Temporary Insanity

Boredom is a dangerous thing. When boredom strikes me, inevitably hunger strikes too, and this, my friends, is a dangerous situation to be in. If I were at home, and I found myself in the grip of immense boredom (knowing that hunger was not too far away), I could easily pop out for a walk, call a friend, have a long bubble bath, paint my nails…the list is endless. If, however, as I currently find myself, I am bored in an office, with only a computer to entertain me, the risks of online purchasing and browsing endless food websites are upon me. Amazon is the Devil in disguise.

I am working through the summer in various temp jobs, about 99% of which are reception work. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to have work, and, quite frankly, so is my bank balance, but these environments are hazardous to my purse and to my stomach. I’m keeping Mr. Amazon’s kids in school with the amount of money I spend on there. I’m obsessed with the River Cottage Handbooks at the moment, they are SO beautiful...one day I'll have the whole set...
As well as this, I spend all day browsing through food websites, food blogs, online recipes…I’ve even begun to search random ingredients on the BBC site to see what lovely recipes come up. All this browsing through recipes and mouth watering pictures means that I am RAVENOUS by the time I get home, armed with dozens of recipes I want to try!

Sooo, which one to make??? I decided to make chicken kievs from Something for the Weekend, with roasted broccoli and sweet potato on Friday (something indulgent to celebrate the end of the week, it has to be done!). They were a real success. The filling was full of flavour and the coating made a really crispy crunch when you cut into it. The recipe suggested tarragon but I used parsley which worked beautifully, it gave it a little more freshness against all the butter and the roasted vegetables. I didn't have any breadcrumbs to hand so cut some baguette into cubes (about a centimetre square) and I dried them out in a cool oven (about 100-120 degrees) to make them really really crispy, and then ground them up. I think this added to the crunchiness of the coating and would thoroughly recommend it if you find youself without any breadcrumbs in the freezer (it also means you don't have to plan ahead and buy bread to go stale a couple of days before!!). We had them with broccoli roasted with coriander, cumin and chilli (you must must must try this, I'm sure it will convert those who aren't brocolli fans!!), and roasted sweet potatoes. Yum.

Chicken Kievs
2 Chicken breasts
120g butter
2-3 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tblsp fresh chopped parsley
Salt and pepper (to taste)

1 egg

2 tblsp flour

2-3 handfuls breadcrumbs

Oil for frying


Mix the butter, garlic, lemon juice, parley and salt and pepper in a bowl.
Cut a pocket in each chicken breast and stuff with th 2-3 spoonfuls of the filling.
Dip each breast in the flour, pat off, then in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs. (The recipe suggested patting off any excess breadcrumbs but I packed as many as I could on for an extra crispy texture!)
Fry in oil on each side until golden, then transfer to a baking tray and bake for 15-18mins and 180 degrees.

For the broccoli i threw the florets in a bowl with:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp chilli powder

Salt and pepper

and roast at 180 degrees for 20-25 minutes

And the sweet potato I cut into wedges and tossed in some olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them for about half an hour.