Sumac and date chicken with browned asparagus, broccoli and sticky brown rice

I've been trying to eat healthier because I've been going to Bikram yoga classes and I want to look like Heidi Klum. I thought that three days of eating well and sweating like a concubine (during the Bikram yoga classes) would at least have me halfway there. But when I woke up this morning my cheeks were no higher and my buttocks no smaller. Damn it. But I won't give up! Which is why I made this dish for dinner tonight. It tastes amazing (if I'm honest, much better than I thought it would), is healthy and has a wonderful creamy texture that's quite similar to risotto. I hope you enjoy it!

What you need (makes 3 small servings)...

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 3 shallots, chopped finely
• 2 pinches of dried thyme
• 120g long grain brown rice
• 1 litre of water
•  ½ chicken stock cube
• 2 boneless chicken breasts, roughly cubed
• 1 tsp sumac 
• 40g baby asparagus, ends trimmed, the remainder cut into one-inch pieces
• 40g Tenderstem broccoli, ends trimmed, the remainder cut vertically 
• 2 soft and sticky dried dates, pips removed, the remainder roughly chopped

What to do:

1. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a medium pot and once it's hot, add the shallots
2. Add the thyme
3. Cook the shallots and thyme on a low heat, stirring gently until the onions are soft and translucent
4. Remove the onions and thyme from heat
5. Rinse the rice in cold water and drain
6. Add the rice to the onion and thyme mixture and put it back on the stove on a low heat
7. Stir gently until the rice becomes translucent
8. Add 550ml water and the stock cube to the rice and leave on low heat to cook down slowly
9. In a large pan add the remaining olive oil and warm on medium heat
10. Add the chicken cubes and cook the chicken until the cubes are white on the outside
11. Add the sumac and stir into the chicken. The chicken will turn a pale pink colour
12. Once the chicken is lightly browned on all sides, add the broccoli and asparagus and cook until the vegetables are lightly browned too. Let the moisture cook out of the chicken and vegetables. If the pan gets too dry add a splash of water
13. Keep an eye on the rice and if it has cooked down, add water
14. Once the vegetables and chicken are cooked, add the dates and stir so that they are partially dissolved into the mix
15. Once the water you have added to the pan has evaporated entirely, remove the pan from the heat
16. In the meantime the rice will be developing an almost risotto-like consistency. If it dries out add splashes of water and cook until soft and creamy
17. Once the rice is cooked add it to the chicken mixture and stir well

Easy tartlets to cheat with...

My husband and I had our friend Chris (we call him Crystal Meth because his personality is so sparkly) over for dinner the other night. Because I am so naughty with the upkeep of my blog posts, I cannot for the life of me remember what I cooked for the main course. When I do I'll post it. For now though, no matter. What I do remember is that I made a cheat dessert in the form of ready-made tartlets and lemon curd. They're really quick to prepare and they look cute too. Happy eating!

What you need (makes about 6 tartlets)...

• 6 ready-made tartlets (you can pick them up at most supermarkets)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 cup of lemon curd (again, you can find bottles of lemon curd at most supermarkets)
• 2 handfuls of mulberries
• 1 cup of cream
• 1½ tsp of white sugar

What to do...

1. Heat the oven to 180°
2. Warm the butter in a saucepan until melted
3. Paint the inside and outside of the tartlets with the butter and pop them into the pre-heated oven for about ten minutes or until golden
4. Pour the lemon curd, cream and sugar into a bowl and mix well until the sugar has dissolved
5. Take the tartlets out of the oven and let them cool
6. Pour the lemon curd into the cooled tartlets leaving about half a centimetre from the rim of each
7. Place three mulberries on the top of the lemon curd mixture
8. Store the filled tartlets in the fridge to keep the berries fresh but remove them about 20 minutes before serving to get them to room temperature

I am still alive!

Hello! It's been so long since I last posted anything on here that it’s almost the next ice age. I do apologise. I will also say – rather passive aggressively – “I told you I had problems maintaining my own blogs. What? Don't judge me!” **insert wink here**

So many things have happened since the last time I posted, the most momentous being that I got a new job as online editor at John Brown Media (www.johnbrownmedia.com) Guess what I am working on? FOOD magazine for Spinneys! (www.spinneys-dubai.com) For those who don't know, Spinneys is a massive supermarket chain and FOOD is the fabulous monthly print magazine that we create in collaboration with Spinneys. It is sold in all Spinneys stores across the UAE. Please do pick up a copy the next time you're there. It's only Dh7. Click on the image below to see recipes, our FOOD blog, our favourite foodie products and more.

So you see, food was always in my future?! No, I don't mean the next dish I am about to eat (which, by the way, will be iftar with my good friend Anna.)

To be honest, getting this job (which is really amazing) was one of the reasons I stopped posting so much. No, I’m not blaming anyone for my ludicrously lacklustre personal blogging style. It's just that it’s quite intimidating to be posting pictures of dishes that aren’t quite as gorgeous as the ones that FOOD magazine's stylists and photographers create. And their dishes are really super-styling-stunning-with-a-cherry-on-top. 

I'll put it into perspective for you. Next to FOOD's dishes, my meals look like they were fished out of a bin and then nudged into semi-fathomable shapes to be made ready for consumption by confined maximum-security prisoners who are on hunger strike anyway. FOOD's dishes are a millisecond away from being served to the Queen, Lenny Kravitz and Angelina Jolie (if she actually ate anything). They're beautiful.

Having said that, I guess I do have to remember that I am not a professional photographer or stylist, so for now you'll have to do with my cheap and cheerful iPhone pictures. I'm just hoping that the recipes I put up on my blog are at least tasty! **insert another wink here** (I’ll also take this opportunity to state that the recipes I put up on this blog have nothing to do with FOOD magazine or Spinneys. They come entirely from me and there is no cross over between my professional life and this blog. All of my thoughts and opinions on here are my own. I also feel like a trip to the Maldives, but that’s got nothing to do with either this blog or my professional life. Having said that, if anyone has any spare cash they’d like to throw my way so I can make my way to island paradise while sucking on a lolly, please message me.)

If you are interested in seeing what FOOD does though – and if you enjoy eating you should be people, you should be - here are links to FOOD's social media pages and blog. The magazine features absolutely stunning food photography (yes, I said it again) and amazingly simple but tasty recipes for you to try out. 

    •    More from FOOD blog - http://www.spinneys-dubai.com/index.php/more-from-food.html

    •    Recipes - http://www.spinneys-dubai.com/index.php/recipes.html

    •    Find FOOD on Facebook - www.facebook.com/spinneysdubai

    •    Find FOOD on Twitter – www.twitter.com/foodmaguae

    •    Find FOOD on Pinterest – www.pinterest.com/foodmaguae

    •    Find FOOD on GooglePlus - https://plus.google.com/b/101897286155900557415/101897286155900557415/posts

Happy reading and - more importantly - happy eating!

xxx

PS. I have to add that aside from making a dish look beautiful, there are two other steps to the creation of a successful meal:

1.)    It's really important to have fun while you're cooking.

2.)    Once you’re done cooking, it’s vital to totally savour the flavours of the meal you’ve so lovingly prepared.

So I guess what I’m saying is, whip up something with abandon and enjoy it no matter what it looks like. If it’s made with love, it’ll taste amazing.

Saffron, Honey and Ricotta Ice Cream Recipe

I've been going through an ice cream making phase, much to the delight of my husband and friends. When I was 17 I made honey and saffron ice cream by hand and the sweet saffron fragrance, pale orange hue and rich, honey flavour stayed with me which is why I decided to try it out again, this time using an ice cream machine and ricotta which adds an interesting texture to the mix. Happy eating!

Saffron, honey and ricotta ice cream (serves 6 to 8 medium-sized portions) 

What you need:

• An ice cream machine
• A double boiler (this will boil the milk slowly and evenly so it doesn't burn. It will also help prevent cooking the eggs in the custard.) If you don't have a proper double boiler you can use one pot over another (the bottom one with two to three inches of water). The most important thing is that the water/steam doesn't get into the milk mixture in the saucepan on top.
• A jug or bowl with spout cooled in the freezer
• A teaspoon of saffron strands
• Two tablespoons of honey
• 100g of castor sugar 
• 5 egg yolks
• 500g ricotta (broken apart with a fork so it's not too chunky)
• 500ml full fat milk
• 250ml double cream
• A quarter of a cup of pine nuts

What to do...

1. Put the saffron in the milk and heat until just before boiling point.
2. In the meantime beat the egg yolks and sugar until the colour changes from golden to pale yellow.
3. Add half the milk to the egg and sugar and stir well until everything is properly mixed.
4. Pour the mix into the milk in the saucepan and stir continually with a wooden spoon until it thickens. When the custard coats the back of the wooden spoon it's ready.
5. Remove from the heat and whisk in the double cream, then ricotta, then honey.
6. Pour the mix into the chilled jug or bowl and let it cool for a few minutes.
7. Pour the mix into the ice cream maker and churn as per the manufacturer's instructions or until the mix is frozen and has the texture of ice cream.
8. While the ice cream is churning put the pine nuts into a saucepan and lightly toast them.
9. Once the ice cream is finished, serve with a sprinkle of pine nuts and a drizzle of honey.

Wagyu steak, sweet carrot coins and butter broccoli served with wild rucola and parmesan salad

So here is the second recipe (for dinner) that I spoke about a few days ago in my Easy Peanut Chicken and Mango Salad recipe post. This dish is just as simple and quick to prepare. Happy cooking!

Wagyu steak, sweet carrot coins and butter broccoli served with wild rucola and parmesan salad (serves 2)

What you need:

• Two wagyu steaks. (Remember the thicker the steak, the longer it will take to cook.)
• Coarse salt (in a salt grinder)
• Coarse pepper (in a pepper grinder)
• Cold water
• A drizzle of olive oil
• Two carrots
• About ten florets of broccoli (a small broccoli head should be enough)
• Ice blocks
• Two teaspoons of sugar
• Two tablespoons of butter
• A box of wild rucola (rocket) leaves, rinsed
• A cup of coarsely grated pecorino or parmesan cheese
• A sprinkle of olive oil for the salad
• A sprinkle of white balsamic vinegar for the salad

Tips before we start...

Here are some guidelines for cooking steaks. I'm still working on my 'perfect steak' techniques but I've been doing some reading online and I came across these times which work well with the times I've used in the past. (I found these on this site: http://www.lobels.com/recipe/perfectsteak.aspx)

Rare (120-130°F)	2 minutes each side
Medium Rare (130-140°F)	3 minutes each side
Medium (140-150°F)	4 minutes each side
Medium Well (150-160°F)	5 minutes each side

 
Tips for working with wagyu meat...

Before you start cooking, remove steak/s from the packaging and let them sit on a plate to breathe for about 15 to 20 minutes so they warm up to room temperature.

To make the recipe...

• Put the rocket in a bowl and grate pecorino or parmesan cheese on top. Drizzle a little olive oil and white balsamic vinegar over it. Toss and set to one side.
• Rinse your carrots and cut them into carrot coins. Throw the ends away.
• Cut off the trunks of your broccoli and rinse. Break it into bite-size florets.
• Fill a medium-large saucepan with water and bring to the boil.
• Drop the vegetables into the water once it's boiling and cook until tender. (2 to 6 minutes.) To test if the vegetables are tender take one of each out and bite into them.
• Once cooked, drop the vegetables into the ice water. This will stop the residual heat from cooking them further and will keep them crisp until you want to butter them.
• Heat two small saucepans.
• Put a tablespoon of butter in each.
• Melt the butter in each.
• In the one you'd like to cook your carrots, put two teaspoons of sugar and stir until the sugar melts.
• Add the carrots once the sugar is melted and cook until golden. They shouldn't crisp but they should change colour.
• Put the broccoli into the saucepan with no sugar and cook for a few minutes until the edges are just wilting.
• While the vegetables are cooking, take your steak/s and poke it with a few holes using a fork. Grind some salt and pepper into a bowl and add a drizzle of olive oil (about a tablespoon) to the mix. Baste the mixture on one side of the steak using a basting brush. Remember to leave a little for the other side.
• Heat a large non-stick or cast-iron frying pan. Make sure it's large enough so that each steak has a decent amount of empty space around it to cook properly. I wouldn't recommend cooking more than two steaks in one pan at a time.
• Once the frying pan is very hot, put the steak (salt-and-pepper-basted side down) in to the frying pan. It should sizzle when it hits the pan.
• There should be enough olive oil basting on the steak for it not to smoke until the time you have to turn it over, but if it does, dip your fingers into the cup of water and flick the water into the frying pan to add a little bit of moisture to the steak so that it doesn't dry out or burn. This will also cool the pan down a little. Don't put too much water or the steak will lose its colour and flavour. This might sound funny, but to make sure the steak sucks up the water and then steams it out evenly, take a spatula and hold the steak down in the pan, turning it around and around like a record as you do so. This will encourage it to suck up the water and cook without getting watery.
• Before you turn your steak over the first time, remember to baste the top with the olive oil, salt and pepper again. You can just baste it while it's in the frying pan.
• Turn it over as per how you'd like your steak done. (See the table above or go to the link above for more steak cooking time tips.)
• Once the steak is cooked, take the vegetables and steak off the stove and serve hot with rocket and pecorina/parmesan salad.
• Enjoy!

Easy peanut chicken and mango salad for supper tonight (or lunch tomorrow)

Like many people in Dubai I work full time, so when I get home the last thing I want to do is slave over a stove. Yesterday I decided to make my life a little easier and whip up two super simple dishes - one for supper last night and one for lunch today - that were straightforward to prepare, taste delicious and look good without too much fussing.

I'm going to share the lunch dish with you today. The supper recipe I'll share later this week.

Easy Peanut Chicken and Mango Salad (serves 2)

What you need...

• Three boneless chicken breasts
• A generous sprinkling of cayenne pepper
• A generous drizzle of honey
• Three generous tablespoons of chunky peanut butter (or smooth if you don't like chunky)
• About two tablespoons of olive oil
• A quarter of a cup of water
• A third of a box of wild rucola leaves, rinsed
• One orange pepper sliced into thin, short strips
• Two Alphonso mangoes, peeled, the ripe part of the fruit cut into strips. Make sure you get soft, sweet mangoes for this recipe. 
• A slice of buttered nutty bread or warm, toasted Arabic bread
• A handful of grapes

How to make the dish...

1. Cut the chicken breasts into chunky strips.
2. Drizzle half of the olive oil in a large frying pan and let it heat for a minute or so.
3. Put the chicken into the pan and sprinkle generously with cayenne pepper
4. If the chicken seems to absorb the oil quickly and sticks to the pan, splash a handful of water into the pan. 
5. Cook the chicken, stirring occasionally.
6. In the meantime, cut the mangoes and peppers into strips.
7. Rinse the wild rucola.
8. Once the chicken is cooked, put it in a strainer over the sink to drain any water.
9. Put the 'dry' chicken back in the pan and drizzle with the remainder of the olive oil.
10. Scoop three generous table spoons of extra chunky peanut butter over the chicken. As it heats stir it through the chicken so it coats each piece properly.
11. Add a generous sprinkling of honey over the top of the chicken and mix.
12. Cook the peanut butter/honey-coated chicken until it's golden and a little crispy.
13. Set to one side.
14. Put the wild rucola in a bowl and add the mango and orange pepper. Stir it up.
15. Add the peanut butter chicken.
16. This salad can be served warm or at room temperature and will taste delicious with a slice of rich, nutty bread or Arabic bread and grapes as I discovered quite by accident at lunch time today!

I shared this salad with a friend of mine at work today so to make more
of a meal of things I added toasted Arabic bread and grapes. Yum!

Julia's delicious duck rillettes recipe

I'm expanding my recipe search and looking to friends and family around the world to contribute to my blog. This time it's my sister, gourmand and chef extraordinaire Julia Baillie's turn, with her recipe for rillettes, a rustic pate that's made from meat that's been poached in its own fat. This is not a halal recipe as it contains pork. [Editor's note - If you're interested in the history of rillettes, please scroll down to the bottom of this post.] Before we get to the recipe, here's a little something about Julia.

My sister, gourmand and chef
extraordinaire Julia Baillie

What’s the most delicious thing you have ever eaten? Almost everyday I have the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. The most recent delicious thing was a duck liver parfait, a mousse-like cloud on hot toasted sour dough bread with onion marmalade. I ate a lot of that!

If you could fly anywhere in the world for dinner tonight where would you go and what would you have to eat? Vietnam. I'd dine on a selection of street food.

What’s in your fridge at the moment? Soft caramel toffee waiting to set; a bottle of duck rillettes ready for hot toast; broccoli soup; lots of salad greens and herbs that are on standby for a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe for dinner.

What was the last thing you baked? My Butter Daisies, large shortbreads shaped like happy daisies.

Which chef would you love to invite for dinner? That would be Anthony Bordain and Rick Stein.

Julia's delicious duck rillettes recipe  

(Serves eight)

You will need: 

• 600g pork belly cut into small pieces
• 800g duck legs
• 100 ml white wine
• 200 ml water
• 1 tspn sea salt
• 1/4 tspn black pepper
• 1/2 tspn ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tspn ground allspice
• 1 large garlic clove, crushed

1.) Preheat the oven to 140 degrees (275F).

2.) Place all of the ingredients together with 200 ml water into a casserole dish and mix thoroughly. Cover with a lid. 

3.) Bake for four hours. The meat should be soft and surrounded by liquid fat.

4.) Pour through a strainer and reserve the fat. Remove the meat from the duck legs and shred all the warm meat using two forks as tools. The meat must be 'stringy' and not a mush. Season if necessary. You can add a little of the strained liquid if need be.

5.) Pack into a 750 ml dish or terrine, or glass jars as a gift, and leave until cold.

6.) Strain the hot fat through a sieve lined with damp muslin.

7.) Once the meat is cold pour the fat over the top. You can reheat the liquid fat if it has solidified. 

8.) Lay a bay leaf and pink peppercorns in the liquid to make it look gorgeous. 

9.) Keep covered in the fridge. 

10.) Serve at room temperature on warm toast. It will last for up to a week.  

Julia's duck rillettes that she sells in
Hermanus, South Africa

If you're keen on sharing your favourite recipe, please email me on angela.hundal@gmail.com. Chat soon!

The History of Rillettes

According to this link http://dineonswine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55:rillettes&catid=36:swine-recipes&Itemid=82 'the first writings on rillettes can be found in 1480 in cook books from Touraine, located in the centre part of France. [Francois] Rabalais, 15th century writer and philosopher, author of Gargantua and Pantagruel, describes them as the "brown jam" as their main property is a capacity of long term conservation. 

Traditionally rillettes were made twice a year when pigs were killed, using all the leftovers after the classic meat cuts. After long and slow cooking, the meat was stored in ceramic jars and covered by 3cm of pure fat, keeping it away from oxydation [sic]. They were therefore used for long travels as it was an easy way to have fat and proteins, kept in aseptic conditions. In some books they have also been described as plated in the shape of a pyramid and topped with the pig's tail. The rillettes were proudly displayed to the guest of honour as a sign of wealth. 

Today the cooking style is applied to game birds, wild rabbit and fish. And like any French dish, it has many regional definitions. In general most rillettes are served cold and spread on toast much like a pate.' 

For more on rillettes, read:

• http://www.regions-of-france.com/regions/pays_de_la_loire/food-gastronomy/rillettes-porc/
• http://ckenb.blogspot.com/2011/04/home-made-rillettes-de-lapin.html