Thursday 12 June 2008

Trio of Leftovers


Last night I forgot to take a photo of the stunning stuffed portobello mushroom.
However, I have recreated some elements in miniature in this little trio of leftovers we had for lunch.

In the glass is leftover Chicken Avgolemono soup.

Top right is chunks of shrimp mixed with a herbed cream cheese and mayonnaise mix, on top of a slice of avocado. The original dish was portobello mushrooms with the stem removed, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then baked stem side up (well, where the stem used to be) in a 200 degree oven for 10 minutes. Then the mushrooms were flipped over and baked another 5 minutes. Leave the oven on while you fill the mushrooms.

Into the stem side went enough chunks of cook shrimp to fill it generously. This was covered with a sauce made of equal parts of mayonnaise and herbed Boursin (allow about one tablespoon per person), lemon juice (about half a teaspoon per person), and about a heaped teaspoon of parmesan per person. Mix well. The original recipe included some frozen spinach, but I didn't have any so I left it out. On top of the sauce sprinkle some parmesan as well, then pop the whole lot into the oven for about 5 or 10 minutes till the topping is warmed through. It was delicious!

Bottom right is a leftover portobello mushroom sliced in half lengthways (I had to make one mushroom serve two people so that's how I did it.) I baked it as above. Onto each half I put two thin slices of Brie, put some leftover chicken breast on top of that, and covered it with some leftover grated cheese I found in the fridge. Probably Gruyere.

Now if I hadn't told you they were leftovers, you would never have guessed, right?

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Chicken Avgolemono Soup


This is a variation on the soup we had at Cooking club on Monday. Well, considering that Monday's soup was made with chicken wings and a special stock, plus basmati rice plus cornflour, I guess it's more based on that soup than a variation.

First I used chicken stock I had ready-made in the fridge. Every time I roast a chicken, and we've been having a lot of those lately, I throw the bones into a slow cooker with whatever vegetable ends I have, like carrot tops and bits of onion, and simmer it overnight. Then I strain out all the bits and reduce the stock to about 1/3 of the original volume. Then I cool it before pouring it into ice cubes and freezing it. In this particular case I had about two cups of jellied stock int the fridge that I hadn't yet made cubes with.

I had a couple of roast chicken carcasses, so I picked all the good meat off those. I would guess it came to slightly over a cup. More would probably have been better. I chopped that finely, added it to the stock and heated it up to boiling point.

Then I squeezed out half a lemon, added that to an egg yolk, and beat the two until foamy. I think 2 egg yolks would have been better, given that I didn't use rice or cornflour as an added thickener. I took some of the hot chicken with stock, about half a cup, and added it to the egg mixture. I did that twice more before pouring all the egg mixture back into the stock. I stirred and stirred while it reheated over gentle heat and thickened, avoiding boiling. And then I served it up with some flat-leaf parsley for garnish.

That's one way of doing it. You could make it from scratch by using a whole chicken leg, thigh and drumstick, with a medium carrot, small leek, small celery stick, 2 or 3 parsley stems, a small onion, a bay leaf, a couple of crushed peppercorns and about a teaspoon of salt. Cover that generously with water, bring it to the boil, then let it simmer for around an hour and a half to absorb all the flavour. Strain and measure the amount of stock you have. Reduce to about three cups, or add water to make it up to three. Remove the chicken from the bones, discarding the skin, chop it finely and add it to the strained stock. Reheat, then do the bit with the 1/2 lemon and 2 egg yolks.

The lemon gives it a nice freshness of flavour.