Tonight's tea........spicy and tasty

Chicken Marinated in Yogurt with Georgian Plum Sauce

from "Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons" by Diana Henry

The plum accompaniment is a version of "skemalt", a thick, sweet, dark crimson sauce, which apparently separated good Georgian cooks from great ones!  Sometimes it is made with just plums, leaving out the prunes.  It would be good with fried chicken, grilled mackerel or lamb kebabs and keeps in the fridge for about 1 month.

Ingredients

250 ml natural yogurt (not greek)
4 crushed garlic cloves
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or chilli powder
salt and pepper
8 chicken thighs, skin on


Plum Sauce

400g plums
100g prunes
40g dark soft brown sugar
40ml red wine vinegar
40ml water
1/2 tsp cayenne or chilli powder
2 crushed garlic cloves
chopped herbs: coriander, dill, mint
a squeeze of lemon juice

Mix yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, spices and seasoning together to make a marinade. Put the chicken into this, cover and leave to marinate for 2 hours or overnight if possible, turning a couple of times.

Halve the plums and prunes and put into a pan. Add the remaining sauce ingredients except the herbs and lemon juice.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 mins.

Puree the sauce and add most of the herbs.  Check the seasoning, add salt or lemon juice to taste.

Take the chicken out of the marinade and grill on each side, on high heat at first then lower to ensure the chicken is cooked through.  I cooked the chicken in the oven in a roasting tin.  Gas 6-7, 200'C for approx 40 mins, turning halfway through.

Warm the sauce, sprinkle on the remaining herbs and serve with the chicken.


Mine is served with sliced new potatoes, cooked in stock, lemon juice and olive oil.  Cooked in the oven with the chicken. Covered at first then uncovered so that they go brown and crispy on the top.

Bacon Chocolate

Yes you read that one right as well!  Another Nadia G, Bitchin Kitchen recipe.  It messes with your head a bit this one, but is actually quite pleasant!

Serves 24

6 slices maple cured bacon, minced
2 cups milk chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 crisped rice
Fleur de Sel

Small pan
Double boiler
Silicone mould

Heat pan on medium. Add bacon and render until crisp. Set on paper towel and remove excess grease.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat. Take off heat when chocolate is 80% melted, continue stirring until fully melted. Add bacon to melted chocolate. Delicately fold in crisped rice. Pour mixture into silicone moulds, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes

Habanero Cheesecake

Yes, you read that right!  Habanero's in a cheesecake.  Another Nadia G, Bitchin Kitchen recipe.  Always one to try something different, I inflicted this on the family when we had our barbecue the other day.  It went down very well.  The chilli flavour is subtle but delicious.

 

  30 chocolate wafers (enough to make 1 1/2 cups of chocolate crumbs

 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Coulis/Sauce

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

2 key limes, juiced

Candied hibiscus flowers, or dried cranberries
      

Filling

5 egg yolks

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup key lime juice

1 tablespoon key lime zest

1/2 habanero pepper, minced, seeds removed

2 cups whipped cream cheese, softened

1 cup mascarpone cheese
  

*Cook's Note: Use gloves to remove seeds from habanero pepper

   

Meringues

 5 egg white

 3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon white vinegar
 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. 

To make the crust: Put all the chocolate wafers in a resealable bag and then crush them into fine crumbs. Pour the crumbs into a medium mixing bowl and add the melted unsalted butter, then mix to incorporate. Mold the crumb crust into the bottom of a springform pan, about 1/4-inch thick. Bring it up the sides a little bit, about a 1/2-inch. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove and cool on counter. 

To make the coulis/syrup: Heat a pot over medium heat. Pour in the water, sugar and bring to a boil. Add the key lime juice and candied hibiscus flowers, stir. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes, until slightly reduced. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

To make the cheesecake filling: In a large bowl add the egg yolks, brown sugar, key lime juice, lime zest, and habanero pepper and whisk together. Add the cream cheese and mascarpone then mix with electric beater for another 15 seconds. Set aside. To make the meringues: Whip the egg whites together with 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and white vinegar. Delicately fold this meringue into the cheesecake mixture. Pour evenly into the springform pan, over the chocolate crust. Place 2 layers of wide aluminum foil into a large roasting pan. Put the cake in the middle of the foil. Bring the foil up the sides to create a seal, do not cover cake. Pour water into the roasting pan, half way up the sides of the cake pan. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour, 30 minutes depending on your oven. Allow the cake to cool completely on the countertop, then refrigerate overnight.

Serve each slice of this cheesecake drizzled with a tablespoon or 2 of key lime and hibiscus coulis/syrup.

One or two notes:

For chocolate wafers on the base, I used double chocolate chip cookies, a 230g pack.  

I didn't have any hibiscus flowers so used dried cranberries.  Around 75g is enough.

To get enough lime juice for 1/2 cup, I used 4 limes

I couldn't get a habanero so used a scotch bonnet, which is similar heat wise. 

I used 1 pot mascarpone 250g and 2 x 200g tubs Philadelphia cheese.

As you can see the top of my cheesecake is brown.  This is due to my oven seeming to be too hot and cooking the whole thing a bit too quickly.  It didn't affect the eating of it though!

A sort of a Chicken Tagine

So this is a sort of Chicken Tagine type of dish.

I've gently fried some chopped onion in a non-stick pan for about 5 minutes, added some chopped garlic and chopped chilli, and cooked for 1-2 minutes. Then added some chunks of skinless chicken thighs and browned them off.  I added about 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tsp ground cumin and 1/2 tsp ground allspice and cooked for 2-3 minutes.

Next I added chunks of butternut squash and cooked for 5 minutes before adding a tin of chopped tomatoes and about 400 mls water.  I brought this to the boil and simmered gently, covered for about 20 minutes until the butternut squash is tender.  Then I squashed some of the squash :) which helped to thicken the sauce and added a chopped green pepper and a chopped courgette.  I covered and cooked for about 5-10 minutes to soften the pepper and courgette.

I served this with bulgar wheat, with chopped parsley and coriander through it.

Spicy Chicken Barley Risotto

Another Nadia G Bitchin Kitchin recipe, great for using up cooked chicken.

 A set of measuring cups is a useful addition to your kitchen gadgets here!

Ingredients:

1 cup pearl barley
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
3 shallots, finely chopped.  ( I used 1 onion)
1/2 tbsp smoked paprika
1/4 cup good red wine
2 cups canned San Marzano tomatoes, hand crushed ( 1 x 400g tin)
1 cup chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tbsp raw sugar ( I used golden caster)
1/4 tsp sea salt
freshly cracked black pepper to taste
1/2 cup finely grated smoked Gouda ( I couldn't get any of this so used smoked cheddar)
1 roasted chicken breast, shredded
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins (optional)

Barley
Cook the barley in an uncovered saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, adding water as needed.  This can take 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Spicy Tomato Sauce
In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the garlic and jalapeno and saute for 2 mins until fragrant.  Add the shallots or onion and smoked paprika and saute 5 more minutes.  Deglaze the pan with the wine, stir, then reduce for 2 minutes.
Add the crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, bay leaf, thyme, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper and stir.  Simmer for 20 minutes, partially covered.

Skiaffing it together.
Add the barley, cheese, chicken and currants to the sauce.  Turn the heat down to medium low and delicately mix for a few minutes until the cheese has melted.