Do not get me wrong: I am not remotely Indian, and never went to India. So the name Chicken Curry might be partly usurped, for that I plead guilty. Now, if you are not a fundamentalist, you might want to have a look at the recipe: it is a easy and (rather) fast way to prepare and exotic and tasty meal of chicken

Ingredients for 4 persons:

For the Curry:

• 4 chicken breast filet (make it five if they are small)
• 2 to 3 table spoon curry
• 2 onions
• Salt, pepper and even chili to taste
• 1 or 2 coriander stalks and leaves to taste
• 1 can of coconut milk
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the rice:

• Basmati rice for 4 (sorry I can’t give you the exact weight… I live in a big rice-eating family :p )
• One stick of cinnamon
• 4 cloves
• 2 dried cayenne chilis
• Salt

Preparation:

Peel, slice and fry the onion. Slice the chicken filets in small chunks. Once the onions are golden brown, add the curry and chicken and mix it together. Let the chicken fry a little until it is nicely white outside (or rather yellow because of the curry. But you got what i mean: the outside of the chicken must be cooked). Then add the coconut milk until it covers the chicken. Add salt, pepper, coriander and eventually chili. That’s is, reduce heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes!

On to the rice now: in a saucepan, let the cinnamon stick, the dessicated chilies and the clove infused in salty water which you will bring to the boil. Once boiling, transfer into another saucepan in which you will have the basmati rice for 4. Add water until it covers the rice at roughly 1.5 the size of rice (basically, if you have 1 cm in your pan, add 1,5 cm water ) Cook until the rice absorbs all the infused water. If you find the rice not be cooked, add a little more infused water.

It is your choice to present the rice with or without the cloves and chilies in it. You can also place a few coriander leaves on top of the plate for decoration. A piece of advice: do the spicing to your own taste. Some people like it strong, some like it milder. Some like cloves, some don’t…

Serve with naan bread. And since this recipe is all about convenience, I use ready made naans Here you go: chicken curry in 30 minutes!

This is a root with character! If it is well know in Asia and in some parts of the US, it is not really the case in Europe. In France, it is sometimes even difficult to find some. I must confess right now that I am partial to this vegetable. It reminds me of my childhood, the few times we got back to my mother’s native island (a former French colony near Madagascar and Mauritius). We would eat what they call “gateau patate” (potato gateau).

Today, it is the veggie of choice for sweet and sour meals, and it’s uses are as multiple as those of the common potato: mash, crisps, steamed, even in pies, cakes…

For the more curious, the sweet potato is the root of Ipomoea batatas, and is also called a yam in the US, even though it is not a yam. The species actually originates in tropical parts of America, but is largely cultivated in Asia.

My personal experience tells me that there are two types of sweet potatoes. Some are orange and some yellow. From the varieties we get in France, it is mostly the South African ones that are orange. If it is very nice to see in a mash for instance, it is less appealing in a gateau, where I like the yellow ones better. If you don’t know what to do with your sweet potatoes, just boiled them and mash them. You can then freeze them and use it later, in a cake or a pie for instance, or just as a mash, and then you can stir a little spices and coconut milk in it… Yummy!

And if you like jazzy music and sweet potatoes, check out the song Sweet Potato by Australian artist Sia here

Panna Cotta is a really popular dessert. How could it not be? Easy to make, delicious to eat, and it allows for a wide variety of variations to be tested and tasted. So here is my own take on the classic: the Panna Cotta Irish Coffe Style. If you are not a New Yorker, you may wonder how on earth will I justify putting Ireland and Italy so close to each other. Here is how it happened. I had the basic recipe for Panna Cotta, and wanted to add coffee to it. So I though about adding whiskey as a reminder of Irish Coffee. Not in the Panna Cotta of course… hence the sauce! Now on to the recipe:

Ingredients for 4:

For the Panna Cotta:

• 50 cl of double cream (that’s Heavy whipping cream for you Americans )
• 10 cl of milk
• 4 sheets of gelatin (might come from porcine origin)
• Strong liquid coffee according to your taste (no coffer powder or beans. Make your percolator work)

For the sauce:

• 200g brown sugar
• a bit of water
• 20 cl of whipping cream
• a drizzle, a dash or a splash of whiskey, according to your taste

Preparation:

You need to make the panna cotta 6 hours before serving. To do so, let the gelatin sheets soften in a bowl of cold water. Then put the cream, the milk and the coffee in a pan and heat it without letting it boil (seriously don’t! It happened to me and it is a pain to clean :p ). When the liquid reaches the boiling stage, take off the stove. Take the gelatin off the water and press it dry. Add it to the warm liquid and stir it until the gelatin has completely melted. Put the mixture in bowls, glasses or whatever. Now, in the fridge for 6 h.

The sauce is best prepared roughly 2h before serving, it allows you to refrigerate it for a better taste. So: put the brown sugar into a pan with a bit of water and let it caramelize without taking your eyes off of it! When the caramel is done, add the whiskey carefully (it provokes a foam reaction with the caramel, be careful not to overflow you pan). Take off the fire, stir the liquid cream in, put in a bowl. Store in the fridge for at least one hour.

To serve: flip the panna cotta molds into plates. To help it set nicely, you can use a knife blade around the panna cotta to separate it from the mold. Add the sauce on top of it and around it. Decorate with a physalis fruit (groundcherry) or coffe beans, and serve