Cajun Chicken traybake

We saw this recipe in Waitrose as part of the suggested meals during January.  It's taken us until February, but we've made it!

The ingredients we used were -
400g chicken thighs, skinned
1 red onion, cut into chunks
3 carrots, halved and cut into thick slices
500g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
25g walnut pieces, roughly chopped (these can be omitted)
1 tbsp Cajun seasoning
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp runny honey

Having prepared the vegetables and chicken, they were placed in a roasting tin.

In a jug, we mixed the Cajun seasoning, oil and honey together and seasoned with freshly ground black pepper.





The seasoning mix was then drizzled over the chicken and vegetables.

Placing the tin in a pre-heated oven (180ºC fan) the dish was roasted for 30 minutes when we checked the chicken was cooked through (by inserting a fork and seeing if the fluid ran clear).  We also checked to see that the vegetables were tender.  We like to be sure chicken is properly cooked, so returned the dish to the oven for a further ten minutes whilst we prepared the accompanying sweetcorn and peas.

We liked the recipe and agreed it would work well as a slow cooker meal, and other vegetables like small potatoes could also be added to the mix.

Pineapple Ketchup & Sweet Potato Wedges

We spotted a recipe for Pineapple Ketchup (to go with sweet potato wedges) in the Waitrose Spring 2015 leaflet (the same one this Lemon & Pistachio Cake was in) and thought it would be a nice idea to give it a try.  Of course, we decided not to make the amount the recipe is for but, as it was a trial, we'd make half.

For the amount of ketchup we wanted to make, we needed -

1 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, finely sliced (we used frozen, chopped shallots - about 4 Tablespoons)

3cm piece fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 all spice berries
2 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
1 small pineapple, peeled, core removed, flesh chopped
100ml cider vinegar
100ml pineapple juice
Lime juice (we used 45ml ready squeezed juice)
100g brown sugar
1 tbsp sundried tomato paste

Putting the olive oil in a saucepan, we heated it through and added the chopped, frozen shallots.  These were then cooked on a low heat for a couple of minutes (to de-frost them) then the heat was increased and they were cooked until they started to soften (about 5 minutes).

Adding the ginger, spices and garlic to the shallots, they were cooked for another 5 minutes.

Stirring in the pineapple, vinegar, juices, sugar and tomato paste, the heat was increased until the ingredients started to simmer.  We then reduced the heat and cooked for another 25-30 minutes when there was less moisture and the pineapple was starting to break down.

We turned off the heat and waited for about half an hour for the mix to cool when we used a stick blender to purée the ketchup.  Up to this point we felt it was pretty much like making a chutney.

The next step was to pour the ketchup into a sieve (placed over a bowl), using a spoon to push it through.

Finally the ketchup was 'bottled' in sterilised jam jars.  Not a huge amount but enough for a first try.

The Waitrose recipe says the ketchup can be kept for 3 months but, having tasted it, we don't think ours will last this long!

On another day, we got round to making the sweet potato wedges.  It was simple and the pictures below show this... 

Gather sweet potatoes and scrub them

Cut into wedges, toss in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, mix through 1 teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika (we used a little more than this)

Spread in a single layer onto a baking sheet (ours was preheated) and bake at 200C for 25-30 mins (depends on wedge size). 

Remove from oven

Sprinkle with chopped, fresh rosemary

The cooked wedges were then served with the previously made pineapple ketchup.  The dish was declared "lovely" by Sous Chef J.  The next batch of wedges and ketchup we make will both be larger!