Honey roast chicken

Adapted from Jamie Oliver One Pound Wonders.

ingredients

– two chicken thighs & drumsticks
– red onion
– dried oregano
– cherry tomatoes
– runny honey
– unsalted pistachios
– orange
– Colston Blue Stilton cheese
– medium size potato
– stick of celery

method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put the chicken into a large frying pan, splash of olive oil. High heat. Fry for 10 minutes, or until golden all over, turning frequently.
Peel and roughly chop the onions. Peel the orange, slice the orange peel into the pan, add the onions, oregano and a splash of red wine vinegar, season with sea salt and black pepper and mix well.

Peel or scrape a potato. Slice into chunks. Par boil for about ten minutes. Drain, transfer to the casserole pan.

Transfer to casserole dish, ensure the chicken is skin side up. Roast for around 45 minutes, or until the chicken pulls easily away from the bone.

Move the pan to a medium-high heat on the hob. Toss in the orange segments, quarter and add the tomatoes, and let it start to sizzle and bubble. Add Colston Blue. Drizzle the honey over the chicken. Finely chop and scatter over the pistachios, crumble over.

thoughts

A very tasty dish.

Unlike rosemary roast chicken, started the chicken in a large frying pan not the casserole pan. The only reason for this, the evening before the pan used to fry bacon, to use the fat, oterwise would have used the casserole pan.

Dried oregano not fresh. Greengrocer does not sell, no demand.

Lincoln April showers

Weekend my coronavirus symptoms returned with a vengeance. My firs day out since Friday of last week.

First day not raining all day.

Sunshine and showers. I managed to dodge the heavy rain.

Oxfam bookshop I was surprised to find Coffee Art still on the shelves. I was also pleased to gin ….

Tony’s Chocolony being sold off. I wish they would ditch this slave trade industrial chocolate.

Walk & Ride to Lincoln Cathedral.

Lunch at Elite on the Bail.

Last week one of watteses thought 501 cocktails was for her. I said no. Today I said if she wanted the the book I’d bring it in for her.

Walked back down Steep Hill.

Tap & Tonic top of the High Street no sign of opening anytime soon. They ignore on social media questions when opening. Very poor use of social media.

Stop at Coffee Aroma for a coffee.

End of the afternoon feeling very rough.

Turkish carrot pepper and lentil soup

ingredients

– two small onions
– two red peppers
– carrots
– garlic clove
–  paprika
– cumin
– red lentils
– bulghur wheat
–  flaked almonds
– lemon
– cayenne pepper
– sprig of fresh mint

method

Peel and slice the onion. Deseed and slice the peppers. Peel and roughly chop the carrots.
Slash of oil in a large pan and gently fry them together for 10 mins, until starting to soften.
Peel and chop the garlic.
Add the garlic, paprika, cumin, lentils, and bulghur to the pan, and cook for a further 2 mins.
Bring water to the boil in a kettle.
Add boiling hot water. Bring to a simmer and season with salt and pepper. Cook gently for several minutes, until everything is cooked and softened.
Empty into a medium size saucepan.
Wash frying pan out twice with boiling hot water, empty into the pot.
Bring the pot to the boil and leave to simmer for an hour or so.
Sample and check for seasoning.

.When soup ready to serve, slice a spring of fresh mint, toast fakes of almond with a pinch of salt in a small hot fry pan.

Derve and garnish with the toasted almonds and some freshly chopped mint leaves.

thoughts

Tasty.

I sampled part way through, a little weak and watery. I turned up the heat slightly to lose some of the water.

An improvement would be to use stock instead of water.

Soup was poured out of the pot, vegetables spooned out.

What to do with vegetables left in the pot? Compost heap or stock for another soup?

Mushroom risotto

Adapted from Jamie Oliver One Pound Wonders mushroom risotto.

ingredients

– mushrooms
– chicken stock
– dry vermouth
– white wine
– olive oil
– clove of garlic
– pinch of herbe de Provence
– red onion
– 2 sticks of celery
– risotto rice
– Lincolnshire Ploughman cheese

method

Chicken stock into a pot and bring is simmer.

Place a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat with slosh of olive oil.

Peel, finely slice and stir in the garlic for two minutes

Slice and add the the mushrooms, dried thyme and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper. Cook until the mushrooms start to caramelise and any wate stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.

Remove the mushrooms to be returned later.b

Peel the onion and finely chop with the celery. Add the the pan. Adda slosh of olive oil. Cook until softened.

Once the veg has softened, stir in the rice to toast for 2 minutes.

Return the mushrooms.

Add vermouths d white wine.

Keep adding stock, stir.

Cook for around 15 minutes.

Add Lincolnshire Poacher cheese and a dollop of creme fraiche.

Plate. Sprinkle on top the cheese remains.

thoughts

Disappointed. Not as creamy as mushroom risotto at Old Ithaki.

Mastica Tonic

A couple of years ago a friend introduced me to In Love Again, but we’re too late for a coffee.

I revisited last year. On display copies of Fine. Editor and publisher owns In Love Again and the bar polite, Baba au Rum.

This year I picked up two more issues.

Flipping through a recipke for Skinos Tonic. I came across Skinos at HoReC where they are me a tonic.

I have use Roots instead of Skinos for the matica.

mastica tonic

– 50ml Roots mastic
– 100ml Fever Tree Premium Indian tonic water
– ice
– stir
– garnish with a stick of celery

Stirring with a bar spoon andrakingasio, not impressed. But adding teceleydickstir, oeaaigrhigcoctaik

#mastica #mastiha #tonic #cocktails

Rosemary roast chicken

Rosemary roast chicken with leeks, garlic, Brew Dog Punk IPA, butter beans, creme fraiche,  Colston Blue and baby leaf spinach.

Adapted from rosemary roast chicken One Pan Wonders Jamie Oliver.

ingredients
– two hicken thighs & drumsticks, skin on bone
– Brew Dog Punk IPA
– two cloves of garlic
– 400g tin of butter bears
– one leek
– Colston Blue Stilton cheese
– sprig of rosemary
– sprig of mint
– crème fraiche
– baby leaf spinach
method
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Slosh of olive oil in a large shallow casserole pan  on a high heat. Add the chicken, fry for 10 minutes, or until golden all over, turning regularly, while you peel and finely slice the garlic, and wash, trim and very finely slice the leeks. Pick and roughly chop the rosemary leaves, then add to the pan with the garlic and leeks, season with sea salt and black pepper, mix well and cook for a couple of minutes to soften slightly. Ensure the chicken is skin side up, add a pinch of herbes de Provence.  Half-drain and add the butter beans.
Roast for 45 minutes, or until the chicken pulls easily away from the bone, fan oven 180C.
After 45 minutes,  move the pan to a medium-high heat on the hob. Bomb in little nuggets of Stilton and add the crème fraiche.
Mix well, simmer for just a few minutes, wilt in the baby leaf spinach.

Plate. 

thoughts
Easy to prepare.

A very tasty dish.

Spinach Tomato and Butterbean Curry

A mild curry, packed with sweet roasted tomatoes, carthy spinach and butterbeans.

ingredients

– cherry tomatoes
–  garlic clove
– small piece ginger
– red chilli pepper
– coriander
–  tin butterbeans
– spice pot no. 19

– garam masala
– tin light coconut milk
– half a mug white basmati rice
–  star anise (to flavour rice)
– cinnamon stick (to flavour rice)
– baby leaf spinach

method

Preheat  oven to 200°C.

Halve, the cherry tomatoes.  Put them in a roasting tin. .Sprinkle a little sakt. Drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 20 minutes, until softened.

Peel and finely chop the garlic and ginger. Desced and finely chop the chilli.

Chop the coriander stalks away from the leaves. Chop the stalks.

Drain and rinse the butterbeans .

Heat ½ tbsp of oil in a large pan. Add the ginger, garlic, coriander stalks and half the chilli. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir frequently.

Add the spice pot and garam masala. Stir for approx. 30 seconds, until smelling fragrant.

Add the butter beans. Stir the tin of coconut milk (emptying it into a bowl and whisking it together can work best), then add three-quarters of the tin of coconut milk.

Simmer for 10 minutes. You might want a splash more water later (or the rest of the coconut milk if you don’t mind the

Meanwhile, boil a kettle. Rinse the rice in the sieve. Add the rice, star anise, cinnamon and a pinch of salt to another saucepan. Cover the rice with plenty of boiled water. Bring it to the boil. Cook for 10-12 minutes, until the rice is just tender.

Chop the coriander leaves

When the tomatoes are ready, remove them from the oven and add them to the curry sauce. Then, handful by handful, stir in the spinach until wilted in.

Drain the cooked rice. Remove the star anise and cinnamon

Season the curry, stir in some of the coriander leaves and add more fresh chilli if you like.

Divide the rice and curry between 2 bowls. Sprinkle over more coriander leaves to garnish.

thoughts

Spinach Tomato and Butterbean Curry #Riverford pic.twitter.com/DvH6Izn2EW

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) March 25, 2023

Spinach Tomato and Butterbean Curry #Riverford pic.twitter.com/L0oL67LjHj

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) March 25, 2023

I should have added more rice.

Other than the spices, another tasteless vegan dish. I neglected to season the curry.

Light coconut milk a mistake. It would have been creamers d tastier if not used light.

Coffee House

During lockdown coffee roasteries sprung up like fungi during warm autumn rain.

If they are a lucky, a local village shop may stock, a local cafe. Markets are a must.

On Guildford farmers market I found beans for sale. Never seen before, never seen since. Asked of the q grade, I was told 250g.

Lincoln farmers market, third Saturday of March, I found Coffee House. Another lock down roastery.

Jackalopy Joe uses paper coffee bags. Useless for storing coffee beans, the paper is porous, the beans will oxidise and be stale. Coffee House weeusing the same useless bags.

When I pick up a bag of beans, a wonderful aroma. With these bags nothing. No aroma, not unless we include the strong smell of the brown paper bags. Maybe that was why the objected to my picking up a bag

Little kilner jars of roasted beans. As with the bags, no aroma.

Looking at one lot of beans, it looked over roasted.

Roasting requires skill, knowledge of coffee.

It goes without saying I did not pick a bag of beans. It would have been a futile exercise and a waste of money.

Lincoln farmers market

Saturday a week ago, third Saturday of the month, farmers market.

City centre packed.

Long wait for Walk and Ride, city centre gridlocked.

Eventually turned up Out of Service, but driver offered to give it a go. Quicker to have walked.

A long chat with an organic stall about honey and Honey Festival in Athens autumn last autumn. I picked up not sure what, turnip, parsnip. They reminded me of the market closed at two. It was already two.

Last market there was a new stall, honey. Saturday not there, in its place another new stall, coffee.

Not impressed by the coffee stall.

Fresh salmon, but no crab. Raw milk, Poacher cheese, butter , but no creme fraiche

Lunch at Elite on the Bail.

Looked in Dough Loco. Will drop by one day and pass on what I learned of pizza making from world champion pizza maker at HoReCa.

Walking down Steep Hill, Base Camp their window smashed. It will be expensive to repair, old building.

Back down in the city centre late afternoon, drunken scum roaming the streets.

Lincoln April showers

Rain forecast for a couple of hours early afternoon, but low probability.

Monday @FrancoMancaPizz sourdough pizzas £6. Cost of Living Crisis will we see Three Joes sourdough pizza make the same offer? #pizza #sourdough #Lincoln https://t.co/rp125mzyyo pic.twitter.com/eunSspecPB

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) March 25, 2023

Looked in Three Joes sourdough pizza but did not see the guy I saw Monday. Expensive, £12-95 for the cheapest pizza.

When will Three Joes sourdough pizza be making the same offer as Franco Manca sourdough pizza on Monday, pizzas £6?

501 Must-Drink Cocktails #books #cocktails pic.twitter.com/YTZPQQBuiK

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) March 25, 2023

501 Must-Drink Cocktails from Oxfam bookshop.

Muesli and risotto rice from zero waste shop. How much risotto rice for mushroom risotto? A couple of handfuls.

Lincoln Cathedral pic.twitter.com/YxXjv4CGRu

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) March 24, 2023

Walk & Ride to Lincoln Cathedral. I could see black clouds. It started to chuck it down.

Sheltered in art gallery.

It eased off. Sun came out. I made it to Elite on the Bail before the next down pour.

cappuccino Coffee Aroma #coffee #coffeeshop #Lincoln pic.twitter.com/3aE4JPpRly

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) March 24, 2023

Walked down Steep Hill to Coffee Aroma.

Passing Franco Manca I noticed again empty, one customer.