Store Cupboards and Farm shops !

Chicken with Mushroom risotto on a bed of Ramsey's Black pudding served with a Cider and sage sauce.

While on today's walk on the beach I started planning my supper. I racked my brain to try and remember what I had brought over the previous months food wise with every intention of eating at home but by the time I got in from work the last thing I wanted to do was cook. Stick a wedge of cheese and a dollop of pickle in between 2 slices of bread..yes. Open a can of beer...yes...and a packet of crisps....yes.
I must be getting my cooking mojo back as normally a walk on the beach was where I would scream at the working world and say how unfair it was to me. So to think about cooking again at home is a positive sign of a recovery.
So the menu planning began as the tide slowly splashed against the sea shore and was complete as I paddled back to the car park.
A good stocked up store cupboard is an essential part of any cooks weaponry. I have various flavoured oils and vinegars that I have collected over the year plus loads of dried spices and herbs, Pastas of various shapes and sizes plus tins of butter beans, tomatoes etc floating around.
Tonight I really fancied Risotto as I had not had it for a long time and it was then the creative culinary juices started flowing as I remembered I definitely had some dried mushrooms of some description floating around somewhere so that was going to be a nice risotto dish but by now their was no stopping the food idea bullet train ! Black pudding purchased at the Food Festival in Edinburgh needed using so that needed defrosting. How about a nice piece of chicken from the farm shop near the beach to sit majestically on top of the risotto that in its self was going to sit on a lovely slice of the Ramsey's Black pudding ! Now I need a sauce to help this all go down easier. No doubt there would be cider in the house. I don't tend to drink cider but do cook with it a lot so that was going into the sauce, I had dried sage in the house so that will compliment the chicken nicely so there you have it supper sorted. I hope that gives you a true in sight into the culinary genius that goes on in my head sometimes ! ha ha !

From the beach I drove to the Country Barns farm shop at Widdrington to buy my Chicken breasts.

I love going in their but have to limit my time in the shop otherwise I end up spending a fortune and then having to squeeze some of the items I buy into my freezer ! Just to show how bad my farm shop addiction is I have ordered 3 T bone steaks for next week today. When I went into the shop T-Bone was not even on my mind it occurred because after I had brought my Chicken breasts I got talking to the butcher about Rib-eye steak and asked him if he had any even though again when I went into the shop Rib-eye was even further from my mind than T-bone !! Your confused...look in my foodie head sometime !! ha ha !
Also I am not going to be able to eat 3 T bones at once ( although I would give it a go !) so I am going to have to try and cram 2 in the freezer ! Talk about a woman in a shoe shop mentality !
So I escaped the Farm shop and headed home to cook my supper.


Their sounds a lot going on in this dish from the title but once the risotto is made its very easy. I have broken it down to help with the planning of putting it together.

1. First make the Gravy so you can just let it tick over while you are cooking the rest of the meal.

To make the Cider and sage gravy all you need to do is make up a litre of instant chicken gravy mix.
In a pan sweat off 1 finely diced shallot, half a stick of finely diced celery and 1 bulb of crushed garlic in some Olive oil. Next add 200 mls of Cider and reduce by one third. Now pour the ready mix gravy into the pan of reduced cider and stir well. Cook for 10 minutes. Now pass the gravy through a sieve to catch all the vegetable bits. Pour into a clean pan and taste. It might need some more cider so pour some in. Next add some fresh chopped Sage or in my case dried and then a dollop of creme fraiche to lightly colour the sauce and enrich it further.

2. Now pan fry your chicken breasts in oil until nicely coloured and place in the oven for about 12-15 minutes at 180 oc. If they are cooked before you have finished making your risotto then allow to rest in a warm place.

3.Now make the risotto so in a pan sweat off 1 finely diced shallot and half a stick of celery with 1 crushed garlic clove in some olive oil until soft.

Take a cup of dried Arborio risotto rice and place that in your pan and stir for a few minutes being careful not to let the rice stick to the bottom of your pan.

Now add some White wine. I didn't as I was emptying my store cupboard so some pink cider went into the pan. I have no idea where it came from or why it was pink for that matter but it was only a month outside its best before date so I was happy to take the risk !
Stir the rice continuously until the cider or wine has been absorbed by the rice and then pour in about 150mls of made up chicken stock and stir until the stock has been absorbed by the rice also. Keep adding 150mls of the stock until the rice is cooked.

Now take it off the heat.

The dried mushrooms I had turned out to be the Porcini variety so to rehydrate them I placed them in a jug and poured some boiling water over them and then left them to soak for about 10 minutes. I then scooped them out of the jug and added them to the risotto.


Your chicken should be cooked by now so let them rest in a warm place while you cook your sliced black pudding and finish off your risotto.

4. Just pan fry the black pudding for about 2-3 minutes each side and pat dry on some kitchen paper.

5.To finish off the risotto put back onto the heat and add some of the liquid from the jug where the dried mushrooms were re-hydrating until you have a nice wet hot mix. Now add a dollop of creme friaiche and a good handful of grated Parmesan cheese. Taste and season if need be.

To serve place a pool of the gravy in the middle of the plate, put your slice of black pudding on top of the gravy pool, then a nice spoonful of the risotto on top of the black pudding and then sit the chicken breast on top of the rice.
If this risotto recipe sounds a bit hard to follow all I would do is go onto You Tube and search for mushroom risotto and watch a video on how to make it. I have said it before their are loads of media tools around today to help improve your cooking.

This is a fantastic dish. Full of complimenting flavours. If you struggle to make it give me a call and I will pop around and cook it for you but don't ask me to pop in the farm shop to pick up the chicken breasts my bank manager wont like it ! enjoy !

Random sky and beach pictures number 2567 !