Beetroot with Orange Sauce and Five Spice Mango Chicken

As we have so many beetroot in the garden, I have been looking for new ways to cook them, especially as we both prefer them hot rather than cold.  The other day, I discovered this recipe here and we both loved it so much, that I thought that I must share it with you all.  It really is very special, and what was left over, tasted even better when re-heated the second day.

Beetroot with Orange Sauce

I dug out 3 quite big beetroot which I roasted, skinned, and cut into chip shapes. I am sure precooked beetroot would work just as well.

225 g dark brown sugar

150 ml malt vinegar

15 ml cornflour

Juice and grated rind of 3 oranges (I only had one, but I used all the zest and for the extra juice which I realised I needed, I added a bit of apple juice which I had on hand)

Preheat oven to 150°C/ 300°F/ Gas Mark 2. Put the strips of beetroot onto a baking tray.( I put them directly into a pyrex dish).

Mix the sugar with the vinegar in a pan over low heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Mix the cornflour and some of the orange juice together and set aside; then add the rest of the juice to the pan with the grated rind. Simmer for another 5 minutes and then stir in the cornflour mixture to thicken the ingredients. Pour over the beetroot and then place in the oven to warm - about 5-10 minutes, or until ready to serve.

This dish was definitely a 10/10 and I will be cooking it again and again.

The second night I served it with rice and the following recipe, but hot* not cold, see at the bottom:

Five Spice Mango Chicken

Serves 8

Preparation 15 mins (Chicken pre-cooked)

750 gr cooked chicken with no bone
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Mango Sauce

2 large mangoes peeled (I often use tinned if fresh are unavailable)
8 mild (I use hot!) peppadew peppers from jar. (These originate from S.Africa but I have seen them on the shelves in the UK and Australia. I am sure bottled small peppers would do as well, or a home roasted red pepper or two)
200g/8oz Greek yoghurt
6 tblesp mango chutney
1 tblesp Chinese 5 spice powder
Juice 1 lemon
Few drops of Tabasco sauce

Garnish

Fresh salad leaves
2 mild peppadew peppers thinly sliced
Lots of chopped parsley

1 For the sauce cut the flesh of 1 mango roughly into pieces and put into food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and whiz until smooth and blended. Season with salt and pepper.

2 Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and mix with the mango sauce in a mixing bowl. ** Cut the flesh of the remaining mango into 1 cm pieces and mix in with the chicken mixture. Taste and check seasoning.

3 Spoon the chicken mixture into a dish, decorate with the salad leaves and sprinkle over the peppadew slices and parsley- serve cold.*

** If you want to prepare the day ahead, omit the chopped mango and leave it mixed with a little lemon juice in a bowl. Just stir in before serving.

* To serve hot simply add one teasp of cornflour to the mango mixture before blending in the processor. Then add the chicken and mango, put into a shallow oven proof dish and bake at 200ºC for about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with peppadew and parsley and serve. ( I sprinkled with the pine nuts as I had some roasted leftover from a previous dish, I forgot the parsley!).

Cold, it was delicious with toasted pine nuts sprinkled over.  Hot, every bit as good!

This originates from a Mary Berry recipe and was sent to me by an "old" school friend. It really is fantastic; I have tried it both hot and cold.

See HERE For the original recipe. 

A very quick and easy dish to cook and the result is good enough to serve up at a dinner party.

Enjoy

P.S. 30 Jan 2012 17h00 It has just started snowing! So much for the mild winter!