Spring Chicken with warm Potato Salad and Spring Vegetables

Serves 2

Just got in from work on a day where the sun came out in the afternoon and reminded me it was Spring.. I wanted something light and flavoursome and I couldn’t get three ingredients out of my mind. I knew that I had all of these ingredients at home and they were Chicken, Asparagus and Eggs. Well I toiled over what I might cook and after a glance through a few cookbooks I eventually came up with this..

Spring Chicken with Warm Potato Salad and Spring Vegetables

Ingredients:

2 x Organic Free Range Chicken Breasts (Large)

2 x Organic Free Range Eggs

2 Tbsp Flour

500g of Jersey Royals

8 Spears of Asparagus

¼ Cucumber

3 Spring Onions

1 Tbsp Cider Vinegar

1/2 Tsp White Peppercorns
100g Unsalted Butter

Squeeze of Lemon Juice

Maldon Salt

Black Pepper

From the Garden:

Bunch of Lemon Thyme

Bunch of Mint

Bunch of Parsley

Bunch of Garlic Chives

Small bunch of Tarragon

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees.

Basically we are going to make a warm potato salad coat the potatoes nicely in the sauce and crunchy spring vegetables and sit the herb encrusted chicken breast on top. You’ll need a large oven proof frying pan a saucepan for the Potatoes and two small saucepans to make the sauce.. Oh and a blender!

First start with the herbs; chop the Lemon Thyme, Mint, Parsley and Garlic Chives you’ll need quite a lot as each Chicken Breast will take a lot of herbs. Place the herbs on a plate. On a second plate sprinkle your flour and season. Get a third plate ready for the egg whites that you’ll separate later.
To cook the potatoes first get a saucepan on the hob fill it with boiling water and season well with plenty of Salt. If you have muddy Jersey Royals give them a light clean and chop the bigger potatoes in half. Get them in the boiling water and cook for 10 – 12 minutes until cooked. Just before the potatoes are cooked break the thick end of the Asparagus spears off and chop the remaining edible part of the stalk and tips into 2 cm sections. A minute before the potatoes are cooked throw in the chopped Asparagus sections. Drain after thirty seconds allowing the potatoes and Asparagus to steam in the Saucepan.

Place the two small saucepans on the stove, both on low heats. In one saucepan place the butter (roughly chopped) and in the second place a splash of water, cider vinegar and the peppercorns. Bring the vinegar and water solution to boil and reduce by half. The butter should also be brought to a soft bubbling boil.

Meanwhile, take your eggs and separate putting the egg yolks in the blender and the whites to the third plate you prepared right at the start.

Get the frying pan on with a good glug of Olive Oil in it (Medium heat).

Back to the chicken, season the fillets and then roll in the flour and then the egg white and then finally the herbs; you want a complete coating of each of the layers. As you finish a breast place it into the frying pan and then repeat the process with the second breast. Lightly fry the breasts turning when the coating goes light brown. When the chicken is lightly browned place the pan in the oven to cook for 10 to 12 minutes.

When the vinegar and water solution has reduced strain out the Peppercorns and add the vinegar mix to the butter. The butter and vinegar mix should be brought back to a bubbling boil.

Get the top of the blender on you are going to pour the hot vinegar and butter onto the egg yolks whilst the machine is on slow so leave the little top open. Make sure that the pouring is slow and only a thin trickle should be going into the eggs (the machine should be on the whole time). Slowly pour the mix into the eggs until it is all in the machine allow to mix for another 30 seconds and then pour the mix into a warm bowl and set aside for a few minutes. It should stiffen up a little more this is when you can chop your Tarragon and add it to the mix alongside a twist of Lemon and seasoning. If it’s not thick then place the bowl over a boiling saucepan (make sure your dish is capable of doing this!) and whisk continuously until the desired thickness is achieved (you want a thick sauce similar to Mayonnaise).

Nearly there!

Chop the Cucumber and Spring Onion and then add them to the now warm Potatoes and Asparagus. Season the potato mix and then stir in two or three tablespoons of the Tarragon sauce. The chicken breast should have come out of the oven three or four minutes before where it could rest in the pan. Place a nice pile of the warm potato salad onto each of the pre heated plates. Slice the chicken into thick slices and fan nicely over the potato salad. Spoon a little more of the sauce over the chicken and then serve immediately.

This take on a Béarnaise sauce with the Asparagus and soft umptuous Chicken is simply delicious! The Lemon juice and Tarragon simply brings the dish to life and the nutty full flavoured Jersey Royals and crunchy Cucumber and Spring Onions just make every mouthful a fresh taste of Spring!

It’s lovely, you must try it!

British Food Home

Soft boiled duck eggs with Asparagus spear soldiers wrapped in crispy bacon

Asparagus, you wait what seems an eternity for it to arrive, you first start to eat it and the season is already over.

Asparagus for me is one of my favourite vegetables, when it arrives it really feels like you have turned the corner of winter and the new menu is here to stay. Over the month or so that Asparagus is in season I try to eat as much of it as is humanly possible including it or serving Asparagus with every meal. You can add Asparagus to most dishes but the best way to eat Asparagus is simply – steamed Asparagus for me is enough, but as I had a few friends coming over for my St George’s day dinner party menu I thought I would glam it up a little and combine it with a few other fantastic flavours.

Soft boiled duck eggs with Asparagus spear soldiers wrapped in crispy bacon

So simple, can be prepared in advance and looks impressive what else could you ask for in an appetiser or starter?

Ingredients:

25 spears of English Asparagus

25 rashers of British cured streaky bacon smoked

Maldon Salt

Black Pepper

7 duck eggs (pick out the blue ones for a better effect!)

I made this dish for 7, but you can easily scale it down you’ll need 3 Asparagus spears, 3 Rashers of Bacon and a Duck egg per serving.

On a chopping board take a rasher of bacon and place on the chopping board, using a knife stroke the bacon with the flat side of the knife and run it along the rasher. This will flatten the rasher and make it longer. Now grind a little Black Pepper onto the rasher (you won’t need salt as the Bacon will season the Asparagus). Place the Asparagus spear on the rasher – the bottom of the spear level with the bottom edge of the bacon and then roll the Asparagus until it has a perfect little coat of bacon and only the Asparagus tip is exposed. Repeat with the remaining Asparagus and bacon until you have 25 snuggly wrapped Asparagus Spears in the beautiful smoky bacon. Now, it was a warm day and evening on St George’s day so I had the Barbecue out however, you could cook these just as easily on a griddle pan or even in the oven.

On the hob place a large saucepan, fill and get the water to a rolling boil.

It’s now all about the timing, get some plates warmed with an egg cup for each and place the Asparagus on the Barbecue (griddle or however you are cooking them); when they are nearly cooked and crispy place the duck eggs in the boiling water. If you are cooking one or two eggs they will take 3 minutes to soft boil, I was cooking 7 so I left them for an additional minute.

Take the top of the duck egg off for your guests and sprinkle in a little Salt and Pepper, serve the Asparagus on the side of warm plate and the egg and its top also on the plate.

Grown up dippy eggs!! Warm duck yoke with crispy bacon and the fantastic flavours of Asparagus and for those who are lucky enough to cook it on a Barbecue a rounded Smokey’ ness too!!

So simple, so delicious!! Try it!

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