Red onion jam

Ingredients;

140g butter

2kg red onions peeled and thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic peeled and thinly sliced

1tblsp olive oil

140g cater sugar

1tblsp thyme leaves

Pinch chilli flakes

4 star anise

Maldon salt and ground black pepper

750ml bottle red wine

350ml red wine vinegar

200ml portBottom of Form

Method;

Melt the butter with the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over a high heat. Tip in the onions and garlic and give them a good stir so they are glossed with butter. Sprinkle over the sugar, thyme leaves, chilli flakes, star anise and season with salt and pepper. Give everything another really good stir and reduce the heat slightly. Cook uncovered for 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. The onions are ready when all their juices have evaporated; they're really soft and sticky and smell of sugar caramelising. They should be so soft that they break when pressed against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon. Slow cooking is the secret of really soft and sticky onions, so don't rush this part.

Pour in the wine, vinegar and port and simmer everything, still uncovered, over a high heat for 25-30 minutes, stirring every so often until the onions are a deep mahogany colour and the liquid has reduced by about two-thirds. It's done when drawing a spoon across the bottom of the pan clears a path that fills rapidly with syrupy juice. Leave the onions to cool in the pan, and then scoop into sterilised jars and seal. Can be eaten straight away, but keeps in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Turkey gravy

Ingredients;

Reserved bones from the turkey, roasted until golden brown

1 white onion peeled and roughly chopped

2 carrots peeled and roughly chopped

1 bay leaf

4 sprigs of thyme

1 head garlic
200ml red wine
200ml port
1tblsp butter
1tblsp plain flour

Method;

Place all ingredients into a large stock pot and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and allow to simmer for 2 hour, skimming all the time. It is important to keep the stock clear from scum at all times. After 2 hours remove from the heat and strain through a fine sieve into a clean pot. Place the strained stock back over the heat and reduce by two thirds.

When the turkey has been removed from the oven and is resting. Remove the turkey from the roasting tray into a clean plate. Strain of all of the fat from the tray and place the tray over high heat. Add the red wine and the port and bring to the boil, scrap of all of the bits of meat stuck to the bottom of the pan, the liquid will make this lift of easily. Reduce the wine and the port until it starts to thicken. Add the butter and stir until it has melted, add the flour and mix well to form a roux with the butter. Pour in the turkey stock and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook until the sauce has reduced and thickened. Season to taste and serve with the turkey.

Boning a chicken

There are some basic cooking techniques that, once mastered, you can use on an almost daily basis. Others you’ll employ less frequently, though no less effectively. Boning a chicken falls into the latter category. It’s perhaps not something you’d attempt during the week after a long day at work, but a slow and rainy Sunday afternoon, when you’re craving a roast chicken, might just be the time to practice some knife skills.

As with all butchery, you’ll need a sharp boning knife, a heavy cook’s knife and a good sharpening steel to keep your blades honed during the process. Poultry scissors, available from select kitchenware stores, could also come in handy. Once you have your tools, it’s simply a case of patience, feeling your way and taking things slowly.

There are a couple of hints to bear in mind as you go. First of all, use the tip of your knife to feel out the bones, then follow them, using short sharp strokes to free the flesh from the bone. Use your other hand to hold the separated flesh out of the way so you can see your way clear to the next step. Next, aim to remove the bones with as little flesh on them as possible. This, of course, will become easier to achieve the more you practice. When cutting through joints, dislocate the bone from the socket and cut through the gap between ball and socket. This applies to all joints, be it wing or thigh. Finally, take care when using a sharp knife and for the best end result, use a free-range and/or organic bird.

So why bone a chicken (or any other bird) in the first place? Well, once the bones are removed, the bird can be dressed simply and roasted flat in a much-reduced cooking time. It also means the flesh cooks more evenly, lessening the potential for perfectly cooked breast and still-pink legs, or perfectly cooked legs and dried-out breast.

There’s also the opportunity to impart flavour through the use of stuffing, limited only by the ingredients to hand and your imagination. A tarragon and garlic-scented farce is easy and effective, or scatter the chicken with a mixture of sautéed chicken livers, pancetta and onion. Or channel Spanish influences, and stuff it with smoky chorizo, coarse breadcrumbs and oregano. The flavour of the chorizo permeates the flesh, making for a more-ish feast.

Once stuffed, rolled, tied and roasted, the lack of bones makes for easy-as-pie carving and restaurant-perfect presentation. You’ll also discover that a boned and stuffed chicken will feed more people than the average roast chook.

The bones don’t need to go to waste, either. Make them into a stock and freeze ready for the next time you want to make a soup or risotto (recipe follows).

Once mastered, you can apply this same technique to any bird, such as game birds, duck and guinea fowl.

Boning a chicken

Ingredients;

1	organic chicken (1.8kg)

Method;

	Place chicken, breast-side up, on a cutting board. Use a boning knife to trim neck. Stretch out wings and cut off at joint closest to body, between ball and socket. Discard the wing tips, bbut keep them for the stock.
	At the neck, pull skin back and slide knife along the underside of the wishbone, cut around and under, and pull out with fingers.
	Turn bird over, breast-side down, and cut along either side of spine from tail to neck.
	With short sharp strokes of your knife and keeping knife close to bones, separate flesh from carcass on both sides of spine.
	Use the tip of your knife to find and cut through ball-and-socket joints of wing and thigh bones that connect to carcass. Dislocate them so they’re separated but still remain attached to skin on both sides.
	Gently separate breastbone and carcass from the flesh (be careful as skin tears easily).
	On both sides, cut flesh from curved (saber) bone near wing to remove. Holding wing bone from the flesh side, cut through tendons and scrape meat from bone using knife. Pull out bone, using knife to free it, then reposition so skin-side is facing out.
	On both sides, hold leg bone from inside bird, cut through tendons and scrape meat from bone using knife. Pull out bone with knife, then reposition with skin-side facing out.
	Deboned chicken is now ready for stuffing, roasting, pan-frying or grilling. Season to taste first. Alternatively, refrigerate until required. Chicken stock; Ingredients; 10kg chicken carcasses roasted until golden brown 4 white onions peeled and roughly chopped 4 carrots peeled and roughly chopped 1 head of garlic cut through the centre 10lts water 1tblsp whole black peppercorns 4 bay leaves Method; Place all ingredients into a large stock pot and bring to the boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and allow to simmer for 1 hour, skimming all the time. It is important to keep the stock clear from scum at all times. After 1 hour remove from the heat and strain through a fine chinois into another pot, place back over the heat and reduce to desired consistency. I recommend reducing by half for soups and risottos ect or if using in sauces and gravies I would reduce the stock by ¾. This will give the stock body and a very rich depth of flavour. This recipe make quite a large quantity of stock. It is best to freeze the un used stock into 1ltr containers ready to defrost and use when required.

Basic pasta recipe

About pasta as per Wikipedia

Pasta is an unleavened dough of wheat or buckwheat flour and water, and sometimes with eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the different types of sauce. Pasta also includes varieties, such as ravioli and tortellini that are filled with other ingredients, such as ground meat or cheese. Pasta is eaten as a main meal, starter, soup or dessert.
Pasta is typical of different cultures and countries, but the most famous varieties and recipes come from Italy. There are hundreds of different shapes of pasta with at least locally recognised names. Examples include spaghetti (thin strings), macaroni (tubes or cylinders), fusilli (swirls), and lasagne (sheets). Gnocchi and spätzle are sometimes considered pasta; they are both traditional in parts of Italy.
Pasta is categorised in two basic styles: dried and fresh. Dried pasta made without eggs can be stored for up to two years under ideal conditions, while fresh pasta will keep for a few days under refrigeration. Pasta is generally cooked by boiling.

The History of Pasta

Pasta is believed to have originated in China: the oldest known pasta or noodle-like food were found in China at the Qijia culture Lajia site in Qinghai province. The noodles, dated to 2000 BCE, appear to have been made from foxtail millet and broomcorn millet.

In the 1st century BC writings of Horace, lagana were fine sheets of dough which were fried and were an everyday food. Writing in the 2nd century Athenaeus of Naucratis provides a recipe for lagana which he attributes to the 1st century Chrysippus of Tyana: sheets of dough made of wheat flour and the juice of crushed lettuce, then flavored with spices and deep-fried in oil. An early 5th century cookbook describes a dish called lagana that consisted of layers of dough with meat stuffing, a possible ancestor of modern-day Lasagna. But the method of cooking these sheets of dough does not correspond to our modern definition of either a fresh or dry pasta product.

Historians have noted several lexical milestones relevant to pasta, none which change these basic characteristics. For example, the works of the 2nd century AD Greek physician Galen mention itrion, homogeneous compounds made up of flour and water. The Jerusalem Talmud records that itrium, a kind of boiled dough, was common in Israel from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD, A dictionary compiled by the 9th century Arab physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali defines itriyya, the Arabic cognate, as string-like shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking. The geographical text of Muhammad al-Idrisi, compiled for the Norman King of Sicily Roger II in 1154 mentions itriyya manufactured and exported from Norman Sicily:

West of Termini there is a delightful settlement called Trabia. Its ever-flowing streams propel a number of mills. Here there are huge buildings in the countryside where they make vast quantities of itriyya which is exported everywhere: to Calabria, to Muslim and Christian countries. Very many shiploads are sent.

Itriyya gives rise to trie in Italian, signifying long strips such as tagliatelle and trenette. One form of itriyya with a long history is laganum (plural lagana), which in Latin refers to a thin sheet of dough, and gives rise to Italian lasagna.

According to historians like Charles Perry, the Arabs adapted noodles for long journeys in the 5th century, the first written record of dry pasta. Durum wheat pasta was introduced by Libyian Arabs during their conquest of Sicily in the late 7th century.

In North Africa, a food similar to pasta, known as couscous, has been eaten for centuries. However, it lacks the distinguishing malleable nature of pasta, couscous being more akin to droplets of dough. At first, dry pasta was a luxury item in Italy because of high labor costs, durum wheat semolina had to be kneaded for a long time. Only after the industrial revolution in Naples, when a mechanical die process allowed for large scale production of dry pasta, did it become affordable and popular among the common people.

There is a legend of Marco Polo importing pasta from China which originated with the Macaroni Journal, published by an association of food industries with the goal of promoting the use of pasta in the United States. Marco Polo describes a food similar to "lagana" in his Travels, but he uses a term with which he was already familiar. Some historians believe that in 1295 Marco Polo brought rice flour pasta, the type used to make Chinese dumplings.

Now known as dumpling style or soft pasta, which manifested into ravioli, gnocchi and other similar preparations.

The first concrete information concerning pasta products in Italy dates from the 13th or 14th century

Recipe

Ingredients;

550g ‘00’ flour

4 whole eggs

6 egg yolks

1tblsp olive oil

Salt to taste

Method;

Place the flour on a board or in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth. Using the tips of your fingers, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. Knead the pieces of dough together – with a bit of work and some love and attention they’ll all bind together to give you one big, smooth lump of dough!

You can also make your dough in a food processor if you’ve got one. Just place everything in, blend until the flour looks like breadcrumbs, then tip the mixture on to your work surface and bring the dough together into one lump, using your hands.

Once you’ve made your dough you need to knead and work it with your hands to develop the gluten in the flour, otherwise your pasta will be flabby and soft when you cook it, instead of springy and al dente.

There’s no secret to kneading. You just have to work the dough hard with your hands, squashing it into the table, reshaping it, pulling it, stretching it, squashing it again. It’s quite hard work, and after a few minutes it’s easy to see why the average Italian grandmother has arms like Mike tyson! When your pasta starts to feel smooth and silky instead of rough and floury, then the dough is ready. When ready wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour before you use it. Make sure the cling film covers it well or it will dry out and go crusty round the edges.

How to roll your pasta

Make sure your pasta machine is clamped firmly to a clean work surface before you start (use the longest available work surface you have). Make sure your work surface is completely free, from kitchen objects, as you will need plenty of working space once you start making the pasta, and starting with a clear space to work in will make things much easier.

Dust your work surface with some ‘00’ flour, cut the pasta into 4 and press the first quarter out flat with your fingertips. Set the pasta machine at its widest setting - and roll the pasta dough through it. Lightly dust the pasta with flour if it sticks at all. Click the machine down a setting and roll the pasta dough through again. Fold the pasta in half, click the pasta machine back up to the widest setting and roll the dough through again. Repeat this process five or six times. It might seem like you're getting nowhere, but in fact you're working the dough, and once you've folded it and fed it through the rollers a few times, you'll feel the difference. It'll be smooth as silk.

Now it's time to roll the dough out properly, working it through all the settings on the machine, from the widest down to around the narrowest. Lightly dust both sides of the pasta with a little flour every time you run it through. When you've got down to the narrowest setting, to give yourself a tidy sheet of pasta, fold the pasta in half lengthways, then in half again, then in half again once more until you've got a square piece of dough. Turn it 90 degrees and feed it through the machine at the widest setting. As you roll it down through the settings for the last time, you should end up with a lovely rectangular silky sheet of dough with straight sides. If your dough is a little cracked at the edges, fold it in half just once, click the machine back two settings and feed it through again. If you're making pasta like tagliatelle, lasagne or stracchi you'll need to roll the pasta down to between the thickness of a beer mat and a playing card; if you're making a stuffed pasta like ravioli or tortellini, you'll need to roll it down slightly thinner or to the point where you can clearly see your hand or lines of newsprint through it.

Once you've rolled your pasta the way you want it, you need to shape or cut it straight away. Pasta dries much quicker than you think, so whatever recipe you're doing, don't leave it more than a minute or two before cutting or shaping it. You can lay over a damp clean tea towel which will stop it from drying.