Some folk go out on a Saturday night, have a meal in a restaurant and the few pints. Followed by a kebab to walk home with. Us? We made this unholy union of East meets West! OK it's perhaps not quite as unhealthy as the kebab, but we'll fry them in Lard next time!
Joking aside these mini Chicken Kievs in Onion Bhaji batter were really tasty and well worth the fiddling about.
Ingredients:-
½ a small Chicken boned out and cut into medium sized pieces
Garlic Butter. (Butter / Margarine, minced Garlic and dried Parsley)
Flour (We used a combination of Gluten Free flour and Arrowroot)
Method:-
(1) Make your Onion Bhaji mix. (We also made and pre-fried the Bhajis. Our recipe is here)
(2) Make your Garlic Butter and put it in the freezer to harden for ½ an hour or longer if you have the time.
(3) With a boning knife remove every last scrap of meat from ½ a Chicken and remove the skin. Cut the breast meat into medium pieces.
(4) Wrap each piece of Chicken meat in cling film and beat out with a rolling pin.
(5) When the Garlic Butter has hardened put a teaspoon in the middle of each piece of Chicken meat and then press and roll the meat around the butter with your hands.
(6) Flour each piece so the batter has more chance of sticking.
(7) Heat your deep fat fryer to 190C. (You could also roast these in the oven at 180C to avoid the oil.)
(8) If you are frying pre-heat the oven to 150C
(9) Fry 3 or 4 pieces at a time until golden brown. The batter expands quite a bit so don't worry if some of your “Poppers” look a little small initially. Place in the oven to keep hot as you fry the remaining “Poppers”.
We served ours with home made Onion Bhajis, a salsa style dipping sauce, Potato fritters and a dressed salad.
We wouldn't normally consider Duck as it's generally out of our budget of £4 a day. But at a 50% discount at the supermarket this was a tasty and very welcome treat.
Ingredients:-
2 Duck Breasts (A crown at £3 which Sue dissembled in our case)
1 ½ tsp Garam Masala
1 tsp Grated fresh Ginger
A Glug of Oyster Sauce
Oil to fry
Salt to season
1 tbsp Butter / Margarine
1 tsp Cumin seeds
100g Pilau Rice
800ml Chicken Stock85g Frozen Peas
A bunch of Spring Onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp Chutney to serve.
Method:-
(1) Score the Duck skin and rub with Garam Masala, Ginger and Oyster Sauce.
(2) Chill for 30 minutes to allow the marinade to flavour the meat.
(3) Heat the oven to 200c.
(4) Gently fry the Duck breasts skin side down until the fat runs out.
(5) Transfer to a baking dish skin side up then leave to rest.
(6) Melt butter in a large pan. Add Cumin seeds and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
(7) Transfer the Duck breasts into the oven.
(8) Stir in the Rice.
(9) Pour over the Stock and simmer for 10 minutes.
(10) Add Peas in the last 4 minutes.
(11) When the liquid has absorbed folk through and add the Spring Onions.
(12) Season to taste.
(13) Slice the Duck breasts and serve on a bed of the Rice.
On Thursday I happened across a Turkey leg which was just over 2Kg for £4.62 which for us is quite and outlay for one piece of meat. But so far we have had:-
Turkey Curry - (This is not actually the recipe we used this time. But no worries)