No fuss food

Over the past weeks I've had to adapt my recipes at home. Portions are smaller and the food preparation is more on the spare-of-the-moment, rather than a planned meal!

Yesterday I had some chicken breast which had been defrosting and was not in the mood of grilling the chicken then cooking some vegetables or some salad, so I opted for a 1 "pot" meal.

So here is what I used -

1 chicken breast - Fresh or simply defrosted
2 medium onions
4 new potatoes - or you can use 2 medium sized potatoes

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 lemon, grated
1/2 tangerine, grated. - if these are not in season, you can substitute with an orange
1 cup of water

At this point, put your oven on and set it at 160C

Place the peeled, sliced onions at the bottom of a non-stick oven dish.  Next wash the potatoes and slice them. I like to keep the skin on, but if you prefer you can peel the potatoes before slicing them.  

Next place the chicken breast over the potatoes. You can cut the breast into portions - you should be able to get 4 portions out of each whole breast, or you can leave it whole.

Finally season the chicken with the herbs and the lemon and tangerine zest. you can also add some fresh pepper if you prefer. Pour the water into the roasting dish, try and find a corner where there is no chicken to pour your water so that you do not remove any of the dressing. Cover the pan tightly with some baking paper or some foil and cook in a pre-heated oven at 160C for about 20 minutes.

Curried chicken salad

This salad is also called coronation chicken as it was once created for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation celebration in 1953.

It is an easy salad to prepare and will make a prefect fresh dish for your summer entertainment or as a side dish to your BBQs. Here is what you need to serve 2 persons as a main course

2 Chicken thighs
200g roasted unsalted peanuts
1 tablespoon Medium curry paste
5 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 x 180ml natural yoghurt
1 tablespoon Mango Chutney
Mixed salad leaves

Start off by cooking the chicken thighs. You can do this by boiling them with some root vegetables until they are cooked through.

Once your chicken is done, allow it to cool then cut it into small, bite-size pieces.
In the meantime prepare the sauce. Mix the mayo, yoghurt and curry paste together in a large bowl. Add the mango chutney and finally stir in the chicken pieces.

Make sure that you do not break the chicken whilst stirring it, so mix slowly.

Once you are ready to serve, prepare your presentation bowl and line it with the mixed salad leaves. If you do not find mixed leaves, then you can just use some lettuce leaves.

Next pour in the chicken mixture and spread it evenly around the bowl. Finally sprinkle with the roughly chopped roasted peanuts.

This salad is best served at room temperature. Do not keep for more than 3 days after the salad has been prepared.

Lamb's Lettuce

Lamb's lettuce is a salad green which grows in a rosette of long spoon shaped leaves which may also be clustered in loose heads. Lamb's lettuce is used in salad mixes together with other greens such as rocket, frisee or any other type of salad leaves.

The name comes from the fact that the leaves resemble in size and shape a lamb's tongue!). This type of lettuce is usually sold bunched together with its roots which are best kept intact until you are ready to use it.

Place the roots in a little water and store it in the fridge, this way the lettuce will keep for days. As a salad green, it is more expensive than the standard cos (hass twil) or iceberg (kabbucjat) that we are accustomed to buying, however, it is a nice variation to your salad dishes.

Here is what you need to make a lamb’s lettuce salad for 2:
1 Lambs lettuce
4 slices back bacon
1 chicken breast
3 garlic
1 sprig of rosemary
Some mushrooms
2 slices stale bread.

Start off by cutting the bread into little cubes. Cut the bread vertically and horizontally so that you have 4 pieces, now cut each piece into 4 again and you will have 16 cubes from each slice.

Sprinkle the bread with some olive oil and grill them under a hot grill until they become crunchy.

Next, wash the lettuce and place on your plates.

Grill the chicken together with the garlic cloves and rosemary. Once it is cooked through, cook the bacon.

Place the chicken and bacon over the lettuce, next sprinkle the mushrooms and finally top with the bread.

Should you have small forest mushrooms such as finferli I would use those and not the local white variety for this salad. However, if these are not available, then buy some local ones and chop them into small pieces.