Spicy Hot Prawn & Apple Curry - friskier than a spring lamb!

I have had this recipe sitting waiting to be published since for ever, it seems.  The trouble is, you see, Christmas and new year got right in the way and I lost touch with reality.  *chuckle*  No, reality has always been right here - I just got distracted for a while.

So here you are all those people who were so keen to have the recipe.  I do apologise for the time it has taken.

The curry is a touch different from the norm in its use of apple, but it gives such a lovely fruity tang that goes so well with the tomato, tamarind, red onion and coconut. Some of those ingredients also give off a sweetness which somehow boosts the flavour of the prawns. Lots of savoury flavours as well, of course, from garlic, coriander, ginger, turmeric and the curry powder - which included a small amount of Tikka curry powder, prevent it from becoming too sweet and naturally the hot spiciness from the red chillis combined with the ginger and spicy curry to make this lovely light textured prawn curry super frisky! Not so frisky that it melts anything, but enough to clear the sinuses. Can't be bad!

SPICY HOT PRAWN & APPLE CURRY   (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp plus a half tbsp salted butter 
1-2 red onions, depending on size, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
sea salt
ground black pepper
a quarter tsp of ground cinnamon
4 cherry tomatoes, diced
1 sharp eating apple (I used Braeburn), peeled, cored & diced small
3 tsp medium curry powder
1 tsp tikka curry powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
a pinch of dried red chilli flakes (to taste)
500ml hot water plus more as required
1 tbsp tamarind sauce
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaf plus a little for garnish
half tsp honey (to taste)
325g cooked, peeled, cold water large prawns, defrosted and drained if pre-frozen
hot white Basmati rice to serve.

Method :


Melt the coconut oil and butter in a large frying pan and add the onions & garlic.  Fry on a medium heat until the onions are transparent and just beginning to caramelise and the garlic is fragrant.  This shouldn't take too long if the onions have been chopped finely enough.  Part way through the cooking, add the sea salt, black pepper and cinnamon and stir through.

Once the onions and garlic are cooked to your satisfaction, add the cherry tomatoes and apple and cook on until the tomatoes are beginning to soften and break up.

Add the curry powder, turmeric, ginger and red chilli flakes and stir through.  Cook on for about 5 more minutes, to allow the spices to amalgamate and lose their uncooked flavour.  Add the water, tamarind sauce and fresh coriander and stir through.

Cook at a simmer, stirring regularly, until the ingredients have all amalgamated into a sauce and the sauce has reduced to a good thick consistency.  This can take around 20 mins, perhaps a bit longer depending on how much juice the tomatoes had and how much water you added.

Taste the sauce for seasoning and add more salt, or black pepper, or chilli flakes as necessary.  Taste again and add the honey if required.  Stir everything through once more.

When you are happy with the flavour and consistency of the sauce, add the prawns and increase the temperature under the pan, to heat the prawns through.  You aren't looking to cook them as they've already been cooked - just heat them through to piping hot.

Serve the curry with the white basmati rice and sprinkle the remainder of the coriander over the top as garnish.

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Latin American Chicken - frisky, fruity and delicious

Well, colour me surprised and extremely impressed by this recipe.  Some recipes you can look at and immediately imagine the flavours, know how it is likely to look, what consistency the sauce will be etc. This one, I had a good idea of the flavours but I couldn't, for the life of me, think what sort of consistency it would turn out to be and whether the flavours would be intense or somewhat wishy-washy.  You see, I have something of a past history with wishy-washy tomato based chicken dishes.  *coughs behind hand*  Moving on ....

I don't remember finding this recipe, but it was there in my "new recipes" folder on my computer so I obviously spotted it at some point and saved it for future reference.  As you do.  I have so many recipes saved that I have had to categorise them to within an inch of their lives in order to keep control.  Without the blessed categories, there'd be recipes romping unchecked everywhere as soon as I got past the opening window, I'm sure of it.  Anyway, there it was (here, if you're curious) and originally intended to be a recipe for the slow cooker.

Now although - as you know - I do have a slow cooker, in this instance it wouldn't have been a lot of use as I was cooking for just the two of us and the ingredients would have got lost in my big old crockpot.  Whatever you can cook in a slow cooker can be cooked in an oven, so that's where it ended up and (ssssshhh, don't tell anyone) but I think it may have been all the better for it, too.

As a matter of necessity, I tweaked the recipe remorselessly.  Things such as leaf coriander went out of the window, in favour of ground coriander, as my chaps really don't like leaf coriander.  I didn't have any allspice, so in went a combination of cinnamon, mace and a bit more ground coriander for luck.  For all that I did have a can of black beans, it would have made way too much so I swapped them out for a small can of red kidney beans and crossed my fingers.

The bit I was having trouble with, was knowing quite how the sauce would turn out - and indeed, if I would wind up with any sauce at all.  You see, apart from a small amount of chicken stock and a much larger amount of spicy salsa (for which, I used Asda's salsa in a jar) plus any juice that might leach out from the red pepper and sweet potatoes, there wasn't any identifiable "sauce" as such.  Now, cooked in a slow cooker, this wouldn't be such an issue as they do tend to water their contents down through returning the steam back into the pot as condensation.  I decided the best thing was to prevent the loss of steam created during the cooking process and covered the casserole dish with a tight sheet of silver foil under the lid.  Oh and crossed my fingers.  Essential bit of cooking technology, that.  Well hurrah for crossed fingers, because it worked!

The end result had just enough sauce to keep the contents nicely moistened, the chicken soft and tender and with the final addition of a squeeze of lime juice, was sooooo blinking delicious!  Plus, of course, the added benefit that other than a bit of chicken frying the cooking was a simple matter of heating everything up in the chicken pan, pouring it into the casserole dish and waving goodbye to it for an hour and a half.  Take fifteen minutes of that time to cook some rice and ~back of hand to forehead~ oh the stress!  SLAVING over a hot stove (a.k.a. reading my book in the living room) whilst the dinner cooked.  Perfect.

Do, by all means, feel free to cook the original incarnation of this recipe if it appeals, but I have noted down my version of it below, which is of course a whole lot better.  *wink*  If you prefer chicken thighs, you'll possibly need to increase the cooking time by a half hour or so, depending on how big and muscly your chicken is.

LATIN AMERICAN CHICKEN   (serves 2)

Ingredients :

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
sea salt
ground black pepper
1 tsp plus 1 tsp ground coriander
2-3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
1 red pepper, de-seeded and cut into strips
1 large clove of garlic, sliced finely
1 200g tin of red kidney beans, drained
200ml chicken stock (made with 1 stock cube or 1 tsp stock powder)
200g spicy salsa from a jar
half a tsp of ground cumin
half a tsp of ground cinnamon
half a tsp of ground mace
a pinch of dried red chilli flakes (to taste)
a small bunch of fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish
lime wedges, for garnish.

Method :

To begin with, pre-heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/gas 4.

Then, take each chicken breast and cut it in half horizontally so that you end up with two much thinner pieces of chicken for each breast.  This will ensure the chicken cooks evenly.

Heat the rapeseed oil in a large frying pan over a moderate/high heat and lay each piece of chicken inside.  Quickly sprinkle with half of one of the tsp of ground coriander and a pinch of sea salt & black pepper, turn the chicken and repeat for the other side.  Fry the chicken until golden on the one side, then turn it over and complete the frying on the other side.  If the chicken isn't quite cooked through it doesn't matter as it will complete cooking in the oven.  Once golden on both sides, remove the chicken to a lidded casserole dish and reserve.

Tip the sweet potatoes, red pepper and garlic into the frying pan - add a little more rapeseed oil if necessary - and fry until the garlic is golden, the potatoes have coloured in places and the red pepper has begun to soften - around 5-10 minutes.

Add the red kidney beans, stock, salsa, remaining ground coriander, cumin, cinnamon, mace and chilli flakes and stir through.  Bring to a boil and add a little more water if necessary, as it can evaporate quite quickly.  Pour the contents into the casserole dish and stir through.

Cover the casserole dish with a tight fitting layer of silver foil and the casserole lid and place into the middle of your oven for 1.5 hours.  I would advise checking the liquid level after an hour, just in case your sealing hasn't quite worked!  If necessary, top up with a little water or chicken stock.

I served mine with basmati rice that had been cooked in vegetable stock, with a few added peas and a very naughty knob of butter melted through.  Sprinkle the chopped parsley over the top and add a couple of lime wedges for squeezing.  Scrummy!

Printable version

General Tso's chicken - a real crowd pleaser!

Now this is one recipe that I should have blogged a long time ago, as I've made it countless times since I discovered it on La Table de Nana.  As you may have guessed from the name, it sounds as though it should be of Chinese origin and to quote Wikipedia, "General Tso's chicken is a sweet, slightly spicy, deep-fried chicken dish that is popularly served in most Chinese and Asian themed American restaurants. The dish is most commonly regarded as a Hunanese dish.  The dish is named after General Tso Tsung-tang, or Zuo Zongtang, a Qing dynasty general and statesman, although there is no recorded connection to him".  So now you know.

I have to first deny all knowledge of deep frying my chicken.  You would have to pay me quite a lot to get me to deep fry anything, these days.   Not just from the health point of view, but um ~koff-blush~ I'm actually scared of deep frying.  I know.  I write a food blog and I'm scared of deep frying.  What can I tell you?  I think all those Public Information Films about the dangers of chip pan fires back in the seventies are still playing out in my head.

As a consequence, after velveting the chicken I just heat up a tablespoonful of oil in a wok and shallow fry to my heart's content.  The chicken still gets lovely and golden and I don't have a nervous conniption.  It's all good.

Served with coconut rice

The combination of goodies in the sauce is just an inspired thing.  Each contributes something to the final flavour(s) and it just wouldn't be right without any one of the ingredients.  Mind you, I do have to say that I don't use fresh ginger - as was recommended by the original recipe.  Both hubby and myself react badly to fresh ginger these days, whereas if I use ground (powdered) ginger, we're fine.  Yes, the flavour is slightly different, but we still get the ginger kick and flavour - so I'm not arguing.  I put the small amount of ginger into the sauce, where it incorporates nicely.

Something I would recommend highly to you - and yes, it could almost be construed as a Cook's Tip, is to invest in some authentic soy sauce.  If you can get them, both light soy and dark soy, as the difference in flavour to the small amounts of Blue Dragon, or even Kikkoman, is just incredible.  Once I'd invested in a large bottle of both, I wouldn't ever go back to "Westernised" soy sauce.  It's just a whole different ball game and you'll find you use far less as the flavour is so much more intense.

Cooked together with sliced green pepper

Okay, so while we're doing the tips, you absolutely must have everything chopped before you start.  This recipe moves so quickly once you begin cooking, that you definitely don't have time to leisurely chop a half a dozen spring onions.  It's a case of grab it and cook it so you need to have everything ready!

Oh, and it is nice to keep a certain amount of chopped green onion back for sprinkling over the top once served.  It definitely helps the dish to look fresh and tasty.  Unfortunately, I can't cope with raw spring (or green) onion, so I restrict myself to some toasted sesame seeds.

Served with a spring roll and some prawn crackers

Son and heir consistently finds the texture of the velveted chicken a surprise and requires reassurance that it is the cooking process, not the chicken, that has made it feel that way on the tongue.  As if I'd feed him dodgy chicken!  *tut*  The very idea.

Hubby and I, however, just love the recipe.  I've cooked it with toasted sesame seeds and without, with a sliced green pepper or mushrooms and without - in all sorts of incarnations - and we've loved them all.

As a super-quick meal to cook, you really can't do better than General Tso's chicken.  It's almost one of my favourite "bung it in the wok in order and serve" recipes.  If it wasn't for the fact that you cook the chicken first, then reserve it for later, it'd qualify.  But then, it's just another bowl to wash up and what's another bowl when dinner tastes so good?

GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN    (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

½ cup soft brown sugar
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 flat teaspoonful of powdered ginger
a good pinch of dried red chili flakes (optional)
½ cup water
3-4 tablespoons cornstarch
500g boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
6-8 spring onions chopped
toasted sesame seeds (optional).

Method :

If you are intending on using toasted sesame seeds as garnish, now is the time to toast them.  Heat up your wok or frying pan and place the seeds in dry.  Keep an eye on them, as once they start to toast it happens quickly!  Once nicely brown and toasty, decant into a ramekin to use later.

Next, mix the brown sugar, hoisin sauce, rice wine vinegar, tomato ketchup, soy sauce, ginger powder, chili flakes (if you're using them, which I recommend you do!) and water together in a bowl.  This is your sauce, so set aside - but within reach!

Dredge the chicken chunks in the cornstarch and shake off any excess.

Heat the pan again and add the olive oil.  Cook the chicken in the olive oil briskly on a high heat until golden brown on at least two sides.  Remove the chicken and retain in a warm place.

Add a little more olive oil if necessary, plus the sesame oil and green onions (and any other veggies you might have thought to include). Cook until softened, then add the sauce and quickly bring to a boil.

Allow the mix to boil gently for as long as it takes for it to thicken slightly, then add the chicken and coat with sauce.  Reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced to a glossy, syrupy consistency.

Serve with white rice, garnished with the toasted sesame seeds and some raw spring onion pieces.

Printable version

Minty aromatic pulled lamb pittas

As with the Stellar Slow Cooked Lamb Shanks, the gorgeous (huge!) rolled and boned piece of lamb shoulder came (delivered by courier, still frozen) from Farmer's Choice Free Range Ltd., for me to "play with" and develop a recipe for them to feature on their website.

I spent a week or so thinking about what to do with it.  Yes, I could have just roasted it and had the biggest slap up roast lamb dinner of all time - and it would have been utterly memorable - but you know me, things like that just seem too easy.  If every blogger does that, then how does it demonstrate what joe public could be enjoying?

I don't believe in "fiddling about" with a gorgeous product just for the sake of it - if it is something different, something a bit out of the ordinary to begin with, then I'll honour that and do the simplest thing available, so as to make the product the star of the show.

36 hours of marination is up - time to cook!

Now in this case, in no way am I implying that this gorgeous lamb shoulder was run of the mill.  I mean, just look at it!  No, it was quite the opposite.  I can honestly say I have never had a rough piece of meat from Farmer's Choice Free Range, they have all been quite special in their own right.  The lamb was no different, no more fatty than you would expect a good quality piece of lamb to be and with great muscle development, which gives you lovely lines of lean meat.  However, it was a simple rolled and boned lamb shoulder.  A normal Sunday roast cut of meat.  So, what to do with it, that makes it a little bit out of the ordinary?

I'm sue you won't be surprised to hear that I tossed probably dozens of ideas out before I finally hit upon "the one".

Just an hour of cooking time left to go - and smelling amazing.

Out in foodie circles, there is much talk of pulled pork - which has translated to the supermarkets and burger restaurants.  Even our local pizza chain is now offering pulled pork on their pizzas.  So, how about pulled lamb?  Let's develop a complimentary marinade or rub for the lamb, then slow roast it to render most of the fat - and pull it.  Oooh yes, now this is sounding good.  Serve the pulled lamb in a wholemeal pitta bread (the wholemeal ones have way more flavour), with a minted yoghurt sauce?  Yup.  Maybe some roast sweet potato chips (fries) alongside and a little salad for freshness.  Well there you have it.  The recipe suddenly almost wrote itself.

Why, oh why, can't blogging use smellivision?

I knew that I wanted to include mint in the marinade, because lamb with mint is just the BEST thing.  As for what spices to include, well I knew about the North African spices - Ras al Hanout, Harissa - but I didn't fancy those too much.  After all, Ras al Hanout has rose petals in it.  Rose and mint?  Maybe in a sweet - not with lamb though.  Harissa can be quite harsh and lamb doesn't need harsh treatment.

So I looked at a lot of lamb recipes just to get my head focused more on what I didn't want, rather than what I did want, to put with the lamb.  Then I went to the spice cupboard and started putting spices together.  I wound up with quite a list, but it smelled fantastic.  Added sea salt and black pepper, that was a given.  Now lamb can be quite fatty - so I wasn't pushed to decide upon how much extra to give the joint, just a little olive oil to cheer along the upper layers.  However, the marinade needed (by this time it was definitely a marinade, not a rub) more liquid.  I didn't have any fruit juice in at the time but I did have two oranges.  Mmmn, orange zest and juice!  Yes, that would work!  Oh and garlic - lamb just has to have garlic.  I did contemplate including a couple of anchovies too, but felt that was probably a bit out there in conjunction with everything else.

Quite incredibly moist, soft and tender lamb.  Just wonderful.

My goodness but what a powerful, aromatic marinade it turned out to be.  Even encased in a freezer bag - with the lamb, obviously - every time you opened the fridge door, the marinade reached out (aromatically, obviously), grabbed you by the nose and slammed your head (in a friendly kind of a way) into the freezer compartment.  In the end, for the good of everyone involved (including the milk, because nobody fancied marinated milk in their tea), I had to put the marinated lamb into a second freezer bag, which just about managed to contain the beast.  Containing the beast was very necessary, because I was taking this marinading seriously and had put everything together some 36 hours before I was due to cook the lamb.  I wanted to give those flavours time to really get to work!

Be generous with the lamb, it is too good to leave in the tin!

Amazingly, considering how the marinade had behaved on the way, when it came to releasing the lamb into the roasting dish, it had really settled down!  Mellowed, even.  You know how lamb can smell really lamby, some times?  Well this smelled really fresh and so yummy.  I didn't want the dish to run dry during its long cooking time, so added a little water.  Into the oven it went, swimming around in its paddling pool of flavour.

After an hour or so, even with having sealed it as far as was possible with silver foil, the smell from the oven was just amazing.  There was no one aroma that was dominant (well, apart from lamb anyway!), it had just all amalgamated into a gorgeous whole.  I checked it half way through - just to make sure it had enough water - and gave it a little baste.

By the end of the cooking time, our mouths were watering.

Pulling the lamb was the simplest thing.  If, like me, you have family members who are a bit fat phobic, it is very easy to pick out any fatty bits en route.  The lamb just fell apart and was so moist and juicy - no dry, miserable pulled lamb here.  Two forks and a large dish and in just a couple of minutes the dish was full and I was surrounded by hopeful (but disappointed) dogs.  I recommend adding a couple of spoonfuls of the cooking liquid to the pulled lamb, so that when it has to wait for you to prepare the breads and serve the side dishes, there is no worry about it drying out - and why not capitalise on all the flavours that are contained in the cooking liquid?

Speaking of the cooking liquid, I have kept what was in the roasting dish as I have some (as yet) vague plans to make a soup with it.  Well, it was too good to throw away!  Just set it aside for the fat to set, then you can pour the stock out from underneath with no difficulty.

Apologies for there being no lamb in this picture ...

I served the lamb with a yoghurt, mint, cucumber & caper sauce drizzled over and some yummy mint jelly under (the vinegary flavours of a standard mint sauce would work too), in the wholemeal pitta bread.  Absolutely divine.

The flavours that the marinade brought to the lamb were in no way overpowering.  I was so happy with that!  The citrus juice had helped to tenderise the meat and even though I was expecting some warmth from the black pepper and cayenne pepper, it was so subtle.  Beautiful.

Everyone loved this recipe and there were murmurs of disappointment when told "no, there's none left".  Of course, I didn't tell them about the other half of the joint that I'd put in the freezer.  *wink*  Let it be a lovely surprise one day!

A fantastically easy recipe, the very next time you lay your hands on a piece of lamb - and I recommend you have a look at the Farmer's Choice website, to see what they've got - give this a go.  You can't possibly regret it.  Even if you don't pull the lamb and just go with a roast dinner, the flavour of the lamb won't disappoint.  However, the combination of the lamb, the sauce, the mint jelly and pitta bread is just perfect.  Go on, give it a go!

MINTY AROMATIC PULLED LAMB PITTAS   (serves 8)

Ingredients :

1kg boned and rolled, lamb shoulder

For the marinade :

1 bunch fresh mint, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
2 oranges, zest and juice
50ml olive oil
1 and a half tsp ground coriander
1 tsp smoked sweet paprika
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp sea salt
half a tsp cayenne pepper
half a tsp ground cumin
half a tsp ground cardamom
half a tsp ground allspice
quarter of a tsp ground cloves

3 tbsp plain yoghurt (Greek or Goat yoghurt are best)
3 inch piece of cucumber
1 tsp capers, chopped
2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped finely
8 wholemeal pitta bread
Mint jelly to taste.

Method :

1.  Between 48 and 36 hours before you plan to cook the lamb, place all the marinade ingredients into a bowl and mix well.

2.  Take the lamb and pierce 2 inches into the piece repeatedly all over, with a sharp butcher's knife.  This will allow the marinade to really get in there and do its work.

3.  Place the lamb into a large stout plastic freezer bag and pour the marinade over.  Seal the bag and turn over repeatedly until the lamb is entirely covered.  I recommend you then place it into another large stout plastic freezer bag, as I discovered the aromas were very good at escaping!

4.  Put the bagged lamb into a dish - just in case of leakage - and keep it in your fridge until around an hour or so before you plan to cook it.  Turn the lamb over, to redistribute the marinade, whenever you pass by.

5.  Pre-heat the oven to 140degC/275degF/Gas 1, it shouldn't take long!

6.  Line a large roasting tin with a double layer of silver foil.  This will help when it comes to doing the dishes and you'll be glad you did.

7.  Open the bag and tip the lamb together with the marinade, into the lined roasting dish.  Add up to 500ml of water around the lamb (don't wash the marinade off the actual joint though!) and cover it all tightly with more silver foil.

8.  Place into the oven for the next three and half hours.  Check it half way through, just to make sure that the liquid levels are good.  Add a little more water, if necessary.

9.  In the meantime, make the yoghurt sauce by placing the yoghurt into a bowl.

10.  Using a fine grater, grate the cucumber into the bowl and add the capers, fresh mint, a pinch of sea salt and black pepper.  Stir to combine, then set aside in the fridge for the flavours to develop.

11.  Remove the top layer of silver foil from the lamb when there is a half an hour to go.  This will help colour the lamb and develop the flavours.

12.  Once the cooking time is up, remove the lamb from the roasting tin onto a chopping board.  I recommend dealing with half at a time, so cut it in half and return the other half to the roasting tin, cover it with foil, to keep warm.

13.  Using two forks, pull the lamb apart into shreds.  It is fairly easy to remove any large lumps of fat at this stage, if you so require.  Once the first half is pulled, move on to the second half.  Once the lamb is pulled, add two tablespoonfuls of the cooking liquid to the meat and set aside to keep warm while you prepare the pitta bread.

14.  Lightly toast the pitta bread and make a slit down one side of each.

15.  Smooth a teaspoonful of mint jelly (or you could use mint sauce if the sweet flavour of jelly isn't to your liking) onto one side of each pitta bread.

16.  Fill each pitta generously with pulled lamb, then add two teaspoonfuls or so of the yoghurt sauce.

Serve with oven baked sweet potato fries and a small salad.

Printable version

Greek style gorgeousness - Chickaleekaka!

Well, what a thing of great beauty this recipe turned out to be!  I found it on Petit Chef, in a vegetarian version without the chicken (and other bits), here.  I really liked the combination of flavours and was intrigued by the use of the white wine.  However it didn't have enough "oomph" for my menfolk as a main course, yet seemed too heavy for a side dish.  So after a bit of mental juggling with a few protein sources such as ham (which I'm sure would be great, but good ham is hard to find for an affordable price), salmon, smoked haddock or sausage - I decided to continue the theme of delicate flavours and go with chicken.  After all, chicken and wine, chicken and leek, chicken and cheese, all go well together and it certainly isn't going to argue with eggs!

Just baked - and you can see the importance of the cheesy crust.

Yes, it takes a little bit of fiddling around as it's a three-stage dish where cooking and assembly is concerned, but if you start early and leave yourself a bit of time in which to give the ingredients the respect they deserve, it really isn't difficult at all.  I served mine with a tomato, spinach & red kidney bean salad (primarily for me!) and a few garlic butter doughballs (as a bit more carbohydrate for the menfolk).

Evaporating the wine.

This family all have a marked soft spot for a Greek recipe - there's something about the ingredients and the style of cooking that just hits the spot with us.  It must be the rich/healthy combination of a baked dish paired with a side salad, using indulgent ingredients like cheese and eggs, plus juicy tomatoes and healthy spinach.  Put it this way, not one person had an ounce of anything left on their plate, so it must have been good!

I was very interested to see how the wine infused itself into the chicken and suffused the leeks with a subtle but very much "there" flavour of sunshine and fruit which added the necessary acidity to cut through the richness of the Bechamel and cheese.  I added a small amount of thyme for an additional layer of flavour, which worked beautifully and didn't swamp the dill at all.

The additional mustard in the Bechamel was a great idea too, as it gave the mild, creamy sauce just that tiny edge which stopped it from becoming too much.

I can hear you wondering what cook's tips I might have for you about this one.  Well, as it happens, I do have a few!

Now you might wonder why I used skimmed milk, but added double cream.  Well, I wanted a richness through the sauce but not too much and considered that using semi-skimmed milk would mean I had to reduce the amount of cream I used.  Using the skimmed gave a perfect balance between milk and cream that didn't make the sauce too heavy.

However, the biggest tip I have for you is to make the Chickaleekaka (which, by the way, is a combination of "chicken", "leek" and "Moussaka-like-thing") in a dish which you've lined with non-stick silver foil, so that once cooked, you can lift it out of the dish and onto a chopping board.  From there, you can gently peel down the edges of the silver foil and the Chickaleekaka should stay, in one set piece, without collapse.  (The eggs are fundamental in this as they are what cause the lower layer to set).  You can then cut it into neat portions which helps to make it look that little bit more deliciously intriguing - and you don't lose those lovely crusty edges by leaving them in the dish!

A quick word about what size dish you choose might be in order, too.  You need to make the Chickaleekaka in a dish that is deep enough to give you a good 1-2cm of chicken & leek, with a nice deep layer of Bechamel on top.  Use too big a dish and it will be spread too sparsely.  Far better to go small - but deep - than too big and shallow.

My tomato/spinach/kidney bean/cress "hot plate" salad.

As for what would you serve alongside the Chickaleekaka, well I went for a "hot plate" salad, i.e. a salad that could be served on a hot plate.  This consists of items that can stand up to heat - so tomato, baby spinach, red kidney beans and cress were my choice on this occasion, but the possibilities are endless.  Just steer clear of things that wilt quickly like iceberg lettuce, if you're going to be serving it on a hot plate!

I know I'm going to be making this again very soon - and I'd really love to hear what you think of it, if you give it a go too.  So do leave me a message, if you try it!

CHICKALEEKAKA    (serves 4) 

Ingredients :

1-2 tbsp olive oil

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, sliced small

500g leeks, sliced small

half a tsp white pepper

a tiny pinch of sea salt

half a tsp of dried thyme

100ml (or thereabouts) dry white wine
20g fresh dill, finely chopped
3 large eggs
250g mature cheddar cheese, grated.

For the Bechamel :

3 tbsp of salted butter

4 tbsp of plain flour

a generous pinch of white pepper

a tiny pinch of sea salt 

350ml of skimmed milk

2 tbsp double cream

half a tsp Dijon mustard

half a tsp of fresh grated nutmeg

20g parmesan cheese, grated

50g mature cheddar cheese, grated.

Method :

1.  Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and once hot, add the chicken.  Spread the chicken across the pan to cook evenly, as it won't take long, being such small pieces.  Toss the chicken a few times to make sure every side is coloured - but don't allow it to turn golden.

2.  Once the chicken is coloured but not cooked through, add the leeks and seasoning.  Continue to fry until the leeks are softened.  You will need to toss and stir regularly to prevent the pan contents from colouring further.

3.  Add the wine and continue to toss and stir until the wine has all but evaporated and the pan is almost dry.

4.  Decant the chicken & leeks into a large pyrex bowl  and set aside to cool for 5 minutes or so.

5.  Once cooled, add the dill, crack the eggs in and add the grated cheese.  Mix and stir until everything is evenly distributed.  Set aside, while you make the Bechamel sauce.

6.  In a medium pan, set the butter to melt and add the flour, salt and pepper.  Allow the flour to cook out gently for 3 or 4 minutes, but don't allow it to brown.

7.  Add a little of the milk and stir it through.  The mix will set up quickly, so take if off the heat and keep adding a little milk, then stirring - you will probably need to swap to a hand whisk - until you have a saucy textured mix which is somewhat wetter than you would require.  Add the cream, mustard and nutmeg and whisk them through, then put the pan back on the heat and keep stirring or whisking as it heats through to simmering point.  If the mix becomes too thick, add a little more milk - but not too much, or it will quickly become too thin.  You're after a consistency reminiscent of thick custard.

8.  Take your baking dish (I used a small roasting dish that I lined with non stick silver foil) and decant the chicken & leek mixture into it, making sure to push it into the corners and level off the top surface.

9.  Pour the Bechamel over the top and again, encourage it to form a smooth layer.

10.  Sprinkle first the parmesan, then the cheddar, over the top so that the surface is entirely coated.  This will form the gorgeous cheesy crust - too little cheese and the crust will be patchy at best.

11.  Place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas4 for 30-35 minutes or until the top is a gorgeous golden brown.

12.  Remove from the oven and allow to settle for 5-10 minutes before serving with a side salad.

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Chicken and chorizo Jambalaya

Before we go any further, I have to put my hands up and admit that the bulk of this recipe came from the Slimming World online recipe book - and you can see the original recipe here.

However, having got that out of my system, I can tell you that my version of the recipe is heaps better.  LOL  No, seriously!

Okay, it doesn't accord with the Slimming World ethos - but then it was never meant to.  What I was after, was to take a recipe that had been produced with slimming in mind - and gee it up a bit with additional flavours and textures.  The end result should be that it remains a healthy meal, but has all the good things that an ordinary (a.k.a. not diet) meal would have, such as variety, flavour, texture and substance.

Well, blow me down with a feather, but it only worked.

I'm not sure how much of a "Jambalaya" it was - never having had a strictly traditional Jambalaya - but it had rice, tomatoes and chicken, not to mention heat from spice and full bodied character.  What a result.  Even better was that I liked it - which doesn't happen often with Cajun or smoked paprika dishes.  It has been a while since we've had anything with chorizo in it - and I've found myself lusting after meatballs in tomato sauce with chorizo sizzling alongside, which I took as a hint that maybe I'd come round to the idea.  While I was slicing up the chorizo - as is required of the chef - I had a little taster to establish just how spicy/hot the flavour was.  I could easily have carried on and eaten best part of the entire sausage, it was that good.  Who knows, maybe my taste buds have matured where smoked paprika is concerned!

I knew that hubby would require his Jambalaya to taste Cajun - so added the pinch of red chilli flakes, the smoked paprika and ordinary sweet paprika.  I also wanted the dish to be substantial, so added the cherry tomatoes and mushrooms.  The biggest change was the addition of the chorizo.  I just couldn't imagine a Jambalaya type dish without something big to hold it all together - and the Quorn sausages in the original recipe just wouldn't do it for me.  Not to mention that I think Quorn is disgusting.  (Sorry Quorn manufacturers!).

The final dish was really tasty - and worked out to just under 500 calories per portion - so I didn't do too much damage to the original recipe with my additions!  Whether on a diet or just plain hungry, I recommend this one to you.  It'll keep the wolf from the door, that's for sure.

Now there's a couple of "cook's tips" for you :

-  make sure you start off with an enormous, deep, frying pan.  I used my 22" Ceracraft pan and only just managed to get everything into it.  If you have something deeper but that is reliably non-stick, I'd advise using it!

-   you need your pan to be non-stick, as when it comes to the point of putting the lid on and letting it chuckle for a while, it does have a nasty habit of trying to burn the underside of the food.  Hence, a non-stick pan helps no end with reducing the likelihood of any burning - but do remember to stir and turn the contents regularly!

- using a powder chicken stock is by far and away the better approach.  A chicken stock cube will do the job, but in 200ml of water it can have problems dissolving.  A teaspoonful of chicken stock powder, however, can go into the pan with 200ml of water without any trouble whatsoever.  I recommend Essential Cuisine's chicken stock powder - it's only £3.99 a tub - and the tub last for ages.

So there we have it!  This dish would be perfect for cooking in advance, then heating up in the microwave for Bonfire Night.  I can just imagine being out in the garden with the fireworks, keeping my hands warm around a mugful of this Jambalaya and oohing and aaahing in between forkfuls.  Perfect.


CHICKEN & CHORIZO JAMBALAYA  (serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, finely sliced
100g chorizo sausage
a pinch of red chilli flakes
2 sweet peppers, your choice of colours, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 courgette, quartered and diced
4 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 large mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
half a tsp paprika
zest and juice of half a lemon
400g can chopped tomatoes
250g long grain rice 
200ml low salt chicken stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a handful of fresh parsley, chopped.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a huge deep frying pan (it needs to be big, because there's a lot to fit into it!) and fry the chopped onion until softened, with a pinch of sea salt to bring out the moisture.

2.  Increase the heat under the pan and add the chicken, chorizo and chilli flakes. Cook until the chicken has lost all evidence of pinkness.

3.  Add the thyme, smoked paprika and paprika and stir to combine.

4.  Add the peppers, courgette, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, lemon juice and zest. On the same high heat, cook but stir gently so as not to break up the vegetables, until the vegetables have begun to soften and reduced in size.

5.  Add the tinned tomatoes, stock cube and 200ml of water. Stir to combine and bring to the boil.

6.  Add the rinsed rice, stir through and bring back to the boil. Place a lid on the pan and reduce the heat to a simmer.  Cook gently - stirring occasionally to prevent any burning underneath the mixture - until the rice has cooked and is tender.  Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

7.  Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

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Rose Veal topside roast - super gorgeousness!

A quite disgracefully long time ago now (I've been SO remiss in not blogging stuff that needs to be blogged), I was contacted by the lovely Julie at Barcut Rose Veal in Wales, about taking some of their produce to try - and blog about.

Now those of you who have been reading along for a while will know about my own particular keenness for that jewel in the butcher's crown that is British Rose Veal.  Not only that, but the knock on effect that is finding a job for the many millions of bull calves to do, rather than be shot at just 2 days old (or less, in some cases).  These bull calves are a by-product (what a horrid thing to call a calf) of the already beleaguered dairy industry.  You see, the mother cows don't produce milk willy nilly for the whole of their lives.  No, they need to keep on having calves to stimulate the milk supply.  Now a heifer  calf (they're the female ones) are easy to find a job for as they can go straight back into the dairy business and have their own babies and supply their own milk.  But what happens to the boys? 

Some of Barcut's happy calves

In far too many cases, they are either shot at or very near to birth, or alternatively are sold on to be produced for beef (which they're not very good at, being of a breed that makes milk well and doesn't make beef well).  As a result, they - not in every case, it's true, but in most cases - aren't worth very much and aren't really valued as a "crop" as such.  In lots of particularly awful instances, the bull calves are sold at market where they're picked up by European (or further distant) purchasers who will then ship the animals huge distances to the kind of future that nobody in their right mind would wish for.

So how much better is it, for a calf to be bought by a local producer who takes care of them in an ethical manner - with large strawed pens, where they can play with their mates, eat to their hearts' content and be happy (most even spend time out at grass, in the field, in the sunshine) - before being taken to a local abattoir (the important bit about that being both local and British) at 8 months of age where they are killed humanely and their meat is valued by home cooks and chefs alike.   It's just a no-brainer, so far as I can see.

Barcut Rose Veal is just one of those ethical producers.  A quick look at their website's "Why our Rose Veal" page gives you all the assurances you could require.  So I was very excited to be the recipient of an enormous box of their beautiful, lean, Rose Veal.

As always, the quandary is what to do with the sudden rainfall of choice cuts of meat.  We had a gorgeous lean topside roasting joint, some braising steaks and some cubed topside.  Now we generally use 500g of meat per meal for the three of us - so we had at least five or six meals to think of!

The meat arrived exceptionally well packaged in vacuum sealed bags with freezer blocks to keep it cool - and looked as fresh as a daisy.  It felt almost sacrilegious to put it in the freezer, but as it is fresh and not previously frozen, in the freezer it went.  With the best will in the world, even my family can't eat five or six meals in one go.  Well, everything except the topside roasting joint.  That one's destination was marked out for our Sunday dinner almost as soon as I clapped eyes upon it.

Now I won't lie and say that I knew exactly what I was going to do with it, because when you've got the one go at an ingredient (who knows when I would find another piece of roasting Rose Veal as good as this one), you have to give your next move some serious consideration.  Or I do, at any rate.

Eventually - after much thought, a significant amount of changes of mind and some considerable research, I came to a conclusion.  I would prepare a rub, then roast the joint (hopefully) to a state where it remains just pink in the middle.

Now the rub I devised was one of my own concoction which I hoped would bring out the delicate flavour of the Rose Veal, without stamping all over its own characteristics.  It would be a terrible shame to lose the gentle flavour by heavy handedness in the dressing of it.  So, I put together some dried rosemary, fennel seeds, lemon zest, sea salt and ground white pepper into my pestle and mortar and gave everything a good crush, then brought it together with some lovely fruity rapeseed oil.  It smelled divine.

Rubbed all over the Rose Veal joint - into every nook and cranny - it looked suitably dressed and ready for the party.  I made a trivet in the roasting pan of whole carrots that had been sliced in half and added a sliced onion, on top of which balanced the Veal.

Into the oven at 200degC it went, for just 10 minutes.  Then the oven was turned right down to 160degC and I left it to chuckle along slowly (with the occasional pause for some basting) for around an hour and a half.  I tested the joint with a meat thermometer and waited until the internal temperature was up to a minimum of 65degC before removing from the oven and covering it in tin foil (still in the roasting tin), to rest in a warm place for around 30 minutes.

It looked incredible and smelled even better.  

When it came time to carve, the Rose Veal just accepted the carving knife without complaint.  You know how sometimes when you're carving a joint, your arm feels a bit like chewed string by the end of it all?  Not with this one.  The meat, although not as pink in the centre as I had hoped, was just so tender and so juicy it was making my mouth water.  My Dad introduced me (years ago) to the concept of "cutter's tasters" thanks to which I was able to tell that the herby, fruity rub had done its work well.  The flavour of the Veal was still there, just accentuated with layers of rosemary, fennel and lemon.  Naturally, I had saved the pan juices along with a little of the veal stock from the celeriac fondant, which together with some Sherry, made a completely fantastic gravy.

Oh my gosh but what a meal that was.  I served the Rose Veal with Duchesse potatoes, Chantenay carrots, broccoli, celeriac fondant (braised in veal stock with butter) and Yorkshire puddings, along with the glossy rich gravy that just brought everything together.

I look at these photographs of that meal and can remember every nuance of every flavour involved with that veal.  It fed the four of us (we had a visitor that day) with enough left over for a terrine of Rose Veal with Antipasti vegetables and asparagus the following day, served with salad.  So gorgeous!

Barcut Rose Veal are based near Abergele in Wales, so if you are in the area it is worthwhile visiting any of the shops on their website and enquiring.  They also sell wholesale, so if you and a few friends can get an order together and share the cost, it is also well worth doing - after all, the Rose Veal freezes perfectly.  Who knows, as the business progresses, they might even consider selling retail to the world at large.  Well, we can but hope!  For those of you on Facebook, you can support Barcut Rose Veal by visiting their page at https://www.facebook.com/barcutveal

ROSE VEAL TOPSIDE ROAST   (serves 6-7)

Ingredients :

1kg topside Rose Veal
1 tsp dried rosemary (chopped fine)
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp fresh lemon zest
a pinch of sea salt
a large pinch of ground white pepper
1-2 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 chunky carrots, halved lengthwise
1 onion, sliced.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 200degC/400degF/Gas 6.

2.  Prepare a roasting tin by placing the carrots, cut side down to form a trivet, in the bottom of the roasting tin.  Scatter the onion rings on and around the carrots.

3.  Prepare the rub by placing the rosemary, fennel, lemon, salt and pepper into a pestle and mortar (or use a spice grinder) and give everything a good bash to release the oils.  Add the rapeseed oil and stir to combine.

4.  Rub the Rose Veal all over with the mixture, making sure to get it into all the nooks and crannies.

5.  Place the Veal onto the carrots and onions, making sure to keep the fat uppermost.  This will allow the fat, as it melts, to slowly baste the meat and keep it moist.

6.  Put the roasting tin and contents into the oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160degC/325degF/Gas 3 for another hour and a half - or until the inside temperature of the meat reaches a minimum of 65degC/149degF on a meat thermometer.

7.  Once the correct temperature is reached, remove from the oven and cover the meat and roasting tin with silver foil.  Keep in a warm place to rest for approximately 30 minutes, then carve.

Serve with roasted potatoes and vegetables of your choice, making sure to use the pan juices in your gravy (which is made extra delicious by the addition of a little Medium Sherry).

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