Chicken with Cinnamon and Lemon

Oh oh oh - this is blissful. Sometimes a dish is so much better than expected the first time you try it that it is quite astonishing. It is how I feel about this one. I found the recipe on line a little while ago and copied it because it sounded interesting and because it came with a good pedigree. There is a small Italian restaurant in central London called Caldesi where I have eaten a few times and always extremely well. I first came across it in connection with Slow Food and have been interested ever since. The BBC recently produced 'Return to Tuscany' about the Caldesi's travails and successes setting up a food school in Italy and some of their recipes are on the bbc site, my source for this one. Looked promising.

While we were in Bali we went to some local markets and one of the spices they sell is what they call cinnamon, though in fact it is 'bastard cinnamon' or cassia. It has much thicker bark and is rougher in texture and less delicate in fragrance. Cassia sticks can be distinguished from true cinnamon sticks fairly easily - cinnamon sticks have many thin layers and can easily be made into powder using a coffee or spice grinder, whereas cassia sticks are extremely hard, are usually made up of one thick layer and can break an electric spice or coffee grinder if you attempt to grind them without first breaking them into very small pieces. So, be warned!

What the cinnamon adds here, along with the subtle flavours of the bay and lemon and the soffritto is a kind of delicate complexity that takes this dish into territory I didn't know. It was something about scent and depth of flavour as well as the juicy chicken and the unctuousness of the sauce.

Chicken with Cinnamon & Lemon

For the soffritto
8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 celery sticks, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 sprig rosemary
4 bay leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, zest only

For the chicken
flour, for coating

salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 chicken pieces
olive oil, for frying
100ml/3½fl oz white wine
1 lemon, juice only
4 cinnamon sticks
200ml/7fl oz chicken stock

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and gently fry the celery, carrot, onion, garlic, rosemary and bay leaves until golden, about 15 minutes. Remove the rosemary sprig and bay leaves and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the grated lemon zest. Set to one side.

Meanwhile, for the chicken, mix the flour with the salt and freshly ground black pepper and coat the chicken pieces in this mixture. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken until golden brown. Add the wine and cook for five minutes. Add the chicken and wine reduction to the soffritto, then add the lemon juice and cinnamon. Stir well. Add the stock and cook on a low heat, covered, for about 30 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced and the chicken is completely cooked through. Take off the lid and cook gently for another 15-20 minutes till the sauce has thickened slightly. Remove the cinnamon sticks and serve immediately with white rice.

Absolutely amazing.

I Bought

Dull and wet, Borough is not an attractive place to be in the rain with puddles everywhere, unexpected drips dropping down the back of your neck from the rafters high above and occasional bits of slippery leaves that need dodging as you wander about in the half light. The upside is it was a little quieter than it's been of late so it was easy to get around.

Bought a couple of chicken legs from Wyndhams but they didn't yet have any carcasses for the day so stock making will have to be done another weekend - so much for that plan - £3.80

A lovely piece of boned pork shoulder from Ginger Pig - £8.70 - it was too busy in there to make enquiries about the butchering courses they were advertising but the lovely boyfriend and I are definitely curious

Carrot apple and ginger juice - a classic combination to provide a little cheer - from Total Organics - £3

Thought we might like a little cheese from Gastronomica - we were offered a richly flavoured piece of mature pecorino to try so we bought a slab of that, then my eagle eyed sweetheart noticed a new cheese with truffle but soft so we had a half of one of those and to round it off we tried some goats curd that had been left to separate, the whey given back to the goats then a little salt was added to the curd and it was so good we had a tub of that too - all this for £10

Some rough skinned russets from Chegworth Farm - £1

Lots of winter veg from Booths - red skinned potatoes, parsnips, turnips and swede for a seasonal melange to go with the pork roast, as well as brussel sprouts and beans and a butternut squash - £8.60

Hankering after a final taste of sunnier climes we bought a dressed crab and fresh prawns from Shellseekers for a simple supper - £11.80

Back past Ginger Pig and the glistening pile of sausage rolls was irresisible - so one of those and a scotch egg - £6

Dark roast New Guinea coffee beans as a change from my usual South American favourites - it comes highly recommended by the woman who served me and who could know better? - £9

Bread and milk from Neals Yard where the price of Hoxton Rye has gone up to £2.45 a quarter making it more expensive than poilane - but then we like it more than poilane so I bought a piece - £6.50

Needed olive oil which we buy from Borough Olives - had hoped for a catch up chat with Marie at the same time but she was nowhere to be seen - £22.50

All in all not a cheap week but the oil will do us for a couple of months - £90.90

Cauliflower & Stilton Soup

Though most strongly associated with Christmas - because it is so special perhaps? - Stilton is one of my favourite cheeses all year round. In 1996 it was granted Protection Designation Origin status by the European Commission and there are only 6 dairies anywhere licensed to make Stilton - only using pasteurised milk from local cows in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.

Its name comes from the town where it was famous as long ago as the early 1700's - Stilton - but because it is located in Cambridgeshire they can't actually make Stilton themselves. Indeed, they never have. Frances Pawlett, the wife of a Melton Mowbray dairy farmer, is the first to be credited with making this fine blue cheese and it was sold to travellers who stopped at the Bell Inn in Stilton on journeying between London and the north. In 1727 Daniel Defoe remarked on passing through Stilton, a town famous for cheese in his Tour Through England and Wales.

As with many of the finer things in life this cheese is made slowly and with great care - to be sold as Stilton it must be cylindrical in shape, form its own crust, be unpressed and have delicate blue veins radiating out from the centre. Most of all it must have that creamy crumbly richness, its mellowness giving way to a piquant aftertaste. It is a delight on any cheeseboard with crisp celery or oatcakes and is the perfect accompaniment to a glass of fine port.

Sometimes - though in my case rarely - there is a little left over that needs to be used up. It was a situation I found myself in this week and rather than waste it I set my heart on making steaming bowls of cauliflower soup, made unctuously rich with my little treasure trove of cheese. And this is how I did it.

Cauliflower & Stilton Soup

1 cauliflower, broken into florets
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbspn butter
1 tbspn olive oil
bouquet garni of bay leaf, parsley and thyme
650 ml/ 1 pint stock
325ml/1/2 pint whole milk
1 tbspn cornflour mixed with a little water
150g/4oz stilton, crumbled
salt and ground black pepper

Fry the onion in melted butter and olive oil in a large pan till translucent - about 10 minutes. Add the cauliflower and toss till the little curly heads shine then add the bouquet garni and the stock. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for about 20 minutes.

Remove the bouquet garni and liquidise till smooth - for ultra silky pass through a fine mesh sieve at this point. Return the pan to the heat, stir through the cornflour paste and then the whole milk. Cook gently for 10 minutes then stir through the cheese, adjust the seasoning and serve with thick slices of rye bread.

Good enough for Santa.

This Week

An exotic start to the week with dim sum for lunch and 'meat on sticks' for dinner after seeing the new James Bond - all wrapped in the heat of our last full day in Singapore. I do hate it when holidays end. We flew back Sunday but were too tired Sunday night for anything more than a cup of tea before bed and the never ending black hole that is sleep for the jet lagged.

Coffee and cereals Monday for breakfast, a tasty lasagne fromBarbican Grill for me for lunch and steak sandwich with wild beef from the freezer and marinated beetroot and a grilled onion salad on the side for dinner. Perfectly rich and light with various textures to cheer up our first day back.

Tuesday there was goat's milk yoghurt to go with coffee and cereals for breakfasts for the rest of the week, lunch was ham hock from the freezer cooked Monday night with white bean salad and baby carrots from Waitrose 'grown for flavour' as the label proudly announced just to make my head hurt wondering what on earth else you grow vegetables for and then we had steaming big bowls of spaghetti with a beef and tomato sauce known as spag bol in our house even though it is not a classic bolognese sauce by any stretch of the imagination but it is very very good

Wednesday more ham and beans for lunch then roasted butternut risotto for dinner with the stock from the hock as the liquid

Thursday creamy sweet leftover risotto for lunch and the other half of the spaghetti from Tuesday for dinner after I struggled through my French class - will need to do extra homework to catch up

Friday is the last of the ham for lunch and dinner will be cauliflower and stilton soup - it's a nasty kind of day and we have some cheese from before we went away which, though past its best it would be a shame to bin when it could be the perfect finish to an elegant tea

Borough Market tomorrow!

Roasted Butternut Risotto

After a few weeks of holidays and no cooking it's back to real life and not an awful lot in the house. Risotto is always a good standby - a little stock from the freezer, some rice from the cupboard, something interesting to focus the attention and the 'usually I've got some inthe fridge' combination of butter and Parmesan. I'd bought a butternut squash with not very clear intentions of what to do with it then decided I'd try roasting it with some whole cloves of garlic to make a properly autumnal dish. The result was a pan of rice the colour of a glorious tropical sunset flecked with deep green basil, its peppery tang offsetting the sweetness of the rest.

Roasted Butternut Risotto

1kg butternut squash, peeled and cut into small pieces
2 tbspns olive oil
6 unpeeled cloves garlic
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
200g/6oz arborio rice
2 tbspns butter
1 cup vermouth
1 l/1 1/2 pints stock
Freshly grated nutmeg
50g/2oz grated Parmesan
Good handful fresh basil, chopped

Put one tablespoon of olive oil in a baking dish and add the butternut. Season and roast for 50 mins - 1 hour till tender, turning occasionally. At the same time wrap the unpeeled garlic cloves in aluminium foil with a little drizzle of olive oil and roast alongside the squash.

Bring the stock to a slow simmer in a pan on top of the hob. In a large flat pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and one tablespoon of butter. Gently fry the celery for a few minutes, then add the rice and stir till it glistens. Add the vermouth and stir till it is absorbed then squeeze the softened hearts of the garlic cloves into the pan. Add the stock a ladle at a time, stirring till it is absorbed before adding more. When half the stock is used generously grate in some nutmeg then continue adding stock till it is all used and the rice is creamy with just a hint of 'bite' in the centre.

Mash the softened butternut and stir through till it is incorporated into the rice. Season with salt and black pepper. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and the Parmesan, cover and turn off the heat. Leave to sit for a couple of minutes then stir through the basil and serve in large bowls.

This Week

I'm back!

It was lovely to go away - very hot, lots of sunshine and the chance to play in the surf in Bali and splash about in the pool in Singapore. The only cooking I did was a bit of chopping and stirring in Bali when we attended Bumbu cooking school. The day started early - 6am - but we were making the most of the jetlag. The sun was already hot for the visit to Jimbaran market to learn about the spices and different fruits and vegetables. Some of them I knew not, like the very beautiful snake fruit with delicately carved skin and a sharpish fruit inside and the sublime mangosteen which I had heard of but never eaten. I will search them out here. We got a very skilful demonstration of how to weave little packages to steam rice - not something I feel confident I could repeat!

The rest of the morning was spent in an outdoor kitchen under an awning making, firstly spice pastes and peanut sauce and then using them to make curries and satè and yellow rice and fried rice. Rice is integral to the Balinese diet - it is the pivot around which the rest of the meal is based. The food is highly spiced and everything that is served with the rice is in very small quantities to give flavour rather than to be a dish on its own. Very different to western eating patterns. The lunch we all sat down to after the class was very generous and extremely tasty. It was a fascinating day.

While we were there we stayed with friends in a sort of paradise house. Their housekeeper is a local woman, Desak, who cooked for us a few nights. She is quite a skilled cook but making meals for us was a different experience for her to her own domestic catering - she is never likely to cook a whole chicken, fish, tofu, vegetables and rice for a mid week supper for four. So judging quantities is not something that came automatically. When we asked for a number of dishes to be served at the same meal what she laid before us was each dish generous enough for a meal on its own - it made me realise the extent to which that judgement is a learned skill for different cuisines and an integral part of the whole process of cooking.

And also that we are, relatively and literally, quite greedy in our consumption. Wanting multiple dishes was a means of tasting many things, giving us as much experience of the food as we could pack into a short time but in fact it doesn't match the experience of local people. We remain as tourists, learning at one remove from reality.

There is probably little that is useful to her that I could teach Desak about european food but her fabulous lemon grass sambal was a revelation to me - a tiny amount of intense spice to transform plain steamed rice. I have no equivalent to offer. But I will make the sambal and think of her long after she has forgotten us.

Singapore is a whole other world - urban and bustling and very shiny clean. Again we had the good fortune to stay in a private home, this time with the delightful Vicki. There is less that is startlingly new here but she guided us to different places for lunch and dinner every day with the effortless ease that comes from serious planning. We had delicate steamed dumplings, amazing fried rice, crunchy stirfried greens one day, richly flavoured indian served on banana leaves another and revisited two favourites from the last trip for perfect rendang and opor ayam one night and the spectacularly fabulous black pepper crab down by the waterfront that is hot and juicy and completely messy. You cannot eat them any way but using your hands - had hot butter juices running up my arms and globs of spice all over me by the end.

Bliss.

I Bought

Easy peasy this week because we are going away on Wednesday to hotter climes in Bali and Singapore for a couple of weeks combined with the fact that the lovely boyfriend had visited Borough Market Friday afternoon and bought masses of treats for us to celebrate my birthday including fillet steak and wild mushrooms for dinner Saturday night which he made all by himself and it was wonderful.

So, after a splendid breakfast at Brindisa we ambled into Ginger Pig where someone had parked a stroller with two caterwauling toddlers who were were bawling at such a pitch it was like physical pain. The butcher and I discussed the best way to put them out of their misery - sadly none of them legal. I bought 2 chicken breasts and two pork chops for £8.34 and left.

Haven't had one for a while so I bought a pork pie - £4.50

Asked for a piece of Parmesan at Gastronomica and was offered a sheep's milk version to try that was sweet and crumbly and I bought a piece for £8 and tried a piece of aged ricotta just to taste it and very good it was too

Kisses and birthday wishes from Marie which was made me smile

Barley from Total Organics because we're running out - £1.29

Parsley and shallots and some horse mushrooms at Booths - £1

Disaster - the Irish smoked salmon people are nowhere to be found and my sweetheart had wanted it for a starter for supper but I had a brainwave and we backtracked to Shellseekers and bought a dressed crab and some sweet shelled prawns that were a treat - £7.75

Bread and milk from Neal's Yard - £4.50

No need for brownies as I brought a slice of chocolate cake home for my lovely one from work

Total £35.38 - cheap!