Wednesday, 20 October 2010

October 2006 - Cinnamon Chicken with Bean Salad

I had a big day today and I was very tired earlier but I seem to have gotten a second wind and am now wide awake. At least it gives me a chance to get another post done. I left home early this morning to go to another town for an MRI. As I was just settling in on my way a road sign pointed out that there was a bridge closed due to flooding ahead of me so I had to change my plans and go a bit out of my way. However, I had left home with plenty of time to spare so it wasn't a problem. I have never had an MRI before and it was an interesting experience. It would definitely be a problem if you were claustrophobic as the tube that you go into is quite small. Then you are bombarded with all sorts of weird noises. I was lucky that an old friend was the one at the controls and made sure that I was okay at every stage. No tumours found, which is a relief, however it doesn't help in the search for the cause of my hearing loss, ear pain and ringing. So it is back to the doctor to see what is next. Hopefully we can find out something quickly.

Anyway, on to this beautiful issue with the absolutely divine looking Gluten-free Raspberry Shortcake on the cover. I adore raspberries. They are my very favourite fruit. My Gramma used to grow them and even though we were half a world apart I remember picking them on the few visits that we made when I was young. I also remember the delightful raspberry freezer jam and the fresh raspberry pie that my Gramma made with these glorious little morsels. The pie was made all the more delicious with the addition of fresh cream from their own milk cows. To be honest, I don't think any raspberry dessert can compare with the memory of those desserts. I do still use raspberries, I have some lovely muffins and an excellent raspberry cornbread recipe. However I use frozen for these recipes as I do not grow my own and to buy them fresh is seriously expensive. 

I had planned on making Valli's Smoked chicken & wild rice salad. I really like smoked chicken. It adds a lovely flavour dimension to salads. It is so much easier to get now with most supermarkets selling either whole smoked chickens or individual smoked breast fillets. I did, however, encounter some trouble locating wild rice. I can remember that wild rice was one of those fad ingredients years ago. I recall seeing it on supermarket shelves at one time. It is  now no longer there. The recipe called for a jasmine and wild rice blend and I couldn't get that either. I did find some wild rice online but it was crazy expensive for only a small amount and once postage was added on top of that it really wasn't worth it. I then thought that I would try it out with some coral rice that I bought from an online store that was going out of business and selling off all their stock. I hadn't found a recipe to use it in so thought that this one might be nice. Unfortunately we had a nasty spell of weather and there was no way that I was going to be eating a cold salad on a cold night. 

I ended up making another of Valli's recipes, Cinnamon chicken with bean salad. This was fantastic. Since it was a cold night I warmed all the beans through and it took on the flavours of the dressing fantastically. For the chicken I used some thigh cutlets with the skin on rather than the breast. I did this for two reasons, the first is that I find it hard to get breast with the skin on and wing bone attached. The other reason is that the thigh cutlets are smaller. I often find that breast fillets are so large, most of the time I would get 1.5 - 2 meals from a single fillet. So far I haven't been able to find smaller fillets so I tend to use the thigh fillets or cutlets with or without skin instead. The marinade for the chicken was terrific. There was a wonderful sweetness to the dish but it wasn't overpowering although I think that the dressing on the salad helps to cut through the sweetness of the chicken too. The only disappointment was the purchased beetroot relish that I had with it. I have made my own beetroot relish in the past and it was fantastic. The one I bought was awful though. I will definitely not buy it again. I would, however, make this chicken dish again.

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