Bean and chicken casserole

This warming casserole is adapted from a Domini Kemp recipe. Her’s is vegetarian, mine is not.

Bean and chicken casserole

Once everything was in the pot, I left it simmering for about an hour, but that was just because I was doing other things and wasn’t in a rush to get to the table. You will happily feed four people with this.

a tablespoon of olive oil

one red onion

as much garlic as you like

a good knob of ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

some chilli, again, what you like and how hot you want your dinner

2 chicken breasts

a tin of tomatoes

a couple of stock cubes

1 tin cannellini beans (I found these in the cupboard, possibly bought in the GB at Merode. Use whatever you can find in the local shop)

1 tin chick peas

a persevered lemon

coriander and spring onions

I served this with some cous cous mixed with coriander and spring onions, and Greek yogurt.

I just discovered I left out a couple of the ingredients, such as the curry powder and the orange stated in the original recipe. A lesson in re-reading through the recipe at the end if ever I heard one! Nonetheless, it was really good.

Heat a little oil in a pot and sweat the chopped onions. I grated the ginger and crushed the garlic and added both to the onions for a few minutes to cook for another couple of minutes. Add the spices and cook all of this for about five minutes, making sure it doesn’t burn.

Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and toss it into the onion spice mixture to colour the outside. Pour in a tin of tomatoes and about half a tin of water. I added the chopped up preserved lemon at this stage and the stock cubes together with a little salt and pepper.

Rinse all the beans under cold water, drain and set aside. Leave the tomato mixture to cook and simmer gently for as long as you have (make sure the chicken is cooked through so at least 20 minutes. I left it bubbling gently for about an hour), before adding the beans. Cook for about 10 minutes and check the seasoning. You can sharpen up the flavours with some lemon juice and Tabasco sauce. 

For St Patrick's Day... Coddle

This is a dish that divides people; you either love it or hate it. Thankfully, everyone chez nous loves it, so in honour of St. Patrick’s day today I made it this during the week.

It is a very cheap and satisfying, warming dish. It’s also very simple to make.

You will need:

3-4 sausages per person (I only ever have used the ordinary, plain pork ones, no fancy ‘flavoured’ sausages for this dinner)

one smallish onion per person

A large potato per person

After experimenting with several types of spud, I find the more solid ‘frites’ style potatoes are wrong for this dish. I can't remember the best type, but once I do I'll post it here. I've tried lots of sorts of sausages from various places in Belgium - supermarkets, local butchers etc, but the best I've found are the breakfast sausages from Jack O'Sheas butchers. Husband encourages me to experiment with the ingredients, but no. Coddle is a traditional Dublin dish, from the poorest parts of the city, so none of your fancy garlic or parsley. 

You will need a pot or casserole dish with a lid.

Put the whole sausages into the casserole and cover with water. Over a medium heat, bring them to the boil. While your sausages are cooking, peel and chop the onions, and peel and slice the potatoes to about half a centimetre thick. Once at boiling point, take the sausages off the heat and discard up any foam.

The boiled sausages with a first layer of onions

Sprinkle a layer of the onions onto the sausages, followed by a layer of potatoes. Keep doing this till you use all the onions and potatoes. Add enough water to just cover the last layer of potatoes and finish with a generous layer of salt and pepper.

Put the lid on and pop the pot back onto the heat, turning it right down to low. Cook for about an hour or an hour and a half, until the potatoes are tender. Coddle is a very 'pale' dish - it has little colour - so don't worry if it looks anemic. 

Serve in bowls, with pints of milk (if you can get any decent tasting milk in Belgium!) or pints of Guinness.

A steaming bowl of coddle. And yes, I know what the sausage looks like...