August – the month of Our Blessed Lady’s Assumption, but also the month of les grandes vacances! So here is an idea recently tested in that curious phenomenon, the not over-equipped self-catering kitchen, explains Sam Marsden
Chicken with bread & tomato salad
Good stale bread eg ciabatta
500g tomatoes; various colours
Chicken pieces; roughly 3 thighs per person
Olive oil
Sherry vinegar
Torn basil leaves
Salt and pepper
First, some ingredients: a good baker, a similar butcher and a well-stocked greengrocer will enable you to improvise a meal rather loosely based on the Italian salad, Panzanella. Start with some really good stale bread – a ciabatta would work well and ought to be enough for four. Other loaves are available, but they are not wrapped in plastic! If you didn’t have the foresight to purchase it early enough for it to become stale, cut it up into bite-sized pieces and pop it into a moderate oven for a little while – say 10 or 15 minutes. If you have stale bread, just chop or tear it up without further ado. Place in a generous-sized bowl. You’ll then need about 500g of tomatoes, preferably not all red ones. A sprinkling of other colours will make the dish altogether more interesting. Roughly cut the tomatoes into pieces about the same size as the bread. Cut out the cores from any larger than cherry tomatoes. Place them all in a sieve and position over the bowl, so that the juices drip over, and are absorbed by, the bread.
Meanwhile, the butcher will have supplied you with some bits of chicken, boned but unskinned. I opted for three thighs per person, which I laid on a plate, seasoned with salt and pepper, and then drizzled with olive oil. (Here I need to come clean: I never visit self-catering accommodation without packing some olive oil. And sherry vinegar. The property might have the former. It will never have the latter.) Cook the chicken bits in a frying pan on the hob, or in a suitable dish in the oven. Aim for moist meat with crisp skin.
Now, check the bread. It needs to have absorbed a deal of tomato juice, but not to the extent it goes mushy. If necessary, allow the tomatoes to finish draining elsewhere. Sprinkle the bread with a little sherry vinegar. (Red wine vinegar would do, if that is what is to hand.) Now stir the tomatoes into the bread, and add a great deal of the fresh basil you found in the greengrocers. Be sure not to chop the basil – simply tear the larger leaves. Season to taste and pour a generous helping of olive oil over the bread and tomato salad. Serve with the chicken, preferably whilst it is still hot. Or warm. Or not.
For the poaching liquid:
1 large single piece salmon fillet; 100g per person
½ pint water
Splash of white wine
1 carrot
1 onion
Half lemon
Bayleaf, parsley, thyme
Black peppercorns
For the sauce:
1 oz chopped onion
1 tsp good curry powder
½ tsp tomato puree
Glass red wine
Salt, white pepper, bayleaf
2 slices of lemon
Whipped cream
1 tbsp apricot puree
175 ml mayonnaise
For August 15, why not a reprise of the Coronation Sauce which dressed the poached chicken for the Coronation back in May? This time, though, poach some salmon. First prepare your poaching liquid: to about half a pint of water, add a generous splash of white wine, a carrot, an onion and half a lemon, all thinly sliced, a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley and perhaps one of thyme, and finally some whole black peppercorns. Bring to the boil in a pan large enough in due course to accommodate the salmon, and simmer for 10 or 12 minutes.
A large, single piece of salmon fillet will be best. Unless your fishmonger has already done it for you, remove the pin bones from the fish and then add the fish to the poaching liquid, skin-side down, making sure that it is covered with the liquor. If necessary, add some boiling water. Cover the pan and simmer very gently for between five and 10 minutes. Do not overcook! When it is done, remove from the pan, remove the skin and leave to cool.
Meanwhile, make up the sauce along the usual lines (these quantities will suffice for four): an ounce or so of chopped onion, gently fried for three or four minutes in a drizzle of oil. Add a teaspoon of good curry powder, and cook for a further two minutes. Next, add half a teaspoon of tomato purée, a small glass of red wine, a smaller glass of water and a bay leaf. Bring to the boil, and then season with a pinch of salt, another of sugar and a grind of pepper, preferably white. Add a slice or two of lemon, and perhaps a further squeeze of its juice, leaving all to simmer for something between five and 10 minutes, at the end of which strain and leave to cool. Quite slowly, add the cooled liquid, along with a tablespoon of apricot purée, to about 175 ml of mayonnaise, tasting as you go. Finish with a couple of tablespoons lightly whipped cream. (Feel free to purchase the last three ingredients from the supermarket. Cheating can be an honourable culinary method.)
Finally, another quick cheat: to a tablespoon of fresh, peeled brown shrimps, add a generous teaspoon of ready-made guacamole from your local chiller cabinet. Very much better than it has any right to be.
