16.5.11

Sunday











1. Gifts from Paris, from a lovely customer, who reports the food here as the menu suggested, is mind-blowing.
2. No weekend is complete without seeing how far you can get without the aid of the internets.
3. The Boy Wonder
4. Filing
5. The fruit bowl
6. Chicken with tarragon and asparagus

Derived from a Nigel Slater recipe, brown the chicken pieces skin side down, it will spit. A lot. This is not the dish to cook if you might be wearing a low cut top or a boob tube. Polo necks only. This is not a date dish, because nobody wears a polo neck on date. This was decided in the pub on Saturday night.

Turn the chicken over, throw in a handful of tarragon, cover and cook until the juices run clear.
Remove the chicken, pour off the fat, deglaze the pan with a glass of white wine.
Add cream, creme fraiche or other dairyness, and another handful of tarragon.Reduce by half.
Return the chicken, poke in asparagus, cook a bit more, add a squeeze of lemon and season.

What i love about Nigel's recipes, is that they are easily adaptable, you could make this with thyme, or mustard instead of the tarragon, or add mushrooms, or other things. I never seem to have all the ingredients for a recipe, even if i set out to.

Did you have a good weekend? Did you cook chicken? Did you wear a boob tube? Does anybody wear a boob tube?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

You had me at macaron!!!!

Unknown said...

I did cook chicken, two roast birds with lots of lemon and garlic and chili flakes, but was not wearing a boob tube. Roast asparagus and warm potatoes with capers, olive oil and lemon juice attended. But, even more stupidly I was wearing a top with tie thingys hanging from the neckline and they nearly set on fire. I am a hazard near flames. I didn't like boobtubes back in the 80s, they always fell down due to lack of natural endowment and sound vaguely surgical which puts me off them even more!

Love Nigel's recipes too, his whole attitude to food infact. Your/his chicken recipe sounds delish. x

Dave said...

Lovely alert look from The Hound. Obviously getting a whiff from the kitchen!

Mrs T-J said...

Macaron encore! Lucky girl.

We did not have chicken, we had Rutland water trout, seasoned and barbecued with lovely crispy skin. We teamed that with Jersey's, Asparagus (of course I seem incapable of preparing a meal with out it, chargrilled mush and toms and hollandaise.

Your chicken looked delicious, I also love Nigel Slater, I could watch him forever, something captivating about him. He still seems like a little boy to me.

Definitely no boob tubes or roller boots for that matter xxx

bowstreetflowers said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Admin said...

we got drunk on gin by accident and couldn't eat a thing all weekend.

Chicken looks gorgeous.

Mrs B said...

I went to make macarons yesterday....having recently purchased a cute little book that can only be described as porn for macaron addicts.....ground almonds? check, egg whites? check, baker's sugar? eh?....so I moved onto salted caramel cupcakes......flour? check, brown sugar? check, corn syrup?....you get the rest of the story.

I never, ever have the right ingredients....or tools for DIY tasks which was my second activity of choice.

On the plus side, I have a clean bathroom and we had a lovely chicken pie.

Becca said...

The below may make you change your mind about doing our wedding flowers:

I have never eaten a macaroon.

I didn't enjoy the Kings Speech. Maybe if Colin had been wearing a wet shirt and said "just as you are" I may have done.

In other news, I ate lamb and not chicken. Failproof recipe of redcurrant jelly (cupboard), mint sauce (cupboard), marinate and grill. I had a fridge disaster in that everything froze so there was no salad. But hitting people with frozen peppers (who knew) is loads of fun.

I am ready for summer and stocks and sweet peas and peeeeonies.

I have coral shoes.

Miss Pickering said...

Well quite a culinary weekend all round, and the gin well done all, shame about the top Belinda.

Boob tubes not good for those flat of chest, or heavy of bosom, so i am not sure who is wearing them. I do not possess one.

Mrs B. I know that felling all too well, but pie sounds perfect.

Becca, i hereby retract any offer i made to do your wedding, regardless of amazing venue or photographer choice.

you have never had a macaron? They are everywhere, probably even in Greggs now. Go.Find.Eat.

as for not liking the King's Speech, next you will tell me that you don't like Lost in Translation, or Amelie, or Il postino or The Notebook?

p.s. ITV2 tonight 9pm for

"I don't think you're an idiot at all. I mean, there are elements of the ridiculous about you. Your mother's pretty interesting. And you really are an appallingly bad public speaker. And, um, you tend to let whatever's in your head come out of your mouth without much consideration of the consequences... But the thing is, um, what I'm trying to say, very inarticulately, is that, um, in fact, perhaps despite appearances, I like you, very much. Just as you are"

Swooooooon.

Anonymous said...

Swoon indeed, sigh; just perfect.
I too was underwhelmed by The King's Speech, what can I say?
Internets is cheating, but 22 down is coypu...

Jenny Rudd said...

At the beginning of last summer I bought a black boob tube and embarked on OPERATION NO STRAP MARKS. You can judge the results on September when I come back home

Kay said...

re the crossword as usual failed miserably and will only use internet to prove a point when i am right....sunday is to long ago to remember what i ate, although i do remember gin being on the menu...i also have never eaten a macaroon unless you count coconut ones my mum made on rice paper..yours look far more refined..x