Chicken Stew with dumplings

It was a little cold this morning, waking to 2 degrees C, with a slight touch of frost. After a busy staff development day today, we all needed something comforting to eat. The temperature was already dropping when we left college, I wanted to cook something really simple for dinner that was full of nutrients, but would give us a foodie hug.
I still had carrots and leeks left from the organic box, so wanted to use those up, there were 6 chicken thigh fillets in the fridge, so decided to make a very easy chicken stew.

Chicken Stew

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 1/2 leeks, sliced
4 carrots, sliced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 sweet potato, cut into chunks
2 1/2 pints water
1 chicken stock pot
6 chicken thighs
1 handful of paella rice
couple sprigs of fresh thyme
freshly ground black pepper
salt
1 cup frozen peas
cornflour and water

Method

Add the oil, onion, leeks and carrots to the pan, gently sweat the vegetables until the onion and leeks begin to soften, add the garlic and sweet potato and continue to sweat for another minute.
Add the water and stock pot to the pan, pop in the chicken and rice, throw in the thyme with some pepper and a touch of salt (add more later after cooking if needed).
Cover and cook gently for 1 hour.
Add the frozen peas bring the stew back up to the boil and add the dumplings, cover and gently simmer for 10 minutes.
Season to taste.

Depending on how you like your stew, if you like it thin, then serve as it is.

If you prefer a thicker stew, serve the dumplings, then thicken the remaining stew. Mix a couple of teaspoonfuls of cornflour with a little water, add gradually to stew and cook until thick. Add as much cornflour as necessary to get the thickness you prefer. Serve.

I wanted to find a gluten free recipe for dumplings, didn't have any suet, so went for a hunt online and discovered the following recipe. I added some mixed herbs to the flour and they were scrummy. I wet my hands before taking spoonfuls and use the damp hands to make the dumplings into soft balls.

Dumplings

150g Rice flour or any gf flour
2 tea spoons of baking powder
2 large eggs
a little water
optional a few dried herbs.

Mix to a dough and put spoonfulls into boiling stew and simmer for around 10 mins.

These are suitable for vegetarians and are lactose free and easy peasy

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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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Paella

If you want a special dinner, then this makes a great dish. There are quite a few ingredients, but I've discovered some quick cheats when shopping to make this easier.

Ingredients

Sofritto:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 medium tomatoes, chopped

1/2 chorizo chopped (can buy ready chopped pack)
1 large pinch of saffron
1 teaspoon paprika
1 pack of chicken pieces
1/2 packet of paella rice
1 chicken stock pot made up to 1 pint with boiling water
1 pack of frozen mixed shellfish (M&S contains, prawns, squid and scallops defrosted)
Frozen peas
1 tablespoon flat leaved parsley, finely chopped
1 lemon cut into wedges.

Method

In a non-stick frying pan, gently fry the sofritto together until the olive oil starts to separate from the mix, this can take 10 minutes.
Move the sofritto to the side of the pan and add the chorizo to the other side of the pan, let this fry off and release it's wonderful oils, add the paprika and chicken pieces, cook for 5 minutes stirring the chorizo side of the pan separately from the sofritto, cook until you have browned all the chicken. Mix everything in the pan together. Now sprinkle over the rice and stir in well to the mixture. Pour over the stock and add enough water to cover the chicken with liquid. Stir well and reduce to a simmer.
Stir gently occasionally, cook for 20 minutes. If the pan is drying out, you may need to add more boiling water.
Check the rice, you want it to be just soft and the chicken is cooked. Add the seafood and the frozen peas, stir well and continue to cook for another 5 minutes (add liquid if necessary), the prawns should be pink when fully cooked.
Sprinkle over the parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

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