Poultry
Poached Chicken Sandwich with Freshly Baked Homemade Bread
Lately I have been baking a loaf of bread each weekend, I’ve really enjoyed the process and it is so easy and simple (the recipe is here if you would like to give it a try). So I was thinking about what would work well with the bread for a sandwich and honestly in my mind you really can’t beat a proper poached chicken sandwich with cucumber, greens like rocket and cos lettuce and some herby/lemony mayonnaise.
It does take a bit of time to poach the chicken (2 hours) but it is definitely worth it and you end up with a bit of stock (so to speak) at the end, which you can use to make a really light vegetable and chicken soup (if you have some poached chicken leftover).
To poach the chicken place the following ingredients into a saucepan along with enough water to cover the chicken:
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 spring onions
Bring the water to the boil and then place in two free range (and preferably organic) chicken breasts, fat trimmed. Place the lid on the saucepan and turn off the heat. Put your timer on and let it poach for two hours.
Once done remove the chicken and set aside to cool and strain off the liquid. Like I say you can keep this and use as a stock. Shred the chicken apart with your fingers, it sort of naturally does this.
Unlike Sam I am not so confident at making mayonnaise (or egg based sauces) but you could make your own. I just added a few capers, some flat leaf parsley, chives, and lemon juice and some salt and pepper to some store bought whole egg mayo.
Scrambled Eggs with Gravlax
This post is from when we were guest bloggers on the Design Files a few weeks ago. But just in case you missed it, here it is:
Spring time in Tassie marks some great fly fishing in the highlands. The water starts to warm and the fish start to stir.
A few weeks ago I made a trip up the lakes with one of my best mates in some typically foul highland weather. The fishing was pretty good considering. We managed a few nice browns which I took home and gravlaxed.
The gravlax went perfectly with some free range eggs that one of my clients had dropped into me. Nothing beats these eggs – check out the colour.
I’d have to say that this would be one of my favourite recipes I have put on here.
Ingredients:
4-6 Slices Gravlax or Smoked Salmon
2x Slices of some nice Crusty Bread (I used a 2 pound loaf)
50ml Pouring Cream
Butter
A few pinches of Dill (not too much – it can be over powering)
2 eggs
White pepper
Method:
1. Lightly beat the eggs, cream, dill and pepper in a bowl.
2. Melt a little butter in a plan over a super low heat
3. Add egg mixture to pan and stir with a spatuala very slowly until almost done – take them off a little before they are done as they will keen cooking
Serve on some nice toast and with the slices of gravlax – you shouldn’t need to add salt as the gravlax is quite salty.
Gravlax:
Get 2 fillets of trout or salmon and place one skin side down in a baking dish. Cover the fillet with 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of sugar. Add some lemon zest and plenty of dill and a few splashes of gin or vodka. Now place the other fillet on top of it so the skin is up. Cover in grad wrap and the place a chopping board on top with some heavy weights (tins of soup etc) on top and place in the fridge. The gravlax will take anywhere from 6-24hrs depending on the size of the fish.
Eggs
This week I don’t actually have a recipe to share, more an appreciation of how good simple food can be when it is home grown and fresh. I was given some beautiful big freshly laid eggs on Friday and my mind started thinking of all the fantastic eggy things I could make: fresh pasta – better still fresh pasta with carbonara, quiche, bread and butter pudding, or (insanely) a soufflé. But in the end what I most felt like was a nice oozy boiled egg with salt and pepper and buttery toast and it tasted brilliant! I haven’t had an egg that good for a very long time. Sometimes it definitely is best to keep it simple.
Mutton Birds
At the moment I am holidays at our shack on Bruny Island. The weather hasn’t been that kind, nor have the fish, so a lot of time has been spent eating and drinking by the fire. Yesterday, feeling like we needed to do some exercise, we went for a walk and a bit of a cook up.
I while ago I scored some mutton birds off my butcher (there are pretty tight restrictions on harvesting them these days, you can’t do it at all in the south of the state). Mutton birds are sea birds that nest in Tasmania in late summer after a massive migration from the northern hemisphere. You either love or hate mutton birds. They are really strong in flavour; I would describe them as duck crossed with anchovies. They also stink when you cook them – my girlfriend only will let me cook them outside. So it seemed fitting that they came with us on our walk to an old mutton birding hut.
Cooking
It was perfect out at the hut. We had the whole beach to ourselves. We lit a fire and chucked on some spuds and threw the birds on the grill. When they were cooked we ate them with shots of vodka (whiskey would be better) – this helped cut through the fattiness of the birds. I got this idea from the way the Swedes eat their surströmming (fermented herring) – just with potatoes and schnapps. I remember it being a pretty good way to eat it but that may have been the schnapps talking. But what I mainly liked is the way they make a bit of a party/event out of eating the herring – they do the same with their freshwater crayfish. It is something that I think we miss out on a bit in Tassie, maybe because we are quite young country? Anyway as you may have gathered by now this is not really a recipe, more of a way to enjoy these birds. Yes I know that sounds pretty wanky and probably is. I promise not to be a tosser in future posts. BTW I got engaged on Saturday.
Baked Eggs with Rocketini
This is a very simple recipe I made after our visit to the Tas Farm Gate market on Sunday for my breakfast/lunch and it was a great way to get to try some of my very sweet looking rocketini. It might only be little but it packs a big flavour hit!
I fried one generous slice of Boks bacon in a pan with a little bit of olive oil until it was nice and crispy, then cut it into strips and placed them around the edges of a little oven proof dish.
Crack in two/three good free-range eggs into the dish and add a sprinkle of sea salt and cracked black pepper. Put them in the oven on 200 Celsius to bake for around 15-20 minutes, keep an eye on them – how long it takes will depend on how runny you like your eggs. When the eggs are done remove from the oven and scatter with rocketini leaves. Eat!
I’ve made baked eggs adding cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and red onion before too, all are really good, whatever you fancy really!
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