Coronation Chicken

Coronation Chicken was invented by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume, both principals of the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London, whilst preparing dishes for the banquet of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. I decided to do some research on this recipe and adapted a couple of recipes that I found online. This is the best version I have found, an absolute delight. Considered as a retro recipe here in the United Kingdom, it tried to make its comeback as a pre-prepared sandwich filling available at major supermarkets. It definitely goes without saying that the supermarket stuff is rubbish and having made our own Coronation chicken it is definitely galaxies away from the real thing. It is quite easy to prepare, boil chicken, let cool, take meat off the chicken and mix all the ingredients. Cool and enjoy!! Do try it, you can serve it as a salad, served with boiled rice, pilaf rice, naan bread, indeed as a sandwich filling...anything you like really. You can refrigerate the leftover and believe me it will definitely taste better. You will need...

• 1 whole chicken, 1½ kg 

For the chicken

• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 black peppercorns
• Thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• Pinch of saffron strands

For the sauce

• 200 ml  mayonnaise
• 300 ml Greek yoghurt (or other thick yoghurt)
• Chopped fresh coriander
• 5 tbsp good quality mild mango chutney (I use Geeta's)
• 50 g soft dried apricots, finely chopped
• 20g raisins
• 3 tbsp curry powder
• 2 ½  tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• Flaked almonds, to serve

How to...

1. Start by cooking the chicken, put the chicken in a large pot, add the salt, cinnamon, peppercorns, ginger. bay leaf and saffron. and cover with water. Simmer gently for about 2 hours 15 minutes (basically boiled chicken cooking time is 30 minutes per 454g (1 pound) plus an extra 30 minutes). When cooked, take the chicken out of the pot and leave to cool completely. When cool, remove the meat off the carcass and make sure that any large meat pieces are chopped into small bite size pieces.
2. In a small dry frying pan, toast the curry powder (to remove any bitterness) for a about 1-2 minutes. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add the chutney, raisins and apricots and mix well. Now add the toasted curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, grated ginger, mayonnaise and Greek yoghurt and mix well again. Add the chopped coriander & diced chicken and fold in gently. Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour.
4. Before serving sprinkle with the flaked almonds. Serve with basmati rice or some delicious Peshwari naan bread.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Baby Pumpkins Stuffed with Camembert, Vegetables & Bacon

I was at the supermarket and came across these cute baby pumpkins that were called Munchkin pumpkins. I could not resist buying a couple of them and I started thinking instantly on how am I going to cook them. After doing some research I came up with this idea. It turned out incredibly tasty, creamy, salty, sweet, crunchy, crispy...just wonderful. As we were cooking this on a week night I obviously relied on Amanda to help us with the preparation. In fact, to make sure that everything is cooked evenly, everything should be chopped finely and basically the same size. If you want to turn this recipe into a vegetarian one omit the bacon and to turn it vegan, omit the bacon and cheese and use vegetable oil instead of butter. So, Halloween is upon us once again and pumpkin recipes are on high demand, so I will try and come up with a couple more before the spooky night!! Give this a go and you will definitely not be sorry, they are delicious! For two baby pumpkins you will need...

• 2 Baby pumpkins or small Butternut squash
  
• 6 mushrooms, finely sliced
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1 red pepper, finely diced
• 1 green chilli, finely diced
• 1 celery stick, finely diced
• Some pumpkin/butternut squash flesh, finely diced
• 3 fresh sage leaves
• Vegetable oil or butter
• Salt & pepper
• 175g bacon, finely diced
• 150g Camembert, sliced
• Dry sherry

 How to...

1. Heat oil or butter together with the sage leaves,
2. Add vegetables and cook covered on medium heat until soft, 
3. Now remove sage leaves, add bacon and mushrooms and cook on higher heat until mushrooms are wilted and all liquid has disappeared. Add salt, pepper and some dry sherry. Cook, stirring frequently until all alcohol has evaporated. Turn off heat.
4. Add Camembert slices at the bottom of the pumpkin/squash and top with the filling. Add some extra Camembert on top of the filling, cover with pumpkin lid and bake at 180 deg for 50 minutes to an hour.
5. Serve hot!!

Enjoy!!

R&A

Lamb Liver Risotto with Sage & Marsala

This was our second time cooking risotto and as the first time it was a success! It turned out delicious. I love liver and the combination with fresh sage and the Marsala wine that it is cooked with made this recipe taste wonderful. If you do not have Marsala use red wine, the taste will change but will definitely turn out as good. All you need for a perfect risotto is patience, it takes between 20-30 minutes to cook a good risotto and you have to keep stirring all the way to make sure the rice soaks up all the stock. So do have a go at the recipe. For 4 people you will need...

• 1.5 litres boiling water
• 2 vegetable stock pots (or cubes)
• 300g Arborio rice
• 250g lamb liver, cut into small pieces
• 6 fresh sage leaves
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 celery stick, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 100ml Marsala wine
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 60g (½ cup/½ stick) butter
• 60g grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper

How to...

1. Start by preparing the stock. In a large pan dissolve the stock pots or cubes in the boiling water, bring back to the boil and turn off the heat.
2. In an other small pan put 50g of the butter and the sage leaves and heat up until the butter has melted. Add the chopped liver, season with salt & pepper, stir well and cook for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally. 
3. Now add the Marsala to the liver and cook on high heat until all liquid has disappeared. Remove from heat, remove the sage leaves and set aside.
4. In a large heavy based frying pan or pan (I prefer a frying pan because it spreads the heat evenly during cooking), add the olive oil, carrot, onion and celery and cooked covered on low to medium heat until soft, about 10-15 minutes. 
5. Now add the rice turn the heat to medium and toast the rice for a couple of minutes stirring continuously. 
6. Add a cup of the vegetable stock whilst constantly stirring until all stock has been absorbed by the rice, this takes about 2 minutes. 
7. From now on, keep adding the remaining stock ½ cup at a time, always adding the next one when the previous one has been completely absorbed by the rice.
8. After you have used half of the stock, stir in the cooked livers and continue adding the remainder of the stock until all stock has been used. This process took me about 25-30 minutes.
9. After all the stock is absorbed, stir in the grated parmesan and the last 10g of butter. Serve immediately!!

Enjoy!!

R&A