On Friday evening my band played a local festival called Mosterpop, before that we had dinner and a rehearsal. Because I was feeding 5 hungry guys (and myself) I needed something that was minimal fuss and would keep them going through the evening. I tend to lean towards one pot meals when larger amounts are needed, spaghetti bolognese, chowders, couscous tajines etc but I didn't want something too heavy or rich as the weather was pretty warm. Having decided that, I went with a stew.
Now I know what you're thinking,
stew? not heavy and rich?! yeah right! Which is true I suppose, but it's all in the ingredients!
I wanted to make the most of all the wonderful fresh ingredients that are in season right now, so I went with chicken and spring vegetables and then chose to pop a cheeky herby dumpling in there too.
This recipe was just created along the way, so I will try to translate a
pinch of this and a
handful of that into something that makes a little more sense. I did use a recipe for the dumplings though, which you can find
here (this also gave me a couple of ideas for veg to use). I'm afraid I don't have any pictures for this, but Remco (our keys player) requested I make a blog entry of the recipe.
Chicken and Spring Vegetable Stew: serves 6 large portions
750g chicken thigh fillets
4 - 6 shallots (depending on size)
300g new potatoes
300g spring carrots
2 large sticks celery
200g asparagus
200g peas
2l chicken stock
1/2 bottle white wine
3 tbsp flour
50g butter
100ml double cream
4 cloves garlic
small bunch parsley
small bunch thyme
sprig rosemary
salt
pepper
- Chop the shallots however you like. I diced a couple finely then sliced the rest into rings just to give maximum flavour release and a little texture.
- Heat the butter in a large pan (preferably a big cast iron casserole dish) and over a very low heat soften the shallots. If you salt the shallots and add a good splash of water to the pan and put the lid on this will help them to steam and soften rather than colouring, it also gives you time to get on with the next step.
- Remove any excess fat off the chicken (and skin if your's still has it on) and chop into bite size pieces (or slightly larger as it will break up while stewing). I would definitely recommend getting thigh for this as it's a much better flavour and texture for stews and sauces.
- Heat a frying pan, add a little butter or oil of your choice and quickly brown the chicken to seal the surface over a medium high heat.
- Once the shallots have softened, add the garlic cloves, roughly chopped, and stir through quickly before adding the browned chicken. Mix it all together and add in the flour, coat everything well and cook briefly. The flour will help to thicken the sauce a little.
- Now add the wine and mix well, there should be no lumps of flour if you stirred it through the chicken and shallots well. Once this is simmering, add in the chicken stock (you may need to adjust the quantities depending on your pan size, it needs to be enough to cook the carrots and potatoes in (add more if needed after the next step until everything is covered with sauce). At this point, if there are any cooked on bits in the chicken frying pan add a splash of wine and deglaze it, add this to the stew for extra flavour.
- Half the new potatoes (quarter any larger ones) and add to the stew. I didn't bother peeling mine, it's not necessary with little baby potatoes.
- Remove the stringy root ends and tops of the carrots then chop into good chunks, add to the stew. Again, no peeling needed.
- Half the celery sticks lengthwise and thinly slice them, add to the stew. This is just a personal preference, I don't like the texture of cooked celery or having stringy fibres throughout the food.
- Roughly chop the herbs and add them to the sauce.
- Bring the stew to a low boil then turn it down to a very low heat until it's barely simmering. This can now cook for a couple of hours with an occasional stir. I started mine in the morning, cooked it for a while, took it off the heat then came back to it just before dinner for the finishing touches.
- About 20 minutes before serving, prepare the asparagus. Remove the tough ends and cut into large chunks diagonally across the stalk. Add to the stew. I'm not sure if it actually makes a difference but cutting this way will help with the cooking as it increases the surface area and will also help with any fibrous bits at the lower ends of the stalks. I was using white asparagus as that was all that's available and the spears are considerably thicker than green asparagus so the cooking time will be shorter if that's what you're using. Just whip a piece out and have a chew if you're in doubt.
- Finally add the peas in the last few minutes, more to heat them through than actually cook them, add the cream and check the sauce for seasoning. If you want the sauce a little thicker you can mix up a couple of teaspoons of cornflour with water and stir this through (Arjan is a big fan of a thick stew rather than slightly brothy, so he insisted on this step).
I followed the recipe for the dumplings but I doubled it and made 6 big dumplings. I was also worried about space in the stew pan, so I made a little extra stock, heated it in a frying pan and made the dumplings in that. I added them at the same time as the asparagus and after 10 minutes, put the pan under the grill just to give them a little colour and texture on top. They went beautifully with the stew and though a little mushy on the outside were a great texture inside!
This really was a brilliant meal and although it was bordering on a little heavy for such warm weather, the vegetables and herbs gave it a wonderfully fresh flavour that wasn't stodgy in the slightest.
I hope you can give this a try whilst all the fresh vegetables are around and before the summer really takes off, enjoy!
