Chicken Leek and Taragon Pie

I occasionally get a chicken from the Ark Chicken company at the farmers market, delicious but expensive enough that it's a rare thing. They do often have boiling hens though, ex layers which I imagine without being sold through these guys wouldn't otherwise be sold to the public. This isn't a chicken you can get at any supermarket or even butchers that I'm aware of, they won't be meat breeds so may not be super delicious on their own although they've no doubt had a pretty good lifestyle so should have some of that genuine free range flavour. They are good for a number of recipes which would I think be something of a waste of a prime roasting hen, coq au vin is the one recommended on the label, which as the name suggests is intended for a scraggly old farmyard cockerel once it's cookle-coo is too weak to rouse the family any more. I'm doing a chicken pie this time, sort of making it up as I go along guided by a few recipes out there.

This is the scrawny lady I'll be cooking with, looks pretty enticing to me.

I roughly jointed the chicken keeping everything on the bone, I also kept both breasts together since they were pretty diminutive, and packed the whole thing into a pan with 1 1/2 onions, 2 carrots and 3 bay leaves and water to cover. Ie a stock, ingredients, preferences and results may vary, for example if I remember next time I'll briefly roast the joints I think or elsewise brown the meat beforehand to get some extra depth to the flavour of the stock. I very lightly simmered this for about 4 to 5 hours, until the meat was tender. Then I took it out to cool a little and strained the remaining stock to keep it simmering whilst I did everything else.

After letting the meat cool a little, pulling all I could from the bone and roughly tearing it I lightly fried 2 leeks and 3 crushed garlic cloves in a little butter and oil and added some black pepper. Whilst that was frying I melted 25g butter over a low heat and added a tbsp of plain flour heaped as high as it'd go, I cooked this until it stopped smelling like uncooked flour. I added in about 250ml of the chicken stock and once that was combined added about 4 tbsp of single cream and probably 1 1/2 tsp dried taragon. For the last 5 mins of this I'd had the chicken in with the leeks which had all gone soft, after a little more cooking I poured the thick source onto the leeks and onions then poured the leeks and onions into the pie dish. Topped with puff pastry it was ready to bake, about 30 mins at 220C. Not a pie I know, but 'Chicken Leek and Targon lidded casserole' didn't quite work as well. Here it is in all it's valentines night finery:

 

 

A few things I'd change next time. Firstly I didn't salt the filling at all, I tasted the sauce on it's own but not mixed with the chicken and leeks, not to worry, I lifted the lid and sprinkled some salt under but would hope to correct this next time. Secondly, although it was nom I think it could have dome with something else, either an additional ingredient in the pie (mushrooms seem popular), more tarragon or perhaps a more heavily reduced chicken stock for a more chickeny hit. Not sure which of those but I'll try something different next time.

What not to plant?

It's February, it's sunny, it must be time to start planning what to grow this year.

 

This is the garden s it stands, probably a days labour away from really being presentable, you can see the purple sprouting there some of which has got away from me, better eat some of that today me thinks. 

I've got out all the seeds from last year, probably won't need to buy many new ones this year I think which is good. I'll try and spend a bit of an evening this week getting the things which need a big head start planted, the pappers and tomatoes etc.

Things I'm not planting this year

Potatoes, we got blight last year and I don't think I reacted fast enough, I'll give the ground a break from potatoes this year and give space over to something a bit more interesting. 

White beetroot, I grew some of this last year, it was ok but nothing to write home (or the internet) about.

Peas, I said this last year though and still ended up planting a little patch of them only to rediscover I'm unable to produce enough at once to even make a snack for even one un-hungry person.

Things I'm definately planting again

Perpetual spinach, this is nice stuff, massively prolific and keeps producing all year round, I've still one admittedly slightly sad looking plant left from last years planting. I'll probably only do half a row this year as a lot went to wast last year.

Tomatoes, we did just 2 plants last year but got probably one of the nicest meals from them, hit by the blight as well I'm hoping they might escape this year. I'd not done many last year as I figured they'd never grow without a greenhouse/polytunnel but was proven wrong so will try to put a load in this year.

Sweetcorn, I've grown this for 2 years now, the first years were delicious and something of a revelation as to how different something freshly picked could be to something shop bought. Last years didn't grow anywhere near as well, and should really have been called dry-mealy-corn, not impressed. Last years were a heritage seed, possibly something in how I grew them or the rubbish weather is to blame for the shoddy results, I did give some seeds to a friend so I'll compare notes with them as to how theirs turned out, eitherway I think I'll go back to the F1 hybrid.

Squash, these did ok last year, one vartiety (Anna Swartz Hubbard) was true to predictions, producing a lot of plant and a lot of fruits. Out of about 8 plants though I only had one which actually survived. I'll keep the anna swartz hubbard but will also plant some none heritage butternuts as well. Also, I'm planning to grow them on a bit more before planting them out to give them a better start and I'll make sure I've got spares to replace any which keel over. I'm going to interplant the squash with the sweet corn which worked well last year if you ignore the fact that all but one squash died and the sweetcorn was rubbish.

Beans, I'm thinking of having a beans year with the extra space available by not planting potatoes. 2 years ago I had more runner beans than you could shake a stck at, last year I cut down the space allocated for beans and planted mainly french beans and got less beans than you could shake at a stick. They were all heritage french beans, including the much hyped Cherokee Trail of Tears, the tears I presume come because they didn't have any beans to eat. I'll try these again I think anyway but will include a more regular variety in as well as a backup. We also planted just a few Borlotti beans, these did really well even though they were heavily crowded out by the potatoes and combined with the tomatoes above were one of the nicest things we ate. I'll definatelly do borlotti beans again, and likely any other beans I can get my hands on to try.

Courgettes and summer squash, some limited success, the standard courgette plant we got off a friend did really well, the summer squash and fancy courgette I planted all keeled over leaving big patches of open garden to the weeds. I'll give these similar treatment to the winter squash, planting a variety and giving them some extra care and attention. 

Theres a few things I'm considerring giving a first try, Lettuce and other salad greens I've feared growing as I assume the slugs will eat the lions share. Carrots I considerred too boring but might allow a row of. Most herbs I've ignored, we've a small herb garden which could do with some attention so I may sort that out and get some more herbs planted there and in pots. Cucumbers I tried last year without success, I'm going to try again. I've not a lot of seeds and the variety I've got isn't currently availble anymore so if I don't get some this year it'll probably be the last time I try these. Kale I grew last year but misidentified it as something else all together so decided I didn't like it, if I'd realised it was Kale maybe I'd have done it some justice, doh. It grew really well though so may try half a row again. Cabbages I've never bothered with, might try those, I'll probably take a wander round the garden centre one day soon and see if anything else takes my fancy.