rustic pan-fried chicken in creamy mushroom sauce

This simple Saturday lunch also makes an effortlessly elegant meal for entertaining. It's a recipe that I've made a few times now, originally adapted from a recipe that I'd had lurking around in my 'to cook' pile from 'BBC Good Food'. It's unfailing ability to hit the spot with it's creamy, tangy, garlicky mushroom sauce, has made it a favourite of mine, especially as it is sooooo easy to make! So, on that basis, because we all love dishes that are uncomplicated and easy to throw together, but look, and taste like we've spent hours in the kitchen, I thought that is was really worth sharing....

Rustic Pan-fried Chicken in Creamy Mushroom Sauce

(recipe by Alfie)

1 tablespoon oil

50g butter

handful of fresh or dried herbs (basil, coriander, parsley, oregano, thyme all work well!)

6 chicken breasts or large chicken legs divided into thighs and drumsticks

700mls vegetable stock - I like to use Marigold vegetable bouillon

300mls dry white wine, or whatever you have in the fridge

50g butter

1 onion

400g mixed wild mushrooms - although chestnut mushrooms will do just as well

2-3 cloves garlic

2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

330mls creme fraiche

50-75g ground almonds

another handful of fresh herbs to finish

• Fry off the chicken in the oil, butter, and herbs to seal it. This will take about 10 mins, until they're golden brown. You may need to cook the chicken in several batches to avoid overcrowding the pan and steaming the meat.
• Transfer to a large saucepan and pour over the stock and wine to cover the chicken.
• Bring back to the boil and cover the pan and simmer the chicken for about half an hour.
• While the chicken is cooking, fry the onion in the remaining 50g butter until soft but not coloured. Add the mushrooms and fry for about 3-4mins. Grate over the fresh nutmeg and add the grated garlic for a further 1 min, then leave aside until the chicken finishes cooking.
• When the chicken is cooked, drain off the stock. Set the chicken aside and add the mushrooms and onion to the stock. Bring back to the boil, and reduce by about a half - at this stage you can reduce it further if want a thicker sauce that will just coat the chicken.
• Add the creme fraiche, and the ground almonds and fresh herbs and simmer for 5-10 mins to heat the chicken through, and thicken the sauce slightly.

This is fabulous served simply with hunks of crusty bread warm from the oven for a sumptuous Saturday, or weekday lunch. Or you can dress it up with wild rice, and asparagus or some wilted spinach for an impressive meal for friends. Either way it really is wonderful!

blackberry vinegar

I don't know about you, but I love the contrast of salty goats cheese with the sweet acidity of fruit. Somehow it seems to cut through the heaviness to produce a combination that's perfect!

So, when I found a recipe for raspberry vinegar I knew I had to give it a try.....well actually I found several recipes for raspberry vinegar, or raspberry 'shrub' as it was known in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It was a popular drink and is actually very refreshing in hot weather, served with ice! I know it may sound strange to have a fruit cordial with a vinegar base, but the acidity cuts through the sweetness in a very pleasing way. Apparently, it's even good for sore throats diluted at 1 dessertspoon to 250mls of water!

Anyway, not one to be able to leave a recipe alone, I thought it would make a great fruit vinegar to use in dressings too, so I cut the sugar down in the last stage to keep the tartness. There were blackberries on sale in my local market and I couldn't resist using these instead, just because I love their deep, jammy colour!

Blackberry shrub

The vinegar itself is very simple to make..... you just put your blackberries (or whatever fruit you choose to use) - I used about 500g - into a kilner jar or bottle and cover them with white vinegar.

Leave them to stand for a week, stirring well each day. Then strain the fruit and add one pound of sugar to one pint of liquid ....or in metric, about 500g sugar to 500mls of liquid (though I think it sounds much more evocative in imperial measures!) and boil it up for about 20 minutes, until it gets syrupy. Finally, skim off any white foam, and pour into sterilised bottles, then seal when it is cold. As I said, to make it more of a fruit vinegar I put in less sugar - about half of the amount used for the shrub.

Goats cheese and mango salad with blackberry vinaigrette

Now, you've got your gorgeous burgundy jewelled fruit vinegar...... so here's an idea of how to use it... mix two parts blackberry vinegar to three parts oil (rapeseed is a good oil to use because its delicate flavour won't overpower the fruit) to make a basic vinaigrette that's a little heavier than normal on the vinegar. Liberally drizzle the dressing over a goats cheese and mango salad, all that lovely palate of colours and saltiness and acid fruitiness....then, just sit back and enjoy!

when life blows you a raspberry.....

...blow it right back with White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Cupcakes with a raspberry cream cheese frosting! Ha!... right back at ya with sprinkles on - or raspberries!

These are actually a bit of a mish mash of lots of things that I love all mussed into one, a desire to use up a cream cheese 'surplus' from a carrot cake recipe, plus a whimsical notion to put it all together with white chocolate.....and why not!

So, what I ended up with is a white chocolate cupcake, based on my Banana Chocolate Muffins, using white chocolate instead of dark chocolate. Thrown in with a smattering of fresh raspberries and cheesecake (I snuck the idea of how to incorporate this from David Lebovitz's ..... Cheesecake Brownies )

Then, as if that wasn't enough gorgeousness overload in one cake, I felt like topping it all off with a raspberry ripple cream cheese frosting, based on the cream cheese frosting for the carrot cake!

Definitely just the thing to make the world right again!

pretty pea and lettuce soup

This soup is vibrant, and delicious. Just right for brightening up these dull winter days. With a hunk of just baked crusty bread and lots of lovely butter......mmm

It's so simple to make too, which is another plus!.....and who would have thought, lettuce, in a soup would work, but work it certainly does; adding texture and verdant green flecks to set off the delicate pale pea green. Add a couple of succulent and crispy slices of grilled parma ham, and there you have it, perfection in a bowl!

Pea and Lettuce Soup with Parma Ham

(Recipe by Alfie - adapted from various sources)

2 onions

2-3 cloves garlic

2T olive oil

1 lettuce, shredded

500g frozen peas

600mls veggie stock

200mls creme fraiche

half a teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg

salt and pepper

4-6 slices of parma ham

• Fry off the onions and garlic for a few minutes until soft and starting to brown - but not too much.


• Add the lettuce and peas to the pan and cook for a few minutes more. Only just enough to thaw the peas though.


• Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for 4-5 mins, but not too long, otherwise you will lose the lovely bright green colour.


• Then add the creme fraiche and the seasonings to taste. Blitz with a hand whisk, or in a blender.


• Grill the parma ham until crispy, and then serve the soup with the parma ham arranged on the top.

a rose by any other name........

frosted roses

there was a real taste of winter this last weekend, with a hoar frost that touched everything with it's magical crystal shroud...

nature can be so amazing