Coronation Salad of Chicken, Mango and Avocado

Coronation chicken is the sort of British dish that makes the French laugh (it is after all, a mixture of meat and fruit, something they find alien). This recipe takes Coronation Chicken to a new level, making it into a respectable salad. The sauce is stronger than the traditional recipe and it is brought upt to date by a hit of chilli, the sweetness of mangoes and the avocado and lime.

(Printable Recipe)

Serves 6

Ingredients:
1kg/2lb 4oz Chicken breast fillets
2 tbsp Groundnut Oil
2 ripe Mangoes
2 ripe Avocados
1 bunch of Asparagus tips, baked in advance
Juice of 2 Limes
275g/10oz Watercress or Baby Spinach
1 Red Chilli, cut into shreds
2 tbsp Olive Oil
15g/½oz Flaked Almonds, toasted

For the dressing:
350g/12oz Mayonnaise
125ml/4fl oz Plain Greek Yogurt
3 tsp Curry Powder
½ tsp Ground Ginger
7 tbsp Mango Chutney
A little Milk
Leaves from 7 sprigs mint, chopped

1 Season the chicken and heat the oil in a large pan.

2 Saute the breasts until golden all over, then throw in 50ml/2fl oz water, cover and leave the chicken to cook in the steam.

3 Once cooked, leave the chicken to cool completely then use a fine-bladed sharp knife to cut it into neat slices. Season all over.

4 Gently mix together all the ingredients for the dressing except the mint. It should be the thickness of double cream. Taste for seasoning and adjust. Stir in the mint.

5 Peel the mongo and cut the ‘cheeks’ off each side; cut close to the stone so that you remove the plumpest bit of the mango. Cut the cheeks into neat slices.

6 Halve the avocadoes, remove the stones and cut into slices. Carefully peel off the skin. Spoon over some of the lime juice to keep them from discolouring. Season.

7 Gently toss the salad leaves with the mango and avocado, the chilli, the rest of the lime juice, the olive oil and some seasoning.

8 Arrange on a big platter or shallow bowl and add the chicken. Drizzle the dressing over the top and scatter on the almonds.

Serve the rest of the dressing in a jug and serve with a bowl of wild and brown rice, either warm or dressed with vinaigrette and left to cool to room temperature.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Gluten Free, Mains, avocado, chicken, coeliac diet, coeliac recipes, coronation, coronation chicken, curry recipe, gluten free, gluten free food, gluten free meals, gluten free recipes, mango, salad, what is gluten, wheat free diet, wheat free foods, wheat free recipes

Classic Chicken Chasseur

I always enjoy cooking recipes that have great preparations to them, like all the wonderful curries I have cooked recently, with their amazing herbs and spices (I love opening the cumin spice pot every single time just for the smell). But what is always one step better, is making a recipe like this Chicken Chasseur, where you even have to prepare fruit/vegetables like the tomatoes used here, in such a precise way, to use them as the Chef, who wrote it, intended!

As with any recipe I try and hopefully enjoy, it’s the smells in the kitchen that first let you know whether you are going to enjoy it or not. As this recipe was cooking, all I can say is that the smells that started coming out, had me salivating until the food hit the plate! It’s hard to describe online how something smells followed by the reaction it causes to the senses but this was something else – whether it was the caramelised shallots, or the tarragon, or the tomato purée with the stock, or simply all the ingredients cooking together, this had my girlfriend and I counting down the minutes till I could plate it up.

All I can say is that it tasted as good as it looked. Nothing was left on either of our plates. I used chicken thighs for my version and all six pieces I used, were eaten up. This will become a personal favourite and one that I hope to make again and again.

As per normal, I was making it for the two of us, so I halved all the ingredients.

(Printable Recipe)

Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 Plum Tomatoes
50g/2oz Plain Flour
1.5Kg/3lb 4oz Chicken cut into 8 pieces
2 tbsp Olive Oil
110g/4oz Butter
175g/6oz Brown Cap Mushrooms
10 Baby Shallots, peeled and halved
20g/¾oz Caster Sugar
175ml/6fl oz White Wine
450ml/16fl oz Chicken Stock
3 tbsp Tomato Purée
15g/½oz Tarragon, chopped
2 tbsp Parsley, chopped
Salt and Black Pepper

1 Score a cross on each tomato, place in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for 45 seconds, then drain and peel off the skin. Cut the tomatoes into quarters, remove the seeds and chop the flesh.

2 Place the flour in another bowl and season with salt and pepper. Roll the chicken pieces in the flour, to coat, shaking off the excess.

3 Set a deep frying pan over a medium heat and add the oil and a third of the butter. When the butter foams, add the chicken, skin side down if you have left the skin on, and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

4 Heat another third of the butter in a second frying pan, fry the mushrooms until golden brown and then add them to the pan with the chicken.

5 Place the remainder of the butter in the second pan used for the mushrooms, add the shallots and sugar and fry for 3 minutes until the shallots are golden brown and caramelised.

6 Add the wine, bring to the boil, then pour over the chicken.

7 Return the pan with the chicken to the heat, adding the stock, tomato purée and two-thirds of the tarragon. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook uncovered for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the chicken is cooked through.

8 Add the prepared tomatoes, parsley and the rest of the tarragon, and season with salt and pepper.

Serve two pieces of chicken on each plate and spoon over all the sauce.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Gluten Free, Mains, chasseur, chicken, classic chicken chasseur, coeliac diet, coeliac recipes, gluten free, gluten free food, gluten free meals, gluten free recipes, james martin, what is gluten, wheat free diet, wheat free foods, wheat free recipes

“Giles Chicken”

This is one recipe that I will let my mum explain…

“Giles Chicken” is a family favourite that we have been enjoying for many years. I dont know where Giles came up with the recipe but it is a quick and delicious dish that everyone seems to really like. It was cooked for us all on a canal holiday in France in 1991 when I decided to go on ‘strike’ and asked the children to cook one meal each. Fortunately we were able to stop at little villages along the route both to explore and to buy food and drink. Giles bought the ingredients listed below and cooked this lovely dish. This is why we call it Giles Chicken! We ate this sat on the deck of a boat on a deserted canal in the middle of France with the sun going down. Every time I make this dish it reminds of that very happy holiday.

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:
4 Free-range or organic chicken breasts – cut into bite-size pieces
4/6 Rashers of streaky bacon - chopped
Juice of a lemon
1 Lettuce shredded
Dressing of choice – usually walnut oil and balsamic vinegar
1tblsp Olive or Rapeseed oil

1 In a large pan heat 1 tablespoon of oil add the bacon and fry until it just colours.

2 Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes.

3 Add the juice of the lemon and continue cooking until the chicken is coloured, the bacon crisp and the lemon juice absorbed.

4 While that is happening shred the lettuce and put into a large bowl and toss in the dressing.

5 Once the chicken is ready tip it onto the top of the lettuce and serve with crusty bread and a tomato salad.

Summer on a plate at any time of the year!

This can be made for two people or more. Just allow a chicken breast and a bacon rasher per person and adjust the rest of the ingredients.

I try to use organic or free-range ingredients in every recipe.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Gluten Free, Mains, bacon, canal, chicken, coeliac diet, coeliac recipes, france, gluten free, gluten free food, gluten free meals, gluten free recipes, lemon, lettuce, summer, what is gluten, wheat free diet, wheat free foods, wheat free recipes

Thai Green Chicken Curry

This New Year’s Eve was a big family and friends celebration and so we decided on making it a curry night. While I made a usual Korma favourite, my mum made her Thai Green Chicken Curry which always goes down well. While stuck at their home in the snow, my mum made it again and this is what she sent me…

I always enjoy making a Thai Green Curry and did just that for New Year’s Eve when we had eighteen friends for a meal to celebrate the New Year 2010. They all helped out by bringing starters, puddings, cheese etc. and another friend brought an Indian curry to go with this and the Korma too. I’ve used the same recipe since 1998 when my daughter returned from her year and a half stay in Australia. She and her housemates used to make this as an easy meal and fed friends as well. She always used vegetables to add flavour and another dimension to the curry but I’ve noticed that some cooks only use meat or shellfish. If you are a vegetarian the meat and shellfish can just be left out.

I normally make my own green curry paste with lemongrass, chillies, garlic, ginger etc (and nearly everyone has their own recipe). Today I’m stuck at home with the snow so I used a good green paste from a jar. I hope you find it easy to make and enjoyable to eat.

(Printable Recipe)

Serves 4

Ingredients:
5 Chicken thighs or breasts – cut into bite-size pieces
Thai green curry paste - homemade or from a jar
Green vegetables – I use a combination of beans, mange-tout, green pepper, asparagus or whatever is around.
1 x 400ml coconut milk
1-2tbsp Fish sauce
½-1tbsp unrefined caster sugar
Chopped coriander
Jasmine or long-grain rice

1 Put a little oil in a wok and cook the chicken until lightly browned, removed from pan.

2 Heat the wok until very hot and add 1 heaped tsp of green curry paste and cook for a minute.

3 Return the chicken to the pan and coat with the paste, stirring all the time.

4 Then add the coconut milk and cook on a low heat for 15 minutes until the mixture begins to thicken a little.

5 Add the fish sauce and sugar to your taste, finally adding the green vegetables.

6 Cook for 5 minutes until the vegetable and hot but still have a bite (it may depend how you like your vegetable as to how long you cook them).

Serve with chopped coriander and Jasmine rice.
If using ordinary rice squeeze some lime juice over the cooked rice and fork through before serving.

NB the curry can be made in advance or even the day before, and kept in the fridge, so long as it is heated through properly before serving.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Curry, Mains, chicken, curry recipe, green, new year, new year's eve, rice, thai, thai curry, thai green chicken curry

Farewell Floyd Event – A Winning Recipe: Coq au Vin

Having waited just over a week for the judges, Julia and James, to choose their winning top 3 entries to the Farewell Floyd Food Blogging Event, I received an email from them yesterday morning, letting me know that my blog post Coq au Vin – A Tribute to Keith Floyd had been chosen as one of their Top 3 Winners, therefore winning myself a copy of ‘Floyd’s Food’ from Absolute Press. It was lovely to receive their email and kind words about my dish, first thing on a Monday morning and it made my day!

I had such great fun creating my tribute to Keith Floyd, for me and my family, and several glasses were consumed on his behalf during the cooking and eating, true Floyd style!

I was astounded by the lovely dishes the other winners and entrants had made and realised that there are other big Floyd fans out there that will miss him.

The other 2 winners were:
Going With My Gut: Kenyan Goat Feast — For Farewell Floyd: Food Blogging Event
Foodycat: Farewell Floyd – Jambalaya
both of which are fantastic recipes.

I cant wait to cook up my first dish from Floyds first publication and blog about too.

For the announcements and round-up from the judges please read the following posts:

Farewell Floyd: The Round-up
Farewell Floyd: Round-up and Winners Announced

Filed under: Blog Update, Others, au, beurre manié, bouquet garni, brandy, chicken, coq, coq au vin, farewell floyd food blogging event, keith floyd, red wine, somerset, vin, wine, winner, winning post

FoodCandy Featured Blog Post – Coq Au Vin

Having had a busy week at work, I have been playing catch up on all my emails, tweets and blog posts. One nice email to receive was from the new Food Social Network – FoodCandy.

They featured my blog post “Coq au Vin – A Tribute to Keith Floyd” on the front page of their site with the following note – ‘Enjoy the celebrity!’

Filed under: Blog Update, Others, au, beurre manié, bouquet garni, brandy, chicken, coq, coq au vin, farewell floyd food blogging event, featured blog post, foodcandy, keith floyd, red wine, somerset, vin, wine

Coq au Vin – A Tribute to Keith Floyd

My version

Keith's version

(See also “Farewell Floyd Event – A Winning Recipe: Coq au Vin”)

After not being able to take part in the ‘Farewell Floyd Food Blogging Event’ last weekend due to feeling ill, I was so happy to read that the deadline for the competition had been extended to the 25th October, meaning I was able to take part after all!

The idea of the event is that we all cook a meal in tribute to this much-loved chef either by cooking up a classic Keith Floyd recipe, an adapted Keith Floyd recipe or a recipe of our own design inspired by, and in tribute to Keith Floyd.

Having been lucky enough to borrow my mum’s original copy of ‘Floyd on France’, I spent an evening trawling all the delicious recipes to find a true classic that I could attempt to cook for this event. I ended up deciding to cook his Coq au Vin recipe which is translated in his book as ‘Cockerel in Red Wine’.

So I set about getting all the ingredients including a decent bottle of red Burgundy as Floyd uses it specifically in his recipe and mentions that “Burgundy is supposed to be famous for Coq au Vin”.

As for my own take on this recipe, I decided to use free-range chicken from Somerset as well as local cider brandy.

Now for my gluten free twist, I used cornflour to make my Beurre Manié and gluten free bread for my Garlic Croutons. This meant that my whole family could enjoy this fantastic dish, as I cooked it in Somerset on a weekend visit home.

I hope everyone that had taken part in this event has had as much fun creating their dishes as I have with mine and I hope that others try this fantastic Coq au Vin recipe. I also hope the late, great Keith Floyd would appreciate my twist of his recipe, as he was born and raised in Somerset too!

(Printable Recipe)

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:
4lb (2kg) Free-range chicken joints (from Somerset preferably)
5ozs (150g) Green streaky bacon, cut in cubes
20 Small Onions
4ozs (125g) Butter
1/2 Glass Brandy (Somerset Cider Brandy)
2 pints (1ltr) Red Burgundy
1 Bouquet Garni (made with fresh Thyme, Parsley and Bay Leaves)
2 Cloves Garlic
Salt and Pepper
1tbsp Sugar
7ozs (200g) Button Mushrooms
1tbsp Cornflour
Garlic Croutons (Gluten Free)

1 Fry the chicken, bacon and onions in about 2.5ozs (65g) of butter in a large pan.

2 When they have started to brown, chuck in the brandy and flame.

3 Pour on the red wine and add in your bouquet garni, garlic, salt and pepper.

4 Bring to the boil, add the sugar, cover and simmer for approximately 2 to 3 hours or until the chicken is cooked.

5 At the end of the cooking time, heat the mushrooms in some butter.

6 Remove the chicken from the pan when it is done, putting it into a deep platter to keep warm.

7 Discard the garlic and bouquet garni, then add the mushrooms to the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes.

8 Make a Beurre Manié with the remaining butter and cornflour and add it to the sauce little by little.

9 Stir it well until the sauce had thickened.

10 Arrange the chicken pieces in the platter and pour the sauce over, garnishing with the garlic croutons.

Serve with potatoes of your choice, or crusty bread, green vegetables and/or a green salad.

Enjoy!

Competition Links:
Back to the Chopping Board: Farewell Floyd: Food Blogging Event

A Slice of Cherry Pie: Farewell Floyd: Food Blogging Event

Filed under: Gluten Free, Mains, au, beurre manié, bouquet garni, brandy, chicken, coeliac diet, coeliac recipes, coq, coq au vin, farewell floyd food blogging event, gluten free, gluten free food, gluten free meals, gluten free recipes, keith floyd, red wine, somerset, vin, what is gluten, wheat free diet, wheat free foods, wheat free recipes, wine

Chicken Korma

I thought it was about time to try a recipe from a fellow food blogger after a month of writing my own, so after coming across Back to the Chopping Board by James Brewer (after he came up with the Farewell Floyd Food Blogging Event), I noticed he was a man after my own heart and enjoyed a curry or two!

Having wanted to make a curry from the ground up for a very long time, I thought his Chicken Korma would be ideal to try as you get to make the paste as well. I believe the recipe is an adaption of a Jamie Oliver one from his Ministry of Food book. The pictures of the curry being made on James’ site made me want to have a go as part of a curry night I wanted to do.

After going through my spice cupboard, I realised I only needed to get a few extra bits, so popped to the shops to get a green chilli, some ground almonds and desiccated coconut, some fresh corriander, a tin of coconut milk and a pot of creme fraiche. This was going to be a cheap meal as well as fun to make! The only thing I didnt use from the original recipe was the chickpeas as I am not a great fan of them.

I got everything washed, chopped, cut, crushed and prepared, took my laptop into the kitchen (my printer had run out of ink, so I had no way of printing it off) and got to work cooking this recipe. At the same time as creating this dish, I also cooked a Vegetable Balti from the BBC Good Food site, as I wanted to make my life a little more difficult! I’ll write about that dish in another post.

This recipe was great fun to make and I would recommend it to anyone to try. Making the paste at the start was the best bit, rather than having to use a bought one. I was really pleased how it came out!

All I will say is, this is the best korma I have made, and even though there are some great sauces and pastes out there, nothing can beat making it yourself from the ground up. This is definately one I will be making again. It tasted delicious!

Korma Paste

2 cloves Garlic
Ginger, thumb-sized piece
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Garam Masala
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
2 tbsp Groundnut Oil
1 tbsp Tomato Puree
1 fresh Green Chilli
3 tbsp Desiccated Coconut
2 tbsp Ground Almonds
Coriander, small bunch
2 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Coriander Seeds

1 Toast the cumin and coriander seeds together in a dry pan for a few minutes until they are golden. Remove from the heat and when cooled, grind them up in a pestle and mortar.

2 Peel the garlic and ginger and roughly chop.

3 Place all the ingredients into a food processor and whizz until you have a smooth paste.

Chicken Korma

2 Large Chicken Breasts
2 Medium Onions
Ginger, thumb sized piece
Coriander, small bunch
Groundnut Oil
Butter, knob of
Korma Paste (see above)
1 x 400 ml tin Coconut Milk
2 heaped tbsp Desiccated Coconut
1 heaped tbsp Ground Almonds
Sea Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper
4 tbsp Creme Fraiche

1 Firstly cut the chicken into cubes.

2 Peel and finely slice your onions, peel and finely chop the ginger, pick the coriander leaves and finally chop the stalks.

3 Put a large pan on a high heat, and add a few lugs of oil. Put the chicken into the pan and brown lightly on all sides for around 5 minutes, then remove from the pan.

4 Add the butter, onions, ginger and coriander stalks. Keep stirring it frequently to ensure none of it catches and burns, but turns golden evenly for around 10 mins.

5 Add the chicken back into the pan, and cook for another 2-3 mins.

6 Put in your Korma paste, stir well and cook for around 2-3 mins to help cook the rawness out.

7 Pour in your coconut milk, ground almond and desiccated coconut. Fill the empty coconut milk tin half with water and pour into the pan and give a good stir. Bring back to the boil, then turndown the heat and simmer for 30 minutes with a lid on. Check the curry regularly to make sure it is not drying out – if it does add a little water.

8 When the chicken is tender, season with salt and pepper and stir through Creme Fraiche.

Serve with Pilau Rice and sprinkle over the coriander leaves.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Curry, Gluten Free, Mains, bbc, chicken, chicken korma, coeliac diet, coeliac recipes, curry night, curry paste, curry recipe, gluten free, gluten free food, gluten free meals, gluten free recipes, indian, jamie oliver, korma, rice, what is gluten, wheat free diet, wheat free foods, wheat free recipes

Chicken, Porcini and Rocket Risotto

I am always up for experimenting and changing a recipe if I find a good basis, to add something new or adjust it for my tastes and this is one such recipe – after all, this is what I am learning that cooking is all about.

I love a good Italian Ask style Chicken and Mushroom Risotto – its the same wherever you have it and I have not had a bad one yet! So when I saw the Porcini and Spinach Risotto recipe in a suppliment with a free copy of an Olive Magazine, I thought I would have a go at it, having never made a risotto before and keen to keep trying to learn new things.

So I followed the recipe to the letter and it was very good, if not lacking something though – so I reminded myself of the Chicken and Mushroom Risotto’s I had had before and decided that next time I cooked it I would add chicken to the recipe.

A month went by and we decided to make it again and added the seasoned chicken that I had browned off at the start, along with a change from spinach to rocket – I had no spinach in my cupboard or fridge but had an abundance of rocket, some which was growing in my ‘cut and grow’ salad leaf box.

My girlfriends reaction to the changed recipe was ‘wow thats as good as you get in a restaurant’ which was great to hear and a lot more than had I expected! Due to that reaction, I have since made it several times at home and also for my parents on a visit back to the family home – they loved it too.

It certainly isnt rocket science (no pun intended… honestly) and has probably been made a thousand ways like this before but for me to learn to put ingredients together in this way and make something that I love to eat time and time again, cant be that bad!

So here is my Chicken, Porcini and Rocket Risotto variation:

25g Dried Porcini
2 Chicken Breasts (diced)
50g Butter
1 Onion (sliced)
1 Garlic Clove (crushed)
250g Chestnut Mushrooms (the magazine said 200g but every punnet I buy is 250g so why waste the extra 50g)
150g Risotto Rice
1 Glass of White Wine (Large preferably)
750ml Vegetable Stock
50g Rocket
Parmesan shavings

1 Soak the porcini in boiling water for 10 minutes and strain through a sieve, keeping the liquid for the risotto later.

2 After soaking, roughly chop the porcini.

3 Heat the butter in a large pan and cook the onion and garlic till soft.

4 At the same time, brown the diced chicken breasts in some olive oil and season and put to one side once cooked.

5 Once the onions are soft, add the sliced chestnut mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

6 Then add the chicken, porcini and rice and stir together until coated.

7 Tip in the wine until it is absorbed.

8 Gradually add the stock and porcini liquid, stirring, until the rice is tender with some bite.

9 Stir in the rocket until wilted.

Serve with parmesan shavings and enjoy!

NB I have noticed that the more organic the chestnut mushrooms are (they seem a lot darker) the darker the dish and rice is once cooked. Using supermarket mushrooms, the rice and dish appears a lot lighter once cooked. If it is darker, dont panic – you havent burnt it!!

Filed under: Gluten Free, Mains, chicken, coeliac diet, coeliac recipes, gluten free, gluten free food, gluten free meals, gluten free recipes, italian, mushrooms, parmesan, porcini, risotto, rocket, spinach, what is gluten, wheat free diet, wheat free foods, wheat free recipes, white wine

Chicken in White Sauce and Courgette Bake

My first memories of this dish are from the early eighties when mum used to make it as a quick meal when we got back in late from some place or another. Now she says she was given this recipe by her mum but has no idea where she got it from in turn. Perhaps it came from a meal she made up of home grown courgettes, left over chicken from a sunday roast and some white sauce – who knows?

Making this for the first time in years after we got back in late last night, brought back the memories of how much I used to enjoy this very simple meal. I have since added a new culinary twist to the dish – my 21st century addition to the family recipe – white wine.

It took me, using the recipe below, about 5 to 10 mins (at a slow tired pace) to put the ingredients together and 20 to 25 mins to bake in the oven – enough time to read my post, newspaper headlines and begin to unwind.

All I will say is that I had never made it for my partner before and she loved it as much as I did all over again.

Amounts depend on how hungry you are:

2 Tins of M&S Chunky Chicken in White Sauce
2 Courgettes
Grated Cheese for the topping
1 Glass of White Wine

Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F Gas 4 or 170C Fan Oven.

1 Thinly slice the courgettes length ways and place them in the bottom of an oven proof dish then season well.

2 Pour over the sliced courgettes the glass of white wine.

3 Empty the tins of chicken in white sauce over the courgettes.

4 Cover the bake with the cheese for the topping.

5 Bake in the oven for about 20 to 25 mins and take out once the topping is browning nicely.

6 Serve with… well just about anything you like – crusty bread, potatoes, beans etc.

7 Enjoy!

Filed under: Mains, bake, chicken, courgette, white sauce, white wine