Chocci's - Cooking & Dining

Chocci’s chicken casserole

True to its four seasons in one day reputation, Melbourne has been spring t-shirt warm in the day time, dipping to thick coat and mittens required temperatures in the evening.

I thought a nice hot chicken casserole would help warm our tooties.  I was in a lazy mood today, so this recipe is perfect for anyone with who’s got a couple of hours to spare to before dinner needs to be served but doesn’t want to spend more than 20 mins in the kitchen.  You can prep everything, chuck it in the oven and simply put your feet up with a mag or book for an hour and half.   

You’ll need:

• A whole chicken for roasting, divided into 8 portions.  Usually you can pick up these roasting portions at the supermarket, if not, it works equally well to use 4 large drumsticks and 4 chicken thigh pieces, on the bone
• 100-150 gms of kalamata olives, with stones to keep the flavour in
• 4 medium sticks of carrots, cut into small pieces (2-3 cm pieces)
• 4 small potatoes, cut into quarters
• 1 small onion (or ½ large one), sliced thinly
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
• 10-12 basil leaves
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

Preparation:  Pan fry the chicken pieces in a pan (with a little olive oil) until golden brown on both sides.  Transfer to a large casserole dish which has been oiled with olive oil, making sure you also pour over any juices.  Pour over the can of diced tomatoes, mixed with about 2 cups of water (or stock if you want it to be extra tasty - I’ve done without in my cooking and it tastes fine without).  Arrange the pieces of onions, potatoes and carrots around the pieces of chicken.  Make sure all the ingredients are covered by the tomato sauce so that it cooks properly - if not, add a little extra water.  Scatter the olives and cherry tomatoes on top.  Finally, top the dish with basil leaves, and salt & pepper. 

Cooking:

1. Seal the caCookingsserole firmly with foil and bake in oven at around 180 degrees for 1 hour or so until the chicken, carrots and potatoes are tender. 
2. Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 mins to give some bits of the casserole (e.g. the sliced onions and chicken pieces) a nice browning.  Note: Take care that the sauce doesn’t dry out too much when the foil’s off. 

J's potato, bacon and leek soup

My mate J used to live about a street away from me, about equal distance from the fabulous Victoria Market, choc full of all the fresh fruit, vegs, meat or seafood you could possibly need for a big cooking session.  Together with the rest of the Carlton gang, we used to rotate home cooking sessions - great of us kids living away from home.  I still remember when J taught me and Y how to make a creamy brocolli and potato soup and Chinese steamed fish.  I'd forgotten what a good cook he was until our home cooked meal on New Year's Eve in Les Houches. 

It started off with Y making a lamb stew and me with my coq au vin.  I had started chopping up some shallots and streaky bacon for my coq au vin when we realised that s the whole chicken probably had better days.  What to do with all that bacon and shallots?  As he was cutting a leek for Y, J thought of a cosy potato and leek soup to warm our tootsies.

And that's how it began with J guiding me through this recipe.

We had:

• 2 large rashers of bacon, diced
• 3 large shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 onion, diced
• stalks of 1 large leek, thinly sliced
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 1/2 cup cream
• dried italian herbs, parsley and oregano (whatever herbs you like)
• vegetable stock

Cooking the soup itself is quite simple.  Pan fry the bacon until lightly browned and remove from pan. Remove most oil except a good coating to fry the leek, shallots and onions. Add the potatoes and gently stir fry for a few minutes.  Add about 2 litres of water (refilling every now and then) and let it gently simmer for about an hour.  Add stock and pan fried bacon and simmer for another 10 mins.

Stir in cream and butter (J's special ingredient - you can leave this out if you want this to be a healthy soup) and serve immediately.

Antipasto pasta

I used to make grilled vegetables a lot in my old pad back in Melbourne. The vegs were all so big and fleshy and fresh ... eggplant, capsicums, zucchini, huge portobello mushies.  Tried it for the first time today, but decided to put my George Foreman griller to use instead.  The result? Hmm not bad!

Pasta,
originally uploaded by choccis.

Start with:

• 1 red capsicum
• 1 green capscium
• 2 rashers bacon
• 1 eggplant
• 1/2 onion
• 1 can peeled whole tomatoes
• good lug of olive oil (around 1 cup)
• good lug of vinega (around 1/2 cup)
• salt & pepper
• 100 gm spagetti or fettucine pasta

1.  Mix olive oil (reserve 1 tablespoon) with olive oil and salt * pepper to taste.

2.   Core and cut the capsicum into quarters.

3.   Slice eggplant into 1 cm pieces.

4.   Marinate eggplant and capsicum with olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixture for about 10 mins.

5.   Place on hot grill and grill until skin of capsicum is blistery, and grill the eggplants until there are dark grill lines on eggplant, which is soft (and not crispy).

6.  Cut capsicum and eggplants into large chunks and reserve.

7.   Slice bacon and onion into thin strips.

8.   Pan fry onion for a couple of minutes, then add the bacon, frying both until onion is slightly browned. 

9.   Add cans of tomatoes and tomato paste.

10. Add sugar to taste.

11. Boil pasta with ½ tablespoon of olive oil and ½ teaspoon salt until al dente.  Drain and leave aside.

12. Add sauce to pasta, toss with grilled vegetables.

13. Serve.

1. 

Little pots of comfort: potato gratin

 

This dish is a warm welcome on any cold winter day or served as a hearty side dish to any meal. The best part is that it is so easy to make!

You'll need:

• 2 large baking potatoes
• 1 large onion
• 200 ml cream
• olive oil
• 150-200 g finely shaved parmesan cheese
• 4 ramekins (about 10 cm in diameter)

Peel and thinly slice the potatoes (the thinner you slice them the faster they will cook) and the onion.  Brush the ramekin with generous dose of olive oil.  Start layering the ramekin with the slices of potatoes and slices of onion, pouring a little cream after every few layers.  If you like your potato gratin cheesy you can also drizzle some parmesan cheese through the layers. 

Bake in oven for around 30-40 mins or until potatoes are nice and soft.  Drizzle more parmesan on top and grill for another 5 mins until cheese is golden.