Friends for supper...so it has to be PERFECT!

Last night Son and I merged two of this week’s dishes from our Ideas book into one meal. We cooked the spicy chicken as well as the bacon, Mozeralla and avo salad, and invited my Dear Friend, Irene, to join us.

I needed to get some avos and some Mozzarella balls for the salad. On Sunday I had found perfect avos at Checkers in Rossburgh, which we bought for the chilli con carne supper on Monday and other things. But those left over are definitely past their best now. And do you think there are anymore anywhere now? I searched Woollies, Everfresh, Spar and the same Checkers and there are either none on the shelves, or they are ready to eat last week or after the World Cup celebrations. Nothing, nada, zilch that could be used on the day. Also, to add to my dilemma, I had seen Mozzarella balls at Everfresh early in the week and made a mental note to get them there. And guess what…yesterday there were none on the shelves. Nor at any of the other shops. Had I bought them then there would be no guarantee that we would have had any left. So we had to get creative. We use what little edible avo we had left from our stock of past-their-best ones, spooning out only the good bits from the shells, and used feta balls instead of Mozzarella balls.

The salad is decadent and NOT for slimmers. So extra gym circuits required. Combine crispy bacon bits, halved rosa tomatoes, avocado and plenty of green pimento stuffed olives. Drench with a dressing made from equal parts of olive oil, honey and whole grain mustard. Serve on the plates and top with feta cheese balls. If you are able to get mozzarella balls, these can be added to the salad before the drenching because they are firm enough to withstand tossing. The feta balls are too creamy and will disintegrate, so rather place them decoratively and gently on top of the already dressed salad.

The chicken thighs were basted in a suspension made from olive oil, cumin, ginger, ground coriander and chopped chillies and then gently fried in the FPP along with segments of Minneola. The basting is dark, so the chicken gets a Cajun look to it, as do the Minneola segments. We served the chicken and Minneola sergments beside a tower of basmati rice and garnished with fresh parsley from the garden.

AND THEN! Irene and I had bought some scrumptious tough bread rolls at Everfresh earlier in the day which we used to clean the plates! So I guess you know what the score was. I asked Son and Irene for some adjectives I could use in this write up, and they conspired against me telling me to use the online thesaurus. They spoke in terms of mmmms and reverse gasps! Both the salad and the citrusy spicy chicken got a thumbs up!