chicken and almond pilaf

 

the key to making a decent chicken pilaf is having really good quality chicken and chicken stock. if you skimp on these then there is a high likelihood that the dish will be bland and not worth the effort. this dish was made using leftover meat from a roast chicken plus the stock that i had made from that chicken’s carcass.

making chicken stock whenever you have a roast is incredibly worthwhile and easy. i also ways strip the majority of the meat off the carcass, then put the bones into a large pan, cover with water, add a peeled and halved onion, a peeled carrot, a bay leaf and some peppercorns. if i have fresh parsley in then i’ll add that as well (you can just use the stems and keep the leaves for something where they will be part of the end dish). bring to the boil and then let it simmer (i cover it so there isn’t too much steam gathering in the kitchen) for an hour or two. when it’s ready, drain and strip any final tiny bits of meat off the carcass.

this dish has subtle flavours which, i think, really let the chicken shine through. we ate it with salad as a summery supper, sitting in the garden, but it was as nice the following day, eaten at room temperature as a packed lunch.

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daring bakers: bakewell tart...er...pudding

 

having signed up to the daring cooks and made both ricotta gnocchi and potstickers, i thought i had better get back on track with the daring bakers challenges, having missed a few.

the june daring bakers' challenge was hosted by jasmine of confessions of a cardamom addict and annemarie of ambrosia and nectar. they chose a traditional (uk) bakewell tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in england.

the reason for the “tart... er... pudding” is down to the rich heritage of this dish and the two main types which exist - the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry and the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds the jam and frangipane, an almondy sponge cake-like filling.

the version we were dared to make was a combination of the two: a sweet shortcrust pastry with a frangipane and jam filling.

so, how did i get on?

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daring bakers: nougatine

the daring bakers are back! kicking 2009 off in style, this month's challenge is brought to us by karen of bake my day and zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka kochtopf. they have chosen tuiles from the chocolate book by angélique schmeink and nougatine and chocolate tuiles from michel roux. i decided to make michel roux’s nougatine.

nougatine sounds very simple – toasted almonds mixed with melted sugar that has caramelised. this is then poured onto an oiled baking sheet and you cut out shapes which you can then mould into something that looks pretty. obviously it’s not that simple!

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