I wrote this last year but didn't have a blog to put it in
Joe and I headed up to Vermont in March this year (2006) The weather is unbelievable. We went up on the mountain yesterday for a ski, it was bright sunshine, sixty degrees, a bit slushy but glorious all the same. It’s great being up here together; the combination of revision and general bonding seems to work out really well for both parties. It also reminds me of how important our little place up here is to me.
We ate out the first night but decided to stay in and fire up the gas barbecue last night.
I bought some local Misty Knoll Farm, boned chicken breasts, a bag of Mesclun salad, fennel and some potatoes …. And a bottle of Rosemount GSM for me (which I need to get Lisa to try, I think she might rather like it)
We decided to do a bit of cookery research and made two marinades for the chicken. One was a classic salsa Verde the other a combination of thyme garlic and salt, both were marinated using the patent ‘Peter Lazor Ziploc bag marination method’
For those of you who don’t know him Peter is one half, or actually now, one third ( now one quarter! they're a veritable baby making machine) of the family Lazor, and husband to the lovely Cathleen. They are frequent and very welcome visitors to Vermont and on one of their trips up Peter introduced me to this method of marinating meat.
For the salsa Verde version I put a couple of tablespoons of salsa Verde in the bag with the juice of half a lemon. I skinned the chicken breast, slashed the side in a couple of places, chucked it in the bag, sealed the Ziploc tight and then massaged the marinade into the chicken. Not only does this process really get the marinade in to the chicken but it also is quietly and weirdly satisfying. It’s also a great way of transporting marinated meat if you are heading out to barbecue somewhere.
For the thyme version I chopped a couple of decent tablespoons of thyme leaves with a couple of cloves of garlic, then added a half tablespoon of Maldon salt and chopped the whole lot together. This then went into another Ziploc bag with about a tablespoon of olive oil and the juice of the other half of the lemon. In went the chicken breasts, duly skinned and slashed and massage was provided as before.
The barbecue was fired up and the heat turned to medium, you don’t want to cook chicken too fast, or it just goes hard. We cooked the lot for about ten to fifteen minutes, checking the chicken all the time to ensure it came off the grill whilst they were still moist.
Alongside we had sliced fennel and we had put a potato for Joe in the oven about an hour before we were due to eat. We also had a bowl of the salad, using the very cool bowl that the Lazor’s bought us at Moss.
We both sat on the bench on the far side of the table watching ‘Parental Control’ on MTV. We decide that the thyme marinade just shaded the salsa Verde and that the father in the programme was a bit of a prick
A bit of Ben and Jerry’s (Heath Bar Crunch) followed. Well, it is Vermont after all.
The combination of jet lag, skiing, good food and a generous helping of the GSM meant that it wasn’t long until I was snoring away on the sofa and my sixteen year old son told me it was time for bed. I offered no protest.
All in all it was a really rather nice day.
Thyme and garlic marinade
Ingredients
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
2 cloves garlic
half tablespoon Maldon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
Method
Chop a couple of decent tablespoons of thyme leaves with a couple of cloves of garlic, then added a half tablespoon of Maldon salt and chopped the whole lot together. This then went into another Ziploc bag with about a tablespoon of olive oil and the juice of the other half of the lemon. In went the chicken breasts, duly skinned and slashed and massage was provided as before.
Salsa Verde
Ingredients
bunch of flat leaf parsley minus stalks
10 basil leaves
15 mint leaves
2 garlic cloves peeled and minced
1 tbsp dijon mustard
6 anchovy fillets
1 tbsp capers
150 ml ex virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
Salsa Verde is magic. Firstly it’s a doddle to make, secondly, it tastes fantastic, thirdly it goes with a ton of things – roast cod, grilled chicken (great in wraps) and roast Pork are my favourites. However the best thing about Salsa Verde is that everybody loves it, just don’t tell them its got anchovies in, people, Gus for example, think that they hate fish and anchovies in particular. I love anchovies on their own but I understand that they’re a bit of an acquired taste, but I think that their real magic is as an ingredient …they add a glorious saltiness that salt alone can never match.
I have tried a number of different recipes and I have decided that the best is Simon Hopkinson’s recipe from the brilliant ‘Roast Chicken and other recipes’ The basic plot goes like this, get a big bunch of flat leaf parsley (leaves not stalks) add ten to fifteen basil leaves, ten to fifteen mint leaves, two cloves of crushed garlic, one tablespoon of capers, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard. Put the lot into the bowl of a mixer/blender add a tablespoon of olive oil …. Blitz for a bit then open the lid and scrape the stuff down to the bottom with a spatula thing, then turn the machine on again and add olive oil in a thin stream until the salsa reaches the consistency you like. Personally I agree with Simon that a mayonnaise sort of thickness and gloopiness is nice. You want a bit of texture but not chunks of garlic and whole parsley leaves.
This seems to perfectly fill up one of those little kilner jars; you know the ones with the orange seal and the Grolsch style top. It also looks a bit cooler than putting it in a jam jar with torn off bits of paper on the side, it won’t taste any better, but a little bit of thought on presentation never goes amiss.
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