Coronation chicken

With the Jubilee weekend  getting closer I thought it was time I shared my Coronation chicken recipe. The recipe was invented by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume for the Queen's coronation in 1953. I've made a few adjustments to the original recipe to bring it a bit more up to date.

Ingredients (serves 6)

500g free range chicken breast

1 onion finely chopped

1/2 tbsp cider vinegar

2 tbsp mango chutney

Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

100ml mayonnaise

100ml crème fraiche or Greek yoghurt

60g toasted flaked almonds

2 tbsp chopped parsley

2 tbsp chopped coriander

1 tbsp mild curry powder

1 tbsp tomato puree

1 chicken stock cube

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Method

Bring a pan of water to the boil with the chicken stock cube, add the chicken breasts. Reduce to simmer and cook for around 8 minutes. When cooked remove from the water and set aside to cool. In a bowl mix together the rest of the ingredients, slice the chicken when cool and add to the mixture and season. If possible leave the mixture over night as the flavours will improve. Serve with a garnish of watercress.

Alternatively serve it rolls garnished with pomegranate seeds. Have a great Jubilee weekend!

Canapes

Mozzarella with Chorizo, basil and olive 

As the Wiltshire Chef I get asked to cater for many functions/dinner parties and a lot of people like to start things off with a few canapes. I recently catered for a wedding at the Inner Temple in London for 160 people where instead of a starter they wanted canapes. The 10 canapes they chose looked very impressive as the waiters and waitresses circled the 'Parliament room.' The canape that was the most well received was my chicken liver and port parfait (see below).

                                                                     

So if you're thinking of having a fine dining evening at your own home and would like to get your guests appetites going with an assortment of canapes then please get in contact at www.thewiltshirechef.com

You could chose from the list on the website or we could have a consultation and design a more bespoke menu. I hope to be cooking for you in the near future!

Visit our full website for more canapé ideas

Smoked salmon and chive cream cheese roulade

Non food related - Space photography

For a long time now I have had a keen interest in photography, normally I like to shoot landscapes, my family and food. Recently I have turned my camera to the stars with mixed results. The image you see above is the culmination of an evening figuring out the best settings on my camera and a long conversation with my brother Simon (who is a graphic designer) over the phone. I wanted to create the effect of the moon coming out of the darkness then to become very bright, then back into the darkness.The easiest way to do this was to change the shutter speed and 'f' setting on my camera (Nikon D70). Eventually I figured out the settings I was happiest with, set the camera up on the tripod and started with the moon in the top left of the frame. I took a picture every 6 minutes until the moon moved out of view. After getting 6 pictures I was happy with it was time to edit them and get them looking the same. Then onto photo shop, which I thought would be self explanatory and relatively easy to use, not so much! Luckily my brother came to the rescue with his knowledge of photo shop. It wasn't easy being directed on the phone but after an hour or so we got there! Sadly when there was a chance to take pictures of the moon at it's closest to earth the great British weather as usual had other plans. Fortunately there always seems to be some sort of celestial event on a weekly basis, so fingers crossed. My next project is to try and capture the International Space Station as it tracks across our skies, watch this space (no pun intended)!  

click to visit The Wiltshire Chef website

Baked Alaska with an industrial blowtorch

A few years ago, as a single guy, I discovered that one the best and easiest crowd pleasers is to produce Baked Alaska at the end of a meal, or a just a surprise addition to few mates getting together for a few drinks. The wow factor is huge, and people who are resolute in 'no dessert for me' quickly change their minds.

The recipe is pretty simple too;

Make a simple sponge
Whisk egg whites in a very clean bowl until it starts turning white, then add sugar
Continue to which until peaks start to form or until you can turn the bowl upside down without the contents falling out (!)
Spoon a generous dollop of vanilla ice cream onto the sponge, cover completely with the egg-white mixture
Blow torch gently until it starts to brown, and serve!

Serve, and enjoy!