Parsee Red Curry

This curry is adapted from the "Parsee Red Chicken Curry" recipe from 50 Great Curries Of India by Camellia Panjabi, for making in the Instant Pot. I have added vegetables and chickpeas to it to fill it out for use as a bulk cooking recipe for portioning out and freezing.

Quick Chicken Liver Pate

Every fortnight I receive a pack of organic chicken carcasses with my vegbox order. These are what is left over after a chicken has had breasts, thighs, drumsticks and wings cut off - namely the main body, neck and giblets (internal organs). The pack generally contains the remains of two butchered chickens.

I separate out the livers from the giblets, and throw everything else into a roasting tin, cover with foil and pop in the oven to roast, and then into the pressure cooker to make Chicken Stock.

The livers, I make into pate.

Chicken Stock in the Pressure Cooker

After the Sunday roast chicken has been eaten, and the last of the meat has been pulled from the bones and lies boxed in the fridge, there is still one last meal to be squeezed from the carcass. It is time to make stock for soup.

Into the pressure cooker goes all that remains: skin, bones and cartilage. Add a quartered onion and a sliced carrot. A couple of stalks and seedy parts from green peppers. Four peppercorns, a good pinch of celery seed, a bay leaf or two.

Now pour in a couple of litres of water - enough to cover it all. Bring to the boil. Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Let it hiss to itself over a low flame for an hour or so to leach the gelatinous proteins and minerals from the bones, to melt away the cartilaginous joint capsules into the water, to extract all the flavour possible from the last of the chicken.

When the hour is up, turn off the heat and let it stand and cool. When the pressure has released, strain through a sieve into a large bowl. Discard the solid remains, and put your stock into the fridge to chill. By the morning it will have jelled, ready to be made into soup.

Bento Fillers - Tea Eggs, Miso Peppers and Chicken Karaage

We went to J-Con today, my daughter in cosplay wearing an outfit I made over the last couple of weeks out of an old school shirt and an old sheet.

Seeing as it is a Japanese-themed convention, I packed bento lunches. Homemade sushi - inari zushi and cucumber rolls. Vegetable gyoza bought frozen from Hoo Hing. Tea Eggs. Chicken Karaage. Miso Peppers.

Here are the recipes for the last three, all of which are pretty easy bento fillers that will keep in the fridge for a couple of days after making.

Garlic, Lemon and Rosemary Chicken

I catered for a family get-together this weekend. This marinade on roast chicken drumsticks worked well on the buffet. The rosemary was a last-minute flash of inspiration.

Baked Chicken Wings and Potatoes

Oh look, another throw-it-all-in-the-oven after work meal! I do cook stuff other than bakes on week day nights sometimes, honest!

The packet of chicken wings had been bought with a view to making something else that never happened and was lurking in the freezer needing using up, so I decided to turn them into an easy evening meal. This would also work with chicken thighs or drumsticks.

Achaari Murg

To eat with the raita, an easy chicken curry.