Happy Friday and Bon Appetit!
There is a definitive nip in the air these days. We are getting to the end of autumn days now and its time to break out the throws and light the fires.
These kinds of days call for comforting sustaining dishes like this delicious chicken stew, Chicken with Leeks & Butternut Squash. It's British Leek season now as well, so there really is no better time to cook this simple supper!
This is such a simple dish . . . with plenty of leeks and butternut squash. I have used chicken thighs which are perfect for oven braising.
There is also stock, herbs and barley. This is a really beautiful combination to be sure.
You just bang it all into a casserole and then let the oven do the work. I love meals like this.
Meals that you can just throw together and then cook in a casserole, or slow cooker, etc.
The chicken gets all tender and succulent. You can cut it with a fork.
It is juicy and so flavourful after having braised in the oven, soaking up all of those lucious flavours.
All you need on the side is a nice pot of buttery mashed potatoes and a nice pile of lightly herbed green beans.
I love these kinds of suppers, don't you? This is the colour and flavour of Autumn, right here. Soak it up.
*Chicken and Leeks with Butternut Squash*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe
Chicken and autumn vegetables simmered together in one deliciously hearty pot!
1 TBS olive oil
plain flour, salt and pepper
1 kg of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, each one cut into four chunks
1 pound of butternut squash (Peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks)
4 leeks, washed trimmed and thickly sliced
hot chicken stock
two small handfuls of pearl barley
2 small bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/2 tsp savoury crumbled
Heat the olive oil in a large stove top/oven proof casserole dish over medium heat. Toss the chicken bits with the flour and seasoning to taste. Brown them all over in the hot oil. Add the butternut squash and leeks. Cook and stir until the leeks begin to soften. Add hot chicken stock to barely cover and the pearl barley. Add the seasonings. Bring to the boil, then cover and cook for several hours in a moderate oven, (180*C/350*F/ gas mark4) until the chicken, vegetables and barley are tender and the liquid has deliciously thickened. (About an hour and a half.) Remove the bayleaves and serve hot spooned out onto heated plates along with some buttery mashed potatoes and a green vegetable on the side.
This would make a great one pot meal for Bon Fire Night! Bon Appetit!
Here in the Western world putting fruit in with meat isn't something which we do very often . . . however having said that we do like our pork with applesauce and our cranberry sauce with turkey . . . but fruit in a stew, its not a really common thing. In the Middle East it is a fairly common thing . . . just think of a Tagine with apricots or dates . . . really delicious dishes.
This is a really delicious chilli that you can make either in the slow cooker or on top of the stove. It works well either way, so in the summer when it's hot out, I do it in the slow cooker, and in the cooler months when I don't mind a bit of heat in the kitchen, I do it on the stove! It's hearty and delicious and actually very healthy!
This is a delicious recipe I adapted from one of my cookerybooks entitled "Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook" by Phyllis Pellman Good. Its perfect for those hot summer nights, when you don't want to heat up the kitchen but you want something just a tad bit heartier than a salad! And . . . no surprise here . . . its fabulously delicious!
There is one thing with the British weather that you can rely on for sure, and that is that it is highly unpredictable and unreliable! Today (Sunday) has been cold and rainy. The perfect day to make something delicious like this White Chicken Chillie!
When I was a child my family lived for a time in a small town situated on the shores of Lake Winnipeg about two hours North of Winnipeg city itself. I have really lovely memories of the time that we lived there. The first house that we lived in was a duplex bungalow. Our neighbors on the one side were the Dukemon (not sure about the spelling) family and Mr Dukemon often made this soup. Borscht. On the days that he made this the amazing aroma of it would waft over to our house . . . it smelled amazingly delicious. I never got to actually taste it, but the smell of it was pretty tantalizing to my tiny tastebuds. Yes. I was a foodie even then.
Having spent a great deal of my formative years and part of my adulthood in Nova Scotia, Canada, I consider myself to be from Nova Scotia, even though I was born on Prince Edward Island. I am an Airforce Brat, and the ex-wife of a Canadian Serviceman, which means I have lived in many places in my life . . . but Nova Scotia is where my heart and allegiance lay.
IF I am really on the ball on Sundays, I make good use of my slow cooker by popping dinner into it before we leave for church. This week I got lucky and got this lovely Merlot Beef Ragout on quite early in the morning, so it was cooked to perfection by the time we got home. Some rice and a couple of veg and dinner was served in short course! I love it when that happens. I am usually starving when we get home!
The fiddliest bits are grating the cheese and peeling the potatoes.
There's nothing too out of the ordinary here . . . bacon, cabbage, onions . . . Gruyere and Cheddar cheeses . . . dried herbs, and some chicken stock and that's basically it!
The end result is a simple, yet hearty soup that is deeply satisfying and quite filling, and very,very delicious! My husband likes his with buttered bread . . . myself . . . I'm a cracker girl. ☺
*Cabbage Soup with Cheese*
Serves 4 to 6
Printable Recipe
My goodness but this is tasty. Just perfect for these cooler autumn nights when one has been out and about in the chill. Makes a sturdy lunch, and a delicious light supper, especially when accompanied with some crusty bread or homemade scones!
8 ounces streaky bacon chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
1/2 head of cabbage, coarsely chopped
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
2 1/2 pints chicken stock
1 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp dried chervil
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
1/4 tsp dried chives
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 ounces emmenthaler cheese, grated
4 ounces strong cheddar cheese, grated
6 ounces double cream
1/2 tsp dried dill tops
a few dashes of tabasco sauce
Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, until partially crisp. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
We've had a couple of really cool, breezy and showery days this past week and that has called for some belly warming meals. This is one of my favourites. It's simple and quick to make (like, like) and quite delicious. It's like a thick bean stew, but filled with fabulous flavours that really please!
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