Slow Cooker Chicken and Mushroom Hotpot

At this time of year all you want to eat is comfort food, warm cosy bakes, stews, casseroles and the like. The sort of dishes that create a warm pleasantly scented fug in your kitchen, dishes that thrive on neglect, not in the flavour stakes but in the cooking,quietly simmering in the background to slowly create multi layered dishes of delight.

Chicken is a popular meat which doesn't really need the slow cooker treatment as it cooks pretty fast but sometimes you just need the convenience of being able to put all your ingredients in the cooker and leave it to get on with cooking whilst you get on with your life. Yesterday was one of those days, wild wet weather and lots going on, so I popped this dish on around lunchtime so that it would be ready for supper.

Christened a hotpot as it bears a passing resemblance to that old faithful Lancashire Hotpot.

What you need

• 2 Chicken breast fillets, chopped in to bite sized chunks
• 6 -8 button mushrooms, sliced
• 5 small onions (pickling size or shallots)
• 1 stick of celery - chopped
• 1 large carrot - peeled and chopped
• About 400ml Chicken stock 
• Fresh thyme 
• Couple of bayleaves
• Splash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 heaped tsp grain mustard
• 1 tbsp cornflour - slaked with a little water
• Salt and pepper
• 4 large potatoes - peeled and sliced thinly
• Olive oil

What you do

• Preheat your slow cooker, whilst you fry off the chicken pieces in a little olive oil in a frying pan
• Once they are lovely and golden , add all the vegetables except the potatoes to the pan and cook for a few minutes, to soften slightly.
• Now add the stock, mustard, herbs, Worcestershire sauce to the pan, give it a good stir and let simmer for about 3 minutes, then add the slaked cornflour. This will thicken the sauce.
• In the slow cooker layer the potato slices with the chicken and vegetable mixture, topping off with potatoes. Add a little boiling water if the dish looks dry.
• Cook on high for at least 4 hours until the potatoes are cooked and the chicken is tender. Season and serve on its own or with your choice of green vegetables.

This post and recipe was created in association with Schwartz  for which I have been compensated. This recipe is my original work.

Rocket Pesto stuffed mushrooms

Another glut in the garden - this time we are inundated with wild rocket its popping up all over and although I love the peppery spicy leaves in salad, you can only eat so many. Previous forays into warm rocket cookery have had mixed results, its fine strewed on pasta, pizzas and the like but I am yet to be convinced with rocket soup. I have made homemade pesto a few times previously with basil and even nasturtium leaves but never rocket until now. 

The pesto is easy to make especially if you have a food processor / blender, just blitz clean rocket leaves, garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese, pine nuts or breadcrumbs until you have a thick green paste, use this in this recipe or alternatively stirred through pasta or spread on hot from the oven fresh bread.

What you need 

• Qty of rocket pesto
• Fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 or 2 large field mushrooms - stalks removed
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Baby cherry tomatoes - sliced 
• Cheese (Lancashire, cheddar, local goats would all work) - grated or broken into little chunks
• Sea salt and pepper

What you do

• Place your mushrooms in an oven proof dish gill side up.
• Pre heat your oven to 180c.
• In the base of the mushrooms place the sliced cherry tomatoes, then spoon in the pesto and some breadcrumbs, top with cheese and a little more breadcrumbs.
• Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil
• Bake for 15 -20 minutes until the mushroom is tender and cooked, the cheese has melted and the breadcrumbs golden.
• Delicious served as a light lunch or supper dish or as a starter.

Spiral Pasta with tasty creations Lancashire cheese sauce, mushrooms and parma ham

Recently here at Lancashire Food, we were approached by Tasty Creations a local company who produces ready made luxury cheese sauces from great local produce to sample their sauces. 

Tastycreations is small specialist food company based in the North West and they produce a range of premium cheese sauces using some of the excellent award winning local and British produced cheeses and specialist food ingredients. They buy their cheeses and milk from Lancashire and Cheshire, herbs from Yorkshire, onions from Lancashire, stock from Cheshire and their packaging is made in the UK. In the Lancashire Cheese sauce they use award winning DEWLAY Tasty Lancashire cheese. 

Having worked in the food industry for many years, Steven uses his culinary skills and knowledge of the specialist food and drink industry to produce a delicious selection of cheese sauces that are both convenient and versatile to use.

The sauces can be poured hot on top of chicken, fish, meat, pork, vegetables, potatoes or use as a cooking sauce to make a fish pie, pasta, lasagne, quiche, soufflé or use it as a dip. The chilled sauces  take two minutes to re-heat and can also be frozen for up to three months. They have also won a Great Taste Gold award in 2012.

We have chosen to use the sauces in a couple of recipes but they would also be great alongside a steak in the case of the Garstang Blue sauce , simple fish or grilled chicken and I am sure your cauliflower cheese would be enhanced by one of these fine sauces.

Our favourite was the "Lancashire Cheese Sauce" of course, in which you could really taste the Lancashire cheese l, this was a great base sauce for this pasta dish.

Ingredients 

• 1 pot of Tasty Creations Lancashire Cheese Sauce
• Fusilli pasta - suitable quantity for the number of portions you are making
• Mushrooms - thinly sliced
• Prosciutto or parma ham - finely sliced
• Parmesan cheese to serve
• A little olive oil

Method

• cook your pasta in boiling water for the specified time on the packet
• Whilst the pasta is cooking, quickly fry off the mushrooms in a little oil, once cooked add the Tasty Creations sauce
• Cook until the sauce is hot
• Now add the ham or prosciutto
• Serve over your drained cooked pasta, sprinkle with some freshly grated Parmesan to serve

Tasty Creations sauces are available from a number of outlets, details on the website.