Recipes

Jamaican chicken curry with sweet love apples and rum

Jamaican chicken curry with sweet love apples and rum

Spicy and coconutty, Jamaican curry really can contain whatever vegetables you have to hand, so you can use sweet potato instead of pumpkin, or add peppers or carrots. It can also be hotter, so up the chilli content if you want to. My own additions to the traditional Jamaican version are caramelized tomatoes (tomatoes are known as ‘love apples’ there) – I like the sweetness they bring at the end – and a good slosh of rum (just enough to be detectable). I mean, why not?
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Ingredients

  • 650 g 1lb 7oz skinless boneless chicken thighs or leg meat, cut into big chunks
  • 2 tbsp curry powder
  • 75 ml 2½fl oz lime juice, plus the juice of ½ lime, plus the finely grated zest of 2
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil or any other oil you prefer
  • salt and pepper
  • 500 g 1lb 2oz butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
  • 250 g 9oz potato, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 2 tsp ground allspice
  • 3 garlic cloves roughly chopped
  • 2 cm ¾in root ginger, peeled and grated
  • 2 red chillies halved, deseeded and shredded
  • 6 spring onions chopped
  • 4 sprigs of thyme plus the leaves of 1 sprig
  • 400 ml can of coconut milk
  • 4 large tomatoes chopped
  • 1 tsp soft light brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp rum

Instructions

  • Put the chicken, 1 tbsp of the curry powder and the 75ml (2½fl oz) of lime juice into a bowl.
  • Toss together with your hands then cover with cling film, put in the fridge and leave to marinate overnight (or for at least four hours).
  • Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
  • Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a heavy-based casserole, season the chicken with salt and pepper and, working in batches, brown the chicken all over.
  • Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
  • Add the squash and potato and cook over a medium heat to get a little colour on them for about six minutes.
  • Now add the rest of the curry powder, the allspice, garlic, ginger, chillies and spring onions and cook for about two minutes, stirring.
  • Return the chicken, together with any juices which have run out of it, to the pan with the marinade.
  • Add the 4 sprigs of thyme, the lime zest and coconut milk and season.
  • Heat until the mixture is at a gentle simmer, then leave it to cook for about 30 minutes.
  • The chicken and vegetables will become tender and the liquid will reduce.
  • About five minutes before the curry is ready, heat the rest of the oil in a frying pan and add the tomatoes.
  • Season.
  • Cook them until they are soft and a lot of their liquid has evaporated.
  • Add the sugar and allow the tomatoes to caramelize a little.
  • Add these to the curry.
  • If the sauce seems a little thin, then gently mash some of the squash and potatoes with a fork to thicken the sauce.
  • Add the rum and heat through.
  • Check for seasoning.
  • Although you will feel like reaching for the coriander, it’s not right for this: thyme is the thing.
  • Add a final sprinkling of it and a really generous squeeze of lime juice.
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Course; Chicken
Cuisine; Jamaica

Cumin and lime-scented potato salad with date and tamarind chutney

Cumin and lime-scented potato salad with date and tamarind chutney

It might seem odd to drizzle a ‘chutney’ over asalad, but this is a smooth Indian chutney, rather than the thick, chunkyAnglo-Indian variety.
The chutney recipemakes about 300ml (½ pint), which is more than you need for the potato salad,but it’s difficult to work with smaller quantities. The extra can be frozen inbatches.
The potatoes andchutney are actually lovely on their own with some cucumber raita, but bothalso make brilliant side dishes for any chicken roasted with Indian spices andthey’re especially wonderful with Roopa’s lemon grass and turmeric chicken.
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHUTNEY

  • 150 g 5½oz tamarind paste
  • 150 g 5½oz pitted dates, chopped
  • 150 g 5½oz jaggery or soft dark brown sugar
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp garam masala
  • 1½ tsp cumin seeds toasted and ground

FOR THE POTATO SALAD

Instructions

  • Start with the chutney.
  • Put the tamarind, dates, jaggery or sugar and 500ml (18fl oz) of water into a pan and bring to the boil.
  • Reduce the heat and simmer until the dates are really soft and the mixture has reduced by about half.
  • Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool.
  • Stir in the spices and whizz in a food processor until smooth.
  • Add a dash of water if it’s too thick; you want something with a coating consistency.
  • Boil the potatoes until tender.
  • Halve each one and tip into a serving bowl.
  • Add the lime juice, red onion, cracked pepper, chillies and cumin and leave to cool (you can serve this warm or at room temperature).
  • Toss in the herbs and drizzle with about 50ml (2fl oz) of the chutney.
  • Serve.
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Course; Chicken

Roopa’s lemon grass and turmeric chicken with potato salad and date and tamarind chutney

Roopa’s lemon grass and turmeric chicken with potato salad and date and tamarind chutney

One of my favourite dishes in the book, this recipe comes from my friend Roopa Gulati. Her mum used to make it. It is actually very simple to cook – it’s just spiced roast chicken with dressed potatoes, after all – but it is satisfying on every level: it looks like a painting when you set it on the table (all those dark colours); has contrasting flavours (slightly bitter turmeric beside sweet dates); and is an Indian dish that has a fairly limited ingredients list so it’s not time-consuming to make. You ideally need fresh turmeric; it looks like a skinny, bright-coloured root ginger. You’ll find it in larger supermarkets and ethnic shops. If you can’t find it, use 1 tbsp of ground turmeric instead, though it doesn’t make a paste. I couldn’t publish this recipe without its delicious accompaniments, Cumin and lime-scented potato salad with date and tamarind chutney.
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Ingredients

  • 4 cm 1½in fresh turmeric
  • 2 lemon grass stalks
  • 3 red chillies chopped
  • 60 g 3oz galangal or root ginger, peeled and chopped
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1½ tsp cracked black peppercorns
  • 1.5 kg 3lb 5oz chicken
  • 2 limes halved
  • small bunch of Thai basil or mint if you can’t find Thai basil
  • 125 ml 4fl oz chicken stock (optional)

Instructions

  • The day before, peel the turmeric and roughly chop (best to wear clean kitchen gloves; that yellow colour stains everything).
  • Remove the coarse outer layers from the lemon grass and trim the top and base.
  • Chop the rest – the softer bit of the lemon grass – as finely as you can.
  • Combine the turmeric and lemon grass with the chillies, the galangal and salt.
  • Blitz in a food processor or blender with the vinegar and oil and add the cracked pepper.
  • Make slashes in the chicken on its breasts and legs with a small sharp knife.
  • With gloved hands, rub the paste all over the chicken, pushing it into the slashes and inside the bird, too.
  • Cover loosely with cling film and marinate the chicken overnight in the fridge.
  • Bring it to room temperature before cooking.
  • Truss the bird, if you like; it does make it look neat.
  • The next day, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
  • Stuff the cavity with three lime halves and the Thai basil, squeezing the remaining lime half over the bird.
  • Roast in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.
  • Three-quarters of the way through the cooking time, add the stock or the same amount of water to the tin and scrape the sediment off the bottom to mix in with the liquid.

Notes & Wine Advice

Serve the chicken with the juices from the pan, the potato salad overleaf and a cucumber raita.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken with riesling, leeks and grapes

Chicken with riesling, leeks and grapes

The richest of the French chicken dishes in this chapter and a good Friday night treat for supper with friends. If you’re not partial to grapes you can use the same recipe, sauté about 125g (4½oz) of quartered button mushrooms once the dish is cooked and gently stir them in instead.
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Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 15 g ½oz unsalted butter
  • salt and pepper
  • 4 skin-on bone-in chicken legs drumsticks and thighs attached
  • 1 onion very finely chopped
  • 375 ml 13fl oz dry Riesling
  • 3 medium-large leeks
  • 150 ml 5fl oz chicken stock
  • 3 sprigs of thyme plus leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 150 ml 5fl oz double cream
  • 60 g 3oz seedless green grapes, not too big
  • squeeze of lemon juice

Instructions

  • Heat the oil and butter in a large sauté pan over a medium heat, season the chicken pieces and brown them on both sides until they are a good golden colour.
  • Don’t turn the chicken until it is easy to move, or the skin will tear.
  • It will take about eight minutes to brown both sides properly.
  • Remove the chicken and pour off all but 1 tbsp of the fat in the pan.
  • Add the onion and cook over a medium-low heat until it is soft but not coloured.
  • Add the Riesling and bring to the boil, stirring to dislodge the essences stuck to the bottom of the pan and reducing the wine by half.
  • Remove the dark leaves from the tops of the leeks and any coarse outer leaves.
  • Trim the bases.
  • Cut each leek into neat lengths of about 4cm (1½in).
  • Wash these, keeping them intact.
  • Add the stock to the pan and return to the boil.
  • Reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer, add the herbs and leeks and return the chicken with any juices that have run out of it.
  • Cover the pan and cook for 15 minutes.
  • Remove the leeks carefully with a slotted spoon – they should be tender by now – and set aside.
  • Continue to cook the chicken for another 20–25 minutes, then remove the chicken and reduce the cooking liquid by boiling; you want to end up with about 150ml (5fl oz).
  • Add the cream and the grapes and bring to the boil to cook the grapes and reduce the sauce.
  • You should end up with a sauce that just coats the back of a wooden spoon.
  • Remove the herbs.
  • Add the lemon juice and taste for seasoning.
  • Return the chicken and leeks to the cream sauce and gently heat through.
  • Serve with the extra thyme leaves sprinkled over the top.
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Course; Chicken

Poulet bonne femme

Poulet bonne femme

There are many versions of this, some using a whole chicken, others using pieces. Some have only bacon and shallots, others include mushrooms as well. The key thing is that it’s light and uses white wine. I much prefer it to coq au vin made with red wine. I’ve always loved the name – ‘housewife’s chicken’ – and I’ve been cooking it since I was a teenager, when I came across a version in my mum’s old Cordon Bleu part work. It seemed to be the kind of French dish that, with just a little care, I could pull off.
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Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 125 g 4½oz bacon lardons (quite chunky bits)
  • 35 g 1¼oz unsalted butter
  • 1 chicken skin-on, jointed into 8
  • 16 shallots peeled
  • 275 g 9¾oz really small waxy potatoes (ideally peeled, but don’t worry if you’re in a hurry)
  • 3 garlic cloves crushed
  • 200 ml 7fl oz white wine
  • 150 ml 5fl oz chicken stock
  • 1 bouquet garni
  • salt and pepper
  • 125 g 4½oz small button mushrooms
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

Instructions

  • Heat half the oil in a casserole and sauté the bacon over a medium heat until it is golden all over.
  • Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
  • Add half the butter to the pan and brown the chicken on both sides.
  • Don’t let the fat burn as you are doing this.
  • Remove the chicken to a plate.
  • Pour off almost all the fat from the casserole, leaving about 1 tbsp behind.
  • Put the shallots into a saucepan of boiling water, reduce the heat and simmer for four minutes.
  • Drain and pat dry, then put them into the casserole with the potatoes and sauté these in the fat until pale gold.
  • Add the garlic and continue to sauté for two minutes.
  • Pour the wine into the pan and bring to the boil, then immediately reduce the heat and return the chicken and bacon, together with any of the juices that have run out of them.
  • Pour in the stock, add the bouquet garni and season.
  • Bring it all to the boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer.
  • Cook for 40 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and cooked through (when you pierce the flesh nearest the bone with the tip of a sharp knife the juices that run from the chicken should be clear, with no trace of pink).
  • The potatoes should be completely tender, too.
  • Meanwhile, melt the rest of the butter and oil in a frying pan and sauté the mushrooms briskly so they get a really good colour.
  • Allow their juices to evaporate.
  • Season.
  • Add them to the chicken about 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

Notes & Wine Advice

Check for seasoning, scatter on the parsley and serve immediately.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken forestière

Chicken forestière

One of those dishes that turns out better than you anticipate. A few dried wild mushrooms, a bag of carrots, some chicken thighs and a dash of cream. Simple ingredients that aren’t that expensive. But you end up with a bosky, luxurious panful.
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Ingredients

  • 20 g ¾oz dried wild mushrooms
  • salt and pepper
  • 8 skin-on bone-in chicken thighs
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 small onions halved and cut into thin crescent moon-shaped slices
  • 75 ml 2½fl oz Madeira or, failing that, dry sherry
  • 215 g 7½oz carrots, peeled and cut into batons
  • 200 ml 7fl oz chicken stock
  • 150 ml 5fl oz double cream
  • 150 g 5½oz button or chestnut mushrooms, quartered
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

Instructions

  • Season the thighs and heat the oil in a sauté pan.
  • Cook the chicken on both sides to get a good brown colour.
  • Don’t turn the pieces over until they can easily be moved, otherwise the skin will tear.
  • You don’t need to cook the chicken through, you’re just getting a good colour.
  • Remove the chicken from the pan and put in a dish.
  • Pour off all but 1 tbsp of fat from the pan into a bowl (reserve this fat), but don’t wash the pan out.
  • Heat the fat that remains in the pan and sauté the onions until soft and pale gold.
  • Deglaze the pan with the alcohol, scraping with a wooden spoon to dislodge all the flavour from the base.
  • Add the carrots and the stock, plus the wild mushrooms and their soaking liquor.
  • Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
  • Return the chicken to the pan (together with any juices that have run out of it), placing it skin side up.
  • Cover and cook gently for 20 minutes.
  • Remove the lid, stir in the cream, return to a simmer again and cook for another 10 minutes with the lid off.
  • In a separate pan, heat 1 tbsp of the reserved chicken fat and quickly sauté the mushrooms until they are golden brown.
  • The mixture should be dry, so cook until the liquid in the mushrooms has evaporated.
  • Season and toss in with the chicken, stirring gently to combine everything.
  • The ‘sauce’ should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
  • Taste for seasoning, though you shouldn’t need to adjust it (the reduced chicken stock is quite salty).
  • Scatter on the parsley and serve from the pan in which it was cooked.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken, soft spring onions and baby potatoes

Chicken, soft spring onions and baby potatoes

As an Irish girl I love spring onions (we call them scallions), as our beloved ‘champ’ contains nothing more than mashed potatoes, butter and chopped scallions cooked in milk. A sandwich of white bread, butter and chopped spring onions was a favourite childhood snack. But I had never cooked any other dish in which they were dominant. Until this. It’s spring-like, with a lovely muted oniony flavour. You can add peas (fresh or frozen, just stir them in towards the end of cooking) and shredded soft lettuce is good, too, just wilting a little in the heat. It’s a light, simple sauté, but doesn’t seem at all old-fashioned.
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Ingredients

  • 8 large skin-on bone-in chicken thighs or a mixture of joints
  • 400 g 14oz baby waxy potatoes (no need to peel)
  • 10 g ¼oz unsalted butter
  • ½ tbsp olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 450 g 1lb spring onions, roughly chopped
  • 200 ml 7fl oz dry vermouth
  • 3 –4 tbsp chicken stock or water
  • 5 tbsp crème fraîche or double cream
  • 1 tbsp chopped chervil leaves or parsley leaves, though aniseedy chervil is perfect here

Instructions

  • Trim the skin from the chicken thighs so that there are no ragged bits.
  • If the potatoes are any bigger than a walnut, cut them in half.
  • In a shallow broad pan (such as a sauté pan, something that will hold all the chicken pieces in a single layer) heat the butter and olive oil, season the chicken and brown it over a medium heat until coloured on all sides.
  • You are not trying to cook the chicken through, just colour it.
  • Lift the chicken joints out and put them in a bowl.
  • Pour off all but 3 tbsp of the fat from the pan.
  • Add 400g (14oz) of the spring onions and cook over a medium heat until they are glossy.
  • Add the vermouth and stock or water and bring to the boil, scraping up all the bits that have stuck to the pan.
  • Put the potatoes into the pan and reduce the heat to medium.
  • Return the chicken, with its juices, cover and cook at a gentle simmer for 20 minutes.
  • Remove the lid and cook for another 20 minutes.
  • The liquid will reduce and the chicken cook right through (you can check by piercing the flesh near the bone with a the tip of a sharp knife; there should be no trace of pink).
  • If you have a lot of liquid left, then remove the chicken and boil the juices to reduce them, but you should have just about enough to give everyone some chicken and a spoonful or two of juice.
  • Stir in the crème fraîche and the rest of the spring onions.
  • Heat through for a couple of minutes, then scatter the chervil on top and serve.
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Course; Chicken

Chicken with shaoxing wine, crisp radishes and pickled ginger

Chicken with shaoxing wine, crisp radishes and pickled ginger

A dish that highlights the importance of texture. The sweet chicken is very good against the clean crunch of the radishes and daikon but – to really appreciate it – you should soak the cut radishes in iced water, as that really firms them up. Use Amontillado sherry if you don’t have Shaoxing wine and feel free to add sliced chillies at the same time as the ginger and garlic, if you want some heat as well.
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

  • 8 skinless boneless chicken thighs
  • 115 g 4oz daikon
  • 130 g 4¾oz radishes
  • 2 tbsp groundnut oil
  • 3 cm 1¼in root ginger, peeled and shredded
  • 6 garlic cloves very finely sliced
  • 50 ml 2fl oz Shaoxing wine
  • 2½ tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 2 spring onions finely chopped
  • 50 g 1¾oz pickled ginger (pink or beige, though pink looks better)
  • 2 tsp black or white sesame seeds
  • about 2 tbsp micro leaves if available (purple amaranth, cress or pea shoots)

FOR THE MARINADE

Instructions

  • Cut the chicken thighs into chunks (about 2.
  • 5cm/1in square) and put into a bowl with the marinade ingredients.
  • Mix everything together, cover with cling film and put in the fridge to marinate for two hours if you have time, 30 minutes if you’re pushed.
  • Bring to room temperature before cooking.
  • Peel the daikon and cut it into thin batons.
  • Trim the radishes and slice them lengthways.
  • Drop these into a bowl of ice cubes and water and leave to crisp up.
  • Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok or sauté pan until it’s really hot, then brown the chicken in three batches, removing the browned chicken as it’s ready and putting it into a bowl.
  • It’s really important to get a good colour on the chicken.
  • Add the rest of the oil to the pan, heat it, then add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry until the garlic is pale gold.
  • Deglaze the wok or pan with the Shaoxing wine, then return the browned chicken.
  • Season generously with pepper.
  • Cook for another four minutes, stirring from time to time, then add the soy sauce, honey and 75ml (2½fl oz) of water and cook for another four minutes, tossing the contents of the pan around, until you have enough liquid to just coat the chicken and the chicken is cooked through.
  • Add the lime juice and taste for seasoning.
  • Put the chicken into a warmed broad, shallow serving bowl.
  • Drain the daikon and radish and quickly pat dry in a clean tea towel.
  • Throw these over the chicken with the spring onions, picked ginger and sesame seeds.
  • Serve immediately, sprinkled with the micro leaves (if using).
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Course; Chicken

Chicken rye schnitzel with mustard sauce

Chicken rye schnitzel with mustard sauce

Ah, one of the best midweek meals (and – hurrah – one that the kids have taken to as well). If you don’t want to make the mustard sauce, just serve some mustard (I prefer English here) on the side. I like it with a sweet-and-sour cucumber salad tossed with dill, or pickled or braised red cabbage. Little waxy potatoes too, please.
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Ingredients

FOR THE SCHNITZEL

FOR THE MUSTARD SAUCE

  • 15 g ½oz unsalted butter
  • 4 shallots finely chopped
  • 3½ tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 150 ml 5fl oz dry white wine
  • 200 ml 7fl oz double cream
  • 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
  • good squeeze of lemon juice

Instructions

  • Put the thighs between two sheets of greaseproof paper and flatten them with a rolling pin.
  • (Bash them, but not so violently that the chicken flesh starts to break up.)
  • Set out three broad shallow soup plates (or something similar).
  • Fill one with the flour and season it well, the next with the eggs and the last with the breadcrumbs.
  • Make the mustard sauce.
  • Melt the butter and gently sauté the shallots until soft.
  • Add the vinegar, whack up the heat and reduce to about 1 tbsp.
  • Add the wine and boil to reduce by half, then add the cream, mustard, lemon and salt and pepper and heat through.
  • If it becomes too thick (the lemon juice will thicken the cream), just let it down with a little water.
  • Set aside to reheat later.
  • Season the thighs, then dip each one in the flour to coat, then the egg, then press into the rye crumbs.
  • Set them on a nonstick baking sheet as they are ready.
  • Heat half the groundnut oil in a large non-stick frying pan.
  • Cook the thighs over a medium heat for four minutes on each side.
  • The coating should be golden and the chicken cooked through.
  • Sprinkle with salt and pepper and quickly squeeze lemon juice all over the schnitzel.
  • Quickly reheat the sauce.
  • Serve the chicken immediately with the sauc
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Course; Chicken

Roast jerusalem artichokes and chicken with anchovy, walnut and parsley relish

Roast jerusalem artichokes and chicken with anchovy, walnut and parsley relish

More messing around with anchovies. Here they arenot disguised – you know you’re eating them – but I am totally hooked onsalty-sweet-savoury combinations. Cooks tend to think anchovies are good withlamb, but they work really well with chicken, too.
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Ingredients

FOR THE CHICKEN

FOR THE RELISH

  • 1 fat garlic clove chopped
  • ¼ tsp sea salt flakes
  • 150 g 5½oz walnut pieces
  • 5 anchovies drained of oil and chopped
  • 75 ml 2½fl oz extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp white balsamic vinegar
  • 4 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.
  • Scrub the Jerusalem artichokes well.
  • You don’t need to peel them (the skin looks good and has a nice nutty flavour).
  • Cut them in half lengthways and put them in a steamer.
  • Cook for about 10 minutes, then pat them dry.
  • Heat half the oil in a roasting tin on the hob.
  • Tumble in the Jerusalem artichokes and shake them around to coat in the oil.
  • Brush the rest of the oil on the chicken joints and put these into the tin too, making space for them among the artichokes.
  • Season well and squeeze on the lemon.
  • Roast for 35–40 minutes, shaking the pan every so often.
  • The vegetables should be tender and caramelized in patches and the chicken golden and cooked through.
  • Meanwhile, make the relish.
  • Put the garlic and salt flakes into a mortar and grind to a paste.
  • Add the walnuts and anchovies and pound until you have a mixture that is partly puréed, partly chunky.
  • Stir in the oil, balsamic, some pepper and the parsley.
  • Either serve the relish on the side (that way people get to choose how much they have), or spoon it over the chicken and artichokes.
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Course; Chicken / Nuts