An Elegant Dinner Menu

Here is a delicious and easy dinner menu for the festive season ahead. This is my own version of Chicken Fricassee, a Jamaican favourite. Start the meal with a fresh and lemony crab salad and finish with chilled Passion fruit cheesecakes below.


Fresh Crab and Avocado Salad

2 large avocados
7 oz white crab meat
crisp lettuce leaves
1 small red chilli diced

Dressing:
6-8 tbsps olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together. Halve the avocados, cut into thin slices and add to the lettuce leaves . Pour over the olive oil dressing and serve.




For the Chicken Fricassee:

3-4 lbs chicken pieces
3 slices streaky bacon, chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
2 tblspns plain flour for coating the chicken pieces
2 oz mushrooms, sliced
1 chillie, chopped
Oil for frying the chicken
1 pint chicken stock
Sprig of thyme
Black pepper and salt for seasoning

Season the chicken with the salt and pepper and coat with the sieved flour. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken until browned. Transfer to a warm dish and set aside. Fry the bacon, onions and garlic until soft and then add the chillie and mushrooms. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and pour in the stock and stir. Add the thyme and bay leaf. Transfer to a casserole dish and place in a hot oven to cook for about 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. If the sauce is too thick add more water to the sauce. Serve with boiled white rice.


Passion Fruit Cheesecakes

Serves 4

6 oz digestive biscuits
3 oz unsalted butter, melted
7 oz cream cheese
Juice of a lime
Pulp and seeds of 2 ripe passion fruit
4 fl oz thick double cream
1 sachet gelatine
3 tbsp hot water
2 egg whites

Crumble the digestives in a processor, add melted butter and mix well. Press a layer of the mixture into the bases of four 3 in loose-bottomed flan tins. Chill until set.

For the filling, beat cream cheese until softened then stir in lime juice and passion fruit pulp and seeds. Fold in double cream. Dissolve gelatine in 3 tbsps boiling water and leave until syrupy. Add gelatine to cheese mix and stir through. Whisk egg whites until stiff and carefully fold into the mixture. Divide between flan tins and chill until set.

Turn out on to 4 plates, decorate with passion fruit seeds and pulp.


To drink: A chilled sauvignon blanc from the Loire Valley.