Minty Carrot Chicken from Claudia Roden.

This dish, from Claudia Roden, from her 1996 "Book of Jewish Food".
Here, the last-minute stirring-in of fresh mint takes a combination of ordinary ingredients to someplace special.
The dish is loaded with more savory turmeric- and ginger-tinged vegetables than with meat.

For fast cooking, boneless and skinless chicken is the way to go; when you have time to let the ingredients cook longer in the pot, use bone-in chicken, and you'll be rewarded with more flavor.
Serve with rice or warm naan.
It's delicious!


Ingredients
3 tablespoons sunflower oil
7 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs (1 kg total)
2 large white onions (I prefer red!)
4 carrots (sliced lengthways and cut into 3cm lengths)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric ( I have 1 tablespoons)
4 cm piece of Fresh Ginger grated
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed or finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon Dried Chilli Flakes
Kosher salt
Water - enough to cover chicken
Leaves from 4 to 6 stems fresh mint

Method
- heat the oil in a in a large saute pan or deep-sided skillet until it is very hot, and just starts smoking
- make sure the chicken is dry; pat it with paper towel if needed, season lightly all over with salt.
- lay the seasoned chicken down in the pan in a single layer.
- You should hear loud sizzeling, if you don’t - the pan is not hot enough.
- remove the chicken and let the pan to get hotter
Don’t flip the chicken for at least 3 minutes.
It needs time for that sear to develop and if you flip the chicken, or even shake it around the pan, you lessen the amount of heat – which at best means you have to wait longer to get a sear, or at worse you’ll never get it at all
After 3 – 4 minutes on high heat, peak at the underside of the chicken.
If it’s golden brown, flip it, and sear the other side with the same technique until the chicken is lightly browned on both sides (It will not be cooked through).
Remove from the pan and set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium-high.
Add the onion to the pan and fry until soft.
Add the ginger, garlic and chillies if using, then the turmeric and stir.
Add the chicken to the pan.
Add the carrots and just enough water to cover the chicken.
Cook uncovered for a further 25-30 mins until the liquid has reduced.
If necessary, transfer the chicken and carrots to a warming dish at the end of cooking in order to quickly reduce the remaining liquid in the pan.
The chicken should be cooked through, the carrots should be tender and the liquid in the pan should have reduced a bit.
Add the mint, cook very briefly.
Turn off the heat and serve, preferably with Indian bread or rice.

Claudia Roden.

Claudia Roden: interview | Life and style | The Observer: "Claudia Roden: 'Spain's regional dishes are memories, and people want to hold on to them'"

For many years, Claudia Roden resisted Spain with all her might. "Yes," she says, with a sheepish smile. "First of all, I wouldn't go because of Franco. Then, I will be honest, it was the tourist thing." It was only when her American editor asked her to write about the food of the country – a suggestion this editor cannily followed by saying she would ask a certain other cookery writer were Roden to turn her down – that she finally gave in. Ever since, it has been love all the way. Her capacious new book, The Food of Spain, took five years to complete, and every day was replete with discovery. "What is exciting for me is that Spain hasn't lost its regional dishes," she says. "Until the 1950s, 80% of the population lived in the country. So there are memories, and people want to hold on to them. The Catalan institute of gastronomy sent me its entire archive. There were 900 recipes, and that's only one region."

The Food of Spain
by Claudia Roden

German plum cake.

Here's the original Claudia Roden recipe for you.


German Plum Cake (Swetschkuchen)
Ingredients  
125g caster sugar 
175g self raising flour 
75g cold unsalted butter 
1 small egg, lightly beaten 
1 tbs cognac 
750g plums, pitted and cut in half 
Icing sugar 

Method
Mix half the sugar with the flour. Cut the cold butter into pieces and rub into the flour and sugar mix. Mix in the beaten egg (you may not need to use all the egg) and the cognac and work very briefly with your hand - just enough to mix it together - adding a little flour if it's too sticky. Take lumps of pastry and press into a 25cm/10 inch baking tray or tart pan. 

Arrange the fruit, tightly packed, cut side up on top of the pastry and sprinkle the remaining sugar on the plums. Bake in a preheated 375°F/190°C oven for 50 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the plums are very soft. The sugar draws out the plum juices, which run into the pastry and makes it rise up between the plums so that these are embedded in the light pastry. Serve hot or cold sprinkled with icing sugar.

Here!