This food is too good to be eaten only at Hallowe'en. Both came from the BBC Good Food website, and were delicious. The toffee apple wedges were particularly spectacular, and so easy! We have leftover sauce and have frozen it to make into caramel-esque shards. The sticky chicken and pumpkin was going to be served with an attempt at Nigella's rostini (fried gnocchi as quick roast potatoes!) but our substitute had begun to grow mould, so we had it with pasta instead.
Toffee Apple Wedges
Serves 2; from this recipe
Large lump of butter
Lots of brown sugar
250ml cream
1 large apple
Lemon juice
Cinnamon
More sugar
I melted the butter over a low heat and added enough sugar to heavily coat the bottom of the pan. This mixture became quite mud-like but after some stirring on the heat, it starts to get more liquidy. At this point I added the cream and whisked quickly with a fork over high heat for about five minutes so it thickened a bit. The mixture was left to cool. The apple was cut into wedges and tossed in lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar. Once the butterscotch mixture had cooled a little, we dunked the apple wedges and ate them without grilling.
Sticky Chicken and Pumpkin
Serves 2, from this recipe (very much adapted)
2 chicken breasts
1 small pumpkin (ours was green and slightly avocado-esque - very odd)
2 garlic cloves
1 onion
2 sweet potatoes
Chilli powder and thyme
Between 1/2 and 1 glass of black raspberry wine
Balsamic syrup
Vegetable stock with added gravy powder
Small pack of walnuts
Honey
Seasoning
I chopped the pumpkin into bite-sized pieces, the garlic into teeny bits, the onion into about eight wedges and the potatoes into chunks. Mixed in a pan with the chicken, seasoning, thyme and chilli powder, and fried for just under five minutes. Added the wine and a lot of balsamic syrup. Mixed some dried vegetable stock with gravy powder, added 300ml boiling water, and poured into the pan. Added just enough water to nearly cover the vegetables. Brought to a boil and left to simmer for twenty minutes. Broke the walnuts into pieces and added to the pan, along with some honey. Reduced further until the sauce was thick and sticky and served with pasta.
