Showing posts with label Casseroles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Casseroles. Show all posts
I have to say that I really love the flavour of tarragon combined with chicken. Creamy Chicken Tarragon Casserole is one of my favourite ways to enjoy that lovely combo of tarragon and chicken, in a rich and creamy sauce.
I wish so much that I could grow tarragon in my own garden and maybe next year I will have a place that I can actually do that. I think it might work very well growing in a tub and I know that fresh herbs are very expensive and don't last a wink before they are off and discoloured.
In the UK I had my own little kitchen herb garden right outside my back door. It was ever so nice to be able to pop out into the yard and clip off a bit of this or a bit of that when I needed it. I will never take that luxury for granted again!
You can quite often grown a lot in a small space and then what you don't use fresh can be dried for the Winter! My goal is to make that happen!
For today however, I had to make do with dried tarragon. It works perfectly well and is more than adequate!
If you are lucky enough to have fresh tarragon available to you by all means use it! Just remember that dried herbs have a much stronger flavour than fresh. Condensed as it were, so you will have to double the amount!
This recipe which I am showing you today for this lush bake was adapted from a cookery book which I absolutely love. It is entitled "Twice is nice" and was written by Edna K Damerall.
I am the Queen of Leftovers. I don't ever let anything go to waste if I can help it. My mother always said I could make an old boot taste delicious. I don't know about that, but I take pride in the fact that my leftovers almost always taste like "new"-overs!
I suppose some might think that takes a certain amount of skill, and perhaps it does to a degree. Basically however, it is just a matter of being able to partner flavours and knowing what goes well with what!
This recipe is one which is very similar to my Chicken Savoyarde recipe, which is a recipe I adapted from Tamsin Day Lewis. The main difference is that this recipe I am sharing today is a heck of a lot simpler! And if you know anything about me by now, I will choose simple over complicated every time!
I experienced more than a lot of complicated when it came to cooking when I was working and cooking at Brenchley Manor. Everything I cooked there had to be fancy smancy. Simple just would not do.
I was quite happy to cook like that at the time. Getting to cook with the finest ingredients and the finest equipment in a beautiful environment. But through experience I have come to realise that fancy is good on occasion, and for special occasions, but for every day, simple is best!
I think I have also gotten a bit lazier as I have gotten older as well. I am all for a simple life these days containing the least amount of complicated stuff possible. That goes for the way I want to live my life in every way.
Decorating, furnishings, clothing and yes . . . cooking. When I think about it actually losing almost all of my belongings was a blessing in many ways. I can start over now and choose to really only have things in my life which bring me joy.
Back to this recipe. You will need cooked chicken for this. You can use leftover roasted chicken or poached chicken. I often poach chicken breasts to use in things and this is one of the ways that they work very well.
Just pop some boneless skinless chicken breasts into a saucepan, cover them with stock or water as well as some seasoning, and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer, cover and then cook at a low simmer for about 10 minutes. Leave it then to cool in the liquid until you can easily handle it.
This handy method gives you perfectly cooked, moist and delicious chicken each and every time. You will find that it always come in handy for dishes like this one, casseroles sandwiches, salads, etc.
And thats it for the chicken. You can of course use leftover roasted chicken breasts as well!
Once your chicken is cooked for this you only have to make a delicious sauce. Not hard to do at all. If you can make a cream sauce, you can make this sauce.
This delicious sauce is a very simple and quick make. Melted butter,
flour, chicken stock, cream and some seasonings (cayenne, salt and dried
tarragon). Oh, and a bit of Dijon mustard and some Swiss type of
cheese.
You can use swiss cheese, emmenthaler cheese, gruyere cheese or compte cheese. All are amazing and have sweet nutty flavours and really great melting properties.
They also go very well with the flavour of tarragon. The combination is very French I would have to say.
The sauce gets layered in the casserole dish with the cooked chicken and topped with buttered crumbs before baking to perfection. The chicken heated through, the sauce bubbling aand creamy.
The crumbs crisp and golden brown. Doesn't that sound delicious? It is. I promise you it is, it is, it is!
This is rich, creamy and delicious. I can almost guarantee it is going to become a favourite. You can also very easily cut the recipe in half if you are only one or two.
I served it simply with some boiled potatoes, peas and carrots! It went down a real treat! A salad would also go well, as would some crusty French bread. Dangit! I made myself hungry again! Oh well, when am I never hungry!
Creamy Tarragon Chicken Gratin
Yield: 4
prep time: 15 Mincook time: 25 Mintotal time: 40 Min
Rich and delicious. Its a beautiful way to use leftover cooked chicken. In fact I often cook extra chicken just so I can make this. I like to serve it with boiled potatoes and some veg on the side.
Ingredients
- 4 TBS butter
- 4 TBS plain flour
- 1 cup (240ml)chicken stock (1 cup)
- 1/4 cup (60ml) dry white wine
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup (120 to 180 ml) heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp dried tarragon
- salt and cayenne pepper to taste
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup (30g)Swiss style cheese
- 4 cooked chicken breasts
For the buttered bread crumbs:
- 1/3 cup (40g) dry bread crumbs (I like panko)
- 1 TBS melted butter
Instructions
- First make the sauce. Melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in the flour. Cook for about 1 minute to cook out the flour taste.
- Mix together the chicken stock and white wine. Slowlywhisk into the roux of butter and flour. Cook stirring constantly until
- the mixture bubbles and thickens.
- Cook on low for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The mixture should be really thick.
- Whisk in the cream to thin it a bit. You should have a mixture that runs sluggishly off the spoon.
- Whisk in the mustard, salt, cayenne and cheese. Stir to combine and melt the cheese.
- Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 6. Butter a shallow casserole dish. Spoon in about 1/2 of the sauce and spread it out.
- Slice the chicken breasts and lay over the sauce. Pour the remaining sauce over top to cover the chicken.
- Mix the bread crumbs together with the melted butter. Sprinkle evenly over top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the sauce has bubbled, the chicken is heated through and the crumbs are golden brown.
- Serve hot.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
I have been making this stuffed cabbage roll recipe which I am sharing with you today for years, and years and years. In my opinion it is the absolute best, and I don't make that boast lightly.
The original recipe came from a community cookbook put out by my church ladies's guild back in the early 1980's. I really love community cookbooks. People tend to put into them their very best recipes and tried and trues.
Not all of the recipes will be to everyone's taste. Taste is subjective after all.You can be pretty sure that all of the recipes will be the donater's best and most favourite recipes however.
This makes community cookbooks a wise choice when it comes to finding economical, family friendly and delicious recipes. At least that has been my experience.
My mother used to make cabbage rolls often when I was growing up. They were one of my father's favourite things. My father loved anything with hamburger in it. Mom would always make a HUGE pot of them, with enough to freeze for another time.
She did not use rice in hers. Her meat mixture was more like a meatloaf mixture and she would roll it up in the leaves of cabbage, putting them into a very large saucepan. Over that she would pour a few cans of stewed tomatoes.
She also added peeled potatoes and peeled carrots, cut into chunks. I have never seen anyone else make cabbage rolls in this way. When they were done, there was a full meal prepared. No need to add anything else.
I was not fond of the meat filling, I confess, but I did really love the cabbage, carrots and potatoes. My father really loved the meat, but was not fond of the cabbage. I would trade him my meat for his cabbage. Nobody felt cheated in the least.
This recipe is worlds apart from my mother's recipe. First of all the rolls are baked, not simmered on top of the stove and there are no vegetables added. Just the rolls. I also don't use canned tomatoes, preferring instead to make a sauce from a few simple ingredients. Just tastier, in my opinion.
My meat mixture does include rice, unlike hers. I always use raw rice and you needn't worry about it cooking. It does every time and perfectly.
The meat filling also includes some special seasonings aside from salt and pepper. Grated onion, garlic, and carrot to keep things moist. I also add an egg to hold everything together along with a quantity of chopped streaky bacon.
You would be surprised at how much flavour the bacon lends to the mixture. Its not enough to overpower the meat, but it does give a nice smoky flavour. If you want you can put it through a meat grinder. Raw bacon can be rather difficult to chop.
I also like to use a good dry cure streaky bacon. There is less water in dry cured bacon.
I always use a large white/green cabbage, never a savoy cabbage. I think it has the best flavor and texture for this use.
I use a large one because the leaves are much larger and are the perfect size to completely wrap and enclose the meat filling. I also wilt them first in some boiling water for ease of wrapping.
If you trim the thick vein in each leaf you will find that it is much easier to fold the leaves. Just take a sharp knife and pare it down so that it is the same thickness as the rest of the leaf.
Mom never wilted her cabbage first, but it really does make rolling them a lot easier. You can save the inside of the cabbage for other things. Don't worry it will all get used.
The star of this wonderful cabbage roll recipe has always been the sauce. It is incredibly delicious. So delicious that I often double it because we love it so much.
It uses a canned tomato sauce, fresh lemon juice and brown sugar. If you are in the UK, tomato sauce is NOT ketchup! It is what you call Passatta. Seived tomatoes, but a bit thinner. You can add a bit of water to thin it out if you want but it should be fine just as it is.
Make sure you use fresh lemon juice. It has a much better flavour than lemon juice made from concentrate and is not so acidic. It adds a lovely punch to the sauce.
In my younger years I used to always make a big pan of these if we were invited to a pot luck lunch or supper. I always came home with an empty pan and many requests for the recipe. They really are that good!
I like to serve them with some steamed rice on the side and a vegetable if I can. You can serve them with whatever you wish to use and which you enjoy eating with them. Boiled potatoes are also very nice.
These really are the BEST cabbage rolls and worth every ounce of effort to make. You can double or triple the recipe with ease and you may want to do just that as they do freeze very well and it never hurts to have something like these in the freezer that you can just pull out.
You can pay upwards of $20 in the store for a large pan of ready made frozen cabbage rolls, whereas it will only cost you a fraction of that to make your own at home and they really do taste so much better!
This is the season for comfort foods such as these. Why not bake up some comfort for your family today! They will be ever so pleased and grateful that you did! Trust me on this!
Best Cabbage Rolls
Yield: 4 (12 rolls)
prep time: 15 Mincook time: 1 H & 20 Mtotal time: 1 H & 35 M
This is our favourite cabbage roll recipe. Delicious, moist and meaty with a fabulous sweet and sour sauce. These always go down a real treat. I often double and triple the recipe when I take them to pot luck suppers. I always bring home an empty dish.
Ingredients
For the rolls:
- 1 pound (455g) extra lean minced beef
- 1/4 cup (55g)raw long grain rice
- 1 large free-range egg, beaten
- 1 medium onion, peeled and grated
- 1 carrot, peeled and grated
- 1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 pound ( 225g) smoked streaky bacon, minced (dry cure if possible)
- 12 wilted cabbage leaves, thick veins trimmed to thin
For the sauce:
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup (240ml) tomato sauce (passata)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Butter a shallow baking dish large enough to hold your rolls. Set aside.
- Place the meat into a bowl and mix together with the raw rice, egg, onion, carrot, garlic, salt, pepper and bacon. Mix well together. Shape into 12 equal sized ovals.
- Place each oval at the wide end of a wilted cabbage leaf. Roll up, tucking in the sides to completely encase the meat.
- Place, folded side down, into a greased baking dish.
- Mix together the brown sugar, lemon juice and tomato sauce. Pour this sauce over the rolls. Cover tightly with a lid or a thick sheet of aluminimum foil.
- Place the casserole into the heated oven and bake for 1 hour. Uncover at the end of that time and bake for 20 minutes longer. Serve hot with your favourite sides.
notes:
I often double the sauce as it is so delicious. Simply multiply all of the sauce ingredients by 2.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
There is no more comforting a supper on a cold winter's than a traditional cottage pie. I wanted to share this cottage pie recipe with you today that I have downsized from my original recipe for a simple cottage pie which serves 4-6 people. This version is half that size.
This English classic need not be reserved just for the large family. Why should the smaller family suffer for lack of numbers? I am here to say that you can eat just as well when you are only one or two as you can when you are more.
You can make it with either leftover roast beef, as I have here today, or fresh ground beef, which is also the custom in many homes. It is very similar to its close cousin, the Shepherd's Pie.
You may find yourself asking the question, what is the difference between a cottage pie and a shepherd's pie? Great question.
They are very similar casseroles, but in a cottage pie beef is traditionally used as the meat and in a shepherd's pie the meat is usually lamb. You can use either leftover meat from your Sunday roast or fresh meat, depending on what you have in your kitchen.
This is one of the things I like to make whenever I have leftover roast beef in my refrigerator. It makes a great change from making hash or a pot pie, which are my usual go-to's.
You don't even need to have leftover gravy to make it. I tell you how to make a delicious beef sauce without any gravy, By all means, however, do use gravy if you are lucky enough to have some!
Not only is it very easy to make, but it is also incredibly economical. Something we are all aware of these days.
We all want the food we eat to fit within our budgets. That is especially important when you are a smaller family.
You might think that it is much cheaper for two people to eat than it is for four. Simply not true. In fact in many cases it may even cost more, especially if you tend to buy smaller packages of things.
Typically smaller packages cost more than the larger sized versions of the same per ounce/gram. I am not sure why that is.
A good steward of the family budget needs to be able to make wise choices when it comes to the purchase of food. I have found that it is much more budget-savvy to buy the larger sizes, break them down and freeze the excess for a later date.
Being budget-savvy also means making the best use of what you have. Our fore-bearers knew exactly how to do that and dishes like Cottage Pie helped them to do just that.
As I said, you can use either cooked leftover roast in this or fresh hamburger. If you are using fresh minced beef you need to brown it. I find it is easiest to do this when you are sautéing the onions and other aromatics.
An aromatic is a vegetable used in cooking that develop deep and well rounded flavors to a dish when chopped or crushed and then heated and cooked. Aromatics most commonly used tend to be onions, carrots and celery.
Typically these are added at the beginning when you are cooking a dish. This helps them to add as much flavor and aroma as possible.
These are the things which bring others into the kitchen begging and answer to the question, "What's cooking?" These things typically set our tastebuds to tingling in overtime!
For this recipe I have minced leftover cooked roast beef and added it to onions, carrots, swede/rutabaga and celery. This is browned gently in butter, which adds much to the flavors.
Once browned a quantity of flour is added which will thicken the gravy. Make sure you cook it for a few minutes to cook out the flavor of the flour. This is a really important step to take as there is nothing worse than the flavor of raw flour in a sauce.
Once that is done a bit of beef stock is added along with some tomato paste, brown/HP sauce and herbs. You don't need to add the brown sauce, but I find it really adds a special something to the depth of flavor in this gravy.
You can add Worcestershire sauce in its place if that is all you have. It also works beautifully here.
I sometimes like to add a bit of creamed horseradish as well. Not a lot, only a dab. You want just the merest hint of it. Horseradish goes very well with beef.
Meat sauce made, it goes into the bottom of the dish and a layer of vegetables go on top. Typically I use frozen peas and I add them frozen, which not only helps to preserve the color of them somewhat, but also helps to keep them fresher tasting during the longer bake time.
You don't have to use peas. Some people use corn. Some people use both. Some people use a frozen mix of vegetables such as peas, corn, beans, etc. All work well.
The star of the show is the potato thatch which blankets the top of the dish. Creamy, fluffy and delicious, it seals in all the goodness of that rich and meaty base perfectly.
Our typical vision of the ideal English Cottage is one which is covered with a thatched roof of straw. That is why this covering of mashed potatoes is called the "thatch." I love the quaint reasoning behind these English recipes, along with their simplicity.
I like to score a pattern in the thatch which adds to the attractiveness I think. Its not really necessary. You can just pile it on and swirl it, or not. Just make sure it covers the filling all the way to the edges. Typically some of the juices will bubble up through anyways.
I cannot tell a lie, those rich corners where the juices of the gravy bubble through are my favorite bits. I love all of this comfort food casserole really. That rich and meaty filling, the crisp buttery potato thatch, those meaty juiced edges.
Its all pretty good if you ask me! Somehow, no matter what your day has handed you, even the worst day gets tangibly better when a Cottage Pie is on the menu! Today I served it with some coleslaw, but any salad will do, or even a simple slice of buttered brown bread. Enjoy!!
Cottage Pie for Two
Yield: 2
prep time: 15 Mincook time: 45 Mininactive time: 15 Mintotal time: 1 H & 15 M
Simple, delicious, and a family pleasing comfort food. Downsized for two people.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (200g) leftover roast beef, roughly chopped, or browned ground beef
- 1/2 TBS butter
- 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 stick celery, trimmed and chopped
- 1/2 small carrot, peeled and grated
- a 2-inch cube of swede (rutabaga) peeled and grated
- 1/2 TBS tomato paste ( tomato puree)
- 1/2 TBS plain flour
- 1 tsp brown sauce (HP sauce)
- 3/4 cup (200ml) well flavoured beef stock
- 1/4 tsp summer savoury
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup (50g) frozen peas
For the potato thatch:
- 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- warm milk
- a knob of butter
- salt and pepper
- 1 TBS grated cheese (Parmesan or cheddar)
- melted butter to brush (optional
Instructions
- First make the potatoes for the thatch topping.
- Put the potatoes in a pot of lightly salted water and
- bring to the boil. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes until soft. Drain well
- and then return the potatoes to the pan. Shake the pan over the residual heat of the burner to dry them out a bit and then mash the potatoes well until smooth with some warm milk, and a knob of butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir in the cheese. Set aside and keep warm.
- To make the filling, melt the butter in a skillet. Add the
- onion, celery, carrot and sweet. Cook, stirring frequently over medium low heat until softened and the onion is translucent. Stir in the flour. Slowly stir in the beef stock and bring to the boil.
- Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens. Stir in the tomato puree, brown sauce, and summer savoury. Season to taste with salt and black pepper and then stir in the chopped beef.
- Pour this mixture into the bottom of a buttered 1/2 litre (3 cup) shallow baking dish. Sprinkle the frozen peas over top evenly.
- Spread the mashed potatoes on top tocover. Rough up the potato a bit with a fork. Brush with melted butter.
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Bake the casserole in the heated oven for 45 minutes until the potatoes are golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Let stand 15 minutes prior to serving. Serve hot with your favourite sides.
notes:
If you are using ground beef brown it in the skillet along with the onion, carrot, celery and swede. Proceed with the remaining recipe as directed.
I sometimes like to add a bit of creamed horseradish to either the topping or the filling depending on how I feel.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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