Ingredients:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
8 chicken breast halves, boneless and skinless*
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and thinly sliced into 1/4-inch wide rings
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (28-ounce) can plum or Roma tomatoes, crushed or 2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes
2 to 3 teaspoons curry powder or to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup currants or raisins
12 cup toasted slivered almonds
Hot cooked long-grain rice

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 200 degree F. In a shallow dish, combine flour, salt, and pepper. Roll chicken pieces in flour mixture to coat all sides. In a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat, heat vegetable oil. Add chicken pieces and cook 5 minutes per side or until light brown. NOTE: Chicken should not be cooked through at this point.
Transfer chicken to an oven-proof dish and keep warm in the oven; reserving drippings in frying pan. Reduce heat to medium low. To the pan drippings, add onion, bell pepper, and garlic; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are transparent. Add tomatoes, curry powder, salt, pepper, and thyme; cover pan and simmer gently an additional 15 minutes. Add the browned chicken and currants or raisins; cover and simmer another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is tender or until a meat thermometer registers an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. (juices will run clear when cut with the tip of a knife). Remove from heat and transfer chicken to a deep platter. Spoon vegetables and sauce around the chicken and sprinkle with almonds. Serve with hot rice. Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients:

1 can smoked oysters, or 1 dozen cooked mussels (such as New Zealand Green “Kiwi” Mussels), thawed
1-1/2 cups bean sprouts
3 spring onions (scallions), sliced
1 red bell pepper, deseeded and chopped into small pieces
1 red or green chilli, minced (omit if you want your tempura mild) (optional)
1 cup vegetable oil (such as canola) for frying
1 medium or large tomato, chopped into small pieces (optional)

Tempura Batter:
1/2 cup regular flour (for a healthier batter, you can use spelt or whole wheat)
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup tapioca or rice flour (Note: if you don’t have these flours, simply use equal parts cornstarch & regular flour)
2 tbsp. baking powder
1 cup cool or cold water
1 tsp. sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tbsp. fish sauce (or more to taste)

To Serve:
handful of fresh coriander
Thai sweet chilli sauce, or regular chilli sauce

Procedure:

First, prepare the oysters or mussels. Rinse and remove mussels from shells (if using), or drain the oysters. Place next to the stove. Prepare the vegetables and also place them next to the stove. Now prepare the tempura batter. Stir the flours, baking powder, and sugar together. Then add the water, eggs, and fish sauce. Stir until smooth. (If necessary, use a whisk to get rid of any lumps.) Heat oil in a wok or frying pan over medium-high heat. Oil is usually ready to use when bubbles begin to rise from the bottom of the pan.To make sure oil is hot enough, dip your spoon in the batter and drop a little into the oil. If the batter sizzles and cooks, the oil is ready. Once the oil is hot enough, you can turn the heat down to medium (or around #6 on the dial). Don’t overheat the oil, or it will splatter. Now ladle some of the tempura batter into the oil. You can make your tempura “pancakes” as large or small as you like, depending on how much batter you use at one time. Immediately, while your first tempura pancake cooks, drop a few oysters (or mussel meat) into it. Also sprinkle on some of the vegetables - bean sprouts, red pepper, green onion, plus chili and tomato (if using). Try to spread these ingredients out over the surface of the pancake. Allow to fry 30 seconds or so. When the pancake begins to look crusty around the outside, it’s time to flip it. Using a spatula (or “egg flipper”), turn the tempura pancake over in the oil to cook the other side. Do this carefully so the oil doesn’t splatter. (The ingredients you just added will stay in the pancake.) The pancake is done when both sides are light golden brown. Remove pancake from the oil and leave to drain on an absorbent kitchen towel or paper towel. Repeat until all the batter and other ingredients are used up. Place the pancakes on a plate (on a bed of lettuce, if you want to make this dish look extra special). Sprinkle fresh coriander over, and serve while hot with Thai sweet chilli sauce, or regular chilli sauce.

Ingredients:

500 grams basmati or long-grain rice
800 grams chicken
cooking oil
butter
4 tablespoons barberries (dried)
1 tablespoon sugar
two large onions
1/2 teaspoon saffron
salt
black pepper

Procedure:

Remove the skin from chicken pieces. Marinate chicken in grated onions, salt and pepper for 4-5 hours. Cook rice using the recipe given for polow or kateh. Wash barberries twice with cold water and drain the water. Add sugar and fry in butter over medium heat for about five minutes. Pour saffron in a small bowl. Pour in 2-3 spoons of hot water and mix. Fill the bowl with rice and mix well. Add saffron-rice and barberries to the rest of the rice and mix well. Cook chicken under grill for 15-20 minutes turning each piece a few times during cooking. Serve with barberry-rice.

Ingredients:

1 medium to large-sized sweet potato, scrubbed
1 small white baking potato, peeled, or two red russet potatoes (preferred), scrubbed as well
1 to 2 green onions
1/2 cup grated apple, red (make sure the skins were still on when you grated them)
1 large egg
whatever else on the spice rack looks good
pecans, chopped (optional)

Procedure:

Coarsely grate all the potatoes using a cheese grater. Make the white potato slightly finer than the sweet potato. Finely chop the green onions, using only the dark green part at the top. Remember you’re using apple and sweet potatoes, so less is probably more when it comes to the onions. These are basically just for color. Now, mix up the apple, onion, and potatoes and spread on a clean cloth. Fold the cloth up and twist it so the water comes out. (Do all of this quickly because the white potato and the apple will turn brown after about 15 minutes.) Using a really big bowl, mix the ingredients with the egg and maybe some flour or Matzoh meal. We chose cornmeal. Using a big spoon, drop tablespoons of latke batter onto a skillet of oil over medium heat. Use the back of the spoon to press lightly on the latke to flatten it. You may want to coat the spoon in flour before you do this. Cook the latke for about 4 minutes, turn it, cook for another 2 minutes or so. This is really important because you want the latke to be soft and sweet inside but a little crunchy on the outside. When it looks as though it might be in danger of being burned, that’s when you take it out. Drain it on a paper towel and serve with apple butter and sour cream. They’re actually really good with softened cream cheese as well.