❤ SERVES 4
✎ A good and quick supper. If you want to keep things really simple, don’t bother with the corn cakes : brown rice is fine on the side. Roast peppers or roast tomatoes would be good too, as their sweetness works well against the spices in the chicken. Be careful about seasoning the avocado and adding the sherry vinegar.
You mustn’t overdo it, but at the same time this part of the dish is not supposed to be bland, it needs a bit of kick.
➔ Ingredients :
➤ FOR THE CORN CAKES
- 50g (1¾oz) fine cornmeal or polenta
- 50g (1¾oz) plain flour
- 250g (9oz) sweetcorn
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- 75ml (2½fl oz) milk
- 40g (1½oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 red and 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
- 2 spring onions, chopped
- salt and pepper
- groundnut oil, to fry
➤ FOR THE CHICKEN
- 3 tsp turmeric
- 3 tsp hot paprika
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1½ tsp soft light brown sugar
- 35g (1¼oz) unsalted butter
- 3 tsp English mustard
- 8 skin-on chicken joints
➤ FOR THE AVOCADO
- 2 ripe avocados
- 6 tsp sherry vinegar
- juice of 1 lime
- 4 tbsp double cream
- 3 tbsp chopped coriander
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➔ Preparation Steps :
↪ You can make the corn cake batter well in advance. Simply put the first six ingredients into a food processor and, using the pulse button so the corn gets chopped rather than puréed, mix everything together. Stir in the chillies and spring onions and season to taste. Set aside.
↪ Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5. For the chicken, mix the spices, olive oil, sugar, butter and mustard together with some seasoning. Season the joints, then spread the spice paste all over. Put the chicken in a roasting tin and cook in the hot oven for 40 minutes. Baste every so often with the cooking juices. It is cooked when the juices in the thickest part run clear, with no trace of pink.
↪ Meanwhile, halve the avocados and remove the stones. Scoop out the flesh and put it in a bowl. Crush it very roughly with a fork or pestle, but don’t mash it. It should still have some structure. Gently stir in the other ingredients. They shouldn’t completely blend together, that way you meet contrasting flavours as you eat it.
↪ Just before you’re going to serve the chicken, heat some groundnut oil in a frying pan and, once it’s hot, spoon dollops of the corn cake batter into the pan (about 7.5cm/3in across is a good size). Once each cake has set underneath, flip it over and cook until golden on the other side.
↪ Serve the corn cakes and smashed avocado with the chicken.
