January 2010 Recipes

Chicken and Sweetcorn Potato Cakes

I usually make this for my children when they get in from school, it makes a change from sandwiches and keeps them going until dinner-time.  I often chop up the leftover roast potatoes from the Sunday roast instead of grating raw potatoes and this works just as well.

Makes 12

200ml milk
2 eggs
75g flour
450g potatoes, peeled and grated
225g onion thinly sliced
225g cooked chicken, finely chopped
Small can of sweetcorn, drained
1 tblsp chives, chopped
Salt and pepper
Butter and vegetable oil for frying

Blanch the onions and grated potato in a pot of boiling salted water for 2 minutes, drain and squeeze out as much water as you can from the potato and onions.  Stir the chicken, sweetcorn, chives and potato and onion mixture into the batter, stir to combine and season with salt and pepper.

Heat a tablespoon of butter and oil together in a frying pan, once hot drop in spoonfuls of the batter, flatten and cook on each side for 4 minutes.  Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot.

To make a dressing for the pancakes combine natural yogurt with lime juice and drizzle over the pancakes

I make this every week using either left over chicken or pork, it’s a lovely way of using up left-overs.  If it doesn’t all get eaten on the night my children take it to school for lunch the next day.

Serves 4

2 tblsp groundnut oil
1 tblsp finely chopped or grated ginger
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 hand full’s of frozen peas defrosted
225g cooked chicken
1 tblsp sake
1tsp Chinese five spice
1 tblsp dark soy sauce
300g of sushi rice or jasmine rice, cooked and cooled
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 egg broken up with a fork
3-4 tblsp light soy sauce
2 spring onions, finely sliced

Chop your ginger, chilli and garlic and set aside.

Chop your spring onions and set aside.

Defrost your peas by placing in a bowl and covering with boiling water, drain and set aside.

Crack the egg into a bowl, break up with a fork and add the sesame oil, set aside.

Heat your wok until smoking, add the oil followed by the ginger, chilli and garlic. Stir-fry for 10 seconds.  Add the cooked chicken and peas and cook for a minute stiring all the time.  Pour in the sake, soy sauce, five spice mixture followed by the cooked rice, stir well to combine and cook for about 3 minutes.  Push all the fried rice to one side of the wok and pour in the egg and sesame oil mixture, scramble slightly and combine with the fried rice.

Season with the light soy sauce and finally add the spring onion and stir it through before serving.

Serves 4

450g cooked chicken, chopped
1 lt chicken stock
25g butter
25g flour
100mls of cream
1tsp curry powder
Salt and pepper
1 small head of cauliflower, blanched
2 handfuls of grated cheddar cheese
50g butter
150g bread crumbs

180ºC (fan oven)

Heat your stock to boiling and simmer.  To make your roux melt the butter and add in your flour, combine and cook on a low heat for 1 minute.  Gradually add the stock until your sauce is thickened, pour in the cream and the curry powder and simmer for 3 minutes, taste and adjust the seasoning.

Arrange the chicken on the base of your dish and cover with the sauce.  Put the blanched cauliflower on top of the sauce and scatter over the cheese.  Put the 50g of butter into a sauce pan over a low heat, once melted add the breadcrumbs and stir through.  Scatter the breadcrumbs on top of the cauliflower and place in the oven for 25 minutes or until bubbling and golden.