Chicken lasagne

If you are gluten free and don't eat red meat, it's difficult to find a lasagne that you can eat. We also eat lots of veg, so I decided it was time to get a decent lasagne dish, some gluten free lasagne sheets and bone and skinless chicken thighs. I made a large lasagne as the spare portions can either be frozen or taken to work for lunch.
This uses my "all-in-one" sauce method, so you will need a balloon whisk for this.
Ingredients (serves 6)
For the bolognese
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pack chicken thighs, skinless and boneless - minced in a food processor
1 carrot, finely chopped
1/4 nutmeg, freshly grated
1/4 pint milk
2 tablespoons tomato puree
1 beef stock pot (trust me, it improves the flavour)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 tin water
Salt and pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 large chestnut mushrooms, halved and finely sliced.
For the white sauce
1 oz lacto free butter
1 oz plain gluten free flour
1 pint lacto free milk
Salt and pepper
Additional ingredients
12 sheets gluten free lasagne
1 tsp salt
1 large courgette, finely sliced lengthways
1/2 bag baby spinach leaves  (washed)
1 oz freshly grated parmesan

Method 
Bolognese
In a large pan, sauté the onion and celery in the olive oil over a gentle heat until the onion is translucent. Increase the heat and add the minced chicken, fry until all chicken has gone white, stir regularly. Add the carrots, nutmeg, milk and salt and pepper, cook for 1 minute,  then add the tomato puree, continue cooking until the liquid has evaporated.  Add the stockpot, oregano, tomatoes and the water, stir well, bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Sauce
Take one medium pan and put all the sauce ingredients in the pan together. Put the pan over a gently heat and then keep stirring using a balloon whisk until the sauce is smooth and has thickened. Season to taste.
Pasta (only if using gluten free lasagne sheets).
Fill a large pan with water, bring to the boil and add the salt. Pop in the lasagne sheets and cook until al-dente. (I've tried using the sheets without pre-cooking and it doesn't work for the gluten free as well). If using normal quick cook lasagne sheets, you can omit this stage.
Build the lasagne
Take a lasagne dish and rub a little olive oil over the surface to prevent sticking.
Take a couple of large spoonfuls of the mince and spread them over the bottom of the dish, then drizzle over some of the white sauce, then a layer of lasagne sheets, next a layer of mince, then a handful of spinach, followed by a layer of courgette, plus another drizzle of white sauce.
Keep building the layers. You want to end with some mince and white sauce over the final layer of pasta. If you think you are running out of the white sauce, you can always add some more milk and thin it down towards the end.
Sprinkle over the parmesan cheese and then pop into a moderately hot oven Gas 5 (Electric 190C) for 40 minutes. It should be bubbly and golden on the top.
Serve with salad.

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Mushroom risotto

Served with the pancetta wrapped chicken

A mushroom risotto is really easy and makes a great accompaniment to a main meal.

I love to use a few porcini mushrooms in mine, it brings out the flavour of the chestnut mushrooms. If you want to make this vegetarian, then use a vegetarian stock.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

25 g of butter

1 onion, chopped

250g chestnut mushrooms

1 handful of dried porcini mushrooms

250g  Arborio risotto rice

1 pint chicken stock (I use a chicken stock pot)

Method

Dried porcini mushrooms

Pour 1/4 pint hot water over the porcini mushrooms in a jug, leave whilst you start cooking the risotto.

Stock simmering in pan

In a small pan, add the water and stock pot and bring to the boil. Turn heat down until barely simmering. It's important to keep the stock very hot when adding to the pan. This is the secret of a good risotto.

Gently heat the olive oil and half of the butter in a saucepan, (the olive oil stops the butter from burning). Add the onion and gently fry until softened.

The onions and chopped mushrooms gently cooking

Chop 1/3rd of the mushrooms into 1cm cubes, add to the onion and continue to cook until soft. Turn the heat to low.

Add the risotto rice to the pan and keep stirring for about 1 minute until the rice is well mixed in, it should start to squeak a little. The Italians say it "screams like Aida".

Add a couple of ladleful's of the stock and keep stirring, always add stock 2 ladleful's at a time and wait until the pan screams.

Remove the porcini from the soaking water (don't throw it away). Chop the porcini and add to the risotto.

Use the stock when you next need to add more, don't use the bottom of the water as their may be grit in the soaking water.

Chop the rest of the mushrooms in half and then finely slice them. After half the stock has been used, add the mushrooms to the pan.

Keep adding the stock and stirring regularly. Check the rice is cooked, it should be creamy and just al dente. You may need to add a splash more boiling water.

When it's cooked, remove from heat and stir in the rest of the butter.

Serve.

I served this with the chicken stuffed with chorizo and wrapped in pancetta.

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Chestnut Stuffing

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 oz/100g chestnut mushrooms (optional)
1 pack sausagemeat
2 oz/50g breadcrumbs
1 packet/jar cooked chestnuts (fresh if you want to fiddle)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme (remove leaves from sprigs)
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
zest of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

Method

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, add onion and lightly season with salt, fry until soft. (If you season before you cook, the onions taste so much nicer). Add them to a separate bowl while you cook the mushrooms until soft, add the mushrooms to the bowl with the onions. Leave to cool while prepare the rest of the ingredients.
In a medium mixing bowl, put the sausagemeat, breadcrumbs, thyme, parsley, lemon zest (I do recommend a microplane grater, it produces the most amazing results). I chop the chestnuts into 4 pieces, I like some chunks in the stuffing rather than mush. Add in the onions and then season with salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly and use to stuff the neck of the turkey/goose, you can also make stuffing balls with any left overs and pop them in with the pigs in blankets when roasted in the oven.

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