Indian spiced roast chicken with Coconut sambal

My boyfriend is currently training me to help get my fitness up for our Everest base camp trek at the end of the year. This has meant a lot of excuses and whining on my part (unfortunately I am one of those people that LOATHES exercise), but has also meant coming home after running feeling really hungry and having to think of what to make for dinner... usually this would mean pasta or something else quick, however the other night I had bought a whole chicken, I don't know why I did this because i knew I would be home late, basically I'm starting to think I might be a bit sadistic, as I seem to enjoy torturing myself by making time consuming food when I'm in a rush, complex meals when I don't feel like being in the kitchen etc... so anyway the options on this particular night were basically eat nothing, or cook a chicken...

Due to insane hunger I wanted something that wouldn't take too long to prepare, and something that wouldn't take hours to cook. So cutting the chicken into portions was out of the question (which is what I had previously planned to do), and roasting appealed but was too time consuming, and then it hit me, butterfly the bird! And what a success, the chicken cooked quicker than a regular roast and required very little preparation, which was just what I needed when all I wanted was to lie on the sofa!

The sambal in fact was particularly good, it's fresh and punchy, and despite being made with dried coconut you would never know. It would be good with basically any meat, actually I suspect it would be great with fish too, and was even REALLY enjoyable just with rice. It's really good cold because it means it's spicy but really refreshing, in saying that though if I had more time I think it would be amazing stuffed either into the bird, or under the skin of the breasts... Anyway perhaps something to try another time, when exercise isn't in the equation!

Enjoy!



Ingredients

For the chicken:
1 whole chicken
1 tsp each of garam masala, turmeric powder, salt, oil (any sort)
2 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
1 dessertspoon natural yoghurt

For the sambal:
2 cups dessicated coconut
1/2 bunch of coriander (including stems and roots), roughly chopped
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
fresh ginger, grated (about a tablespoon)
chilli to taste (I used 1 heaped tsp chilli paste)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt to taste (about a teaspoon)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

Take your chicken, pat off any excess moisture with kitchen towel and then, working with the backbone facing up, place your hands along the backbone and apply firm pressure to break it. Then use a small knife to cut from the neck end of the bird right down the the backbone until you've cut your chicken open completely, and it is halved. Transfer to a lined baking tray, breast side up, and push gently so it's flattened out (butterflied). Mix together all the spices, salt, oil, and yoghurt and put about 3/4 of the mix all over the chicken skin. with the remaining spice paste push it gently under the skin, over the breasts, and down towards the thighs, do this slowly and gently so you don't rip the skin. Put the chicken into the oven for 45 - 50 minutes until the juices run clear.

For the sambal, rehydrate about 3/4 of the coconut with about 1/2 cup of boiling water, leave this to sit for a few minutes. Place remaining ingredients and soaked coconut into a blender or processor and blend until the entire mix is finely chopped. At this point you may find it too moist, if so you can add the remaining coconut to dry it out. Place in a bowl and chill in the fridge while the chicken cooks.

Once the juices run clear remove the chicken from the oven, portion up and serve with a big spoonful (or two) of the sambal. We ate ours with rice, and some cucumber chunks, and poured the juices from the bird over the rice. Yum!

Now I know this is not the most attractive looking dish in the picture but trust me it was bloody delicious and was worth the effort in the end, even on a work night, even after a torturous run, and especially when it meant leftovers for an amazing lunch at work the next day!

Pork and Fennel Bolognese for the other Amelia

I recently had my friend over for dinner, who is fondly referred to by me as "the other Amelia", because I of course am the first Amelia... Anyway she liked my Bolognese ( although it was not traditional in any way and didn't taste like a regular Bolognese) so here we go, Pork and fennel Bolognese for the "other" Amelia...

Enjoy Mels, another recipe to add to your repertoire, and you can say it's an Amelia original and won't be lying! Gotta love that!

Pork and Fennel Bolognese

• 1 tbs butter
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 bunch of parsley stems finely chopped, leaves reserved for serving
• 500g pork mince (mine was quite lean)
• 11/2 to 2 cups white wine (old undrinkable wine is totally fine)
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• pinch or two of dried crushed chilli, or a shake or two of chilli powder
• 1 tsp each sugar and allspice
• 11/2 tbs crushed fennel seeds (I used a mortar and pestle, but by all means use a knife, but be warned they do tend to fly everywhere when you crush them this way!)
• 1 tsp chicken stock powder, or a cube

To serve:

• Pasta of your choice
• Freshly grated Parmesan

Instructions

Saute the onion, garlic, celery, and carrot in the oil and butter over medium high heat until the onions start to turn translucent (if it's going too golden turn the heat down).

Increase the heat to high, add the parsley stems and the mince and cook, breaking up the mince, until it has crumbled apart and is just cooked through, add the wine, allow to bubble until the alcohol in the wine cooks out (it won't smell so harsh once this happens).

Add all the remaining ingredients (apart from parsley leaves and Parmesan), turn down the heat to medium low and allow to simmer for half an hour to 45 minutes until sauce is slightly reduced. Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary at this point, and stir through the reserved chopped parsley leaves.

To serve simply stir a good amount of this sauce through cooked pasta. I served mine with beautifully coloured artisan orecchiette, but it would be just as nice with regular spaghetti, or any other pasta really.

Enjoy :)

Coconut Cremes

Coconut Cremes

For the past three weeks I have been trying to stay away from anything that could cause or enrage flu or cold symptoms, as a couple of weeks ago I was sick and was left with a cough I could not kick...

So this diet has seen me cut dairy, wheat, and alcohol from my life (for a few weeks anyway).... which has been surprisingly okay, except for the sugar cravings which have been bad, REALLY BAD, and I've found it really hard not having chocolate, ice cream, the occasional biscuit from the tea room at work, the list goes on, I have a nasty sweet tooth!

These cremes have been my saving grace, and they don't taste odd like a lot of the dairy free things I've discovered in the last few weeks. They are like a pannacotta in texture, and taste mildly of coconut but it is easy enough to mask that flavour if so desired. I've made them about four times in the past two weeks, all different flavours, the first were black sesame (pictured) which were delicious but very sweet. The second - lemon - was more subtle, I served those ones with pinapple and mint sugar and they went down very well with my friends. I then made star anise and lemon, hoping for a licorice flavour, they didn't quite get there, but were pleasant in a slightly strange way! Finally last night I made another attempt at licorice using Aniseed essence and the flavour was much closer to what I wanted, these will be tonights dessert with shaved dark (dairy free) chocolate, and some soy ice-cream.

So below is the basic recipe, alter as you wish. If you alter it with a liquid flavouring just replace some of the water with the flavouring of choice, if you use spices I would add it to the milk, then strain and add again to the water for a stronger flavour.

Okay so here we go:

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of coconut milk (full fat is best)
  
• 1 cup loosely packed brown sugar (or to taste)
  
• 1 cup water
  
• 1.5 tablespoons of gelatine powder

Method:

Empty the coconut milk into a saucepan and place over heat, you want to warm it until it's quite hot to the touch but not boiling. Then remove from the heat and pour into a large mixing bowl.

To the empty pan add your water, sugar, and the gelatine, and give it all a quick whisk to start dissolving the gelatine or it can be a bit lumpy, then place it over low heat until fully dissolved.

Once the gelatine mix is ready pour it into the warm coconut milk and stir to combine. You will know when it's well mixed because it will turn from milky white to a beige colour due to the brown sugar. Now is a good time to taste it and make sure it's sweet enough for your liking, be warned though it may not taste so sweet but once chilled it really intensifies!

Leave to sit for about 30 minutes to an hour to cool partially and then pour into either a large dish, or individual moulds or cups. If you wish to be able to invert them into bowls you will need to spray your moulds with some oil, plastic cups actually work really great because you can give them a squeeze right around and the cremes just pop out...

Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight, or if you are like me and need something sweet asap just throw them in the freezer and you will be enjoying them real soon! approx an hour should do it for ones iset in cups or individual moulds.

Enjoy!