Chicken Kiev's and new Cookery School book

I've always felt that there is something quite special about Chicken Kiev's, a kind of happy nostalgia and despite eating many a kiev over the years, good and bad I had never actually attempted to make them! The thought of all that lovely garlicky herby butter can't help but raise a smile and after seeing the recipe in the new Cookery School book, I finally made them!

I am not very good at following instructions admittedly, and struggled with cutting the chicken breast correctly, I felt maybe one more image in the book would have solved my ‘diagonal’ query, however overall it was very clear to follow, and the kiev’s were delicious.

Trying to be slightly healthier instead of deep frying them, I sprayed them with oil and baked for about 30 minutes instead, they were still beautifully crispy and very moist, though I need to make bigger pockets next time as could of done with a touch more of the lovely garlicky butter!

On the front of the Cookery School book it claims to be able to teach anyone to cook.. Whilst I did food technology for GCSE many moons ago, I don’t recall ever learning any specific techniques and I have got this far mainly through trial and error! I make good cakes, am fairly confident with pastry and give me a tin of tomatoes and I can knock up a pretty good sauce but beyond that its very hit and miss!

The Cookery School book has recipes from the Michelin starred chef Richard Corrigan, and lots of helpful advice from the glamorous chef and food writer Gizzi Erskine. After watching several programs, Richard seems to favour bad cop and Gizzi provides a more nurturing, friendly cop role, which strikes a good balance most of the time!

Each section in the book has clear, photographic and written instructions, and highlights what skills you will learn making the recipe, which is very useful. You can feel proud afterwards and also know the name of what you have learned, which is good!

For me personally, some of the recipes and general feel of the book leans towards what I would call restaurant style dishes; whereas I am more a home style cook and eater; several recipes didn’t appeal to me or my brother, who claimed there were ‘no man food recipes’! Additionally I felt a lot of the ingredients are quite expensive or a bit random (dandelion leaves?!) and not readily available if you live out outside of a major cities, though there are a number of mail order companies around now so they are not completely unachievable.

Whilst I went fairly simple with making the Chicken Kiev's; to give you an idea of the recipes contained within the book, here are a few examples of ones that I particularly liked the sound of:

Basic:

Halloumi, tomato and green bean salad
Moules Mariniére
Thai pork lettuce cups

Intermediate:

Razor clams with a tomato sauce
Baby chicken with puy lentil dhal
Lemon posset with butter shortbread

Advanced:

Onion, spinach and ricotta ravioli with a lemon cream sauce
Stuffed lemon sole with scampi and tenderstem broccoli
Raspberry millefeuille


The Cookery School book is published by Penguin and is available in the shops now.

With thanks to Julie @ Traffic Partners