recipes from the river cottage meat book by hugh fearnley-whittingstall

8/7/2019 Recipes from The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

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MURGH MAKHANI (BUTTER CHICKEN OR PHEASANT)Serves 6

I dont cook a lot of authentic Indian food. Most of the curries I make are

improvised affairs. But when I filmed an episode of TV Dinners with sisters-in-

law and brilliant cooks Nina and Sumita Dhand, they showed me how to make

a real murgh makhani (pronounced merg muckney, it means, literally, butter

chicken). Its similar to what many Indian restaurants would call chicken tikka

masala, but this version, enriched with butter, honey, and cream, is the best Ive

ever had completely sublime.

Dont be daunted by the long list of ingredients. Theyre all fairly familiar

spices. If you make up the marinade and the tomato sauce the day before, then

finishing the dish is surprisingly quick and easy. You can make it with either on-the-bone pieces or boneless chicken meat. And I have made it very successfully

with pheasant too.

Add the chicken or pheasant pieces to the tikka marinade, mix well and leave in

the fridge to marinate overnight.

Put all the ingredients for the tomato sauce in a large pan and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until nicely

thickened. Rub the sauce through a sieve and then put on one side.

Transfer the chicken or pheasant to a roasting pan, with its marinade, cover

with buttered foil and place in a hot oven (450F). Bake for 10 minutes, then lowerthe heat to 400F and cook for 20 to 25 minutes (knock 5 minutes off each phase

for boneless chicken).

To complete the sauce, melt the butter in a large pan, add the ground cumin,

and sizzle gently for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato sauce, bring back to a

gentle simmer, and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the tomato pure, honey, cream,

fenugreek, lime juice, and black pepper and continue to simmer gently, stirring

occasionally, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is thick, rich, and creamy. Finally,

add the cooked chicken or pheasant tikka. Mix well and heat right through,

simmering gently for a final 5 minutes to marry all the flavors. Serve with plain

boiled rice and naan bread.

[ 355] F A S T C O O K I N G

1 organic chicken,

weighing about 3 pounds,

jointed into small

portions (pp. 14043)

Or 2 small pheasants,

jointed

Or 3 pounds cut up organic

chicken

Or 112pounds boneless

organic chicken breasts

1 quantity of Tikka

Marinade (p. 515)

THE TOMATO SAUCE :

2 (14 ounce) cans of

tomatoes, chopped, and

their juice

A small nugget of fresh

ginger, grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 to 3 small green chiles,

depending on heat, finely

chopped

5 cloves

1 teaspoon salt

34 cup water

TO COMPLETE THE

MAKHANI SAUCE:

12 cup butter

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons tomato pure

4 teaspoons honey

23 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon fenugreek

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 teaspoon black pepper
http://www.randomhouse.com/crown


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FLYING TOAD IN THE HOLE Serves 4

Ive always loved toad in the hole and have always felt that, on the whole (!), themeat-baked-in-batter concept is underexplored. This recipe aims to glamorize

the dish a touch, while in no way compromising its earthy, trencherman appeal.

The posh gravy is optional but makes it into a definite dinner-party winner.

Choose a roasting pan or flameproof dish into which the breasts and sausages will

fit with plenty of space for the surrounding batter.

First make the batter. Put all the ingredients in a food processor, with the

plunger removed to help aeration, and pulse for about five 10-second bursts until

you have a smooth batter. Alternatively, put the flour and seasoning in a large

mixing bowl, beat in the eggs and yolk, then whisk in the combined milk andwater by degrees, until you have a smooth batter the consistency of light cream.

Leave the batter to rest for at least 30 minutes before using.

If you are making the gravy, do that in advance, too. Ensure that the stock is

quite clear. If in doubt, warm it through and strain through a piece of cheesecloth

or a cotton cloth. Add the wine and boil hard to reduce it to an intensely flavored

sauce with a light, syrupy consistency. Season with salt only at the end.

Take the pieces of pheasant breast and make 2 or 3 parallel slits about 34 inch

deep in each one. Cut each prune into 4 or 5 slices, discarding the pits. Cut one of

the bacon slices into thin strips. Push a piece of bacon (the fattier the better) and a

sliver of prune into each slit in the breasts. Cut the remaining 2 slices of bacon inhalf and flatten and stretch each half with the side of a large knife. Then wrap each

piece of pheasant breast in the stretched half slice.

Pour the oil into your chosen dish and place in the center of a hot oven (425F)

to heat through for about 10 minutes. Then add the sausages and wrapped breasts

they should sizzle in the oil. Start them cooking in the oven for a few minutes,

then turn them browned-side up and push them around so they are more or less

evenly spaced in the pan. By now the oil should be very hot. Pour the batter over

and around the sausages and breasts and return the dish to the oven. Cook for at

least 15 minutes, but probably not more than 20, until the batter is puffed up and a

deep golden brown.Give each person a slab of the batter, with a sausage and a breast in it, and a

spoonful of the rich gravy. Have buttered cabbage or other greens to accompany.

Variation

Another great addition to toad in the hole, which you can use as well as or instead

of the pheasant breasts, is kidneys. Use whole lambs kidneys, half pigs kidneys,

or trimmed calfs kidneys cut into suitable chunks. Prepare exactly as for the

pheasant breasts.

[ 492]

2 pheasant breasts, cut inhalf (or 4 pigeon breasts)

4 fat butchers sausages

2 large, plump prunes

3 bacon slices

1 tablespoon olive oil

THE BATTER:

1 cup all-purpose flour

14 teaspoon salt

A few twists of black

pepper

2 medium eggs

1 egg yolk

23 cup milk

23 cup water

THE GRAVY (OPTIONAL):About 2 cups clear game

stock, ideally made from

the pigeon bones (p. 472)

About 14 bottle of red

wine

(Or serve the Onion Gravy

on p. 517)


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recipes from the river cottage meat book by hugh fearnley-whittingstall

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