Lime and ginger chicken

The Netherton freezer is accumulating pack ice faster than the Arctic is losing it and is in serious need of a de-frost.  We have been waiting for a cold spell, so we can store the contents outside the back door while the freezer sheds more tears than a love struck teenager.

But that seems unlikely, so we are eating our way through the contents.

This can lead to surprises, when unlabelled packages are unearthed and "oh I'd forgotten all about that" boxes resurface.

The latest plundering gave us a pack of chicken thighs and drumsticks, which were enlivened with one of our favourite cocktail combinations  - ginger and lime....... a Dark and Stormy, anyone?

Check out our recipe for lime and ginger in cake form too 

1 kg chicken pieces

2 tblsp lime marmalade

1 tblsp soy sauce

2½cm root ginger, peeled and grated

1 tsp crushed fennel seed

Salt and pepper

Mix all of the marinade ingredients and place in a dish.  Add the chicken pieces and ensure they are all well coated.  Leave to marinade for about an hour, turning from time to time.

Heat the oven to 190ºC.

Tip the chicken and the marinade into a prospector pan ( I used a 10" one) and place in the oven.

Cook for 30 minutes, checking to ensure that the juices run clear.

Serve with rice, to soak up all the lovely sauce and a forest of greens.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire © 2020

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Sunshine on a cloudy day

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it's cold outside, I've got  

........... the sunshine colours of squash, red pepper and sweetcorn, with the warmth of some La Rossa spice blend from Mr Wolf's Spices

1 tblsp rapeseed oil
2 tsp La Rossa spice blend
4 chicken thighs
320g squash or sweet potato
1 red pepper
150g sweetcorn, fresh, tinned or frozen

Mix the oil and spice together and massage into the chicken thighs.
Peel and de-seed the squash and cut into hearty chunks. Cut the pepper into similar sized pieces.
Throw the chunks and the sweetcorn decorously into a 10" prospector pan and sit the chicken thighs on top.
Place in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC for 25 minutes.
Serve with green salad on the side and bread for mopping up the juices.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Chicken in gin and lemon

Inspiration for recipes can come from many places; travel, eating out, family recipes passed down and given a modern makeover.
Necessity can truly become the mother of invention and many a recipe is the happy result of a fridge forage or larder raid.
And of course, other people's recipes.  I am not talk plagiarism, just a mental nudge in a new direction.  
What stuck in my mind, when I went on a writing course with Diana Henry at Otter Farm earlier this year, was her telling us that to write well, you must read well.
And so I choose my recipe books with care. I do not simply want a compendium of recipes, I want to share the author's love of food, immerse myself in their writing, catch a glimpse of what makes them tick, savour their words as much as their food.
To me, food is about sharing.  It is, as Nigella Lawson says, more than just fuel and the best food writers want to share their passion as well as their recipes.
And it is back to Nigella that I come for the inspiration for this recipe.  To the astonishment of most of us and believed only through a leap of faith and trying it ourselves, her ham in cola is a wondrous thing.  My second inspiration is Valentine Warner and his friends at Hepple gin, a most glorious elixir from Northumberland.  If you get any opportunity to try this, seize it with both hands and savour it.
This recipe was created with Hepple in mind, although sadly I didn't have any to hand, so in this instance I have substituted Bols genever instead.  Believe me, any gin will do.

2 chicken breasts
200ml good quality, cloudy lemonade or bitter lemon
1tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp juniper berries, lightly crushed
1 tsp salt
1 large sprig hyssop or thyme
1 tot of gin
100g butter


Place everything except the butter in a prospector casserole or a frying pan with a lid.

Place on the hob and bring to the boil over a medium heat.  Turn down the heat and simmer for 40 minutes.
Carefully lift out the chicken and set aside.
Remove the twiggy herb stalks from the pan and add the butter. Bring it up to the boil and cook until glossy and sticky.

Slice the chicken and lay it on a bed of steamed shredded cabbage.
Pour over the sauce and serve.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2017 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Girls just wanna have fun

We have always operated an open house policy for our children's friends and with the elder rapidly approaching his 20th birthday, we have experienced a generation of sleepovers.

These have, without exception, been a pleasure and on occasion particularly memorable.

Of course, food, and latterly booze, have played their part and it has been a joy serving up home made treats to all of their friends.  It has also been a revelation and an education, producing interesting reactions and a response to strawberry ice cream for a very small boy that is remembered by his father over 16 years later!

Most recently, Netherton's daughter proposed a "gathering" for some of her college friends simply to celebrate the joy of summer.  Of course,as the kids have got bigger, the house has felt smaller, and so whenever possible, these get-togethers have taken place in the garden, affording both them and us a sense of space.

What was once a pond, totally unsuccessful as a garden feature, has been long filled in and has created the perfect fire pit area.  This makes it the ideal location for setting up the chapa griddle.
The girls gathered around this long into the evening, chatting, drinking, eating and creating memories that they will take away with them to their various destinations as they embark on the stage of their academic lives.
I was warned by my daughter that Lyd only drinks water or Malibu - of all the options, how did she choose Malibu? - and only likes plain food, nor does she eat burgers.  My idea of outside cooking was somewhat kiboshed by this and I was prepared to offer sausages and, well more sausages.

However, culinary negotiations within the gang ensued and it seemed that Lyd was feeling daring; she was going to try my marinaded chicken.
This has been a mainstay of many a barbecue and is so easy to prepare.
The girls gathered, the fire was lit, the sun set and the chicken was cooked................. and the verdict?
Delicious!!   And as no Malibu had been imbibed,  think we can safely say that this was a success.

So, here for Lyd and the rest of you is my simple and straightforward marinade for barbecued chicken.

This is sufficient for around 6 - 8 chicken thighs.
2 tablespoons of tomato puree
2 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon smoked paprika.

Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
Chuck in the chicken thighs and, using your hands, thoroughly coat them in the tomato mix.
Cover the bowl and leave for around 2 hours.
Cook on a barbecue, or better still a chapa griddle until the juice run clear and the meat is cooked through to the bone

(Alternatively, throw them on to a baking tray and cook in the oven for around 30 minutes at 180ºC)

Eat with your fingers and wash them down with the beverage of your choice - Malibu is not compulsory.

© Netherton Foundry 2017

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Chicken Carisco

I hate to think how it's looked from your side of the fence, but the last few months have been a nightmare for us as we struggled to meet the huge demand for our British slow cookers, after they were praised by Nigella Lawson and then appeared in the Sunday Times and Grazia magazine.

We have worked ceaselessly to restore supply and are now busy beavering away, making these in our workshops.
We have been asked so many times if we really DO make our kitchenwares in the UK and the answer is "Yes, we certainly do!!"

We are finally back on track and extend our massive thanks to all of you who have kept the faith and been patient enough to wait for your slow cooker.  Waiting time from the placing of your order to arrival on your doorstep is now only a week!

To celebrate the availability of the new 2016 model, I have created a new chicken recipe, which uses seasonal wild garlic - which can, of course, be replaced by other greens at other times in the year.
This is the true "cut it up and chuck it in" tradition of simple slow cooking - so just relax and give it a go.

Bold Mediterranean flavours and the colour of sunset

1 large chicken, mine weighed in at 2kg
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 red pepper, de-seeded and sliced
1 yellow pepper, de-seeded and sliced
1 orange, cut into 8 segments - skin on
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp paprika
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
200ml water or stock
2 tsp salt
Handful of wild garlic, in season - otherwise use spinach

Lay the onions and peppers in the bottom of the slow cooker bowl.
Sprinkle the salt, fennel and paprika over the top and stir well to mix.
Sit the chicken on top and place the orange segments around the chicken.
Pour the tomatoes and water/stock over the chicken.
Put on the lid and cook for 8 - 10 hours on KEEP WARM , 6 hours on LOW.

When cooked, remove the lid and throw in the shredded garlic or spinach.  Replace the lid for 5 minutes to allow the greens to wilt and then serve.
Delicious with new potatoes, rice or crusty bread.

A watercress, orange and fennel salad would be a terrific accompaniment

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

Chicken Kyiv nuggets

What happens when you cross a chicken Kyiv with a chicken nugget?

A mouthful of moreishness, that's what.

This is yet another excuse to use the bountiful harvest of wild garlic that is springing up already.
I figured it would go really well with chicken and having demolished a chicken and bacon sandwich with wild garlic mayonnaise, 

I struck upon the idea of  incorporating it into a chicken nugget, turning a children's favourite into something a little more sophisticated.

In total I used 2 chicken breast fillets, 3 slices of Parma ham with a single leaf of wild garlic for each nugget.
This made 15 nuggets, so adjust the quantities to suit your family/appetite/occasion.

You will need:
Skinned chicken breast
Parma ham
Cream cheese
Wild garlic
Flour
Egg
Fresh breadcrumbs*
Oil

* whenever you have any bread that is starting to go stale, turn it into breadcrumbs and throw in the freezer - they will always come in handy for topping a macaroni cheese, making fish fingers, turning into Queen of Puddings and a myriad other uses #wastenot

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.
Spread a little cream cheese onto each wild garlic leaf.  (You can omit this if you don't want the faff)
Wrap a garlic leaf around each nugget and then wrap the Parma ham around that - you only need enough ham to go round the nugget. 

Have 4 plates ready;

Put the flour on one, crack the egg on to the second and beat lightly, the third is for the breadcrumbs and the final one for the assembled nuggets.

Roll each nugget in flour, dip into the egg and then coat with breadcrumbs. Transfer to a clean plate and then refrigerate for an hour.

Heat the oil over a medium heat in a wok or large frying pan - you can deep or shallow fry these. When the oil is hot enough to brown a cube of bread within a minute, add the nuggets in small batches - do not overcrowd the pan.

Turn regularly until golden brown on all sides and for no less than 3 minutes to ensure the chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Drain and serve - particularly delicious with a lemon mayonnaise to dip them in.

 © Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Bat out of hell

OK, I own up, no bats were used in the making of this dish, but it's impossible to be of a certain age and not associate any kind of meat loaf with a certain well known record - as they used to be called!!
We're certainly very pleased with the performance of the loaf tins for making bread and I've been making rather a lot of cakes too......

... but in order to demonstrate how versatile they are, I wanted to make a savoury dish too.

This is a tasty meatloaf, with a bit of zing from the addition of lemon rind and fresh herbs, intended to be eaten cold.

PORK AND CHICKEN MEATLOAF

150g white breadcrumbs
50g ground almonds
100 ml dry sherry
500g minced belly pork
375g chopped chicken
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind
2 tsp chopped sage
2 tsp chopped rosemary
50g salami
Black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 180º C

Put the breadcrumbs and almonds in a large mixing bowl and pour the sherry over.
Leave to soak for 10 minutes.
Add the minced pork - do not be tempted to get lean pork mince, it simply won't work for this recipe.



And then add the chopped chicken, lemon rind, herbs and a generous grind of black pepper.
When I was devising this, my food processor decided to play up, so in all these photos you will see very finely chopped, rather than minced pork.  Your butcher should mince your pork for you if you ask nicely.

You probably won't need salt, as the salami will add the saltiness.

Mix well, you can use a wooden spoon, but the very best way is to get in there with your hands and bring the mix together.

Oil a 2lb loaf tin.
Put half the mixture into the loaf tin and press down.
Lay the sliced salami on top of the meat loaf mix.

Cover with the remaining mix.

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.

Remove the foil and cook for a further 15 minutes or until the top is taking on a golden hue.  

                                      

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin.

Carefully loosen the edges of the loaf with a palette knife and invert onto a plate.
Put a serving plate over the top and invert again.

Voila - ready to serve.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Wok fried chicken with plum sauce

Our woks are incredibly popular and I use mine several times a week.  Nothing can beat a stir fry for a tasty meal in a hurry - and with busy lives, weekday dinners are more often a hurry than not!

This dish was inspired partly by Jan's last recipe for pork chops and plum sauce and partly as a variation on the classic duck and plum sauce so beloved in Chinese restaurants

300g chicken breast, diced
1 leek, sliced
¼ white cabbage , shredded
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 star anise
300 ml chicken stock
1 tblp plum jam
1 tblsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornflour
2 tblsp oil

Heat the oil in the wok oil over a high heat.
Throw in the garlic and fry for 10 seconds, then add the chicken and star anise.  Fry until the chicken is golden brown on all sides.
Add the leeks, cabbage and star anise and fry for 2 minutes.
Add the jam, soy sauce and stock and cook for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
Mix the cornflour to a paste with water and then stir into the dish and stir until the sauce is thickened.

Serve with steamed rice or noodles.

PS I also use my wok for frying chips!! But not quite so often as the stir fries!

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2013 ©
www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Food for a goddess

A little bit of mythology to start with.
Loki was one of the Norse gods, a blood brother to Odin the supreme deity, a giant and also known as the Mischief Maker .  He was first married to Glut, whose name means Glow and they had a daughter called Esia, meaning Ember.  Clearly a guy not to be messed with! 

So what, you may ask?  Well, my latest food critic was named after Esia and when you are cooking for the daughter of a god, you need to be sure of what you are offering.
Especially if you also subscribe to the old adage "Never work with animals or children"..........because this is Esia

And here is what I prepared for the baby goddess, or the Little Princess as her mother describes her (most of the time!)

Chicken Esia

1 free range chicken

1 tin chopped tomatoes

200ml water

1 onion, sliced

1 red pepper, chopped

2 tsp oregano

Splash of dry sherry

Salt and black pepper

Place the onions in the bottom of the cast iron bowl of your Netherton Foundry slow cooker.  Sit the chicken on top and then add all the other ingredients.

Cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours and serve with rice, pasta, potatoes or whatever your inner deity fancies!

As simple as that , leaving you plenty of time to do whatever it is that domestic gods and goddesses do when they are not on duty!

Obviously, Esia is not yet able to write her own review, but,  as her mother points out, if more of the food ends up IN the child, rather than on any other available surface (including hair, table, face, floor, wall), then you are onto a winner.
This will be featuring regularly on Esia's menu and when she's older, we'll be back with her comments!

If you have your own comments on Chicken Esia, or any of our other recipe ideas, please get in touch.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk