 3hrs, which I think was enough, maybe try 4hrs next time!! . . . .  

 If I do it 4hrs think I'll drop the temp to 100C too!!

to serve
Plate each rib into a hot shallow bowl generously spooning over vegetables and jus!

Recipe: Oyster Mushrooms Noisette

by ferdie

This is an unassuming but tasty little number, I often do it if I'm doing tapas since you can cook them in the afternoon and reheat them when you need them. Sitting in the clay dish with a little parsley on top they look very prosaic. Which is kinda what you want so that with that first bite your guests will have that look of mixed surprise and delight at the nutty loveliness.

They go well with tortilla, and as an accompaniment to a variety of things (add link to chorizo crisps), and are a great vegetarian option on their own, and, for example, with a little cream and tagliateli or torteloni.  

Oyster mushrooms, extra virgin olive oil, salt.

INGREDIENTS
400g oyster mushrooms
150ml Noilly Prat (dry white vermouth or failing that white wine)
50g unsalted butter
extra virgin olive oil
parsley to garnish
flakey salt and pepper

METHOD
Put enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan with generous coat of oil and add the mushrooms, turn up the heat.
Add the mushrooms just before the oil starts to smoke and toss them in the oil to coat them all over.
Once coated sweat off the mushroom don't move them around too much allow them to brown from the heat of the pan.
Once they have released most of their moisture and are nice and golden brown, remove them from the pan to a bowl.
Get the pan hot, pour in the Noilly Prat / white wine - it should bubble as soon as it hits the pan - and boil until you can no longer smell evaporating alcohol. When you reach this point return the mushrooms to the frying pan, stirring them to coat them all over.
Once there is almost no liquid left in the pan remove the mushrooms to your bowl again and add the butter.
Melt the butter and heat it until it turn a light brown, (You do not want this smoking!) and then return the mushrooms to the pan, coat well. Once all the juices are soaked up, you can serve or put aside until later.

After they've taken a little colour they should like this. Fab!

If you put it aside simply return it to the pan to warm through.

Serve in a clay tapas dish with a few leaves of parsley on top and some rosemary bread.

A vegetarian dish: Oyster Mushrooms Noisette w/ Tagliateli and Baby Courgettes