Perhaps those ‘humble’ frozen-food beginnings of mine have lead to a classic case of working-class chip-on-the-shoulder (as my good friend Jim once hilariously pointed out to me, though not in the context of food). I do bloody love poshing it up sometimes, and we’ll be soon starting a series on adding a little flair to those boring classics we sludge up at home.
BUT FOR NOW…
Serves: 3
Ingredients
3 Chickens Breasts on the bone (Available from your local butcher)
6 medium sized carrots, peeled
9 stalks of asparagus (optional)
500 grams of mushrooms (best you can buy, but definitely not button)
1 shallot, peeled and chopped
Glass of white wine
Butter
750ml cream
1 ½ tbsp Fresh tarragon
½ tbsp Fresh Parsley
Pre-heat oven to 240 degrees Celsius.
Take a large pot and half-fill it with water. Place on a high heat.
Begin by cutting your carrots into long julienne. They should look a bit like this:
You can achieve this by cutting off the root and tip, then making long slices down the length of the carrot, leaving you with a thinnish rectangle. Keep doing this until you’ve done the whole carrot – Then place a few of these slices on top of each other and cut down the length again, but this time into those long ‘spaghetti-like’ strands.
Hopefully you’d be able to do it better than I did. But I was having to use a bloody paring knife.
If using asparagus, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt & pepper and place on a baking tray. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes. When done, turn the oven down to its lowest heat and keep them warm inside.
Place your chicken breasts in the pot of water as you see below. For some extra flavour I crumbled a small amount of chicken-stock cube into the water along with a very small amount of herbs that I had lying around. Bring back to the boil, then quickly reduce the heat to a simmer. Leave it cooking like this for ten minutes, turning once, then turn off the heat entirely and allow it to sit in the hot water.
Meanwhile, half or quarter your mushrooms (depending on the size) and melt 2tbsps of butter in a large pan. Add your shallot and sauté until softened, then add your mushrooms and cook until they begin to brown.
Cover your pan with its lid and cook for another 3 – 5 minutes until the mushrooms are tender. Then add your glass of wine and cook uncovered until the mushrooms have absorbed the liquid. Stir in your chopped parsley.
Remove from the pan, place in a dish and put in the oven on its lowest setting to keep warm. BUT KEEP THE PAN! We’re going to use all the fantastic flavour that’s sitting at the bottom of it.
Place your carrots in a pot of boiling water and bring back to the boil. Cook for 4-5 minutes and taste. Remove from the heat.
Finely chop your tarragon, and on a medium-high heat – pour your cream into the same pan you cooked the mushrooms in and stir in the tarragon.
To plate:
Remove your asparagus and lay them on the plate. Remove the chicken from the pot and place on top. Spoon your mushrooms on the side, and lay the carrots on the other side. Season your chicken with salt & pepper and pour over the warm cream and tarragon sauce.
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