Silent Sunday

                                      

The Empire Strikes Back

As much as we love it, there comes a time when even we get sick of eating a normal roast chicken on a Sunday & it's on such times as these, that I switch to cooking Empire Chicken.  This is a Jamie Oliver recipe that I've tweaked ever-so-slightly but it's basically his take on an Indian roast chicken & it's bloomin' delicious!!

 

He serves his with Bombay-style Potatoes & a special spiced gravy but eat it with whatever you fancy!  This recipe is for the chicken & the gravy, you can find recipes for Bombay Potatoes easily online.  I use a large roasting tin that has a roasting rack that fits in it.  If you don't have one of these, put a large roasting tin on the shelf underneath a scrupulously-clean oven shelf & roast the chicken directly on this.  This way, the juices will fall straight down into the pan for the gravy!

 

Empire Roast Chicken

serves 4-6  oven at 200C

 

Chicken & marinade

1.5kg chicken

1 dessertspoon each of minced garlic, ginger & red chilli (I use the Lazy jars for ease!)

1 heaped tbsp tomato purée

1 heaped tsp each of ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala & cumin

1 heaped tbsp natural yoghurt

2 lemons

2 tsp sea salt

 

Gravy

1 stick cinnamon

3 small red onions, roughly chopped

10 cloves

3 tbsp each of white wine vinegar & Worcestershire sauce

3 level tbsp plain flour

500ml chicken stock

 

1. Mix together the garlic, ginger, chilli, tomato purée, spices, yoghurt & juice of 1 lemon in a bowl.

2. Slash the chicken legs a few times right down to the bone then place on the roasting rack of your pan or on a board.  Put on clean rubber gloves (or the turmeric will leave you with yellow hands!) &  thoroughly smear the chicken with the marinade.  Get a nice thick layer on.  Leave to marinade for a few hours or overnight. Cut the other lemon in half & place inside the chicken cavity.

3. Place the chicken in the pre-heated oven.  When the chicken has approximately 40 minutes of cooking time left, remove from the oven to make the gravy.

4. Add the chopped onions to the pan with the cinnamon stick, cloves, vinegar & Worcester sauce & then whisk in the flour to make a roux.  Pour in the stock & whisk again then replace the chicken roasting rack & put it all back into the oven.

5.  Cook for the remaining time then remove.  The chicken can left to rest while you finish the gravy.  Push it through a fine sieve into a small pan & either add boiling water to thin or simmer it down to thicken it.  Make it the consistency you want.

 

 The chicken will be blackened on the outside but when the skin is peeled back, you're left with the juiciest, most delicious bird ever!  Serve with Bombay Potatoes, the gravy & a cucumber salad.  Yum!!

 

 

I'm sorry there are no 'after' shots of the dish but it's pretty much like feeding time at the zoo in this house when dinner's ready & food disappears before I can get my camera out!!  Enjoy!

 

 

 



Lazy Sunday afternoon

I'm having the most lovely lazy day today instead of our usual Sunday shenanigans of bombing round B&Q or Homebase & then decorating!  I was actually left to lie in this morning & didn't even wake up until 9.45am so I just thought I'd carry the lazy theme on with a little breakfast in bed catching up on my blogs via Bloglovin' (how fab is this website?!)

 

I've decided that I seriously need to get back on the diet bandwagon that I have so dramatically fallen off of in recent months so today will be my last day of gorging on piggylicious food!  I'm doing a bloody delish slow-cooked smokey bbq pulled pork served in soft, floury rolls with 'slaw & potato wedges followed by yesterday's leftover coconut cake with frozen yoghurt.  This is such an easy dish to make & as you leave it in the slow-cooker all day, you can just go about your day as normal.  Try it, I promise you'll love it!  This recipe has been adapted slightly from www.skinnytaste.com

 

Slow-cooked BBQ pulled pork

serves 4-6

 

1.5kg boneless shoulder of pork, trimmed of all fat & rind, if any

1 large onion, sliced into half moons

2 tsp red wine vinegar

2 tsp Hickory liquid smoke

1 tsp garlic granules

1 tsp sea salt

 2 small jars of bbq sauce

 

 

Directions

 

Scatter half of the onion on the bottom of your slow-cooker pot & place the pork on top.

Scatter the rest of the onion & other ingredients over the top but only use ONE jar of sauce.

Cover & leave on medium for 6-7 hours.

Remove the pork & set aside.  Shred it with 2 forks & put back in the slow-cooker with the remaining jar of bbq sauce. 

Cook on low for another hour.

Serve on rolls with coleslaw & potato wedges or skinny fries.

Nom nom!!

 

 

Although my cousin brought me my liquid smoke from the US when they were last here, it's also available from Amazon & really is worth buying.  It can be used on so many things, steak & salmon are favourites for us.  The coconut cake is also fantastic, so moist & very moreish.  I add a few drops of pure coconut extract just to pump up the flavour a bit & love the one from Uncle Roy's.

 

Coconut Cake

oven 180c   grease & line a 20cm square pan

 

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

25g cornflour

225g soft butter or Stork tub

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

50g dessicated coconut soaked in 150ml boiling water & left to cool

few drops coconut extract

*

100g soft butter

200g icing sugar, sieved

few drops of coconut extract

3 tsp Malibu (optional)

toasted coconut (optional)

 

Cream the butter & sugar well then add the coconut extract. 

Beat the eggs in one at a time with a tbsp of flour, cornflour & baking powder with each one.

Fold in the rest of the flour, cornflour & baking powder.

Add the soaked coconut (don't drain if water has not all absorbed)

Pour into the tin & bake for around 35 minutes (ovens will vary so test)

Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

Toast a handful of coconut in a dry pan if you want to use as decoration & extra crunch.

Cream togther the butter & icing sugar & add the coconut extract & Malibu.

Spread over the cool cake & sprinkle toasted coconut on top.

 

 

Anyway, it's going to be an early wine o'clock for me today, the last for a while!  And the sun is shining & I have to ask myself why I'm sitting in my wee office...it'll probably be torrential rain again tomorrow.....or snow.......

Bon dimanche a tout le monde!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Excuse the laundry!!!*