Since the DinoParents starts to cook meals for the DinoFamily a year plus ago we try to serve delicious healthy food. We are constantly crawling the net or going through our collection of cookbooks (which is still growing by the way) to try our hands on different types of food from different culture. We are proud to say that we have been serving nutritional, healthy, tasty food most of the times. However whipping up a 3+1 meal is hard work, some times I wish I have a magic wand and with a wave of it VIO-LA~ dinner's on the table!
Ok wishful thinking I know but there is really a simpler way to feed the family, I'm not talking about takeouts or fast food, I'm talking about one pot dish, the convenience of serving a complete meal in a single dish in the form of hearty soups, quick stir-fries, succulent stews or pop in the oven casseroles. You can find a good variety of one pot dish in every culture and which ever you choose you are sure that the dish are packed with nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals in one dish.
What's more they require the bare minimum of equipment and hardly any cooking. This means while you let the dish simmer over the hob or baking in the oven, you can relax and enjoy a cuppa or watch tv or catch up with some reading. And after the hearty meals, there are less washing up to do too! Woohoo! One Pot Rocks!
I've been cooking one pot dish using my thermal cooking pot but its always base on Chinese recipe. I decided to look beyond this and try my hands on other type of one pot recipes. I picked out today's recipe from one of my cookbook; Chicken Fricassée, a classic one pot French dish.
Looking at the name, it's so french, so foreign! So I googled and found that fricassee or fricassée means "a method of cooking meat in which the meat is cut up, sautéed, and braised, and served with its sauce, traditionally a white sauce". O-kay... I left out the white wine coz I didn't want to make DinoBoy drunk and become hysterical after dinner. Alright, alright!! The truth is, I do not know how to uncork the unopened white wine that has been sitting in our fridge for so long, thus no white wine for the dish.
So here's how to cook this delicious dish~
Ingredient
* 4 chicken legs, divided into thigh and drumstick, skin removed
* 115g button mushrooms
* 4 shallots
* 2 garlic cloves
* 4 waxy potatoes
* 2 teaspoon of finely chopped rosemary leaves
* 1 bay leaf
Seasoning
* 2 tablespoon olive oil
* 2 tablespoon plain flour
* salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 150ml dry white wine
* 300ml chicken stock
Method
1. Slice the shallots, crush the garlic cloves, peel and cut the waxy potatoes into small pieces.
2. Heat the oil in a large deep casserole, season the flour with salt and pepper. Dust the chicken pieces with flour and fry over medium high heat until golden brown, turning often. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. Slice the mushrooms. Add the shallots to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic, mushrooms, potatoes and rosemary, and fry for 2 minutes.
4. Pour in the wine and bring to the boil. Allow to bubble and reduce for 1 minute, the pour in the stock, and bring to the boil. Return the chicken to the pan, add the bay leaf and cover tightly. Reduce the heat and cook gently for 45 minutes or until the chicken is very tender.
5. Discard the bay leaf and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Serve hot.
5. Discard the bay leaf and adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Serve hot.
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| Stir-frying the ingredients |
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| Chicken pieces and stock added |
The day before I was in the supermarket, standing in front of the potatoes section, frowning. Why didn't they put the word "waxy" on the small piece of cardbox thingy??!! Lucky for me that I have my trusted phone, so I did a quick surf on the net and stepped into the World of Potatoes, after that I happily grabbed a packet of "waxy" new potatoes.
I woke up at 4.30am to prepare this dish *gasped* and while trying to remove the skin and fats off the chicken thighs I regret not preparing it the night before. It takes so much effort and time just to remove them.
Though the recipe says to "cook gently for 45mins", I do not have 45mins to spare so I threw them into my thermal pot and let it do its "magic". When we have the Chicken Fricassée later that night, the meat was not as tender and soft, perhaps I should have cook them over the fire for 15mins instead of 5mins. Nevertheless, it taste wonderfully delicious on the next day!
I love this dish and the smell of rosemary filling my kitchen, the stew tastes so different from the usual ones I cook. I'm sure I will be trying out different more one pot dishes in future and we shall have home cook meals on weekdays, no more "only a weekend cook" for us.
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This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.
Fri fra wad??? Fancy schmancy! I like the sound of this dish and especially the white wine part ! *slurp* Looks like a foolproof dish I can try next week. Yum!
ReplyDeleteKudos to you for being able to maintain the healthy food for your family :)
ReplyDeleteMy kids are grown now. But I remember juggling family, work, house, kids sports and trying to get good meals on the table. We were vegetarian for their first 4 years. But then a long protracted move causes a shift in the way we ate... more American. That was the end of being vegetarian for them. I have a healthy eating blog that you might be interested in and I can share some other crockpot ideas. I used to use a crockpot a lot. Let me know. Great blog. :)
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