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!

Pulled pork Burritos with black beans and spiced rice

So my boyfriend is like totally in love with the burritos at Guzman and Gomez in Newtown (I have to admit I get a pretty intense craving for them once in a while myself) and in an effort to please him I decided to make some the other night, hoping they would be at least half as yummy as the ones from Guzman, luckily I must have had a stroke of beginners luck as while they didn't taste the same as the store bought variety they were still pretty great.

I think the secret to their success was the slow roast pork shoulder, it does take some time to cook but you can completely ignore it so is actually really easy! So much so that we just left it in the oven while we were out one night.

Pulled Pork

• 1 - 1.5kg pork shoulder (boneless)
• 1 heaped teaspoon each of ground cumin/smoky paprika/ground coriander and oregano
• 2 whole dried chillis, ripped into pieces
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• juice of 1 orange

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl or deep tray and leave pork to marinate in it for 24 hours (preferably!) turning it once or twice during this time.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius. Place the pork into a deep tray with all the marinade, season with salt cover with foil and bake for 4 hours or until incredibly tender (you should be able to pull it apart with a fork). Leave pork to cool then remove from pan, discard any excess fat or skin and shred roughly (two forks work well!). Place half the juices from the pork in a pan and reduce until quite syrupy to intensify the flavours then pour over the shredded pork meat and toss to combine (you can freeze the other half for stock, or discard).

Mexican style spicy rice

• 1 cup white rice, rinsed twice
• 1.5 cups water (or stock, I used some chicken stock powder)
• 1/2 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbs tomato paste

Mix all ingredients together in a pot and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and cook until water has absorbed and rice is tender, about 10 - 12 minutes. Add in some freshly chopped coriander if desired.

Black beans

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 a medium onion
• 1 can black beans (or kidney beans if not available)
• 1 tablespoon coriander stalks finely chopped
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbs tomato paste
• 1/4 cup water

Fry onion gently in olive oil until translucent. Add beans and remaining ingredients and cook until warmed through and liquid is almost all absorbed.

Tomato Salsa

• 3 Ripe red tomatoes
• 1/2 onion (left over from the beans, red is best)
• 1/2 bunch chopped coriander leaves
• juice of 1/4 lemon

Mix. Done!

To Serve

• Any condiments you may like for example, chopped pickled jalepenos, guacamole, shredded cheese (a must I think!), chilli sauce, extra chopped coriander
• flour tortilla wraps

To serve place a few spoonfuls each of the rice, beans and pork onto a tortilla, add some salsa and any extra condiments you might like and enjoy! Make sure you have a plate and napkins aplenty these are messy work to eat!!

Serves 4 at least! However if you do have leftovers the rice is really good the next day for lunch topped with salsa, leftover pork and some grated cheese!