Time to get my personal prejudices on the table – I have never enjoyed watching Gordon Ramsay on the television – but I really do like some of his recipes!  There you are – all out in the open!  This recipe is a perfect example!  We have modified it very slightly to cook on the Big Green Egg.  Additionally, as I really don’t think it benefits at all from the addition of chilli flakes, these have been omitted from our cook.  The recipe below includes chilli as on option.  We have included a link to Ramsay’s original recipe and YouTube video (1).

I really love working with these secondary cuts of meat that need to be cooked slowly and in doing so can take on such bold flavours.  In addition they are often relatively inexpensive – this is a real case in point.  The recipe was based round a 750g rolled lamb breast.  It was picked up at our local supermarket reduced from £4.70 to £2.29!! A true bargain – though even at full price it would have been excellent value!

The first thing to do was unroll the piece so that we could add additional flavours to the inside of the joint.  The roll had been made up from 2 separate pieces, again illustrating the versatility of this cut.
It was laid out on a cutting board and seasoned generously with salt on both sides. This was followed by the dried oregano, lemon zest and anchovies.  The ingredients for the dish gave it a very Provençal feel. From our experience chilli is not used to any great extent in Provence and so we omitted the chilli flakes that were suggested in the original recipe.

So time to re-roll the meat.  We used some small elastic poultry bands to hold it together.  These work so well on small cuts of meat like this as well as on poultry!  If you don’t have any to hand, then a conventional butcher’s string tie at each end and one in the middle would be fine.

We did the first part of the cook in one of our handless Tefal pans.  This could be done directly on the BGE or on a conventional hob.  The pan was heated and some olive oil added.  The lamb was then rolled around the pan until it took on some good colours all over. As the outer layer shrinks a little as it cooks, the inside seems to squeeze out of the middle as in the picture.  Don’t worry about this as it will largely correct itself in the second part of the cook.  Whilst the meat browned, the onions were cut into large chunks (as it was going to be a slow cook and we don’t want  them to disappear into the cooking sauce). The meat was set aside, a little more oil was added, and the onion put straight into the same pan to fry with the partially crushed garlic.  The capers were then popped in with the onions and cooked through, followed by a little more lemon zest.  The pan was then deglazed with white wine and a good squeeze of lemon juice.  The final addition was the tinned tomatoes which were gently crushed and stirred into the mix.  The rolled lamb was then placed on top and we were ready to go.

If cooking indoors this needs to be covered with a lid or a foil top to prevent too much liquid loss. It can then be placed in the oven on 170C for 2 – 2.5 hours. We were cooking in the Big Green Egg which had been set up for indirect cooking at around 140C.  Cooking in the EGG this way we usually leave the dish uncovered.  Very occasionally the liquid may need to be topped up a little with some water.

At this temperature I would expect to cook for 3-4 hours until the meat core temperature was between 88-93C.  At this point the meat would be very tender but not quite at the stage you might have for pulled lamb.  It is however perfect for slicing.

After about 3 hours – the lamb was lifted out and the sauce stirred to check on the consistency.  It really didn’t need any more liquid so the lamb was popped back in and left to complete the cook.

When the core was around 90C the meat was removed and allowed to rest prior to carving.   At this point the final consistency of the sauce can be checked.

When ready to serve, carefully remove the bands or butchers string and carve into generous slices.  These can be served directly on the sauce.  We also added some French beans from the garden – well it is a Provençal dish!!

We will be doing it again ……………

………………… do give it a go!!

References (1) Gordon Ramsay’s Braised Stuffed Lamb’s Breast – https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VaWYE8dvDGk

It We need to start with two small confessions.  Firstly, we have not found an authentic Italian recipe for this dish (yet)! And secondly, we have taken longer to name the dish than it did to cook and eat it!!  Lets start with how we came to make the dish and you will get some idea why the naming took some time!!

After a lot of advice from Meg at Moat Goats we bought a half Goat Kid from them in early 2023.  We challenged ourselves to cook each of the pieces that arrived without venturing into any form of curried goat (this time at least).  We have already cooked a (more…)

As much as anything this is a ‘reminder to self’!  There are so many wonderful vegetables available in the middle of summer that with or without a recipe we should grab and use them.  Here is a perfect example of that – we had a few extra tomatoes and French beans from the garden.  We had also bought a few more peppers than normal as they had been on offer so they were abundant too.  So this ‘Grab some Veg’ dish (more…)

We have cooked so much ragù on the Big Green Egg but written very little about it.  This is just because I have been overwhelmed by the diversity and breadth of the history of ragù in Italy.  So where do you start?  Well we are starting here – with a master of Italian food, Theo Randall.  Jackie and I have recently been doing some online courses from Banquist, a company based in the UK.  Their pasta course was led by Theo Randall – if you have not come across Theo – check him out here.

This was the second dish we cooked on the course.  It was a beef ragù, with more Neapolitan rather than Bolognese origins in that tomatoes are very well represented in the sauce.  This is not the case with Bolognese cooking (you can feel the complication of Italian cooking history already).  However you chose to classify it though, it is a really great ragù.  This recipe follows Theo’s almost exactly.  It was, however, cooked for longer at a lower temperature and was cooked over charcoal on the Big Green Egg.

The meat used for this first ‘run out’ of this recipe was wagyu shoulder. Beef shoulder is often referred to as Chuck and I would suspect that any chuck would work well in this recipe!  Using substantial chunks of meat when making a ragù has the enormous advantage that they are easy to manage at this stage when trying to get colour onto the meat.  It is that Maillard reaction that brings so much extra flavour to dishes. The chunks of beef were dried and then seasoned generously with salt.  The beef was then fried at a high heat in a pan with a little olive oil, making sure that all sides of the meat were browned.  This could be done on the BGE but on this occasion these first stages were done on a domestic hob in the kitchen.  Whilst the meat was browning a large onion was halved and diced reasonably finely.  The meat was then removed from the pan and set to one side.

The diced onion was then added to the pan with the remaining meat juices, together with a further kiss of olive oil. As the onions started to sauté 2 sticks of celery were finely chopped and added to the pan with a little more olive oil and fried on a medium heat for around 4 minutes.

This is where we came across the first surprise.  A sofrito normally has diced carrot, which would be added at this stage, but the advice was to miss out the carrot (as much for visual reasons as anything else).  A little reluctantly we went along with this (Chef Randall has had a Michelin Star after all!!). So a slightly different looking sofrito in this one!!

As the sofrito was cooking the San Marzano tomatoes were chunked and then very finely blended with a stick blender.  Normally a passata is sieved to remove the seeds and skin.  When it is blitzed in this way though it is not really necessary and there is far less waste.  The blitzed tomato was going to be used with some conventional passata to add some sweet freshness.

The beef was added back to the sofrito and the chopped rosemary.  The red wine was added and stirred through the mix. This was left to simmer for a few minutes to drive off the alcohol before adding the tomato pulp and the passata.  The pan was then brought to a gentle simmer.  If we were going to finish the cooking in a conventional oven this would be the time to add a close fitting lid before putting it in the oven at around 180C for around 90 minutes.  We were, however, going to cook the ragù on the BGE set up for indirect cooking at between 150-160C.

Because we were cooking on the BGE the pan was not lidded for some of the cook as the EGG doesn’t dry out a casserole in the same way a domestic oven does.  As we were cooking at a lower temperature we cooked for around 2.5 hours rather than the 90mins in the original recipe.  If necessary just add a little more liquid if needed.  The great thing is that as long as you don’t let the dish dry out it is difficult to overcook it!

Once the meat is meltingly tender the casserole can be removed from the Big Green Egg for the next stage in the process.  As we started off with large chunks of meat we then needed to break up the  meat into the sauce.  The easiest way to do this is with a whisk.  The whisk is simply used to bash the meat until it breaks down to the required consistency as in the picture.  The ragù can be used straight away or left to mature overnight.  If anything it is a little better on the second day!

We were serving the ragù with home made egg pasta.  Hopefully we will publish this later.  We were going to use a very traditional Tuscan Pappardelle pasta which is usually around 2cm wide and around 25cm long.

The secret of a great pasta ragù is to slightly undercook the pasta so that it is al dente and then to add the pasta and a little of the salted pasta water to the ragù.  The final cooking of the pasta is finished in the ragu.  The pappardelle is gently stirred through the ragù and as that is done it releases some of its starch, adding a silkiness.  Just before it is ready to serve, a handful of chopped herbs can be added and stirred through; on this occasion parsley.

All that is left to do is pop open a good bottle of Italian red, and serve the pasta on the plate or bowl of your choice.  ideally the serving dish for this sort of pasta should have a flat base.  This traditional way of serving the dish has the practical advantage that the pasta can be spread out.

……….so some freshly grated parmesan……..

……………… and away we go!!

Footnote: The dish was delicious and my concern about missing the carrots out of the sofrito on this occasion were unfounded – however as a rule I am still using very finely diced carrots in my sofrito for other dishes!!

What is in a name? I often think it funny how we accept both the name of dishes and their presentation as though they are ‘original dishes’. I mean original in the sense of – always made this way.  In reality the dishes we have today represent the journey the dish has taken both through history, and from its geographical origin.  “Pollo alla Cacciatora”, “Chicken Cacciatora” or “Hunter’s Chicken” is just one of those examples.  Clearly from the name its origins are Italian.  There are, however, also versions from France where it is called chasseur, and Spain where it is called cazadores.  These dishes are stalwarts of restaurants from each of these countries but if we go back in time would any self respecting hunter ever gone out hunting and come back with a chicken …………. I think not!

Jamie Oliver in his recipe on which this particular cook is based suggested that it would be the type of food a hunter’s wife would cook for her hunter husband when he returned from a day of hunting.  Even if we put the stereotype to oneside here I suspect that the notion is fanciful.  More likely that this is a dish cooked using the products of a day’s hunting.  I suspect it will have been originally made with rabbit or what we now think of as game birds.  The gentle cooking that these recipes have in common would be perfectly suited to these tasty, but potentially dry and often stringy sources of meat

Having said all that, this particular recipe uses chicken as we are yet to try other options ……….. but hopefully we will, and will report back!  Cooking with chicken would mean that the time for cooking could easily be reduced as the chicken will cook quickly – often too quickly!  But to reduce the time I feel is to miss the point.  This is a slow cook dish that develops its taste through slow cooking.  Because of this though, rather than use the whole chicken, I would reserve the breasts for other dishes.  The drum, thigh and even the wings respond well to slower, longer cooks.  For this particular cook we used just thighs and drumsticks!

We had decided to take the leisurely approach to this dish which therefore started out with an overnight marinade (though a couple of hours would probably be fine too!). The chicken pieces were kept with the skin on and were seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  They were put into a container and bay leaves, rosemary and a crushed clove of garlic were added.  The container was topped up with the red wine and it was popped into the fridge to work its magic overnight.

Taking it out of the fridge in the morning the chicken had taken on that rather dusky colour that you get when marinating in red wine. That brought into contrast the deeper yellow colour you get with slower grown corn fed birds.  This is a dish that I firmly believe should be cooked with the skin on the chicken.  Like most people though I hate ‘floppy’, ‘soggy’ chicken skin!

The answer is to brown off the chicken really well, and render down the fat in the skin which adds enormously to the taste of the dish.  And then to cook at least some of the chicken ‘breaking the surface’ of the casserole – so that it is exposed to the heat of the cooking directly.  This is a perfect opportunity therefore to cook in the Big Green Egg.  Cook at a low temperature, for a longer time.  No lid is needed on the casserole, the surface of the skin exposed to heat but in an oven which will not dry out the meat.

The BGE was set up for direct cooking at around 180C.  The chicken was drained and the marinade reserved.  After removing the chicken it was dried and  very lightly dusted with seasoned flour, the excess shaken off.  The pans were heated on the BGE and a little oil was added.  The chicken was then browned off making sure the fat was well rendered from the skin. This can be done in a shallow casserole or a handleless frying pan such as the Tefal Ingenio pans.  We were using the MiniMax which easily accommodates the pans we were using.  Once beautifully coloured, the meat can be set aside.

We could have finished this off in the shallow casserole but opted for a slightly deeper one as we were cooking 12 chicken pieces.  This was put onto the heat and the sliced garlic was gently coloured.  The anchovies, olives, tomatoes (broken up with a wooden spoon) and the chicken pieces with their reserved marinade were then added. The pot was brought to a very gentle boil then the platesetter was put into place to move from direct to indirect cooking. The temperature of the EGG was dropped to around 130C and the casserole left to very gently bubble.  As we were cooking in the BGE there was no need to put the lid on the Dutch oven allowing a gentle smokiness to add to the flavour of the dish.

We left it all to cook for more than the 1½ hours suggested in the original recipe We checked a couple of times that more water was not needed and gave it the occasional gentle stir, but nothing else.

Once the chicken was obviously ‘butter tender’ and the sauce had formed a lovely ‘jammy’ finish on the chicken all the vents were closed.  All that was left to do was to skim off any oil that’s collected on top of the sauce, taste and add a little salt and pepper if necessary.

Bay leaves and rosemary sprigs were removed and we were ready to serve (and portion some for later too).

We served one drum and one thigh per person.  It works well with a salad. as the sauce is not wet and runny.  It also works really well with cannellini beans or chickpeas.  Try rice or gnocchi or as here, with spiced red cabbage and root vegetables …………………

………..oh yes …………….and plenty of Italian red!!

Over the last couple of years we have been eating more and more aubergine based dishes.  Usually Italian in style, they always seems to be made with tomatoes too.  When we came across this recipe in our local supermarket’s food magazine it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. A quick glance on the internet reveals a host of versions of this recipe.  So many of them though included lots of different and additional ingredients: raisins, pine nuts, cream, mozzarella, feta, bread crumbs, mint ……….. the list goes on! As with so much Italian cooking, at its best, simplicity is the key.  This is basically a simple dish, with a minimal number of ingredients and it has Italy written all over it!

We have made this a number of times both indoor and out and it always works well!  The first time we tried it we didn’t have any ricotta cheese and substituted a soft spreadable goats cheese we had in the fridge.  That was great – but I have to say on balance my favourite version is this one with ricotta.  We have tried different tinned tomatoes too.  Whilst it works well with any good tinned tomato, it is just in a different league when made with tinned San Marzano tomatoes.
These are the classic Italian tomato; one of the only 2 types allowed on an authentic Neapolitan Pizza.  (The other is the Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio which must be grown in one of the 18 ‘comuni’ lying just about within the Vesuvius National Park).  They bring a special flavour and sweetness to the sauce without having to resort to the addition of sugar.  They are more expensive, but as the sauce simply comprises only tomatoes, garlic, sage leaves and butter, this is a perfect time to use them!

Preparation is simplicity itself; the BGE was set up for indirect cooking with the platesetter in place.  Once the temperature stabilised at around 180-200C we needed a solid metal surface to add some colour to the aubergine slices.  A plancha, skillet or in our case a stainless steel searing plate was perfect.  We usually just oil it and pop the aubergines on flipping them as they take on colour.    In batches, these were cooked for 10-15 minutes turning once during the cooking. They were then put to one side to cool.

We swapped out the searing plate for our Tefal Ingenio frying pan. This could have been used to brown the aubergine slices which would have made this a true one pan cook.  Once the pan was hot we added the butter, garlic slices and the sage leaves and cooked for a few minutes to infuse their taste into the butter. To this was added one can of San Marzano tomatoes and as they usually come as whole tomatoes they were gently crushed and mixed with the infused butter and seasoned.  If cooking on a hob or stove top I would add around one third of a can of water to the tomatoes and leave them to bubble gently for around 20 minutes until the sauce thickens and the flavour deepens.  Cooking on the EGG is the same except that you only add  a touch of water, just enough to rinse out the can.  This is because the cooking in the EGG retains so much moisture.  To cook the sauce it is worth just closing down the vents a little and dropping the temperature to around 180C.

Whilst the sauce was cooking we put the ricotta into a bowl, grated in the zest and added the juice of half a lemon and two thirds of the grated parmesan.  It was seasoned to taste with just a little salt and pepper.  One heaped teaspoon of the mix was placed at one end of the aubergine and this was then rolled up into a cylinder containing the mix.  Once the sauce was cooked the rolled aubergines were pushed into the sauce with the seam at the bottom.

A drizzle of olive oil was poured over the involutini and some sage and torn basil leaves scattered over the top.  This was followed by the remains of the lemon infused ricotta and the rest of the parmesan.  The dish was then returned to the Big Green Egg for the final part of the cook.   It takes around 25-30 minutes to cook this through.  If the top doesn’t brown as you would like, it can be popped under a grill for a minute or so (or under the flame of a pizza oven for 30 seconds!).

Possibly the most important step however, and one easily forgotten – let it stand!  The dish should be allowed to cool before serving.  This is true for so many baked dishes with a tomato sauce base and very true here.  Let it stand for at least 5 minutes.  Use the time to make a fresh leaf salad which is the perfect accompaniment.  Pour yourself a glass of something you fancy (A medium bodied red wine is perfect) – and take a sip in anticipation!

Serve at the table with the simple salad …………………..

………….buon appetito!

This cook is based on a recipe from Boxxfresh, a UK company supplying really great fresh fruit and vegetables. They described Mole (pronounced ‘mo-lay’) as the ‘quintessential chilli sauce native to Mexico’. It apparently literally means ’everyday sauce’!   As such it is ladled over nachos, tacos, enchiladas, burritos or served on rice.  The recipe takes care to mimic what so many of us think of a “Chilli” meaning Chilli con Carne.  But this is a plant based dish or one of the plant-centric dishes we are cooking more and more.  So whilst mimicking this classic meat based dish it uses chopped mushrooms to recreate some of the texture of minced beef and does so very well.  It returns to its origins in South America with tomatoes, black beans, dark chocolate, chillies and cinnamon spices to create what they describe as ‘deep soulful flavours that will have you reaching for seconds!’

The Big Green Egg was lit and allowed to heat up to around 180C.  Whilst the temperature settled we blitzed the mushrooms in the food processor, being carful not to process it too far.  The whole thing could be cooked directly in a Dutch Oven but I prefer to use a wide shallow handle free pan to start things off.  The  mushrooms were gently fried off in olive oil in this pan until softened.  These were then set aside.

As the food processor had already been used we also blitzed the onions and then cooked in the same pan as we had the mushrooms.  After a minute or so the chopped garlic was added. We have also come to add the red pepper (which we use instead of the chilli in the original recipe) at this stage.  This was softened with the onions. (We have also done them separately and added them back in when the mushrooms were added back – but this is just easier).

The onions were cooked until translucent at which point the spice mix was then stirred through and cooked for another minute or so.

The platesetter was put in place to move the BGE to indirect cooking.  A small chunk of oak was added to the charcoal to add to the smoky flavours developed in the second part of the cook.

The onion, garlic, pepper and spice mix was transferred to a Dutch oven together with the 2 tins of beans.  This was then put into the EGG and allowed to warm through.  Once warmed, the tomato puree, tinned tomatoes, tamari, vinegar and wine were all added to the pot and gently mixed together.  The whole dish was brought to a very gentle simmer without the lid to cook off the alcohol and allow the liquids to reduce a little.
Finally, the mushrooms, (the sautéed peppers if you choose to cook them separately), chocolate and maple syrup were added and stirred through the dish.  As you will see from the picture we had slightly misjudged the volume of the ingredients.  The pan was very full to say the least.  Normally we would have cooked this for around 90 minutes or so at around 150-160C.  Because the pan was so full we cooked at around 110C instead.  This proved to be a great decision!

At 110C we ended up with a very slow cook taking around 5hrs.  During this time the volume reduced, though only a little, and the colour deepened.  More importantly the taste took on a really complex richness, more than we have had before.  It will be ‘low and slow’ for this dish from now on!

Served with a baked potato, rice, nachos or tortilla chips – you really can’t go wrong!!

…………. do give it a go!!

 

Chilli sin Carne - a plant-centric version of a classic

April 9, 2021

Servings: 6

Prep: 40 min

Total: 4 hr

Difficulty: Easy

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A superb plant centric version of a classic chilli con carne!

By: Mark

Ingredients

• Main Iingredents
• 250g of mushrooms
• 2 red onions or 3 shallots
• 4-5 garlic cloves
• 1 Red pepper (could substitute with 1/2 or 1 whole chilli)
• 2 tins of black beans of kidney beans or pinto beans (drained and rinsed)
• 2 x 400g tinned tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp Tamari
• 1 tbsp balsamic or red wine vinegar
• 1 large glass red wine
• 10g of dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• A little water if required
• --
• For the spicing
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika ( smoked of you have it )
• 1 tsp oregano
• 3 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to season

Directions

• Step 1 This can be cooked inside on the hob and oven – or on the BGE – or a combination of both. When the weather isn’t great we sometimes do the first part in the kitchen on the hob
• Step 2 Light the Big Green Egg and allow it to heat up to around 180C.  
• Step 3 Blitz the mushrooms in the food processor Leave them coarse)
• Step 4 Sauté the mushrooms in olive oil until coloured and softened, either directly in a dutch oven or in a handless pan (if working on the BGE).  Set aside.
• Step 5 Blitz the onions and cook in the same pan as the mushrooms. After a minute or so add the chopped garlic after a couple of minutes more add the red pepper and softened with the onions. When the onions are translucent add the spice mix and stir through for another minute or so.  
• Step 6 Add the platesetter to the BGE and add some smoking wood to the charcoal
• Step 7 Transfer the onion, garlic, pepper and spice mix to a Dutch oven (if not already using the Dutch oven)together with the 2 tins of beans.  Place on the EGG and allow to warm through.  Then add the tomato puree, tinned tomatoes, tamari, vinegar and wine to the pot and stir through. Bring to a very gentle simmer without the lid to cook off the alcohol and allow the liquids to reduce a little.
• Step 8 Finally, add the mushrooms, chocolate and maple syrup and stir through the dish.  Cook at around 110C for at least 3hrs (or at 180C for 90m
• Step 9 Serve with a baked potato, rice, nachos or tortilla chips

 

We have probably done a greater variety of cooking this year as we have largely been confined to home during the Covid pandemic in 2020.   I have intended to use the time to do more writing for the site – but in the end we have cooked more and written less!!

One thing we have been doing is (more…)

This week we had too many French beans to cope with and so we needed to be a little inventive!  We therefore combined some of the dishes we have tried over the last couple of decades travelling over Europe and were delighted with the outcome.  I doubt its absolute authenticity but am convinced by its principal ingredients.  More importantly – it just works!!!

Basically this is a bean dish designed to ‘showcase’ a piece of meat or fish.   We lit the BGE and set it up for indirect cooking.  As it was heating up we put into the BGE a small pan of trimmed French beans which had been halved (as they were long).  As the BGE came up to temperature we let the beans boil for around 3 minutes to begin to cook.  The water was then poured away and the beans were put to one side.  In a sauté pan we then cooked a finely chopped shallot in some olive oil and part way through cooking added a coarsely chopped garlic clove.

Once these had taken on a little colour a can of chopped tomatoes joined the mixture to cook for around 10 minutes with some freshly chopped herbs (on this occasion thyme, oregano and rosemary).    We were almost there !  A small handful of chopped green olives, lemon zest, capers, salt and pepper was added to the pan.

All that was left to do was to add the almost cooked French beans, and let the whole dish come together.  This makes a fine side dish, or indeed a light supper dish in it’s own right.  Today however we were using oil to underpin some freshly grilled Tuna with a little grilled lemon – this worked perfectly!

Once the beans were cooked, the platesetter was removed and the Tuna was grilled on the BGE – this time direct – at 250C for about 1 minute a side. The tuna was then served on the beans and the grilled lemon squeezed over the top

Delicious!

………… give it a go – it is so easy!!

Tuna with Sicilian lemon tested beans in a tomato sauce

September 25, 2020

Servings: 2

Prep: 15 min

Cook: 15 min

Total: 30 min

Difficulty: Easy

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A simple sauce using tomatoes and shallots, enhanced with lemon zest, and olives with green beans - the perfect foil for grilled Tuna.

By: Mark

Ingredients

• French beans - around 300g
• 1-2 Shallots finely chopped
• Garlic clove coarsely chopped
• Olive oil
• Can of chopped tomatoes 400g
• Freshly chopped herbs (e.g. thyme, oregano and rosemary). Handful of chopped green olives
• 1 lemon
• 3 tbsp capers
• Salt and pepper.
• 2 Tuna steaks

Directions

• Step 1 Set up the BGE for indirect cooking aiming for around 180C. If the beans are long cut in half put on the BGE in a small pan of water – allow to partially cook as the EGG warms up. Once partially cooked pour the water away and set the beans to one side
• Step 2 In a sauté pan sauté the finely chopped shallot in some olive oil and part way through cooking add a coarsely chopped garlic clove. Once these have taken on a little colour add a can of chopped tomatoes and allow the mixture to cook for around 10 minutes with some freshly chopped herbs
• Step 3 Add a small handful of chopped green olives, the zest of the lemon and the capers. Season with salt and pepper.
• Step 4 Finally add the partially cooked French beans, and let the dish come together.  
• Step 5 As the beans are finishing – open up the vents on the BGE to allow the temperature to begin to rise. After a couple of minutes , remove the beans and the platesetter. Put the platesetter flat on a heat proof surface and put the pan of beans on this to keep warm. Once the BGE gets to around 225-250C grill the Tuna for around 1 min on each side. at the same time cut the lemon into 4 lengthways and add to the grill to warm and colour
• Step 6 Serve the tuna on top of the beans with the hot lemon ready to squeeze over the top

We This is a short followup on the recipe for Roast Chicken Breast and Mushroom Stuffed Wings (here).  We had divided a large chicken as there are just 2 of us and we are trying to make our food go a little further to reduce the pressure on our food suppliers.  Having used one of the breasts we still had the other and 2 drumsticks (as well as 2 chicken thighs we will use later).  The recipe is unsurprisingly similar but this time we boned out the drumsticks completely and stuffed them with a mix of chopped mushrooms and dried tomatoes, but we could have used a little sausage, or perhaps even a little haggis or black pudding.  We were planning to serve these with some sautéed Mayan Gold potatoes from Carroll’s Heritage Potatoes which we have been waiting to try. In the current climate the Carrolls cannot sell to restraurants as they normally would and are available by mail-order for those self isolating.  Their USP is that they are the first potato in the UK from the indigenous Phureja potatoes of Peru.  It is supposed to have a rich golden coloured flesh, and a moreish flavour – fingers crossed!

The first thing to do was to bone out the drumstick (a first for me), which was surprisingly easy.  This was stuffed with a chopped mushroom and dried tomato, and the chicken envelop closed with a cocktail stick.

We were cooking in a pan in the EGG set up for direct cooking at 160-170C.  The drumstick takes more cooking than the breast and these were started about 15 mins before the breast.  They were cooked with the Mayan Gold potatoes for the first 15 mins and this way we managed to get some good colour onto the skin.

Once we had reached this stage it was time to cook the breast.  We were cooking the chicken and the potatoes on a single MiniMax BGE.  This meant we could only have one pan in the MiniMax at a time.
The chicken drumsticks were therefore put into the second pan with the chicken breast, skin side down, and the cooking continued.  We did this as a little challenge as clearly we could have done this more easily on the large BGE.  Using the large BGE we would have had plenty of room for both pans at once.  Doing this in the MiniMax means it is necessary to ‘swap over’ the 2 pans.  This is why we were cooking directly, unlike on the previous occasion when we cooked the previous chicken breast and wing dish.

This meant that the pans could be brought back to temperature more quickly and the residual heat in the pan allowed continued cooking when taken out of the MiniMax.  We just needed to swap the pans over a couple of times.

When around 70% cooked, the breast was turned over to finish off the cooking.  We were again aiming for a core temperature of 70C (the recommended safe temperature UK Food Standards Agency, holding it there for 2 minutes)

Once at temperature the chicken was wrapped in foil and covered with a clean tea towel to rest.  The potatoes had some fresh rosemary and sea salt sprinkled over the top and were finished off on the EGG.

We were serving the chicken and potatoes with some slow cooked haricot beans and broccoli.  The chicken breast was cut lengthways and half served on each plate with the stuffed drumsticks together with the haricot and broccoli.

The chicken was as good as it was previously and the drumsticks excellent!   The potatoes too were something of a revelation: creamy and nutty!  We will certainly be using these again!!

This chicken has so far provided 4 very generous portions (and stock for soup)!

There are still 2 large chicken thighs to go ……………… watch this space!!

Roasted chicken breast and stuffed drumsticks

April 24, 2020

Servings: 2

Prep: 25 min

Cook: 30 min

Total: 55 min

Difficulty: moderately easy

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Chicken drumsticks stuffed with mushrooms and sun dried tomato served with roast chicken breast

By: Mark

Ingredients

• 2 Chicken Drumsticks
• 2 large mushrooms
• 3 sun-dried tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil

Directions

• Step 1 The first thing is to bone out the chicken drumstick by sliding a filleting knife along and around the bone and then turning the drumstick inside out so the bone can be cut out. This is the only difficult step. The bone should be removed by cutting through the joint. Turn the drumstick back so the skin is on the outside again. This leaves a pocket for the mushroom stuffing.
• Step 2 Chop 2 mushrooms and the dried tomatoes and then stuff into the pockets created in the drumsticks where the bone was removed. Close the pocket using a cocktail stick.
• Step 3 Colour the drumstick in a pan or on a plancha in the EGG which should be set up for direct cooking at 160-170C.  Start the wings about 15 mins before the breast. (If doing the sautéed potatoes start these at the same time). Turn to get good colour on the skin
• Step 4 Once the drumsticks have some good colour add the chicken breast skin side down to colour the skin and render any fat. When the skin is well coloured turn over to finish cooking the breast – cook to a core temperature of 70C
• Step 5 If cooking on a large BGE cook the potatoes at the same time, if in a MiniMax alternate the cooking of the chicken and the potatoes and finish the potatoes as the chicken rests at the end of the cook).  
• Step 6 Serve the chicken drumstick and half the chicken breast with the sautéed potatoes and your choice of vegetables.  

We were very lucky to be able to go back to the restaurant La Scottiglia in Pescina near Seggiano in Tuscany.  Last year, 2018, we wrote about the wonderful dish La Scottiglia that the restaurant has been named after since 1972.  This year we arrived early for a Saturday lunch and were welcomed like long lost friends by the owner.  He immediately started to talk about the recipe and blog we had written last year when we had tried to recreate La Scottiglia (see here).  He offered his congratulations for our efforts and his apologies for not writing something on the website as it would have been difficult to do so in English!

We were shown down to the terrace so we could eat outside in the dappled early autumn sunshine and were  immediately met with a Prosecco aperitif, clearly we were going to have a good lunch!

The menus were newly printed and now carried English translations which was nice.  More staggering was that on the back page was a new description of the history of the restaurant.  We were pleased that the information that we had managed to piece together from the internet seemed to be largely correct – if only it has been present before it would have saved us hours of searching (but then, where is the fun in that!!).

Jackie ordered  a Tuscan Pâté, and then ricotta filled Tortellini with truffles.  For a main course I had the wild boar – but for my starter there could only be one choice – La Scottiglia.  It was with a degree of ‘bated breath’ I tried it – had we got close with our recipe or had I deluded myself?  I needn’t have worried  (too much)!!  Our interpretation was close, though not  identical!  This was ‘softer’ with a little more liquid.  I think there was just a slight hint of chilli which ours did not have and probably a little less tomato.   Also the bread at the bottom of the dish was thinner – and had soaked up less of the glorious juices. So overall a slightly more ‘gentle’ taste than ours – but I think we can be pleased  as we have only been making it for a year rather than for more than a century!  I think we can be reasonably comfortable that ours was a suitable ‘homage’ to this most regional of dishes!

And our plans for this autumn     ……………….. to get closer still!!

Whilst visiting the local supermarket in Tuscany we spied a box of plumb tomatoes ostensibly for preserving. They looked lovely, and at €3.80 for 8Kg clearly too good to resist.  Inevitably, therefore, we are eating a lot of tomato based meals – and what easier or more appealing than Bruschetta al pomodoro!!

This was very quickly cooked on the BGE – we were going to cook a small joint for our meal in the evening and so the EGG was already warming.  Four pieces of slightly stale bread (better if stale) were toasted on one side on the EGG whilst the tomatoes were chopped and piled on a pad of kitchen paper to soak up any excess liquid.  The toasted side was gently rubbed with a clove of garlic which was quickly abraded by the rough toast surface – no need to peel it.
The chopped tomatoes were then piled on the toasted side and the Bruschetta placed back on the BGE to both toast the other side of the bread and warm the tomatoes slightly.  Salted and peppered, all that was left to add was a few torn basal leaved and some good olive oil.

                  ………………………. simple and delicious!!

Recipe and further details can be found here!

It seems that in the UK that as we are about to move from winter into spring that winter intends to have a last fling with cold coming in from the east across continental Europe.  So how about a suitably warming winter dish?  Travelling around France we have often eaten Daube of beef, and at the moment of eating wondered what daube meant, only to forget to look it up before discovering it on the menu again.  Well it is quite simple really, daube refers to the earthenware cooking vessel – the daubière in which the dish is cooked.  Traditionally shaped to inhibit the escape of the cooking liquid, (more…)