One of the joys of not running a restaurant any more is the fun I have found again in the simple domestic act of cooking.
The only real pressure deadline I have on that front now, is to have two original recipes ready for Tuesday morning on time for my piece on Waterford Local Radio.

It is quite likely that there very few truly original recipes around at this time. Several times I have come up with what I thought was a novel and stunningly original food combination only to discover, on the internet, that someone had got there before me. (This happens to other people too, however else could one account for the proliferation of my published recipe for Baileys and White Chocolate Tart appearing, with identical ingredients and method, on other peoples sites.)

Yesterday, Sunday, I decided would be a good time to cook a Chicken.
We had a good, free range one in the freezer which I took out and zapped on defrost in the microwave to commence the thawing process.
(N.B. Two sacred anti-foodie cooking processes mentioned in one sentence)
It being Sunday the thought came to my head that a stuffed chicken would be a comfort in the chilly, if sunny, day that was outside. Also the gardener (in the guise of the wife ) would be arriving in soon tired, cold and in need of comfort food.
Now I am watching my fat intake at the moment so have a notion that Olive oil would be a better prospect than butter, that puts an interesting slant on the stuffing.
We are, since the flight of the gosling daughters only two for lunch so we don’t want to cook the whole bird. In fact I very rarely cook the whole chicken any more. I now look upon it as a three meal bird. One meal, the legs and thighs, one the breasts and then another of soup made of the stock obtained from the carcass.

Since stuffing was the notion of choice, and butter was at the moment a banned substance (at least in the amounts that I think needed to make a decent bread stuffing) so, I needed to progress on the olive oil front.
Black olives seemed an obvious addition. When I went looking for some I also found some sundried tomatoes.

A note here about ingredients. Sile had bought the olives on a stall in Georges Street in Dublin and they were good, pungent wrinkled tasty olives. The bland smooth ones one buys in glass jars are not worth buying. The Sun dried Tomatoes were brought in from Italy by our friends the Schleibtz’s in the Waterford market, who then softened them in olive oil for several days before selling to us.
Just as they tell us that we are what we eat, our dishes are only as good as the ingredients we put into them.

Stuffing needs a herb, basil was the obvious choice but I had attacked our pot of basil last week making pesto so that was a non runner. Thyme, however was to hand. I always associate thyme with Provence since the time we camped there with the children when they were little. We were walking through an orchard of olive trees when we were all struck by the marvellous smell we were making as we progressed.
We discovered we were marching through a bed of wild thyme.
Heady Stuff that!

So that was the stuffing sorted but we still needed a sauce. A sauce with some sweetness to counteract the briny bite of the olives seemed in order. My usual tomato sauce seemed a bit dull.
I have just finished reading William Blacks gastronomic adventures of Italy; Al Dente. He passes on various recipes as he travels and most seem to start with a soffrito. This is a softened mixture of aromatic vegetables used in many Italian recipes as the basis of a sauce. So a soffrito with what my vegetable rack could offer seemed the obvious choice of sauce.

I had a couple of carrots, some onions and some hard yellowish Dutch tomatoes fit only for the pot. To compensate for the poor tomatoes lack of flavour- giving sun I would add some sugar, some vinegar and some bottled tomato passata

One more problem presented itself as I got the meal together. Olive oil, unlike butter doesn’t solidify as it cools so my stuffing was particularly unruly and reluctant to sit neatly in the pocket I had made so carefully for it in each chicken breast.
Necessity in cooking is always the mother of invention and frequently, as in this case has most serendipitous results.
I had some thin smoked streaky rashers in the fridge so, to control the recalcitrant chicken stuffing, I wrapped each breast firmly in these (which I had previously stretched until paper thin with the back of a large knife.)

The final decision was then what to cook with these. I decided on baked potatoes as they would cook in the oven at the same temperature and take much the same time as the chicken.
We had also bought some Brussels Sprouts which we boiled plain to eat with the chicken.
This was the only unsuccessful decision. I should of course have remembered Ford Madox Fords words which are a sort of definition of Provence :
“There, there is no more any evil, for there the apple will not flourish and the Brussels sprout will not grow at all”

Now I do like sprouts but discovered that that they have no affinity, in fact I thank they harbour a definite antipathy, to the cuisine of the sun.
We should have had just a salad.

Here Follows the actual Recipe.

Black Olive and Tomato Stuffed Breast of Chicken.
(for 2 )

2 Breasts of Free Range Chicken (wing bone in )
110g (4 oz.) Coarse Bread crumbs
4 tablespoons Olive Oil
12 stoned black olives
4 Sun dried Tomatoes
1 teaspoon chopped fresh Thyme.
6 Streaky Rashers

Soffrito;
1 med Onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tomatoes (Blanched,peeled, and chopped)
1 teaspoon Sugar
2 teaspoons White Wine Vinegar
110g (4 oz.) Tomato Passata (Or the same weight of chopped tinned Tomatoes).

Most of the method I think I have already given you.
Mix the breadcrumbs with the olive oil, stoned olives, chopped sundried tomatoes and thyme and use this stuffing to fill the cavities you have made in the chicken breasts. Wrap these firmly and carefully in the stretched rashers. Cook for 35 to 40 mts at Gas 6, 200C, 400F.
For the Soffrito; Melt the vegetables slowly in the oil, add the sugar, vinegar and passata. Season well and simmer until a rich thick tomato sauce. Serve beside the carved chicken breasts.