Celebrity Chef cooks for All Chefs Great and Small

I had the great pleasure of chatting wth chef Simon Bryant earlier in the year about the plight of Australia’s farm production animals, and the difference the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme can make to hundreds of thousands of farm animals each year. 

Simon has always been very keen to know where his ingredients have come from and how they were produced and it’s great to see that finally more and more consumers are starting to ask these questions as well.

Not only a great chef, Simon is also is a great fan of educating consumers about food production and the influence each grocery shopper can have by the purchasing decisions they make.

Of course, Simon loves All Creatures Great and Small – so along with talking about pigs, layer hens and broilers, we also shared some happy tails of our beloved hounds.

So here’s Simon’s receipe to share with you – our first celebrity chef contribution!  YUM!

Coconut  Chicken

Ingredients
1 free range chicken (1.8 kg)
8 – 10 dried Shitake Mushrooms (reconstituted in 400ml water)
4 x 440 ml tins Coconut cream
2 lime leaves
3 cm Galangal (Kha) finely sliced
Bunch of lemon grass (whites bruised)
2 peeled shallot (rough cut)
1 large whole Green Chilli (chopped)
1 bunch Coriander root & stem
1 teaspoon Organic Pure COCONUT  Palm Sugar (Note – this is a very specific type of palm sugar. Recommend Beach Organics  fair trade small batch hand tapped coconut palm sugar)
2 Limes (juiced)
Coriander leaves (from above)
3 tablespoons Fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon Black pepper
Salt to taste

Set lime juice, coriander leaves, fish sauce, salt and black pepper aside. Place the whole chicken into a large pot. Pour over mushrooms and water, followed by the 4 x tins of Coconut Cream. Finish with other ingredients (down to the Palm Sugar). Top with enough water to cover the chicken. Bring the chicken to the boil. Simmered the chicken over low heat for 40 – 50 minutes (until 72 degrees is reached in the thigh crease). The trick here is to make sure that the simmer is very low, as you don’t want to toughen the flesh by boiling. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred the meat. Return the meat to the pot and season with limejuice, coriander leaves, fish sauce, salt and black pepper & serve.

The end dish will have a split look to the coconut milk, there is nothing wrong with this . If you find this unappealing simply blanch the whole chicken for one minute in simmering water and refresh in ice water. Furthermore remove the parsons nose before placing into the coconut milk, both these steps will remove excess oil from the bird and prevent the coconut milk from splitting during cooking.

Enjoy!

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