Mango chicken casserole

I am never in touch with what is in season when… and for months now I have been craving a mongo chicken casserole, but there were no mangos to be found (even when the recipe urges you to use the canned variety – I could not locate these).

Let me also just put on the record that I do not like mangos on their own, it is a texture thing together with the hassle to eat them, but these mangos add the perfect sweet to the sour, and the nutty taste of the fried peppers just pulls everything together.

When I went for the weekly hunt in the grocery store this weekend, though, mangos were everywhere.

So, it was finally time.

Let me also just put on the record that I do not like mangos on their own, it is a texture thing together with the hassle to eat them, but these mangos add the perfect sweet to the sour, and the nutty taste of the fried peppers just pulls everything together.

In between loadshedding and 6 meetings on Monday I thought that we may need to get takeaways, but I persevered and am so happy that I did.

Yes, you can do it on the fire!

This is the recipe I followed… very vaguely.

We braaied the chicken with a little more spice than only salt and pepper, and I added it to the rest in the pot when it was already done. I served it with pasta rice, but I think couscous would be my first choice. It was loved and devoured by all.

Fireside Dinner Menu # 18

So this week I am posting “off site”. We are blessed to be on our December holiday in the Eastern Cape. Scroll down to download the file with the links to some of the recipes.

The menu this week has a lot of ambitious efforts of which the highlight is probably Jan Braai’s carrot cake. It is as fantastic as it sounds, and I am thinking we might try it for our Christmas dinner as well.

I clearly also had a coconut milk theme going this week!

Fireside Dinner Menu # 8

This week I have a menu that saw us by the braai 6 out of the 7 evenings. Links to various recipes are available and quite a few by Jan Braai. I see that his website was revamped this week so go and take a look!

The highlight for me in this menu is the Moroccan chicken pie. A lifetime ago the Engineer and I (when young and free and able to stay awake later than 8pm) had a date at a cooking school. This specific evening was Moroccan themed, and I think that is probably what kindled my love for Moroccan food as well. On the menu that night was a Moroccan chicken pie, very different from the traditional South African version. It is a blend of beautiful flavours. Try it, you will not be sorry. I was even so impressed with this one that I remembered to take some photographs.