From Spice by Christine Manfield page 155
Despite the apparent complexity, at least from the first look, this is actually quite simple and easy to prepare. Think of it as three things – chicken with salad and dressing, though not like anything you’ve tasted in that vein before.
If you’ve seen my recipe for pizza sauce you’ll know I’m a fan of sumac and that’s what made me pick this recipe early on.
Modifications
Because I don’t (yet) own a BBQ I used our grill plate on the stove to cook the chicken. I’m sure it missed out on some of that distinctive BBQ flavour because of it but none-the-less it was still great.
The sumac really did give the dish a bit of a tang which was well welcomed.
Also as this was essentially a carb free dish and I’m a bit of a carb fan we added roast pumpkin as a side dish. The sweetness of the pumpkin went very well against the dish and seemed to match with the tahini dressing.
Other Thoughts
The dominant flavour in the dish is definitely the tahini in the dressing. We originally thought that the addition of some fetta cheese would go well but afterwards it seemed that the mix of the spice on the chicken and the flavour of the dressing was more than enough. Any cheese would get lost in the mix of flavour.
When I made the tahini dressing by the time I had finished adding the rest of the oil the dressing had split. Not sure if I had done it wrong or not so rather than starting again I hit it with a stick blender and everything came together again. In fact the dressing stayed that way over-night as well (or at least until I had finished mopping it up later that night with a piece of bread over a glass of wine!)
Next time I make it I will turn down the level of tahini to tone down some of the nutty flavour and see how everything works together. We loved the strength of the tahini but it might be a bit too much if you're cooking for friends who are newcomers to that middle-eastern style of flavour.
Happy cooking!
No comments:
Post a Comment