Monthly Archives: March 2013
Celebrate Pi Day with chicken pie
In honor of Pi Day, I wanted to share with you my favorite fast pie recipe, courtesy of Jamie Oliver’s “Meals in Minutes: A Revolutionary Approach to Cooking Good Food Fast.”
Ingredients
For chicken pie:
4 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts
A pat of butter
A bunch of scallions
6 ounces button mushrooms
1 heaping tablespoon all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
2 teaspoons English mustard
1 generous tablespoon heavy cream
1-1/4 cups organic chicken broth
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1/3 of a nutmeg for grating
1 large sheet of all-butter puff pastry
1 egg
Directions
Turn the oven on to 400ºF. Put the chicken breasts on a plastic board and slice into 1/2 inch strips. Put a lug of olive and a pat of butter into the hot large, wide pan. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes or so. Meanwhile, quickly trim the scallions and wash the mushrooms then slice together in a food processor. Add to the pan with 1 heaping tablespoon of flour and stir. Add 2 tablespoons of mustard, a generous tablespoon of heavy cream and 1-1/4 cups chicken broth. Stir well. Pick the thyme leaves and stir into the pan with a few fine gratings of nutmeg and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Leave to simmer.
Lightly dust a clean surface with flour and unroll the sheet of puff pastry. Use a small kitchen knife to lightly crisscross and score it. Take the pan of chicken off the heat. Tip the filling into an ovenproof baking dish slightly smaller than the sheet of pastry (approximately 9×13 inches). Cover the filing with pastry sheet, tucking in at the edges. Quickly beat the egg then brush it over the top of the pie. Put into the oven and cook on the top shelf for around 15 minutes or until golden and gorgeous.
Serves 4.
BTW, this cookbook has a lot of great shortcuts for preparing a full meal (starter, main course and dessert) in under 30 minutes. I’ve timed a few of these meals and it always takes me a while longer than that (I’m a slow chopper!) but turns out beautifully!
Hot cross bun season
Spring is on its way! My favorite harbinger of the season? Hot cross buns!
We bought a dozen of them from Panera, toasted them under the broiler, slathered them in butter and topped with sharp cheddar cheese (it’s a Yorkshire tradition). It brought back memories of my first Easter back in the U.K. 20 years ago (introduced to me by my former Yorkshire flatmate). Good times …
Film review: “The Five-Year Engagement”
Last weekend, I finally watched “The Five-Year Engagement” (thank you, HBO, for putting it On Demand!). Have you seen it?
Jason Segel was his usual amazing self (hello, how great was “I Love You, Man”?!). Emily Blunt was adorable and so likeable. Together, they were a great Brit/American couple – flawed, yes, but also quirky and believable and real. 🙂
Sunday lunch + creche
I’ve been trying to track down some good family-friendly eats in London (and when I say family-friendly, I’m not talking about the British alternative to Applebee’s, Chili’s or TGIF’s, thank you very much).
I want to simply go to an independently owned place with good food, little fussiness, no surly looks from fellow customers or waitstaff when my kids drop a fork or eschew the fork altogether in favor of taking fistfuls of pasta into their mouths. Is that too much to ask? This is what I’m investigating.
What I’ve found so far is Julie’s Restaurant, a Holland Park institution (darling) that provides a Sunday lunch as well as a creche for kids ages 2-12 run by fully qualified and vetted creche staff. Genius! I want to go to there.
The trouble with booking a British hotel room
Premier Inn
I’ve been investigating hotels in the U.K. for our upcoming trip. Sounds simple, right?
I assumed my biggest challenge would be finding a room available, and maybe finding something in my price range (after all, the current exchange rate is 1.49, which means that a gorgeous room at the Savoy for £330 pounds converts to $494 and is decidedly out of our price range). And so it goes …
But no. The real challenge has been finding a hotel willing to accommodate a family of four. I’ve discovered that many nice hotels have a person limit and two adults and two children exceed capacity, unless you’d like to book a second adjoining room. I’ve realized that I’ve taken for granted the all-suite family hotel options that are a dime-a-dozen in the U.S. (with Embassy Suites being my #1 pick, particularly when Manager’s Reception comes around) but really it’s a concept that is sorely lacking in the U.K.
Which isn’t to say that there aren’t any “family rooms” available in the U.K. Some are available for a steep price. Others seem to get booked up months in advance. But thankfully I have tracked down larger family rooms with the Premier Inn hotel group, which have worked well for our needs. It’s still one big room (usually two double beds and a sofa bed, along with the option of adding a crib) instead of the suite-style option so it isn’t perfect, but we stayed at a Premier Inn near Heathrow Airport at our last visit in 2010 and it was very easy to book a family room for four (at a very good rate of under £200, as well). I’ve also read good things about Base2Stay, which has locations in Liverpool and Kensington. And of course, there’s always Airbnb.com, HomeAway.com and any of the other vacation rental sites if you’re looking for some extra space.
Do you know of a good family-friendly hotel in the U.K.? Please share!
Beginner’s guide to mouse taxidermy
Thanks to Greatlittleplace.com, I’ve discovered The Hendrick’s Lecture Series and their anthropomorphic mouse taxidermy class. Don’t worry, it’s for beginners and is offered March through July at Hackney City Farm in London. What a find!
(PS. Be sure to read their “Notes” section about the class, if you are thinking of signing up. Most important notes: All mice are ethically sourced and not killed for this class. And please don’t bring any dead animals with you to the class. Thanks!)
Mila Kunis, Nando’s chicken and Blue Moon
BBC Radio One’s Chris Stark had the nerve-wracking opportunity to interview Mila Kunis about “Oz The Great and Powerful” and ends up veering off into a conversation about Baywatch, Nando’s chicken, jagerbombs and dropping trou at weddings. Needless to say, it ends up being one of her favorite interviews of the day.
Man flu
I’ve mentioned man flu briefly in a previous post. But I feel it is my public health duty to dedicate a full post to this malady.
For the uninitiated: “Man flu is a crippling and debilitating disorder indiscriminately striking down male members of the human species without warning. The illness is often referred to pejoratively by female members of the species who are in fact immune from the illness as man flu is now known to exclusively attack the XY chromosome carrier. If Man Flu is kind enough not to kill the infected party it will definitely leave him weak, sick, hurting everywhere and in dire need of TLC.”
Sound familiar? Check out www.manflu.info. It has been created to provide assistance for the men who are hapless victims of man flu (and the women who love them).
David Brent is back!
If you loved the British (and original!) version of “The Office,” I have good news. Ricky Gervais is reprising his role as David Brent this month in “The Office Revisited.” It’s a one-off episode made as part of BBC Comic Relief, which will be shown on BBC One on March 15.
I, for one, and am looking forward to catching up with David Brent and finding out what he’s up to these days!
Flavored crisps in the U.S.A.
There’s no doubt that Brits take their crisps (translation: potato chips) seriously.
Check out some of their flavors: roasted chicken, prawn cocktail, tomato ketchup, smokey bacon, and worcester sauce to name a few.
Then check out some of our flavors: salted, barbecue, sour cream and onion, vinegar. Bo-ring.
But Lay’s is shaking things up with three new Brit-like flavors: Cheesy garlic bread, Chicken and waffles, and Sriracha. These flavors are only available during this limited time. The flavor that gets the most votes on the Lay’s Facebook page will become a permanent selection.
I haven’t tried any of the flavors yet, but I’ve heard good things so far about the Cheesy garlic bread flavor. Have you tried any of these? What did you think?
BRITRISH.COM 