Béchamel Chicken Bake

There was a time when I had no clue what a chicken baked dish meant. My masi introduced me to the wonderful world of béchamel/white sauce. She was a pro at making European/Continental food. It was under her tutelage that I learnt to make perfect béchamel/white sauce. I take this opportunity to say, ‘thank you’. She gave me her love, her time and taught me to cook this… and so many other dishes. I would never have learnt to cook, or experienced such food, at that age, had it not been for her. From the bottom of my heart, ‘THANK YOU, Jeroo masi!’ 

Over the years, I have added my twists to Masi’s classic/traditional bake, and this is my take on it; a take I have perfected over the years. I hope the recipe works just as beautifully for you as it has for me over the years.

Ingredients: 

1¼ cup / 150 grams all-purpose flour (Maida)
150 - 175 grams butter
½ tablespoon butter (for mushrooms)
600 grams chicken legs (For me, 2 whole legs and 2 drumsticks equalled 600 grams)
200 mils chicken stock (room temperature)
650 mils milk (room temperature)
200 grams mushrooms, cut into quarters
200 grams tin golden-corn niblets
4 -5 green chilies, finely chopped
½ - ¾ tablespoon Mrs Dash (optional - a seasoning for baked dishes)
150 grams + 150 grams cheese
Salt to taste
Coarsely ground pepper, to taste   

Method: 

1. In a large vessel (or a pressure cooker), add the chicken, 600-700 mils water, salt, and pepper.
2. Cook (or pressure cook) until done.
3. Drain the chicken from the stock. Reserve 200 mils stock. (Add a squeeze of lime, and sip on the extra stock while you cook 😉)
   
   
   
   
   
4. Shred the boiled chicken (discard bones). Keep aside. 
   
   
   
   
   
5. Grate the cheese. Keep aside. 
   
   
   
   
   
6. Heat ½ tablespoon butter in a skillet, sauté mushrooms for 2 minutes, on HIGH heat, tossing them constantly. Remove from the skillet and keep aside. 
   
   
   
   
   
7. In a large thick-bottomed pan heat butter. 
   
8. Add all-purpose flour and stir constantly until you smell a nice toasty aroma. (We want the flour to roast well and lose its rawness but, at the same time we do NOT want it turning colour) 
   
   
   
   
   
9. Lower heat and gradually add the chicken stock, all the while stirring continuously to ensure the sauce does not turn lumpy. 
10. Gradually add the milk (one cup at a time); keep stirring on LOW flame till you get a smooth, thick white sauce. The sauce should thickly coat the back of a spoon. 
    
    
    
    
11. Add 150 grams cheese and stir until it becomes one with the white sauce. 
    
    
    
    
    
12. Add the green chillies, Mrs Dash seasoning (optional). 
    
    
    
    
    
13. Add salt and pepper, to taste, as needed. (Check for seasoning, as cheese is salty and the chicken stock, too, contained salt) 
    
    
    
    
14. Add the mushroom, corn niblets and shredded chicken. Stir to mix well. 
    
    
    
    
    
15. Remove the white sauce contents into a large 9-inch Pyrex, or Borosil, baking dish. 
    
    
    
    
    
16. Top with remaining 150 grams of grated cheese. 
    
    
    
    
    
17. Bake for 40-45 minutes at 200 degrees C until the top to gets to a warm golden brown colour. Remove and serve hot!
    
    
    
    
    

 Chef Notes:

1. This quantity usually suffices for a family of 4 or 5 people. If you are cooking for 2, I suggest you halve the quantity. With regard to quantity, do not go by the photographs posted; I had tripled the quantity as I was cooking for a potluck party.
2. Usually, béchamel is made with milk but to give the bake added flavour, somewhere along the years, I began adding a wee bit of stock to it. You may go the traditional route if you so prefer - omit the stock and add the same quantity of milk, instead. 
3. As the roasted flour is hot, the milk and stock must be at room temperature. To a large extent, that will prevent the formation of lumps when you stir the liquids into the roux. 
4. IMPORTANT: Unless you are extremely well versed with the cooking of the white sauce, always ensure you add the stock/milk and stir the white sauce on LOW flame. This, too, ensures the sauce does not turn lumpy. 
5. Please feel free to adjust the number of green chillies to suit your tolerance of spice. The same goes for cheese. If you prefer a cheesier bake, feel free to add more (or less) cheese. 
6. Variation to Point No: 16 - Instead of sprinkling grated cheese on top of the bake, I sometimes use Cheeseling gravel (crushed cheeseling biscuits). Give it a try, it works beautifully. 
   
7. If you do not have the 'Mrs Dash' seasoning, just go with salt, pepper, and green chillies. Trust me, that’ll work just as well. You may substitute Mrs Dash with a few shakes of bottled mixed dried herbs. 
8. Please don’t panic if your white sauce has a few lumps. Take the vessel off the stove, use a motorized hand blender, and give the white sauce a whiz to smoothen it. Voila! Smooth sauce 😉 Put it back on the LOW flame and stir continuously until the sauce thickens to the desired consistency. 
9. Depending on the oven, sometimes, the base of the bake-dish will cook and begin to bubble while the cheese on top fails to brown. In the event of this happening, feel free to turn on the grill/broiler mode of the oven for a few minutes to brown the top of the bake-dish.
10. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.

Some more photographs:

Bacon Crumble

Certain food/s make one’s heart sing. Bacon happens to be just that! Only someone who loves bacon as much as I do will understand that. For ‘oink’ lovers this is a must-have pantry/fridge staple. I usually make this is a large half-kilo quantity. My choice of bacon is usually streaky. The meat crisps up and the fat melts gorgeously providing me with oinky-fat for eggs, fried rice, etc. While I know chicken bacon is available, please don’t waste your time crisping that up. Really, if it’s chicken bacon you wanna use, just don’t bother! *cheeky grin* Bacon crumble is always, always ‘oink’!

Ingredient:

Half kilo streaky bacon (or any bacon)

Method:

1.    Heat a pan. (non-stick or otherwise)

2.    Lay out bacon strips in the pan and fry them NEARLY crisp on both sides.

3.    Remove and leave to drain onto a plate lined with kitchen paper towels. They will further crisp up as they cool.

4.    Remove the released fat from the pan into a bowl.

5.    Repeat the frying process until all bacon is used up.

6.    Once cool, cut into pieces with a knife (difficult) or snip the strips with a pair of scissors (easy-peasy). To cut large crumbles, or fine, is entirely up to you. I prefer small crumble. Go on, fry a batch… or two… or three. *wicked grin*

Chef Notes:

1.    As always, the words in caps and bold are merely for emphasis; not meant to offend.

2.    Please do not over-fry the bacon. You aren’t going to enjoy the crumble if it tastes bitter.

3.    Do not crowd the pan with bacon strips. Add them in a way where they fit comfortably and are easy to flip.

4.    Do not forget to remove the melted bacon fat into a separate bowl after each batch is fried. That liquid is ‘oink-gold’. 😊

5.    Draining the fried bacon strips on kitchen towels and allowing them to cool is a VERY IMPORTANT step as the bacon crisps up beautifully when given time to drain the excess fat and cool down.

6.    You can also use an electric chopper if you want very fine crumbles of bacon.

7.    I usually use these crumbles for omelettes, scrambled eggs, chowders, grilled cheese sandwiches, creamy mushrooms on toast and more. There are times when I stand in front of my fridge, open the fridge door, sneakily grab the box of bacon crumble and steal a spoonful. Shhuussshhh! Sometimes, I’m surprised there’s any left when I actually need it. Hehehe! 😊

8.    This keeps beautifully for 4 to 6 six weeks, in an airtight bottle or box. I usually store it in the fridge, but it keeps just as beautifully when stored outside. My reason for using the fridge is mainly that it stays out of sight. *Honest confession – Sigh!*

9.    While point No 9. is not exactly a ‘Chef Note’, I simply had to pen this. Before you cut up all the bacon, keep one slice aside for yourself. Head to the fridge, get out that jar of Bitter Orange Marmalade, smear some on the slice of bacon and…. ahem!! Do I need to say anything more?? Oh alright, eat it, dammit! So darn yum! Disclaimer: Please do this after you have finished snipping the rest of the bacon slices or you’ll have no bacon left to snip. *evil grin*

10. There is a microwave method, too, wherein you lay bacon strips between two kitchen towels. Ensure they are laid out without sticking together. Put the bacon (encased between kitchen towels) on a plate and microwave for 5 minutes. I’m told the kitchen towel absorbs the grease leaving you with crisp bacon. Clarification: This is something I read online and is not a method tried and tested by me. I always opt for the pan crumble.

11. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.

Some more photographs:

Creamy Mushrooms on Toast

I was itching to make this hence checked out a few recipes, online. I went on to take a bit of this and a bit of that from various recipes and videos. This recipe is the result of those bits put together. The perfect Creamy Mushrooms on Toast!

Ingredients:

600 grams (200 grams x 3 packets) button mushrooms

6 streaky bacon rashers

6 cloves garlic, chopped

4-5 spring onions, chopped

3/4^th teaspoon Lemon Pepper Seasoning

1 teaspoon Seasoned Pepper

1 teaspoon red chili flakes

½ cup (125 mils) chicken stock

300 mils cream (I used Amul cartons)

Salt, to taste

1 or 2 spring onion greens, finely chopped, for garnish

1 tablespoon butter

4 tablespoons oil

Bread slices

Butter, for the toast (optional)

Method:

1.    Wash mushrooms: shake off the excess water and leave to dry on a large plate, or on kitchen paper towels, for 10-15 minutes.

2.    After they are a tad dry, slice them, thickly. Keep aside.

3.    In a non-stick pan, on medium heat, lay out the bacon rashers and fry them until crisp. They will fry in their own fat so do not add any oil to fry them.

4.    Remove the bacon on to a kitchen paper towel and allow to cool.

5.    When the bacon has cooled, crumble it into tiny pieces. Keep aside.

6.    Add the sliced mushrooms to the same pan that has the rendered fat of bacon and quickly sauté for a minute on high heat. The mushrooms will absorb all the rendered fat, which will make the end-result more flavourful. Remove the mushrooms onto a plate and keep aside. (Do not allow the mushrooms to go soggy and release water)

7.    Add the butter and oil to the same pan, add the garlic and spring onions and sauté until spring onions are soft and translucent.

8.    Add red chili flakes, Lemon Pepper Seasoning and Seasoned Pepper. Sauté for a few seconds.

9.    Add the mushrooms and give them a gentle mix.

10. Add the chicken stock, give it a stir, and allow to simmer on low heat for 5 to 6 minutes.

11. Remove the cream into a bowl and smoothen it with a whisk. (Do not beat the cream)

12. Add the cream to the simmering stock-mushroom mix. Stir continuously, on low heat.

13. Continue stirring and simmering until the creamy gravy thickens to ‘coating the spoon’ consistency.

14. Add salt, as needed. Simmer a few seconds more to allow the salt to blend in. Remove the mushrooms into a bowl.

15. Toast the bread slices under a grill, in a toaster or on a flat griddle

16. When the toasts are browned to desired colour, remove onto a plate, butter them, and spoon some the creamy mushrooms over them.

17. Garnish with chopped spring onion greens and bacon crumble.

Chef Notes:

1.    I would recommend streaky bacon as it releases a good amount of fat when fried. You need that rendered fat to sauté the mushrooms. If you feel the fat rendered is too little, add a splash of oil, as required.

2.    If you don’t have Lemon Pepper Seasoning, add a few drops of lime juice when you add the cream. The Lemon Pepper Seasoning, or lime juice drops, are merely added to cut the richness of the cream sauce. You can give it a miss if you prefer a rich sauce.

3.    If you do not have Seasoned Pepper, please use coarsely ground black pepper. It’ll work just as well.

4.    I would advise the use of chicken stock instead of substituting it with water, or milk, as the stock lends immense flavour to the dish. Vegetarians will, of course, have to opt for milk.

5.    Please smoothen the cream before you add it to the dish. It ensures the cream does not split. Also, stir the cream on LOW heat, CONTINUOUSLY, for the same reason. You do NOT want the cream to split.

6.    I chose baguettes but regular sliced bread, Sourdough, Ciabatta or any other bread will do.

7.    To butter or not to butter, that is a question you will have to ask yourself. My greedy soul yelled at me when I asked myself that question. “Of course, butter the damn bread slices”, it said. *grin* I'm so judging you if you choose not to butter them. *wicked grin*

8.    I had a wee bit of mushrooms leftover. The simplest way to re-use them is to add a tablespoon (or two) of milk, give it a light mix and reheat them on extremely low flame. If using a microwave, use the 30 second burst-mix-burst-mix method until heated and creamy.

9.    You may also use the same recipe, as a side, to a hearty chicken or beef-buff steak.

10. I have refrained from writing the quantity of bread slices as the number of slices used will depend on how much mushroom you spoon onto each slice. For us, this quantity sufficed for a baguette and a half.

11. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.

Some more photographs: