Mrs FreshAirInspector is heavily pregnant. So pregnant that her stomach is a force of nature. She sends ants and the more timid mammals scurrying, sky darkening above them, as she sweeps around town. Birds dip towards her, and then wheel screeching and affronted back into the sky. I think I could staple two muumuus together and they might just fit.
We've been entertaining at home. Better to let Mohammed come to the mountain. I haven't once been called upon to make anchovy ice-cream or liver fridge tart during the pregnancy. What a wasted opportunity.
I served this last week. I thought the contrasting flavours and textures worked a treat. The salad is from my food hero, Yotam Ottolenghi, and can be found here. I substituted celeriac for swede and dried cranberries for pomegranate seeds and maple syrup for sugar, but you get the idea. The mash is a mixture of potato and jerusalem artichoke. Simmer until soft, push through a ricer and then blend with butter, a little single cream or milk to loosten, and chopped parsley.
The chicken is a perfect party dish – it can be prepared in advance and then finished on the hob in under 10 minutes. It is not a greasy dish, regardless of the sheer quantity of fat involved. In fact, every time I make this I end up with a larger supply of fat, so I must be rendering some out of the chicken itself.
Confit chicken with shichimi and chives
This dish uses bone-in, skin-on chicken legs (i.e. drumsticks and thighs in one piece). Allow one per person. You will need a large volume of duck or pork fat – around 1 litre. In Hungary, this is easy and cheap to obtain, as it is used extensively in cooking. I use a mixture of both. This can be reused a number of times. Instructions to follow.
First, you need to brine your chicken. In a dish large enough to accommodate your chicken pieces, mix 8 cups of lukewarm water and 1 cup each of sugar and coarse salt. Add the chicken and allow to brine for 2-3 hours. Fish out of the brine and pat dry. Discard the brine.
Place the chicken as tightly as possible into an oven-proof, hob-proof casserole. Top up and cover with the fat, which you have warmed to a liquid in another saucepan. Insert 100g of smoked salt pork and a couple of star anise. Bring to a slow boil and then transfer to an oven pre-heated to 150°C. Cook for approximately 2 hours. Clear liquor should run from the chicken if a skewer is inserted. It looks pretty unappetising and etiolated at this point – bear with me. You can chill the chicken in the fat for up to 1 week if you wish.
When you wish to serve this, heat the fat on the hob until liquid. Remove the chicken legs and drain the fat off. Now heat a dry non-stick frying pan to medium high, and add the chicken. Don't crowd the pan – you may need to do this in batches. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes on either side until the skin has crisped and browned, and the meat is heated through. Sprinkle with shichimi* and some finely chopped chives or spring onions.
To store the fat, discard the bacon and anise. Allow to cool slightly – a chicken jelly will form at the bottom of the dish. Skim the fat off and refrigerate. Chill the fat closest to the jelly and you can peel this away from the jelly. That jelly is liquid gold. Freeze it in small portions and use it to enrich sauces.
*A note on shichimi: Shichimi is Japanese seven-spice powder. You can find it in a good Asian supermarket. It is a mixture of coarsely ground red chilli pepper(the main ingredient) , Sichuan pepper, roasted orange peel, black and white sesame seed, hemp seed, ginger and nori. It is seriously delicious and imparts a nice piquancy to this dish.
