Tuesday - Slow Cooked Chicken in a Tomato Sauce

Jo now has impressive butchery skills - even if she does say so herself! The whole chicken that we had was skillfully sliced and diced into 8 pieces plus 2 wings - great work!.

We love our slow cooker - I am not sure there are many better things in life than coming home after a long day in work to the smell of homely food wafting from the kitchen.....this time it was slow cooked chicken in a tomato sauce, with sliced potatoes on the side.....perfect!

The potatoes

The main event - apologies for the poor picture!

Wednesday - A good day! (Jo Girl)

So today has been a good day for many reasons, most of which are boring, but also because David Work and I got through to the final of the Michelsberg Debating Competition!  It is a competition put on by Michelsberg bespoke tailors for young solicitors - three heats and a final on Monday.  Although I was slightly thrown in the deep end (having only been asked to do it today due to unforeseen circumstances) it was a lot of fun.  This house does believe that the Olympics are a waste of money (or so we convincingly argued!)

Anyway, I must have foreseen that there would be a hiccup in the day's plans, because before I left for work I put a chicken in the slow cooker along with some veg.  It slowly bubbled away all day and, following Joe's epic journey from Manchester (stuck in the car for over 2 hours!) we returned home for poached chicken, vegetables and chipped potatoes.  It was a lovely, simple, delicious supper - just what I needed - and thoroughly recommended!

Chicken (poached upside down to make sure the breasts didn't dry out)

Chipped potatoes

The finished product - warming, autumnal and tasty

Wednesday - Slow Cooker Chicken, Mini Baked Potatoes & Red Cabbage

My plan tonight was to run home (around 7 miles) but when I got to work I realised I had left my wind and waterproof jacket at home, and it was way too cold for just a t-shirt! The plan is to get wrapped up at 6am and run before work! As I write this now it seems a possibility but tomorrow when I am wrapped up in bed it will be a different story! I'll report on the next post how I got on....

Although I was a little dissapointed about not running, we bought some red wine on the way home and I knew that Jo had put a whole chicken in the slow cooker in the morning. If you haven't got a slow cooker I would highly recommend getting one; we have made loads of delicious things with ours!

We had it with mini baked potatoes and red cabbage - perfect for a cold October evening! We are off to another (lucky us) food event tommorow at Chico Latino in Leeds, which we are both looking forward to as we have recently spoke about why we hadn't visited already....can't wait!

Tonight's red

The slow cooked chicken

Baby baked spuds

Red cabbage

Gravy

Chicken out of the pot!

Our mid week dinner table

My plate

Sunday - Slow Cooked Stuffed & Rolled Pork Belly and recipe for French Onion Soup - as promised!

One of the few positive features from the Holmfirth Food Festival was Joe's purchase of some pork belly from Two Valleys Fresh Produce - see website here.  The plan was to slow roast it, taking inspiration from the pork we had at Jamie's Italian in August (see post from 16 August 2011).

Joe stuffed the belly with sausage meat, dried fruits and pine nuts and expertly rolled it up.  He had intended to do the traditional high temp and then slow cook to get some crackling, but the element on our oven blew so we had to rely on our ever-reliable crock pot! We're not keen on crackling anyway, so after five hours we had melt-in-your mouth seriously tasty pork.  Served with fresh new potatoes, savoy cabbage, slow cooked veg and home-made apple sauce and gravy, this was a serious treat!  I felt very spoiled!

Please also see the bottom of the post for the french onion soup recipe, as promised yesterday.

Slow cooked veg, potatoes and savoy cabbage

Slow cooked, stuffed and rolled belly pork

Joe's home-made apple sauce

A close up of the pork - very tasty

Joe's plate

pork cooking liquor - some yummy cider!

French Onion Soup for two

750g onions
1 pint beef stock
1 glass white wine
garlic clove
thyme
bay leaf
2 table spoons of flour
pinch of sugar
baguette
gruyere cheese

1.  Finely slice the onions, as thin as you can.  I used a mixture of white organic and some red for added sweetness.
2.  Heat a knob of butter with some oil in the pan, until the butter is foaming.
3.  Add the onions and turn the heat down low.  The aim is to cook the onions for at least 15/20 minutes on a low heat so that they caramelise and all the natural sweet flavour is brought out.
4.  When the onions are turning slightly golden, add finely chopped garlic and continue to cook for a few minutes.  Try an onion to check for sweetness and add some sugar if it needs it.
5.  Sprinkle the flour over the onions and cook out for a few more minutes. There should be no lumps of flour.
6.  Add the glass of wine, stir through and add the thyme and bay leaf.
7.  Add the beef stock and cook on a low heat for about 30 minutes.  Check your seasoning about half way through and adjust accordingly.
8.  Slice the baguette into thick slices.  Heat the grill to medium and grill the baguette slices on both sides until golden brown.  Top one side of the baguette with grated gruyere and grill until golden and bubbling.
9.  Ladle the soup into bowls (heat proof is best!).  Place the cheesy croutons on top and then sprinkle some more gruyere on top.  Put the bowls under the grill for another minute (be very careful if the bowls aren't heat proof as they won't stand much heat under the grill) and then serve while piping hot.  A big hug in a bowl.