Some Saturdays are made for dinner parties! For a day, forget that uni deadlines and work exist and spend the day strolling about the farmers' market, gathering all ingredients you need to make a special feast for your 'bestest' friends. For me, there is hardly anything as rewarding as spending the day making food for appreciated people and harvest the rewarding "mmmmhhhs" at the dinner table. Here's how to impress your friends' taste buds and please their need for a visually aesthetic feast. This dinner is composed of a refreshing "Raita" with a green chilli and lemon salsa, jewelled rice and a one-pot oven-baked lemon chicken with dates and caramelised shallots (enough to easily feed 4-6 people). You can prep the Raita and the "jewels" for the rice in the morning, and time the chicken and rice to be fresh from the oven when served.
Raita & Lemon-Chilli Salsa:
Raita
300g Greek Yoghurt
2 Cucumbers
300g Cherry Tomatoes
1/2 Onion
2 tsp Cumin Seeds, roasted and ground
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
5 twigs Fresh Mint
Lemon-Chilli Salsa
3 small Salt-Lemons, deseeded (Albert Heijn has them, otherwise: Turkish supermarkets)
3 Green Chillis, deseeded
3 large Garlic Cloves
2 1/2 tbsp Olive Oil
Method
In a small mixer, blend all ingredients for the lemon-chilli salsa and process it into a coarse paste. Place in the fridge.
In a large bowl, combine the yoghurt with the lemon juice and 1 1/2 teaspoons roasted and ground cumin seeds. Cut the cucumber and tomatoes into bite sized pieces and finely chop the onion. Carefully stir in with the yoghurt. Roughly chop the mint and add it to the Raita. Cover the Raita and place in the fridge. (You will still have some cumin seeds left which you can use as decoration before serving).
Jewelled Rice
Olive-Pomegranate Salsa
60g green Olives, depitted and thin sliced
50g Walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 Pomegranate
3 tbsp Olive Oil
Rice
400g Basmati Rice
50g melted Butter
50g fresh Mint
150g Feta
Black Pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 230°C
ln a medium sized bowl, mix the olives and walnuts. Then start deseeding the pomegranate: To do so without making a total mess, fill a big bowl with water, slice a cross into the top of the pomegranate, hold it underwater and carefully pull it apart. Now literally 'stroke' the seeds out of pomegranate skin. Tadaa. Add the pomegranate seeds and olive oil to the olives and walnuts, and set aside.
(You want to do this step when the chicken has been in the oven for the first 25 minutes, see steps for the chicken) Pour the rice into a deep oven dish, add a lot of black pepper and drizzle the melted butter over it. Pour 800ml of boiling water over the rice and lay the whole mint twigs on top. Cover the oven dish with aluminium foil and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. This is an idiot proof way of making rice: I cannot make rice in a cooking pot but this oven method works, I promise.
Once the rice has finished cooking it should be really fluffy. Remove the mint leaves from the twigs - sprinkle the leaves over the rice and get rid of the twigs. Crumble the feta cheese over the rice before adding the olive salsa and serve.
Lemon-Date Chicken
4 Chicken Thighs or Breasts with Skin
Salt & Pepper
4 tbsp Olive Oil
2 Lemons, thinly sliced
6 Medjool Dates, depitted and halved
6 Shallots, peeled and halved
4 twigs fresh Thyme
2 tsp ground Urfa or Isot pepper, alternatively red chilli flakes
Method
Heat the oven to 220°C
Rinse the chicken under cold water, pat it try with kitchen paper, and thoroughly rub it with salt and pepper from all sides. Heat 2 generous tablespoons of olive oil in a large (oven-proof) pan on medium high heat and place the chicken skin side down into the pan, pressing it down lightly so that it touches the pan as much as possible. Fry the chicken for 5-8 minutes without moving it!
Add the thinly sliced lemons and shallots. Make sure they are in direct contact with the pan and fry them for 2 minutes. Then add the dates, thyme and 250ml of water. Sprinkle the top side of the chicken with the urfot/isot pepper, place a lid on the pan, and bake the whole thing in the oven for 25 minutes.
Remove the lid from the pan and sprinkle 2 more tablespoons of olive oil over the chicken. Return the pan to the oven (without the lid) for another 25 minutes (this is also the step during which you want to place the rice in the oven). After the 25 minutes, the chicken should have a golden colour. Leave it to rest for another 10 minutes in the (turned-off) oven before serving.
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