The last recipe challenge was as follows:

I am inspired by my favourite fruit which is just coming into season: the sublime inky-red cherry, a pot of pistachio body butter recently received as a gift and the jars of organic liquid gold I have picked up from a local farmers market. So I am going for:

ENGLISH CHERRIES. PISTACHIOS. HONEY.

The Take 3 recipe challenge is all about seeing how people engage with flavours, their taste buds and different combinations to get creative in their kitchens, with their storecupboards and repertoire of cooking techniques to invent bespoke recipes that THEY enjoy!

Having gotten off to a flying start with the first challenge (from which we also showed you the other entrants to give you lots of examples of the breadth of recipes that are being submitted for these challenges) am delighted to see so many entrants for this latest challenge of people experimenting with ingredients in a manner that is not mindless innovation or for appearance or novelty’s sake but instead breaking things down to the fundamental building blocks of taste and creating recipes with the sole purpose of being as delicious as the eater can make them.

The winner
There have been lots of wonderful entries but the following caught my eye as it was brimming with enthusiasm and creativity, it clearly explained what inspired the recipe and also the reason for putting the flavours together in this manner was lovingly described! And, upon trying the recipe, it was rather yummy too! So congratulations Dee Chauhan!
Further adaptations of this that I tried and also enjoyed were to mince the chicken and flavour it with ginger and soy and shape it into small balls, pressing half a cherry into the centre, then threading the balls onto skewers through the cherry, brushing with honey and covering with the ground pistachios before oven baking for 20 mins till cooked through (turning over half way). Or chunks of gingery chicken coated in the pistachios served with a honey and dark soy dipping sauce flavoured with cherry juice (whizzed in a blender and strained).

So here is Dee’s entry…

How
I came up with this recipe while discussing retro food with my sister and reminiscing about my families must haves - cheese and fruit cocktail sticks in the 80’s! Anyway, moving on briskly, the more I thought about it the more I wanted to create the three ingredients on a stick! The obvious, although very nice, option was creating a sweet number…however, that was not a challenge! Instead, I opted for savoury. I know there are many recipes with cooked cherries (very serious and grown-up) but I knew I wanted to keep the lovely stella variety cherries, which I bought from my local farmers market, as good as they are and be part of something yummy, exciting, fun and eye appealing… and here it is.

Why
I love the sweet honey flavour and oh so umami marrying the delicate warmth from both the ginger and pistachios along with the distinctive nutty, creamy, mellowness followed by the soft tender texture and then the big juicy cherry punch! I like how the cherry gives that moist fruity hit just in time - before the mouth becomes too dry. Then, a punchy sweet and salty hit like in Thai food (the soy-honey and bits of pistachio I added seeping into the cuts from pitting the cherries) which then continues from the natural sweet fruitiness and slight sourness from the cherry!

Serves 4
Preparation Time – 5 mins
Cooking Time – 15 mins
Chicken Breast Chunks 400g 16 cubes – 4 per person Sunflower Oil 2 tbsp
Soy Sauce 3 tbsp
Ginger (puree) 1tsp
Light Bodied Honey 3 tbsp
Raw Pistachio Nuts 150g
English Cherries16 (washed pitted and dry)
Cocktail sticks/forks 16

Preparation
Place the ginger puree and 2 tbsp of soy sauce into bowl and mix together.
Place the chicken chunks into the bowl of ginger and soy mix; stir the chicken in and leave to marinate for 20 mins approx.
Coarsely ground the pistachio nuts in a food processor and place in a shallow dish.
Mix well together the remainder of the soy sauce with the honey in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

Cooking
Place a small frying pan on a medium heat, add the 2 tbsp of sunflower oil and allow to heat for 1-2 mins.
Lightly fry the marinated chicken for approx 10 mins or until cooked on a low to medium heat. Then leave to cool at room temperature.
Place all the cooked chicken into the bowl of honey and soy prepared before and gently mix the chicken in with your hands.
Take one honey and soy coated chicken chunk at a time and roll lightly with your hands into the plate of pistachio crumbs.
Place each pistachio coated chicken chunk on to a flat dish. Ensure you leave a little space between the chicken pieces.
Gently place a cherry on the pistachio coated chicken and quickly insert a cocktail stick/fork to hold the cherry to the chicken chunk. Repeat this for the rest of the coated chicken.
Drizzle a little of the leftover soy and honey mix onto the cherries. Place the chicken cherry stick on to a flat serving dish and garnish with the left over pistachio crumbs. Serve immediately.

Dee says..."I love how this appears... very sweet and middle eastern and then you bite your way into a surprisingly savoury oriental delight! A delicate ginger and soy-honey laced chicken covered with distinctive warm creamy pistachio crumbs and then a juicy burst of cherry with echoes of soy-honey". HAMPER PHOTO COMING SOON!