Indulging the senses

Wish they'd invent scratch-and-sniff for computers...

 

"It's amazing how just a teaspoon of curry powder can make a dish so aromatic." Faced with a statement like that (and a keen sense of smell that hasn't returned to normal since pregnancy), I had to muster my courage and try another recipe from Fine Cooking, didn't I? After all, we all want our food to smell good, something supermarkets know only too well, which is why they pump the smell of fresh-baked bread out of vents above the front door, even if they don't actually have a bakery on site. Sneaky, but effective.

And this dish is particularly aromatic. The other selling point was "Just 30 minutes to dinner, start to finish". Well, let's just say that they weren't basing this assumption on the Farrar kitchen. It took a tad longer than that, but not so long that it isn't a suitable dinner for a weeknight. Truth be told, the longer prep time was at least in part due to my inability to drag my work-addicted husband away from his precious laptop, so that he could fire up the grill. He then sat next to the grill, working on his cellphone. Sigh! He did at least put it away to savor the results of his and my labors though, so I guess that's something!

The only amendment I made is to change the nuts - for some reason (let's call it a combination of a breakdown in effective shopping list-writing and Trader Joe's propensity for putting delicious-looking bags of goodies at the checkout), I ended up with several bags of dry-roasted pistachio nuts in the cupboard, so I added some of them to the cous-cous, where the original recipe called for slivered almonds. I also pretty much doubled the quantities of all the ingredients, because this kind of recipe seems to be based on the appetites of normal people, and not Farrars. If you are fortunate enough to live with a family of the former, then feel free to halve things - according to Fine Cooking, you should be able to feed 4 (small birds) with that. Other than those two modifications, I have been faithful to the original, and based on the success of the resulting dish, probably will be again... unless of course Trader Joe's tempts me in a different direction!


Grilled Chicken with Curried Cous-Cous, Spinach and Mango
Serves 5 as an entrée

9 TBSP olive oil, divided
2 TBSP finely chopped shallot
2 tsp curry powder
6 TBSP white balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
4 large chicken breasts
2 cups whole-wheat cous-cous
2 cups mango, chopped into 1/2" dice
1/2 cup roughly chopped dry-roasted, shelled pistachios
2 TBSP finely chopped parsley
4 lightly packed cups of fresh baby spinach

1. Prepare and preheat a gas or charcoal grill (or ask husband to do it, and motivate sufficiently to get him away from a screen long enough to do so. "Your wine is downstairs" is usually sufficient, I find!)
2. Heat 1 TBSP of olive oil in a skillet, add shallot and cook, stirring, until translucent (about 2 minutes). Add curry powder, and cook, stirring, until fragrant (about 15 seconds). Stir in vinegar and 6 TBSP of olive oil. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Coat chicken with 2 TBSP of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Grill, flipping once, until well marked and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and let rest.
4. Meanwhile, bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour cous-cous into a large bowl, and when water has boiled, pour over cous-cous and cover bowl. Let stand for 5 minutes, and then fluff with a fork.
5. Pour in 6 TBSP of the curry vinaigrette, and add the mango, pistachios and parsley to the bowl. Toss to combine.
6. In another bowl, toss the spinach with enough of the remaining vinaigrette to just coat the leaves lightly.
7. Divide the cous-cous between the plates, then top with a share of the spinach leaves. Slice the chicken and place on top of spinach. Finally top with a drizzle of the remaining vinaigrette.