Paper Chef #57 - Chicken Roll

Sometimes Paper Chef throws a combination of ingredients at you that leaves you wondering how you can possibly combine such diverse into one dish. This was the case this month.
The random ingredients selected by Sarah from Simply Cooked left me a bit worried. How could I pull Dried Dates, Currents, Bread, & Kale into a dish????????
Firstly I had to find a substitute for Kale (wrong season) so something from the same family to keep it similar - cavoelo nero was the choice.
Next: What to create.
Thinking about the different flavours, sweet for the currents & dates; neutral with bread (well most types); & savoury cabbage... Hmmmm.
For what ever reason (& I still don't know where it came from) I decided to do a chicken roll or stuffed chicken.
A chicken breast, flattened, with a cavolo nero (or kale), date & current layer, rolled & steamed.
Actually sounded quite nice, and tasted great, but didn't photograph well at all...


Contents:
2 tbls chopped currents
2 tbls finely diced dates
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 stp chili powder
2 tbls butter
1 tsp fresh tarragon, chopped
Handful cavolo nero leaves (no stems)
2 chicken breasts
Salt
Pepper
Process:
Clean & remove any stems from the cavelo nero - you only want the tender leaves - & place into a steamer.
Steam until very tender & remove to cool.
When cool enough to handle, finely chop.
Melt butter in a saucepan over a low heat.
When starting to bubble add the garlic & cook until starting to go translucent.
Add dates, currents & chili, & cook for a few minutes.
Add bread crumbs & gently stir allowing them to absorb all the butter.
Add tarragon & remove from heat and allow to cool.


Pound the chicken breasts into a flat roughly rectangular shape.
Place each flat breast on a piece of cling film - hindsight is amazing.
Spread a layer of the chopped cavolo nero over each breast.
Layer the sweet bread crumb mixture over it & season with salt & pepper.


Messy part now.. Tightly roll the chicken & hope the stuffing doesn't fall out too much, use the cling film to help roll it.
Wrap tightly in 2 layers of cling film.
Steam for about 8-9 minutes, just enough to cook the chicken & warm the the centre.
Gently remove the cling film - I used scissors rather than trying to unwrap.
with a Sharp knife, cut slices on an angle.
This was served with a verblanc.