The Eating Tree

Celebrating Food, Living and Country Life

  • HOME
  • A BIT ABOUT ME
  • MY GARDEN
    • SPRING IN MY GARDEN
    • AUTUMN
    • WINTER FROSTS
    • GARDEN STYLE
  • RECIPES
  • FAVOURITE PHOTOS
You are here: Home / Chicken / MINTY CARROT CHICKEN

MINTY CARROT CHICKEN

February 26, 2016 By Lindsey Dickson Leave a Comment

SONY DSC

I very rarely post a recipe that has come straight from a cookery book but when I made this dish last week it proved quite a popular item, so I thought I would share it with everyone on the blog. Unless you have a copy of the magnificent Claudia Roden’s The Book of Jewish Food, An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Present Day (a wee bit of a mouthful), you will probably have never heard of Minty Carrot Chicken. I must admit it is one of those recipes that doesn’t exactly jump out of the page screaming to be tried and is easy to pass over, maybe because of its less than exciting name or its very simplistic list of ingredients give the impression of a dish rather lacking in the flavour department.

SONY DSC

The Book of Jewish Food is a weighty tome, both in size and content. Part cookery, part history, the author documents over 800 (yes 800) Jewish recipes gathered from the world over, many of them originating in centuries past and never seen in print before. Not only an in-depth history of Jewish food, Ms Roden’s prose embarks on a culinary expedition around the globe, from our own England, neighbouring France, Germany and Poland, the USA, Russia, India and China, Syria and Morocco, charting the fascinating culture and history of the Jewish people as she goes.

SONY DSC

To be honest, it is probably not a book for the novice cook who would benefit from learning the basic cookery skills before embarking on baking bagels or preserving a goose. There are no glossy, seductive photographs, in fact there are no photographs of the dishes whatsoever, just a meagre scattering of black and white plates of historical people and places. With cooking, as when learning any new skill, it is reassuringly comforting to have a photograph of the finished article and I know some cooks are put off trying a recipe that does not have an accompanying picture.

However, for those interested in culinary history it is a fabulous and important read and even though now nearly 20 years old, it still holds sway on my bulging book shelves, long after many others have been and gone.

SONY DSC

Tastes in cookery are as fickle as in the fashion industry, with new trends and fads emerging each year. Some will last for a few years, some will fall by the wayside in a few months only to be replaced by a ‘new’ cooking sensation. Bombarded by press and peer pressure, consumers will rush out to buy the new must have cake tin, the latest health giving wonder ingredient or the newest, all bells and whistles garlic press on the market (a totally unnecessary item in a batterie de cuisine in my opinion).

Judging by the amount of pristine books which turn up at my local boot sale every week without so much as a sticky thumb print or dried bit of cake dough stuck to the pages, a lot of the new coffee table cookery books penned by celebrity chefs turn out to be nothing more than expensive photograph albums. The shiny pages flicked through on a cold night in front of the tele and then never glanced at again. After a few months consigned to a battered cardboard box marked ‘BOOT SALE’ the well meant but unappreciated Christmas present is then sold on to a stranger in a muddy field.

For me, the testament to a good cookery book is not so much the amount of times I refer to it for a specific recipe but the amount of times I will pick it off the shelf just to browse leisurely through its pages, each time gleaning a new snippet of information, noticing an ingredient I have never cooked with or, as in this instance, a dish previously unnoticed and untried. My favourites books are a little like my good friends, a little worn around the edges, with more substance than frou-frou and still loved even after a long absence.

SONY DSC

This dish is very easy to make and the colours and flavours are a feast for the senses. Originally from Cochin in India it is not a peppery hot dish, although you can add a couple of green chillies if you prefer your food with a kick. As on this occasion I cooked this as a family meal, the chillies were omitted.  Aged eleven, my son hasn’t yet acquired the asbestos mouth lining built up over the years by his father and I.

My bread fanatic husband, Michael, was very accommodating and whipped up some of his fabulous Indian flatbreads to mop up the deliciously minty juice.

There was one lonely piece of chicken left over which I managed to squirrel away for my lunch the next day. Using fingers, I gobbled it up it very unceremoniously, dipping it in the little puddle of juice that was left.

In the introduction to the recipe Ms Roden writes of the dish “It may seem ordinary, but it is quite delightful” and that seems to be a perfect description.

Print
MINTY CARROT CHICKEN
Author: Lindsey Dickson from an original by Claudia Roden
Prep time:  10 mins
Cook time:  45 mins
Total time:  55 mins
Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
  • 3 Large Onions Sliced, (I prefer red)
  • 3 Tbs Sesame or Sunflower Oil
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, crushed or finely chopped
  • 4cm piece of Fresh Ginger grated
  • 1 tsp Turmeric
  • 1 Good Quality Chicken quartered and skinned (or chicken pieces)
  • 600 Carrots Sliced lengthways and cut into 3cm lengths
  • 3 Tbs Fresh Mint chopped
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the onions until soft.
  2. Add the ginger, garlic and chillies if using, then the turmeric and stir.
  3. Add the chicken, season with salt and fry for 15 mins, turning occasionally.
  4. Add the carrots and just enough water to cover the chicken.
  5. Cook uncovered for a further 25-30 mins until the liquid has reduced.(If necessary transfer the chicken and carrots to a warming dish at the end of cooking in order to quickly reduce the remaining liquid in the pan).
  6. Add the mint, cook very briefly and serve, preferably wth Indian bread or rice.
3.5.3208

 

Filed Under: Chicken, Cookery Books, Curries, Everyday Meals, Food for Friends, Lunch, Lunches and Simple Suppers, Spectacular Mains

« GINGER, RAISIN AND WALNUT CAKE
EGG, CHICKPEA AND SPINACH CURRY »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Rate this recipe:  

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

HELLO AND WELCOME TO THE EATING TREE

Extolling the joys of great home cooking from my cottage in the East of England.

Enjoy xx

Photographs my own.

Contact me by using the form below or via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Read More…

CONTACT ME

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Subject

    Your Message

    FOLLOW ME ON

    • E-mail
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Twitter

    OLDER POSTS

    GINGER FOX CHOCOLATE CAKE

    PLUM CRUNCH CAKE

    MINTY CARROT CHICKEN

    FRITTATA

    BREAD PUDDING

    RASPBERRY RIPPLE ICE CREAM

    TARTIFLETTE

    SPRING SPINACH AND RICOTTA FILO PIE

    Recent Posts

    • Crispy Fried Chicken Strips
    • Perfect Roast Chicken, Every Time.
    • My Puglian Adventure
    • Streusel Plum Cake
    • BASIC WHITE LOAF

    Categories

    Archives

    Newsletter

    Don't forget to leave a comment otherwise I won't know that you have visited and it would be lovely to meet you!

    If you have anything food related going on in and around Suffolk that you think I should know about please let me know. xx

    Copyright Lindsey Dickson © 2022

    This site uses cookies: Find out more.