Spiced chicken with tabouli and straying into Fashion

Recently, I realised (very late, too late) that this blog of mine has been online for over 5 years. Maybe I should have made something to celebrate this milestone, but I forgot. Ho hum, so blasé…

During those years, I’ve been fairly consistently (exclusively?) reading food blogs. Sure, there have been a couple of forays into the ‘lifestyle’ and craft blog scenes, but I’ve always bookmarked more food blogs than any other type. Until now.

For I have discovered fashion blogs. Oh, they are so envy-making! I’d list some for you, but there are so many, and not a week goes by where I don’t discover yet another site dedicated to pictures of a slim pretty young thing smiling coyly at the ground, with an outfit credit underneath, like: Dress: Tibi. Jacket: Zara. Bag: Celine. Shoes: Gianvitto Rossi. Sunglasses: Prada. Bracelets: Hermes, Gorjana. It's like another world, and it is, a world where a slight breeze is always flicking your perfect hairdo and your blog photos look like a spread in Vogue. 

But you can’t eat fashion, can you? What I am trying to say, I suppose, is that even though we might stray from our committed blog path in life, we will always come back to it, eventually. So food blogs will always be on my reading list. (Though, if you want to see a wonderful combination of fashion, food, photos and writing, check out this)

And thank you to you, if you have Ooh, Look… in your reader. I’m sorry that I’m sometimes a bit slack with the updates, but I do appreciate your patronage and hope to welcome you to this site for another 5 years, at least.

Here’s a recipe to say Yay!


Spiced Chicken with Tabouli
serves 4

Ingredients
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground turmeric
pinch of dried chilli flakes
zest of 1 lemon finely grated
4 x 200g chicken breast fillets, flattened slightly

Minted yoghurt:
3 tsp crushed garlic
2 tblsp chopped mint leaves
1 cup Greek yoghurt
Salt and pepper

Tabouli:
50g burghul (cracked wheat)
Bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
½ cup mint leaves, roughly chopped
1 tsp crushed garlic
2 ripe tomatoes, seeds removed, finely diced
1 Lebanese cucumber, halved lengthways, seeds removed, finely diced
Juice of ½ a lemon
40ml extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method

1. For the chicken: In a large bowl, combine half the olive oil with the oregano, cumin, turmeric, chilli and lemon zest. Add the chicken breast fillets, stirring to coat. Marinate in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

2. For the minted yoghurt: Stir together the garlic, mint and yoghurt in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

3. For the tabouli: Place burghul in a bowl and cover with hot water and stand for 20 minutes or until soft. Drain and squeeze out excess water. Cool. Then, combine the burghul with the parsley, mint, garlic, tomatoes and cucumber and mix well. Stir in the lemon juice and olive oil and season to taste.

4. To cook the chicken: Preheat oven to 180C/360F. Put the remaining oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add the marinated chicken breast and sear until golden on both sides. Season with salt and pepper, then place on a baking tray and cook in the oven for another 5-6 minutes, until cooked through.

5. To serve: Place the tabouli on a plate and top with chicken. Serve with minted yoghurt.

recipe adapted from Good Weekend (Neil Perry).

Ingredients: (top) for the tabouli: mint, parsley, cucumber, tomato, burghul

(bottom) marinade for the chicken:olive oil, turmeric, cumin, orgeano, chilli flakes

Serve the chicken on a bed of tabouli, with minted yoghurt to dollop over