Coronation Crumpets
God save our gracious crumpets!
Food truly fit for a king!
| Preparation: 30 minutes | Serves: 8 crumpets |
| Cooking: 45 minutes | Unbuttered crumpets |
| Ingredients | Quantity (metric) | Quantity (imperial) |
|---|---|---|
| Poached chicken | ||
| Free-range chicken breasts | 4 | 4 |
| Chicken stock | 500 ml | 17.5 floz |
| White wine | 250 ml | 9 floz |
| Carrots (peeled and roughly chopped) | 2 | 2 |
| Celery stalks (roughly chopped) | 2 | 2 |
| Shallots (halved) | 3 | 3 |
| Thyme | 1 tbsp | 1 tbsp |
| Bay leaves | 2 | 2 |
| Salt and pepper | Plenty | Plenty |
| Curry sauce | ||
| Shallots (finely chopped) | 2 | 2 |
| Large red chilli (de-seeded and finely chopped) | 1 | 1 |
| Curry powder | 4 tsp | 4 tsp |
| Tomato puree | 1 tbsp | 1 tbsp |
| Apricot jam | 3 tsp | 3 tsp |
| Butter | A knob | A knob |
| The rest | ||
| Mayonnaise | 125 ml | 4.4 floz |
| Creme fraiche | 125 ml | 4.4 floz |
| Coriander leaves (finely chopped) | 2 tbsp | 2 tbsp |
| Spring onions (finely chopped) | 4 | 4 |
| Flaked almonds | 50 g | 1.75 oz |
| Cucumber (sliced) | 1/2 | 1/2 |
| Rocket | 30g | 1 oz |
METHOD
- Put all the ingredients apart from the chicken into a large pan and bring to the boil.
- Reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
- Cut each chicken breast into three, trimming the fat and stringy bits, and simmer in the stock for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the chicken to cool.
- Continue simmering the stock for another 15 minutes, during which time, check that the chicken is cooked through. Obviously put it back into the stock if it's not.
- During this time, the volume of liquid should have reduced by about a half. Don't get too stressed about exact measurements on this.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the shallots and chilli, and fry gently for 5 to 10 minutes, until the shallots are soft.
- Mix in the curry powder, tomato puree and apricot jam and gently cook for a further 5 minutes.
- Add the stock, through a sieve, and cook for a further 15 minutes, by which time the liquid should have reduced further to about 300 ml (10.5 oz)
- Remove to cool.
- Mix the mayonnaise, creme fraiche, coriander, spring onions and almonds together in a large bowl.
- Mix in the curry sauce.
- Cut up the chicken into perfect bite-sized pieces and mix them into the sauce.
- Serve on unbuttered crumpets, layering sliced cucumber and rocket on the crumpets first, together with any other salad that you fancy.
- Radishes are always nice, for example.
The poached chicken
The curry sauce
The combination
The crumpets
OTHER NOTES
Please use free-range chicken. It’s not only egg-laying hens that dislike being cooped up in tiny filthy cages 24 hours a day.
