WWDH - One Pot Ginger Chicken

This week’s Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is One Pot Ginger Chicken, from Donna’s new book, One Pan Perfect.

Donna was inspired by Hainanese Chicken with the flavours in this dish - ginger, chilli, garlic.

 This is a really tasty and healthy dish, and low fuss to make.

To check out some more Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte at Grandma’s Kitchen Table, Margaret at Tea and Scones, and Peggy at Pantry Revisited.  

Ethiopian Experience - Doro Wot (Chicken Stew)

In this week's Foodalogue adventure, Joan is taking us on a culinary tour of Ethiopia. Again, this is a pretty exciting destination, because I know as much about Ethiopian cuisine as I did about Romanian food - that is, nothing.

Accordingly, I had to do some research again to accompany Joan on this trip. Surprisingly, it is easier to find Ethiopian recipes than it is to find Romanian recipes. One dish which kept coming up in my searches is Doro Wot, a spicy chicken stew with a soupy sauce, traditionally containing boiled eggs and eaten with flat bread (to mop up the sauce, of course!) and vegetables. Accordingly, this is the dish that I settled on making.

Now to be perfectly honest, I would never have made Doro Wot if left to my own devices. It didn't sound appealing enough for me to have bothered, and the thought of boiled eggs in a stew kind of left me cold. However, in the spirit of taking this culinary tour, I went ahead and made Doro Wot - and I loved it!!!

I tweaked Dorinda Hafner's recipe and Fearless Kitchen's recipe to come up with my own version of Doro Wot which combined the best of both. It is the kind of recipe that you could easily up the ante on or dampen down certain ingredients, according to personal taste, and this is what I did. However, don't be afraid of trying the boiled eggs in this stew - they taste surprisingly good.

To make my version of Doro Wot, you will need:

30g ghee
2 diced brown onions
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 whole cloves
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 teaspoon chilli powder
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 chicken cut into 8 pieces, reserving the wings, or 6 chicken pieces, skin on
6 shelled hard boiled eggs (I only used two just to try them)
1/4 cup red wine
juice of one lime

Place the onions and half of the ghee with a pinch of salt into a large oiled saucepan or wok, and cook the onions over low heat until golden (~15 minutes).

Add the rest of the ghee, cardamom, pepper, cloves, garlic, ginger and chilli powder, and continue to cook the onions until soft (~10 minutes).

Prick the chicken pieces and eggs with a fork. Add 2 cups of the stock with the chicken pieces and eggs to the pan, bring to a steady simmer, and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

Add the remaining half a cup of stock and the red wine to the pan, and continue to simmer while covered for 30 minutes.

Add the lime juice to the pan and simmer for a further five minutes, before removing the pan from the heat. Serves 3-6 (depending on whether you want one piece of chicken or two - I had one piece of chicken and one egg, and that was plenty for me when served with vegetables).

I didn't have any flat bread, but I served my Doro Wot with roasted sweet potato, pumpkin, parsnips, zucchini and asparagus sprayed with oil and coated in salt, pepper and mixed herbs (figuring that you could easily roast vegetables in a camp fire or primitive oven, so although the varieties of veges may not be authentic, the cooking method could be):

Verdict - absolutely and surprisingly delicious!! I'd make this again.

Do visit Foodalogue after 25 February to see the roundup of great Ethiopian recipes. Next stop is Russia (March 2) - hope to see you there!

On a different note, my lovely friend Ivy has given me with the Sweetheart Award:

Thanks Ivy! I wish to share this award with the following sweethearts:

The Blonde Duck of A Duck in Her Pond

Tammy of Wee Treats By Tammy

Arfi of Homemades

Sara of Sara's Kitchen

Dee of Choos and Chews

Thanks to these gals for brightening my day.

A fragrant dish - lamb tagine

Once again, I am posting about a savoury dish that I found on another blog. This time, I made a delicious looking lamb tagine from Antonia at Food, Glorious Food, who in turn obtained it from her friend Joni. When Antonia mentioned that she hates Moroccan food (primarily because she is repulsed by fruit and meat together), but that she loved this tagine so much that not only did she eat it, but she made it for herself, I was sold! And I wasn't disappointed when I tried it myself.

You will find the recipe for this tagine here. It contains lamb, dried apricots, canned tomatoes, garlic, onion and a blend of spices similar to Ras el Hanout (which is what I actually used instead), and is garnished with coriander. I served mine with boiled rice, and like Antonia, I really enjoyed it. I would definitely make this tagine again (unlike the fairly lacklustre lamb tagine I had made the week before from a Moroccan cookbook).

Thanks to Antonia (and Joni!) for this recipe.

Chicken tagine with potatoes and olives

Chicken tagine with potatoes and olives
Originally uploaded by Cakelaw

I love Moroccan food, with its rich spices, luscious fruit and flavoursome meat. One of my favourite restaurants is Souk in London, which serves delicious Moroccan food, and creates a great atmosphere with its cave-like interior, scatter cushions, belly dancers and even hookahs (the latter of which I rejected).

Last weekend, I tried out a new Moroccan recipe - tagine of chicken with potatoes and olives. I am unsure how authentic it is, but it is certainly good. It involves braising 600g of chicken, then adding 2 bay leaves, 2 grated onions, salt to taste, 1/2 teaspoon tumeric, and 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and simmering on low heat for 30 minutes. Next, add 800g diced potatoes (skin on is fine), top up the water and continue to simmer until the potatoes are soft. Finally, during the last 5 minutes of cooking, add two sprigs of fresh thyme, a handful of torn fresh coriander leaves and 12 chopped black olives and season with pepper.

Verdict - delicious!