Spicy Cajun Chicken, Smashed Sweet Potato & Fresh Corn Salsa

Dear reader, whoever you are,
whether you've been following this blog or have just tuned in now, you may have noticed I was gone for a while. 
Well, as you know it is the holidays, and it is safe to say I have been enjoying mine. 
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, but it is time to resume work, which I am about to do. 
I also hope writing this will burn off the 3kg of cake I ate. Fat chance, right?
So this is the first of the several delayed recipes I made back when school was still in full swing. As my writing resumes so will my cooking, even more inspired by all the meals I had either at various relatives or at restaurants I spent my week at. 
So let's get cracking!

First up, I made this chicken recipe on page 28 of the "Chicken" section quite honestly because I had all the ingredients as leftovers from other recipes. 
For example I had the sweet potato from one of my first recipes, and it still didn't go bad! - exemplary duration. Canned corn is something I always have at home as I love it so much and it comes in handy quite often, and I had the meat in the freezer by chance. 
I pretty much popped out to find some spices I lacked but other than that I was set! 

Firstly I dealt with the potatoes, putting them in a large pan with salty water and let them cook for quite a while. Then I grabbed my meat and cut off any gnarly bits and created nice little chunks, seasoned with salt and Cajun seasoning, not polenta because I happened to overlook that part but I still think it isn't a vital part in the recipe and set that aside to soak in the flavors. 

I then took hold of the salad, and chopped the tomatoes, spring onions, chili, coriander and corn, and prepared for grilling. I put that on my favorite grill pan with a tablespoon of olive oil because if I did it after the chicken or the bacon, my veggies would soak up the meat undertone and I didn't want that. So I grilled that for 3 minutes maximum, until my corn started catching color. I put that in a bowl and set aside, because if I seasoned it now/then, the salad would be all soggy and sad by the time the meat and potatoes were done.

By now it was time to peel and mash the potatoes with some sweet chili sauce, and I set that near the fire to maintain heat. 

So now I re-oiled my grill pan and put my meat on. I like it well done, so I kept it there for 5 minutes in two rounds, and when that was done I just added in my egg plant strips. 

Now, I used egg plant because believe it or not, Croatia does not have okra. Yes, you heard me. I checked in every supermarket, every marketplace, asked friends, family, nothing. 

So, not surprised, I chose eggplant as a substitute because it looks of roughly the same consistency. I grilled that until it got lovely stripes on each side and then went straight in with the bacon (which cannot be seen on the photos because my dad immediately claimed it, thanks dad). I quickly reheated the mashed potatoes and spooned it out on a platter, covered it with meat, laid the eggplant over and crumbled some feta cheese on top. 

I dressed the salad and I was done! 

 Again, I took some magical closeups (and I say magical because I don't know how I did it):

So here is the charred eggplant strip on a piece of beautiful meat on some great sweet potato.

And here is the eggplant in all its glory and feta cheese. 

A very good recipe to use up extra ingredients quickly, I recommend it for a lightweight lunch or even dinner.

To achieve this recipe, you will need:

Ingredients out * Kettle boiled * Food processor (fine slicer) * Liquidizer * Griddle pan, high heat * Large lidded pan, high heat * Large frying pan, medium-high heat 

 Serves 4, 651 calories 

Ingredients 

Salsa

4 corn on the cob

1 small bunch of fresh coriander

1 fresh red chili 

4 spring onions 

3 ripe tomatoes

2 limes

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Smash

800g sweet potatoes 

2 tbsp sweet chili sauce 

Chicken 

4 x 120g skinless chicken breast

1 tbsp Cajun seasoning

1 tbsp polenta 

olive oil

2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon 

175g okra 

20g feta cheese 

Start cooking 

Put the corn on the griddle pan, turning when charred. Wash the sweet potatoes, remove any gnarly bits of skin with a speed peeler, then finely slice in the processor. Put the sweet potatoes into the large pan, the just cover with boiling salted water and the lid. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with salt, the Cajun seasoning and polenta. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1,5 cm thick with a rolling pin. 

Put the chicken into the frying pan with two tablespoons of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Drain the cooked sweet potatoes well, return to the pan and mash with the sweet chili sauce, pop the lid on and leave on a very low heat. Slice the bacon and add to the frying pan. As soon as the bacon starts to crisp up, add the okra to the pan. 

Carefully hold the charred corn steady and run a knife down the sides to cut off the kernels, then put them into a bowl. Roughly chop the top leafy half of the coriander and add to the corn. Finely slice the chili and trimmed spring onions, chop the tomatoes, and add to the bowl with a pinch of salt, the lime juice and extra virgin olive oil, then mix well. Serve the sweet potato mash on a board or platter with the chicken and okra, crumble over the feta, and serve with the fresh salsa on the side. 

Note: This recipe was taken straight out of the cookbook, my version can be read above.

Bon Appétit!