My €18 chicken feast
This year there were over 1,000 entries. I chomped my way through 20 chickens, 4 ducks and 12 pieces of roast loin of pork with crackling.
The Organic Food Awards are all about rewarding and highlighting the best in organic food and drink. Special awards include the Organic Restaurant Award, Box Scheme of the Year, Best Local Food Initiative, and Producer of the Year.
Judging in all categories is by blind tasting. The judging panel for each category is informed of variety and constituent ingredients but is not made aware of brand or manufacturer details until the judging is complete.
Many people dismiss organic food as being too expensive so the theme of this year’s festival was “Eating fresh organic food on a budget.”
This year there were two new additions to the festival - an Organic Health, Beauty and Textiles market offering everything from shampoo to shirts; and the Wild Harvest Pavilion which featured an array of foods gathered beyond the farm, such as line-caught fish, wild mushrooms and game. There was also an organic bar.
For my demonstration I chose a large organic free-range chicken which cost £13 (€18 approx). My challenge was to produce four meals out of one chicken. I showed the audience how to joint and use every scrap, I used the carcass and giblets for stock, the chicken liver for pate to serve with a tomato salad on bruschetta, the chicken breast was butterflied, pan grilled and served with rustic roast potatoes and a bunch of vine-ripened cherry tomatoes.
The inner fillet was used for Thai Chicken and Galangal Soup. The legs were poached gently in Chicken Stock flavoured with vegetables and then sliced and made into a gratin of chicken with mushrooms and broccoli. The succulent thigh meat was used for a Thai Red Curry to serve with a big bowl of fluffy rice I cut the tasty chicken skin into squares, spread out on a wire rack and cooked gently in a very low oven until the rendered out. It was irresistibly crisp and crunchy, great served with sweet chilli or plum sauce to dip or crumbled over a green salad.
The chicken wings were marinated in sweet chilli and soy sauce and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. I could have made a risotto from the chicken stock and served with a Tuscan chicken liver sauce - gutsy and delicious laced with fresh sage, altogether seven dishes from one chicken.
