An old favourite

I think one of my favourite spices would have to be cinnamon. It's an incredibly versatile flavour that lends itself as well to savoury dishes as it does to sweet dishes. There is something very indulgent-feeling about it, and for me it brings back wonderful memories of Cinnabon from when I lived in the States. It's also very yummy added to hot chocolate on a cold winter night!

I've been having a very cinnamon-y few days recently thanks to my lovely little cake pops - which did make sobbing whilst watching Sherlock more bearable, even if I was afraid to look away from the screen just for the second it would take to grab one off the plate by my hand!

But the actual reason why I bought myself some cinnamon (canelle in French, in case you're ever in France and in need of cinnamon) was to make an old favourite of mine - cinnamon chicken.

I think the first time I had it was when I was probably only 8 or 9, and I can still remember thinking then, wow. Now, given that I'm turning 21 in a month and a half and it still rates pretty highly on my favourite meals list, I'd say that it's a fairly successful recipe!

Making it is simplicity itself, and it's just as easy to make for 4 people as it is for one - I work on the basis of one red onion and one chicken breast per person, and then as much cinnamon as you like. The recipe says that you need 1.5 tsp of cinnamon to do enough for 4, but I like my cinnamon so I don't worry too much about being particularly scientific about it. The soft brown sugar you add at the end is the same principle - again, they estimate 1 heaped tablespoon for four people, so if I'm only making enough for myself, I just pour in "some" and leave it at that. Because I'm feeling particularly generous, I'll even give you the recipe so you can make this delicious meal for yourself.

To serve 4
1. Peel and slice 4 red onions into thick rings and put into a saucepan or casserole dish with 4 chicken breasts (boneless chicken thighs work just as well too) and 75g of butter.
2. Add 1.5 tsp of cinnamon and 150ml of water to the pan, then season.
3. Heat gently until the butter has melted, then bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Add 1 rounded tbsp of soft brown sugar, and keep on a low heat until the chicken is cooked, checking often that the sugar hasn't caught.
5. Once the chicken has cooked, if the sauce looks a bit watery, remove the chicken and boil the sauce until it becomes thick and syrupy.

I have only ever had this with couscous and I think it complements the meal perfectly. Give it a go - and let me know how it turns out!

New Year's resolutions

I’m not usually one for New Years’ resolutions, but this year I’ve broken the habit and have made a promise to myself to start eating properly. And by properly, I mean making a real effort to have one filling yet healthy meal a day. To be honest, I don’t really have much excuse not to. I enjoy cooking, I can cook, and I’m well past that childish attitude of “ugh, vegetables”. It’s incredible how easy it is to eat healthily and inexpensively.

This bright Saturday morning, as I had no real plans until the evening,  I was enjoying a good lie-in, watching cooking programmes on the iPlayer and drinking a cup of real coffee – none of the instant stuff that I rely on to get myself moving in the morning. In “Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers”, he made a sausage and bean soup. It really couldn’t have been simpler. Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, tomato, cannellini beans, chorizo sausage and some herbs (if you’re feeling fancy). None of that needs to be particularly expensive, but it’s a full, flavoursome meal that is actually quite good for you. Plus, it’s just as easy to make enough for four meals as it is to make enough for one, so it’s easily frozen and then just needs to be warmed the next time you fancy some and bingo – instant meal.

However, I had a meal plan and I fully intended to use it, so this recipe was set aside for next week as today was down for “cassoulesque” – which seems appropriate as cassoulet is a mainstay of the cuisine down here in the Languedoc. My student budget-friendly version is one of those dinners that feels so much more luxurious than it actually is. I cut two sausages into rounds and threw that into a saucepan with a diced chicken breast, some bacon lardons, about half a red pepper and a bit of butter. I cooked that for about 5 minutes, then added some (store bought, the horror!) tomato sauce and left that to simmer for another 5 minutes. Then, I added around about half a tin of drained and rinsed cannellini beans (saving the rest for a meal I’ve got planned later) and left that to simmer for around about five minutes with a lid covering it. I came back in and turned the heat up, gave it a final two minutes then took it back to my room, lid still on so that it could continue cooking a bit and keep warm. Finally I added a teaspoon of Boursin, gave it one last stir for luck, plated up half and put the other half into a container and into the freezer to prevent myself from snacking on it. I’m sure there’s a healthier way of thickening an overly-runny tomato sauce but I’m not particularly fussed about finding it!

Simple, filling and tasty – plus I now have a bonus meal for a day when I can’t be bothered to cook something from scratch. Perfect!

Wednesday essay writing

It's the final countdown. 46 hours and 17 minutes until my two assessed essays are due. Fortunately, this being the final week of term and lecturers being fully aware that students will have left it until the last minute, the English department cancel all lectures and seminars for second years in week 10, so we have time to write the essays we've had about a month to do. This also meant that I was able to get a Sainsbury's order delivered - a bonus to the week I hadn't been expecting! My cupboards, fridge, and freezer are all looking a lot more cheerful now, and I'm already planning some slightly more adventurous dinners for next week.

As I've got something on this evening, I thought I'd go for a main meal at lunchtime again today, and for preference one I could leave bubbling on the hob while I get back to writing about realism in the nineteenth-century novel. Using those cannellini beans from yesterday was another important part, as was finding something that wouldn't be too strong, as the sudden end of term panic has made my tummy quite grumpy!

With a fresh stock of chopped tomatoes and some diced chicken back in my arsenal, I decided to be a bit creative for lunch today. The end result was pretty delicious, if I say so myself...

Firstly, I heated some vegetable oil with a chopped up clove of garlic (having first removed the green shoot that causes the feared Garlic Breath) and some dried rosemary. Once the garlic was lightly toasted and the oil good and hot, I added the diced chicken breast and a bit of salt, and gave it all a quick stir. I didn't want the chicken to go too golden, but I did want it to have a headstart on being cooked before I added anything more.

After that, I tipped in about half of a tin of chopped tomatoes (around 200g at a rough estimate), a pinch of sugar and a splash of water, got it up to a simmer, then popped my makeshift lid of the dinner plate over the top, turned the heat down and left it to cook for about 20 minutes.

(I'd like to pretend that the 20 minutes where my dinner was cooking were productive, but I shouldn't lie...)

Then, about 15 minutes into this, I got my bowl of cannellini beans from yesterday out of the fridge, drained, rinsed, and left them for the remaining five minutes before I removed the plate/lid (now nicely warm for putting my meal on), tipped them all in, stirred until the beans were all cooked, and served it up.

Very, very pleased with the results. It was warm and comforting, just what I need when I'm brewing a cold. The garlic, I'm told, will be good for sorting out my cold, so that's always a plus, and cooking the chicken in the tomato sauce meant that it was beautifully tender and not as tough as it can be when you just fry it. As with the casserole from yesterday, another plus was that there's only one dirty pot to clean - and with having bought already-diced chicken, there's not even a knife or a chopping board to clean, either. A variation on this would be to omit the cannellini beans and instead serve this with a generous helping of my dad's indulgently creamy mashed potatoes, which would be a good way of mopping up the delicious sauce!

Now, I'm stuck with the eternal dilemma of a student: put off getting back to this essay by doing my washing up, or put off doing the washing up by getting back to the essay? Difficult. Very difficult...