Chicken in almond sauce

I was asked for a typical Alpujarran recipe for a website the other day. Now the ultimate local dish is probably the plato Alpujarreño, which is great, but it's not unlike a British breakfast and sounds less impressive than it really is. Then there's migas, a kind of grainy semolina porridge which comes out rather like uneven couscous - again it's one of those hearty local dishes that doesn't really travel that well. So I made up a user-friendly recipe for chicken in almond sauce instead - I'm not sure if it's precisely authentic, but with great handfuls of almonds and garlic, lashings of olive oil and wine, plus pimentón and cumin, it should be close enough; and the results were delicious. This almond sauce is also great with meatballs - albóndigas - and of course with pork for carne en salsa.Ingredients to serve at least four people:

1 chicken, jointed, skin on, or a mixture of thighs and drumsticks sufficient to provide two or three pieces per person.
100 grams raw almonds, preferably with the skins still on.
300 mls white wine
Chicken stock or water, as necessary
1 head of garlic, cut in half horizontally
1 onion, peeled but kept whole
2 large tomatoes
2 or 3 slices from a baguette or similar white loaf, preferably slightly stale
Olive oil
Flour
A good pinch of saffron threads
1 tsp ground cummin
1 tsp of hot and 2 tsp mild smoked paprika (or adjust to your taste)
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper

1. Brown the chicken on all sides in a non-stick pan, in batches, adding more olive oil when necessary. Transfer to a flame-proof casserole dish.

2. Add the wine and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer, add the 'bottom' half of the un-peeled garlic (it should stay in one piece), the tomatoes, bay leaves, paprika, cummin and saffron. Add stock or water to just cover and simmer for half an hour to 40 minutes, with the lid on.

3. In the same oil you used to fry the chicken, brown the almonds, making sure they don't burn. Peel the 'top' half of the garlic and add the peeled half-cloves to the pan, frying until just golden. Fry the slices of bread until golden. Put the browned almonds, garlic and bread into a pestle and mortar (or a food processor) and pound (or blend) to a thick paste.

4. When the chicken is just cooked, use a slotted spoon to lift the tomatoes and onion from the casserole and add these to the almond mixture. Lift out the half-head of garlic, squeeze the cloves from the skin and add these. Continue to pound or blend until you have a thick sauce.

5. Return the sauce to the chicken and its juices in the casserole dish, stir to blend in, and cook for another 10 minutes or so. Add a little water or stock if the sauce is becoming too thick. Check for seasoning and, if you have it, sprinkle a little chopped parsley over the top.

Serve with fried or roast potatoes. Good with the rough local rosé known as costa, or manzanilla sherry, which has a great affinity with almonds.

The wine that doesn't travel....

Today The Guardian ran a story on what to do with the kind of holiday booze that tastes great in its country of origin, but when you bring a bottle home in an attempt to recreate the exotic atmosphere of your trip, it just makes you feel sick and ends up taking up space at the back of a cupboard for years. Personally I've never suffered from this problem, and any bottle of cachaca, Thai whisky or slivovitz that's made it home with us has been consumed with relative enthusiasm and speed. (There was some caraway aqvavit that outstayed its welcome once, but that came from Ikea in Hillington so I'm not sure it qualifies.) Anyway, the story reminded me of this recipe for pigeon cooked with patxaran, so here it is.

Incidentally patxaran (that's the Basque spelling; it's pacharan in Spanish) is a digestif made by macerating sloes in anis - it's not unlike sloe gin. Served over plenty of ice, it tastes like cough medicine and soothes an over-worked tummy a treat. I should have had some to alleviate the food-poisoning I contracted in Chester last weekend, but that's another story.

Ingredients: 4 whole pigeons or 12 pigeon breasts, 2 onions, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 ripe tomatoes, skinned, ½l meat stock or water, ¼l patxarán. Oil, salt & pepper
Preparation: Heat the oil in a casserole and sauté the onion until transparent. Brown the pigeons or breasts slightly with the onion, add the garlic cloves, flambé with the patxarán, crush and add the tomatoes and add the meat stock or water. Cover and simmer gently for around 20 minutes for whole birds (ten for breasts) then check to see if they're done to your liking. Check seasoning and serve with a green salad and some kind of potatoes, maybe mashed.