Tandoori Chicken Wings

I was surprised tonight while watching the 7pm project that a survey showed that most Australians still live on an inherited British diet of meat and three vegetables and that the majority of people surveyed could not tell the difference between a cucumber and a zucchini? I find that incredible, considering the popularity of programs like Master Chef and what feels like an overload of cooking programs. So it seems to me that for all the lifestyle programs that are on television, most people’s lifestyle has not changed much at all.
I worked as a chef up until Coen was born, in fact I was at work the day before I went into labor. Once Coen was six weeks old and I was able to drive the 27km to Halls Gap, Coen and I went out to the restaurant one day a week until he was ten months old. Although the restaurant was closed for lunch during that time it did not take us long to work out that the baby had an incredible sense of smell as at six weeks of age he could smell the freshly ground coffee whenever we used the coffee machine! I do have some photos that Suzy took of Coen and me on his first day at work, and only six weeks old.
I have never not cooked, even though it was always just Coen and I here. I never bought baby food and it did not take long to realize that Coen admired what I was eating a lot more than he wanted his plainer type of food. So after almost leaping out of the high chair at six months of age to try to grab my tandoori chicken, this is still his favorite, and that day marked the last time that any plainer type of food ever graced our table.

TANDOORI CHICKEN WINGS
8 chicken wings
500g greek yogurt
1 heaped tablespoon tandoori paste
Juice of 2 small limes or 1 large lemon
1 cup basmati rice

To garnish
finely chopped spring onions
fresh coriander leaves
1 desert spoon of freshly chopped garlic in extra virgin olive oil

Accompaniments
lime pickles
plain greek yogurt

Method
Mix together the yogurt, lime juice and tandoori paste in a large bowl.
Add the chicken wings and mix around until all of the wings are covered with the mixture.
Place the wings into a covered roasting dish and top with the remaining mixture from the bowl.
Cook in a moderate oven 200c for about 1 ½ hours.

Chop 1 small clove of garlic very finely and add it to about 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.


Cook the rice in your favorite way, I mostly use the absorbsion method

To serve
Place rice in the bottom of a shallow bowl, arrange the tandoori wings on the top and spoon over any remaining sauce from the roasting dish.
Garnish with garlic oil, (if you don’t like eating raw garlic just use the oil) chopped spring onions and a few coriander leaves.
You may like to put other accompaniments on the table so that people can help themselves but I usually add yogurt and lime pickles onto the dish otherwise Coen will eat half the jar of pickles!

Raita made from freshly grated raw beetroot and yogurt or yogurt with very finely chopped cucumber is also nice.
I know that garlic oil is not a traditional accompaniment for Indian food, but when I was working we often spooned a small amount onto some of our meals to gloss up a dish that can look a bit dull. Now to Coen and I it never tastes the same without the garlic oil.

Serves two hungry people.