Thursday 12 April 2007

Lapsang Souchong Chicken with Courgette and Red Onion Risotto

Risotto is one of my staple foods. It's easy to make, relatively quick, versatile, inexpensive, and makes for a great meal. It's also one of those 'kitchen sink' type foods that you can add virtually anything to. For a quick after-work meal, you can add frozen peas. For something fancier, you could equally add in some nice seafood. There are a number of cookbooks dedicated to risotto out on the market, but I think that all you really need is a basic understanding of how to make risotto and then you can do virtually anything with it.

Tonight's dinner was a courgette and red onion risotto served with Lapsang Souchong chicken and oven-roasted red onions, courgettes, and aubergines. I got the idea for the chicken from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking cookbook. There is a recipe in there for a Lapsang Souchong-based dipping sauce for spring rolls and I liked the idea and figured that a slightly modified version of it would work nicely as a marinade.

The Recipe:

Lapsang Souchong Chicken (serves 2)

2 chicken legs with thighs attached
1 Lapsang Souchong teabag (I used Twinings, though if you use loose leaf tea instead, you should grind it with a mortar and pestle)
1 lemon, juiced
A good glug of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut or tear open the teabag and add its contents to the lemon juice. Add in the olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, and mix. Put the chicken into a container, add the marinade and let it marinade for at least an hour.

In the meantime, preheat an oven to 200C. When the chicken has been marinaded, place it on a baking tray and put in the oven until it's cooked all the way through--about 35 to 40 minutes.

Courgette and Red Onion Risotto

1 red onion, finely diced
1 courgette, finely diced
Arborio rice
Vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add in some olive oil and fry the onions until soft. Next, add the rice and let it cook slightly. Ladle in the stock and stir it in bit by bit, allowing for the rice to absorb the stock before adding in the next bit. When the rice is partially cooked, but not completely, add in the courgettes. The rice will be finished when it still has a bit of bite to it--you don't want to overcook it. Remove the rice from the heat, season to taste, and stir in the parmesan. I also added in some chopped parsley this time.

What is healthy about this recipe: Basically everything! If you're really health-conscious, you could remove the chicken skin before cooking.

What is seasonal about this recipe: Basically everything again! I used veg from this week's organic delivery box and the recipe is versatile so you can use whatever vegetables, fish, or seafoods are seasonal. High Fearnley-Whittingstall has a recipe for a parsnip risotto here.

What I learned from this recipe: I had never before used teas in cooking, but I really liked the result.

What I will change next time: I'd like to experiment with different kinds of teas in marinades. A nice green tea or a jasmine tea would go well with chicken, I imagine.

3 comments:

George said...

What does "a good glug of olive oil" mean?? :)) it's a funny word, not telling me about any quantities.

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