Hemel Hempstead MP Mike Penning has nominated Saffron in the Old Town as the Hemel Hempstead constituency nominee for the Tiffin Cup following a competition run on his website.
The Tiffin Cup is awarded each year by a cross-party group of Members of Parliament called the Tiffin Club. Each Member of Parliament is invited to nominate the best South Asian restaurant in their constituency. This year is the seventh year that the Tiffin Cup has been held and to celebrate the fact that over 500 restaurants have been nominated during that time, they will be publishing a Tiffin Cookery Book with a recipe from each nominated restaurant.
Saffron’s signature dish is called “Saffron Chettinadh”.
Recipe: “Saffron Chettinadh”
A chicken breast roulade filled with spicy minced lamb cooked into caramelised onion sauce in clarified butter, flavoured by paanch phoron*, date molasses**, tomatoes and sweet red capsicum.
(* Paanch phoron consists of fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds and black mustard seeds in equal parts.)
(** Date molasses is the viscous by-product of the processing of dates, it is a natural sweetener added to give exotic fruity flavour)
Ingredients:
Minced lamb, chicken breast, salt, turmeric, fresh green chilli, coriander, bay-leaf, garlic, onion, red capsicum, paanch phoron, date molasses, clarified butter, sunflower cooking oil, fresh lemon, fresh tomatoes and tomato puree.
Step 1 Preparation of minced lamb
In a saucepan add a couple of table spoons of sunflower cooking oil, fry off the garlic until brown before adding the minced lamb.
Stir fry the minced lamb with a pinch of salt, turmeric, freshly chopped coriander and freshly diced green chilli (to taste), once cooked the oil needs to be drained off.
Step 2 Preparation of the sauce
Chicken breast to be cut sideways, opened up like a butterfly, further cooked minced lamb from Step1 spread over the chicken in a thin but equal layer. Very carefully the chicken is rolled ensuring the roll is tight and is holding the minced lamb inside.
Finally, the raw chicken roulade is covered in bay-leaves lightly dusted with turmeric, further wrapped tight in cling film (content needs to be waterproof) and boiled in water 15-20 minutes until chicken is cooked.
Step 3 Preparation of the sauce
In a saucepan add two tablespoons of clarified butter and caramelise the finely sliced onions until golden brown, once onion is cooked and caramelised add two tablespoons of date molasses, further stir it all together, take it off the stove and drain off all excess fluid.
Step 4 Saffron Chettinadh completion
In a new saucepan, add a tablespoon of clarified butter, finely diced clove of garlic, two small pinch of paanch phoron and a couple of bay-leaves, until garlic turns brown, add a tablespoon of tomato puree.
Add the sauce from step 3 with freshly quartered tomatoes, finely sliced red capsicum and the chicken roulade (cut into quarters) from step 2.
Keep everything sizzling in the saucepan for 5-10 minutes on a low gas flame, (until the red capsicum are cooked out), squeeze a couple of wedges of lemon (to taste), add freshly chopped coriander, a small stir and the Saffron Chettinadh is ready to be served.
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