Farm chicken with polenta

Another traditional recipe from my region. I had a huge craving this week and had to make it. The family loved and although I cooked a lot of food, there's nothing left.

This recipe asks for farm chicken or cock. Since I didn't have any of those at home and my craving wouldn't allow me to wait for the next day, I cooked a regular chicken, but instead of using a pressure cooker, I cooked it for 2 hours in low heat.
The chicken/cock:

1 big pan
2 onions, finnely chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 cubes of chicken stock
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tbspoons of soy sayce
1 tspoon of cumin
1 tspoon of pepper
1 tspoon of ground nut meg
1/2 tspoon of safron
1 lime, squeezed
3 chilli peppers, chopped
parsley and chives (as much as you want)
salt
the chicken: dismembered
Put all the ingredients on a pressure cook (if using farm chicken or cock) for 20 minutes. Don't add water or oil.

Polenta

2 cubes of chicken stock
500g of cornmeal
1 onion, finnely chopped
1 tomato, choppoed
2 chilli, chopped
200mL of coconut milk
parsely, chives and spring onions (as much as you want)
salt

Mix all the ingredients with 1/2 littre of  water to boil the 2 chicken stock cubes, 1 tbspoon of butter and 1 tspoon of salt. Add the cornmeal little by little until it is dissolved. Lastely, add the coconut milk and mix it up until it's time to serve (30 min of mixing at least). This polenta tastes very differently because of the coconut flavour. The other ingredients you use to top the polenta and decorate the dish.

Okra and corn stu

6 corn cobs - remove the corn from the cobs
1 tbspoon of oil
250g of chopped okra (about 1cm each piece)
1 onion, chopped
2 cups of water
1 tspoon of paprika
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
parsley, chives and spring onions (chopped)
salt

Cook everything for 15 min. I tend to add a lot of ground pepper for it releases the flavour of the fresh corn.
Serve it all with white rice
 
Pic: http://stat.correioweb.com.br/arquivos/divirta/materias2007/dondurica_interna_menorrr.jpg

Navarin de mouton

I found this recipe here and cooked it yesterday, for lunch. Really delicious

Long, slow cooking ensures that the stewing lamb or chump chops become very tender in this lamb stew.


ingredients

serves 4

Dripping or lard for frying

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed with 1/2 tsp salt

1 - 1 1/4 kg (2 - 2 1/2 lb). stewing lamb or 4 chump chops, trimmed of fat

Flour for coating

Freshly ground black pepper

396 g (14 oz) can tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato puree

2 large carrots, peeled and sliced

2 turnips or approx. 1/4 kg (1/2 lb) swede, peeled and chopped

1 bouquet garni

1 tsp spoon sugar

Freshly chopped parsley to finish



method

1. Melt a knob of dripping or lard in a flameproof casserole. Add the onion and garlic and fry gently for 5 minutes or until golden.



2. Coat the lamb in flour seasoned with black pepper. Add to the casserole and brown quickly on all sides. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato puree, then add the remaining ingredients except the parsley.



3. Bring just to the boil, then cover with a lid and transfer to a warm oven (160‚°C/325‚°F or Gas Mark 3). Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours depending on the cut of lamb used (stewing lamb will take longer) or until the meat is tender and almost falling off the bones.



4. Taste for seasoning, discard the bouquet garni and sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.



5. Serve with creamed or jacket baked potatoes with soured cream and snipped chives.

American apple pie

Dough:

2 cups of flour
2 tbspoons of sugar
150g of butter
4-6 tbspoons of water


Mix the flour, sugar and butter with 2 forks or a potato masher. Add the water little by little until you get a soft, homogeneous dough.

Filling

4-5 acid apples, cut in thin slices
cinnamon
1 cup of sugar
butter
1/2 lime

Put the slices on a bowl and squeeze the lime on them (to prevent them getting brown). Add the sugar, cinnamon and butter mix it all very well.

On a pie tray (better if it has removable bottom), spread the dough with your fingers (remember to leave some behind to make the cover). On a clean counter, sprinkle flour and open the left over dough, in the shape of a circle, big enough to cover the pie.

Fill the pie tray with the apple slices, putting them all in the same direction until you fill the bottom. Procede in the same maner until you are out of slices. Spread the juice that is left behind in the bowl on top of the apple slices. Cover with the dough circle and merge the edges of the pie in the tray and the cover. With a knife, cut little incisions in a radial fashion (about 5 to 7 will do) so the vapour can escape. To make it look better, you can spread some egg yolk on the cover, to give it a brown look after it's baked

Bake it in medium heat (170C) for about 45 min or until golden

As an alternative, you can use bananas and walnuts for the filling and serve it with squirty cream.

Pic: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_8OjlgwDpYONTe6I_7oWGCmxV2XdqXYTG61jBEc8lGDlgz4o3QHG2X58zy3mKfj2jNB5R-p635cZiH9FYZrCQaJHyFDwaI4G3G1dSmNgGJDUhr_FLiU5HRBACPnUjSF37cE3q2ug3Psim/s400/torta+de+ma%C3%A7%C3%A3.jpg

Spaghetti carbonara

20 min
Serves 2

250g of spaghetti
butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
6 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped
2 eggs
140ml single cream
25g of parmesan, grated

Boil the pasta following the instructions in the bag. Heat a knob of butter in a small frying pan and cook the onion, garlic and bacon for 5-7 minutes, until golden. Turn off the heat and add the cream.

On a bowl, crack the eggs and stir it with a fork. When the pasta is done, drain it and put it on top of the eggs, while hot. Stirr it with a fork so the eggs mix with the pasta and cook. Add the cream with garlic, bacon and onion, stirr it and finish with the parmesan and some black pepper on top.

Pic: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6-eJrtHpJ1WYCsDt2nLywrZidgC7j_MwApzu_y2BRL_1-zJQUmpo7Xkv7Svux5uzfufMk_YLpkzALYYA3Gqba91EHeMXZjYKJXTp_kCWF_wsJUlE7TbobKvhBufnQg-BHKO4p1UbHOYI/s320/carbonara+prato.JPG