my take on divan

anna olson's fresh is on tv again and as i don't have much to do in the afternoons i tend to watch it, when i rememeber it's on, that is. the other day anna was making a turkey divan. the dish looked interesting enough to try, since turkey isn't as readily available over here as it is in the US and canada, i decided to make one with chicken. i had not known that there is a dish called divan and that it is, in fact, usually make with chicken...live and learn.







i wanted my divan to have more veggies in it, so i added a carrot, spring onion and zucchini. didn't use bell pepper, i do like the taste but i get serious heartburn from it.







started by sauteeing the minced onion, cubed carrot and finely chopped stem of the broccoli (waste not...) in some rapeseed oil and butter for a few minutes before adding the flour.







then added 2 cups vegetable stock (no chicken stock in the pantry nor freezer), ½ cup grated swiss cheese, ½ cup white wine (certain someone's unfinished bottle), ½ cup cream and 2 tsp dijon mustard, ½ tsp dried thyme and some crushed black pepper.

i found out from several recipes that a divan dish usually has serious amounts of mayonnaise in it as well...like this one. not entirely a bad idea, but just calories you really don't need. i don't have anything against mayonnaise, but have it with something you can really taste it in, and not a whole cup (2,5 dl!)







i don't like mushy veggies, so i added the bite-size zucchini...







...and minced spring onion and parsley with chopped chicken (5 cutlets that i had browned earlier) to the pan and mixed well. turned off the heat but left the pan on the stove. some recipes suggest that you use any leftover chicken, or turkey, and why not? i guess you could even use tofu if you wanted to go vegetarian.







the broccoli got just a dip in boiling water, because boiled to oblivion broccoli is rather disgusting, i wanted it to still have some bite left when the dish came out of the oven.







after placing the quickly blanced broccoli in an oven dish, i poured the "sauce" on top...







...and added ½ cup grated cheese and 2 tbsp breadcrumbs mixture on top (left out the oil from anna's recipe).







20 mins in 200C oven and i had lunch. anna suggests that you serve this with either pasta or rice but i had it as is. i though that the added veggies made this a complete meal, but it would certainly feed more if served with pasta or rice. this batch fed certain someone and i twice with generous portions.







just because i haven't been posting (like, for ages) doesn't mean i've been idle (ahem...you might still be right if you thought that). i've been meaning to clean and organize the kitchen cupboards at the shack for the longest time. i figured that this type of cleaningn wouldn't include heavy lifting, the spice jars are light enough to manage with the left hand as well. this is the messy spice cabinet before...







...and after. i did go thru everything and tossed it if 2 yrs had gone since best-by date.







before shot of the canned goods fighting the machinery.







they look more at peace now...







while i was at it, i cleaned other cabinets as well. i did have to toss some items but not as much as i had feared. it's amazing how much more space there is when what you have is in order...sugars, nuts, teas and coffee here