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Category: Chicken & Poultry

11
Feb
2023

Girl’s Night – February 2003

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Cocktail, Duck, Fish, Magazines, Tuna, Vodka, Watermelon

Hello Friends! This week we are stepping back in time to February 2003 via Delicious magazine. It just so happened that the topic that came up in my random generator was Girl’s Night. So it seemed like a perfect opportunity to tie this into Galantine’s Day.

Before we get into that, let’s set the scene for February 2003. The month started with “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera topping the charts. This was replaced by Avril Lavigne with “Im with you” for the remainder of the month. Number one in the box office was “How to Lose A Guy in Ten Days” and the best-selling book this week was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

My menu has somewhat of a pink theme which seems fitting for a Girl’s night but the content is definitely adult, starting with a watermelon vodka cocktail!

Watermelon Vodka Cocktail

This was so simple! I added a little squeeze of lime into the watermelon and vodka mix as I felt it was a bit too sweet / one note without it. It was super refreshing and made the most of our lovely summer produce! Be careful though…too many of these and you’ll be slurring

I am beautiful no matter what they sayWords can’t bring me downI am beautiful in every single wayYes, words can’t bring me down, oh noSo don’t you bring me down today

into a pretend mic and telling all your gal pals how much you love them before dessert!

Watermelon Vodka Recipe:

Beetroot Confit and Marinated Goat’s FetaTarts

I didn’t make these because I pretty much hate beetroot. To me, except for one Beetroot Tzatziki which I love, it tastes like dirt. The funny thing is though, it is something I really want to like. So I keep trying to make things with it in the hope that I will find the magic recipe that turns that switch in me from off to on. In this instance, I love the look of the pastry dotted with poppy seeds, the shape of the tiny little black dots echoed in the round of the goat’s cheese, and the gorgeous crimson of the beetroot in between.

Confit Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese Tarts Recipe:

Tuna Carpaccio

I loved this!!! It was so good! (one thing, I completely forgot to add the cucumber to this!). Also, I had no mixed baby cress so I subbed in watercress. When I was in Darwin recently, we went to a restaurant called Pee Wee’s at the Point for the Fussiest Eater in the World’s birthday. There, I had a buffalo carpaccio which was one of the best things I have ever eaten in my life! That dish came with a Hot English Mustard Mayo which inspired me to add my own mayo to this carpaccio. I made a Wasabi Mayonnaise (you can see a little dab of it front and centre in the above photo).

Here is a pic of that buffalo carpaccio. Just looking at it makes we want to go all the way back to Darwin so I can eat it again!

Tuna Carpaccio Recipe:

Baby Tiramisu

These look adorable! And despite not being pink, they are the perfect way to end the evening…or to snack on as you are settling on the couch to watch a dvd or two! And because they are tiny, you can eat one and still fit into a dress just like Kate Hudson’s in “How To Lose A Guy in Ten Days”!

Baby Tiramisu Recipe:

My Nigella Moment – Duck with Berries

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking it in either because I made it and it was really good, or I just didn’t have time to make it!

This month, my Nigella dish is Duck with Berries which came from an article on romantic food to cook for Valentine’s day. It was so good! Timing is so important when cooking duck and this recipe nailed it!

Duck with Berries Recipe:

Delicious Magazine certainly delivered on the Girl’s Night Menu!

Please let me know if you make the Beetroot Tarts. I am so intrigued by them! And also, if you are old enough to have had a girl’s night in 2003, would this have been the menu you would have chosen?

If you would like to contribute a theme, please let me know, I’m up for any challenge you can throw at me!

And happy Valentines, Galentines or however you want to spend the coming Tuesday!

17
May
2022

Chicken Chanteclair

categories: 1970's food, Chicken, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, United States of America, World Cooking

I am not doing a Best of April post as the very sad and sudden passing of our beloved boy Oscar at the end of the month has muted pretty much everything that was good. We are still working through our grief which for me personally has meant a great lethargy. I have barely been motivated to cook and not at all motivated to write until today. Baby steps are enough at the moment. But one of the things I made just before Oscar passed away was the recipe for Chicken Chanteclair from the Creole section of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery which was so tasty and comforting that I had to share it.

What on Earth is Chicken Chanteclair?

The name Chanteclair comes from the French words chanter meaning to sing and clair meaning clearly. So, to my mind this is a dish that will inspire you to sing its praises loud and strong.

Chicken Chanteclair is a Coq Au Vin by another name. I can’t see any particular Creole influences in this dish – to me this is purely French. Indeed one of my notes from when I made this was that it made the house “smell like France”. And, just to be clear, I didn’t mean that in the way I mean it when I talk about our trip to Toulouse. There, it smelt like every male in the town was using the streets as his own personal urinal. Chicken Chanteclair made the house smell of herbs and wine and meat cooking low and slow. It smelled like family and comfort. One of my other notes on this recipe was “this is the kind of dish you cook for people you love”

Here’s The Recipe: Chicken Chanteclair

The actual recipe wasn’t much so here are my notes:

1 kilo of chicken thighs on the bone.
I added 3 sprigs of thyme and 2 bay leaves to the marinade
For the marinade I used 3/4 bottle of wine (Just enough left over for a glass with the meal)
I threw in 12 fresh mushrooms as well as the dried mushrooms
I wasn’t sure about the tarragon at the end but it really worked
I served mine with mashed potatoes to soak up that luxurious sauce. Crusty bread would also be a great option!

Apart from those changes, the rest was easy. Marinade the ingredients overnight, pop them in the oven and voila – Chicken Chanteclair!

The leftovers were also delicious in some cheddar and jalapeno biscuits I made!

This is so easy to make but it feels like a much more complex dish. It is delicious, reheats well and is comfort food at its best. This will go on high rotation at my house!

I really hope you cook this for someone or someones you love very soon!

I am away a training course all of next week so will not be posting anything. The following week I will be back with a Dining with the Dame. It is a Poirot and our very first Ariadne Oliver novel!

Have a wonderful week!

27
Feb
2022

Death in the Clouds: Chicken Chaud-Froid

categories: Chicken, Chicken & Poultry, Dining With The Dame, France, Poirot

Welcome aboard crime readers and food lovers! Today on Dining with the Dame we are reading 1935’s Death in The Clouds. Our menu option includes a rather fancy-sounding French dish called Chicken Chaud-Froid. James Beard describes it as follows:

“Chaid-froid is a thickened sauce of butter, flour, broth and cream which may be mixed with geliatin and is used to cover poultry…use this sauce to dip the bird…Decorate with truffles, tarragon, blanched almonds, mushroom caps, sliced olives or vegetables”

Well, my budget doesn’t run to truffles but I have made you a Chicken Chaud-Froid inspired by Death in The Clouds!

Death in The Clouds – The Plot

The stewards on a plane from London to Calais are shocked to find one of the passengers, Madame Giselle, dead in her seat. Some marks on her neck indicate that she may have had a reaction to a wasp sting. A dead wasp is also found on the plane. However. Hercule Poirot who is also a passenger on the plane discovers an African blow dart on the floor and deduces that Madame Giselle, a moneylender to the rich and famous, has been murdered. But who on the plane wanted her dead?

We have:

Lady Horbury, formerly an actress, who is addicted to both gambling and cocaine
Venetia Kerr, a member of the aristocracy and childhood friend of Lord Horbury
Jane Grey, a hairdresser’s assistant coming home from a holiday funded by a large win on a horse
Norman Gale, dentist and admirer of Jane Grey
Armand Dupont and his son Jean, French archaeologists
Doctor Bryant of Harley Street
James Ryder, a businessman who has failed to make a deal that could keep his company afloat
Mystery writer Daniel Clancy

Eleven passengers in the cabin including Poirot plus two stewards (no spoilers here but none of them did it). The twelfth passenger was murdered by a blowdart. And no one saw a thing.

This is a classic closed circle mystery. We know one of the passengers did Madame Giselle in. But who? Poirot figures out who by page 70 in my edition. He just doesn’t understand why! I also figured out who on my first read BUT it was more about me disliking the character and WANTING them to the murderer rather than any true detecting. However, I read this book again last week to refresh my memory of it and the clues are there in plain sight so a careful reading could get you there!

Death in The Clouds – The Covers

I would like to call out the pulpy looking cover on the bottom row second from the right. Madame Giselle’s ugliness is mentioned several times in Death in The Clouds. If that lovely blonde lady is someone’s idea of hideously ugly (Christie’s words, not mine) then that person’s standards are ridiculously high!!!

The Recipe – Chicken Chaud Froid

I’ll be very honest here. The chicken Chaud froid was not to my taste at all. I ended up scraping all the cold jellied velouté off the chicken and making a sandwich with the chicken breast. If cold creamy gelatine chicken is your thing…go for it! For the rest of us….let’s all have a little giggle at my ridiculous attempts to make a wasp out of olives and tomatoes and a plane out of carrot and olives and forget this recipe ever exists.

The recipe I used which is from the 60th Anniversary edition of the James Beard Fireside Cookbook doesn’t actually tell you how to cook the chicken. So, let’s start you off with a basic recipe for poached chicken. And take it from there.

Here’s Jame’s Beard’s take:

And here is his veloute recipe:

From Mr Clancy’s house they took a taxi to The Monseigneur, where they found Norman Gale waiting for them. Poirot ordered some consommé and a chaud-froid of chicken.

-Agatha Christie – Death in the Clouds

The Monseigneur was actually a restaurant in Jermyn Street London in the 1930’s. Here is a picture of the interior.

Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Death In The Clouds

Cold Tongue
Soda Water and Thin Captain Biscuits
Coffee (several mentions)
Cheese and Biscuits
The meal served on the plane included soup, meat and vegetables, salad, dessert, tea and coffee. (All on a journey from Calais to London which is all of 151 km. These days on a trip from Melbourne to Sydney which is 713 km you’d be lucky to get a pack of peanuts!)
Soup
Tea
A “frenchified” meal at Poirot’s apartment. I would LOVE to know what this was!
Irish Stew
Omelette aux champignons
Sole a la Normand
Port Salut Cheese
Kidneys at breakfast
Orange Juice
Tea and Muffins
Bananas and Beer
Consommé
Sausages and Mash
Sherry / Aperitifs

There is a lot more to say about Death in The Clouds but they would be out of place in a regular Dining With The Dame post like this. This is why next week, we are going to have a Death in The Clouds recap. With a cocktail of course.

Our March Read will be The ABC Mystery which is another Poirot mystery but a lot darker than Death in The Clouds.

Happy reading and eating!

03
Feb
2022

It’s the Year of the Tiger

categories: Baking, Cake, Chicken, Lunar New Year

Hello and welcome to the second instalment of my Year of The Tiger special. Today we having a Tiger Skin Chicken from Adam Liaw and some little French almond cakes called Les Tigres (the tigers) from Dorie Greenspan. But first let’s have a little look-see at what may lie ahead for us in the Year of the Tiger!

Predictions for the year of the Tiger suggest that this could be a year of political and social upheaval. It is also a year of extremes, some people will boom and some will bust. Fortune will tend to favour the brave. The water element in this year of the Water Tigre will bring emotions to the forefront.

Strap in folks, this could be a wild ride!

Tiger Skin Chicken

Let me first show you Adam Liaw’s beautifully striped Tiger Skin Chicken.

Mine was not nearly as precise.

BUT, this was so delicious! I basted the chicken every 15 minutes in those buttery juices and it stayed delightfully moist. It had a slight spicy curry flavour which I thought was lovely eaten warm and also cold in sandwiches the following day.

I just need to get my squeeze bottle technique so the lines are a little thinner and maybe control the heat during the grilling of the skin a little better. I also think I should have heated my honey before mixing it in with the yoghurt as it didn’t mix in well which is why I think some of my stripes were white, they were primarily yoghurt.

Here is the recipe from Adam’s Big Pot:

Les Tigres

To end our Year of the Tiger special we are having some little French cakes called Les Tigres. I am assuming this is because they are dipped in a ganache which gives them a dark stripe against the dark gold of the almond cake. They could also be called the leopards because the inside is dotted with choc chips!

Les Tigres Recipe

The Tigres were a lovely way to finish this celebratory meal!

Best of luck to you all in the coming 12 months – let’s hope you don’t catch too many tigers by the tail but that you wake every morning with a tiger in your tank!

12
Dec
2021

A Man’s Barbecued Chicken?

categories: 1970's recipes, Chicken, Chicken & Poultry, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, United States of America

When I first saw the recipe for A Man’s Barbecued Chicken, I assumed it was so called because it had a hefty slug of booze, most likely Bourbon, in the barbecue sauce. Because God forbid that the women of 1973 were getting sozzled on Maker’s Mark while cooking chicken. Then I read the recipe and there is no alcohol at all in it. So that theory went down the gurgler. I am actually baffled as to why this would specifically be a man’s barbecued chicken.

This was really delicious. I particularly liked the sauce. I find a lot of barbecue sauces far too sweet for my palate but this had a lovely balance of sweet and sour. The recipe does contain that mysterious ingredient “piquant table sauce” which a couple of readers have suggested will likely be A1 steak sauce. I still don’t have any of that so I used Worchestershire Sauce.

I used skin-on thigh cutlets instead of quarter chickens and tomato passata instead of the tomato juice in the recipe.

The sauce really did become finger-licking good! Hmmm…Is that why it’s A Man’s Barbecued Chicken? Maybe the women of the 1970’s didn’t lick their fingers?

The method of cooking the chicken was weird, you put it in the dish skin side down for the first half an hour then turned it over. The chicken stayed very moist – I am not sure if that was this method of cooking or the frequent basting with the sauce that did that but either way, it worked!!!

I served this with a very simple potato and watercress salad and some of the additional sauce on the side. Corn would also be a great accompaniment as would a green salad.

A Man’s Barbecued Chicken – The Recipe

We here at Retro Food for Modern Times believe that one of the joys of food is the sharing of it with our friends and fam. So, today we are changing the game on A Man’s Barbecue Chicken by changing the name.

Cook it, eat it with people you love, or share it with strangers. Either way, you and everyone else who eats it will be happier, even just for a few sticky-fingered moments.

Have a great week!

And if you have any insight into the original name, drop me a note in the comments!