Chicken Beyti

In Leytonstone there is a fabulous Turkish restaurant. Every time I go there I make sure I order one of the Beyti kebabs. Far removed from a doner kebab (I have still never eaten a doner kebab) it is delicious and very easy to cook. I am going to cook a chicken one for dinner tonight.

Ingredients:      (Serves 2)

3 chicken breast fillets, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 onion, grated
1 tbsp. dried parsley
1 tbsp. red pepper paste (you can use tomato too)
dash of tabasco sauce
pack of flour tortillas
1 clove garlic
2 tsp. paprika
3 tbsp. tomato puree (paste)


Set oven to 200 C. In a bowl, combine the chicken, garlic, onion parsley and paste and season with salt & pepper. Roll into two sausages the length of a tortilla. Place one of the sausages on the tortilla and roll up. Cut excess - you don't want the tortillas to be too thick, one layer is plenty. Place seam side down in a baking dish and cut the wrapped sausage into 2 inch wide pieces. Repeat with other sausage. Cover with foil and place in the oven for 20 mins.

To make the tomato sauce, chop one garlic clove and fry gently in 1 tbsp. of olive oil on a low heat ensuring it doesn't burn. Add the paprika and stir. Then add the tomato puree and a cup of water. Bring to the boil and leave on a low simmer till thickened. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Take the foil off the chicken beyti and spoon over half of the sauce. Place back in the oven for a further 10 minutes without covering.

Serve the Beyti with a spoon of natural yoghurt, some more of the tomato sauce, a sprinkling of fresh coriander and some couscous.

Todays Lunch: Roast Tomato Soup

I don't know about everywhere else but right now in London - its cold. Yes, I know its probably colder in more places but to me sitting typing, wearing 2 pairs of socks and a poncho in the kitchen, it's freezing.

On cold days there is nothing that warms me, or makes me feel more wrapped in a blanket than a bowl of homemade soup. Around lunchtime I headed to the fridge and spent a few minutes trying to decide between leek and cauliflower soup or roast tomato soup. As the tomatoes were looking a bit over ripe - I decided on the latter.

Its fairly simple. Get a large roasting tray and pop in your tomatoes - I had 6 large ones and they were pretty soft. I cut them in half and added them to the tray. Then in went a sliced red pepper & a large thickly sliced onion. In a small bowl I poured a glug of olive oil and added 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. smoked paprika, salt & pepper and whisked together. I poured this over the veg and popped it in the oven for 20 minutes on 200 C.

Then, I left to the veg to cool and made up a pint of vegetable stock made from a stock cube. The veg, stock and 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan went into the food processor. Blended to smooth perfection! Taste for seasoning and if the tomatoes aren't ripe (sweet) enough you may need to add a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.

I topped this with basil oil - usually I have some basil in the garden but the weather doesn't like basil outside so I have a small shop bought pot in the window sill of the kitchen. Blended with olive oil and drizzled onto the soup with some parmesan shavings.

It is SO much better than tinned soup and you know exactly what's in it!!

It certainly warmed me up!! Keep warm people.. it'll soon be summer.

Learning to Make A Curry

My favourite food bar none - is a good curry. A HOT curry at that.

I don't mind what country it comes from but I also expect to have enough chillies in it to make me sit up and take notice.

It has honestly taken me years to perfect the flavours. For years I randomly threw in cumin, coriander without a clue what I was doing. And adding water as I didn't want tomato paste or cornflour as a thickener ended in a wet disaster!

I then found out that if you puree onions and let them cook on a very low heat in some butter for about 45 minutes...they make the sauce. You then add the spices and a touch more butter and leave again. Then add stock and leave to simmer. Its a true time consuming labour of love but if you like curry as much as I do without the bother or expense of a takeaway, its worth every minute. The curry in the picture above is an Ethiopian Berbere spiced Chicken curry - the recipe for the spice mix is on my website www.julesdinnertable.co.uk - check it out!

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