Chicken, Mango and Avocado Salad

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Grey days deserve brightening up and there is no better way to lift ones mood, than to indulge in a rather bright and summery looking salad….. in winter. I recently had this salad at a cheery little deli/restaurant on the Kings Road (they have two branches now at differing ends of the Kings Road) called Megan’s, where the staff are attentive and cheerful and there is a constant flow of customers coming in to have breakfast, lunch or to indulge in tea and cake, either to-go or to linger for a while in the warm haven of the restaurant. There is a positive buzz, not least because the food is fresh and inviting and made on the premises. It’s casual, unstuffy eating where you queue in line at the salad and hot bar and take your pick.

What initially attracted me to the chicken, mango and avocado salad was the colour – the bold yellow balancing beautifully with the reddish pink of the radish and the green from the salad leaves and coriander. The blend of flavours and textures complimented each other so well and I like the fact that the chicken had been delicately romancing with the dressing.

I took a mental note of what was in the salad and swore to conjure up a similar one in my home and then to share with you all when I had got it right. Of course it works brilliantly in the summer months, but I think a splash of colour and a healthy salad in the winter is fabulously refreshing. You can choose to have your grilled chicken warm or at room temperature, both work equally well so it is up to your personal preference.

What recipes do you cook when you need to brighten up your day?

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Chicken, Mango and Avocado Salad

serves 4

Romaine lettuce, chopped

300g chicken breasts

1 avocado

1 mango

bunch of coriander, roughly chopped

approximately 6 radishes, sliced

salt and pepper

dressing

1 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp whole grain mustard

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1. Preheat the grill to 180 degrees and cook the chicken for around 20 minutes, turning half way through.

2. Slice, cut and chop the remaining salad ingredients and place in a large bowl.

3. Mix the dressing ingredients together and place to one side.

4. When the chicken is cooked, slice the chicken breasts into strips of edible bites and place into the large bowl.

5. Add a little of the dressing and then gently toss together with all the salad ingredients.

6. Place in a serving platter for guests to serve themselves, with a small jug with the remaining dressing on the side.

Steak, Guinness and Mushroom Pie

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For those who like their meat traditionally made, this pie is seriously off the charts TASTY. I rarely cook pies as I regard Mr.B’s frame as requiring no extra investment from the pastry department, but when I do I really savour and enjoy every mouthful. Whilst the photo above shows the pie pre pastry topping, the ones lower down show it in all its glory. I apologise though for the rather poor quality of photographs. Normally I shoot my photographs earlier in the day so as to catch natural light, but for this post I wanted to eat the pie as soon as it emerged from the oven in the evening…..so I took the photos with candlelight….BIG mistake as they really don’t do the dish justice. Anyway I hope you will overlook the photographs here this once and just trust me when I say this pie is an absolute winner.

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You’ll need to get hold of a bottle of Guinness, which gives the pie a fantastic depth of flavour. The pie doesn’t require a whole bottle so you will have some to sip whilst the pie is cooking!

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We had some guests over for Valentines dinner, hence the pastry hearts on top of the pie.

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Happily our guests were very happy to receive such comfort food on a cold February evening and we all found it very easy to over-indulge. In these days of calorie counting and healthy eating at every corner, it was very refreshing to have some warming, nourishing food with no attempt at modernisation or  a “skinny version”. Indeed after the sacrifices of January, pairing this with some mature, spicy Rhone red wine was blissful.

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Steak, Guinness and Mushroom Pie

adapted from Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Baking

Serves 6

700g stewing steak, cubed (from your reliable local butcher)

flour, for coating

salt and pepper

175g bacon lardons/pancetta or bacon chopped into small pieces

50g butter

2 white onions, peeled and diced

2 garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp fresh thyme

1/2 tsp ground allspice

300ml/1/2 pint Guinness

150ml (1/4 pint) beef stock – I use this

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 bay leaves

400g button mushrooms

Pastry

300g plain white flour

175g butter

1 tsp salt

180-200ml iced water

1 egg, whisked with a little water

1. In a mixing bowl place the cubed stewing steak, a little dusting of flour and salt and pepper. Mix together gently with your hands.

2. In a large pan dry fry the bacon/lardons/pancetta gently until it has browned and then remove with a slotted spoon.

3. In the same pan place half the butter and cook the stewing steak in batches, for around 5 minutes each batch. Add the fresh thyme, onions, garlic and allspice to the steak and stir in well together. After 10 minutes, by which time the onion and garlic will be nicely cooked, add the bacon.

4. Pour in the Guinness, beef stock, tomato paste and bay leaves and gently simmer for one hour, by which time the beef will be deliciously tender.

5. Heat the remaining butter in a separate pan and add the mushrooms until they are lightly browned and then add to the stewing steak. Give a good stir before placing into a pie dish and discarding the bay leaves. Leave to cool completely before adding the pastry topping. (see first photo in the post!)

6. To prepare the pastry sift the flour and salt into a bowl and cut the butter into very small cubes before placing into the flour. Using your finger tips, lightly rub the butter into the flour so that it begins to form a crumbly consistency. Add a little water at a time to form a dough ball. Place on a clean dry surface and knead together until it is smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is too sticky! Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge to chill for around 20 minutes.

7. Roll the pastry out so that it sufficiently covers the pie dish. The one I use is 31x22x6cm. Gently cut around the pie dish where there is excess pastry. With the extra overhanging bits of pastry, create pastry leaves, hearts, stars, words, basically whatever takes your fancy, to place on top of your pie. Using your thumb and index finger pinch the pastry gently around the edges so as to give a wave effect. Lightly brush the pastry with the whisked egg and use a little water to keep any parts of the pastry in place.

8. Place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees (if using fan, ten degrees more if not) for 35 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

Serve immediately with mashed potato, red cabbage or greens.

Pecan Puffs

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When we arrived back from Hong Kong in the New Year we headed out to the countryside to stay with my parents in order to celebrate Christmas (part 2) with them, my siblings and their partners. The tree was down by this stage, twelfth night had long gone, but that aside my parents sweetly replicated the Christmas that they had had on December 25th again for us as we were back in the UK. Anyone passing by the house would have thought we had all gone completely mad as carols were playing and mulled wine was wafting through the house. We ate turkey, wore silly cracker hats and played parlour games. My mother went to town, as usual, on the food which we all greatly devoured.

It was whilst we were lazing away the hours that I stumbled across a little pot filled with the most delicious, crumbly biscuits I had ever eaten. They were completely heavenly as well as being very addictive and perfect to nibble away at whilst having a cup of tea (we English love our tea) by the fire in the late afternoon.

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It transpired that they had been sent from the US, lovingly made by a friend of my sister and her beau. Needless to say they did not last long as the whole family took a liking to them.

I urged my sister to track down the recipe so that I could try and make them myself. I had to do all the US conversions from cups to grams and somewhere along the line with my conversions they went wrong. They still tasted delicious but they were not as puff like as the originals as they were coming out of the oven a lot flatter.

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Finally after a few false starts I found the right balance of the ingredients and the delicious puffs returned. They are meant to be crumbly when you bite into them and certainly not the same texture as a biscuit. In as far as they are quick to devour they are also quick to make. Big A and Little Z love to get involved and prepare them with me as they are very straightforward to make.

I rather like the idea of putting them in little packets tied with a bow and given to friends and loved ones. How impressed will the receivers of such fancies be when they taste your pecan puffs. Trust me they will be begging you for the recipe. Send them this way of course. x

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Pecan Puffs

Inspired by Lainy in the US

Makes around 30 (depending on size)

240g unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature

120g pecan nuts, finely ground

240g plain flour, sieved

50g icing sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Finely grind the pecan nuts in a blender and place to one side.

2. Line a couple of baking trays with baking parchment and again place to one side.

3. In a large bowl add the sieved flour, icing sugar and salt.

4. Add the cubed butter to the flour bowl and using your hands begin to mix the ingredients together, softening the butter into the flour as you do so. Once it all begins to come together, add the vanilla essence and the ground pecan nuts.

5. Once all the ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together form a large ball and break off small pieces, a little smaller than a hens egg, but bigger than a quails, and roll in the palm of your hands into a ball and then slightly flatten, but not so much that it is completely flat.

6. Place each pecan puff on to a baking tray so that they are well spread out. I tend to leave a couple of inches around each puff . Whilst you are preparing the puffs preheat the oven to 160 degrees centigrade.

7. Place in the oven for 16 minutes and then leave to firm up before placing them on the cooling rack. When they are completely cool sift icing sugar over the top. Voila your pecan puff is ready to be devoured.

Duck Vindaloo

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Sometimes I think it’s good to eat a meal that really makes you feel alive, something that has some real zing to it. I understand though that loving chilli and things hot and spicy really divides opinion and that it is definitely something that you build up a tolerance to over time, similar to swimming in cold water in fact. It’s good to have a gradual build up rather than jumping in at the deep end whether it be cold water or chilli. On this basis I have shown you how to cook a hot vindaloo as well as a more mild version, but one that still has a pleasant kick to it.

I rather like using duck for a change, but should you wish you could also easily cook this with chicken. Pork vindaloo is probably the most well known Goan version – which you can follow the recipe to HERE, however, duck adds an interesting and tasty alternative, which I urge you to try.

I suggest you probably try the more subtle version first and then gradually build up the chilli content should you require more of a kick. I would love to hear how you get on so do leave a message in the comments box below….go on, don’t be shy.

Duck Vindaloo

Serves 4 (or 2 if you are very hungry)

4 duck legs (or 1 duck jointed)

2 sticks of cinnamon

5 cloves

2 green cardamom pods, slightly split open

3 white onions

10 garlic cloves

2 inches of fresh ginger

5 dried red chilli (2 if you prefer it milder) I use the small Thai variety

5 small green chilli (2 if you prefer it milder) I use either serrano or finger chillies. Use Jalapeno if you prefer it less hot

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tsp turmeric

3 tbsp white wine vinegar

5 small/medium potatoes, peeled and quartered

1 tbsp sugar

1-2 tbsp butter/ghee

300ml water

1. Place the duck in a deep pan filled with cold water so that it covers the duck legs. Prick the duck a few times with a fork so that the spices can penetrate into the meat. Add the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and cloves to the pan and bring to the boil and then simmer gently for 1 hour.

2. Using a blender, blend the onions, garlic, green chillies and fresh ginger. In a spice grinder grind the cumin seeds and dried chillies and then transfer them to the blender with the onions, garlic etc.

3. Add the turmeric, sugar and white wine vinegar and give it another final blast in the blender so that a smooth paste is formed.

4. Once the duck has been boiling for one hour, drain the water away and place to one side.

5. Heat a frying pan/karahi/wok and add the butter/ghee and when it has melted brown the duck legs on both sides and place to one side.

6. Using the same pan add the blended curry paste to the pan and gently fry until it becomes dry. You may need to stir it a few times to make sure that none of it burns on the bottom – cook on a relatively low heat!

7. Add the potatoes and duck to the paste along with the water and simmer gently until the water has disappeared and the potatoes have softened. You may need to add a little more water if the potatoes have not cooked through and the water has dried up.

8. Serve with rice or chapati along with a dal (see my recipe library for a list of my dals)