Allspice chicken and mango rice - suddenly, we're in the Caribbean!

I'm often drawn towards recipes for traybakes.  They always look so good, with beautifully golden roasted chicken pieces nestling amongst gorgeous roasted vegetables that have just begun to caramelise.  However, my efforts haven't always been successful in the traybake department.

As such, I was bearing this in mind when I found myself drawn towards the recipe for Mango chicken, bean & rice bake in the latest BBC Good Food magazine.  There were the golden roasted chicken pieces, as cosy as can be beside chunks of glowing mango, on a bed of fluffy rice and shiny red kidney beans.

Looking at the ingredients, they seemed to fit what we like - but in a different way to normal.  There were Indian curry ingredients there (chilli, coriander, ginger, onion, rice) with Caribbean influences (allspice, mango and kidney beans).  The recipe even called for lime - which as you know, I have quite a few of just at the moment!

After 30 mins cooking - all chutneyed up and ready to go back in!

I had a little word with hubby about whether he felt he could cope with chicken thighs in this instance.  He's a chicken breast man, ordinarily, you see.  I felt that the chicken thighs would give more flavour to the rice (as they sit on the rice to cook) than ever chicken breast would - plus thighs could cope better with the hour and a half they would be in the oven!  He wasn't convinced, but decided to take it like a man - and have a strategic sandwich afterwards if it all goes to worms.

Making the marinating mix was a breeze - a simple matter of chopping everything into bits and chucking it into the food processor, then whizzing, mixing and we're done for a day.

In fact, for all that the recipe is three main processes - marinating, 30 mins cooking then another 35-40 mins cooking, it really is incredibly easy to do.  Once again, it is a one-pot dish (unless, like me, you decide to add something like red cabbage & apple as a side dish - but that's up to you!) and they really are the easiest things in the world to make.

I have a couple of cook's notes for you though :

1.  If you can, following the 30 minutes cook under silver foil and before the next batch without the silver foil, remove the centre pieces of chicken and give the rice a bit of a stir there.  I found that at the very middle of my dish, the rice was still fairly under done and a bit of a stir at a judicious moment, would have solved that.

2.  If you have anyone who is - like hubby - a bit phobic about "globby bits", remove the skin from their chicken before marinating.  The skin is delicious eating - but not for certain people - and to remove it before serving will mean that they lose all the effects of the marination on the chicken, plus the mango chutney.

3.  Don't be tempted to put too much mango chutney onto the chicken.  I have reduced the amount to half a teaspoonful from a full teaspoonful, as it made the chicken rather too sweet.

So munchable!

4.  The marinade was full of flavour, but if you like the chilli heat do leave the seeds in.  I removed them from our chilli - and rather wished I hadn't by the end of it!

Hubby didn't have need of his emergency sandwich, he enjoyed the new combination of flavours and found the chicken agreeably tender (and free from the dreaded "globby bits", thanks to some careful trimming!).  He did make the comment - and I think he's quite right - in that pineapple would have been a good substitute for the mango.

Son and heir wasn't so keen on the clove-like allspice flavour that is prevalent all the way through the dish, but I think that is simply a matter of being unfamiliar with that particular flavour.  I really liked the dish and agreed, to some extent, with son & heir's lament about the allspice, so I have reduced it from one and a half teaspoonfuls to just the one teaspoonful, in acknowledgement of its dominance - which was a bit too much, I felt.  However, I really liked how sitting on top of the rice - initially in a stock bath - made the chicken incredibly tender.  It was literally falling off the bone.  Lovely!

Considering how differently this turned out to how I was expecting, it was a very interesting and remarkable dinner that is very well worth repeating.  I may well experiment with using chicken breast next time - and cook the rice in the oven without the chicken on board for the first half hour.  Interesting!  I'll let you know what happens.

ALLSPICE CHICKEN AND MANGO RICE   (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 tsp finely grated ginger
2 garlic cloves
1 red chilli, seeds removed if necessary, roughly chopped
small handful of coriander - including stalks - chopped roughly
2 tsp thyme leaves
zest and juice of 2 small limes
1 tsp ground allspice
2 tbsp sunflower oil
8-10 chicken thighs, skin left on but trimmed of fat
300g long grain rice
400g tin kidney beans, rinsed and drained
500ml chicken stock
1 ripe mango, peeled, stoned and cut into small cubes
150g mango chutney.

Method :

1.  Marinate the chicken up to a day, or as little as an hour, before you want to cook it, by putting the onion, ginger, garlic, red chilli, coriander, thyme, lime, allspice and oil into a food processor and blitzing until a paste has been formed.  Pour the paste onto the trimmed chicken thighs in a large bowl and mix until the chicken has been coated.  Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge to marinate.

2.  Heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas4.

3.  Rinse the rice in a sieve under the cold water tap until the water runs clear.  Then place the rice into a large high sided flat baking dish (a lasagne dish is perfect).  Add the kidney beans and a pinch of salt and level out the surface.

4.  Remove the chicken from the marinade onto a plate and stir the stock into the remains of the marinade in the bowl.  Pour the stock over the rice and beans.

5.  Sprinkle the mango pieces onto the top of the rice mixture and place the chicken pieces on top again.

6.  Cover the dish with silver foil and bake for 30 minutes.

7.  Remove the foil from the dish and increase the oven temperate to 220degC/425degF/Gas 7.  Spoon a half a teaspoon of mango chutney onto each chicken piece and return the dish to the oven for a further 35-40 minutes to brown the chicken and cook the rice.

8.  Before serving, remove the chicken pieces and fluff up the rice with a fork.

Serve.

Printable version
 

Lamb rice with golden onions

This recipe was my first foray into cooking from my new copy of Rose Prince's "Kitchenella".

Well, I say my first foray - but to be correct, let's call it the first foray since owning the book, as initially I borrowed it from the library and loved it so much, I had to include it on my Christmas list.

Meals during that no-man's land of time between Christmas and New Year tend towards being simple and - in our house, certainly - easy to prepare.  After all, having done the long haul of Christmas Dinner and with another long haul - New Year's dinner - ahead of you, you're not in the mood for ostentatious display.

As such, as soon as I clapped eyes upon the "Lamb rice with golden onions", it clicked.  Although I didn't have any leftover roast lamb to use, I figured that a pack of minced lamb would do the trick, plus it had the added benefit of being a one-pot wonder - which always go down well.

However, it also intrigued me (intrigue features so often with my choice of recipe!) with its use of allspice, sultanas, pine nuts and cherry tomatoes.  I loved all the ingredients, I felt hubby would be happy with the spiced element, but I had reservations as to how the cherry tomatoes would go down with son & heir.


As it turned out, the inclusion of cherry tomatoes was completely forgotten over the enticement of minced lamb.  As he put it himself "it's got minced lamb in it - everything else is forgiven".  Right, I'll have to remember that!


Hubby and I both found that the spicing was a bit too subtle and the quantities could do with increasing a little - which I have reflected in the recipe below.


I also found that serving the rice with a chutney alongside the yoghurt provided a nice counterpoint to the flatter, more subtle flavours of the dish.  The chutney we used was a Roasted Garlic & Apple one which went really extremely well.


I enjoyed this dish very much and together with son & heir, we took care of what little there was left, so very definitely child-friendly!

LAMB RICE WITH GOLDEN ONIONS    (serves 3)

Ingredients :

500g minced lamb

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp sultanas

half a tsp of ground allspice

half a tsp of ground coriander

one and a half tsp of ground cumin

around 20 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 garlic clove, chopped

enough cooked basmati rice for 3 persons

sea salt & black pepper

To serve : chopped mint and/or parsley leaves, 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts, 6 tbsp greek yoghurt.

Method :

1.  Begin by toasting the pine nuts in a dry frying pan, then once cool, chop them (if you prefer them that way).

2.  Next, dry fry the lamb mince, until just beginning to caramelise and all the water content has evaporated.  Drain off the fat.  Reserve the meat to keep warm.

3.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion.  Cook for around 5 minutes over a medium heat until it turns pale gold and smells fragrant.

4.  Add the sultanas and spices and cook for 1 minute more, then add the tomatoes.

5.  Cook gently for another 5-7 minutes, until they begin to take on a little colour.

6.  Add the lamb and garlic and stir-fry for a minute or so, then stir in the rice.

7.  Cook, stirring from time to time until well heated through – which is very important with leftover rice.

8.  Season to taste and scatter the chopped leaves & pine nuts over.

9.  Serve with the yoghurt by the side & with a fruity chutney.

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I've had this recipe lurking in my "must try this one day" folder for ages and ages, waiting for such a time as I feel confident (or desperate) enough to try it.

Well, last Monday was obviously one of those "I'll feel like it when I get there" kinds of days, as I included it on the week's menus.

In actual fact, by the time I got to Saturday I was indeed feeling quite confident about it, as I'd read and re-read the recipe and although it was a bit long-winded, it didn't actually involve much.

I'd decided to serve the patties (or doorstops) with a Mango Salad, so as to keep the Jamaican theme going on and in the hope that if they turned out to be terminally dry, the Mango would help juice things along a bit.  It was just as well I didn't need to rely on the Mango though, as it was a few days off being really ripe and so was a bit lacking in juice!

The patties themselves had an interesting flavour, the combination of garlic, thyme, Ancona chilli sauce and allspice created an overall taste that wasn't like anything I'd had anywhere else.  I'd only used a teaspoon of the Ancona, so they didn't leave you gasping for breath.  The chilli was restrained, but there.

Hubby was of the opinion that they didn't shout "Jamaica" to him, but everyone enjoyed their patties and we decided they were definitely worth another go.

JAMAICAN BEEF PATTIES

Makes : 4 large patties

Ingredients :

500g minced beef

¼ tsp ground allspice

salt and ground black pepper

olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 tsp hot pepper sauce (I used Ancona)

1 garlic clove, grated or minced

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

200ml water

4 spring onions, sliced

1 egg

2 sheets puff pastry

Method :

1.  Heat some oil in a deep frying pan, add onions and fry until translucent.

2.  Add pepper sauce, garlic and thyme and continue to cook for another minute, then add a pinch of salt.

3.  Add minced beef, allspice and pepper and toss to mix, breaking up any clumps, and let cook until the meat is no longer pink.

3.  Add ketchup and salt to taste.

4.  Pour in the water and stir.  Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated and whatever is remaining has reduced to a thick sauce.  Sprinkle and fold in the spring onions, remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.

To assemble:

1.  Beat the egg to make an egg wash, set aside.

2.  Spread each roll of pastry out flat and roll it a little to reduce the thickness, but take care to keep the sides even.

3.  Cut each roll of pastry in two – it’s up to you whether you do it diagonally or into two rectangles.

4.  Place a quarter of the meat mixture into half of each section, then brush with egg around the outside and fold the extra over the top, pressing down on the edges to secure them.

5.  When all are done, brush with egg and bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve warm, with a mango salad.

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Spice Rubbed Chicken with Spiced Red Lentils

Now this meal was brought about by the need to do something other than just plain old roast a chicken for dinner on a Sunday.  Not that I've got anything against just plain old roast chicken, it's one of my favourite meals.  It's just that you can have too much of a good thing and I was looking for a bit of variation.

As you know, I have had my head inside the two Ottolenghi recipe books quite a bit recently (you're probably fed up with hearing about them!) and had noted a recipe for Spiced Red Lentils.  So somewhere in my subconscious, the idea of doing a spice rub on the chicken and marrying that with the spiced lentils was born.  Having swum to the surface, the idea took shape and with the addition of a vegetable rice, became our Sunday meal.

The spice rub for the chicken was a fairly simple thing which left the bird looking very dramatic.  I simply added together in a small bowl 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, half a tsp ground cinnamon and half a tsp of allspice with salt & pepper and enough olive oil to make it mobile.  This got rubbed all over the chicken before putting it into the oven to roast for an hour and a half.  I always give my roast chickens around a half hour to rest, which gave me two hours to prepare the vegetables.  Even for me, that was achievable.

The vegetable rice took the form of one chopped onion, four slices of courgette (left over from the curry on Friday) which I'd diced finely, a mushroom (left over from the Stuffed Peppers) also diced finely and some chopped fresh coriander.  I fried off the first three things, added some washed rice and enough water to cover, brought it to the boil and put a lid on it and let it rest for some 7-9 minutes.  Once the rice was cooked and all the water had been soaked up, I added the coriander, seasoned and fluffed the whole thing up with a fork.

The Spiced Red Lentils, however, were a rather different matter and I felt a teeny bit how Chefs must feel when they're under pressure to turn out a dish for a particular time, doing it.  Here's the recipe - taken from Ottolenghi's book "Plenty" - and you'll probably see why!

SPICED RED LENTILS with CUCUMBER YOGHURT (feeds 5-6)

Ingredients :

200g split red lentils

350ml water

50g bunch of coriander, plus extra leaves to garnish

1 small onion, peeled

40g peeled root ginger

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 mild green chilli

1½ black mustard seeds

4 tbsp sunflower oil

1½ tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground turmeric

¼ tsp sweet paprika

10 curry leaves

300g tin chopped tomatoes

2 tsp caster sugar

70g unsalted butter

1½ tbps lime juice

150g Greek yoghurt

75g cucumber, finely diced

1½ tbsp olive oil

salt

Method :

Wash the lentils under plenty of cold running water, then soak in the 350ml of water for 30 minutes.

Cut the coriander bunch somewhere around its centre to get a leafy top half and a stalk and root half.  Chop up the leaves roughly and side aside.  Place the stalk ends in a food processor and add the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli, all roughly broken.  Pulse a few times to chop everything up, without turning them into a paste.

Put the mustard seeds in a heavy-based pot and set on a medium heat.  When they begin to pop add the chopped onion mix and the sunflower oil.  Cook and stir on a low heat for about 10mins.

Add the ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, paprika and curry leaves and continue cooking and stirring for 5 minutes.

Next add the lentils and their soaking water, the tomatoes, sugar and some salt.  Cover and simmer for around 30 minutes, or until the lentils are fully cooked.

Meanwhile, whisk together the yoghurt, cucumber, olive oil and some salt.

Stir the butter, lime juice and chopped coriander into the lentils, taste and season generously with salt.

Serve with the yoghurt on top and garnished with coriander leaves.

The end result is a highly flavoured Dahl-type dish, which - for my taste - I would leave the lime juice out of, the next time I try it.  We all felt that the lime tipped the balance between sweet -v- acidic a little too much in favour of the acidic.  The dish had been tasting so gorgeous without the lime juice, it was a shame to spoil the velvety thing it had going on.  It didn't detract from our enjoyment of the dish, in fact son liked it so much he was quite prepared to take some to school for his breaktime snack until he realised there wasn't any way of a) keeping it warm or b) warming it up.  (Note to self : get a small vacuum flask with a wide neck!).  Ultimately, a percentage of the lentils got used in the Pierozhki dish we made the following day and the remainder formed part of a lovely lunch for me on Tuesday.  Nothing ever goes to waste around here!  Even the yoghurt, which I made and completely forgot about, I ate instead of dessert.  Jolly nice it was too.

Baked Figs

One of the many delights that this time of year affords, is that of the ripe fig.

I find them such tactile little creatures, so velvety soft and almost warm to the touch.  They look so robust, yet you know that you have to treat them gently or they will instantly submit to heavy handling and spill their juicy contents all over whatever happens to be nearest (and usually, that is something that could well do without the addition of fig juice).

Upon hearing the word on the grapevine which said that Lidl were selling them at an extraordinarily reasonable price, we came home from Asda on a route calculated to take us past the doorstep of our local Lidl without adding any further miles per gallon.  Cunning, eh?

Here they are, the six gorgeous plump little people.  Excuse the camera shake, it's just that I was so excited ....


Don't you just love their little paper cups?

I found a recipe online for baked figs which gave me an idea of what temperature and for how long, and winged it thereafter.  I can recommend the results, ooooh yes.

BAKED FIGS

Ingredients :

4-6 fresh figs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
several teaspoons of runny honey (to taste, basically)
juice of half a lemon.

Method :

1.  Remove the stalks from the figs, using a sharp knife.  Then, cut them almost in half, then into quarters, but don't cut all the way through so that they still retain their shape and place into a baking dish.  I foil lined my dish, to make washing up easier!

Looking glamorous, ready to go in the oven

2.  Give them a squeeze from the bottom, forcing the seeds up so that they open rather like a flower.

3.  Sprinkle over the cinnamon and allspice, then trickle over the honey and lemon juice.

4.  Cook in a pre-heated oven at 220deg C for 20 mins.

5.  If required to wait, take the four corners of the foil lining to the baking dish and gather them loosely above the heads of the figs, retaining some warmth but allowing the steam to escape.  That way, they won't dry out and will be as luscious as when you removed them from the oven.

Serve with lashings of double cream.  Again, sorry for camera shake - anticipation got the better of me.