Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

This dish is based on the recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef book. Have I mentioned I absolutely love Jamie Oliver? Maybe not.

(served with soft polenta)

It was quite easy to make. Basically, you put two chicken breasts with various ingredients in a foil bag and bake them in the oven until it’s nice and juicy.

For two people, you’ll need:

1. 2 chicken breasts – about 500 g. (if they are skin on, use less butter)
2. 4 button mushrooms, sliced
3. 4 Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced
4. 3 dried porcini mushroom slices
5. 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
6. 1 tbsp of butter
7. 4-5 sprigs of thyme
8. 1/3 cup of white wine
9. 1/2 tsp of Vegeta gourmet stock powder
10. Good pinches of salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220′c. Line a baking dish with two pieces of foil (about the size of a shoe box). Place chicken breasts on the foil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, stock powder, garlic and thyme leaves. Top with butter, mushroom slices and pour the wine over the chicken and mushrooms. Fold the rest of the foil over the chicken to cover them and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Check the chicken breasts half way through and turn them over so they cook evenly.

I served them with polenta which was just cooked in vegetable stock with butter and grated parmasan added to it. Simply cook 1 cup of polenta according to packet instructions and add butter and cheese.

When I was in a boarding school, chicken a la king was one of those dishes that was served and I actually liked. The way I recalled it, it had chicken in a pure white sauce and it was always served with this rice dish that had onion and peas cooked into it. Never had any pimiento in it though.

After consulting many many chicken a la king recipes online, it seems like most of the recipes are a blend of those two dishes I was served in a boarding school (minus the rice of course). So I just went with the general idea. Unfortunately, at the time I had no onion in the house. Definitely a required ingredient in chicken a la king!

This is the result.

You’ll need, for two people:

1. 2 cups of cooked chicken (I used the barbecued chicken that we bought earlier)
2. 1/2 onion, chopped (I didn’t have any and it definitely was lacking)
3. 1/2 red capsicum, cut into thin strips
4. 1/2 cup of frozen peas
5. 3 mushrooms, sliced
6. 2 tbsp of plain flour
7. 2 tbsp of butter
8. 1 tsbp of Vegeta stock power (or some salt)
9. 1.5 cups of milk
10. 1 bay leaf
11. 2 tbsp of tomato ketchup
12. 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce

Add butter to a frying pan until it bubbles, add onion, bay leaf, capsicum and mushroom to fry. Stir for 4-5 minutes until the mushrooms colour and the capsicum softens. Add the flour and keep frying for a minute or so until the flour is cooked. Add milk and stir vigorously to get rid of any lumps. Season with the stock powder or salt and pepper and bring the sauce to boil. Season with the tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Add any water if necessary. Add the cooked chicken and frozen peas and simmer for 10 minutes until the peas are cooked.

Serve on a bed of rice or cooked fettucine.

Edit: OMG I completely forgot to write about the tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Add them!

(Chicken and Tortilla Soup, topped with avocado, lime and coriander)

This is part 1 out of 3 from this week’s $20 Feast.

The main reason I wanted to do this soup is because it’s fabulous using leftover roast chicken and that’s what I had plenty of. We were at the supermarket late the other night and came across a nice looking barbecued chicken so we thought why not. They make really good sandwiches and other things.* If you don’t have leftover roast chicken, just use some fresh chicken breast instead. Poach it in the stock first and then slice and add to the soup.

So what you’ll need (this makes four servings of soup):

1. 1 litre of chicken stock
2. 1 tbsp of butter
3. 1 stalk of celery, chopped (leaves reserved for stock)
4. 1 small carrot, diced (peel reserved for stock)
5. 1/2 onion, diced
6. 1 garlic, chopped
7. 1 fresh coriander  (4-5 stalks), leaves reserved, stalked chopped
8. 1.5 cups of leftover roast or barbecued chicken, no skin
9. 1 tsp ground cumin
10. 1 tsp ground coriander
11. 1/2 tsp chilli powder
12. 1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
13. 1/3 canned diced tomato
14. 1 tbsp tomato paste
15. 2 corn tortilla
16. wedges of lime, to serve
17. 1/2 avocado, cubed to serve

Making chicken stock

(freshly made chicken stock)

So first things first, the stock. I find that supermarket barbecue chicken bits (skin, wings, frame, bones) make fantastically rich chicken stock. And fast too! I placed a litre of filtered water, handful of chicken bits (that we didn’t really want to eat, no stuffing though!), some carrot peels, some young yellow celery leaves (don’t add the dark green stalks) and tough stalks. You can add a bit of stock powder if you like, I tend to do that instead of salt. Bring the stock to boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Skim off any fat.

Putting the soup together

Heat some butter in a saucepan and sautee onion, celery, coriander stalks and carrot on medium heat until soft. Add bay leaf, garlic and chicken. Turn the heat up and stir for a minute or so until heated through. Add ground cumin, ground coriander, chilli powder, canned tomato and tomato paste. Add 3/4 of the  stock and bring to boil. Simmer for 20 minutes. Taste and season accordingly. If desired, add more stock.

Garnishing the soup

Take the two corn tortill and either cut them into strips and deep them or spray some cooking oil and microwave on high for about 1 minute. Once cooled, the tortilla will be come crispy.

Cut avocado into cubes.

To serve, ladel the soup into a soup bowl. Top with avocado and the crispy tortilla (crack them if they are still whole) Garnish with some coriander leaves and serve with a wedge of lime squeeze over the soup. ¡Buen apetito!

* That chicken ended up being numerous sandwiches, this soup, chicken a la king, and barbecued chicken and veggie stir-fry. Talk about stretching one chookie!

I (very, very loosely) base the chicken korma recipe on Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food book and completely made up the pea pulao. I have to say I’m very impressed with myself for replicating the pea pulao without consulting any recipe!

Chicken Korma

For 4 people:

1. 2 chicken breast fillets, skin-off, cut into 2.5 cm cubes
2. 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
3. 1 onion, sliced
4. 1 piece of thumb-sized ginger, finely chopped
5. 5 stems of coriander, leaves picked, stalked chopped finely
6. 1 red or green chilli, sliced
7. 3 heaped tbsp of Patak’s korma curry paste or to taste
8. 1/2 can of coconut milk
9. 1/2 cup of pumpkin, steamed and mashed
10. yoghurt, to serve

(frying onion, ginger, coriander stems and chilli)

Marinade the chicken cubes with the soy sauce. Set aside. Add some butter and oil to a frying pan on medium heat and fry the onion, ginger and coriander stems until the onion softens and slightly brown. Add the chilli. Stir until the chilli softens. Add the curry paste, coconut milk and mashed pumpkin to make up the korma sauce. Add a bit of water if the sauce is too dry. Simmer on very low heat for 5 minutes.

(adding chicken to the curry sauce)

Turn the heat back to medium until the sauce bubbles and add the chicken cubes. Stir and turn the heat down to simmer for about 5 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked through. Because we’re using chicken breasts, we don’t want the chicken to be overcooked which will make it tough and dry. If you’re using chicken thigh, brown the chicken pieces with the onion and ginger before adding the curry paste and simmer for 15 minutes longer.

Top with plain yoghurt and the coriander leaves.

Pea Pulao (using a rice cooker)

I made this in the automatic rice cooker which requires 2 cups of rice minimum.It’s really simple and works well.

You’ll need:

1. 2 cups of basmati rice, washed until the water runs clear
2. 1/2 cup of frozen peas
3. 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
4. 1 bay leaf (I use fresh now that I have amassed some fresh bay leaf supplies)
5. 5 cloves
6. 5 pods of green cardamon
7. 2 tbsp of vegetable oil
8. Water

Turn the rice cooker on and set to cook (you might need to stand there and keep your finger on the ‘Cook’ button) Add oil to the cooker and wait a few minutes until the oil is hot. Add the spices and wait a minute or so. Add the rice and water (your cooker would normally have a marking on the side to tell you how much to add. if it doesn’t, try 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice for the rest 2 cups and 1.5 cups of water for each cup of rice after – again this depends a lot on your cooker and the rice you use). Let the rice cook for about 10 minutes. Add the frozen peas and continue to cook until the rice is ready.

Serve with chicken korma. Or any other Indian-style curry imaginable. Yummy.

I generally don’t order Butter Chicken when I eat at Indian restaurants here in Melbourne because I get the impression that they are westernised rubbish. And they generally are. Until I went to Bombay By Night in Caulfield who did a really nice Butter Chicken. I realised then that the main difference is that the chicken pieces must be marinated and grilled before putting them into the butter and tomato sauce. They called it Chicken Makhani. I then realise that generally the restaurants that call it Makhani make better Butter Chicken that others! Strange but true.

I consulted many, many Butter Chicken recipes out there on the web and I decided that the one on VideoJug seems to be most authentic one. But it seems a little bit too fiddly so I add my own short cuts here and there.

There are two parts to the Butter Chicken: the Chicken Tikka and the Makhani sauce. Yes it does make it fiddly but it is very good!

Chicken Tikka

I use (for four people):

1. 4 chicken thigh fillets (about 450 g.)
2. 1/2 pack of Patak’s Coat + Cook Tikka (I thought I might give it a try but it’s not really necessary)
3. 2 tbsp of yoghurt
4. 1 tsp of crushed ginger (I use garlic crusher)
5. 1 clove of garlic, crushed
6. 1 tsp salt
7. 1/2 tsp powdered garam masala
8. a sprinkle of hot cayenne pepper (it’s very hot so I went a bit easy on it)

Trim off any excess fat on the thigh. Mix the rest of the ingredients together to make the marinade. Add the chicken to the marinade and massage the marinade into the chicken. Leave to marinate for about 1/2 hour. Grill under medium/high grill until browned on both sides. It takes about 10 minutes on each side on my grill.

Makhani Sauce

I use (the tomato is just there in the picture because it’s purrdy):

1. 2 sticks of cinnamon
2. 5 cloves
3. 5 pods of green cardamon (not black, they are different)
4. 4 dried bay leaves
5. 1 tsp of cumin seeds
6. 1 tbsp of sliced green capsicum (should be green chilli but I didn’t have any)
7. 1 tsp of ground fenugreek seeds (the recipe asks for kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) but I figured this is close enough)
8. 1 tbsp of crushed ginger
9. 2 cloves of crushed garlic
10. 1 can of diced Italian tomatoes
11. 2 tbsp of cashew nuts, grind to powder
12. 1 tbsp of honey
13. 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper (or chilli powder)
14. 1 tsp ground garam masala
15. 2 tbsp of tomato paste
16. 1 tbsp of cream
17. salt to taste

Heat some vegetable oil in a saucepan, add the cinnamon, cloves, cardamon pods, bay leaves, cumin and sliced green chillis. Stir for 1/2 a minute until the spices are toasted. Add the ginger and garlic and stir for another 1/2 a minute. Add the diced tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes.

Once the Chicken Tikka is done, cut them into bite-sized pieces and reserve any cooking juice. Add chicken and cooking juices into the Makhani sauce. Add the cashew nuts, honey, cayenne pepper, ground garam masala and tomato paste. Simmer for another ten minutes. Season to taste. Finish with a bit of cream at the end. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Serve with naan or basmati rice. I serve it with Vegetable Biryani this time.