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.

Battle of the flours - pt3 Marriages Very Strong vs ASDA

The Marriages bag of flour makes no claims of being organic or using superior milling techniques, the big difference here is that the Marriages' is Very Strong as opposed to just Strong white flour. This means a higher protein content, 13.8% vs. 12.1% for the ASDA flour. In theory the additional protein means more gluten produced and a more vigorous rise and hence a lighter loaf. Difference in taste isn't an advertised part of the bargain. Protein levels in white bread flours seem to range between 11% and 14% so we're not comparing the full extent of the range here, but we're not far off with the Marriages being pretty much at the top of the scale.

Technique was the same as last time, here are the loaves after a little tasting has been done:

I did slightly overcook the marriages one (on the left) which gave it more of a crust which definitely helped the flavour. The ASDA one didn't stay formed either (my fault) so put some of it's energies into growing out rather than up. Even with that in mind, the marriages one did form the best loaf shape so far and rose noticeably more than the previous 2 test loaves. The claims of a lighter loaf are definitely true. Tasters could definitely tell the difference between the two loaves again but didn't agree on their personal favourite, exhibiting the same preferences as last time. Personally, I think the marriages had the edge and there was an obvious difference in the finished loaf visually suggesting something extra was going on. I'll probably be paying attention to the protein content of my flour in future more than how it was milled but I'm not totally convinced it's worth the extra cash yet.

Pasta with chorizo, sun dried tomatos, spinach and Gouda

The primary taste tester was whinging about being hungry, ignoring her was no longer effective as she'd got out of bed and brought the whinging into the kitchen. Some sort of quick pasta dish was in order. My friend Tomasi, an Italian who I knew in Melbourne, taught me his rules to knock up improvised pasta dish which I still go by today. Just one rule really, use 3 ingredients, not including the onions which are cooked for long time in olilve oil. It helps if you've some idea the ingredients will go together. I normally google for recipes based on what I'm thinking of using, if I get hits I assume I'll be safe. I had some Chorizo from the farmers market, quite a spicey one, some sun dried tomatos and a little spinach in the garden (perpetual spinach hence still being active in January, I think it's actually leaf beet).

This is the recipe, or there abouts.

Half a medium onion
Chorizo, finly sliced, about 60g
About 7 pieces of sundried tomato, roughly chopped
A handful of fresh spinach
Shavings of gouda to garnish
2 to 3 tsp dried basil

It was pretty lush. I finely chopped the onion and fried in a few tbsp of olive oil for about 10 mins, then got the water on for the pasta. When the pasta went in I added the sundried tomatos and a few tsp of dried basil. About 5 mins before the pasta was done I put the chorizo in with the onions and finally added the spinach in for the last couple of minutes. Once drained and rinsed I put the pasta in with the sauce, drizzled a little more olive oil over and served it with shavings of gouda.

I think technically Tomasi would have insisted that was actually 5 ingredients, skipping the gouda and basil may have been more authentic, but it seemed to work well enough to me. A cup of tea and some crusty bread to accompany it would have been nice, maybe next time.

Battle of the flours pt2 - Wessex Mill vs ASDA

ok, so I only got the 2 loaves baked in the first trial due to some distractions that afternoon. I went for the Wessex Mill flour and the ASDA's own brand as I figured that if there was any great difference between pricey and cheaper flours you'd see something between these two. I honestly expected some noticeable difference which would validate my purchasing the more expensive flour, this could have obviously tainted my own assessment of the differences. So, I've tried the two loaves out on ten people so far, here they are so you can take a look for yourself.

The one on the left here is the Wessex Mill one, it does I think look like the more tempting loaf, the presence of some slightly larger holes is likely down to the prooving time which was a bit more extended for this loaf.

The Results?
Everyone could tell the difference between the two although nobody thought it was particularly marked. People were pretty much evenly split between the two, those who preferred the ASDA loaf mainly thought the other had too much taste and did generally identify it as the fancier one. Of those who preferred the Wessex Mill loaf the main reason given was that the ASDA one tasted a bit floury. Quite possibly this was down to something in the way I made the loaf. I'll try a few more comparisons with the other two bags of flour I've got and see if the ASDA loaf is always consistently floury. Also to see if there is any big improvement with either of those, especially the Canadian very strong flour with it's higher protein content. 


I was a bit disappointed by this as I guess I'd wanted to believe that paying more for my flour would lead to better bread, cognitive dissonance getting the better of me I guess. I'll try comparison of wholemeal flours in future I think to see if there is more of a difference in those and especially with stone ground vs flour coming from roller mills.

Any suggestions for other experiments? the next one I'm cooking up is going to compare a loaf made with a starter vs the regular loaf baked above. After that I'll start getting into matters of personal taste and try different additions (using 10% Rye flour is the only one I've tried so far and I was pleased with that). Also there will be my continuing search for a decent Stottie Cake recipe.

Battle of the Flours - Which makes the tastiest loaf?

The theory is that buying a better quality flour will result in a better quality loaf, but is it really that big a difference? ASDA sells it's own brand Strong White Bread flour for 61p that's 40.7p/kg, on the other end of the scale you can get a bag of Wessex Mill Strong White Bread flour for £2.15 or 143.3p/kg. That's nearly 4 times as expensive, that better be one awesome bag of flour. Wessex mill claim their milling doesn't heat up the flour as much as other mills would thus preserving nutrients and vitamins in the finished product. Whether or not this will be discernible in the baked bread or not I don't know. Quite possibly it's also down to the quality of the wheat used to make the flour. Although you don't often get details of the wheat used you might assume someone offering a premium product is sourcing higher quality materials. All and more of this could affect the final loaf, I'll just be making the same loaf with each flour and seeing what the end result tastes like. The flours assembled above could be more scientifically collected to assess different possible influencing factors, the main thing I want to see is if there's any discernible difference which I can confidently assign to the flour used between cheaper and more expensive flours.

I'll be making the loaves to the Pain Ordinaire recipe from this book, which goes something like this:

1. Mix the yeast and about 1/3 of the water
2. Pour into a well made in the mixed flour and salt
3. Mix in enough of the flour to make a thin paste and leave for 20 mins
4. mix, kneed, rise (I'll check all doughs for proper rising rather than relying on timing)
   
5. knockback, rest, shape
6. proove, bake
   

I'll also be glazing with olive oil before prooving and baking as my primary taste tester doesn't like their bread too crusty (does this invalidate their ability to be a taste tester?).

The first loaf is prooving now, just getting some bangers and mash on for my lunch, I'll start the second this afternoon and try to get at least 3 loaves in total done today.