There now follows a party election broadcast on behalf of the tasty recipe party... Clare Latimer, that is...

THIS week I thought I would show you how to have some fun with food. Firstly, it is election time so how about a fruit salad using the colours red, blue and orange. Then if you support a less obvious party, for example the Green Party, you could add green – kiwi fruit.
Secondly, we cook special children’s meals in our shop that are going down very well. When we started I mentioned it to a customer and she became very heated and told me that it was dreadful to give children different meals and they should learn to eat what adults eat. I totally agree with her but she did not realise what we were doing. All we do, for example, when we make a chicken pie we use all the usual ingredients but add some cut out blanched ‘parsnip chickens’ and then one ‘rogue carrot fox’ so that the children have to find the fox and chickens while eating their dinner.
This makes children come into our shop and actually choose what they want for dinner rather than the meal being chosen by parents.
It makes them more aware of what they are eating and also it is fun for all!

ELECTION FRUIT SALAD
Serves 4
Ingredients
One large punnet of blueberries.
One large ripe mango.
One large punnet of strawberries.
One good dash of Cointreau.

Method
Put the blueberries in an attractive serving bowl. Peel the mango with a potato peeler or sharp knife and then cut the flesh off the stone.
Cut into cubes and add to bowl. Squeeze the stone over the bowl with your hands to get all the juice and then discard the stone. Wash and hull the strawberries and then cut into quarters or halves depending on the size and add. Pour the alcohol over the fruit, stir gently and leave to marinade for about one hour. Serve chilled or room temperature – which ever you prefer.

CHICKEN PIE WITH ANIMAL SHAPES
This is a very tasty pie and has lots of vegetables to tempt children particularly with the animals. Even if it is for adults it is quite fun. When will I ever grow up!
You can buy tins of animal cuts from specialised kitchen shops.
Serves 4
One medium-sized oven -ready free-range chicken;
One lemon, halved;
Four smallish red onions, peeled;
Four medium sized carrots, peeled;
One parsnip, peeled;
One medium sized leek, washed and cut into slices;
One stick of celery, washed and cut into slices;
One clove of garlic;
One pint of apple juice;
Salt and freshly ground pepper;
50g of butter;
50g of flour;
A handful fresh parsley, chopped roughly;
One packet of puff pastry;
A little milk.

Method
Put the chicken into a large heavy based saucepan. Squeeze over the two lemon halves and then add the skins. Add the onions. Cut the carrots and parsnip into one-inch batons and add to the pan, leaving a few slices for the animal shapes to cook later.
Add the leeks and celery, garlic, apple juice and seasoning. Cover and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for one hour or until the chicken is cooked.
Drain off the juice into a jug and keep. Leave the chicken to cool. Remove the flesh from the chicken and cut into bitesize size pieces and put back into the pan with the vegetables.
Cut out the animal shapes and add along with the parsley.
Preheat the oven 200C 400F Gas 6. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the chicken juice stirring continuously to make the sauce. Check the flavour for seasoning. Add to the chicken flesh and vegetables and then pour into a pie dish.
Roll out the pastry on a floured board, place over the pie, wetting the edges so that the pastry sticks and then trim the edges with a sharp knife.
Brush the top of the pastry with milk and then bake in the oven for about half an hour or until the pastry is golden brown and then serve.

Clare’s Kitchen
41 Chalcot Road
Primrose Hill
NW1
Tel: 020 7586 8433
www.clareskitchen.co.uk