Something for you to chew on – literally. Having finished editing my latest novel, I find I have time to eat. I thought you might enjoy one of my favourite meals, oaty-coaty chicken and homemade coleslaw. It’s fairly cheap, easy, relatively quick, and very scrummy. (I should edit out those adverbs, but I’m feeling rebellious)
Coleslaw:
Finely slice and chop some cabbage. I use Sweetheart cabbage or white cabbage. It needs to be crisp, not a soft leaf.
Peal and grate a large carrot.
Finely chop about half an onion – red onions are good but any will do.
Add a good handful or two of sultanas. You can adjust all quantities to taste.
Mix the cabbage, carrots, onion, and sultanas together in a large bowl and add a good dash of lemon juice – I’m using my grandmother’s quantities here – a good dash, a small pinch, a liberal sprinkle – make it up as you go: I had to!
Then add a liberal dollop – that’s one of my measurements – of mayonnaise, a half teaspoon of French Mustard, and a teaspoonful of chopped root ginger. I buy Lazy Ginger in a jar of white vinegar, ready shredded for ease and chop it smaller. Mix it all together and stand the coleslaw aside to marinate. Yum.
That’s the coleslaw taken care of.
Now the chicken.
I use boneless chicken breast fillets, which I split down the middle lengthways and open out flat. They cook through to the middle quicker this way, and you get a larger surface for the coating.
For the ‘oaty-coating’ you need:
Oat bran – I shop at Tesco, but any supermarket should sell it in smallish packets.
Coriander leaf – I used dried – a liberal sprinkle – probably about a teaspoonful.
Tikka powder – another liberal sprinkle – probably a well-heaped teaspoonful. It depends how spicy you like your food.
A small pinch of salt.
Mix these ingredients together on a plate and coat the flattened chicken fillets in it.
Cooking: Fry the coated fillets on a medium heat until golden brown and the chicken juices run clear. Make sure the chicken is cooked through. About twenty minutes is a rough guide depending on the thickness of the fillet. I use Groundnut oil for frying as it’s one of the few cooking oils that isn’t toxic when heated. The coating soaks up quite a bit of oil at first, so you may need to add a little as it cooks, or it will burn, not brown. Turn several times.
If you feel like a real treat, and you have some oaty-coating left over, mix the coating with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, crushed nuts, soy sauce, and a good blob of marmalade – that’s about a dessert spoonful. Lightly fry this sticky mess in with the chicken until browned, about five minutes, turning occasionally. It is absolutely scrummy.
There’s nothing in this meal that’s unhealthy and it has to be most of your five a day on a plate.
The only thing left is to enjoy! I hope you love it as much as I do.
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I was curious about her choice of Turkey, given it’s poor human rights reputation, as a suitable place to bring up a family. Her experience gives the lie to that reputation:
“I moved to Oxford about thirty years ago, having flirted with the idea of living here for at least five years before that. I was born in London and lived there until my early twenties. I’d never want to go back there for more than a visit now.
