Spanish style rice with chicken and chorizo

An easy but very tasty one pot meal prepared in just minutes.

click here for a printable version

Preparation:

2 ribs celery
2 large onions
5 garlic cloves
1 large can whole tomatoes with juice
   chicken stock
3 single chicken breasts
3 fresh spanish chorizos
2 tsp saffron threads
2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp chili flakes
1 tbsp spanish paprika
2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
1 cup medium-grain rice
1 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup white wine

sour cream to serve

Preheat your oven to 90 °C. Finely dice the celery and onions. Drain and roughly chop the tomatoes, reserving the juice. Measure the juice and top it up with chicken stock to equal 2 cups. Cube the chicken and slice the chorizo into bite-size pieces. Before you start cooking, peel the garlic and measure out the saffron, oregano, chili flakes, paprika, salt and pepper.

To cook the dish, preheat a heavy-bottomed pot over high heat and add the oil. When the oil just begins to smoke, add the chorizo and cook for a few minutes.Stir and then add the chicken. Let the chicken cook for a few minutes, without stirring; then turn it over to cook the other side. Add a bit of pepper and salt then check the chicken. It shouldn´t be cooked all the way through. Transfer to a casserole dish and keep warm while you finish the dish.

With the heat still on high, cook the onions and celery until translucent. Crush the garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds; then add the rice and sauté quickly, followed by the saffron, paprika, oregano and chili flakes. Deglaze with the white wine, making sure to scrape any bits off the bottom. Once the liquid has evaporated, add the tomato juice, along with the tomatoes, salt, pepper and stir everything together. Turn the heat to low, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes without opening the lid during that time.

After 15 minutes, add the frozen peas and the warm chicken and chorizo. Don´t stir. Re-cover and let cook for another 10 minutes. To finish, fold everything together and turn off the heat. Let sit for an additional 10 minutes before serving.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Ají de Gallina

click HERE for a printable version

This might be - next to Ceviche - one of the best known peruvian dishes and one of my absolut favorites. While I was living in Chile I took a cooking course for peruvian kitchen organized by a peruvian lady who owned a little shop where you could buy all the necessary ingredients to prepare these luscious meals. So when we moved to Argentina I made sure to take a good amount of all the different chili peppers conserved  in jars with me just in case I wouldn´t find them in Buenos Aires. And it turned out to be a really good consideration since it was something nearly impossible to find. After maybe one year I found out about the "barrio boliviano" which was a good ways away from where we lived. But since I´m a really inquisative person I took the challenge to cross half Buenos Aires on search of this little street. I found it and at least was able to buy the fresh chiles that you need.

Now in Stockholm I was confronted with the same challenge. Where do I find what I need?? Surfing through the Internet I do find one or the other useful link and that´s how I found Estebán Ribera who sells products from peru from his home but will also meet with you in town (he lives a little far out)  for "handover". His phonenumbers are 070-620-9163 and 08 - 580 30301. I have no idea if he speaks english, just give it a try. The other shop I found is in Kista and called Kista Grossen (http://www.kistagrossen.com/). I went there yesterday and was in seventh heaven :).

Could hardly wait to prepare dinner today and here is how to do it:

Ingredients:

6                 chicken breast (app. 1,5 kg)
1                 large white onion,  finely chopped
2                 fresh garlic cloves, finely chopped
7 tbsp.        paste of Ají mirasol
8 slices       toast without the crust
12              black olives
500
- 800 ml      chicken stock
400 ml        evaporated milk
100 gr        Walnuts or Pecan nuts
120 gr         freshly grated Parmesan cheese
5 tbsp.        vegetable oil
4 tbsp.        olive oil
6                hard-boiled eggs
                  salt, white pepper
                  some parsley leaves

• Cook the chicken breasts in the chicken stock for about 10 minutes and let them cool in the stock. Pick apart the bread and soak in the evaporated milk. Then pass the mixture to your blender. Fry the onion in the oil until thei´re slightly browned, then add the garlic and the chili paste and fry for a while. Add the liquified bread and season with salt and pepper.
  
• Stirring constantly add the chicken stock ladle by ladle. The sauce should have a creamy, not too fluid and not too thick then add the olive oil.
  
• Finally add the frayed chicken breasts, the parmesan cheese and the chopped nuts. Serve hot with cooked potatoes and/or "Arroz a la peruana" (that recipe I will add to this post tomorrow, I´m too tired now :) ), hard-boiled egg halves, black olives and some parsley leaves.

Chicken Pot Pie

click HERE for a printable version

If some of you went through the work of preparing the chicken stock I would like to pass on a recipe for you how to use the chicken you have left over. This dish has been one of my favorit dishes since my childhood and it seems like I have passed on this preference also to my kids.

You can - of course - use chicken breasts (preferably with bone and skin)  just as well and cook them with some soup vegetables for 7 to 10 minutes. Then let them cool in the broth and later skin and bone them and cut into cubes.

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

550 g        chicken meat, cooked and cut small

2               sliced celery stalks

2 - 3         sliced medium sized carrots

1               finely cubed onion
2               minced garlic cloves
5               cubed white mushrooms (optional)
2               finely cubed potatoes (optional)
150 g        frozen small green peas

700 ml       chicken stock
150 ml       heavy cream
80 g           butter
40 g           flour

30 ml         white wine (can be substituted by lemon juice, then use less)

                 salt, white pepper

500 g        puff pastry (2 sheets)
1               egg (separate the yolk from the white)

• Preheat your oven to 185 C°.
• Heat a frying pan on medium-high heat and let half of the butter melt. Then add the onions and the garlic and fry - stirring occasionally - until translucent. Now add the mushrooms and let them fry for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium, add the celery, carrots, frozen peas,  potatoes and 100 ml chicken stock. Let this cook until the liquid is more or less evaporated but not more than 8 minutes. Add the cut chicken and let it reheat. Salt and pepper to taste and take it from the stove. 
• Butter a casserole dish and spread one layer of your puff pastry into the dish. Pinch with a fork a couple of times and paint egg white onto the dough. Pre-cook in the oven for 10 minutes.
• Let the rest of the butter melt in a saucepan and add the flour stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Don´t let the roux (that is your butter-flour-mixture) get to dark. Now take from the heat and add the cold chicken stock whisking it into the roux to avoid lumps. Set it back on the heat, add the white wine and let it cook on low temperature for 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Now add the cream and season with salt and white pepper. Pour the sauce over your chicken in the frying pan and mix together.
• Pour the mixture onto your pre-baked puff-pastry. Cover with the second layer of dough, pierce with the fork and paint it with the egg-yolk now. 
• Bake for 35 - 40 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Serve with a green salad.
  ©just-cook!
  

Chicken breast in puff pastry

Since I had two beautiful organic chicken breasts in my fridge I thought they´d deserve a "special treatment". The following recipe I found adequate for them. Just served with some baby leaf spinach that I only leave in a pan with a little melted butter, salt and a dash of pepper for a minute. The chicken takes a little time but is worth it.


Stuffed chicken breast in puff pastry


click HERE for a printable version

4                          single chicken breasts without skin (each 130 g)

                            salt

                            pepper, freshly ground

2-3 tablespoons   Butter

200 g                  white mushroom

1                         shallot

50 g                    heavy cream

1                         thin slice of cooked ham (50g)

420 g                  frozen puff pastry

1                         egg yolk

                           little flour

For the chanterelle:

250 g                 chanterelle (or brown mushroom)

1 tablespoon      butter

                         salt, pepper

For the sauce:

200 ml                  chickenstock (homemade if possible)

2-3 tablespoons    dry sherry

20 g                      butter, very cold

                       

Rinse the chickenbreast and pat dry with a paper towel. Give some salt and pepper over them and fry them in hot butter one to two minutes on each side. Let them cool off on an oven rack that you´ve covered with paper towels first.

Now you clean the mushrooms and cut them into very small cubes (this needs some dedication). The same happens with the shallot. Fry the shallot in one tablespoon butter until they are transparent. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and let them fry on medium heat for 10 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated. Then add the cream, let it cook for 2 more minutes and take it from the stove to cool. Cut the ham into tiny dice and mixe with the cooled mushrooms. Preheat your oven to 200C°.

Take always two of the rectangular puff pastry pieces, lay them ontop of each other and roll them out on some flour. Then cut 4 rounds of 20 - 24 cm diameter from them. Lay them on a baking tray and leave them (if you have the space) in the freezer.

Make two deep cuts lenghtwise on each chickenbreast and fill each cut with one to two tablespoons of the mushroom mixture. Place each breast onto the lower half of a puff pastry circle, paint the edges with egg yolk fold over the other half of the pastry and press the edges together firmly. Paint the rest of the egg yolk onto the pastry and place them on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Bake them in the oven until golden brown for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Now you have time to clean your chanterelle mushrooms. Once clean you fry them in the hot butter and then add salt and pepper. Fry them until all the liquids have evaporated and take them out of the pan. Pour the good quality chicken stock into the pan and let reduce a little (careful, might otherwise get to salty). Then add the Sherry. Mix in the ice cold butter. If you like you can add a shot of cream.

Arrange on pre-warmed plates with the baby leaf spinach.

Bon appétit!