Chicken Stew

Not any old chicken stew. This is a special stew which will warm you to the core.

Ingredients

2 onions, half a finger of ginger, 1 clove of garlic, salt and pepper, 1 tablespoon of grape seed oil, 3 chicken breast fillets, fennel, turmeric and coriander (1 pinch of each), 15 baby potatoes, 1 box of cherry tomatoes, a sprig of fresh basil, 3 chopped carrots, 1 yellow pepper

Procedure

1. Chop the onions, garlic, and ginger; and combine with a teaspoon of salt and pepper
2. Heat a tablespoon of grape seed oil in a pan and the ingredients of step 1
3. Fry for five minutes, until the onions are slightly brown
4. Add 3 chicken breast fillets, sliced into small pieces
5. Brown the chicken with the onions, ginger and oil in your pan
6. Add the fennel seeds, turmeric, and coriander
7. When the chicken is browned, add the baby potatoes cut into small pieces
8. Add a box of cherry tomatoes
9. Then add your basil finely chopped and the chopped carrots and the yellow pepper
10. Now saute the mixture for 5 minutes
11. Add a small carton of free range chicken broth
12. Bring the stew to the boil, then turn the heat down and let the stew simmer for 1.5 hours.

Finally, serve the stew with saffron rice.

Mast va khayar

'Mast-va-khayar' is a side dish which you serve with a variety of foods or with nan bread as a simple, healthy, tasty light meal.

You will need: plain yogurt, 500 grams, half an English cucumber (finely chopped), half a small onion (finely chopped), 2 teaspoons of fresh mint, salt and pepper to taste.

Mast-va-khayar preparation is simple. Start with your yogurt at room temperature and then stir the yogurt vigorously for 2 minutes to make it as liquid as possible. Add the other ingredients and continue to mix by stirring. Once you have finished the amalgamation, chill the Mast-va-khayar in the refrigerator for an hour or two prior to serving. This will make the dish refreshing and maximize the flavor of the Mast-va-khayar.

Tah-chin

This recipe is the famous Persian dish, 'Tah-chin'. Rice, yogurt, saffron, chicken and lots of love.

You will need: Basmati rice (3 cups), Salt (1 teaspoon), Manola oil (three tablespoons), Chicken breast filleted (4 pieces), 1 Chopped Onion, Plain Yogurt (one cup), Saffron (4 pinches, half a teaspoon), one egg yolk.

Wash the rice carefully. To do this you run cold water into the pan with the rice and slosh it about (slosh being the technical term), then pour away the water (and the starch and dirt), and refill the pan with cold water. Repeat this process 10 times - by so doing you will greatly improve the quality of your rice and therefore your Tah-chin. Then place the rice, salt and the 5 cups of water into a pan to cook the rice. Bring the water to a boil, then let the rice simmer for 10 minutes on the stove.

Meanwhile, cut up the chicken breast (after a little pounding, again pounding is the technical term) into bite sized chunks and fry them with the onion in a pan. A little salt and pepper should be added to the chicken. Let the chicken simmer with some water in the pan for about half an hour.

Before the rice boils dry - and before it is fully cooked - remove it from the heat. Mix the yogurt, egg yolk and saffron and combine this with the cooked chicken. Then take a Pyrex dish and prepare this by coating it with oil, and adding a layer of rice. On top of the rice layer, place a layer of chicken and yogurt mixture and then layer on more rice and oil. Continue to layer the rice and chicken yogurt mixture until you have filled the Pyrex dish.

Then place the rice and chicken Tah-chin mixture in pre-heated (400 degrees Fahrenheit) oven to cook. The baking takes 45 minutes - but keep an eye on the color of the rice at the bottom of the dish - the objective is to cease cooking when you have a golden brown tah-dig layer you do not want to burn the rice.

When the baking is finished turn the dish over on a plate - and you will have a beautiful Tah-chin which you serve in slices.