Jamie's Oliver chicken welfare campaign and roasted chicken :)

We honestly admit that we love meat (all kind) but we don't have to be a vegetarians to understand the importance of animal welfare. As a carnivorous person myself, I have to put up with the fact that animals have to die. Nevertheless, it matters about animal welfare, and it's best if the animal's life is reasonably good and it grows well in the most natural environment for quite a while before it ends up being killed and eaten. Particularly notable are the chickens that seem to be grown in the most appalling conditions and this is because of the increasingly growing demand of the world market. Thus, hens, which hit the shelves of our favourite stores look great, but do we realize what kind of life they led before they were so beautifully arranged to attract our eye in the supermarket? The whole thing about animal welfare was already publicly raised by a number of organisations but the celebrity chefs have the biggest input in this matter... especially, Jamie's Oliver whose campaign in 2007 was to make people aware of the conditions in which chickens were kept, so then people could make informed decisions about what to eat, rather than allowing the factory-farming industry to hide the shocking truth.What's interesting about his campaign is that it doesn't urged people to an absolute transition to vegetarianism, but to stimulate an informed choice. We have already made a choice... And you? We strongly recommend you to watch the entire experiment of Jamie Oliver HERE. 

And here we go... on the table today is this beautiful, tasty free range chicken - recipe by Jamie Oliver.

Roast chicken with vegies and herbs

1.5 kg chicken 'free range'

2 medium onions

2 carrots

2 sticks of celery

1 bulb of garlic

olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon

small bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, sage, or a mixture of all these herbs

Take your chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes into the oven. 

• Preheat your oven to 240°C/475°F/gas 9 

• There’s no need to peel the vegetables – just give them a wash and roughly chop them 

• Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled 

• Pile all the veg and garlic into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil 

• Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the bird 

• Carefully prick the lemon all over, using the tip of a sharp knife (if you have a microwave, you could pop the lemon in these for 40 seconds at this point as this will really bring out the flavour) 

• Put the lemon inside the chicken’s cavity, with the bunch of herbs 

To cook your chicken

• Place the chicken on top of the vegetables in the roasting tray and put it into the preheated oven 

• Turn the heat down immediately to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and cook the chicken for 1 hour and 20 minutes 

• If you’re doing roast potatoes and veggies, this is the time to crack on with them – get them into the oven for the last 45 minutes of cooking 

• Baste the chicken halfway through cooking and if the veg look dry, add a splash of water to the tray to stop them burning 

• When cooked, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so 

Enjoy and have a nice evening!

p.s if you want to read a bit more about chicken welfare, have a look here, and here and here. 

Roasted Chilli Frittata... a 'la minuta!!!

Have you ever wondered what makes you love a specific country? Why have you visited this specific country on five consecutive years for the holidays? Why are you talking about this specific country with nostalgia? 

I still wonder what makes me and Jarek feel that way about Italy.... and why with every dish we love it more ...? We have an impression that there is something magical in Italian cuisine - firstly it catches you with its flavour and appearance and then seduces with the taste ... and that is all prepared a 'la minuta... :) 

Everyone knows that Italians love to cook and eat - it's the most important activity of daily living. I guess, it's just made by the ancient tradition of family gatherings that has survived to this day. During the feast, among the stormy debate about politics, sports or just a day, Italians  always exchange their comments on the consumed food. We fully support this tradition and practice in our house every day. Therefore, Italian food most often appear on our table - it's like a trip to sunny Italy ... 

Today, we prepared Roasted chillies frittata... In Italy, the frittata is a common way to use leftovers - usually made of pasta or vegetables from the previous day. Frittata is always fried, never baked in the oven as the other omlets, tortillles and tarts. Not for nothing it is called a frittata [Fritt-fried - comes from the verb fry - friggere]. Frittata is particularly popular in rural areas, and usually contains eggs, boiled or fried vegetables. Sometimes it also contains herbs or chopped chives, or fresh bread crumbs. In certain provisions, you can find meat or fish and cheese (fresh pecorino or formaggio fresco) or ricotta.

Roasted Chilli Frittata
inspired by Jamie Oliver
Ingredients:
4 chillies
1 green pepper
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
'Extra Virgin' Olive Oil
handful of parsley
5 eggs
a handful of grated Parmesan cheese
2 cloves garlic
100g feta cheese (or goat's cheese)
salt and pepper to taste
rocket salad

Preheat your oven to full whack. Prick each of your chillies and pepper with a small sharp knife then blacken over a gas flame, in a dry griddle pan or under a grill. Once they’re nicely charred, pop them in a bowl and cover with clingfilm. After 10 minutes, remove the skin, stalks and seeds, then delicately tear lengthways into thin strips. Put these back in the bowl and marinate in red wine vinegar, a lug of olive oil and the parsley stalks. 

Heat olive oil and some butter in a small ovenproof frying pan, then add half of your marinated chillies and the garlic. Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a bowl with some grated parmesan and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Put a few of your parsley leaves to one side, then finely chop the rest and add them to the eggs. 

Pour the eggs into the pan then crumble in half of the goat’s cheese. Move the pan around a bit to spread everything around. When the egg is just starting to set, crumble most of the remaining goat’s cheese over, then pop the frittata in a hot oven for 5 minutes or until it doubles in size. Some people cook their frittatas all the way through, but I prefer mine only just done. Once it’s out of the oven, delicately drape the rest of your marinated chilli strips over the top, crumble over the last few bits of goat’s cheese, then drizzle over a little of the chilli marinade. Sprinkle with the reserved parsley and serve with something fresh and lovely, like a rocket, lemon and parmesan salad.

Enjoy!!!

Late night baking....

I have to confess that baking, cooking and all these kitchen stuff is a great stress-relieving therapy. Well, maybe it sounds a bit odd but I'm really relaxing in our kitchen. It's a pity that our kitchen is so small - I wish I had all those fancy kitchen utensils and gadgets, but I'm afraid there is not enough space there to keep it all, at least not just yet. So, this is our big wish for the next decade: 'We want to have a huge kitchen with a big table for the whole family and friends...'.

Anyway, I was talking about relaxing in the kitchen... That's right, I do relax while cooking, chopping, stirring etc... It's just a great opportunity to think and switch off the brain and just contemplate the smells...even if you chop an onions :) hehehehe That's why we love being in our kitchen...

I've been doing lots of night baking lately. Is that insomnia? I don't know ;) but who cares!!! It is something magical in baking while everyone's asleep... especially bread. Ahhh... the smell of bread right out of the oven - is there anything like it? 

Some time ago, I found this gorgeous looking bread in a tins recipe on one of my favourite blogs. Originally, the recipe is from Jamie's Oliver book 'Jamie's Kitchen'. It took me a while to bake it as I had to collect tins first. But I made it eventually and it was just a right moment... peaceful night, warmth of the house, light of the candles.... 

Bread baked in a tins (with cherry tomatoes and garlic)

Ingredients (6-8 little loaves in a tins):

Bread dough:

1 kg wheat flour

625 mls cool water

30 g fresh yeasts or 3 sachets (7 g each) of dried yeasts

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons sea salt

Moreover:

1 kg cherry tomatoes

1 whole garlic

1 bunch of fresh basil

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

1-2 dried chillies

good quality olive oil

6-8 tall cans of tomatoes, cleaned and dried.

Put the machine on the dough cycle and let it do its thing with all the bread dough ingredients. Since, I got this multifunctional food processor for my birthday, I let the machine do the job for me. If you don't have a machine, just pile the flour on to a clean surface and make a large well in the centre. Pour half your water into the well, then add your yeast, sugar and salt and stir with a fork.

Slowly, but confidently, bring in the flour from the inside of the well. (You don't want to break the walls of the well, or the water will go everywhere.) Continue to bring the flour in to the centre until you get a stodgy, porridgey consistency – then add the remaining water. Continue to mix until it's stodgy again, then you can be more aggressive, bringing in all the flour, making the mix less sticky. Flour your hands and pat and push the dough together with all the remaining flour. (Certain flours need a little more or less water, so feel free to adjust.)

With a bit of grease, simply push, fold, slap and roll the dough around, over and over, for 4 or 5 minutes until you have a silky and elastic dough.  In the meantime, preheat the oven to 150 degrees and put tomatoes, whole garlic basil, salt and pepper, chillies into a baking pan and shove it into the oven for about an hour. When all ingredients are baked, peel the skin off the tomatoes and garlic. Use a blender to mix all the baked ingredients and add the mixture to the bread dough and knead until nice and smooth. 

Flour the top of your dough. Put it in a bowl, cover with clingfilm, and allow it to prove for about half an hour until doubled in size – ideally in a warm, moist, draught-free place. This will improve the flavour and texture of your dough.

In the meantime, dig out those saved tomato juice cans. Give the cans a good spritz with olive oil and when the dough is ready, divide it into equal parts and pop them into the cans. Spritz the tops of the dough, cover the cans, let rise for about 1/2 an hour. 

When the dough is ready, put all the cans into preheated oven to 180 degrees and bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown. If you want to make the bread in a regular bread pan, this recipe makes one standard loaf and you have to bake it for 30-45 minutes.  Once baked, place on a rack and allow it to cool for at least 30 minutes.

They came out perfectly! Enjoy!!!!