Random Recipe Challenge

Oh my, oh my .............. I think I may have cheated with this one!

The Random Recipe Challenge for this month was to choose a book at random, take the last page number and divide by two - that number page is the recipe to make.  Ok, so far so good ......... the random book was Diana Henry's Crazy Water Pickled Lemons .............. 192 pages divided by 2 = page 96 ..... and the recipe?  Sardines Beccafico, well, what can I say, I don't like sardines, my daughters don't like sardines, the husband really likes sardines - but he isn't getting them, well not this recipe for them anyway.  Sadly I'm not the most adventurous of food eaters, but I try, however, there is no way I could scale and gut a sardine, cut off its head, break the backbone at the head end and "gently pull it out, taking the bones with it".  SORRY.

Therefore, I cheated and randomly chose another book.  Am I disqualified?  I hope not.

Still, even if I am, we enjoyed our Grilled Chicken Club with Avocado Mayonnaise, Roast Tomato and Bacon - bit of a mouthful in more ways than one.  The random book was Bill Granger's Bill's Sydney Food - a lovely book (as all his books are) and I have to admit to restaurant envy too - I'm desperate to get to his new restaurant in Notting Hill and I'd quite like to own this myself!

The halfway mark in the book was page 97 - The Club Sandwich - which we had for dinner tonight - not a conventional dinner I admit, but it was nevertheless very good.  I had a loaf of turkish bread (corek) in the freezer which I defrosted/heated in the oven at the same time as some tomatoes which had been drizzled in olive oil and seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  The tomatoes took twenty minutes as they were quite small (the recipe called for larger tomatoes to be roasted for forty minutes) and the bread about thirty minutes. 

My little helper cooked the chicken for me - 4 chicken thigh fillets cooked in 2 tablespoons of olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and pepper - cooked for approximately twenty minutes in a frying pan over medium heat.  In the meantime I kept my eye on four bacon slices and also made the mayonnaise.

The mayonnaise consisted of two egg yolks, juice and zest of 2 lemons, 1 avocado (chopped), sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, 200ml canola oil (I used groundnut oil).  The egg yolks, lemon juice and zest, avocado, salt and pepper into a food processor and blended until it was mixed thoroughly, then I added the oil small drop at a time and then in a steady stream whilst the blender was still going and until it became like a green mayonnaise!

Once everything was cooked I assembled the sandwich with some rocket added and a half of a little gem lettuce sat on the side of the plate.  The mayonnaise was served separately.



Here is the finished club sandwich.



I'm entering this into the Random Recipes Challenge No. 17 at Belleau Kitchen - see link below.

http://belleaukitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/random-recipes-17-middle.html

The full ingredients list is as follows:

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 chicken thigh fillets

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

8 thick slices bread

avocado mayonnaise (separate ingredient list)

1 bunch rocket (arugula), washed and dried

4 rashers bacon, cooked

12 roast tomato halves

Lettuce cut into wedges

AVOCADO MAYONNAISE

2 egg yolks

juice and zest of 2 lemons

1 avocado, chopped

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

200ml canola oil

ROAST TOMATOES

6 ripe Roma tomatoes, cliced in half lengthways

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 180C and roast the tomatoes for 40 minutes.