It's that time of year again and here come the prickly pears! In their honour, I invented this recipe at the weekend. The idea of using fruit in a savoury dish has shocked some of my Italian friends again but the recipe worked really well. It's not for those of you who are sensitive to seeds, though.
Pollo ai fichi d'India - Chicken with prickly pears
If you're in Italy, ask your butcher to cut half a chicken breast a fettine. If you're in the UK, ask him to slice a boned, skinless chicken breast thinly.
Peel three prickly pears in the way that a Sicilian taught me: put the fruit on a plate or board and hold it steady on its side with a fork. Top and tail it. Still holding it steady with the fork, cut a lengthwise slit in the skin with a knife and then cut round the fruit. You have to be careful not to touch the skins with your hands as you can still get a nasty prickle even if you buy the fruit dethorned. Keep holding it with the fork to slice it.
Just before the end of cooking, take the pan off the heat and add 200 ml panna di cucina [Italian cooking cream, which is thinner than British single cream]. Stir it in well and put the pan back on the heat for a couple of minutes, still stirring.
Garnish the dish with the reserved prickly pear slices.
Buon appetito.
5 comments:
I got such awful prickles in my hand when I stupidly picked a prickly pear when I first moved to Malta, as a teenager. Must have been mad!
This sounds like a nice, unusual dish.
Hello, Jenny. I stupidly picked one up the first time I came to Sicily, too. The prickles took ages to go! Thank you.
You're very inventive and industrious, Pat! Good on you! :)
Fabulosa!
Thank you, Lee and WW.
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