10: Sauteed chicken with spice, fennel and cream, p367

I bought a fennel bulb last weekend, hoping to make 'a salad of fennel, winter leaves and Parmesan', the second recipe in the book. I've scoured the shops and searched online and it looks like I'm going to have to buy some online which will take weeks what with the lack of post at the moment (serious ice here, and no post for 4-5 days now)... unless I make some! I have tarragon, I have cider vinegar/red wine vinegar/white wine vinegar. many many recipes for tarragon vinegar online, but they all take a couple 2-3 weeks minimum so the salad recipe will have to wait for a while (and another bulb of fennel). Trekking around West London seems like a lot of effort for 1 tbsp of tarragon vinegar, but it's used in the 'Chicken with vermouth, tarragon and cream' recipe later in the book, and I'm not going to substitute! So I've got a bottle of tarragon vinegar brewing gently in the wine cupboard... ready in a couple of weeks :)

So, what to do with a spare fennel bulb, Nigel? He clearly likes the stuff - there are 5 recipes using it in the Diaries. Unfortunately I don't like fennel - toooooo aniseedy - so it's going to be fun. Maybe I'll start to like it during the course of this year!

Tonight's dinner therefore, a mild spicy/mustardy creamy chicken dish. Very easy - well seasoned chicken legs/thighs panfried in a little oil until scrummyly crispy and golden, sauteed fennel, lightly cooked spice paste, and a good dollop of cream. Lovely jubbly. And the fennel added a nice texture and it's very distinctive flavour was definitely there but wasn't too overpowering. Success!

I didn't have any chilli powder (I have a huge range of spices and herbs, but only dried chillis, chilli flakes, cayenne pepper etc) - so I ground up some tiny dried chillis in the pestle and mortar, along wit the other spices. Probably made it a bit hotter than chilli powder would have done, oops!  

I also took the opportunity to try out my new toy from Lakeland. I love Lakeland :) It's a microwave rice steamer - woohoo! Okay, I know rice isn't exactly difficult to cook, but I find is a bit stressful trying to make it really nice and fluffy (ie. weighing and using the right volume of water, yadda yadda) as I'm often in the middle of something else and get distracted so it gets stuck to the pan... or if I do the loads of water and drain it at the end option, it just ends up a bit soggy and disappointing... All this is is a big clear pot with a removable pot inside, slightly raised up and with holes in it, and a lid. Rinse the rice in the inner pot, pop it in the larger pot, add boiling water from the kettle to just cover the rice, pop lid on, stick it in the microwave for 10mins, stirring halfway though. Ta-daaaaa! And it works perfectly! Nice light, fluffy rice, perfectly cooked, no mess, eaaasy peasy :) Am I lazy, or am I lazy?