Cooking shows have become even more popular during Lockdown. Earlier on in Lockdown I was invited to participate in a Cooking Show, which was guided by Chef Luke Dale Roberts, with Chef Pete Goffe-Wood as the MC, in which we prepared Beef Wellington. I invited my dear friend Jenny Stephens to join me in preparing it, especially as we both grew up in Wellington, and because she has learnt so much from the many MasterChef Australia episodes she has watched during Lockdown. 
It was a great evening, and we were very proud of our cooking capabilities, especially as both of us Singles cook infrequently.
Last Thursday I invited MasterChick Jenny again, to assist me in preparing Chicken Ballotine, guided via Livestream on Live-Cook Channel by Yumcious Restaurant owner and Chef Jenny Morris. I had been invited to participate by Kim Crowie, Editor of Film & Event Media. My good friend Stuart Bailey joined us for moral support, and poured the wine during our dinner.
Episode 5 of the Live-Cook Channel was based on a recipe for Stuffed Bacon-wrapped Chicken Breasts, served with creamy blistered Tomato Sauce and Smashed Potatoes. On Thursday morning an iCook Channel box filled with ingredients arrived, which we would use for the food preparation at 18h00 
that evening. It contained four boneless skinless chicken breast fillets, onion and garlic cloves, rosemary, mushrooms, Italian parsley, grated mozzarella cheese, Feta cheese, streaky bacon, cherry tomatoes, fresh cream, and new potatoes. Gifts in the box were two bottles of Verjuice, and two avocados, received from The Verjuice Co and The South African Avo Growers’ Association, sponsors of the Live-Cook Channel. Other sponsors were FoodGuru, and Unilever. The box ingredients were cooled down with ice packs, and I unpacked the box and placed the ingredients in the fridge during the day.
As MasterChick Jenny had cooked with me before, we were better at getting my oven going, a high-tech Siemens one, which had to be pre-heated at 180C. One receives a recipe card with the complete list of ingredients required, and a step by step instruction guide of how to prepare the meal. She was keen to get started, even before 18h00, and followed the Recipe Card. I looked for the Live-Cook Channel link, and when it went live, Chef Pete Goffe-Wood introduced Jenny, and explained the procedure, shared some cooking tips, and invited questions from the home cooks during the course of the cooking show.
MasterChick Jenny masterfully butterflied the chicken breasts, cutting them in half sideways 
but leaving one side connected. She added salt and pepper. She heated one tablespoon of butter (supplied from my fridge), and fried the mushrooms and rosemary, excluding the onion and garlic at my request. Once done, she removed the pan from the plate, let it cool, added shredded spinach, and added the mozzarella and Feta cheeses. She divided this mix into four portions, creating sausage shapes and inserting these into each chicken breast, and then rolling it up. The rolled-up chicken breasts were wrapped in three rashes of bacon, and the breast seal side was placed in a pan and cooked for 4 minutes. They were then turned over, and cooked for another 2 minutes. She then placed them into a baking pan and baked them for 25 minutes.
To make the creamy blistered tomato sauce, MasterChick Jenny heated a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil (supplied by me), added rosemary, the cherry tomatoes, and cooked them by shaking the pan until the tomatoes started to blister. She added cream, some salt and pepper, and cooked the sauce until the cream had reduced by a third. The sauce was spooned over the chicken breasts.
I had started boiling the potatoes in lightly salted water whilst Jenny worked on the preparation of the chicken. We chose to eat them cooked whole with our lovely bacon-wrapped chicken breasts, adding avocado slices to our plate. We should have garnisheed our chicken breast and tomato sauce plate with Italian parsley, of which we still had some left over, I realised afterwards. It was a lovely fun evening, a tasty meal paired with Oldenburg Syrah 2009, which I had found in my wine cellar. For dessert I served small slices of Salted caramel popcorn cheesecake, made by a chef Sebastian Petersen of The Cheesecake Connection.
Live-Cook Channel. www.livecookchannel.co.za Twitter: @livecookchannel @Jennymorrischef Instagram: @livecookchannel @jennymorrischef Facebook: Live-Cook Channel
Cost is R390 (for two) and R590 for four persons. Chef Kabelo Segone of the HTA School of Culinary Art will cook Lamb Thai Green Curry in Episode 6 on 16 September at 18h00. Book via Webtickets.
Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide
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