How to Make Kick-Ass Chicken Kebabs

I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't cooked much in the last couple of weeks. I was dying to get back to it: I enjoy cooking and it really helps me de-stress.

Thursday was a particularly long and busy day at work. As a reward I elected to cook some quick and easy kick-ass chicken kebabs. And they were very rewarding indeed.

I needed to share this recipe with you: I can't emphasise enough just how good they are.

For the chicken:

• 1 Chicken breast diced into sizeable chunks.
• 1.5 teaspoons of curry powder ( I used some top notch curry powder I bought in an Egyptian souq).
• 0.5 teaspoons of paprika.
• 1 crushed clove of garlic.

No chicken kebab is complete without a hefty garlic sauce - this one packs a punch!

For the garlic sauce:

• 1 clove of garlic.
• 3 cherry tomatos.
• A wedge of red onion.
• Sprinkle of dry chilli flakes.
• Juice of half a lemon.
• A dash of olive oil.
• Salt to taste. 

Mix together the chicken, curry powder, paprika and crushed garlic until the chicken is coated in the spices. I left this mixture in the fridge to marinade for about 30 minutes. 

To make the garlic sauce simply blend the ingredients together. I used the chopper from my Philips Hand Blender to blend this sauce. 

Grill, griddle or BBQ the chicken. I cooked the chicken on my griddle, a few minutes on each side. It's a great BBQ recipe. 

Serve the chicken in a lightly toasted pitta bread with a healthy covering of the garlic sauce. I ate this with a cress, tomato and red onion side salad. Delicious!

For some the punch from the garlic sauce will be too violent. If so, cool the sauce by mixing in a spoon-full of greek yogurt. Easy.  

This made enough kebabs for one but probably enough sauce for a couple.

Enjoy.

PS I can't get enough cress at the moment, every salad I make contains loads of it! 

So Good it Went Bad

I don't think I've bought any food for over a week so a quick walk to the supermarket for some essential supplies was long over due. But how does it go from being so good to so bad in a matter of an instant?

When I arrived at the check out queue my basket contained milk, raspberries, strawberries and bananas. However, when I arrived at the check out my basket contained milk, raspberries, strawberries, bananas and a large bar of Green & Blacks Butterscotch Chocolate.

I wonder just how long this particular bar will last?

For now I'll not worry about the calories and simply enjoy a few squares with a nice cup of tea. 

PS I'm all about Clipper tea bags at the minute! 

Dubai

I spent the weekend visiting my husband in Dubai. A great weekend but quite a distance to go for just three full days.

Whatever your view of the desert wonderland that is Dubai - pure heaven or absolute hell - it does offer fantastic weather and a wealth of culinary delights.

The weekend was spent, sunbathing, breaking my toe at the water park and eating a lot of food. For me there were two stand out food encounters:

1. Having landed at 2300 on Thursday I met Simon at the airport and we headed straight for a midnight feast at Aroos Damascus, a Syrian restaurant located in Deira. What a fantastic welcome back to Dubai this feast was: hummus, lamb shawarma, falafel, Arabic salad and chicken kebobs. My mouth waters at the memory.
2. For my last supper in Dubai we headed to Ravi. The restaurant, located on the colourful Satwa Road, serves Pakistani food and is rated #1 in Dubai by the lonely planet. I am certain many people who take this recommendation will have second thoughts at the sight of this rather rustic restaurant. I would urge you to take an outside table, absorb the atmosphere of the Satwa Road and order sparingly from the menu. We certainly enjoyed doing all three. The Mutton Green Masala was my personal highlight, it's must order along with the Daal. 

It's at this point I ask myself why both my culinary highlights in Dubai were feasts that cost less than approximately £5 per person. I don't believe I'm cheap it's merely that I enjoy eating in places where the food is genuine, the locals eat and (when in the middle east) somewhere that feels like I'm in the middle east.       

For anyone looking for something slightly less rustic in Dubai try Ashiana at the Sheraton Dubai Creek.

A World of Eating

I am a traveller. I love to experience the cultures, people and food of the world. I've eaten China, Australia, Italy, Kenya, Malta, the list goes on...........I just wish I could remember all of the fantastic restaurants. Here are a couple I can specifically remember.

Aroos Damascus, Deira, Dubai 

For anyone holidaying in, working in or travelling through Dubai this is a must visit restaurant. The Lonely Planet Website currently lists this as the #237 things to do in Dubai, I disagree this is #1. My husband was introduced to this restaurant by a Syrian friend while working in Dubai. Syrian food is fantastic, ensure (insist) you get a table outside to experience the atmosphere of this Arabic favourite.  Every time we visit we are greeted like family members even though sometimes there are months between visits.

Le Bistro Du Praz, Courcheval, France

I ski a lot. As such I have enjoyed and endured cheese fondu all over the Alps and this is certainly the best. For anyone looking to experience the Three Valleys I recommend staying in a Chalet in Courcheval 1300 (Le Praz)  and eating here on your hosts night off.  We stayed in the Chalet Du Praz.

Loch Bay Seafood Restaurant, Isle of Skye 

I'm embarrassed to admit I rarely holiday in my own country, however in April 2010 I was encouraged to do so by my husband. We stayed in the beautiful Kinlochewe and visited Skye for the day. As a lover of the Lonely Planet I referred to their restaurant recommendations and we headed straight for the Loch Bay Seafood Restaurant. For me sometimes its not just about the food its about the atmosphere, the surroundings, the company and the conversation. This place was about all of the above, the food was amazing. Remember to book.

Other great food experiences I've had while traveling (the specifics of which I can't remember):

• Water beetle in Nanjng.........crunchy and tasted just like garlic and ginger, it having been cooked in garlic and ginger.

• Aligator in Nanjing......salty steak, very yum.
• Peking duck in a small restaurant in a Beijing slum. Thank goodness we had a Chinese guide would never have found it otherwise. 
• A trio of steak in a Uruguayan restaurant in Amsterdam. Amazing. A trio of steak......need I say anymore. 

There is a lot of the world left to eat and explore. Any recommendations?

A Fyne Birthday Lunch

Yesterday was my mother's birthday, to celebrate we had lunch at the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar . It was a first visit for my parents and sister. 

The restaurant is roughly a 1.5 hour drive from our home town of Glasgow but well worth it - the drive is pretty gorgeous too. A former cow byre, the restaurant is situated on the glorious Loch Fyne at the small village of Cairndown and I love it's relative remoteness. It specialises in smoked salmon, oysters and mussels but also serves a number of other fish and meat dishes. 

Possibly the most wonderful thing about this restaurant is that it contains a farm shop selling fish, meat, some vegetables and a number of other delights. I have previously bought scallops, salmon and venison burgers from the restaurant all of which I barbecued with resounding success. 

On this trip I ordered the Special Mussels - Mussels Steamed with Chorizo, spicey pepporonata and spinach. It was delicious.

My parents had the Sea Bass and Mackerel, and my sister ordered the leek and potato soup. Yes, that's right all she had was the leek and potato soup: this is why she is the skinny sister. 

I love this place it's in a great setting, has a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, they serve gorgeous Scottish seafood and you can buy gorgeous Scottish seafood on the way out. It served as a Fyne birthday treat. 

Simon Demands Jerk

I was given Jamie's 30 Minute Meals as a gift and I do enjoy the book. However I, like many others, do struggle to complete the recipes in 30 minutes: perhaps because my kitchen isn't equipped with certain mod-cons like microwaves.

In the past, I have enjoyed cooking and eating the Curry Rogan Josh and the Piri Piri Chicken with the accompanying Dressed Potatoes (the potatoes are pretty tasty). Didn't have much luck with the Trapani-Style Rigatoni - not sure who was to blame for this disaster me or Jamie.

Each time I pull this particular cook book out to have a browse my husband, Simon, demands I make the Killer Jerk Chicken. I always dismiss this recipe, generally out of laziness. To me there seems to be too large a number of ingredients (particularly ingredients not already in my cupboards). However, on Tuesday Simon moved to Dubai for a year to work, so it only seemed fair that I met at least some of his demands before he left.

Firstly, allow me to apologise, this recipe doesn't appear on the web (at least that I can find). I aim only to blog about my own recipes, which I can publish, or recipes that appear elsewhere on the web.

I only made the Killer Jerk Chicken aspect of this recipe. I served with wholemeal rice and a kos lettuce and cress salad.

Deviations from the recipe: I used chicken thighs not breasts, I didn't have golden rum so used dark rum instead and I didn't add any oil to the chicken before cooking. None of these were to the detriment of the recipe and with cooking you have to be dynamic, rigidly sticking to recipes is boring and you won't learn much.

I made the Jerk Sauce in my Magimix Food Processor (Cuisine Systeme 4200 - possibly my favourite kitchen gadget). Although this recipe could be made even if you don't have a food processor: I'd substitute the spring onions for grated onion and mix the Jerk Sauce ingredients in a bowl, easy.

The Jerk Sauce was delicious. I love this combination: crispy chicken, sauce with a kick and wholesome rice and salad.

What would I do differently next time: add more chilli to the sauce (for the chilli's I had and with my taste buds, I maybe needed another half a chilli or so) and not forget that I had also planned to serve the dish with corn (I found this still boiling on the hob 50 minutes after serving, ooppppsss).

Is Food Just Fuel?

No. Not to me.

For some food is simply fuel. For others food is a comfort blanket or even a career.

For me food is a passion.