Chicken, sweet potato and red wine casserole

Inspired by the most recent Jamie Oliver SuperFoods series and the fact that the weather is starting to cool and become quite autumnal, this comforting casserole was born. A delicious healthy dish which is great served with chunks of homemade bread or some great bread from your local artisan baker.

Its also a one pot dish which we love as it saves on washing up, the vegetable content is also infinitely variable depending on what you have in the fridge and frugal too as it uses the humble chicken thigh,  this cut is normally much cheaper and much more flavourful than the chicken breast.

What you need

• 4 Chicken Thighs - skinless and boneless
• Sweet potato (butternut squash would be a good substitute) - peeled and cut into chunks
• Onion - 1 large red, cut into chunks
• Celery - 2 sticks, copped
• Mushrooms - handful, chunky slices
• Red Pepper - de-seeded and chunky chopped
• 3 cloves garlic - finely sliced
• Couple of springs fresh rosemary - picked into stems
• Rapeseed oil
• Couple of fresh bay leaves
• 1 tin of plum tomatoes
• About 250ml red wine 
• 8- 10 blacked pitted olives
• Bread to serve
• Large cast iron casserole pot or similar

What you do

• Pre heat the oven to 180c
• Place the casserole on a high heat and add a little oil, add the onion and fry for just a couple of minutes until starting to colour, add the rosemary, bay leaves and garlic and stir fry for a few seconds, then add the chicken thighs, just to colour.
• Now add the celery, mushrooms, red pepper, lives and sweet potatoes to the pot, stir
• Add the wine, tin of tomatoes to the pot, stir and bring to a simmer, adding a little water if necessary
• Place in the oven and cook for an hour or so until the chicken is falling and the vegetables are soft and yielding. Taste for seasoning, you may not need any due to the olives.
• Serve straight from the pot strewed with more rosemary.

Season of Soups, Stews and Casseroles Round Up

                                         

Firstly apologies for the delay in the round up for the blog competition, what with Christmas, a short spell in hospital for me and a change of judge things have got a little delayed. Anyway on with the round up, the blog competition saw some great entries from food bloggers across the country who gladly shared treasured recipes for the chance of winning our great prize from Essential Cuisine.

                                                          

I am also very grateful to Stosi Madi the talented chef from the multi award winning Parkers Arms in Newton in Bowland who stepped in to judge  the competition. The Parkers Arms is a gorgeously situated country inn  in the stunning Trough of Bowland in Lancashire, Stosi is passionate about the use of local produce in her fine establishment and I can whole heartily recommend a visit, I am not alone in singing her praises either as the establishment features in many of the restaurant guides and many a  food critic have sampled her culinary delights too.

A warm welcome at the Parkers Arms

On with the entries , we had 6 diverse dishes to consider, our first entry was from Karen Booths Burns over at the fantastic food blog  Lavender and Lovage, a comforting chicken and corn chowder, Karen got extra marks for using Essential Cuisine Stock in her chowder too !

                               

Karen's second entry was a delicious sounding Highland stew which despite being rib stickly warming is actually a diet food !

                               

Now we are off over to Janice at Farmersgirl Kitchen who's entry was another warming comforting recipe  of Chicken broth featuring that lovely grain barley. 

                               

Our next entry was a German pork, beef and sauerkraut goulash from Claire at Foodie Quine blogging in Aberdeenshire, who came up with this recipe to get her in the mood for her festive trip to the Munich Christmas markets. 

                               

Over to Recipe Junkie now for a man sized chicken pie made with her own stock, just what you need on a cold winters day.

                               

Last but no means least our final entry is from Claire over at  Ooo Bi Doo, who's entry is a sausage and bean casserole, sorry no picture, this is Ooo Bi Doo's first blog post and hopefully not her last.

OUR WINNER IS JANICE AT FARMERSGIRL KITCHEN, CONGRATULATIONS YOU PRIZE IS ON ITS WAY ! Stosi was very impressed by the standard of entries and loved the look of this dish.

#BoothsCheers - Beef in port wine

This weeks treats from Booths for their #BoothsCheers campaign include a delightful bottle of port. Also in the box was a letter with a "secret mission" (should I choose to accept it !), to come up with a great comfort food recipe to match one of the wines being provided.

Most people associate port with stilton cheese ( but its not from Lancashire and MR LF doesn't do Blue cheese so that's out) or rich dark fruit cake, yet its quite a versatile ingredient particularly in stews and casseroles producing a deliciously rich sweet edged sauce , its also excellent with or  in a chicken liver pate, with a rich chocolate dessert or even with a good chocolate brownie. As for cheese it works well with most, I particularly like goats cheese.

In this recipe its a great subsitute for a red wine, ale or beef stock, if you think its a bit decadent to use half a bottle of port in a stew, then mix and match depending on how frugal you feel.

Ingredients

• Beef skirt or beef shin- trimmed and cut into cubes (ask your butcher or Booths stock it if you ask)
• 1 large onion - chopped fairly finely
• 2 or 3 carrots - organic if possible as you can taste the different
• 1/2 bottle port ( or your frugal mixture - see above)
• Squirt of tomato ketchup
• 6 mushrooms - sliced
• Seasoned flour (flour , seasoned with salt and pepper)
• Oil

Method

• Preheat oven to 150c
• Tosh the cubed beef in the seasoned flour
• Heat a little oil in frying pan or if your lucky like me your cast iron casserole dish
• Fry off your beef in small quantities until well coloured, remove as cooked to a plate
• Now fry off your vegetables, soften without colouring
• Place the beef and vegetables in your casserole dish, add a squirt of tomato ketchup.
• Pour on your port / stock and put the lid on your dish
• Place in the oven and bake for about 1 1/2 hours , now add the mushrooms
• Continue to bake until the vegetables are soft and the beef falls apart and the sauce reduced
• Serve with mashed potatoes, chunky bread, rice and green vegetables

The port really makes a difference and the gravy was amazing, a delicious comfort food for #BoothsCheers

Lamb and Butter bean casserole

The season of stews and casseroles is now well established and more and more I am craving comfort food , you can't beat that smug satisfied feeling of walking through the door after a busy day at work to be greeted by the aroma of a wholesome stew or casserole ready in the slow cooker. Lamb is one of my favourite meats as it reared so well locally , the butter beans are  to provide a lovely nutritious plumper to the casserole.

If you don't have a slow cooker don't despair this casserole also cooks beautifully in the oven too in about 2 1/2 hours, so its just a case of planning ahead a bit.

Ingredients

• Diced casserole lamb - ask your butcher for whats best value
• Butter beans - either a drained tin, or  dried and soak your own overnight until plump
• 1/2 a can or bottle of beer - I used Murphy's stout but  a mild is nice too, or even a local brown ale, just watch the sweetness of the resulting sauce
• Stock - lamb or vegetable, I used E cuisines - vegetable - 150mls approx
• 2 sticks of celery - chopped
• Tin of chopped tomatoes
• Onion - peeled , sliced and roughly chopped
• Garlic - couple of cloves- crushed
• Parsley - fresh or dried
• Thyme - fresh or dried
• Bay leaf
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Sunflower oil

Method

• Heat a little oil in a large frying pan
• Fry off the diced lamb until it is well coloured, drain and remove from pan to your waiting slow cooker. If you are using a slow cooker your  ovenproof casserole dish.
• In the same pan, now add the celery, onion and garlic and cook until softened, again add to your slow cooker or dish.
• Now de-glaze the pan with your beer, tomatoes and stock , bring this to a gentle simmer and add all the other ingredients to the pan, except for the butter beans.
• Pour this into your slow cooker or oven proof dish, add the butter beans and stir to mix together.
• Cook on high in to your slow cooker for approx 6 hours ( could be longer) or if using a conventional oven for approximately 2 1/2 hours on 150C fan
• Your casserole is ready when the lamb is melting tender and the beans soft and yielding.
• If using a regular oven you may need to add more stock if the casserole becomes a little dry
• Serve accompanied by some great bread and green vegetables.

Awesome beef stew & fluffy dumplings

My all time favourite casserole / stew is based on Jamie Oliver's Jules Beef stew, Jo had the idea of including butternut squash in his vegetables which cooks down to a satisfying mush in the gravy and not browning the meat. Both contribute to producing a casserole which has non of the bitter edges which sometimes result from slow cooking beef.

Ideally when sourcing you beef, buy from a good butcher or farm shop and go for beef skirt or shin which should ensure a great result if its available. I will be buying my from Spout House Farm, delicious local meat.

Ingredients

• Beef - stewing, shin or skirt, toss in seasoned flour
• Onions - chunky chopped
• Carrots - chunky chopped
• Butternut squash - chunky cubes
• Fresh sage 
• Fresh Thyme
• Beef stock
• Red wine or beer
• Tomato puree
• Other vegetables, maybe parsnip, celery, swede - chunky chopped

Dumplings

• 50g Suet - vegetable
• 100g Self raising flour
• Dried herbs
• pinch of salt
• Water

Method 

Preheat your oven to 150c, add all your non dumpling ingredients to a cast iron casserole, ensuring you only add as much stock / wine to just cover your ingredients, bring to a gentle simmer, cover and place in oven for anything from between 2 - 4 hours. I often use my slow cooker and simmer all day whilst at work. Be assured its better to cook long and slowly to achieve a good result, this is slow cooking at its best. You know its ready when the vegetables are beginning to fall and the meat is soft and tender.

Now to make your dumplings, mix all your dry ingredients in a bowl and then add enough water to make a soft dough, split the dough into small round balls - golf ball sized this mix makes approx 6 - 8 balls, be gentle with your mixture as over working makes your dumplings tough, pop into your casserole for 20-30 minutes until well risen and fluffy, serve and enjoy.