Nature’s nurturing powers

Make a shopping list, drive and park the car, find a shopping trolley, look for the best deal among the hundreds staring you down, look after the children running amok, navigate the trolley through the alleys, avoiding the unavoidable bumper collision, look for mangoes in the middle of winter or decide to buy leaks in August, queue to be served at the cheese corner, spend hours looking for a decent tomato, queue to pay, go back to get the only ingredient you really needed, queue to pay again, trundle back to the car with the trolley, drop the 25 plastic bags in the back, time to get to the kitchen!

Crazy life, isn’t it?

Now; close your eyes and think of a peaceful green landscape, where only the sound of the cows’ bells disturbs the silence.
Flowers sway in the gentle breeze under a sunny blue sky and that undefinable smell reminds you of vacation.
People welcome you with open arms and talk for hours about their love of the land and their respect for natural balances.

How about the best of both worlds?

The booming trend of ‘Organic Vegetable Boxes‘ from companies like Abel & Cole, lets you live the pastoral pleasures from your reveries. Full of fresh fruit and vegetables delivered right to your doorstep, nature can finally take its rightful place in your kitchen again and push the rush of life away for a while longer.

Asian Chicken Vegetable Wrap – 4 persons
600g of chicken breast
400g of carrots, grated
1 spring green
5 spring onions, chopped (optional)
1 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons of sesame seeds, fried
Cumin

For the marinade
1 tablespoon of fish sauce (nam pla).
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 lemongrass stalk, trimmed and shredded (optional)
3 large mild red chilies, deseeded and chopped
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
3 shallots, chopped
2 tablespoons soft brown sugar

The marinade
Slice the chicken into thin and long pieces.
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the marinade together.
Add the chicken and toss well.
Leave to marinate for an hour (preferably a night).

The stuffing
Heat some sesame oil in a frying pan and fry the meat with the marinade for 10 mn.
Meanwhile, heat some sesame oil in another pan and fry the onions. Add the carrots, the sesame seeds, the cumin, a splash of soya sauce and let it cook for 10 mn at medium heat.
Remove the spring green leaves from the centre, wash gently and shred.
Blanche the leaves for about 3 minutes in boiling water until they soften and drain them.
Wrap some carrot mix and slices of chicken in a leaf.