Mediterranean Chicken Stew

I believe as an adult you are greatly responsible for your children’s likes and dislikes when it comes to food. We never ate mushrooms in our house because my parents didn’t like it, what a shame.

I was sixteen when I ate mushrooms for the first time. I bought a punnet at the grocery store, got home fried them carefully in a pan with butter and slap them on a piece of toast, every bite tasted liked heaven.

 Now I’m addicted to mushrooms and incorporate them in every recipe if I could, just like I did with this Mediterranean Chicken Stew.

 

 Ingredients

Serves 4

 250 ml cooked lentils

5 ml olive oil

4 Chicken breasts

1 Onion diced

1 Garlic gloved

1 Green chilli chopped

1 aubergine

1 Sweet potato

1 cup butternut cubed

1/2 punnet of mushrooms quartered

250 ml Chicken stock

10 ml Soya sauce

15 ml Balsamic vinegar

freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

2 large potatoes quartered

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the chicken on both sides, remove from pan and fry the onions, garlic, chilli and mushrooms in the same pan. Add the aubergine and fry for another minute. Add the Balsamic vinegar and soya sauce to the mixture.

Add the Chicken, sweet potato, potato and butternut and the 250 ml stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for +- 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

Add the lentils and salt and pepper to taste. Gently mash some of the veggies with lentils to form a thicker sauce.

Season with Salt and pepper.

Tips

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Because of the potatoes and sweet potatoes you can serve this dish as a complete meal.

Serve with a fresh garden salad.

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Slow cooked Tomato stew

It is summer in South Africa, the last few days however we have been experiencing some wet and cold weather conditions on the Highveld. It is the kind of weather that reminds you of winter,  hot soups and creamy stews, my favorite time of the year!

This lovely Tomato stew (Tamatie Bredie in Afrikaans) is a family favourite that I love to serve with fresh home-baked bread.  There is nothing quite as nice as to sweep your plate clean with a slice of bread  sucking up all the lovely juices.

Make sure you have at least an hour and half on hand for this dish as it needs to cook slowly at a low temperature.

Ingredients

20 ml olive oil

1 – 2 Onions (sliced)

 2.5 ml Jeera ( Cummin seeds)

2,5 ml Garam Masala spice

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

2 garlic gloves (peeled and crushed)

2.5 ml ground pepper corns

2.5 ml salt

 500 g beef chuck ( roughly cubed)

2 – 3 carrots (peeled and sliced into rings)

4-5 potatoes (peeled and quartered)

5 ml dried Thyme

1 bay leave

4 -5 tomatoes (finely chopped)

50 g tomato puree

15 ml sugar

60 ml chutney (strong)

10 ml Worcestershire sauce

Use a large pot, heat up and add olive oil. Braise the onions together with the Jeera and masala for a few minutes until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the ginger, garlic, salt and pepper and  the beef and braise for a few minutes untill the meat is sealed.  Add the Thyme, bay leaves, carrots and potatoes and full the pot with just enough water to cover the ingredients, reduce the heat and let it cook with the lid on until the potatoes are soft. Remove the potatoes and keep separate. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar, chutney and Worcestershire sauce  to the meat and cook on a slow heat with the lid on for +- 45 minutes untill the sauce has thickened naturally. Stir every 10 minutes and ensure that there is enough cooking juices  by adding water or beef stock to the meat should it cook dry. Before serving add the potatoes and salt and pepper to taste and let the stew rest for 5 minutes with the lid on.

Serve with freshly baked bread.

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