Cooking

Formerly "nanny's chicken stew" but this is my variation on it and I've been cooking it long enough that it's a decent variant.

Stew ingredients (large family - 2 adults and 4 kids so adjust to your needs):

• 5 Chicken legs
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Whatever veg you have / is on offer, mine included:
• 3 onions
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 large parsnips
• 6 carrots
• large bowl of frozen peas, defrosted (by volume I'd say about 450ml / a bit less than a pint)
• about 750g / 1.5lb of potatoes, skin on
• 6 spring onions (only added these as they were on their last legs)
• head of broccoli
• 1 or 2 stock cubes to taste
• Salt (I use the low sodium variety)
• Pepper
• Fresh parsley to garnish if you have it (I never do).

I will always use whatever veg is in season and cheapest though. Other frequent visitors include leeks, cauliflower and turnip, occasionally celery.

Stew Method:
Put the chicken legs in enough boiling water to cover and then some (usually ~1 per person you're cooking for) with the rosemary and thyme and very low simmer for an hour or more to get stock and cook the chicken and soften the rosemary.

While you're waiting on the chicken, prep the veg. Everything should be cut / diced small enough that it can fit on a spoon along with something else. Potatoes would be the largest cut for me.

Take out the chicken legs and start adding veg based on how long it takes to cook. In my case the first things to go in was the parsnip. Last was the broccoli and defrosted peas. Fry the onion and garlic until soft and lob them in relatively late.

I tend to be a little rushed on getting the carrots in on time so after I've diced them I steam them in the micro for 2.5 minutes just to soften them a little.

Let the chicken legs cool and using a fork remove the skin, then fork at the meat to get it off the bone. Some care is required here to avoid taking non-meat but you get good at it over time. Add the chicken meat back in near the very end.

My mum (AKA "nanny") thickens with cornflour near the end (mixed to a thin paste in cold water then added to the stew) and always adds fresh parsley at the end. I don't bother with either. edit: She also adds nutmeg into hers.

Brown soda bread scones:
400g wholemeal flour
100g white flour (you can change the 4:1 ratio for more white if you want them fluffier)
1 tsp of baking soda
Pinch of salt
~425ml Buttermilk (you can sour normal milk by adding either vinegar or lemon juice and stirring if you don't have buttermilk).

Scones Method:
Wholemeal flour in a large bowl, sieve the white flour on top, sieve the baking soda in, add salt on top.

At this point you need to put your hands into the flour and mix it by lifting and dropping through your fingers trying to get more air into it.

Make a hole in the middle, add the buttermilk. Mix, but only enough to get consistency. No kneading like with yeast breads.

It should be fairly sloppy.

Plop it out onto a floured board and flatten to about 2cm / 0.75 inches thick. Use a relatively wide glass and cut scones (push, twist, lift) or if you're fancy and have a cutter, great. :D

Put each scone on a well floured baking tray. The dough should be sloppy enough that they just fall out of the glass into your hand.

In the oven at 180C (fan) which google tells me is 355F for 22-25 minutes or so until golden brown. Add some extra temperature if no fan.

If you want a soft crust, cover with a damp teacloth after taking out of the oven. I like them crusty so don't do this.

Let them sit for a few minutes and you're done.

I would get 2 dinners for 6 out of this for comfortably under 15 euro (or one dinner and lunches etc) which is about $17 USD. It's obviously incredibly healthy and really delicious.