Strawberry napoleons

Good desserts should include strawberries.  That may be an Alex rule of thumb. To make them great desserts, they should also include chocolate.  Now that you know this, you should invite me over for dessert... Anyway, the dessert that Gail and I finally decided on to close out the chicken-and-rice meal was strawberry napoleons.  I decided that they needed some chocolate drizzled over the top, but other than that I believe we followed a recipe.  Thing was, the puff pastry *really* puffed, and maybe that's the point, but it made it hard to eat.  The following morning I discovered that a better way to eat this dessert is to use the bottom layer of puff pastry like toast, and put the strawberries and cream on top, like jam.  See, healthy breakfast - toast with jam.  And, due to the lack of chocolate drizzle on the breakfast version of this dessert, that's totally a legit breakfast.

Wait, we were talking about dessert.  Much tastier, because, chocolate.  So, the original recipe called for rolling out the puff pastry, then letting it chill in the fridge for an hour, then baking.  I don't exactly see the point of the extra chilling, even though we did that, so I'm saying you should probably just skip that step.  Anyway, roll out the puff pastry to fit your baking sheet, 1/8" thick, then back until puffed and golden, then cool.  Whip the cream to soft peaks, then add 1 tbs framboise and 2 tbs powdered sugar, then whip to stiff peaks.  Fold in the sliced strawberries, which you should have tossed with 3tbs granulated sugar (maybe 2-3C of berries?).  Use a serrated knife to cut the puff pastry into whatever size you're in the mood to eat (apparently the size I chose was considerably larger than what everyone else at dinner would have chosen... oops).  Put the filling on top of one piece of puff pastry, top with another piece, and drizzle with chocolate, then sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Yum!

Ingredients:

2-3C strawberries

3tbs granulated sugar

2 sheets of puff pastry

1.5C whipping cream

2tbs powdered sugar

1tbs framboise (or vanilla extract)

~1/4C chocolate, to melt and drizzle on top

More powdered sugar for sprinkling on top

I think next time, to make it easier to eat, I'd use the puff pastry as a tart base, and either bake it with the strawberries, or bake with some frangipane filling, then put the strawberries and cream on top of that.  The top layer of puff pastry wasn't entirely necessary.  But this definitely should get made again, it was delicious.

Chicken and rice (delicious version)

I got the opportunity to spend a night out in Sunderland last week, and this of course meant that what was left of the Gang of 5 needed to get together for dinner, because yum! Gail had her eye on this chicken and cardamom rice dish from the Jerusalem cookbook by Ottolenghi, and because I love his take on food, I was all for it.

I'll repeat the recipe here, because we changed the amount of water required - the original 1C of water was not going to cook any rice.  The end result was really delicious, especially all the crunchy bits of rice stuck to the pan.  Gail actually cooks by the recipe, we'll see how poorly this dish degrades when I take my usual approach to it next time.  (quantities? eh, close enough...).  Anyway, a very tasty version of chicken and rice, and I'll definitely make this again.


Ingredients:
2.5 tbs currants (or barberries, if you can get them, in which case you're supposed to soak them in sugar and water first)
3 onions
4 tbs olive oil
8 chicken thighs
salt and pepper
10 cardamom pods
1/4 tsp whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1-2/3C basmati rice
3C boiling water
1.5 tbs chopped parsley
1/2C chopped dill leaves
1/4C chopped cilantro
(I imagine you could get away without the parsley, dill, and cilantro)

  

First, caramelize the onions in ~2tbs oil.  I think this should be done in a separate pot, though it defeats the whole one-pot part of this meal, because then you could parallel process the chicken.

Put 1.5 tsp of each salt and pepper all over the chicken along with another tbs of olive oil and all the whole spices, rub that in with your hands so it's really in there.  Brown the chicken in some olive oil.  We cooked the chicken skin-side down for probably 10min first, rendering out a lot of the fat and cooking the meat most of the way through. Since the chicken may need to cook longer than the rice, and you don't want to overcook the rice, it's worth browning the chicken for longer than you might for a chicken stew.

Pour off the excess chicken fat, then put all the rice, onions, currants, and spices into the pan.  Add 1tsp salt and more pepper.  Pour the boiling water over the top, put the chicken back into the rice, cover, and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  The chicken should be tender and the rice should be done...

We then took the chicken out of the rice and broiled it for 5min or so, until it was good and crispy.  Stir all the herbs into the rice, put the chicken back on the rice, and serve!




Gail in her new kitchen! I have kitchen envy.