13 July 2008
Chicken & Pasta - in the style of Peter Rabbit
Posted by Richard under: Fruit & Vegetables; Smallholding .
Lunch today was chicken thighs and pasta - good ingredients, but it perhaps needed something more - but the fridge & cupboards were looking pretty bare (particularly with the price of food…grumble, moan, whinge). However, the vegetable garden is just starting to come into it’s own - so while the chicken was roasting and the water was on the boil for the pasta, a major raid (a’la Peter Rabbit / Benjamin Bunny-style) was undertaken to add to our slightly meagre if tasty rations.
The new potatos are at their supreme best at the moment - sweet, waxy and slightly earthy - so a small handful were boiled and quartered.
A small bunch of red spring onions - washed under the hosepipe, and thinly sliced.
Rainbow carrots, grown in deep bins of sand and soil - pulled from the depths, washed and chopped. Left raw as they are still so tender & sweet.
Mixed baby beetroots, tops torn off - rinsed, quickly boiled, and when slightly soft, rubbed to removed the skin. The quartered and thrown in the bowl.
The last of the broad beans, straight out from their pods and blanched for a minute to soften. Each bean still had their green outer coating, no need to peel.
One small cucumber from the greenhouse - peeled, deseeded and diced.
Three fresh eggs - collected from the henhouse and boiled for a few minutes (in with the pasta, then fished out) until the yolks were set but still slightly soft, peeled and quartered.
A decent sized bunch of basil, parsley and mint - finely chopped and added.
Finally, the warm chicken torn into pieces, and the pasta with a good coating of peppery extra virgin olive oil was added to bowl - well seasoned with salt and pepper - and eaten with lettuce (again, from the garden) & bread…and big cold glass of vimto (not the fizzy stuff, the old fashioned type you dilute).
…yum…! Not really a recipe - more of a feast of opportunity.
PS: OK, we didn’t eat the chard in the picture (waiting until it gets a little bit bigger) - but it looks so good I couldn’t resist the photo opportunity.
PPS: Kate did most of the culinary stuff - I just pulled stuff up, etc.
One Comment so far...
David Turner Says:
14 July 2008 at 1:15 pm.
It sounds very promising and the chard looks really good!