Chicken & Fig Fricassée with Red Rice Pilaf

I’d had a box of Camargue red rice in the cupboard for blimming ages. I can’t even remember if there was a reason behind the purchase in the first place but eventually I decided enough was enough and figured it was time to use it. A quick browse online came up with this recipe which served as the basis for this.

The original had dried figs but I had some fresh ones so used those. Also made a few Raymond Blanc-esque tweaks.

Just as a little background, this red rice was discovered in the swampy Camargue region of France and has a delicious earthy flavour with a little nuttiness. When cooked, it is slightly sticky.

This pilaf by the way is absolutely delicious and the only criticism I have is that there wasn’t enough of it - the next time I make it I will definitely make more.


Fricassée of chicken & figs
serves 2

2 tsp flour
½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp olive oil
2 chicken legs
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
10g butter
50ml white wine
80ml chicken stock
200g figs, quartered

Mix the flour, paprika, salt and pepper together then evenly dust the chicken pieces with the mixture.

Heat the oil in a saute pan and brown the chicken pieces until golden brown.

Add the vinegar and butter and boil for 10 seconds, until the vinegar has reduced. Stir to coat the chicken pieces in the reduced vinegar and butter.

Add the wine and chicken stock, bring to the boil then gently simmer covered for 30 minutes, adding the figs after 10 minutes.

Serve in wide bowls with some of the sauce and the pilaf alongside.


Camargue red rice pilaf
serves 2

2 tsp olive oil
½ onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
75g Camargue red rice
pinch sea salt
140ml chicken stock
20g slivered almonds, toasted
5g flat-leafed parsley, roughly chopped

In a medium saucepan heat the oil and gently sauté the onion, celery and garlic until soft.

Add the rice and stir to thoroughly coat the rice in the oil and vegetables.

Add a pinch of salt and the chicken stock and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for 45 minutes then turn off the heat and leave to steam for 10 minutes.

Toss the almonds and parsley through just before serving.

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Prawn Gumbo

Another Cajun / Creole inspired meal in a week (by accident rather than design) after the dirty risotto. I think I saw a version of this on Pinterest originally which spurred me to do a little research and then some more when that in turn spurred me on to find out the difference between an etouffee & a gumbo.

For those that are interested, a gumbo is made with a traditional roux, that is then browned and then the ‘holy trinity’ of celery, peppers and onions is added as well as broth and meat/seafood of choice (and okra if you’re into it, which I’m not). Basically a kind of soupy stew served over or alongside rice.

Etouffee means smothered and is usually crayfish or prawns, covered with a light roux (i.e. not browned) in which the holy trinity are then sauteed. The flavor of a blond roux is different, and because it's not cooked much, it has great thickening power, hence why it's called "smothered." The sauce is thicker.

The gumbo recipe I chose to adapt didn’t have pepper so in the interest of keeping to the ‘holy trinity’ I took liberty of adding it plus some tinned jalapenos - partly as I had some to use up but also as I like chillies.

Although I have made a roux before, I’ve never had to prepare one where it is browned and then is used to cook the vegetables - the fragrance as the chopped veg hit that nutty brown roux and sizzle is utterly delicious and really stimulates the appetite.

Ideally we would have had this spooned over brown rice but I didn’t leave myself enough time so basmati it was.


Prawn Gumbo
serves 2

170g raw prawns
1 tbsp groundnut oil
1 tbsp flour
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
½ green pepper, finely diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
250ml fish stock
small tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp canned diced green chillies
¼ tsp dried thyme
¼ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp smoked paprika
⅛ tsp cayenne
juice of ½ lemon
½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp chopped parsley
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Tabasco sauce (to taste)

In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the oil over a medium-low heat.

Sprinkle flour over the oil and stir well until it's completely blended. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the flour-oil mixture browns and is dark caramel-coloured. Be very careful not to let it burn (be warned, this process isn't particularly quick so don't lose concentration through boredom and let it catch!).

Turn the heat down to low and stir in the onions, celery, green pepper, green chillies and garlic and sprinkle over ⅛ tsp salt and a few turns of freshly-ground pepper. Stir well then cover the pan and let the vegetables cook in the roux for 10-15 minutes until softened.

To the pan add the tomatoes, thyme, oregano, paprika, cayenne, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce.

Stir well then add the stock and let simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes.

Stir in the prawns and let simmer in the soup until they are just firm and cooked through, about 3-5 minutes, depending on size. Taste and adjust seasoning to taste.

Stir in the chopped parsley, a couple of drops of Tabasco and serve in wide bowls over rice.

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'Dirty' Risotto

Dirty rice is a traditional Cajun dish where the white rice gets a "dirty" colour from being cooked with small pieces of chicken liver or giblets, (bell) pepper, celery, onion (the so-called Cajun Holy Trinity of ingredients and spices. Most common in the Cajun regions of southern Louisiana and Mississippi it can apparently also be found in other areas of the American South.

I’ve never had Dirty Rice so I don’t know if this recipe, adapted from one by Giada De Laurentiis (an Italian American TV chef whose culinary work is as oft criticised as lauded - as is often the case with ‘celebrity’ chefs it would seem) tastes like it. It appealed to me though: risotto (natch) with lots of meaty and savoury elements. Heart, oozy, and basically very tasty.


‘Dirty’ Risotto
serves 3

750ml chicken stock
15g butter
190g Italian sausage, removed from skin & crumbled
85g pancetta cubes
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
½ orange bell pepper, diced
1-2 tbsps jalapenos (from a tin), de-seeded & finely chopped
75g mushrooms, roughly chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
150g Arborio rice
90ml dry vermouth
25g Parmesan cheese + extra to serve
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

In a small pan, heat chicken stock to a simmer and turn right down to keep warm.

Meanwhile melt the butter in a large saucepan and when it starts to foam brown the sausage meat and pancetta over a medium-high heat, breaking the sausage down so it resembles coarse mince.

When nicely browned and starting to caramelise add the vegetables, turn the heat down and cook over a low heat until the veg has softened.

Turn the heat back up to medium high, stir in the rice and keep stirring for a minute to allow the rice to lightly toast.

Turn the heat up to high and pour in the vermouth: it will bubble up angrily - keep stirring until it has almost absorbed. Turn the heat back down again to medium-low.

Add a ladleful of stock to the rice and stir occasionally until it has absorbed. Repeat, a ladleful at a time, ensuring each is almost absorbed before adding the next.

Once the rice is tender and the texture of the risotto is quite gloopy, turn off heat and stir in the cheese. Cover and leave off the heat for 5 minutes then stir in the parsley.

Serve with a rocket & cherry tomato salad on the side and a little parmesan and parsley scattered over.

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Roasted Artichoke Risotto

I’d eaten a ridiculous amount of red meat in the weeks preceding this, in fact the week before, when the bf was away I think every evening meal I’d had was mince of one description or another. By this point then I was craving vegetables. We started the new week off with the mushroom ragout as previously posted but that wasn’t enough.

So I decided on a risotto. Killing two birds with one stone really: my continued point-proving that actually yes, we eat a reasonable amount of risotto plus it is something that is dead simple to have as part of a meatless meal. You choose your vegetable(s) and how to prepare them then add to a basic risotto bianco.

Couldn’t be easier really.


Roasted Artichoke Risotto
serves 2

500ml chicken (or vegetable) stock (you may not need all of it)
2 tsp olive oil
1 small knob of butter
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 stick of celery, trimmed and finely chopped
150g risotto rice
85ml of vermouth (or dry white wine)
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
20 g butter
35g Parmesan cheese, grated + extra to serve
1 tin artichoke hearts in brine, rinsed, drained and roughly chopped
zest and juice of ½ lemon
small handful mint, finely chopped
extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Lay the artichoke heart pieces on a baking tray and drizzle with a little olive oil. Toss around to coat the artichokes and then pop in the oven to roast for around 30 minutes until slightly criosp and charred on the outside and creamy in the middle.

Meanwhile put the hot stock in a saucepan on a low heat to keep warm on the hob.

Put 2 teaspoons of olive oil and the butter into a separate pan and add the onion, garlic, celery and a little pinch of salt. Cook over a very low heat, very gently for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables have softened but not coloured.

Turn up the heat and add the rice, stirring around for a couple of minutes until the rice is toasted . Pour in the vermouth which will bubble up madly so keep stirring until it has cooked into the rice.

Add your first ladle of hot stock. Turn the heat down to a simmer and stir occasionally until the stock is absorbed: keep repeating with additional ladlefuls of stock, only adding another when the previous has been absorbed into the rice. You don’t need to stir constantly, but reasonably often as this massages the starch out of the rice and will result in a creamy risotto.

You are done when the rice is soft but with a slight bite: this can take anything from 15 to 30 minutes in my experience. If you run out of stock (which is unlikely) add some boiling water.

Remove from the heat and add half of the artichokes, the butter, lemon juice and Parmesan. Stir well. Place a lid on the pan and allow to sit for 2 minute so that the risotto becomes creamy and oozy.

Toss the remaining artichokes with most of the lemon zest, the chopped mint and a drizzle of olive oil.

Carefully check the risotto seasoning and then divide it between two plates or wide bowls and sprinkle the dressed artichokes on top. Serve sprinkled with a little extra Parmesan and the rest of the lemon zest.

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Tarragon Gondi

This is yet another good Ottolenghi recipe that he has himself adapted from one in Gideon Kalimian's The Persian Kitchen (a book that I have not been able to find any reference to on t’internet). I think what drew me to this - apart from the fact that despite the criticisms he gets (usually related to long lists of weird ingredients, which I quite like) I like to cook his recipes - is the fact that two of the ingredients, dried limes and lime powder, I already had in the cupboard and was keen to find an interesting and unusual recipe for.

Gondi is Jewish Persian dish of matzo-less meatballs served in a soup, traditionally on Shabbat. The recipe may seem to call for a huge amount of fresh herbs but they are fairly essential to Iranian cuisine and the intensely bittersweet and aromatic dried limes also lend the soup a distinctly Persian flavour. Both dried limes and lime powder can be sourced quite easily on the internet - try Persopolis or Spice Mountain and the same shops can also be visited in person in Peckham or Borough Market respectively.


Tarragon Gondi
serves 3

50g basmati rice
250g minced beef
1 medium onion, finely grated or whizzed up in a spice grinder
15g fresh tarragon, leaves picked & chopped
½ tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried Iranian lime powder
3-4 dates, pitted & roughly chopped
sea salt &freshly ground black pepper
1250ml chicken stock
1 whole dried Iranian lime, pierced with a sharp knife or skewer
2 large carrots or 4-5 large chantenay carrots, peeled & cut into 5cm x 0.5cm batons
200g tinned chickpeas, drained
½ tsp turmeric
5 cardamon pods, lightly crushed
10g basil leaves, roughly shredded
10g mint leaves, roughly shredded

Cook the rice in a small pan of boiling water for four minutes then drain, refresh with cold water and drain again. Shake the sieve to get rid of any excess water. Tip the rice into a large bowl and add the beef, onion, tarragon, cumin, lime powder and dates, as well as a large pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper.

Mix everything together well then shape into small balls weighing about 40g each (you should have 12 or so in all). Cover and put in the fridge for half an hour, to firm up.

In a large pan put the stock, limes, carrots, chickpeas, turmeric, cardamom and ½ a teaspoon of salt. Put on a high heat, bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low.

Carefully lower the meatballs into the broth and simmer gently for 30 minutes, until the meat and rice are cooked and the stock has reduced by about half (cover the pan if it reduces too much).

Towards the end of the cooking time press the lime with the back of a spoon, to help release its juices.

Divide the gondi and veg between bowls, spooning the soup on top and sprinkling with the herbs to serve.

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Spicy Taiwanese Chicken & Celery

Another great dish to cook if you have a bit of a glut of celery - this is from a reader recipe on Food 52: I’ve changed it slightly, mainly in upping the amount of chicken and sauce as, if I’m serving over a rice, I like it nice and saucy. As it turns out there wasn’t actually a massive amount of sauce even with me increasing those ingredients, but the rice was a welcome relief as my chilli seems to have been particularly hot and I didn’t deseed it.

If you can, use Chinese celery but I just used the usual stuff as I still had the inner stalks from the batch I’d bought for the braised over polenta dish I cooked recently, and that worked fine.

In fact I have to say this was delicious, surprisingly so as I thought it would be a bit boring. But beige as it may look (particularly with the brown rice), it really was rather good. I think this may be, in part, due to the rendered chicken fat.


Spicy Taiwanese Chicken & Celery
serves 2

200g (approx) inner celery sticks, trimmed, veins peeled off & sliced into 1 inch batons
3 skinless chicken thigh fillets (trimmed but fat reserved), sliced into thin pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red chilli, finely sliced (lengthways)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine (or dry sherry)
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp potato flour

Combine all the ingredients bar the celery, chilli and chicken fat, in a bowl. Set aside to marinate for 30 mins.

Heat a wok over high heat. Add the chicken fat and render for 3 minutes (or until no more fat renders). Discard the solids and pour the rendered fat into a bowl, leaving approximately 1 tbsp in the wok.

Add the chicken to the wok, leaving as much sauce behind in the bowl as you can and stirfry, stirring constantly until the meat is almost done. Remove the chicken and set aside on a plate.

Add another 2 tablespoons rendered fat to the wok and then add the celery. Saute for 2-3 mins then add the chillis and stir around for a minute. Add the chicken back in and the sauce still in the bowl then stir for another minute.

Serve immediately over rice.

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Jamaican Goat Curry

I’ve made a lamb Jamaican-style curry before, adapted from my Curry book but I’ve really wanted to give the real, goat-deal a try ever since I made that.

In Ludlow at a food festival with some friends earlier this year there was a stall selling packs of goat meat (and also the most amazing Goat Burgers - delicious) so naturally I grabbed a pack and stored it in the freezer until I could get hold of some Scotch Bonnets. In itself a bit of a mission until I had to make a trip to SW London.

Anyway, I’ve adapted from the recipe in Curry again with a few further changes inspired by ideas from other recipes read. Goat on the bone would have been better here but it took me so long to source some goat (admittedly in a fairly lazy way, a trip to Walworth Road or Peckham would almost certainly come up trumps a hell of a lot earlier) that I just went with what I had.

Serve with rice and peas (you could use this recipe). Fried plantain is traditional too if you’re able to get hold of some.


Jamaican Goat Curry
serves 3-4

500g diced goat
1 tbsp chives, finely chopped
2 Scotch Bonnet chillies, 1 deseeded and chopped, the other left whole
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ tsp ground allspice
½ small bunch of thyme, leaves picked & chopped
2 tbsp Caribbean curry powder
scant ¼ tsp cumin powder
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp corinader, finely chopped
½ tbsp grated ginger
½ tsp salt
200ml coconut milk

Rinse & pat dry the cubed goat and then mix it, in a bowl, with the chives, chopped chili, allspice, cumin, 1 tbsp of curry powder and half the thyme and garlic.

Leave to marinate overnight if possible, or at the least 4 hours.

Around 15-30 minutes before you are ready to cook, take the meat out of the fridge so it can come to room temperature.

In a large cast iron casserole heat the oil and add the remaining garlic, thyme, the onion and ginger. Cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes until the onion is softened and starting to turn golden.

Mix the remaining curry powder with 2 tbsp water to make a loose paste and add that to the pot. Cook, stirring all the time, until the liquid has evaporated.

Add the goat a few pieces at a time stirring between each batch to ensure that everything is coated with the curry mixture in the pan and then cook for five minutes until the meat is browned all over. You’ll need to stir fairly constantly to ensure it doesn’t stick.

Cover the pan and let simmer for another 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally then remove the lid and turn up the heat as we’ll want the natural juices that were released as it simmered to be evaporated off.

Now add the salt & whole Scotch Bonnet as well as the coriander, coconut milk and about 125ml water (swirl the water around in the bowl that had the meat marinating).

Bring to the boil before turning back down to low. Cover and simmer for 2 hours. Remove the lid and cook for a further 30 minutes or until the sauce is thickened and glossy and the meat fall-apart tender. Serve with rice and peas.

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