Creamed Chicken With Asparagus And Peas
This was another of Lindsey Bareham’s recipes from The Times. The original recipe is here.
The original serves four, but it was only for me, I cooked a small half quantity and modified it to be gluten free. I also used various Waitrose products to avoid having to use skills I don’t have.
I used the following.
- 100 g of asparagus tips
- half a bunch of spring onions
- half a pack of Waitrose’s mini chicken fillets
- one tbsp of gluten-free flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
- 100 g of frozen petit pois, although mine were actually garden peas. It’s about a third of a standard Ipswich Town mug.
- 25 g butter
- a very small glass of white wine
- 2 tbsp of St. Helen’s Farm, goats double cream.
The method is as follows.
Trim the asparagus tips and boil hard for 2 minutes in about 250ml of salted boiling water. Scoop out of the water and set aside. Keep the water aside.
Slice the spring onions thinly.
Slice the chicken into strips, about 5 cm. x 1 cm. and toss in the seasoned flour.
Chicken Prepared For Cooking
Melt a few grams of the butter in a large frying pan and gently soften the onions, then scoop onto a plate.
Cooking The Spring Onions
Add the rest of the butter and increase the heat slightly. As soon as the butter has melted, cook the chicken in batches, so that each piece has a thin, pale golden crust.Return all the chicken, add the wine and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to mix the flour from the chicken into the wine, cooking until thick and syrupy.
Cooking The Chicken
Return the onions, add the asparagus cooking water and bring to the boil, stirring constantly to end up with a thickened sauce.
Adding The Onions And Water
Add the peas and simmer gently, cooking for about 10 mins until chicken and peas are tender.
Cooking The Chicken And Peas
Stir in the cream and then add the asparagus.
Adding The Cream And Asparagus
Let the asparagus warm through and serve.
Creamed Chicken With Asparagus And Peas
I served it with some of Waitrose’s microwaveable pearl potatoes.
It was delicious.
Trade Unions Living In The Past
I was listening to Radio 5 this morning and a couple of Trade Union leaders said that we should open up the mines again and burn coal using carbon capture technology.
Who do they think they’re kidding?
I have serious doubts about this technology and don’t think I’ll ever see it working in my lifetime on a large scale. I put a few thoughts here. But don’t listen to me. In these two posts, Wikipedia details the limitations and cost. So it looks like an exopensive dead end, if you believe Wikipedia. I definitely agree!
One thing though, if we started deep mining coal, I doubt there would be queues of people wanting to work in the mines. But then we can always get a few thousand willing immigrants to do the work!
Is It Goodbye To Trafford General Hospital?
Trafford General Hospital is going to be downgraded in phases according to this report. Here’s the first three paragraphs.
Campaigners fighting to save a hospital A&E department where the first NHS patient was treated say they will challenge the decision in court.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday that Trafford General Hospital was to be downgraded in phases.
He said the decision had been taken because there were too few patients using the department.
My son was in that hospital several times, a few months before he died and they had no idea he had pancreatic cancer.
I certainly won’t miss its passing and I suspect as it seems to be suffering from Stafford Syndrome, with a lack of patients, neither will any of the people who live near the hospital.
But then as long as I can remember, NHS patients have always chosen to go to a better hospital a few miles away. When I lived in Suffolk, my local hospital was at Bury St. Edmunds, but I always drove to Addenbrooke’s at Cambridge. I suspect the good people of Trafford, go to somewhere in Central Manchester.
But then the first sentence in the BBC report says it all. It treated the first NHS patient. But we don’t want to keep hospitals as museums!
Is It Potters Bar All Over Again?
When I first read the reports of the French train crash at Bretigny-sur-Orge, it struck me there were some similarities between the crash that happened at Potters Bar in the UK in 2002.
In that accident faulty points were the cause of the train coming off the track just before Potters Bar station, with one coach getting wedged on the platform.
Now this morning the BBC is carrying a report, which says that in France, there are reports saying that a loose rail connector caused the crash.
Poor track checking and maintenance was definitely a cause of the crash at Potter Bar and it is stated in the BBC report, that this could be the cause in France. The BBC quotes this from the respected French newspaper; Le Figaro.
Bertille Bayart in Le Figaro says the accident, which comes days after the government announced investments in the railways, will spark controversy over infrastructure that is “characterised by ‘serious degradation’, in the words of the transport minister”.
I think the moral is that you cut down on checking and maintenance on the railways at your peril.
But just as at Potters Bar, the French train managed to protect a lot of the passengers despite the extremely violent crash. Trains are a lot stronger than you might think.
Good For Maria
Maria Miller won’t be going to the Open Golf next week, due to the fact it’s being held at a men-only venue. The report is in The Times.
Hugh Robertson and Alex Salmond won’t be going either.
Good for them all!
The Anonymous Widower 