Currying Favour

Oh, I have had such a rollocking for the lack of updates lately (Miz Sally Roper, I'm talking to you) so I'm sneaking back in with a weeny twist on Mango Chicken Curry, just to ease back into the swing of it.  It's a creamy, fruity curry but it does have a little bit of a kick, and you can add chillies if you prefer a bit more heat.  My children will happily eat this* but they're used to spicy foods so for younger children or those less asbestos-tongued, just use less curry paste, or add some yoghurt, fromage frais or creme fraiche to the kids portions.  This is quick and easy, perfect weeknight fare.

I've called it Lassi chicken curry because the simmering sauce before I add it to the curry paste mix reminds me of sweet mango lassi.  Coconut milk seems to be getting really expensive these days but I've just discovered that Aldi sell it for 89p a tin - winner!

* Usually.  The small boychild was less enamoured this time round because he managed to rub it into his eye.  I'd avoid this, as a rule.  It didn't seem pleasant.


Lassi Chicken Curry

1 tin mango slices in juice or syrup, drained
1 tin coconut milk
1/2 jar Pataks Mild Curry paste
Approx 6 chicken thigh fillets, chopped up
1 punnet chestnut mushrooms, quartered
1 bag of washed baby spinach
Olive oil or low fat cooking spray

In a small separate saucepan, whizz together the mango slices and coconut milk with a hand blender until smooth.  Pop onto a low heat and let it come to a simmer gently, stirring occasionally.

Add oil or spray to the pan and fry the mushrooms for a minute or two.  Add the chopped chicken and the curry paste, stir together, and let it sizzle away for a few minutes.  Pour in the coconut mango mix and stir well.  Bring to the boil then turn down the heat, and let it simmer for approx 20 minutes whilst you cook some basmati rice.  Use the pan you simmered the coconut mix in, and don't bother rinsing it, it will lend a subtle coconutty mangoey flavour to your rice.

After 20 minutes, throw the baby spinach into the curry, stir, cook for 2 minutes, then serve.  If you would like a thicker curry, use a little cornflour paste, or some thickening granules.  If you're feeling posh you can sprinkle with dessicated coconut before serving.  As you can see, I was not having a posh day.

Can I boi you a poi?

Firstly, please accept my apologies for the lack of photos to accompany this recipe.  I made it to feed a very hungry husband who had been out climbing Pen Y Fan in the snow and he ate it too fast for photo ops.

Pies are fabby warming winter food, and readymade pastry makes them quick and easy.  I don't have the patience to stand and fold and roll my own puff pastry whilst a hungry, wailing toddler attempts to scale my trouser leg, so I make no apologise for my addiction to Jus Rol.  Jus don't buy the new low fat puff one.  It's not 30% less fat, it's 90% less nice. 


The post title is inspired by a friend of mine who shall remain nameless, but knows who she is.  In our young, free, single, drunken days she was once famously chatted up in a 2am chip shop queue by an Australian backpacker who led with the classy "Noice tits luv.  Can I boi you a poi?".  It makes me chuckle every time I make a pie and I am happy to share the mirth.

So, a yummy, creamy, warming chicken pie then?  Of course.

Chicken, mushroom and bacon pie

400g chicken, breast or thigh fillet, chopped
1 small punnet mushrooms, chopped
6 thick rashers smoked bacon, chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
approx 2 dessertspoons softened butter or spread
approx 2 dessertspoons plain flour
1 pint chicken stock
1/4 pint milk
tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp chopped garlic (approx 4 cloves)
1/2 tsp crushed black pepper
1 pack ready rolled puff pastry
Olive oil

In a large pan, heat a splash of oil and fry off the onions and chopped bacon.  Set aside in a dish.  Repeat and brown the chicken and mushrooms together, cookig for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Pop in the dish with the onions.

Return the pan to the heat, melt your butter and add your flour, cooking for a minute or two until the paste starts to turn golden and smells nutty.  Start adding the liquid a bit at a time - milk first, until it's all gone, then start with the stock.  Stir briskly between each addition as the sauce thickens and cooks - keep stirring and lumps will disappear, I promise.  When all the liquid is added, throw in the garlic, pepper and mustard seeds and simmer for about five minutes until thick.  Add in the contents of your bowl of chicken and whatnot, stir together then tip into an ovenproof dish and top with the pastry, cut to size.  Brush with a little milk or beaten egg to glaze and bake for 15-18 minutes in a hot (200, 180 fan) oven until gold and puffed and delicious.  Serve with vegetables of your pleasing.



You'll be pleased to know that the chat up line didn't work, incidentally.  I mean, would you?

Paprika chicken with paprika and veggies and paprika bulgar wheat. With paprika.

I love smoked paprika.  I rotate between a couple of perfumes, my day-to-day is 5th Avenue by Elizabeth Arden, but if it was socially acceptable I would roll in smoked paprika straight from the shower in the morning, basting myself with it's sultry sexy smoky perfumey loveliness.  It would turn my skin a shade of orange not even witnessed on TOWIE* but it would be worth it.

I can't do that, obviously, my husband would probably have me sectioned.  So I get my smoked paprika fix by cooking with it a lot instead.  This gorgeous traybake is a fine example of smoked paprika used judiciously to acheive heavenliness.

Smokey Chicken, Root Veg and Wheat traybake - for four.  Play with quantities for more/less.  You know the drill.

As much chicken on the bone - thigh, leg, drumstick - as you care to eat
Likewise as much root veg as you care to eat - I like sweet potato and butternut squash, you can add white potatoes if you wish
a fennel bulb
2 red peppers
A handful of dried bulghar wheat per person
1/2-1 teaspoon of clear honey per piece of chicken (drumsticks will need 1/2, bigger bits 1)
Smoked paprika
dried chilli flakes
dried mixed herbs
1 veg Oxo cube
Olive oil

Put your bulghar wheat, 1 tsp dried mixed herbs, a pinch of dried chilli and the Oxo cube into a bowl, cover with twice the volume of boiling water, stir and put aside to soak it's way to edibility. 

Peel, deseed and otherwise make your root veg and fennel bakeworthy.  Chop into chunks, toss in oil and about 1tsp of smoked paprika and spread onto baking trays.  Pop into an oven heated to 200/180 fan and bake for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, deseed your peppers and chop into large pieces, setting aside.

Mix 2 tbsp olive oil with 1tsp smoked paprika, a pinch of chilli flakes, 1/2 tsp of dried mixed herbs, and stir.  Brush over the chicken to coat. 

When your root veg have had their 15 minutes, add the pepper and chicken  to the oven and bake for another 20-25 minutes.  Take the chicken out, drizzle with the honey and return to the oven, cooking for another 5-10 until the chicken is cooked through and the veg  is cooked through and starting to blacken and caramelise at the edges.  Stir the vegetables into the soaked bulghar wheat, adding a little more smoked paprika if you think there's not quite enough involved already.  Serve with the honeysweetandsmokeysavourycrispyskinned chicken.  Heaven.

Too much veg?  Reserve some and whizz with hot vegetable stock for soup.  Tomorrow's lunch.  Serve leftover wheat/veg mix cold with salad dressing.  Veggie?  Ditch the chicken (duh!) and cook the veg and wheat, tossing in cubed halloumi cheese just before you serve.

This would make fantastic crowd-food - up the quantities and serve a heaped bowl of the wheat mix alongside a tray of chicken hissing hot from the oven.  Offer up plenty of napkins and get stuck in.









* Jimmy Carr - "I like to shorten The Only Way Is Essex... by turning it off halfway through"

Welsh and proud

I know, I'm sorry, I've been gone ages.  We've been super busy with visitors and things going on and I've been mostly making super-simple things or cooking up frozen portions of delights I've already regaled you with. like the nicer chicken nuggets.  Or we've been eating out.  Naughty naughty.

I was chatting with some pals about regional stereotypes the other day (it's amazing the discussions I can get into on Facebook when I'm procrastinating and don't want to clean the dining room) and I realised that I'm something of a Welsh stereotype because I *love* leeks.  Literally cannot get enough of their silky sweet oniony goodness.  Never mind bread of heaven, I want heavenly leeks.

With this is mind, tonight's dinner is a bit of an experiment based on a dish my husband ordered on a recent eating-out-escapade to celebrate my birthday (I was 21.  Honestly).  The pub called it Welsh Chicken, so I plan to follow suit.  I have fiddled with it, naturally - this is me, I live to adapt, remember? - and therefore if it's a success I shall claim it for my own.  If it's awful, it's not my fault!

Welsh chicken, to serve 4.  Halve quantities for dinner a deux.

4 free range/high welfare standard chicken breast fillets, skinless
4 leeks, sliced
about 150ml boiling water
1 large/2 small head of brocolli, cut into small florets
2 heaped dessert spoons butter/spread
2 heaped dessert spoons plain flour
Milk, approx a pint
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
200g strong white cheese, cheddar or Caerphilly, grated
Olive oil

Heat a splash of oil in a wok or frying pan and briefly cook the chicken breasts on both sides.  Pop into an ovenproof dish and cover, setting aside.  In the same pan, add the leeks, stir to coat in the oil then add the water.  Turn the heat down to low, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, pop the brocolli on to boil and cook until just al dente.  Drain and set aside.

When the leeks are soft and silky, remove from the heat.  Strain off any water and reserve this. Tip the brocolli over the browned chicken breasts then tip the leeks on top, covering the chicken.  Set off to one side, covered again.

Make the sauce - it's a basic bechemel/white sauce, as previously blogged.  Use the reserved leek water in with the milk.  Add the cheese and melt, then add the mustard seeds and pepper.  I don't think this dish needs any extra salt, the salt present in the cheese is seasoning enough, but you could always add some at the table if you preferred.  Pour the sauce all over the dish of chicken, leeks and brocolli, coating evenly.

Pop into a hot (200 degree) oven for about 25 minutes until bubbly and starting to turn golden.  Serve with whatever side dish you fancy - we're having rustic skin-on oven baked chips with ours.  It's all in the oven right now so I will update with a pic and verdict in a little while!

Update - it was delicious, you need to try it!

Ch, ch, ch....

This is yummy, Spanish-style peasant fare at it most ribsticking fine.  Warming, fragrant and filling, you can make it in the slowcooker, oven on a low heat or even in a pan.  Serve with veg, rice, mash or crusty bread on a cold night for a dose of happy.

Chicken, chorizo and chickpea casserole, serves 2 big, 2 small with possibility of leftovers.  Freezes well.

1 red onion, sliced
approx 600g diced boneless chicken, or approx 8 thighs, cut up
1 chorizo ring, cut into chunky slices
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 small carton passata
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 cloves garlic, or the equivalant of garlic puree/paste/granules

Throw it all in the slowcooker.  Cook for 6-8 hours on low.  Serve!

Or... pop in an oven proof lidded casserole dish and cook ina low oven for 2-2.5 hours.

Or... saute the onion in a little oil, add the chorizo and cook a minute or so.  Add the chopped chicken and stir to coat in the by-now-fragrant oil.  Sizzle for a few minutes then add everything else and simmer for 20 minutes or so until thickened.

Very small people may struggle with the chorizo, and it's a little salty - if cooking for babies, maybe leave out the chorizo, frying it off separately and adding to yours after their portion has been served up.  For toddlers, pick the chorizo out of theirs, maybe giving them one small chunk cut into manageable pieces, just to try!

I massively favour chicken thigh fillet for this dish over breast meat - it slowcooks so much better, and is cheaper and more tender.  If you like chicken on the bone, you could substitute one chicken leg per person in the oven-cooked version.

Lessons in chicken

I make this goat's cheese and pesto stuffed chicken quite a lot.  Older snarfling loves it, she's been a bit of a goat's cheese fiend since she was tiny.  I've decided to present it as something of a step-by-step guide, so you can make it too.  I'm nice like that.

Goat's Cheese and Pesto Chicken

Serves 4, easy to halve quantities for 2

4 chicken breasts, freedom food or free range, pleaseandthankyou.
4 tsp red pesto
pack of soft goat's cheese
8 rashers of good quality smoked bacon

Take your chicken breast and flip it over, moving the 'butterfly' bit out of the way.

Take a sharp knife and cut a deep slash (but NOT all the way through!) where the butterfly bit meets the main chicken breast.  So -

Open it out to make a pocket -

Pop in a teaspoonful of the pesto (tip - decant your pesto into a little dish before using in this recipe, then if your spoon touches the raw chicken, you aren't transferring bacteria back into the jar to breed.  Always thinking of you, folks.)

Then wodge in a teaspoonful of the goat's cheese -

Close up your pocket as best you can and flip your butterfly bit back over the top, thus -

Wrap two rashers of bacon around the chicken, using the widest medallion bit over the opening of the pocket to cover it up -

Now wrap your chicken breast firmly in foil, and repeat!

Bake them in a 180 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  If you're making the roasted baby potatoes and carrots that I served with this, microwave your veg for 5 minutes whilst you heat a little oil in a roasting pan, pop the veg in for ten minutes, then put the chicken in and roast all together for another 20-25 minutes (25 if you have especially large or thick chicken breasts).

All done-

You can crisp the bacon under a hot grill for a few minutes if you like, but I had small snarfling screaming at me, so dispensed with that step!

Ready to eat -

Curry in a...

..complete lack of hurry.

I love my slowcooker, and would recommend anyone who doesn't have one to run their ass to their nearest electrical retailer and pick one up, especially now that we're in the grip of autumn and hurtling towards winter.

This chicken curry is probably about as authentically Indian as the 'Indian Elephant' my daughter made out of a milk carton the other week, but it is tasty-good and brilliant for those nights when you're busy all day and just want something warm and slightly indulgent that you can eat five minutes after stumbling through the door.  Packets of heat and eat rice for such emergency moments are a storecupboard staple.

Chicken thighs stand up so much better to slowcooking than chicken breasts (in my not so humble opinion).  They're also cheaper and contain more iron.  You can substitute out any veg you don't like, and likewise add in some you do, or add halved baby new potatoes and dispense with rice altogether.

Serves 4 adults generously, or 2 adults and 2 snarflings with leftovers for worky lunches.  Scale down, or cook a batch and freeze some in portions, if you're feeding fewer.

Mango chicken curry

Approx 8 large chicken thigh fillets, skinless and boneless
2-3 peppers of any colour
half a punnet of baby closed cup mushrooms, rinsed
half a jar of Pataks Korma curry paste
Large can (approx 800g) mango puree/pulp*
sachet / 1/4 standard block creamed coconut
teaspoon each of mustard seeds and black onion seeds, not essential if you don't have them.

Snip the thighs into about 4 pieces each, using kitchen scissors.  Roughly chop the peppers.

Throw all ingredients into a slowcooker and cook on low for 7-8 hours.  Serve with rice, naan bread, or whatever you fancy.

Yes,the curry paste in a jar is a bit cheaty, but when you're trying to feed two children breakfast, pack a lunch, fill in school trip permission slips and find a clean polo shirt, you don't always want to be blending 14 different types of spice.  Just sayin'.

* Sainsbury's does an own-brand of this in an 822g can.  I've also bought Indian-branded cans of the same size in Asda, or check Indian grocers.

Nicer Chicken Nuggets

The snarflings have just happily polished off four of these each, accompanied by some mixed veg.

The recipe makes 20-25 depending how big you make them.  Make a batch and freeze half, flat on greasproof paper on top of a tray in the freezer until solid, then tipped into a labelled bag, so they don't all stick together.  Cook from frozen for an easy tea another night, just add 8-10 minutes to the cooking time.

Chicken, apple and parsnip nuggets

1 pack of chicken thigh fillets (skinless and boneless) - approx 5 thighs.
1 small apple
1 medium parsnip
some dried herbs
1 clove garlic
3-4 slices wholemeal bread (depending on size, I used 3 slices of farmhouse and just got away with it)
2 eggs
a splash of milk

In a food processor, whizz the bread into crumbs, pop into a bowl and set aside.

Snip the thighs into 3-4 pieces each with kitchen scissors and put into the food processor.  Peel, core and chop the apple.  Peel the parsnip, cut into quarters and trim out any woody core.  Chop into smallish dice.  Add the apple and parsnip to the food processor, and drop in the garlic clove and herbs (about a teaspoon will do, or you can use fresh herbs if you have some hanging around).

Process the mixture until it's not quite a puree but there aren't any large chunks of anything visible.  You might have to scrape down the sides and poke it about with a spatula a couple of times.

Whisk the eggs with a splash of milk in a bowl.  Taking a small lump of chicken mixture, shape it into a ball then press flat into a nugget.  Dip it in the egg then toss around in the breadcrumbs, then lay onto a tray.  repeat until all the mixture is used.

You can briefly fry these in olive oil before popping in the oven, or you can oven bake them from raw.  If baking from raw (I do this) spritz them with some olive oil spray or Frylight or similar.  If you dont have this, drizzle very lightly with oil.  Bake for approx 15 minutes at about 180 degrees until golden and firm.  Serve with whatever you fancy!