Braised Chicken with Vibrant Flavours

I was inspired the other day by one of my fellow bloggers Wholesome Cook (via twitter) to pick up my Kylie Kwong recipe book Heart and Soul that has been in my cupboard for a long time but I have never actually cooked anything from it. And wow, when I looked there are so many inspiring recipes, why was it so neglected?

So lastnight I chose to cook the most colourful dish of braised chicken with vibrant flavours. As I prepared and added ingredients I started thinking, this is the weirdest dish I've cooked yet.....

The chicken pieces coated in seasoned flour are browned with some oil and then removed from the pan. In goes ginger, tumeric and garlic. After this is lovely and fragrant, add carrots, spring onion, tomatoes, bay leaves and my extra addition, baby golden beets. Coat the vegetables and then add palm sugar (the recipe says 5 tbsps - I added half of that) and cook until everything starts to caramelise. Add fish sauce (1/4 cup) and bring to a boil before adding preserved lemon, fresh dates, whole chillies, cumin, lime quarters, and my addition of wood ear mushroom (very sadly :( realised I forgot to put them in my seafood dumplings). Next add 1/2 cup red wine and 1/2 cup sherry vinegar ( I added 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar - I just couldn't add that much vinegar). Return the chicken to the pan and simmer covered for 40 minutes.

I served with quinoa. What an interesting dish - the moroccan flavours were the dominant, the sweetness of the sugar and dates, with the sourness of the lemon and lime. I thought it tasted quite strange but actually really loved it.