Farmersgirl Kitchen

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Chicken Stuffed with Figs and Goats Cheese

How exactly are you supposed to react when you are contacted by a goat? That's Ethel the Goat from Capricorn Goats Cheese who invited me to join the #CarpricornChallenge - national search for goatally scrumptious recipes using ingredients from Somerset including Capricorn Goats Cheese.

Ethel sent me this amazing hamper full of lovely goodies, it was packed with jars and bottles, packets and fresh produce.

After looking at the ingredients, I had a bit of a think and decided to stuff some chicken legs with goat's cheese, figs, honey and thyme in a sort of, Somerset meets Scotland meets Greece, kind of way.

Chicken Legs stuffed with Figs, Goats Cheese and Honey

4 Chicken legs (thigh and drumstick)
1 100g drum of Capricorn Goats Cheese
4 figs, quartered
8 teaspoons of honey
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper

for the sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
chicken bones
1/4 pint water
1/2 tsp chopped thyme leaves
stock vegetables e.g. chopped celery, carrot, onion (I also used some coriander stems which I had frozen as per Melanie at Edible Things - a brilliant idea for saving veg bits for making stock later)
salt & freshly ground pepper

I've made a little YouTube Video to show you how to debone your chicken, it's really easy and creates a perfect pocket for all kinds of stuffings.

So once you have your chicken leg without the bones in it, stuff it with chopped figs, goats cheese, thyme, salt and freshly ground pepper, more figs, more goats cheese and two teaspoons of honey. Then close up and secure with cocktail sticks.

Now make the sauce, heat the oil in a pan, add the bones and cook until the little bits of chicken left on them start to turn golden. Add the vegetables and cook for two minutes, then add the water, thyme and seasoning. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes.

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and brown the stuffed chicken legs. Remove the chicken legs to an ovenproof dish and deglaze the pan with 1/4 pint of cider, I used Burrow Hill Farm Pressed, Somerset Cider Add this to the stock/sauce and pour around the chicken legs.

Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes until the juices of the chicken, when pierced with a skewer, run clear. Remove the skewers from the chicken legs and once on the plate, strain the sauce through a sieve to remove any bits.

Serve the stuffed chicken legs with the sauce. I also served roasted vegetables, including red onion, red peppers, butternut squash and halved tomatoes.

Now I'm not normally a huge fan of goats cheese but the Carpricorn Goats Cheese was mild and creamy and delicious and complemented the other stuffing flavours and the chicken very well. The sauce was particularly good and some of the cheese had leaked out into it and went well with the tang of the Burrow Hill cider.

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I was not required to write a positive review and any opinion expressed is my own.

Labels: butternut squash, Capricorn Goats Cheese, competition, figs, hamper, honey, roasted red peppers, Somerset, tomatoes

Friday, 20 April 2012

'Groovy' Focaccia and Salmon with Tomato Vinaigrette

I love olive oil, so I was intrigued when I was asked to review some oils from Groovy Food, I was sent two different oils:

Omega Cool Oil –a clever organic blend of Omega 3, 6 and 9. Specially pressed from flax, hemp, pumpkin and evening primrose seed oils, serving up a perfectly balanced amount of essential fatty acids, which our bodies crave. Cool Oil is also the perfect accompaniment to cold foods and as such is ideal when drizzled onto salads, blended into smoothies or used simply for dipping breads and olives.

High Five Cooking Oil – sees a unique yet complimentary fusion of five cold pressed virgin seed oils. Blended to perfection High Five Cooking Oil is the ideal healthier alternative to other cooking fats. Offering high nutritional properties whilst graced with a subtle flavour, the oils unique characteristics ensure the great taste is retained even when cooking at high temperatures.

I thought I'd put the oil to the test with a bit of baking and some cooking.

Groovy Focaccia

500g strong white flour

2tsp dried yeast

1 1/2tsp salt

1 tsp caster sugar

175ml water

75ml white wine

75ml High Five Omega Cooking Oil

2 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped

3 tbsp Omega Cool Oil for drizzling

Sea salt flakes for scattering

1. Put the flour, yeast, salt, sugar, water, wine and High Five Cooking Oil into your bread maker and set for dough.

2. When the dough programme finishes, roll or pull the dough out, oil a baking sheet or roasting tin and fill with the dough.

3. Cover with a tea towel and put in a warm place to rise for about an hour to an hour and a half.

4. Us your fingertips to gently press into the surface of the dough, brush with a little High Five Cooling Oil and scatter over the rosemary and sea salt.

5. Heat the oven to 200C and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown.

6. Sprinkle with the remaining Omega Cool Oil.

The Groovy Focaccia was very good, although I did miss the taste provided by the olive oil. I also tried dipping the focaccia in the Omega Cool Oil but I felt that the flavour of the oil didn't lend itself to dipping.

I was planning on having some salmon fillets for supper so used the oil in Recipe #2:

Salmon with Tomato Vinaigrette

4 salmon fillets

2 tbsp Omega Cool Oil

1 tbsp champagne or wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp caster sugar

4 ripe tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped

salt & freshly ground pepper

1. Mix the Omega Cool Oil, mustard, vinegar, garlic and sugar together. Add the diced tomatoes.

2. Brush the salmon with oil and place in a hot frying pan skin side down to crisp the skin, when skin is brown, turn the salmon and cook for 2 minutes, then switch off the heat and leave as the heat in the pan will cook the salmon through.

3. Place the salmon onto the plate and spoon over the vinaigrette.

Serve with roasted red peppers filled with chopped tomatoes and garlic and drizzled with High Five Cooking Oil.

The salmon was delicious as was the roasted red pepper and I would say that the lighter flavour of the seed oil was a really good match for the fish and the vinaigrette was quick easy and one of the best ways of adding a bit of zing to farmed salmon that I have found.

The Groovy Food Oils collection is available throughout Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores nationwide, selected health food retailers and online at freefromandfinefoods.co.uk.

Omega Cool Oil – 250ml – from £8.49

High Five Cooking Oil – 500ml - from £6.99

The company themselves are very passionate about their products as you can see from their website: www.groovyfood.co.uk.

Disclosure Statement: I received two bottles of oil from Groovy Foods to review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. The prices are correct at time of posting.

Labels: Bread, breadmaker, champagne vinegar, digon mustard, Focaccia, Groovy Foods, High Five omega cooking oil, Omega Cool Oil, roasted red peppers, Rosemary, Salmon Vinaigrette, tomato, vinaigrette

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Butternut Squash, Feta Cheese and Roasted Pepper Quiche

Last Sunday my friend came over for lunch. I thought that some kind of quiche or flan with salad would be ideal. I had already bought the butternut squash, so went off in search of a recipe that would incorporate this.

In the end my recipe is a kind of combination of a couple of different recipes. Some of the butternut squash flans were made by pureeing or squishing the squash! A bit like pumpkin pie, no texture, yuk!

My shortcrust pastry comes, as usual, from the Avoca Cookbook I have blogged it before HERE

I blind baked the pastry case and then made the filling as follows:

1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed

1 onion sliced

dessert spoon of brown sugar

olive oil

jar of roasted peppers, drained

pack of feta cheese

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

250ml single cream

salt & freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 200C, put the butternut squash and two tablespoons of olive oil in a roasting tray and roast until soft and golden brown.

Gently fry the onion in a little olive oil until soft, add the brown sugar and let it caramelise.

Take the blind baked pastry case, put the caramelised onions in the base, add the roasted butternut squash, chopped feta cheese and roasted peppers.

Beat the eggs, egg yolks, cream and seasoning together. Pour into the pastry case.

Turn down the heat in the oven to 180C and bake for about 40 minutes or until the egg is set.

Serve warm or cold with salad.

It was very nice, lots of texture and flavour, the saltiness of the feta went very well with the sweet squash and peppers. The only thing that bugged me was that the filling leaked out of the bottom of the tin, something that hasn't happened to me for years! Fortunately, I managed to get it out of the tin without too much trouble.

I am also entering this in the October 'No Croutons Required' challenge over at Tinned Tomatoes, the theme is 'squash' and I'm hoping that this counts as 'salad'.

Labels: Avoca, butternut squash, eggs, feta cheese, No Croutons Required, quiche, roasted red peppers

This Page

Farmersgirl Kitchen

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

Chicken Stuffed with Figs and Goats Cheese

Chicken Legs stuffed with Figs, Goats Cheese and Honey

Friday, 20 April 2012

'Groovy' Focaccia and Salmon with Tomato Vinaigrette

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Butternut Squash, Feta Cheese and Roasted Pepper Quiche

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