Chicken Veronique

 

Thanks to the Chicken Bible by ATK I tried this recipe out.  It isn't as spicy as a lot of the stuff we like but was lush.

 

Ingredients:

 

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Salt & pepper

Small box of chicken stock

1 teaspoon cornflour (cornstarch)

2 tablespoons butter

Sprinkle of crispy fried onions (I didn't have any brown onions)

¾ cup of dry white wine (chardonnay)

¾ cup of cream (I used tinned reduced cream)

Handful of green grapes (from my freezer)

1 teaspoon of dried tarragon (1tblsp of fresh would have been better)

1 tsp lemon juice

Garnish with basil

 

Method:

 

Pound your chicken till it's an even thickness.  I do this with a pestle after putting the chicken between sheets of cling film.  Season with salt and pepper on both sides.

 

Melt butter in pan and fry chicken on a moderate heat for 4 minutes.  Take the chicken out and put on a plate.

 

Add your fresh onion if you have it now and soften in the butter.  I just chucked in some of the crispy stuff.  Add wine and boil away for 3 minutes.  Then put the chicken back in along with the chicken stock.  Reduce the heat and cover and simmer for 6 minutes.

 

Transfer the chicken to your serving platter and tent it with foil.

 

Increase heat and add the cream and the cornflour (made into a slurry with a little liquid).  Cook for another 7 minutes.

 

Stir in the grapes (halved lengthwise), tarragon and lemon juice.  Test for seasoning.

 

Pour your sauce over the chicken and serve with a tiny sprinkle of fresh basil for colour.

 

Sorry about the quality of the photo – winter and artificial light doesn't help.

Grape Jam – taste fine, texture not so good

I did this experiment upon discovering a bag of frozen grapes in the freezer which dated from Christmas 2017.  After some cursory research I discovered that I could apparently make jam with them.  The results were both good and bad.  But only 1 and a half jars resulted so it's not a big deal.

Ingredients:

1 pound frozen blue grapes (approx. 500g)

Sugar – 1 cup – 250g

Lemon juice – a squeeze

Method:

The recipes I found suggested that you peel the grapes and then blend the skins before adding back the pulp.  They also suggested de-seeding the grapes.

I tried to avoid most of this faff – which probably explains the result.

I just threw the thawed grapes into a pot and tried to mash them – with limited success.  I then snipped at them with kitchen scissors until my patience wore out.

I then boiled the grapes for about 5 minutes before adding the sugar and the squeeze of lemon juice.

I boiled it away fiercely for about 25 minutes.  I tested it on a plate cold from the freezer.  It didn't show any particular signs of setting.

But I had had enough.  I poured it into my clean jars and waited to see.

It had thickened up a bit but was still a mix of runny and grape skins and pulp.  The taste was ok though.