Category: Poultry

Thomas Straker’s Roast Chicken, Butter Bean & Salsa Verde

.Reading time 6 minutes.

Serves: 4

Thomas Straker is our sort of chef.

He takes a theme and dials it up to 11: excessive use of butter; the demand that you make your own stock; pure comfort. Effort that delivers real culinary return.

Foams and tweezers Thomas Straker does not do. Think ragu or burnt butter instead.

His famous chicken leek and bacon pie is just extraordinary. This gnocchi is outrageous.

And this roast chicken from his book ‘Food You Want to Eat’ is just wonderful: a brilliantly warming and absolutely smile-earning dish perfect for a late summer lunch.

Nat and I have been on a roast chicken tear of late. It’s become a go-to Sunday lunch favourite: open a Champagne, set the kids up for the afternoon; enjoy a few hours together, with a guarantee of great chicken sandwiches for the next few days at work.

This recipe dials it up a whole new level: it looks the part, tastes the part and is the part. The salsa verde just tops it off: flavour sensation and completes the part.

Add a salad of leaves and a bottle of cold white or a chilled Pinot and this is what I am talking about.

Ingredients

For the butter beans

250gm dried butter beans (or use 500gm of canned beans)
50ml extra virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp tomato purée
Chilli flakes
Fine sea salt

For the chicken

1 large, whole (free range) chicken – 1.8kg
1/2 shallot
1/2 unwaxed lemon
1/2 small bunch of thyme
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled and bashed with the side of a blade
100ml olive oil
400gm cherry tomatoes

Salsa Verde

60gm parsley leaves
30gm mint leaves
30gm basil leaves
1 garlic clove, finely grated
1 tbsp capers, drained
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 unwaxed lemon
120ml extra virgin olive oil, plus more to seal
Sea salt flakes

Method

Salsa Verde

  1. Start with the salsa verde: put the picked herbs in a food processor with the garlic and capers and pulse-blend until roughly chopped. Add the mustard, lemon zest and juice, olive oil and a pinch of salt, then blend again until combined but still slightly coarse in texture.
  2. Season with more salt if needed: will store for a week in the fridge covered with a little more olive oil to seal.

Chicken

  1. If using dried beans, soak in a large bowl of water overnight. The next day, drain them and tip into a saucepan with fresh water.Place over a high heat and bring to the boil., reduce the heat, simmer gently until soft, then drain. Whether using dried or ready-cooked beans, season with salt and add the olive oil.
  2. Take the chicken out of the fridge at least 1 hour before you cook it. Remove the wishbone: lift the skin at the front of the breast and insert a thin, sharp knife around both sides of the wishbone to help pull it out. Replace the flap of skin and tuck it into the cavity. Put the shallot, lemon, thyme and garlic cloves in the cavity.
  3. Preheat the oven to 250c/230c fan or its highest setting. Rub the chicken with olive oil and sprinkle generously all over the skin with fine salt. Place in a large roasting tin in the middle of the oven and roast for 20 – 25 minutes until well coloured, basting after 10 minutes.
  4. Reduce the oven to 120c/100c fan, add the cherry tomatoes to the tin and return to the oven for a further 20 – 25 minutes, until the juices run clear when the bird is pierced at the thickest part of the thigh with a sharp knife. If you have a temperature probe, the breast should reach about 60c. Remove from the oven and rest for 20 minutes.
  5. To finish the beans, place a large saucepan over a medium heat with a glug of olive oil. Add the shallots and a generous pinch of salt and cook for 3 -4 minutes until soft, then add the garlic for a further minute. Add the tomato purée an cook out for 2 minutes then add a good pinch of chilli flakes. Pour in the cherry tomatoes, beans and the resting juices from the chicken with salt to taste.
  6. Carve the chicken first removing the whole breasts and then the legs, splitting them into thigh and drumstick portions. Serve on a large warmed platter, with the butter beans and salsa verde.
  7. (And leaves, Pinot and the kids asleep.)

Dina Begum’s Doi Murgi (Bangladeshi Yoghurt Chicken Curry)

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

This is my third Dina Begum recipe and it was an absolute home run.

It is total comfort food.

The braised chicken thigh in the spices and yoghurt and the wonderful whole green chillies, finished with the crispy shallots on rice: kill me now.

This is what dreams are made of.

I ended up cooking the gravy down longer than the recipe prescribed though other than that, what you see is what you should cook.

Marinate the chicken overnight, get those onions golden and the rest is pretty set-and-forget.

With a glass of wine, two of my favourite things in life were consecutively ticked off!

Update: our best friends Woodles and Billy just had baby #2. A little girl Izzy. Nat is rumoured to get to see the little girl tomorrow and so I’ve doubled this and can confirm it works: as a small dinner gift.

So excited for you guys! Can’t wait for the next looooooong lunch! 🥴

The always wonderful Woodles! (With Nat.)

Ingredients

Chicken marinade

1kg boneless chicken thighs, skinned and cut into large pieces
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp ginger, finely chopped
(I used 4 tsp ginger garlic paste)
1/4 tsp black pepper, crushed
2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
2 tsp lemon juice
1 c Greek yoghurt
1/2 tsp cumin powder

Sauce

5 tbsp mustard oil
3 medium onions, finely sliced
1 tsp salt
6 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
8 cloves
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
6 green chillies

To garnish

1 handful crispy shallots
4 green chillies, split lengthways

Method

  1. Place the chicken in a bowl with all the marinade ingredients, mix well and chill in the fridge for at least 2 – 3 hours and preferably overnight. Remove the chicken from the fridge an hour before cooking.
  2. Heat the mustard oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the onions, salt, bay leaves and whole spices and cook until golden brown. Add 125ml of water and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  3. When the onion mixture is soft and caramelised, add the ground spices.n Turn up the heat to medium and sauté for a minute or two to cook out the spices. Add the green chillies and marinated chicken mixture together with 50ml of water and stir to combine.
  4. Set the pan back over a low heat and cover. Cook for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover the pan and continue to cook until you have a thick gravy with a little oil rising to the surface. Serve with crispy shallots and a split chilli.
methi-murg

Pushpesh Pant’s Chicken with Fenugreek Leaves (Methi Murg)

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

When I told the owner of our local Indian grocer I wanted fresh fenugreek leaves, he asked why. I explained that I was cooking this curry and he was totally confused by the quantity asked for and doubted it would work.

(It turns out it is also easier to buy frozen fenugreek leaves rather than fresh, though the result is of course the same.)

This curry was superb: it absolutely worked. Served alongside this chickpea curry, it was just a brilliant meal.

The marinade can be made the night before, perfect for a mid-week treat. Open a good red and thoroughly enjoy.

Ingredients

2 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 onions, sliced
2 tbsp natural yoghurt, whisked
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 medium-sized chicken, cut into pieces (I substituted 1kg chicken thigh)
3/4 c vegetable oil
2 large cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
3 green chillies, de-seeded and chopped
1/2 tsp ground caraway seeds
2 c fenugreek leaves, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
Salt

Method

  1. To make the marinade, combine the ginger garlic paste, 1 onion, the yoghurt, chilli powder and turmeric together in a large, shallow bowl and season with salt. Add the chicken and turn to coat well, then cover and set aside in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
  2. Heat half of the oil in a large, heavy-based pan over low heat, add the marinated chicken and cook for 8 – 10 minutes, or until the chicken is slightly browned. Pour in 3 1/4 c water and cook for about 30 minutes, or until 2/3 of the water has evaporated and the chicken is cooked.
  3. Heat the rest of the oil in a frying pan over medium heat, add the cardamom pods, cinnamon, chillies, ground caraway seeds and the remaining onion and fry for 1 – 2 minutes or until the cardamom swell. Add the chopped fenugreek leaves and fry for 3 – 4 minutes. Add the cooked chicken and simmer together until the leaves are fragrant, then squeeze over the lime juice.

Christine Manfield’s Chettinad Chilli Chicken

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Serves: 4

You can point blindfolded to any Christine Manfield recipe and know it will be a knockout.

French, Asian, Contemporary Australian.

My first experience of her cooking was at her extraordinary Sydney restaurant, Paramount. And that would have to have been 25 years ago.

I was then lucky enough to do a Christine Manfield cooking class at the Seafood Markets with my mother, something I still remember well. (Also probably 25 years back!)

Christine’s Five Spice Duck and Shiitake Mushroom Pie is a flavour triumph, though start a day ahead as Nat will attest!

Anything from her book ‘Tasting India’ is going to blow your socks off in a good way: her 100-almond curry is an extraordinary place to start.

I’ve only cooked a few dishes from her latest book ‘Indian Cooking Class’.

This curry is one of them and the complexity of the spice layering is just awesome.

It isn’t so complex that you couldn’t make it mid-week, especially if you made the masala paste on Sunday afternoon.

Put on your blindfold, line this recipe up and thank me later.

Ingredients

75gm ghee
2 brown onions, diced
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
3 small red chillies, minced
20 fresh curry leaves
2 tsp chilli powder
4 chicken marylands, cut into thigh and leg joints
3 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
100ml chicken stock
2 tsp sea salt flakes
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 c coriander leaves

Chettinad Masala Paste

1 tsp white poppy seeds
2 large dried chillies
100gm grated fresh coconut
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp finely diced brown onion
2 tsp ginger garlic paste

Method

  1. To make the Chettinad masala paste, place the poppy seeds in a frying pan and cook over low heat for 20 seconds or until lightly toasted. Remove from the pan and soak in 1 tbsp water for 20 minutes. Add the chillies to the pan and cook for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Allow to cool before grinding into a fine powder in a spice grinder. Place the poppy seed mixture, coconut, ground chilli and other spices in a food processor or blender and process to a fine paste.
  2. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 4 minutes or until golden. Add the ginger garlic paste and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the spiced coconut paste and cook, stirring to combine, for 4 – 5 minutes. If the mixture becomes too dry, add a splash of water to prevent it from burning. Set aside to cool.
  3. To cook the chicken, melt the ghee in a wide-based pan over a medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for 4 minutes or until softened. Add the ginger garlic paste and minced chilli and cook, stirring to combine, for 30 seconds. Add the curry leaves and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds or until crisp. Add the ground chilli and 3 tbsp of the Chettinad masala paste and cook, stirring to combine, for 2 – 3 minutes. Add the chicken and cook, turning once to ensure the pieces are evenly coated in the paste, for 5 minutes. Add the tomato and cook for another 4 minutes. Add the stock, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is tender. Season with salt and lime juice. Scatter with coriander and serve with steamed rice.

Pushpesh Pant’s Chicken in a Rich Scarlet Sauce (Murg Roganjosh)

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

The name on the tin is exactly what you get here: a beautiful chicken curry in a rich scarlet sauce.

Another Pushpent Pant win.

Marinate the chicken overnight and this is a simple, authentic curry for a special mid-week meal.

Ingredients

1 c natural yoghurt, whisked
4 green cardamom pods
2 black cardamom pods
800gm chicken thigh cut into pieces
1 c mustard oil*
2 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks, 2.5cm long
4 cloves
Small pinch of asafoetida
1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground aniseed
1 tsp Garam Masala
Salt

Method

  1. Mix the yoghurt and cardamom pods in a bowl to make a marinade, then season with salt. Put the chicken in a large shallow dish and rub the marinade evenly over the chicken, cover and set aside in the refrigerator for 3 hours.
  2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based pan over medium heat, add the chicken, bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves and asafoetida and stir gently though constantly for 10 minutes until the yoghurt dries and the oil separates out. Now reduce the heat and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until the chicken turns brown. Mix in the chilli powder, increase the heat and stir quickly, then add the ginger, aniseed powder and garam masala together with 1 c of water. Reduce the heat and cook until the sauce thickens.

* Two points here. 1. Mustard oil is lovely and definitely worth getting. 2. I used a little over 1/4 c. Oily Indian curries are lovely, though 1 c will scare your guests.

David Japy’s (Chick) ‘The Classic with Chicken’ Burger

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Serves: 4

A few months back, we flew to the Barossa for my birthday.

We both had to work, though we had the little kids in tow and were surrounded by some of Australia’s best wineries: what could go wrong, right?

What a brilliant week.

Light the fire before the kids get up, have breakfast (croissants), bash out emails, a winery or two around lunchtime, back for lunch at home, far fewer emails and try one of the reds we purchased earlier in the day.

Thanks for a brilliant week Nat. Never going to be 45 again and so lucky to have spent it with you. Here is to Grant Burge at 10am on my birthday.
At Henschke. Max didn’t take their heritage as seriously as they did. (They still gave him a colouring pack.)
David Franz. A brilliant cellar door and brilliant wines. Cellaring a 2013 Cab Sav.
We purchased their cookbook years ago. The restaurant is a most-go in Adelaide.
A brilliant recommendation from my mate Bryan. Cellared.
My mate Bryan’s favourite drop: a bottle in the cellar for Max when he turns 21.
Waking up to this each morning. Light fire. Croissants. Count down to birthday Champagne.

Per tradition, I had a cookbook for Nat ready to be unveiled in the lounge before we flew down to Adelaide.

‘Hamburger Gourmet’ by David Japy.

We’ve bought a few hamburger books and almost exclusively – actually, exclusively – they’ve been duds. Donated to the local community library.

Hamburger Gourmet, however. This is no dud.

Take this ‘Chick’ burger, one of the best chicken burgers I’ve had.

Tom (13) has designated burger night every second Thursday and I’m not scared.

Start with this burger.

Just wonderful. Simple yes, though bloody wonderful!

(We added avocado due to having an abundance of them and I am yet to be convinced avocado should not be on any and every chicken burger.)

Ingredients

4 homemade or bought buns (we did milk buns)

Patties
500gm chicken breast
A few pinches, sea salt
A drizzle olive oil

Sauce
1 onion, thinly sliced
A drizzle olive oil
200gm crème fraîche
75gm Italian parsley, finely chopped

Toppings
70gm baby spinach
Mashed avocado

Method

  1. For the patties, dice the chicken into small pieces and form into 4 patties, pressing them together well.
  2. Brown the onion in a frying pan over a high heat with the olive oil. Set a quarter aside. Put the frying pan over low heat and add the crème fraîche and parsley. Cook, stirring until the mixture reduces. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  3. Season the patties with the sea salt. Cook the patties in a hot frying pan over high heat with the olive oil for 5 minutes on each side.
  4. Cut the buns in half horizontally and toast them for 2 minutes under the grill. Spread the cut sides of the heels and crowns with the sauce. (Now is the time to spread the avocado on the heels if that is your preference.) Put the chicken patties on the heels then topped with the reserved onions and spinach. Finish with the crowns.

Ajoy Joshi’s Palak Murgh

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

Nat and I landed from 10 nights in Japan this morning.

Talk about a foodie destination. My god: street-food, Egg-sandwiches at 7Eleven, Michelin Starred restaurants. It honestly doesn’t matter.

A six-seat mixology place floors up somewhere in Tokyo.
Alain Ducasse’s restaurant Benoit in Kyoto. Holy moly.
Lurra. Featured on Someone Feed Phil, a top 50 place to eat in the world. Staggering.
A toasted egg sandwich infused with soy on the side of the road. Seriously, this place would be a pop up institution in Sydney. Here, they just asked us to wait with our sparkling sakes.

The Japanese care about food at every level, at every moment. From a broth at breakfast to tuna belly sashimi at the Tokyo Fish Markets, it literally doesn’t matter.

I kid you not, the fried chicken at the every-corner corner-store Lawsons is hands down better than the best KFC here in Sydney.

We even had an Indian meal in Kyoto in the smallest restaurant you could imagine (well, every restaurant in small) and wasn’t it a complete win on a level you’d almost never find in Sydney?! Cheap, cheerful, completely authentic – a total slam dunk.

You cannot go wrong no matter how much you might try.

But this isn’t a Japan post (which I will do) but a post because we are back and of course, drowning our sorrows with a wine, we return to a curry at the start of a cold, gloomy Sydney winter.

Nat wanted a tomato based curry and who was I to argue?

This relatively simple Ajoy Joshi number absolutely hits the note.

I added a little more Garam Marsala at the end, though do your thing.

Just make sure you slowly cook it down to reduce almost all the liquid.

A beautiful heat, wonderful spinach, just bloody lovely with a red on the couch ready to catch up on whatever Netflix we’ve missed.

(I have slightly adapted this recipe.)

Ingredients

1kg chicken thigh cut into 4cm pieces
1 tsp Garam Marsala
500gm baby spinach
3 mild green chilies, split lengthways
2 brown onions, roughly chopped
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger
1/4 c full-fat yoghurt
1/2 tsp chilli powder
3 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped

Method

  1. Marinate the chicken pieces in the Garam Marsala and set aside.
  2. In a food processor, process the spinach and chillies until a paste forms. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
  3. Clean and dry the food processor and process the onions until finely ground. Set aside.
  4. In a large, heavy-based frying pan, heat the oil. Add onions and salt and cook, uncovered, until lightly golden. Stir in garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant. Add the yoghurt and cook for 5 minutes further.
  5. Raise heat to high, add the chicken and cook until browned. Stir in chilli powder and cook until all moisture evaporates and oil separates.
  6. Stir in spinach purée and tomatoes. Cover, reduce heat and cook until the chicken is cooked through and tender. Uncover and if any liquid remains, cook over a medium heat until the liquid has evaporated. Serve immediately with rice. (And chutney is my strong recommendation!)

Dina Begum’s Eggs in Creamy Gravy (Dimer Korma)

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Serves: 4 as a main, 8 as a side

The latest addition to the cookbooks is Made in Bangladesh by Dina Begum, a UK cook and food writer.

It’s a lovely book of stories and recipes from a Bangladeshi home kitchen.

As part of a late week – we need to reward ourselves for a flat-chat week of work – lunch, Nat and I tackled a dish each.

This was mine.

Nat is suspicious of egg recipes like this. I suspect (know) it comes from a childhood of whole eggs in dishes, something which in fairness, would have also skewed my view of whole eggs in really any dish.

The sauce is silken with the addition of milk and yoghurt towards the end. It is aromatic and actually pretty addictive. If I had to eat this for breakfast every day, sign me up!

Paired along side this spicy beef curry, it was just excellent.

If you have the opportunity, cook both and this is a perfect late-Autumn meal. Add a red wine and now you’re talking.

Ingredients

8 large eggs
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 tbsp ghee
2 cloves
4 peppercorns
5cm piece of cassia bark (substitute cinnamon stick)
3 cardamom pods
1 bay leaf
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tbsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 c water
2/3 c full-fat milk
4 heaped tbsp Greek yoghurt
4 whole green chillies

For the paste

1 large onion, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2.5cm piece of fresh root ginger, grated
3 – 4 tbsp water

Method

  1. Combine the paste ingredients in a food processor and blitz until smooth, then set aside.
  2. Place the eggs in a pan of cold water over medium-high heat. Bring to the boil and boil for about 15 minutes, then remove from the water and cool under cool running water. Once cool, peel the eggs and very lightly score their surfaces lengthways. Set aside.
  3. Heat the oil in a deep, wide frying pan over medium-heat and fry the onions for about 10 minutes until golden. Transfer the cooked onion to a bowl and set aside. Add the ghee to the same pan, still over the heat. Add the hard-boiled eggs and lightly fry for 1 – 2 minutes until lightly golden. Use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pan and set aside.
  4. Next, add the whole spices and the bay leaf, along with the onion paste and salt. Stir well to combine, then cover. Reduce the heat and cook for 7 – 8 minutes, or until soft, ensuring the paste doesn’t brown. Now add the ground spices. Increase the heat to medium to cook out the spices, then add the water. Cover, reduce the heat to low and cook for 6 – 7 minutes, checking occasionally to ensure nothing is catching on the pan. Add a splash of water if necessary. Take off the heat and leave to rest, cover, for a minute or two.
  5. In a jug mix the milk and yoghurt until combined, then very slowly whisk into the pan – working slowly will help the mixture from splitting. Once you have a smooth sauce, stir in the eggs until they are coated with the sauce, then add the whole green chillies and half the fried onions. Return to a low heat and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Sprinkle over the remaining fried onions to serve.

Thomas Straker’s Chicken, Leek and Bacon Pie (TikTok)

.Reading time 7 minutes.

Serves: 6

Nat found this recipe on Instagram and whilst we have been plenty burnt by Instagram and TikTok recipes in the past, just watch the video below and tell me we should/could have moved on?!

Like our signature Snapper Pie from The Boathouse, this pie is a labour of love. Time is your friend here. From roasting the chicken the night before. The gravy reducing for hours. The baked potato mash (will I ever do a mash that isn’t baked potato again?).

And of course, homemade shortcrust which is absolutely essential.

The sum of the parts is extraordinary. This is a signature pie. We almost feel embarrassed to have cooked a chicken pie prior to this one.

The gravy was probably the finest gravy I have ever had. Together with the pie and that incredible crust; and that mash. I am not overstating it. This is 2-hat cooking, a recipe they would never manage to take off the menu. We both agreed, a chicken pie could surely not go further. We’d well and truly found the outer limits of what a chicken pie could be.

It was a rainy Sunday in Autumn in Sydney when we (Nat) cooked this. A decanted 2019 Barolo. And it frankly doesn’t get better.

Ingredients

For the chicken
1 large free-range chicken
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
1 large eschalot, peeled
1 lemon, halved
4 garlic, peeled
Two sprigs of rosemary

For the chicken filling
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
250gm streaky bacon, chopped
1 white onion, finely chopped
1 leek, white and green parts thinly sliced
2 garlic, thinly sliced and rubbed well through salt
1/2 bunch of flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
2 1/2 tsp softened, unsalted butter
1 tbsp plain flour
1/2 c hot chicken stock
1 egg, lightly beaten for egg wash

For the gravy
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
2 carrots, coarsely chopped
1 stick of celery, coarsely chopped
Half a bunch of flat-leaf parsley including the stalks
7 peppercorns
A good splash of Madeira (or sherry)

For the shortcrust pastry
1 c plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
115gm cold, unsalted butter cut into cubes
3 tbsp ice water

For the mashed potatoes
5 large, unwashed potatoes
1/2 c cream
80gm unsalted butter
Salt

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200c. Rinse the chicken and stuff the cavity with the eschalot, lemon, garlic and rosemary. Drizzle over the olive oil and season well. Roast in a roasting pan for 1 1/4 hours or until cooked through, basting occasionally with the oil and juices.
  2. Set aside and allow to cool slightly Remove and discard the skin. Remove all the flesh, chop coarsely and place in a large mixing bowl. Discard the ribs. Combine the bones and remaining chicken and juices and set aside to make the gravy.
  3. In a fresh pan, cook off the bacon until slightly browned and set aside.
  4. In a separate pan, heat the oil over a medium heat and sauté the onion until soft. Add the leeks and continue cooking until softened. Turn down the heat and add the garlic, cooking for a few minutes and finally add the cooked bacon. Take off the heat and stir through the cooked chicken flesh, parsley and mustard. Season with pepper.
  5. In a pan, heat the butter until bubbling. Add the flour, whisking constantly. Slowly pour in the chicken stock, continuing to whisk until you have a thickened mixture. Add to the chicken mixture, stir through and set aside.
  6. For the gravy, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat and add the chicken bones and juices, sautéing for a few minutes. Add the the vegetables and the peppercorns, cook until softened and then cover with boiling water and add a few splashes of the Madeira. Reduce the heat, cover and cook down until you’re close to a gravy consistency. Check the seasoning, strain and set aside.
  7. For the shortcrust pastry, put the flour and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and process, cutting the butter into the flour until you have a coarse meal. Add the cold water and process for 30 seconds until you have a soft dough. Remove the dough, shape it into a thick dough, wrap tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Bring to room temperature prior to rolling.
  8. For the mashed potatoes, heat the oven to 180c. Wash the potatoes well and spike all over with a fork. Bake on a baking tray for 1 1/2 hours or until cooked through. Set aside to slightly cool. Peel by hand, removing and setting aside the flesh. Heat the butter in a saucepan and using a ricer, rice the potato flesh, adding it to the butter. Add the cream and season with salt, adding more butter or cream as need-be.
  9. Heat the oven to 220c. Lightly oil your pie tin. Roll out your shortcrust pastry and line the tin. Fill with the chicken mixture. Cover the pie with more shortcrust pastry, sealing well with a fork. Trim the edges and brush all over with the egg wash. Create a small hole in pie to let the steam escape and bake for 30 minutes or until golden.
  10. Send the kids to their rooms. Have a bottle of good red decanted. Serve the pie with the mash and plenty of gravy and goddam, enjoy.

Maunika Gowardhan’s Chicken Curry cooked with Fried Onions, Tomato, Spices and Garam Masala (Murgh do Pyaza)

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

Another cracker from Maunika Gowardhan.

The addition of the chargrilled shallots at the end is the clincher here, adding great texture and flavour: though the whole curry is just a wonderful Saturday night in sort of curry. Plus the potato adds even more luxury when accompanied by the couch, dimmed lights, a glass of red and a good movie.

Somewhat on the Colonial Indian side of cooking.

Definitely one to bookmark. (And do yourself a calorie favour, even on a Saturday night: substitute this great cauliflower rice for rice and cut your calories by 90%!)

Ingredients

1kg skinless chicken thigh, cut into bite-sized pieces
6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped*
2″ ginger, roughly chopped*
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 bay leaves
2 dried mild red chillies
200gm white onions, finely chopped
1 1/2 mild chilli powder (or Kashmiri chilli powder)
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
200gm tomatoes pureed to a paste
140gm Greek yoghurt whisked
150ml water
140gm baby potatoes, roughly chopped
Sal to taste
1 tbsp garam masala
Coriander for garnish

For the shallots

2 tbsp vegetable oil
200gm shallots peeled and halved

Method

  1. Grind the garlic and ginger in a blender with a splash of water. In a large mixing bowl add the chicken, and mix in the garlic ginger paste. Mix well and set aside for an hour or overnight preferably.
  2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottom sauce pan over a medium flame. Add the bay leaves and chilli and fry for a few seconds. Add the onion and fry for 17 – 18 minutes, stirring well: as they begin to brown, add the marinated chicken. Turn the heat up and cook the chicken until it is sealed.
  3. Stir well and at this stage, add the chilli powder, turmeric, cumin and coriander powder. Fry for a minute. Add the pureed tomato and mix well, scraping the bottom of the pan. Cook for 4 minutes.
  4. Turn the heat back to medium and add the yoghurt, a little at a time. Stir well, ensuring it doesn’t curdle, for 6 minutes. Add water, potatoes and season to taste. Turn the heat down low and cook the curry for 20 minutes with the lid on or until the potatoes are cooked through and the gravy reduced. Add the garam masala and let rest.
  5. In the meantime, in a frying pan, heat the oil and fry the shallots for 5 – 6 minutes on each side over a medium heat. Cook until slightly charred, add to the curry and stir well. Garnish with coriander and lemon juice and serve with rice or roti

* Or if you’re cooking curries as often as we are, get yourself a large jar of garlic and ginger paste from any good Indian supermarket and measure out the equivalent amount.