Chicken Leek Stroganoff

Yum! Tonight was a tasty dish adapted from a recipe by Jamie Oliver: Chicken Leek Stroganoff. This is my second time making it, but I didn't change much.

The recipe in a nutshell: Cook some rice, simmer some leeks, mushrooms, and chicken in a light cream sauce, dish the sauce over the rice, garnish and enjoy! It's a "19 minute" recipe which invariably takes me longer for some reason, but it's still pretty quick and easy.

I'll put the ingredients I used, you can cheap out if you like.

Chicken and Leek Stroganoff

Kosher Salt
Ground Black Pepper
3 large garlic cloves
1 cup jasmine rice
1 large organic leek
2 big handfuls crimini mushrooms
2 free-range organic boneless skinless chicken breasts
organic extra virgin olive oil
1/2 stick organic unsalted butter
2 glasses of (organic? local?) white wine
1 small glass of water (might as well get it ready) This will affect the final thickness of the sauce; err on the side of less water
1 bunch fresh organic parsley
1 heaping cup organic plain yogurt
1 organic lemon

Cook the rice*. I used a rice cooker. I cheat. Jamie uses packets. He cheats too.

Peel and dice the garlic cloves. Slice the ends off the leek off and save for future stock-making. Slice the rest of the leek twice lengthwise and then slice widthwise about 25 times. You want small leek pieces here. Slice the mushrooms into flat mushroom-looking discs and keep separate. Slice the chicken into fingers and keep separate as well.

If you keep them on the same cutting board it makes it harder to add them one by one... though technically it's okay to keep the mushrooms and chicken together. But is it sanitary?

Hm? Oh, the recipe! Right! Sorry, got lost there for a minute.

Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil along with the butter and garlic in a large frying pan on high heat. Once the butter is mostly melted or starts to sizzle, add the leek and one glass of wine. Do something else with the other glass of wine, maybe drink it? Add the small glass of water and some salt and pepper, stir once lightly, then partially cover it. Give that five minutes while you "finely chop the parsley, stalks and all". Reserve part of the parsley (chopped or otherwise) for garnish.

Add the chicken, most of the parsley, the yogurt, and the mushrooms to the leeks. Bring to a boil, stirring, then reduce heat to a simmer for 10 minutes or until sauce has thickened to your liking. Squeeze half a lemon's juice into the stroganoff just before serving. Add further salt, pepper, or other seasoning if so desired.

Plate by dishing stroganoff over a serving of rice and garnishing with parsley and lemon wedges. Serve with any remaining white wine.

I also added a dab of yogurt for the sake of photography.

Apple Galette

A simple recipe; so simple even I can follow it!

First, peel, core, and slice about 7 apples. It helps if you have a medieval torture device handy.


Next, roll out 17 ounces (one package) of puff pastry until about 1/4 inch thin, and cut it into ten 5-inch diameter circles, like I did above. Chill the pastry for half an hour and then neatly brush it with an egg wash made with one egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of water. Be careful not to let the egg wash spill all over the place. If this happens, start over.


Once you've started over and there is no spilled egg wash still clearly visible next to your (clearly) 5 inch circular pastry divots, take a small package of almond paste (not marzipan, the other stuff) and divide it into 10 bits (little balls), and flatten them between sheets of wax paper. Then apply the paste circles to your pastry circles like cheese on a hamburger.


Divide the apple wedges evenly between your ten (not two) pastries, approximately 25 wedges each. Then sprinkle the galettes with lemon juice. If you don't have lemon juice, and are really silly, use organic limeade apparently. I mean, I did, and it was fine.


With pesto pasta in the background (see previous blog entry for instructions on making parsley pesto), spice your galettes liberally. I used freshly ground nutmeg, freshly ground cloves, and pre-ground cinnamon that has been passed down in my family for generations of a brand not sold in stores since the 80s. Fresh cinnamon would also work. Dust your galettes with confectioners sugar. If you like, you could create a caramel sauce for the galettes, but it isn't required (especially if you forgot to buy cream).


Bake at 400 degrees until the pastry is fluffy and flaky in the middle and golden brown around the edges. If you achieved the correct thickness of pastry, this should be 16-18 minutes. If you used limeade instead of lemon juice and also used way too much, the middle might be a little mushy, but still quite tasty.


Serve with the caramel sauce if any and vanilla bean ice cream (yum). Garnish with mint, or, if you just want to take a picture, you can use flat leaf parsley. The color is the main thing for picture taking.

This is a delicious and easy recipe (except for the apple prep, but that's what the device is for), and I highly recommend it. Despite the fact that I am apparently totally inept at contorting puff pastry into 10 5-inch circles (that poor poor galette on the right...), my results were quite yummy and I imagine yours will be even better.