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Thursday 7 June 2012

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.


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.

8 comments:

  1. Well this club sandwich is definitely a meal in itself and it looks just like Bill's - smashing!Love the homemade avocado mayo definitely have to pin this one!

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    1. Thanks - it certainly was a meal in itself - too many parts to it though, very time consuming to make and put together, although I guess less time than a normal dinner.

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  2. I love Bill's... didn't know there was a book... so now I MUST go and get it!!!... it's not cheating because you stuck to the rules and did it again... if you don't eat sardines (lord knows why not, I love them) then you don't want to waste food... this is an excellent excellent entry and well worthy of a place in the random recipes hall of fame... thnk you so much for entering!

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  3. Your club sandwich looks delicious! I would be happy to eat that for dinner. I'm not a fan of sardines either so I'm glad you made this to share :) I didn't know he has a new restaurant in Notting Hill. Clearly need to get out more!

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    1. It was delicious and can highly recommend the club sandwich. I stumbled across Bill's blog and discovered the restaurant.

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  4. Aw, I do love sardines, I wish you had made them! Though, I must say this club sandwich looks just delicious anyway! I love avocado-naise, as I call it, I love it with fishcakes or just spread over toast (: Came over from dom's round up, good one!

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  5. I don't have any of Bill Granger's books but lots of magazines with articles by him. I always sneak a look at them in the books store. His food always looks so fresh and healthy...I must get one soon.

    Thanks for sharing this.
    Deb

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