Food

Do you see any fucking speckled hen in the picture???

FFS!

has anyone tried boiling a whole chicken? I quite like the idea of moist, pale chicken, with much lower fat content than roasted and lots of light/clear stock to make soups and risottos with. i've never tried it though. for some reason i find it quite intimidating. it always looks so light and tasty in my cookery books but i fear being it raw or grey and watery with floating fatty scum... bleurgh!

Yes, we do this every now and again and it is great. Roughly joint the chicken first (2 mins with practice and big sharp knife) cos it fits in the pan better. Add usual stock veggies, bay leaf and all that gubbins. Cover with cold water, bring to boil. You will need to skim off some scum, but it's easy with a big spoon. Poach at the lowest possible heat you can muster that still keeps the water just boiling. Turn off after 45 mins and allow to cool. Fish out the chicken bits and strain the stock - which will be amazing - into a jug, which you whack in the fridge. The whole lot cools, the fat rises to the top, hardens and forms a seal: when you want it you just bust it off and chuck it, or use it for frying a slice of bread in ftw. Use the fab moist chicken for pie, quick curry, noodles, whatever. Ace.

Stick can up chooks arse. Bake. Ace.

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Yes, we do this every now and again and it is great. Roughly joint the chicken first (2 mins with practice and big sharp knife) cos it fits in the pan better. Add usual stock veggies, bay leaf and all that gubbins. Cover with cold water, bring to boil. You will need to skim off some scum, but it's easy with a big spoon. Poach at the lowest possible heat you can muster that still keeps the water just boiling. Turn off after 45 mins and allow to cool. Fish out the chicken bits and strain the stock - which will be amazing - into a jug, which you whack in the fridge. The whole lot cools, the fat rises to the top, hardens and forms a seal: when you want it you just bust it off and chuck it, or use it for frying a slice of bread in ftw. Use the fab moist chicken for pie, quick curry, noodles, whatever. Ace.

i'm in. although briefly confused by the phrase "fish out the chicken" i think i've got up the courage to poach my fowl now. no chickening out and doing fish.

balki, you are a bogan.

Parma ham.. You can never have enough can you. It's fucking lovely..

my poached (splurged on a wee organic, free range, corn fed one) chook is cooling in it's fragrant bath. smells amazing. i'm going to make a big old chicken sandwich in a fresh baguette tonight and then make some peanut and chilli sauce to have with cold chicken "bang bang" style tomorrow. get in. thanks olly. stock looks really good too.

Dooks. I salute you. I can smell it from Brockley.. I only wish I could taste it... rep rep rep repped!

Look, I made (with my gf and mates help) a college shaped cake.
its exeter....

Oh H..

this was like 3 weeks ago.
I did the building of the college, and she and my pal did the icing, which it turns out, i'm shit at.

and the rest of the square:
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the chicken's penultimate hurrah: i made a very successful chicken and mushroom risotto last night with half the lovely stock and the last of the left over chicken.

the stock was amazing. it set to a light clear jelly with a thin crust of golden fat on top and when reheated looked and smelled like the tastiest of tasty chicken soups. so basic risotto recipe then:

one large white onion, chopped finely, sweated off in half butter half oil for 10-15 minutes till it goes transculcent and sweet. chuck in the rice and coat in the oil, upped the heat a bit and chucked a large glass of white wine, 2 cloves of crushed garlic and a bay leaf. then just started ladling in the hot stock a bit at a time as it gets absobed and stirring constantly.

as i was getting towards the last of the stock and had a big pan of fantasically creamy looking goo, fried off some quartered chestnut mushrooms in a seperate pan, and roughly chopped the rest of the chicken and handful of parsley and chucked that lot in. stirred though a generous handful of fresh grated paremesan and left a bit back for sprinkling on top. season with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper and ate immediately with a bit of green salad. it was so good i burned my tongue. made enough for me, the good lady and a good bowl of late night post-swim seconds later on.

last batch of stock will probably go into a soup for freezing tonight. possibly lentil and carrot.

so far from this bird i've had three dinners (a chicken salad for one, a big chicken sandwich for one and risotto for two and a half) plus one lunch (another whopping chicken baguette sandwich) and either soup or stock for the freezer. not bad for one small chicken (£6-7 from waitrose) and a few other store cupboard staples.

need a new thrift project for next week.

has anyone tried boiling a whole chicken? I quite like the idea of moist, pale chicken, with much lower fat content than roasted and lots of light/clear stock to make soups and risottos with. i've never tried it though. for some reason i find it quite intimidating. it always looks so light and tasty in my cookery books but i fear being it raw or grey and watery with floating fatty scum... bleurgh!

hmmm, maybe i'll make a risotto. i do have white wine.

Sounds like the kind of thing people cook in crockpots. Id never boil a chicken though, if you roast it with the skin on it will be plenty moist enough. Unless your using some unltra-organic-wild chicken, the birds have so much water content.

dooks ta for the thrift tips, i tend not to buy whole chickens but will give this a go :) chicken risotto YUM

Just tried the Nigel Slater recipe (well principle) from earlier this evening on the glass box in the corner of my living room... some pasta, 3 good sausages deskinned and pulled into bits, cooked in a frying pan with a red onion, garlic, cream,whole-grain mustard, salt, pepper..... I'm now so full I can barely move..... cheap, cheerful and very very filling.....

Just had roasted smoked haddock. I'm a convert.
Thank fuck my gf's veggieness, and therefore mine, includes fish.
Fish is just so good!!!!!
Tomorrow am, gonna cook up some epic brekkie, and in the evening, wild rice, wild mushroom, and tomato rice and skate wing.
Calorie count is so low too!

Just had roasted smoked haddock. I'm a convert.
Thank fuck my gf's veggieness, and therefore mine, includes fish.
Fish is just so good!!!!!
Tomorrow am, gonna cook up some epic brekkie, and in the evening, wild rice, wild mushroom, and tomato rice and skate wing.
Calorie count is so low too!

Smoked fish like mackerel goes great with egg, both of which make a fab breakfast.

need a new thrift project for next week.

Pig's Head.

Smoked fish like mackerel goes great with egg, both of which make a fab breakfast.

Kedgeree = WIN.

On the subject of 'fish'...... thoughts on the best place to source fish in town!?

I like to get my meat from McKanna's on Theobalds...... but fish.... more of an issue if you rule out a supermarket.....

^^ Golborne Fish, North Kensington, good stock and cheapish. If you're feeling flush, The Chelsea Fishmonger, Cale Street SW3. Not much wrong with Waitrose tho'. Where else? I want to know too.

I've heard that the fish monger in Brixton is awesome, but I am not an athority on the subject.

BTW, Henry, I love you, but the only thing that annoys me more than a vegetarian is a "vegetarian" who eats fish.

You are not vegetarians, you are health concerned omnivores.

Tiswas, back to school for you, mister.

BTW, Henry, I love you, but the only thing that annoys me more than a vegetarian is a "vegetarian" who eats fish.

You are not vegetarians, you are health concerned omnivores.

+1, apart from the I love you bit.

BTW, Henry, I love you, but the only thing that annoys me more than a vegetarian is a "vegetarian" who eats fish.

You are not vegetarians, you are health concerned omnivores.

True. It's a strange one, this, and depends on the much-accepted 'definition' of vegetarianism as 'abstinence from meat' when the correct definition is something like 'abstinence from animal flesh'. People take the former definition literally and conclude (probably correctly, as the flesh of fish isn't normally referred to as 'meat') that fish does not fall under it. There are a couple of possible terms for people who abstain from meat but not from fish: 'pesco-vegetarian' or 'pescetarian'. Anyway, I'm sure Henry knows all this. It's just sometimes worth re-iterating.