Winter Nutmeg Chicken

I was reading about the spice trade recently in the brilliant "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" and cooking with these spices, once so prevalent, has been on my mind- I can't wait to find a way to use mace, cloves and cinnamon in savoury dishes.

I am also feeling very tired at the moment (too much gallivanting)- but not yet reduced to beans on toast, just to avoiding shopping and carrying shopping and everything that distracts me from the path home!

This dish used the contents of my fridge and freezer and turned out very tasty. I always keep spinach in the freezer- it is so versatile. The chicken was frozen (special offer frozen from fresh) and the other ingredients were from my store, except the cream, which was left over from an ice cream making obsession!

I used:
150ml double cream (could be replaced by single or milk)
Three chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
one cup gram flour
salt and pepper
heaped teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
one medium sized onion, diced
300g  frozen spinach (you could use more)
Olive oil

Heat the olive oil, add the spices.
Coat the chicken and onion well in the gram flour, which you have seasoned with LOTS of black pepper and the salt.
Stir in the pan. Add more gram flour as you stir, until the chicken is very well coated. This will make it delightfully tender.
When it is all browned, add the spinach and cream, turn down the heat and simmer.
Delicious : )

Baked Sweet Potato Falafels

This is another canape that I made at the weekend, and I have been asked for the recipe since : ) much healthier than usual falafels (which I love), I got it from 101 cookbooks. I hadn't cooked with ground coriander for a while and it brought back memories of a wonderful Greek fish recipe I came across a few years ago... another time : )

Read the full recipe here

Salmon, Beetroot and Orange Pate

I love making canapes- they can look beautiful and be a talking point at a party. This particular party at the weekend had a circus theme (we also watched the film "Butterfly Circus") and I wanted food that was colourful and witty.

One of the canapes I made was smoked salmon based- a lovely pink tinged pate  on a  bagel slice  topped with a piece of smoked  salmon and a dab of pistachio-green wasabi.

To make the pate:
240 g smoked salmon trimmings
one box cream cheese
one small beetroot + beetroot juice (you can also get a food colouring made entirely from concentrate beetroot juice)
zest of 1/8 orange (a tiny bit)
black pepper (freshly ground and to taste).

I marinaded the smoked salmon trimming overnight with the beetroot juice and the crushed beetroot, before blending it with all of the other ingredients. This would also be great without the wasabi but mixed with fresh dill and plenty of lemon zest.

To make the canape:
I cut multi seed bagels into 1/3 cm slices- this is more economic than crackers as, after all, it is just a mount for the yummy stuff! Slather the slice generously with pate, top with a piece of smoked salmon, half the size of the slice of bagel and add a dab of wasabi which will counteract the sweetness of the pate.

YUM YUM : )