Spring Greens with Chilli Oil

Part of my 100% British Menu!

Dead easy to prepare, healthy and with a little spicy kick! To prepare (for 4), you'll need:

500 g Spring Greens

1 tbs good olive oil

2 small dried chilli peppers

1 fat clove of garlic, bashed with back of a knife

salt 

handful of pine nuts

Method:

Heat a tiny frying pan without oil. Toss in some pine nuts and toast over a hot flame until golden brown.

 

Put to one side. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, toss in the spring greens and boil vigorously for 3-4 minutes. Whilst you do that heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add to it the garlic and the crushed chillies, stirring to flavour the oil. When the garlic has turned golden brown, discard it. Strain the greens from the water, get as much liquid out as possible.

Toss the greens into the hot chilli oil, coat evenly and serve sprinkled on top with toasted pine nuts. 

Serve with the Oven-Baked Chicken with Red Wine sauce.

Oven-Baked Chicken with Rosemary, Shallot and Red Wine Sauce.

For the main course of my 100% British menu, I did Oven-Baked chicken in a Red Wine, Rosemary and Shallot sauce, Roast Portabello Mushrooms and Spring Greens in chilli oil. Simple, yummy, anyone can do it!

For the chicken you'll need,

Ingredients (for 4):

- 4 legs of chicken 

- two fat sprigs of fresh rosemary

- 4 fat cloves of garlic

- one large chopped shallot

- 2 glasses of red plonk (wine)

- hot water

- mixed dried herbs 

- freshly ground black pepper and sea salt

- olive oil

Method:

Heat your oven to gas mark 7

Line a thick large pan with oil and gently fry the chopped shallots and a large sprig of rosemary until the shallots soften. Meanwhile lightly score the chicken legs and rub with salt, pepper and herbs, sticking in some finely sliced garlic slivers here and there.

Once the shallots are soft, turn up the heat and brown the chicken legs on both sides to seal in the flavours. Once browned, remove the chicken legs and place in an oven-proof baking dish.

De-glaze your pan by sloshing the glass of plonk into it, getting it to a slow bubble and scraping the yummy caramelised shallots away from the edges and into the sauce. Keep the rosemary sprig in there to get the most flavour out of it.

Once the wine sauce has reduced a fair bit, pour it over the chicken legs, add a fresh sprig of rosemary among the chicken legs and pop the whole lot into the oven. If there's not enough wine to go around, add a teensy bit of hot water...

Bake uncovered for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to gas mark 4, baste the chicken legs with the sauce and cover with foil before popping back into the lower shelf.

Bake for a further 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven, pour the gravy into a gravy boat, and thicken with a teaspoon of cornflower if necessary.

Serve with Roast Portabello Mushrooms and Spring Greens in Chilli Oil

This week Beau eats... Moules Marinières!

WOOF WOOF!

Ah, ladies and gentledogs! This week I bring you a classic favourite of mine which reminds me of my youth, holidays beachcombing in Brittany, hoovering crèpes and cider in cosy kennels up and down the Normandy coast. Moules are also an inevitable element in any trip to Brussels (some might argue the BEST reason for going to Belgium, beers aside...). Frites are a great accompaniment, as is good, fresh piping hot baguette or pungeant soda bread to dip in the sauce.
The best "Moules" I ever had were served to me on my last night in Dublin, after losing all my money and spending a night sleeping at Dublin airport. My friends and I scraped together the last remaining coins we had and headed back into the centre looking for a celebratory last meal and pint. The pub name escapes me, but it was near the Temple Bar, in the first year of the euro, before Dublin went hyper-crazy. The wiater brought us a steaming bucket of mussels, in white wine, garlic and fresh parsley with a chewy sourdough soda bread hunk and three creamy pints of the black stuff. With diddly-diddly music, the combined love of 35 drunken tourists and the warmth of the pub log fire, we nearly died and went to Moules heaven.

Here is the simplest recipe, for fool-proof Moules Marinières:

CLEAN YOUR MUSSELS (even better, buy them cleaned, or get the fishmonger to do it for you!)
-pull off the beard-like hairs sticking out from the mussels, and scrub them with a nail brush under running water.

Ingredients:

2 kg of fresh mussels
one fat clove of garlic
two shallots, chopped finely

2 large glasses of dry white wine
a big bunch of flat leaf parsely
freshly ground black pepper
large knob of salted butter

optional (but absolutely unnecessary): large dollop of crème fraiche or double cream

Method:

Heat the knob of butter in a large casserole ( we have a Le Creuset, only the best for hip dogs like me!).

When the butter starts to foam gently, throw in the garlic and shallots and the glass of white wine. Cook until the shallots soften and become translucent. Bring the whole lot to the boil and toss in the mussels, mix around to coat the mussels in all the juice. Cover and steam for 2-3 minutes, until the mussels open up. If any mussels haven't opened, throw them out, DO NOT force them open or eat them!!!

Strain the liquid and set aside, put the mussels into a serving dish.

Return the liquid to the pan, heat again and add the fresh parsley and if you really want, a dollop of double cream (mucho fatty and seafood snob dogs will look down upon you...)

Pour the liquid back over the mussels and bring to the table!

Serve with great bread or crispy, golden frites!

CHOW DOWN DOGGIES!