Crunchy chicken and creamed corn crumble

Yep, it's a mouthful. And, it's not very pretty. 

BUT

This is the first proudly gluten-free dairy-free dinner I have presented my children with that has been scoffed like junk food. Possibly they are starved after 4 weeks of seaweed rice crackers and almond milk no-sugar banana smoothies and other things they simply don't want to eat? No, I don't think it's just that. This is actually yummy.

Ingredients:*

• leek, finely chopped
• garlic, crushed
• celery, finely chopped
• carrot, finely chopped 
• pinch salt
• thyme 
• last night's leftover roast chicken (removed from bone and diced roughly)
• dash of water
• tinned corn
• almond cream (or a non-dairy milk if you can't get this)
• corn (maize) flour (or another gluten-free flour for thickening)
• rice (cooked)
• breadcrumbs (gluten free of course)
• margarine (again, dairy free)

Instructions:

1. Throw the first 6 ingredients in a pan over medium heat and soften, stirring occasionally, then add the chicken and a dash of water, turn down, cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
2. Put half the corn, the cream and a smidge of flour in the blender and puree until smooth. Add this and the rest of the corn to the chicken mix and bring gently to the boil. It should thicken nicely and have a creamy appearance
3. make a crumble with breadcrumbs, a dash of salt and margarine, then layer rice on the bottom, chicken above and breadcrumbs on top, then crisp under a medium heat grill

*a note on ingredients. The quantities will depend on what you have left over, and how many you are feeding. This is not a recipe that requires exactitude. The only part where you may run into difficulty is the ration of milk/cream to flour. If you find the mix too thin, whip some more flour into margarine and add over heat until you get a consistancy that is soft, but relatively solid.

I used 1/2 a leek, 1 stalk of celery, 1/2 a carrot, about 2 cups of chicken, a 400g tin of corn, 100ml of cream and a teaspoon of corn flour (note, this is the flour actually made of corn - not the squeaky white stuff that they just call corn flour). I had about 3/4 cup of breadcrumbs made from a heel of yesterday's bread and I rubbed in about a tablespoon of margarine.