thai red curry roast chicken

This is another recipe I found on one of my favourite food blogs - Not Quite Nigella.  I follow her on Instagram and Facebook and her food photography is wonderful and her recipes are delicious.  This recipe is easy to prepare and is a different way of serving a roast chicken if you want to add a bit of extra flavour and spice.  I used chicken pieces but I’m sure it would work just as well with a whole chicken.  Don’t leave out the Thai lime leaves - they add a delicious limey kick - I also added some extra lime juice right at the end.

Thai Red Curry Roast Chicken

  

Serves 4

1 whole chicken about 1kg (or chicken pieces)

2 tablespoons red curry paste (or green curry paste)

1.5 tablespoons oil plus extra for drizzling

3 kaffir (Thai) lime leaves, finely sliced

2 teaspoons finely chopped lemongrass

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 lime

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks

1 cup uncooked jasmine rice

2 tablespoons fresh coriander (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C.  Mix the curry paste, oil, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, the juice of half the lime, salt and sugar in a bowl. Brush just over half of the mixture all over the chicken and the butternut. Drizzle the butternut with a little extra oil. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs clear, add water and steam until cooked.

After 30 minutes, take the chicken out the oven and brush again with the remaining paste and toss the butternut and drizzle a little more oil if needed. Return to the oven for another 30 minutes or however long it needs (usually 30 minutes for every 500g). If you are using chicken pieces return them to the oven for another 20 minutes.  Carefully check that they are cooked through before serving.

Put the chicken and butternut on a serving plate and squeeze over the juice of the remaining half of the lime and sprinkle over some chopped coriander (if you want).  Add the cooked rice to the juices in the pan and serve alongside the chicken and roast butternut.

recipe book

I've put together a recipe book for all the cousins and had a few copies printed - will have some more done so eventually everyone will have one.  This is what it looks like ....

summer berry pie

This is a recipe I found on pinterest from a blog called vikalinka.com.  I’ve adapted it a little as the original was a bit too sweet for my taste.  It’s really simple to make, and if you can find a really good quality all butter pre-made pie shell you can forget about making the pastry yourself and use that instead.  Just make sure you use really fresh ripe berries. 

Summer Berry Pie

Ingredients

600g fresh mixed seasonal berries (eg raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, mulberries etc)

4 meringue nests (broken into pieces)

1 cup double cream

1/2 cup creme fraiche

seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 1/2 tsp vanilla essence)

1 tbsp rum (optional)

For the pie

250g plain flour (plus extra for dusting)

50g icing sugar

125g unsalted butter (cut into small cubes)

I large egg

a splash of milk

butter for greasing the pie tin

Mix the flour and icing sugar in a large bowl, add the (cold) cubed butter and work it in the mixture until it resembles coarse bread crumbs.  Add the beaten egg and a bit of milk just to bring the dough together and form it into a ball.  Wrap it in a plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Sprinkle your work surface and the rolling pin with some flour, take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out big enough to fit a 9″ loose bottomed pie tin. Grease your tart tin with some butter, and lay the pastry over making sure it comes up the sides.  Trim off the extra bits and prick it all over with a fork.  Cover it with cling wrap and put it back in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Take the pie dough out of the fridge (or use your pre-made one) and line it with baking paper, fill with baking weights or uncooked rice and bake it “blind” for 10 minutes, then remove the baking weights and baking paper and bake for 10 minutes longer until golden.  Allow to cool completely (very important!).

Whip the cream and creme fraiche with the vanilla bean seeds and rum until soft peaks form. Mix in the broken meringue and put the mixture in the pie shell. Top with the mixed berries and sprinkle with a little icing sugar.