Roast Chicken, Avocado And Asparagus Salad ©
This is one of my favourite salads made up from ingredients I happened to have in my kitchen and so I decided to try something new! Full of health and goodness and perfect for using up left over roast chicken or turkey! Quick to make and a wonderful combination of flavours.
Easy
4 Persons
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
2 cups of broccoli florets
1 bunch of asparagus tips (10)
1 cup or more of bite sized pieces of roast chicken
1 avocado
1/2 Lemon juice
1 large carrot thinly sliced
1 bunch fresh coriander leaves
1 freshly sliced red chilli
1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger finely grated
zest of lime finely grated. (To be gated just before serving.)
French Vinaigrette Dressing
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tsp dijon mustard ( only dijon!)
1 tbs vinegar or lemon juice
3-4 tbs olive oil
Method:
Make 1/2 an our before eating, so that it is really fresh!
1. Place medium sized saucepan, half filled with water onto boil. Add 1 tsp salt.
2. Wash vegetables and break broccoli into mouth sized florets and cut asparagus tips about 5 cm in length, discarding the lower stalks, or keep them for making asparagus soup!
3. Once the water boils add broccoli and asparagus and let them boil rapidly for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, place in colander and refresh under cold running water. Leave five minutes to thoroughly drain.
4. Using left overs from your roast chicken or turkey, cut nice mouth sized pieces and place in the bottom of your salad bowl. Brown roasted skin included, if liked.
5. Peel and cut up your avocado into chunks, place on top of chicken. Now sprinkle with a little lemon juice, to stop avocado browning and add a little salt and freshly ground pepper. Peel and thinly slice carrot and add washed fresh coriander leaves.
6. Add to your salad bowl, your well drained broccoli and asparagus tips.
7. Finally de-seed chili and slice on the diagonal and peel and finely grate fresh ginger. Sprinkle these over your salad.
8. Make up dressing, by mixing the ingredients, in the order they are listed in a small bowl and pour over salad, just before serving. Toss just enough to mix ingredients. ( If you over toss, the ingredients will become broken up! )
9. Just before bringing your salad to the table grate over a little lime zest using the smallest holes of your grater. This needs to be done at the last minute, otherwise the zest browns!)
***** Cook’s Tip : Vegetables need to be crunchy, so don’t over boil them!
This salad is a wonderful combination of my favorite flavors!
This is what you are aiming for!
Using a medium sized saucepan, half fill with water, a tsp salt and bring to the boil.
Add you broccoli, which you have broken up into mouth sized florets and the tips of asparagus, about 5 cm long.
Cut up your cold roast chicken into mouth sized piece, skin included if liked and place in large salad bowl. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Peel and cut avocado into chunks. and add to bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice and a little more salt and pepper.
Peel carrot and slice thinly. Add to salad, together with washed, fresh, coriander leaves.
Make up French dressing.
Mix gently, before adding your broccoli, asparagus, sliced chili and finely grated fresh ginger.
Drizzle with French dressing.
Mix all ingredients gently together, just enough for your dressing to coat ingredients.
Final result, perfect for a summer lunch or dinner!
Prawns With Garlic And Ouzo Or Brandy ©
This is absolutely my favourite, very quick to prepare and there can never be enough!
It makes an excellent starter, or a main course!
For Nola…….Memories of our lunch in the village!
Easy
Two Persons
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 4-5 Minutes Max!
Ingredients
10-15 prawns depending on size
2-4 cloves of garlic
50 g butter
2 tbs Ouzo or Brandy
2-3 tbs fresh chopped parsley
Salt, freshly ground black pepper
1 finely sliced fresh red Chilli or Chilli flakes
Method
1. Buy prawns from a reliable fish shop. (To check for freshness, they should be shiny, eyes black, not grey, curled up, not stretched out and smell fresh.) Wash well in salted water and drain.
2. Finely chop garlic, parsley and Chilli. ( Chopped garlic is better than using a garlic squeezer in this recipe).
3. Melt butter in large frying pan. Add garlic, chilli and prawns and cook over a medium heat for two minutes on each side.
4. Pour over Ouzo or Bandy and cook for one minute, so that alcohol evaporates. (This is important, so that the sauce is not bitter. When smelling the cooking prawns, the scent of alcohol should have disappeared).
5. Remove from heat, season and sprinkle with parsley.
6. Serve on warm plates straight away, along with hot crusty bread.
Cook’s Tip : These are best eaten with your fingers, so provide warm bowls of water with slices of lemon for each person.
***** Prawns need very little cooking, or they shrink and become tough!
Wash prawns in fresh salted water and leave to drain.
Peel garlic and finely chop.
Wash parsley and finely chop.
Have all your ingredients ready, before starting to cook.
Melt butter in large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat, add garlic and chilli.
Add Prawns. Cook for two minutes on each side, no more as they cook quickly.
Add Ouzo or if preferred Brandy.
Cook for one minute, until alcohol has evaporated.
Remove from heat, season and sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley.
Serve straight away on pre-heated plates.
Delicious!!!!
Hünkâr Beğendili ©
Istanbul and Turkish Cuisine !
The Blue Mosque.
The gardens of the Topkapi Palace……
Sharing with you one of my favourite recipes!
* Lesson in this recipe : Making a ‘white sauce.’
Hünkâr Beğendili.
Moderately Easy
Preparation Time 1 hour
6 Persons
Ingredients : Aubergine Purée
4-6 large aubergines
1 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
300 ml milk
120 g strong cheese, cheddar, Gouda, Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
(A dash of vinegar or lemon juice for soaking aubergines.)
Meat
1 kilo steak cut into 2 cm cubes
3 tbs olive oil
2 large onions finely grated
5 Cloves garlic pressed
2 tbs butter
5 fresh tomatoes skinned and chopped or 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 green chilli kept whole
1 Stick of Cinnamon
6 Allspice berries
2 tbs red wine
1 tsp sugar
a few leaves of fresh Oregano or 1/2 tsp dried
1 tbs flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Parsley to garnish
Method : Aubergine Purée
1. Pre-heat oven to 200.C. Wash aubergines, pierce with knife in 2-3 places and place in roasting tin, lined with tin foil. Place in oven, near the top and roast. Once charred, turn over and char on the other side. This will take about half an hour.
2. Remove from oven, place in large plastic bag, or seal in large bowl and leave to sweat for 10 minutes.
3. Peel skin off carefully, taking care to remove any “charred flecks” and place aubergine in a bowl of water, to which you have added a little vinegar. ( The vinegar stops the aubergine discolouring, you can also use lemon juice.) Once all your aubergines are peeled, place in colander to drain and roughly chop, or place in blender and blend until smooth.
4. Once all the aubergines are peeled, proceed to making your white sauce.
5. For white sauce, melt butter in medium sized saucepan, over medium heat, ( do not brown.) As soon a butter is melted, add flour and using a whisk, stir until flour becomes frothy, 1-2 minutes. Add cold milk “all at once,” stirring continuously until it thickens. ( If you don’t stir continuously, the sauce may go lumpy.) Boil for 1 minute to cook flour and remove from the heat. Season and add grated cheese. This will be a thick sauce.
6. Add aubergine to white sauce and beat well, until smooth. Heat through gently, just before serving.( Do not boil or cheese will go stringy!!!)
*** This aubergine purée is always best made and eaten on the same day.
**** Follow the making of the ‘white sauce’ carefully, it is important that the milk is cold and added all in one go and that you stir until it thickens.
Meat
First gather together all your ingredients.
1. Have your butcher give you nice tender steak, cut into small 2-3 cm cubes, any sinew and gristle removed!
2. Peel onions and garlic and chop in blender, until smooth, or grate on fine holes of cheese grater.
3. In a medium sized saucepan, melt butter and gently fry onions and garlic over a medium heat, so as to cook them, but not brown them. This will take at least 15 minutes, as you want to insure they are well cooked. ( There is nothing worse than raw crunchy onion in a sauce!)
4.Once the onions and garlic are cooked, add the spices, the puréed tomatoes, sugar, oregano, seasoning and the chilli and leave your tomato sauce to simmer gently.
5. Taking another large saucepan, add olive oil, heat over a medium heat and add the meat. Cook until it is slightly browned on all sides.
6. Remove meat with a slotted spoon and reserve. To the oil and juices the meat has been cooking in, add 1 tbs flour and cook for 1 minute, then add the wine, stirring with a whisk and cook for two minutes. Add the tomato sauce you have prepared above and mix well with a whisk. Now add reserved meat, check seasoning and leave to simmer for 1/2 an hour, or until meat is tender. The sauce should be thick, but if at any point the sauce looks like sticking to the bottom of your saucepan, just add a couple of tbs of water.
7. Check seasoning again, remove chilli pepper and serve piping hot. Place a large spoonful of aubergine purée in the center of your pre-heated plates and by making a small well with your spoon, fill the well with a spoonful of cubed meat. Garnish with a leaf of parsley.
***** Aubergines are used a lot in Turkish cooking and this purée of aubergines really is excellent and goes perfectly with the meat in its rich sauce.
Important : Always try a little of the cooked aubergine, because sometimes towards the end of the summer some aubergines become bitter, in which case discard.
Making Aubergine Purée:
Making The White Sauce For The Aubergine Purée :
Aubergine Purée.
Preparation Of The Meat :
Final Result.
The two combined!
…..and just a few more pictures of things to see in Istanbul!
Spice Bazaar!
Turkish Delight or rahat-ul hulküm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_delight
Dried Fruit.
The Cisterns.
The tiles in the Harem of the Topkapi Palace.
The Stained Glass Windows In The Topkapi Palace.
The Tulips In The Gardens Of The Topkapi Palace.
The View Going Along The Bosporus.
The whole city in flower…..every where you looked!
The “Spring Tulip Festival,” that lined “all” the avenues!!!!!
I hope you have enjoyed this slightly different blog…..
What's Cooking In Jane's Kitchen 