Sunday Dinner

My awesomer half cooked us an amazing meal this evening:  Chicken Kebabs With Avocado Dip.  We are big fans of Jamie Oliver and this recipe comes from his book Jamie Does... Spain Italy Sweden Morocco Greece France.  This recipe is from the Morocco section.  This recipe is in our repertoire of meals that we cook every fortnight or so.  Not only is it easy to make but it tastes great with some California red wine.

OMG.  Spices.  Everyone needs a mortar & pestle

Doesn't this look lovely?

Wine courtesy of La Folia Vineyards

Pita want more!  Om nom nom

Chicken Keabs With Avocado Dip, copyright 2010, Penguin Books, ISBN: 978-0-718-15614-5.  Recipe by Jamie Oliver.

Serves 4

4 boneless chicken breasts (approximately 125g each), preferably free-range or organic, cut into bite-sized chunks

4 Arab-style breads or flatbreads

1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve

For the marinade

a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated

1 tablespoon hot paprika

1 tablespoon ground coriander

3 tablespoons olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the avocado dip

2 ripe avocados

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and very finely chopped  [Note:  3 big cloves is groovy]

1 fresh green or red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

a small bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

juice of 1 lemon  [Note:  we prefer lime]

Procedure:

The marinade ingredients go in a bowl with a bit of salt & pepper.  We like to grind the spices with a mortar & pestle.  Cut up the chicken chunks into something resembling 1 cm cubes, quite small but not minced.  I saw some other blogger do this recipe and she cut the chicken pieces into Chicken-McNugget sizes and then complained they wouldn't fit into her pita bread.  Put the chicken chunks into a ziplock bag with the marinade and squoosh it so that it is evenly coated.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Making the avocado dip:  Halve the avocados and scoop out the good stuff.  Making good guacamole is like making love, some people can do it right, and some people are dullards.  Put some love into your guac.  Right, so.  Put the green stuff into a bowl and add all the other dip ingredients.  Mash it up the way you like it; some people are into good-and-chunky and other people prefer smooth-and-creamy.  Taste frequently to make sure it's good.  Add salt or pepper.  If you're brave, add more lime and garlic.  Oh yeah.

We fry up the chicken in a €4 Ikea fry pan.  You could use a fancy-pants French grill pan, but why bother?  This is supposed to be a quick dinner.  The chicken cooks in the marinade in about 7 minutes.

Microwave the pita breads, put some chopped cilantro (yeah, the Europeopeans call it 'coriander') into a bowl, and serve-up your guacamole and commence feasting.  We recommend a brilliant Californian red wine from La Folia, to compliment your meal.

Bon appetit.