Cooking with Mayo

This is my entry for this week's Qurator's Hive Top Chef contest.

Ingredients used, in no particular order:
one large potato per person
a small cauliflower
three leftover chicken legs
half of a red onion
two heaped spoonfuls of mayonaisse
about the same amount of greek yogurt
lemon juice
some garlic paste
a small dollop of gochujang paste
an even smaller amount of tomato paste
plenty of chili flakes
a few leaves of lettuce
salt and pepper

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Heat the oven to 225°C. Wash the potatoes and use a skewer to make some holes in them, then put them on a baking sheet with plenty of space around. Set a timer for 30-35 minutes.

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While the potatoes are baking it's time to prep the cauliflower. Remove the stem and cut or break it into florets of whichever size you prefer. In a small bowl, whisk together one tablespoon mayonaisse and half a tablespoon lemon juice, adding garlic paste, salt and ground black pepper to taste.

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Once the timer alarm goes off, take the potatoes out of the oven and spread the cauliflower florets around them. Brush the cauliflower thoroughly with the mayo-lemon mixture and sprinkle some chili flakes on top, then put the whole shebang back in the oven for another 15 to 20 minutes. Use the skewer to test if the potatoes are done. They should be soft all the way through.

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For the chicken salad, put a heaping spoonful of mayo, two spoons of yogurt, a little gochujang and tomato paste into a bowl along with as much garlic paste and chili flakes as you want. Dice the chicken and chop the onion.

Tip: It's easier to get the meat off of the chicken legs after heating them for 15-30 seconds in a microwave oven.

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Stir the chicken and onion into the mayo mixture until coated evenly, and shred a few leaves of lettuce or dice, slice or chop any other vegetables you happen to have on hand. Transfer the potatoes, lettuce and cauliflower to your plates, then cut an X into each potato and fold the flaps back. Top with as much chicken salad as fits, and then some. Enjoy!

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Chicken bones, cauliflower leaves and stem, and the onion peel all go into the broth bucket, then the freezer. Some day they'll be the base of a pot of soup or add flavour to a stew!

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Since I'm posting this in the Food & Culture community I guess I should add a few words about that. I don't believe baked potatoes belong to any specific culture. Surely cooking potatoes and other root vegetables on the coals or in an oven has been done all over the world since humans started using fire to prepare food. It's a dish that is enjoyed by high and low alike, and since it can be served with any topping you can imagine there's no risk of getting tired of it in a hurry. Mayonaisse seems to be a universal food as well, used as much in Asia and Africa as in Europe and the Americas, though from its name I assume it's a French invention.

Images taken with my iPhone 6s, edited with Preview for Mac or Canva.