Spicy Chapatti Flour Chicken Goujons with Sweet Potato Pakora in an Indian Red Pepper Salsa

It was a scary weekend for several reasons; on Saturday I endured a full seven hours of relentless children’s games in the kids chain of Ralph Lauren on New Bond Street, I hasten to add that I am gainfully employed by a legitimate company to do so and wasn’t simply hanging around. Usually the parties only last two hours and leave you bordering delirium through onset of fatigue, so you can imagine that keeping a hoard of six year olds on a sugar rush engaged and enthused from midday to soirée was somewhat draining. I left at 7pm half the man I was earlier on in the day, my head battered and bruised from a game of “catch the big smelly rat” (me) that turned violent, my wrist nigh on fractured having executed an imperfect “worm”, and my face painted like an evil skeleton for the second time that day having lost the first coat in a round of unsuccessful apple bobbing. I needed a drink.

Picking up a bottle of Vodka en route to a friends I became hot and flustered, this meant disrobing on the tube to a point of public acceptability whilst preventing my face paint from sweating off, I managed this with some dignity and made it to my destination visage intact. That particular bit wasn’t scary, just a contextual precursor as to the geography of the developing yarn, what happened next though was frankly spine chilling. My girlfriend came over to talk to me as I was sifting through music on itunes and completely by accident knocked a glass of the host’s lethal and sticky “Booger” punch all over the host’s laptop, and we’re not talking a £300 colourful little Dell, oh no, it was a brand spanking new 17” Macbook Pro specced up to the nines worth in excess of £2000. It turned itself off. Gulp.

I did some online trouble shooting and learnt that spillages are not covered by the Apple warranty, and not only that but there is no way you can feign ignorance or bend the truth of circumstance, as of 2008 Macpro laptops are all fitted with liquid strips below the keyboard that change colour as soon as they come into contact with said substances. Financially this could quite possibly be disaster falling halfway between Greece and Enron, fingers crossed.

The 305^th day of the Gregorian calendar chilled the marrow in my bones further still, as I embarked on a journey to darkest Gloucestershire to conduct another two hour stint of juvenile revelry at the back end of beyond. The party was actually a huge success, the bulk of which I owe to my valiant cohort Tamara and her un-quashable enthusiasm. It was the following trip to Cirencester’s Royal Agricultural College to visit my fresher little sister (see lemon posset and pana cotta) that really sealed the weekends infamy with a big, sloppy, sambuca flavoured kiss. Tunnel vision.

You may fail to see where I am going with this, and to be quite honest so am I, my only logic then is to say that I have been hanging out of my arse all day and desperately needed some comfort food after the two and a half hour journey home. This is what conspired.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

For the chicken:

2 chicken breasts, cut into strips lengthways

1 bowl breadcrumbs

6 heaped tablespoons of chapatti flour

Semi skimmed milk

3 tspns hot chilli powder

Salt and pepper

1 litre of rapeseed oil for deep frying

For the red pepper salsa:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon chilli oil

1 large red pepper, chopped

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tomatoes, chopped

2cm root ginger, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons of tomato purée

6 curry leaves

1 tspn ground mace

3 tspns medium chilli powder

1 litre of water

For the sweet potato pakora:

1 sweet potato, peeled and grated

1 flat tablespoon of corn flour

1 flat tablespoon of plain flour

3 tspns garam masala powder

A slug of semi skimmed milk

Enough rapeseed oil for shallow frying

Chopped spring onions and cherry tomatoes for garnishing

Handful freshly chopped coriander leaves

Method:

1. Start with the red pepper salsa – heat the olive and chilli oil in a pan and add the onion, pepper and tomato and fry for 5 minutes until softened but not browned. Add the garlic, ginger and tomato purée and stir through for a couple of minutes. Now add the mace, chilli powder and curry leaves, along with the water. Simmer uncovered for 15 – 20 minutes over a low/medium heat, stirring occasionally. Take it off the heat and blend it into a smooth salsa, season to taste and keep warm.

2. Whilst the salsa is simmering mix the grated sweet potato in a bowl with the corn flour, plain flour, garam masala powder, and enough milk to make the mixture sloppy but NOT gooey like dough. Do this by adding a little bit at first and then add more, if the mixture is too thick it will turn out like bread and if it’s too thin it wont hold. Heat 2cm of rapeseed oil in a thick bottomed frying pan till it is very hot (test with a breadcrumb), then add small patties of the mix carefully to the pan. They may feel like they’ll fall apart in your hands but as soon as they hit the oil they will hold. Fry and turn until crispy and brown, remove and drain on kitchen towel, keep warm.

3. Heat 1 litre of rapeseed oil in a deep saucepan until very hot. Whilst the oil heats up mix the flour in a bowl with enough milk to give it the consistency of double cream, then add the chilli powder and mix through. Bring the batter mix and the breadcrumbs up to the cooker and set up a production line, we’re going Henry Ford. Batter – Breadcrumbs – Oil – Draining Plate. Dunk the chicken strips in the batter, coat with breadcrumbs, carefully drop into the oil and deep fry for a few minutes until golden brown and crispy, remove and drain on the plate. When you are done take the oil off the heat, put a lid on it and leave it cool overnight, you can then pick out any bits and return it to the bottle to re-use a couple of times.

4. Mix the salsa in a bowl with the pakora and the chopped coriander and plate up, place the spicy chicken goujons on top and drop some chopped spring onions and cherry tomatoes over the top. Warm and filling.