Garlicky Chicken

Tis' definitely the season to celebrate with good food, wine and your loved ones.  In my opinion, this chicken recipe is good enough to land itself a spot on that dining table this festive period. Don't get me wrong, this is not a Christmas recipe but a simple heartwarming dish by Nigella Lawson that will win the crowd over. The recipe calls for white wine or vermouth but I made do with my leftover Rose and it tasted just as good anyway.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 pieces                             chicken leg or thigh, bone in
20 cloves                           garlic, unpeeled
1 tablespoon                      olive oil
5 stalks                              thyme (I replaced it with 1/2 tablespoon of the dried version)
3 stalks                              scallion, chopped
2 tablespoon                      white wine or vermouth
                                          salt and black pepper to season

Method:

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

In a dutch iron pot, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sear the chicken leg on high heat, browning them. Remove and set aside.

Add in the chopped scallion, thyme and give it a good stir for about 20 seconds or so.

Place in 10 cloves of garlic, followed by the browned chicken pieces. Top with the other 10 cloves of garlic. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add in 2 tablespoons of wine (or more like I did) and swirl them around the pot.

Cover the pot and place in the oven for an hour.

Serve the dish and its gorgeous sauce with some nicely toasted sourdough or baguette. Do not forget the nicely caramelized garlic too.

Baked Rosemary Salmon with Lemon

I haven't had salmon for the longest time and decided that it was time to whip one up for the dining table. Warning: Do not EVER overcook your salmon. Please, do justice to that expensive piece of fillet.

I will always remember the words of my culinary lecturer back in school: the best cooked salmon is always half-cooked right in the middle. That's exactly what I did and the fillet turned out to be moist and juicy.

Olive oil is being used in this recipe but you can always substitute it with grapeseed oil, vegetable oil, etc. I had a nice bottle of rosemary infused grapeseed oil from Napa Valley and it was perfect for the dish.

Ingredients:

1                                salmon fillet
1/2                             lemon, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon              olive oil
1/2 tablespoon           rosemary, chopped
                                  sea salt

Method:

Place a couple of lemon slices on the baking tray. Top it up with the salmon fillet.

Drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over the salmon. Season with sea salt and sprinkle the chopped rosemary over it.

Top the salmon with the remaining lemon slices and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes on 200 degrees celsius.