Broccoli Chicken Couscous Salad

Lean chicken breasts pan-fried till golden, lightly steamed broccoli, tomatoes and radishes in a quick lemon yogurt dressing with red chili makes a tasty, healthy meal after weeks of indulgence. 

This salad is made up of the vegetables I had on hand so please use the ingredient amounts as a guide and feel free to substitute your favorites, add more or omit whatever doesn’t suit you.

Ingredients (to serve two as a main course or four as a starter)
For the salad:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
Olive oil
1 cup or 150g couscous (medium grain)
1/2 medium-sized head of broccoli
9-10 small sharp radishes
9-10 cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup or about 50g sprouted mung beans
Large handful cilantro or fresh coriander leaves

For the dressing:
Juice 1/2 large lemon (about 1/8 cup or 30ml)
1 small purple onion
1-2 small hot red chilies
2 heaping tablespoons plain yogurt
1/8 cup or 30ml olive oil
Sea salt

Method
Cut your chicken into bite-sized pieces and season liberally with salt and the ground cumin.  Stir it around so the pieces are seasoned all over.

Heat up a non-stick skillet and pan-fry the chicken until golden on all sides using just a tiny drizzle of olive oil.   Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Put a pot of water on to heat for steaming your broccoli.

Cut the broccoli into florets then cut the florets in quarters.

Steam them until they are still crunchy.  This takes just a few minutes.  Remove your steamer with broccoli from the hot pot and set aside to cool.  Reserve the water for making the couscous.

Put your couscous in a pot or metal bowl and add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Add just enough boiling water (From the broccoli steaming pot, if you’ve plan ahead!) to cover the couscous plus a bit extra.  Put the lid on and leave it while you get on with the rest of the salad.

Slice your radishes and halve your cherry tomatoes.  Chop the cilantro very roughly.  You want some nice big leaves still.  Finely mince the red chilies and thinly slice your onion.

In a bowl that will be big enough for tossing your whole salad, add in lemon juice, the onion and the chilies.  Let them steep for a few minutes.  This takes the sharpness out of the onion and infuses the juice with the heat of the chilies.

Add in the plain yogurt and stir.   Now drizzle in the olive oil and stir well.  Give the whole thing a small sprinkle of salt.  Set aside.

By now your couscous should be done.  Remove the lid and fluff it up with a fork.  Leave the lid off and allow it to cool further.

Add your radishes, tomatoes and mung beans to the salad bowl.

Heap on the couscous.

Toss well to coat everything with dressing.  Now add in cooled broccoli and the cilantro.  Toss again.

Finally, add in the chicken pieces and toss for the last time.

Enjoy!

Pan-fried Scallops with Garlic Chili Linguine

Garlic and chili flavor the olive oil used to pan-fry succulent scallops and coat linguine tossed with arugula. A deliciously quick meal for any day of the week.

This week’s #SundaySupper theme is a challenge:  Try something new.  A technique, a new ingredient, a new ethnic cuisine.  Just something new that might be considered adventurous.  You may find this hard to believe, but I had never cooked scallops.  I was always just a little bit intimidated by their thickness and the fact that they should be just cooked, not too much, not too little, to be perfect.  Couple that with the fact that they’ve been relatively expensive everywhere I’ve lived and it was easy to justify NOT trying to cook them.  If you know what I mean.  But, thanks to our host for this week, a fellow nomad, Conni from Foodie Army Wife,  I am ready for adventure and here we go!  (And make sure you go on over to Conni’s blog and give her some love.  Spouses like Conni are the backbone of the military and I am grateful for the service of her husband and the sacrifices the whole family has made to make that service possible.)

Ingredients
2 cloves of garlic
1 small red chili
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
8 large scallops
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper (I actually use a three-peppercorn mix of white, black and pink, but freshly ground is key.)
8 oz or about 250g dried pasta (I prefer linguine.)
Massive handful baby arugula or rocket

Method
Lay your scallops out on a bed of paper towels and pat dry with more paper towels.

When they are completely dry, season with a sprinkling of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Meanwhile, boil your pasta in lightly salted water, according to packet instructions.

Slice your garlic very thinly and chop the chili pepper.

Sauté the garlic and chili in the olive oil, just until the garlic softens.  A little color won’t hurt but you don’t want to the garlic to brown.  We are looking to flavor the oil.

Remove the garlic and chili from the pan with a slotted spoon.

When your pasta is done, drain it and then toss in a huge handful of arugula or baby spinach, if you prefer.

Add in the garlic and chili and stir.  Put the lid back on the pot to keep warm.  The greens will wilt nicely, just from the heat of the hot pasta.

Heat the pan very hot and lay the scallops to fry.  You will need a mesh cover for the pan because, no matter how dry you dried your scallops, they tend to be moist and will spit at you.

After just a couple of minutes, use some tongs to turn the scallops over.  Put the spatter guard back on because now it really goes to town.

When the second side of the scallops are a little golden, turn them back to the first side and push them to one side of the pan.  Add in the pasta and swirl it around in the garlicky, spicy, scallopy olive oil.

Sprinkle with a little more sea salt, if necessary.

Serve each plate with a pile of pasta and four scallops each.

I have to say, scallops will probably be on the menu from now on.  My husband and I both loved them!  And they really weren’t hard at all.

Enjoy!

New Expeditions (Sides, Starters & Staples)

• Baked Lemon Coconut Risotto from Soni’s Food
• Easy Oven Polenta from Shockingly Delicious
• Homemade Corn Tortillas from Pescetarian Journal
• Homemade Peanut Butter from Home Cooking Memories
• Homemade Ricotta Cheese from Webicurean
• Homemade Spiced Flour Tortillas from Chocolate Moosey
• Homemade Tofu from Kimchi MOM
• Indian Moong Beans from Magnolia Days
• Naan from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Portuguese Chorizo Bread from Family Foodie  

Grand Quests (Main Dishes)

• Arepas Rellenas (Stuffed Arepas) from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Baked Tilapia with Parmesan Basil Sauce from Growing Up Gabel
• Black Beans and Cheese Empanadas from Basic N Delicious
• Braised Lamb Brisket with Lemon Oregano Yogurt Sauce from The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen
• Caribou & Andouille Chili from The Foodie Army Wife  
• Miso-Glazed Salmon from The Foodie Patootie
• Pan-fried Scallops with Garlic Chili Linguine from Food Lust People Love
• Penne with Mustard and Chives from My Other City By The Bay
• Pork Dim Sum from Small Wallet, Big Appetite
• Rice Burger from The Urban Mrs.
• Spanish Baked Scallops from Momma’s Meals
• Traditional Pork Tamales from Gourmet Drizzles
• Vegetarian Hortobagyi Pancakes from Happy Baking Days
• Venison Steak Gyros from Curious Cuisiniere

Escapades (Sweet Treats & Spirited Companions)

• Bircher Muesli from Peanut Butter and Peppers
• Chocolate Dipped Madeleines from Big Bear’s Wife
• Dorie Greenspan’s Orange Almond Tart from Hip Foodie Mom
• Fresh Strawberry Frozen Yogurt from The Messy Baker
• Hello Kitty Rice Krispies from The Ninja Baker
• Homemade Cinnamon Rolls from In The Kitchen With KP
• Homemade Vanilla Marshmallows from Vintage Kitchen
• Macaroons from Noshing With The Nolands
• Making Macarons – FAIL! from girlichef
• Multilayer Bars from What Smells So Good?
• Ombre Mini Cakes from Daily Dish Recipes
• Rut-Busting Wines For New Cooking Adventures from ENOFYLZ Wine Blog
• Strawberry Raspberry Fruit Leather from Juanita’s Cocina
• Vegan Chocolate Mousse from The Not So Cheesy Kitchen
• Zebra Cake from That Skinny Chick Can Bake

=

Lemon and Cilantro Crusted White Fish for #Random Recipe Challenge

This month’s Random Recipe Challenge has the same rules as always, it’s just gotten a little more high tech, with Dom over at +belleau kitchen creating a random number generator for us to use.  I have seen these, as I am sure you have, on blogs that do giveaways but I had never used one myself.

 Good fun and more probably more random than my usual method, which is to make someone give me a number.  :) Since Eat Your Books has my cookbooks all organized, it was easy enough to find book number 33 in the category of “Wherever Home is Now.”

So, this recipe was adapted from one by Bill Granger in Bills Food,  of which the cover, the endpaper and flyleaf have no apostrophe in Bills so I will cringingly omit it here.  Upon further research, I discovered that his restaurants and blog are also missing the apostrophe.  Why, Bill, why?  Is there a punctuation shortage in Australia?  Such a rich and wonderful country!  I’d be happy to send you some.  But I have to forgive Bill because this fish was delicious.  And he is such a cutie pie.

Ingredients
1/2 cup or about 40g fresh breadcrumbs
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup or about 15g fresh cilantro or coriander leaves (or flat-leafed parsley if you are not a fan of cilantro)
1 small red chili (optional)
Zest of one lemon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes
Few grinds of black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 thick white fish fillets (about 6 oz or 175g each)

Method
Preheat the oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Chop the garlic and cilantro roughly.  Mince the red chili, if using.

Put the breadcrumbs, garlic, chili and sea salt in the food processor.

Pour in the olive oil and grind in some black pepper and grate in the zest of the lemon. Process until you have lovely green breadcrumbs.

I almost forgot the lemon zest. You should put all the stuff in together, as per the
instructions.   But if you forget something, by all means, add it in.

Heap the mixture on top of your fish, trying to make sure it is all well covered.

Bake until cooked through.  I cooked mine for about 10 minutes and then put the oven on broil (or grill) for a few minutes more to brown the top.  If your fish is thicker or thinner you may have to adjust the time.

Bill says to serve this with garlic mashed potatoes and baby spinach, which I agree would be very lovely but I had some butternut squash that needed roasting so I did that and a small tomato salad instead.

All in all, a fabulous random recipe.  I would definitely make this again.

Enjoy!

Piri Piri Grilled Chicken

Whole butterflied chicken marinated with homemade piri-piri sauce and grilled to crispy perfection over hot coals is like a taste of southern Portugal and beaches and sunshine.

Years ago, we were driving around the Algarve in southern Portugal, looking for a meal.  Trying to avoid the usual touristy places, we pulled over to a little outdoor grill, with big uncovered barbecue pits, burning natural wood charcoal.  The old grill guy had a cigarette dangling from his lips but most of the smoke was coming from the fire.  He was grilling fresh sardines and butterflied whole chicken, slathered generously with homemade piri piri sauce.  The aroma was heavenly.  

It could have been the long day at a beautiful beach and the fresh sea air or the fact that I was pregnant with younger daughter, but: It was one of the best meals ever.  EVER.  I’ve recreated it a few times in the interim 19 years, tweaking the piri piri sauce or trying different marinades, but last weekend was one of the best yet.  

We sat and ate this, licking our fingers in a most uncivilized fashion and talking about what a great holiday that was and how we had never seen chicken grilled whole but split open before. Such a revelation! (Or perhaps we are easily impressed. Remember, this was way before Nigella.) But seriously, it is so much easier to deal with a whole chicken than to shift lots of pieces around! The Portuguese are brilliant. And so is this chicken.

Ingredients

For the piri piri sauce:

2.5 oz or 70g hot chili peppers

6 cloves garlic

1/4 cup or 60ml fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup or 120ml apple cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon flakey sea salt, like Maldon  

1 1/2 cups or 355ml extra virgin olive oil

(This is going to make way more than you need for one chicken, but it will keep in the refrigerator for two to three weeks.  Once you have tried it on chicken, you will need to add it to everything you are grilling: prawns, pork ribs, whole fish and who knows what else.  Trust me, you will.)

For the chicken:

1 whole chicken, cleaned and excess fat removed

Sprinkle of flakey sea salt to serve

Method

Cut the stems off of your chili peppers and put everything for the sauce but the olive oil in a blender.  

Blend until the peppers are in tiny, tiny pieces, occasionally scraping the inside of the blender down.

Add in the olive oil and blend again.  Set this aside in a covered bowl and deal with your chicken.

Using a sharp knife or poultry scissors, cut right up the backbone and then turn the chicken over and press down on the breast to flatten the chicken out.  Make a couple of slashes with your knife in the thigh meat.  This will let the piri piri sauce penetrate but will also help the thighs to cook faster so the breast meat doesn’t dry out on the grill.

Pop the chicken in a Ziploc bag and add in about 1/2 cup of the piri piri sauce.  Massage it all around from the outside of the bag.  Let this marinate all day or overnight, but for at least an hour or two.  If it's more than an hour, put the bag in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to grill, light your fire with natural charcoal, if you can get it.  Otherwise, some briquettes with a couple of handfuls of damp smoking wood added as you put the chicken on will have to suffice.  Our barbecue pit is much less deep (and wide) than the traditional Portuguese grills so we had to use the lid to keep the flames from completely consuming the chicken.  On the other hand, using the cover to control the flames also allowed for a whole lot of smoking to go on and that only adds to the flavor.  

Grill your chicken, skin side up for about 10-15 minutes, basting regularly with more of the piri piri sauce. (I think we used about another 1/2 cup during the grilling.)  

Then turn it over and grill the skin side for another 10-15.  Again, baste often.  

Do be careful not to let it burn!  A little charring is a good thing though.  Control your fire by keeping the lid on but just a bit ajar to allow oxygen in or your fire will die.  Depending on the size of your chicken, 30 minutes over very hot coals, with the lid mostly on, might just do it.  

Baking and grilling with the lid mostly closed.  And it is smoking like crazy!

Remember that it is baking as well as being grilled.  If you are concerned, do check the thigh/leg joint and leave it in the barbecue pit, if needed, for a further 10 minutes or until it is just cooked through.

Remove from the grill and cut the chicken into serving pieces.  Give the whole thing a light sprinkling of flakey sea salt.

(As you can see, we were pigs and took a half each, since our only side was a tomato and herb salad and our chicken was so tiny.  But I ended up eating only my breast and wing for dinner.  The leg and thigh were devoured the next morning, straight out of the refrigerator – cold.  Such enormous flavor!  Still brilliant.)

Enjoy!