First I want to comment on Jeanne's pictures - beautiful! I unfortunately did not take any pictures - of course we all served ourselves from the stove so it doesn't make for a pretty presentation.
Bob gave the meal about a 3.5 and this was even after I strained the leeks from the sauce (he doesn't know they were in there...shhh...) I think I would give it a 4 out of 5.
I used chicken breasts that were on the bone with skin. The recipe said nothing about bones - just skin. The breasts were rather large so I had to cook them longer and actually wound up finishing them in the oven with the potatoes. They were a bit overcooked and really needed the sauce to make them palatable. The sauce was very good, but my guests felt that it needed a bit more of a kick. I think I went a bit light on the mustard, so next time I will add more.
I would cook the chicken again, but would use chicken cutlets which will allow me to cook the whole dish on the stove top. I also think it would get me closer to the 30 minute meal idea.
Loved the potatoes, but I did make a few changes. First of all, Jaime Oliver - what size is a "bag of potatoes"? I used slightly less than a three pound bag of baby red potatoes. After reading the comments on his web page, I looked up other recipes for the spuds and discovered that most others called for a "long and slow" oven, with the recommendation that the liquids come up to the top layer of the tots. So, I added more milk to the cream and covered the potatoes with foil, cooked for an hour at 325 f. Then I uncovered the dish - added more parmesan cheese and baked another 30 minutes uncovered...delish! Ooops - no 30 minute meal here. At least you can get the potatoes out of the way and into the oven well before your guests arrive. BTW - I left out the anchovies - not a fan! There were plenty of potatoes left over so, I had them for dinner tonight with some ham mixed in and in addition - more parmesan cheese - yummy!
Veggies - Just used fresh baby spinach and it was very good. I microwaved it and added lemon and butter.
I think a pretty presentation would be the chicken cutlets over the spinach with the mustard sauce over all.
Dessert - I used some raspberries instead of cherries, which I cooked down a bit with a little jared preserves. I would do the dessert again, but I like Jeanne's idea of using the coffee liquor.
Can't wait to see what Mary comes up with for September!
Monday, August 8, 2011
30 minutes ?? - I don't think so...
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Jamie Oliver's Mustard Chicken
A little aperativ...
Jamie's 30 Minute Meal took me about an hour and a half to prepare. Little things, like, "Where the heck is my Parmesan cheese grater?" and forcing the ( practically welded on) top off the new can of dried mustard, dumping half the contents on the kitchen floor and having to clean it up added a few minutes to the time factor. I found forcing the garlic through the crusher with the peel on rather a novelty. Is this supposed to add to the flavor or just save a bit of time? Are you supposed to throw in the peel along with the rest of it? I thought not, so just set it aside. The variations to the recipe...making my own ice cream and cutting fresh cherries added time on top of the hour and a half. Other variations included using green cabbage, which I already had in my fridge, instead of Swiss chard and frozen spinach instead of fresh as these ingredients weren't available during my last minute shopping spree yesterday.
We loved the mustard chicken. Cutting it up and stirring it into the sauce might be better next time. We'll also do the potatoes again. The anchovy flavor blended so delicately into the sauce that there was just the slightest hint of fish flavor. Andrew didn't even realize there were anchovies in there until I mentioned it. The vegetables were nothing special, but then again, we couldn't follow the recipe as the proper ingredients weren't available at the last minute. Andrew really liked the dessert. I'd vary it even more next time by taking a few minutes to melt the chocolate and pour it over the cherries, or use a tiny bit of high quality chocolate fudge sauce rather than have the chunks and add a coffee liqueur on top. The combined flavors of the chocolate, cherries, coffee and vanilla ice cream were a treat. But if you want an even more heavenly Jamie Oliver dessert (not 30 Minute), try his tiramisu next time. It's one of our favorites.
Guten appetit!
Photos courtesy of Andrew Briginshaw
Jamie's 30 Minute Meal took me about an hour and a half to prepare. Little things, like, "Where the heck is my Parmesan cheese grater?" and forcing the ( practically welded on) top off the new can of dried mustard, dumping half the contents on the kitchen floor and having to clean it up added a few minutes to the time factor. I found forcing the garlic through the crusher with the peel on rather a novelty. Is this supposed to add to the flavor or just save a bit of time? Are you supposed to throw in the peel along with the rest of it? I thought not, so just set it aside. The variations to the recipe...making my own ice cream and cutting fresh cherries added time on top of the hour and a half. Other variations included using green cabbage, which I already had in my fridge, instead of Swiss chard and frozen spinach instead of fresh as these ingredients weren't available during my last minute shopping spree yesterday.
We loved the mustard chicken. Cutting it up and stirring it into the sauce might be better next time. We'll also do the potatoes again. The anchovy flavor blended so delicately into the sauce that there was just the slightest hint of fish flavor. Andrew didn't even realize there were anchovies in there until I mentioned it. The vegetables were nothing special, but then again, we couldn't follow the recipe as the proper ingredients weren't available at the last minute. Andrew really liked the dessert. I'd vary it even more next time by taking a few minutes to melt the chocolate and pour it over the cherries, or use a tiny bit of high quality chocolate fudge sauce rather than have the chunks and add a coffee liqueur on top. The combined flavors of the chocolate, cherries, coffee and vanilla ice cream were a treat. But if you want an even more heavenly Jamie Oliver dessert (not 30 Minute), try his tiramisu next time. It's one of our favorites.
Guten appetit!
Photos courtesy of Andrew Briginshaw
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