Tag: Chicken

CHICKEN WITH SAUERKRAUT, from the Carso, in north eastern Italy, near Trieste

Chicken with Sauerkraut is a simple dish with flavours from the Carso region of northeastern Italy, near Trieste. The Carso is a mountainous area between Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea, south of Monfalcone.

Cultural History

The recipe’s simple ingredients reflect the flavours of Hungary, Germany, Russia and Eastern European countries. These are also the flavours of Trieste: chicken, sauerkraut, onion, lardo and white wine. This is not surprising as Trieste was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

I first came across a version of this recipe in Fred Plotkin’s book, La Terra Fortunata, (published in 2001). I

I have previously made this dish using chicken with bones as the recipe suggests. However, I have used boneless chicken and some fatty bacon this time. Having lived in Trieste, I am well-acquainted with sauerkraut and cooking with smoked pork and pork fat. I always have jars of sauerkraut at home, particularly in winter for making dishes such as iota.

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Lardo

Lardo is an Italian salume that is eaten and widely used in Italian cuisine especially in northern Italy; it is made from the thick layer of fat from the back of a pig and cured with a mixture of salt, herbs, and spices;  the most esteemed Italian lardo is aged in the warm, fresh caves in the area of Carrara (famous for its marble) and no additives or preservatives are used.

Lardo Affumicato is Speck. This also is used widely in cooking of Trieste and Italian regions that used to be part of the Austrian- Hungarian Empire.

The rendered fat from the  lardo or bacon is the fat used in this recipe. (Pork fat, or rendered pork fat is also called lardo in Italian and is lard in English).

THE RECIPE: Chicken with Sauerkraut

INGREDIENTS

This recipe does not require specific quantities as it relies on estimations and personal preference. I used approximately 1 kg of chicken, 5 rashers of fatty bacon and 500 g of drained and squeezed sauerkraut.

Feel free to adjust the quantities to suit your taste.

Fry the bacon/lardo in a heavy bottomed saucepan

PROCESS

Gently fry the bacon or lardo in a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat and when there is sufficient melted fat in the pan sear the chicken pieces till golden.

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Fry the chicken in batches.

Fry the chicken in batches so as not to crowd the chicken pieces in the pan while searing.

Do not to crowd the chicken pieces in the pan while searing.

Once you have seared the meat, add a sliced small onion and cook it gently till softened and golden.

Seared Chicken, onion and sauerkraut .

Add some peppercorns , bay leaves and the sauerkraut and cook it gently for about 10 minutes.

Mix the ingredients together.

Add the chicken, some white wine (about 1/2 cup) and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid and cook gently for about 20 minutes. If necessary add more wine or water to keep it moist while it is cooking,

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Add white wine, bring to a boil, cover and cook gently.

If you are using chicken with bones cook it for longer (30-40 mins, depending on the size of the chicken).

A MIXED MEAT TERRINE

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My mother would often say that I was ‘fissata’….fixed, almost obsessed….and I guess I am at the moment with making terrines and pâtes. And the many I have made lately are turning out just fine. (I have made three terrines and two pâtes in two weeks – all taken to friends’ places)

I think that one of the many things I like about making the above is that weights and measurements are not important. You can have a rough idea about the meats you want to buy, the herbs you would like to use, the alcohol you wish to use as a flavouring,  texture you wish to achieve (layered strips of meat, shredded,  minced, mousse) and off you go.

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For the terrine above I used minced chicken, minced pork and twice the amount of yearling beef (low fat – I hate beef fat!) – all free range and preservative free. At times, I have used my food processor to mince different meats. Quantities were roughly 450g of pork, 450g of chicken and about 800g of yearling.

The herbs are fresh thyme and sage.

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The alcohol was white wine and brandy. The only type of brandy I had at home was Vecchia Romagna, too good to cook with, but never mind.

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Ingredients for making the mixed meat terrine

I used nutmeg and salt and ground black pepper. I added pistachio nuts and more thyme.

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Meat and the other flavouring ingredients

I mixed it all up and left it overnight, but is OK to macerate just for a few hours.

Bacon is an important ingredient in terrines – moisture and fat. I trimmed the bacon and lined the terrine with the strips. My bacon rashes were not long enough to hang over the side, but this did not matter as I used other bacon strips to cover the terrine

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Lining the mould with bacon.

I added the minced meats on top.

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And placed more bacon to cover it. I used baking paper and a lid from my other terrine mold and placed it in a baine -marie, i.e. a hot water bath – mine was made with a roasting pan large enough to hold the terrine and deep enough for the water to come at least half way up. The purpose of cooking food via a bain-marie is that it creates a gentle heat around the food and results in a uniform cooking process.

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I cooked it on 195C for two hours.

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The baked terrine.

When you take off the lid and paper you will notice that the terrine has shrunk and there will be liquid around the meat. All good news – the liquid will turn into very flavourful jelly and the meat will need to be pressed. This is easily done by putting a wight on top.

I used a new piece of paper and an another terrine pan filled with water to press it. At other times I have used bricks and stones – be adventurous (another reason why I like making them).

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Placing a weight the Terrine

Leave it overnight  in the fridge for the flavours to mature (longer if you wish). When you are about to serve it, run a knife  around the edges, turn it upside down and WOW.This one was taken to a holiday house at Balnarring Beach, Terrines are just so portable!

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OK, it may not be Sicilian butI think that Sicilians would like it. if you wish to make a Sicilian Terrine see Gelatina:

GELATINA DI MAIALE. Pork Brawn

CHIARAMONTE in South-Eastern and the best butcher in Sicily (he also makes smallgoods)

EATING WELL, Camping in Tasmania, BBQ chicken-Pollo alla Diavola

I always mange to eat well, even when camping.

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I have just spent 12 day a camper van visiting remote places mainly on the West, North and North-east coast of Tasmania.

 

I have been to Tasmania on a number of occasions but was not very familiar with the number of lakes in the centre of the island, the west coast – Queenstown, Cape Sorell, Macquarie Harbour and Strahan, The Tarkine forests, Corinna, Arthur River and West Point, then along the north coast to the east…Lake William National Park, Binalong Bay, Bay of Fires (just to name some places).

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My partner and I (and sometimes with a couple of friends) ate oysters, fish and excellent beef and chicken, fabulous potatoes, excellent cheeses, eggs, wine, apples and all sorts of vegetables.

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The photo below shows red lentils and carrots (cooked with a curry the previous night) and braised red cabbage with apples and caraway seeds from two nights before.

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I  cannot resist foraging and managed to find pine mushrooms, blackberries and wild fennel – not difficult.

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I did not take photos of all the food, but here are a couple.

I always cook pulses, even when I am away. These are mashed white beans with rosemary and olive oil drizzled on top.

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And there was fish, but often hard to buy…plenty of fishermen but no shops to sell it.

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Tasmania….

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How beautiful….

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…and varied.

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The chicken cooked on the BBQ is a version of pollo alla diavola. Most of the time this chicken is cooked with a weight on top and usually called pollo al mattone (chicken cooked under a brick). . They were small chickens so this may have made them more pliable. I have written a post about Pollo alla Diavola in an earlier post. I did not use a brick on this occasion but we made sure that the chickens were quite flat

Use a small chicken (younger and small in size – approx 1 k).
Once butterflied, marinade it for at least an hour in oregano, black pepper, salt, extra virgin olive oil and grated lemon peel.
Alla diavola means ‘as the devil cooks it’, therefore add plenty of pepper and use a moderately hot flame.
Press the chicken quite flat.
Turn once after about 20 minutes. Cook for about 40-50 minutes, remove chicken from the fire, cover with foil and a tea towel on top and allow it to rest  for about 10 minutes to finish cooking.
it will be quite coloured on the outside but it will taste great.
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PUDDASTRI CA PIPIRATA: POLLASTRI CON PEPERATA (Chicken with a sauce containing pepper and spices)

These beautiful chickens (and dogs) belong to friends. The chicken with the speckled feathers around her neck (in the front of the top photo/ and in the second photo at the bottom) won 1st prize at the Royal Melbourne show in 2009.
My friends would not dream of eating their chickens.

Whilst admiring these chickens my friends and I began discussing a chicken recipe that they had eaten at my place, an adaptation of a Sicilian recipe called Jadduzzedi e Puddastri ca sarsa pipirata in Pino Correnti’s book: Il libro d’oro della cucina e dei vini di Sicilia.

Correnti describes the dish as young chickens and roosters, pot roasted in oil, butter, bay leaves, rosemary, salt and pepper and deglazed with a little marsala (the dry variety). These were then served with a reduced salsa pipirata consisting of the following ingredients: vin cotto, broth flavoured with cinnamon, cloves, ginger and rosemary, grated lemon peel and pomegranate juice. Apparently this particular dish was appreciated by a noble in Palermo in the eighteenth century.  Unfortunately then Correnti  goes on to say that this dish was revealed to him by a medium, and that he has never found  any basis or documentation for this recipe.

All cuisines have cultural origins, but the cooking methods and flavours have altered and evolved throughout history to become what they are today.

For a detailed version of the possible Cultural Origins of this medieval sounding dish see:

SPICY CHICKEN SALAD WITH PEPPER, PUDDASTRI CA PIPIRATA: POLLASTRI CON PEPERATA

Here is my version of Puddastri ca pipirata.

INGREDIENTS
chicken fillets, skinless or with skin. I use organic and depending on how large they are, estimate 1 per person.
The following recipe is sufficient for 6 people.

For the poaching liquid:
chicken stock, sufficient to cover the fillets (made beforehand)
celery, 2 stalks left whole
carrots, 3 young, scraped and left whole
onion,1 sliced into thick slices
spices, 5 whole cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 6 pepper corns
bay leaves, 3
parsley, 4 sprigs
rosemary, 1sprig

For the marinade:
extra virgin olive oil, 1 cup
spices, 1/2  teaspoon of each, ground cloves and cinnamon (I used whole cloves once and watched my friends picking them out from their mouths – not a good feel),
bay leaves, 3- 4 (fresh leaves look great as well as doing their job)
chilly flakes or black pepper, to taste (I use plentyt)
sugar, a small teaspoon
salt, to taste
red wine vinegar 1/3 cup
lemon, the juice of 1, and the peel , peeled with a potato peeler and kept in strips so it can easily be removed.

For the salad:
celery, 2 of the tender stalks sliced thinly, and some of the light green leaves, chopped
cooked chicken and carrots
spring onions, 3 chopped or cut lengthwise into thin , short pieces
pine nuts, 3/4 cup
seedless muscatels (or raisins or currants), 3/4 cup previously soaked in a little wine or marsala

PROCESSES
Prepare this dish at least the day before you serve it – this allows the flavours in the marinade to achieve the required results.(I have learned through experience that this dish tastes even better if left to marinade for at least 24 hours).
Use a wide, shallow sauce pan which allows the fillets to be placed in a single layer (if possible). If the chicken is in a double layer, ensure that during the poaching process you swap the ones on top with the ones in the bottom layer to allow even cooking.

Prepare the poaching liquid – I really like to make this strongly flavoured.
Use sufficient chicken stock to cover the chicken fillets. (I usually have some stock in the fridge or stored in the freezer made with chicken with bones, carrot, onion and celery stick, a little salt, boiled and then reduced – see BRODO earlier post).
Strain the stock through a colander, empty it into the saucepan and to the stock, add the ingredients in for the poaching liquid listed above.
Bring the stock with added flavourings to the boil.
Place the fillets gently into this poaching liquid – it should just cover the fillets. Adding the meat to the hot stock will seal the meat and preserve the flavou. Adding the meat to the cold liquid will enrich the taste of the broth. Because the meat is the focus, add the chicken to the hot liquid.
Cover with a lid and bring slowly to the boil again on medium heat. Leave the chicken to poach gently for about 7 minutes (I do not like to overcook them – they need to be white in colour and when pricked with a fork still have some resistance).
Remove the pan from the heat and leave the chicken in the poaching liquid till cool – the chicken will keep on cooking in the poaching liquid and be kept moist till you are ready to marinade it.
Marinade: Mix all of the ingredients together in a container.
To assemble the salad:
I like to use a deep glass bowl to see the chicken and salad ingredients in layers.
Take out chicken fillets and cut each fillet into thick slices.
Strain the poaching liquid, discard the solids but keep the carrots – these can be sliced into batons and added to the salad.
Place the chicken fillets and carrots in layers and cover with a little marinade and other ingredients as you go. The lemon peel and bay leaves can be at the bottom of the dish and between the layers. Sprinkle pine nuts and drained dried muscatels, the spring onions, celery and carrots between the layers.
Top the whole dish with some of the cooled poaching liquid until all the chicken is covered (this will keep it moist and a good colour) and leave to pickle in the fridge. Shake the dish occasionally to amalgamate the flavours. Remove it from the fridge about an hour prior to serving.

Presentation
Prior to presenting the dish you may like to drain off some of the liquid to make it more manageable. Ensure that each person receives some of the other solids as well as the chicken and serve some of the liquid separately if you wish.

It is at this stage that on numerous occasions I have taken more liberties with dish by:
•    adding one or more extra ingredients to the dressing: 1-2 chopped anchovies , 1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses instead of the sugar (molasses is definitely not Sicilian)
•   scattering pomegranate seeds on top of the salad.

Save any left over liquid to use as a stock to flavour braised rabbit, chicken, pork and venison dishes.

A bit of trivia:
I read recently that pomegranate juice has anti-inflammatory compounds, cancer-killing isoflavones and antioxidant properties. Italians call it melograna, melograno granato, pomo granato, or pomo punico. The generic term, punica, was the Roman name for Carthage, and the best pomegranates came to Italy from Carthage.

 

BRODO DI GALLINA (Chicken Broth)

 

If you aren’t feeling well, especially if you have an upset stomach Italians say that you are debole di stomaco; this seems to be a common malady with Italians. The home cure is to eat in bianco – white food (bianco is Italian for white). In bianco is the culinary term used to refer to a dish, which is served plain and with little seasoning.

Broth, boiled rice, boiled chicken/veal, certain boiled vegetables, steamed white fish, bistecca di vitello a bagnio maria (veal steak cooked in a baine marie), latte di mandorla (almond milk) and bianco mangiare (dessert= thickened almond milk) are some of the foods which are considered mangiare (food) in bianco.

The perfect in bianco food and the cure for any ailment of course, is brodo (broth).

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I usually use a whole, organic chicken and eat the flesh after I have made the broth. If I use a veal shin I also eat the flesh (try it with a salsa verde). If I am eating the meat, I remove the chicken or veal from the broth after about  60-80 minutes of gentle cooking and then evaporate the broth on high heat.

Obviously the more solids, the more taste. To concentrate the flavours, cook the broth for longer and towards the end of cooking, leave it uncovered to evaporate.

If you do not wish to eat the meat, fleshy bones from organic chickens are a suitable substitute. Because stock is the foundation for cooking, the quality of the bones is important, cheap bones from battery hens will not produce flavourful stock and it is likely to be full of concentrated chemicals.

 

Gallina vecchia fa` buon brodo (Ancient Italian proverb).

An old chicken makes good broth.

 

Ingredients: 1 large onion, chicken (or carcasses, necks and wings and/or veal bones) salt, peppercorns(optional), celery stick, carrot, 1-2 red tomatoes) and water to cover ingredients.
Processes: Peel and halve the onion, remove obvious fat from meat, clean the celery and carrot (no need to peel as it will be discarded). Add all of these ingredients and the seasoning to a saucepan or stockpot and cover the contents with cold water. Cover with a lid and slowly bring the broth to a boil. Simmer for 2 hours (or up to 3 hours if using large bones), skimming frequently. Strain the broth, discarding solids (unless you are eating the meat).

See  Gnocchetti di semolino

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