When in Trust

In Savoury:

Honey-Saffron Chicken Roast

For when you’re in safe and warm company – even if it’s just yours.

Chicken	Whole Chicken (without skin[1])
Mace (whole)[2]	1 small bit[3]
Red Onion	1[4]
Honey	To taste (you can use Agave Nectar instead if serving someone who’d prefer a lower sugar level in the food.)
Whole Garlic	2 bulbs, skinned, not chopped
Ginger	Quarter of an inch, chopped very fine
Salt	To taste (put this in LAST because we’ll use a stock cube)
Coarse Dried Red Chilli	To taste
Whole Cardamom	5-6
Whole Cloves	2-3
Vegetable Oil	0.5 cup
Garlic Powder	1.5 teaspoons
Ginger Powder	1.5 teaspoons
Stock Cube	1 (chicken or even beef flavour)
Saffron	Two big pinches
Milk	A cup
Potatoes	4 medium sized, skinned and chopped into quarters

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[1] You can use a chicken with its skin on, but I’d suggest not to in this recipe. It’s up to you.

[2] I think it’s called Jodhri in Urdu… not sure, really…

[3] You can get mace as a powder or as a semi-dried spice that’s a bit soft and bendy… it looks and smells really mild, but in actuality, if you go too far with mace, and a tiny bit more than necessary is going too far, you’ll barely be able to stomach the dish. Be careful, be wise. ‘Less can be added to, more can’t be taken away from’.

[4] Yes, just the one, don’t put more in. Don’t. Just don’t. Because I said so.

Method:

1. Ok first off, prepare the chicken – take a fork and mark the chicken all over – this might make you feel like you’re stabbing a dead chicken, don’t worry: you are.
2. Crush half the garlic and mix it with one pinch of the saffron, both the garlic and ginger powders, half of the oil and half the stock cube. Massage this mixture for about ten minutes onto the whole chicken and then leave it to sit for a few hours in the fridge in a big bowl (which is covered with cling-film).
3. Chop up the onion. Finely chopped or diced, it’s not an issue. Place the chopped onion then into a pan (choose a pan that leaves about two to three inches between its sides and the chicken once you place the chicken in it), throw in the rest of the garlic and all the ginger. Pour the rest of the oil onto the onions, garlic and ginger in the pan. Note: Use a non-stick pan or if you don’t have a non-stick one, line a pan with foil and use that.
4. Heat the milk – until it’s quite hot but not boiling, put the saffron in and let it melt. Mix it to help it along, but don’t keep heating it. Add the whole cardamom and cloves. Finely cut the mace – mash it even, and add it to the milk as well. Put this flavoured milk to one side and let it steep (can you use ‘steep in this context?).
5. In a small bowl, mix some of the honey and coarse ground chilli – do this mixing for a little while so the flavour of the chilli really mixes in with the honey. Try and use a significantly larger amount of honey than chilli. Remember, the chilli will be tempered by the honey, so you don’t need to be too afraid of it. As always, however, know your limits.
6. Once the chicken’s been sat there waiting in the fridge for a few hours, preheat the oven to about 220^oC (No I don’t do Fahrenheit, figure it out yourself, I’m sorry. Always thought Fahrenheit was for the weak). Take out the chicken from the fridge, and place it in the pan (on top of the garlic, onions and ginger – don’t move them aside to make space for the chicken – just dump the chicken on top of them. Place the potato quarters around the chicken (also on top of the onions and whatnot).
7. Pour the flavoured saffron-milk mixture (with the all the bits – so let the cardamoms and cloves pour in as well) over the chicken – try to only cover the chicken. If you feel you need it, put in another pinch or two of salt. Pour in half a cup or one whole cup of water. (Purists will be upset about the water, but tell them to be quiet and let you do the cooking).
8. Cover the chicken with either foil or if the pan comes with an oven-proof lid - use that, and place it in the oven.
9. After about 20 minutes, take out the pan and see how the chicken is doing and smelling. You can sometimes tell salt content and taste through smell, if it smells too salty then put in another chopped potato and pour half a cup of water over the chicken.
10. Cover again and put back into the oven. 10 minutes later, turn the heat down to 200^oC and let it keep going.
11. After a half hour passes, take the pan out, uncover the chicken and pour the honey-chilli onto the chicken. Make sure it’s well coated, use a basting brush if you want to get to every part (if you’re using chicken with the skin on, I suggest use the brush). Put it back into the oven.
12. Check the progress after another half hour. Uncover and let cook at 180^oC for another half an hour, checking every five minutes to make sure it’s not burning. If it’s getting too crispy, cover it again and continue until you feel it is done or the time is up.

Note: Total Oven time is about 1.5 t0 2 Hours[1]. If at any point it seems to be drying too much, pour in a little bit of water.

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[1] Shouldn’t be more than 2 hours in my opinion.  

The making of the Sauce:

1. Once the chicken is done… Everything should smell nice. Put the chicken onto an oven-proof plate along with the potatoes into the oven, preferably covered and the oven better be turned off! This’ll keep it warm.
2. Now turn back to the pan with its contents. The garlic ought to have gone all mushy and so should have the onions and to some extent, the ginger. Get a potato masher or the back of a fork, and mush everything left in the pan.  In a glass of lukewarm water, put the remaining half of the stock cube and the remaining honey and mix. Pour this into the pan and mix with the contents. Take the mixture and pour it into a frying pan and heat until you have a sauce – don’t be afraid to taste to check, just don’t burn your tongue or your finger.

 

Serve. 

Warning about Spices

Please note: Spices and herbs can negatively influence our bodies and minds if taken in large amounts. A large amount of Nutmeg or Mace can give you a heart-attack. Too much of any spice or herb is bad for you. 

Try to avoid putting in too much of any spice, I know a lot of my recipes have a lot of spice, but I've been having spices like these since I was in the womb. I can handle a lot more than most. 

Please be careful: take care of yourself and those you happen to be feeding. Know both your limits and theirs. 

When In Serenity

In Savoury:

Land Before Time Chicken Salad[1]

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[1] Yes I am referring to the cartoon ‘Land Before Time’. I like the name, get over it.

Ingredients: Salad

Chicken breasts	[4-5 and cubed]
Olive Oil	[Whatever you like]
Ice Berg Lettuce[1]	[1 unevenly chopped[2]]
Fenugreek Leaves	[a bunch[3]]
Red Bell Peppers	[ 2-3 sliced long]
Carrots	[3-4 sliced thinly]
Cucumbers	[2-3 sliced thickly]
Maple Syrup	[4 tbsps]
Balsamic Vinegar	[2 tbsps]
Toasted Bread Slice	[1 toast[4]]
Dried Rosemary	[1tspn]
Dried Thyme	[half a teaspoon]
White pepper[5]	[to taste]
Black pepper	[to taste]
Salt	[to taste]
Oranges	[1-2]

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[1] Or any lettuce that you prefer if ice berg isn’t available.

[2] One big one or 2-3 small ones

[3] These are strong flavoured as compared to the lettuce in this recipe. Make sure the leaves are mostly whole and just chop at the stems – the salad will look pretty. This is also called ‘Fresh Methi’

[4] Just normal bread that you tend to toast in the morning.

[5] You can use black pepper, instead.

Method: Land Before Time Chicken Salad

1. Take the cubed chicken and fry it on low heat in the olive oil for about 10 minutes. Put a dash of water in from time to time, but don’t pour a lot in [in one go].
2. Squeeze out the oranges into a glass, pick out the seeds [with a fork, not your fingers] and pour onto the frying chicken.
3. Fry. Now if it needs some more water, pour some in.
4. Dump in the white pepper, salt, rosemary and thyme.
5. Pour a little bit more water in [only if there isn’t a lot of liquid left in the chicken], cover, and let cook on a low heat.
6. Slice the carrots thinly and place on a covered oven tray. Drizzle some olive oil and salt and pepper on them. Place in the oven [110ͦc] for about 10 – 15 minutes, or until they look all brown and caramelized. Then take them out and pour the extra oil into a cup and pour onto the chicken. Place the carrots in a bowl and also put them aside.
7. The chicken should be done now – check it… switch it off if it’s done. Make sure that there’s still some liquid left in it. Now pick the chicken pieces out of the liquid and set aside. Pour half a glass of water into the liquid that is still left in the pan and stir until the mixture dissolves. Put the pan back on low heat and keep stirring. When you have a little bit left, pour in the Balsamic Vinegar and keep stirring.
8. Just as the liquid starts to look like a sauce [i.e. creamy (though there isn’t any cream in the recipe)  and tasty], put in the maple syrup. Cook down until everything smells nice.[1] Then put aside. This is the salad dressing.
9. Take the toasted slice of bread, and cut the edges off. Now cut into small cubes. Take a clean frying pan, and oil the pan ever so slightly – I like to use olive oil – if you want to use flavoured oil [I’ve heard garlic-infused oil tastes nice with this], go ahead. Now toss the toast cubes around in the pan. They should get lightly toasted all around – keep them moving, otherwise they’ll burn and taste/look funny. After you like how your croutons look, put them aside. In the same pan put the sliced red bell peppers in and do the same thing to them. You might want to add in a dash more of oil.
10. Now slice the cucumbers into big chunks [think land before time while slicing].
11. Cut the Lettuce into big pieces, and when cutting the fenugreek leaves, try to keep the leaves attached to the stalk – it looks nicer. In fact, I barely cut the fenugreek leaves as it is.
12. Now toss everything together and serve.

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[1] If the sauce isn’t tasting right, put in some more black pepper and maybe a pinch of red chilli powder – if you use red chilli powder, add some more water and cook a little longer as you shouldn’t eat raw spice. You might have to then put in a little bit extra Balsamic Vinegar – but only the smallest of dashes. THE SMALLEST.

I often place the salad dressing in a container next to the salad so people can decide how much they want. 

When in Happiness

In Savoury: 

Lemon-Coriander Chicken Curry 

Ingredients:

·                     Chicken	·                     [Whole chicken in pieces[1]]
·                     Lemons	·                     [2-3 big ones[2]]
·                     Onions	·                     [3-4 white onions]
·                     Coriander leaves	·                     [Fresh, a bunch]
·                     Green Chillies	·                     [Fresh, 6 medium sized]
·                     Garlic	·                     [Fresh, 6 cloves]
·                     Ginger	·                     [Fresh, 2 inches]
·                     Red Chili Powder	·                     [1-2 teaspoons]
·                     Turmeric Powder	·                     [0.5 - 0.75 teaspoon]
·                     Coriander Powder	·                     [2-3 teaspoons]
·                     Cumin Powder	·                     [1-2 teaspoons]
·                     Garlic Powder	·                     [2-3 teaspoons]
·                     Ginger Powder	·                     [1-2 teaspoons]
·                     Paprika	·                     [A pinch, no more]
·                     Salt	·                     [To taste]
·                     Ground Nutmeg[3]	·                     [A pinch or two]
·                     Whole Cardamom	·                     [4 of them]
·                     Whole Cinnamon	·                     [A few sticks]
·                     Whole  Cloves	·                     [4-5 of them]
·                     Vegetable Oil	·                     [5 tablespoons[4]]
·                     Coarse Dried Red Chili[5]	·                     [2-3]
·                     Tomato	·                     [ a half of a tomato]
[Also, get some fresh naan or roti and/or some yoghurt]

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[1] Or you can use 6-8 breast fillets, but the bones help make curry taste good... breast fillets are wishy washy, conceited and lazy.

[2] Or 4-5 little ones...

[3] If you have whole nutmeg and need to grind it – break open the shell and grind the soft seed you find inside. Nutmeg is a hallucinogen. Don’t use too much. And for those of you idiots who are going to take that bit of info and run, do a bit of a research, I've heard it's not fun. 

[4] Do not use Olive Oil as a substitute in this recipe as the taste comes out a bit odd.

[5] I know there is a lot of chilli in this recipe – try to cut down whatever you can’t handle. My advice? Keep the green chillies and the red chilli powder, and leave the coarse ground red chilli out – besides it’s hard to find.

Method:

1. Pour Vegetable Oil into pan. Heat it a little [medium-high heat] 
2. Dice Onions. Fry till golden brown and nice-smelling.
3. Chop 1 Green Chilli and dump it in the frying pan. Fry a little.
4. Dump in: Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves and Garlic. Fry for ten seconds. [Or however long it takes you to bring the chicken near the hob…].
5. Dump Chicken in. Fry.
6. Add: Salt, Paprika, Ground Nutmeg and Coarse Dried Red Chili [if you choose to use the coarse dried red chili that is] in. Stir everything up. Things should start smelling nice right about now. Fry for about 2-3 minutes.
7. Add: Red Chili Powder, Cumin Powder, Coriander Powder, Turmeric Powder, Fresh   tomato [yes, cut it up first] and the Fresh Garlic [you can either cut these up or put in whole after peeling]. Pour 2 glasses of water in. Leave on high heat.
8. Slice the fresh Ginger into thin disks. Add to the curry. Let the water dry, then start frying it a little[1].
9. Put in: Garlic Powder and Ginger Powder. Stir the mixture while it’s frying [for about ten seconds] and then add about 5-6 glasses of water.
10. Cover, lower heat, and let simmer for about 20 minutes[2]. [while the 20 minutes pass, peel the lemons, cut them up – no, we’re not squeezing, treat them like vegetables – and pick out the seeds, set aside.
11. If, after the 20 minutes have passed, the water has not dried up, raise the heat to high and ‘dry’ the curry.
12. Add half a glass of water. And the cut up lemons.
13. Chop the Green Chilies and the Fresh Coriander and dump it all in.
14. Fry everything a bit. Smell it. But don’t get burnt.
15. If it doesn’t smell right, chances are it either needs some Coriander Powder, Red Chili Powder, Salt or Oil. Add whichever things you think are missing, and stir it [you might want to add a tiny bit of water as it might start burning if everything is too dry and you continue frying it]. Done!

Serve with Naan or Roti and place a dish with cold plain yoghurt in it.

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[1] The frying will automatically start once the water in the pan dries up. The water should evaporate in no more than ten minutes – if it’s taking too long, raise the heat.

[2] Make sure to keep checking the level of water every 5 minutes. 

In Sweet: 

Cinnamon Apple Popless-Tarts  

Ingredients: Tarts

Apples	[6-7 Normal Apples]
Cinnamon	8-9 sticks]
Butter[1]	[1 cup (2 sticks)]
Sugar/ Sweetner	[To taste[2]]
Egg	[1, just the one]
Milk	[1 tablespoon]
Flour	[a third of a cup – all purpose[3]]
Baking Powder	[three quarters of a teaspoon]
Salt	[a quarter of a taspoon]
Vanilla Essence	[a few drops]

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[1] You can use half a cup of vegetable oil instead. Add more if needed. 

[2] Using Normal Apples negates the need for sweetner or sugar...

[3] As in normal flour... just normal 

      Method: Tarts

1. Peel and dice Apples. Place the diced Apples in a saucepan.
2. Put in some Sugar or Sweetner, if you want. Put in the Cinnamon sticks.
3. Pour 1-2 glass[es] of water in the pan. Place on the hob – low heat. Let this cook until the apples are really soft [this can take quite a bit of time – top up the water if it gets dry] and then mash them with a potato mashed or the back of a large spoon. You should get a nice paste – pick out the cinnamon sticks and set it aside.
4. While the apples are cooking, start on the pastry.
5. LIQUID SECTION: Mix the butter, egg, vanilla essence and milk together in a bowl.
6. DRY SECTION: In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar/sweetner [if using].
7. Add the liquid section to the dry section and fold and mix slowly.  You should eventually have a nice dough. If it’s too watery and sticky-sticky, put some more flour in and knead it, if it’s too dry and crumbly, but a tablespoon or so of water in it.
8.  Clean a surface area [properly!] where you can roll out the dough. Lightly spread some flour on the surface and using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until you get a thin 2-3mm thick flat disk of the dough.
9. Using a butter knife [or if you happen to have a pastry cutter use that, instead] cut out rectangles [about 3X4 inches]. If any flour is left, roll it out again and cut out more rectangles…
10.  Okay, now take one rectangle, place it on a floured plate, take a tablespoon of the apple paste and put it on the rectangle.
11. Place another rectangle on top of the apple paste.
12. Then take a fork and press down the edges so that the two rectangles stick together [with the apple in between]. Do this with all the other rectangles.
13. Put them in a pre-heated [180ͦc] oven for 20 minutes – though it may take up to 40 minutes. KEEP CHECKING THEM! Sometimes the apple paste comes out and makes a mess, sometimes the edges may burn. I’d say ignore them for 15 minutes – then keep popping back to check on how they’re doing. 

Once they’re done, they should be smelling lovely.  Take them out carefully [use mittens, for crying outloud!], and proceed to the icing [below].

Ingredients: Icing

Icing Sugar/ Sweetner	[2-3 cups]
Milk	[1 Tablespoon[1]]
Love	A lot

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[1] You may need an ickle bit more, though.

Method: Icing

1. Spoon some of the icing sugar or the sweetner into a bowl.
2. Add a few drops of milk, mix.
3. Add a few more drops of milk, mix.
4. Keep doing this until you get a gooey condensed mix. How thick you want it, is up to you.
5. Then take the done apple tarts, and put about a tablespoon of icing on each one. Even if it’s a little liquidy, the icing will eventually fasten in place[1].

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[1] If not, then there’s nothing wrong with a messy dessert. If it’s really bothering you, though, all I can say is put it in the freezer for about ten-twenty seconds and it should stay still. 

Make sure you don’t burn yourself when you bite in because sometimes the apple paste inside stays very hot. Serve Cinnamon Apple Popless Tarts with nothing. They’re fine on their own. Ok fine, if you want to, you can add some ice-cream – Cornish Vanilla is best. That or custard.