Chicken Bolognese Pie

A Sunday night classic. Add football, a brand new HD large screen, a coupla brews and Bob's yer Auntie's live in lover.

There are several ways to make a Bolognese, the original with Mirepoix, the English ground beef, wine onions, green peppers and garlic, the US'ian, tomato sauce and ground beef (they call this spaghetti sauce) and then any variant you may choose. Mine is this original version, sans mushrooms (too many people don't like shrooms, weird?) and utilizing chicken instead:

2lbs Chix thighs

Anchovy paste or sea salt and pepper

Rice vinegar

One sweet yell onion

2 Tblsps of: Tarragon, basil, sweet marjoram and Thyme

4 Cloves of garlic

1 Crescent roll original flattened out because I am no pastry chef and this works great, it's light and easy to work with

Tomato sauce, strained and paste

Butter to rub on top of pastry

Wine, some for you and some for the bol

Parmesan cheese, add as you simmer

Honey

Cream add at end

Marinade chicken in oil, salt (or anchovy paste), pepper, garlic and rice vinegar.

Sauté onions and garlic, in butter and EVOO and add one tblspn of each herb, salt and pepper. You may add some beer if you have some PBR left in the fridge that you could not choke down and only purchased because one of your friends likes it, to help caramelize. Add chicken, brown, simmer, uncovered for tennish.

Add tom paste, sauce and a little or lot of wine. Simmer for 15 mins to reduce. Add parmesan cheese whenever you want (remember this is salty too). Add rest of herbs, simmer, more cheese for about 20 mins.

Take off heat and cool a bit. Take baking tray, pour bol into tray and add cream, stir until folded in. Place flattened Crescent rolls on top, brush generously with butter, put in oven at 375 degrees for about 20-25 mins. I go 20 because I like the pastry to be a bit soft/guey like a steak and kidney pudding from Yorkshire.

Alright, last night I went to Wholefoods to pick up some ground veal, thyme etc... not sure what i was going to do but anyroad, they had no ground veal. Huh. it's veal season, grind that chuck.

So, instead I picked up some ground chicken, thyme, basil, cream, garlic, honey, HDP, rice vinegar, balsamic, tomatoes, black pepper, anchovy paste and some freshly baked baguettes. Tha tis my round about way of roviding the recipé of what was concocted last night.

Heat some oil with Ghee, oh yeh and I acquired some Ghee, garlic pepper and anchovy paste (or salt if yer a ponce). Brown the ground, add thyme and onions, oh yeh, I also acquired some sweet onions or shallots (cue my bro', inside joke) and the basil. Stir until slightly browned. Add the honey, put the oven on three fiddy, chop the tommys, slice the bread and take out most of the dough. Pour the cream in and stir on high for a minute. Turn stovetop off. Let rest. Shlurp wine. Oh yeh, I add wine with the cream. Ten mins later spoon the ingredes into the bread receptacles and top with slices of Fontina cheese, oh yeh... I already had that. Bake in oven for about 20 mins. Eyeball/try to see if more or less.

Anyroad, I did not manage to take a picture of this dish, so here's a pic of a bolognese I did a couple of nights ago.

Cheers, Andre (for today).

Captain Xtoff's first blog, stirdate October 29th 2009

Well, here it is. My first ever blog, ever. I'm going to start with a curry. A very good place to start.

It's a well known fact, sonny Jim, or not, that the best curries come from England. Seriously, ask any Indian or Pakistani that lives in the Leeds/Bradford area or the beautiful city of Birmingham (armpit of Britain. If Britain were to have an enema, they would shove it in Birmingham).

Anyroad, long story short. Back in the day, Britain owned India (and some other countries that did not have flags too). India was poor. Curry spice was the country's main food flavour enhancer (side note: The Flavour Crystals are awesome). It was added to enhance the flavour of the mostly boring vegetables available to the Indian culture i.e. lentils, cauliflower, potato (aloo) and pretty much their only meat, mutton, to name a few. Well, since they all became 'British', the people went over to the North of England and worked in the Woollen Mills (no jobs back in India). They started earning more money and were able to afford meats indigenous to their adopted country; chicken, shrimp, 'shrooms, lamb and such became integrated into the curry culture (along with Garam Masala - that's for another thyme. Yes, I spelled that that way on purpose, it's a food blog). Anyroad, hey presto, good, tasty, meaty, creamy and bright curries became the norm. So, now you have it. The best and tastiest curries are from the north of Ingerlund. So, in the famous words of Blue Peter, "Here's one I prepared earlier". This was created in Colly with ma Cuz's.

Until next time, Cheers - Xtoff