chicken

moroccan fruit tagine

When I run out of new ideas (and haven’t been shopping for ages) I turn back to my trusty friend Claudia Roden for dinner inspiration.

For example, yesterday I only had 2 onions, some chicken, a bunch of parsley and a bowl of fruit in my kitchen. Oh and some tomatoes and fennel – but I didn’t use those …

And a cupboard overflowing with spices …

What to cook?

I just leafed through ‘A New Book of Middle Eastern Food’ until I found a suitable recipe.

A few tweaks, and this is what I made.

Moroccan Fruit Tagine

3 chicken breasts (Claudia suggests a large roasting chicken, jointed, but I just had 3 chicken breasts …)
2 onions, finely chopped
3 tablespoons of parsley, chopped
2-3 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Salt and pepper
500 grams peeled, cored and sliced fruit.  You can use apples, pears, quinces, fresh dates, raisins or prunes. I chose pears.

Put the chicken, onion and parsley in a saucepan and cover with water. Add the butter and ginger and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil then simmer for an hour. The sauce should be reduced and the onions disintegrated.

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Here we are after nearly an hour with the chicken cooking and the sauce reducing. Nearly ready for the fruit.

Then add the sliced fruit and simmer until just tender.  Only about 5 minutes for the pears.

Serve with rice or cous cous or flatbread to dip in to the sauce.

Sounds good. Looks interesting.  Tastes great.

We ate it with rice.  

Oh, I love Claudia. I really do!

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chicken and mango salad with feta

When we have a salad at our house it’s always a bit hairy (not the salad thank goodness – how gross – just whether the kids will eat it).

My kids like their vegies separate. And I can understand that. I was the same when I was little.  And I hated raw tomato (so I never make them eat it if they don’t want to).  But that’s another story.

So, I was once again pushing my luck with this meal.  But I thought I might have some success because it contains mango*.  And they all love mango.

This salad has a thai style dressing.  I made it the first time because I had all the ingredients handy.  It is a great summer dish and very easy to make.  It’s one of those meals to save for a night when you only feel like mixing …we’ve had it twice in the last couple of weeks.

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Chicken and Mango Salad with Feta

  • 1 shop roasted chicken, boned and shredded or cut into bite size pieces
  • 2 mangoes, diced or sliced (whatever you prefer)
  • 1 cucumber, finely sliced
  • 1/2-1 iceberg lettuce, chopped
  • 1/2 bunch coriander, shredded or chopped
  • feta, crumbled

Dressing

  • 1/2 lime, juiced
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger julienned or minced
  • 1 red chilli chopped
  • 1tsp brown sugar
  • 1tbsp fish sauce

Place the lettuce, cucumber and chicken in the salad bowl. Just use as much lettuce as you like.  Add the coriander.  Mix the lime juice with the other dressing ingredients and drizzle it over the salad.  Crumble the feta on the top at the end (well I do this on individual serves because the kids don’t love feta).  If everyone likes feta you could just put it in at the start.

Mix.  Eat.

* Only Scarlett dug her heels in and refused to eat it.  And she’s the one that likes mango the most … I guess she is 6.