Food of the World - Cardamom Chicken

This dish has a highly aromatic sauce flavoured with cardamom. The yoghurt makes the sauce deliciously creamy. If you drain youghurt overnight, this makes the sauce richer by getting rid of any excess liquid.

1.5kg chicken or chicken pieces
25 cardamom pods
4 crushed garlic cloves
3cm grated piece of ginger
300ml natural yoghurt
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
grated rind of 1 lemon
2 tbsp oil
400ml coconut milk
6 chillies, pricked all over
2 tbsp chopped coriander
3 tbsp lemon juice

Remove seeds from the cardamom pods and crush them in a pestle and mortar. Ina blender mix the garlic and ginger with 50ml yoghurt to make a paste. Add the cardamom, pepper and grated lemon rind. Spread this over over the chicken pieces, cover and leave in the fridge overnight.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan and brown the chicken pieces. Add the remaining yoghurt and coconut milk, bring to the boil, then add whole chillies and coriander leaves. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. Season with salt and stir in the lemon juice.

Chicken with Grainy Mustard Sauce

2 boneless chicken breasts
6 rashers of streaky bacon
250 g spinach leaves
60 g firm goat's cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
200 ml stock
200 ml white wine
4 heaped tbsp -->crème fraîche
1 heaped tsp wholegrain mustard

Flatten each breast to 1 time it's original width. Stretch 3 bacon rashers on a board into rectangle. Lay a breast on top, repeat with remaining bacon and chicken. Cover each with 4 spinach leaves, put cheese cubes in the middle. Season with pepper. Roll each one up, secure with cocktail sticks.
Heat half the oil in a frying pan. Cook the chicken over a high heat for 3-4 minutes until golden, turn, cook for 3-4 minutes more. Add stock and wine. Simmer for 20 min., turning chicken halfway. Remove chicken, stir in crème fraîche and mustard.
Heat remaining oil in a large pan, add remaining spinach, season. Cover and cook for 2 minutes to wilt the spinach.

Pepper Chicken Potato Crush

3 garlic cloves
3 tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley
3 tbsp olive oil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
100 g goat's cheese, cut into 6 rounds
3 strips of roasted peppers in oil
a few fresh thyme sprigs
300 g small potatoes
85 g rocket salad

Preheat oven to 200C. Chop garlic cloves and mix with 1 tbsp of oil. Make 3 diagonal slits accross each breast. Reserve half the garlic mixture and spread the rest over the chicken and into the slits.
Halve each cheese slice and tuck two halves, a piece of pepper and some thyme into each slit. Season and bake in an oiled shallow dish for 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked.
Meanwhile, cook the potatoes for about 15 minutes. Drain, return to the pan and coarsely crush with a fork. Stir in rocket to leave to wilt. Stir remaining into the garlic mixture, season and stir into the potatoes.

Food of the World - Chicken, Coconut and Galangal Soup

This is one of the classic soups of Thailand. There are a few variants of it and you can skip on ingredients if you don't have something at the moment. You can also use prawns, fish or vegetables instead of chicken.

400 ml coconut milk
1 lemon grass stalk
5 cm piece of galangal or you can use ginger instead
3 shallots, smashed
400 g skinless chicken fillets
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp palm sugar ( I used brown cane sugar)
200 g baby tomatoes (as you can see in the picture, I used normal-sized tomatoes, worked pretty well)
150 g button mushrooms
3 tbsp lemon juice
5 kaffir lime leaves

Put the coconut milk, lemon grass, galangal pieces and shallots in a sucepan or wok and bring to a boil. Add the chicken, fish sauce and palm sugar and simmer, stirring constantly for 5 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add the tomatoes and mushrooms and simmer for 2-3 min. Add lemon juice, lime leaves in the last few seconds, taking care not to let the tomatoes lose their shape. It's a bit tricky if you are using whole tomatoes cut into pieces, but unless you stir vigorously, it should work out just fine. Garnish with coriander.

Food of the World - Coq au vin

The book says that this dish was already prepared by Caesar when battling the Gauls, who sent him a scrawny chicken as a message of defiance. Caesar cooked it in wine and herbs and invited them to eat.

1 chicken (1.6kg)
1/2 bottle red wine
1 bay leaf
1 thyme sprig
150 g bacon, diced
30 g butter
10 pickling onions
150 g button mushrooms
1 tbsp oil
15-20 g flour
500 ml chicken stock
50 g brandy
1 tsp tomato purée
1 tbsp chopped parsley

Cut chicken into pieces. Put the wine, bay leaf, thyme and some salt and pepper in a bowl and add the chicken. Cover and leave to marinade, preferably overnight.
Blanch the bacon in boiling water, then drain, pat dry and sauté in a frying pan until golden. Lift out on to a plate. Melt a quarter of the butter in a pan, add the onions and sauté until brown. Set aside. Melt another quarter of butter, add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and sauté for 5 min. Set aside.
Drain the chicken reserving the marinade, and pat the chicken dry, season. Add the remaining butter and the oil into the pan, add the chicken and fry until golden. Stir in the flour.
Transfer the chicken to a large saucepan or casserole and add the stock. Pour the brandy into the frying pan and deglaze for 30 s. Pour over the chicken. Add the marinade, onions, mushrooms and tomato purée. Cook over moderate heat for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add the parsley.

Chicken fillet with asparagus

Spiced plum chicken

1 chopped onion
1 chopped garlic clove
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
3 chicken breasts
250ml stock
2 tbsp tomato puree
250g ready-to-eat prunes
250 g couscous
handful of chopped fresh coriander

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan, cook onion for couple of minutes, add garlic, then spices and stir for a minute. Add chicken strips and cook for 4-5 minutes.
Add the stock and puree, cook for 15 minutes. Then add prunes and cook for another 5 minutes. sprinkle with coriander.
Prepare couscous, serve.

Maroccan chicken stew with lemon and olives

Specially for my sister, and she knows why. She went to Marocco and had to go through the hell of haggling over the price of saffron for me...

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
4 garlic gloves
5 cm fresh ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 chicken breast fillets
1 small cinnamon stick
a pinch of saffron
600 ml chicken stock
1 small lemon - zest an juice
a handful of each chopped mint and parsley
275 g couscous
a handful of pine nuts
12-15 black pitted olives

Heat oil in a pan or small pot, cook the onion, chopped garlic (leave 1 tsp aside), chopped ginger and turmeric for a minute. Add chicken, cinnamon, saffron, stock and lemon juice. Season well and cook for 20 minutes. In the meantime mix garlic that you have put aside, lemon zest and herbs. Put aside.
Remove chicken from the stock and keep warm, boil stock for another 10 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by half. In the meantime pour 450ml of boiling water over couscous, cover an leave for 5 minutes. Then mix in the pine nuts and season. Finally, mix chicken with sauce, olives and herb mixture.