Cheat’s Coronation Quorn
Serves: 6 Ready in: Under 15 Mins
My parents have made Coronation Chicken every year at Christmas, and since I turned veggie as a teenager, they've always reserved some sauce for me beforehand. I've served this sauce over potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and steamed, cooled broccoli, but by far my favourite is a fresh piece of bread. My dad still makes up a batch of sauce some time, but it takes ages to slowly caramelise the onions with the spices. So, when Daddy's not cooking, I've developed a cheat version that all my friends love. You need to adapt this to your own tastes, so if you prefer a very mild curry flavour, use a minimum of curry paste to maximum mayo... or if you like it sweet, tangy and spicy, max up the curry and the onion marmalade. It's different every time, but I love that! My only advice is choose a nice sweet, jam-textured onion marmalade. If your onion marmalade is bitter, add a couple of teaspoons of apricot jam or sweet mango chutney to balance it out. Happy experimenting!
Ingredients:
2-3 tbsp mayonnaise, low-fat mayo or veganaise
1/2-1 tsp madras paste
2-3 tsp onion marmalade, or to taste
1 box Quorn (or 1 bag frozen Quorn, left in the fridge overnight)
a little salt, to taste
[hd]To serve[/hd]
sliced bread, rolls or baguette - no need for butter!
watercress, baby spinach or alfalfa sprouts
method:
- Spoon 2 tbsp of mayo or veganaise into a large mixing bowl. If you want to make enough for a really saucy coronation dish, use 3 tbsp. If you're seriously dieting, you can make this with 0% Greek yoghurt instead of half of the low-fat mayo, but I'm afraid it isn't quite as nice!
- Now add the madras paste. Start by mixing about half a teaspoon of it into the mayo. Blend well with a wooden spoon until the mayo goes a light brown colour. Taste. If you want it spicier, add more curry paste, but remember: less is more. You can always add extra spice at the end if need be.
- Stir in 2 tsp onion marmalade until well mixed. Taste again. Now's your chance to adjust the sweetness by adding a little more onion marmalade, or spice it up a little more if it's a little tasteless. Once you're happy with the balance, season to taste with some salt if needed.
- Stir the Quorn pieces (defrosted if from frozen) until totally coated in the sauce. For parties, transfer into a serving bowl and allow guests to spoon it onto their plate, spread it onto chunks or slices of fresh bread and eat with a little token greenery to cut through the richness. Alternatively, use as a sandwich filling for your everyday lunch. The sauce keeps for about a week in the fridge but it's best to cover just enough Quorn for a couple of days at a time, retaining the rest of the sauce in a clean jam jar or plastic food tub until ready to mix the next batch.
