About Green Craig

Norma's Recipes

Best Ever Mushroom Soup
Butterfly Chicken Breasts with Mozzarella and Parma Ham
Striped Chocolate Mousse

My name is Norma and I am lucky enough to be working as resident Chef at Green Craig. This is an interesting and varied job as our clients change weekly and therefore the needs may change too!

Cooking is my passion and I consider myself lucky that it has never become dull for me. I am constantly looking for new ideas and love creating new dishes, some dishes I cook at Green Craig I have created specially for this job!

There is an oft quoted saying that if you can read you can cook and with the abundance of cook books on the market this is to an extent true. However that is not always the whole story and when I read through recipes I often find myself thinking “ that is not going to work because they have not said take care with……. “ What they miss out are the hints and tips! I have taught cookery for many years in many different situations and become known for my “ Hints and Tips” They can sometimes make the difference between a happy outcome and a disappointing one.

So I am going to give you some recipes with Hints and Tips attached! Maybe they will appear obvious to you but remember they are not so to everyone!

This time I have chosen well tried dishes which could be suitable for family eating or entertaining and they all have an element of advance prep to minimise time spent in the kitchen when it is time to eat!

All recipes will be for 4 people unless otherwise stated.

Best Ever Mushroom Soup

450gms mixed mushrooms
1 litre vegetable stock (cube, powder or homemade)

1 pint milk
25gms butter
25 gms flour
Seasoning

100 mls cream optional

Start by chopping your mushrooms Hint chop 1/3 finely possibly in a processor, 1/3 roughly and 1/3 finely sliced. This gives your soup a more interesting texture. It is good to have some dark coloured mushrooms for colour but if you wish you can just use one type.

Place chopped mushrooms in a pan with the vegetable stock, bring to the boil and simmer for at lest 45 mins. this should reduce your stock to about half the volume.
Meanwhile place your milk in a saucepan with the butter and sprinkle the flour on top. Place on a medium heat and start stirring Hint I like to use a balloon whisk here as it helps prevent lumps in your sauce, but a wooden spoon will do. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens and allow to boil gently until it is thick, smooth and glossy, season well and set aside.

Hint you can leave your soup at this stage until you need it.

To finish it just mix the sauce into the mushroom mixture heat through and add cream to taste. Check for seasoning, remember it is always better to add seasoning sparingly as you can add more but you can not take it out.
The amount of flavour your soup will have depends on the mushrooms you use, but the extensive simmering in the stock does bring out a lot more flavour from any mushrooms.

Butterfly Chicken Breasts with Mozzarella and Parma Ham

4 Chicken breasts
1 Ball mozzarella
4 slices Parma ham

Marinade

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large clove garlic
1 tablespoon honey
1 lemon
Sage leaves
Seasoning

Tagliatelle

To prepare the marinade, Slice the lemon with skin on, crush the garlic clove, and select 6 good sage leaves. Hint a good way to marinade is to put all your marinade ingredients in a strong plastic back a, zip lock one is best, and then place the food to be marinated in the bag. It can be placed in the fridge like this and it is easy to manipulate by hand to help the food to absorb the marinade.

Prepare your chicken by using a sharp knife to open it by slicing in half lengthwise but do not cut right through! Open out the breast and flatten. Place in the marinade and leave for a few hours if possible.

Set your oven to 200º and prepare a tin by lining it with foil, Hint this will help the washing up as the marinade does contain honey which will turn sticky!

Place the chicken breasts on the foil making them as flat as possible, retain the marinade and put in a pan. Cook the chicken for approx. 20- 25 minutes; this will depend on the size and thickness of your chicken. Remove and allow to cool. These could be done early in the day for finishing at night.

Hint To utilise the marinade add 400ml chicken stock to the marinade and simmer for 15 mins. until reduced to half quantity. Sieve to remove all the lemon and garlic bits. Check taste, if you wish to use this to add to pasta i.e. tagliatelle you can thicken this by beating up 1 egg yolk with 4 tablespoons of cream and adding to the pan, bring to a slow boil until thickened and pour into drained Pasta, add some chopped Sage leaves.

To finish chicken, cut the Mozzarella into 4 pieces and place a piece on top of each chicken breast. Cover the Mozzarella with a slice of Parma Ham and ‘scrunch’ it around it. Place in the oven at 200º for approx 10-15mins until hot and the Parma Ham is crisp.

Serve with Pasta coated with creamy marinade, and a nice green salad.

Striped Chocolate Mousse

White Chocolate Mousse

300gms white chocolate
180mls double cream
2 egg whites
2 tbsp caster sugar

Dark Chocolate Mousse

185gms Dark Chocolate
90 mls warm milk
1 egg yolk
4 Egg whites
2 tbsp caster sugar

White Choc Mousse
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water, gently whisk the cream until it thickens but not too stiff. Whisk the egg whites until white and glossy, sprinkle on the sugar and whisk into the egg whites.

Remove the chocolate from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes
Hint attempting to ad the cream to the chocolate when it is too hot turns the crea back to a flat liquid and you use the volume introduced by whisking.
When the chocolate has cooled use a metal spoon to fold in the whipped cream followed by the whisked egg whites, mix gently until smooth.

Hint always use a metal spoon for folding in as the sharp edge cuts through your mixture with out removing the air you have introduced by whisking.

Dark Chocolate Mousse
Melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water Hint use good quality chocolate between 55-70% cocoa solids don’t go any higher that 70% as it makes the resulting mousse too bitter.
Separate the eggs ant keep 1 yolk for adding to the mousse, whisk the whites until white and glossy. Sprinkle on the sugar and whisk into the whites.
When the chocolate is melted remove from the heat and quickly beat in the egg yolk, followed by the warm milk, allow the mixture to cool a little and then gently fold in the whisked egg whites, until you cannot see any white flecks. Hint if you want to eat chocolate mousse without the guilt this is a good one as it contains no cream but has a lovely texture.

To assemble for serving take a small straight sided glass for each person and carefully spoon some white mousse into the bottom of each glass
Hint try dropping the mousse of the end of a pointed spoon so that it falls into the bottom of the glass without ending up splattered on the sides! as it makes for a tidier finish, if you do get any spots on the side of the glass remove them at once with some kitchen paper or a clean cloth. When you have done all glasses take the dark mousse and repeat the process. Finish them with another layer of white mousse. Hint it is best to use fairly squat small glasses or the portions end up being a bit heavy!
To decorate the top shave some chocolate with a potato peeler and sprinkle on top.

I hope you find these recipes of use remember the simple dishes are often the best and these are all quick to prepare.

Happy cooking!