Flat Bread---Piadine

A simple Italian flat bread, ideal for the barbecue season, quick to make and a great alternative to soft bread buns. The basic recipe below can be adapted to include herbs, garlic, chilli, shallots or bacon etc to add interesting flavours or extra texture to the breads.

350g Plain flour
10g Salt
30ml olive oil
100-110ml Luke warm water.



Simply place the flour, oil and salt into a bowl.

Add most of the water and mix everything together by hand to form a soft ball of dough. If the dough seems dry then add a little more water to it to make the soft ball. Adding too much water will give a dough that is too sticky to roll.

Turn the dough out onto the work top and knead for about 5 minutes to give a smooth, well mixed dough.

Lightly oil a bowl, place the dough into it, cover with cling film and set aside to rest for about 20 minutes.

When the dough has tested, heat a griddle or heavy bottomed frying pan/ skillet ready for use.

Divide the dough into about 12 equal pieces, lightly flour the work top.

Take each piece of dough and using your hands, knead it gently,up into a ball. Roll out thinly to approx 12-15cm.

Lightly oil the griddle/pan and place the rolled dough disk onto it. leave for about 2 minutes to brown, turn over and cook on until both sides have browned.

The Piadine is now ready to enjoy and is at its best warm and freshly made. They can be kept warm for a short time, or frozen for later use but do then lose a little of their character.

Enjoy.

Goose with Pheasant stuffing and Hare.

Something a little different for Easter, using some odds n ends from the freezer, left overs from the Autumn season. The result was very rich, flavoursome and tender, enjoyed by all for lunch today, the quantities are very variable with this one, but the idea is sound and has worked well for us on a couple of occasions now.




 1 Goose breast--wild
3 Pheasant breasts
2 Hare legs, boned and diced
Bunch fresh herbs from the garden
3 Onions, finely chopped
3 Cloves garlic
6 rashers bacon
Tub of frozen stuffing from xmas!
Bottle red wine
Good dollop of Elderberry jelly
2 Tins plum tomatoes--chopped
3 Tablespoons tomato paste.

Cut the goose breast twice lengthways to create 2 flaps that can be lifted from the centre to result in a large flat escalope shape. Cover with cling film and bash out with a rolling pin to increase the size and to tenderise the meat.
Cut Pheasant breasts into chunks, place in a food processor with the stuffing and herbs, then pulse until blended. Place the resultant stuffing in a long sausage shape on the goose breast, roll the goose up to seal in the stuffing. Roll the bacon around the length of the goose meat.
Soften the onion and garlic in a large cast iron casserole, when soft add the bacon wrapped goose. Brown all round, add the hare and when sealed, add a dollop of elderberry Jelly, 2 bay leafs and a generous half bottle of red wine. Bring to the boil and allow the liquid to reduce by about half. Add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, bring to a simmer, place in oven for approx 2 hours or until the hare meat is tender.
Serve and enjoy.

portioning a chicken

A little visual guide to help you master one of the classic kitchen basics. Essential for many traditional dishes, plus this allows you to buy whole chicken and then freeze the spare joints for use later meaning that you retain the quality and choice in your cooking.
Enjoy.