We love chicken at our place. So any variation that sounds good, and looks good in the cookbook, I flag and hope to try one day.

Bill Granger came off the bookshelf this time around, and we tried the combination of lime, paprika and honey. It was a very simple recipe to follow, and because it's baked, I could get on with more important things, like catching up on blogging whilst it baked away. The wafts from the oven did have me wishing it would hurry up cooking so we could eat!

Served with steamed white rice and Asian greens (broccolini in our case), was just a simple but tasty meal. I love the sourness of the lime, with the sweetness of the honey. 

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I have wanted to make this recipe since I got Bill Granger's, Simply Bill cookbook many years ago. The picture looked like something I could happily live on, and a good variation from the tradition beef bolognese.

The recipe is really quite easy, you could easily make it after a day at the office. Once you have done the basics and everything is in the pan simmering away; just cook the pasta and you'll have dinner in no time.
I found I had to add a bit of sugar to the sauce as it was quite salty. The parsley really cuts through and adds a lovely freshness to the sauce. Be sure to add the parsley in at the end to ensure the fresh flavour.

We now have a rule in our house; no seconds. With summer on it's way, it's time to shed some of the winter fat we have accumulated for hibernation. So we can only have the seconds as another meal the day after or later on in the week. We were both really wanting seconds of this pasta, but the best thing is we are looking forward to the leftovers tonight for dinner!

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Living out of home means I'm trying more recipes from my ever growing cookbook collection.
I had been struck down with the plague/man flu for most of last week, and didn't really give much thought to dinner. I knew I had chicken mince in the freezer, and I did buy it a few weeks ago for this particular recipe. So I knew it was time for "operation Asian burgers" when Hamsley requested I make them!


I served it without the ribbons of cucumber as me and cucumber don't really get along. I think the cucumber would have been nice and refreshing, balancing out the flavours a bit more.
The sauce is quite rich, maybe it's the simple of ingredient of peanut butter included int the sauce that makes it rather rich in flavour.
The pattie is packed full of flavour, and we still really enjoyed the burgers. These would be great at a summer BBQ with a couple of ice cold beers or ciders!

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Ideally, I would like to try and cook something relevant for major celebratory international holiday; but it just never happens. I decided to embrace my inner French mademoiselle this year and cook up a coq au vin for Bastille Day. It turns out I missed the "French" theme in the cookbook challenge, so this is my late entry.


The recipe calls for 800g of spring onions. I didn't have that much, so I topped up the rest with a red onion I had sitting in the fridge, as well as a brown onion. Luckily for me, the recipe still turned out simply formidable!
The chicken was incredibly tender and juicy, which you definitely wouldn't get if you used breast meat. The lovely rich sauce with the bacon and mushrooms makes it a lovely comforting winter meal.

Relatively simple to make as well, and with such tasty results, this won't be the last time I'll be making coq au vin. Hamsley came home before a work dinner and said it smelt so good he didn't want to have dinner out. Luckily for him.... and me, there are plenty of leftovers for us to eat today, on Bastille Day; followed by a soufflé.

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For chocolate week, I could have just done a chocolate cake, souffle, mousse... anything sweet really. But I decided I'd go for something different again and do a savory dish. Teaming chocolate with chicken is definitely something I would not have thought to do, but the Mexicans have been doing it for years, so I thought it was worth a try.

I left the plating up to mum whilst I went to photograph the dish. I came back to the table to find Hamsley having a little taste of the dish. Worried he was going to tell me he didn't like it, I didn't say anything. To my surprise, he turned to me and said it was really good. In fact, one of the most favorite meals I've ever cooked!

I could smell the chocolate as it cooked on the stove. I could also taste the chocolate in the first few bites. It was a delicious dish that I would definitely make again. The corn chips add a different texture to the dish, and also add a nice saltiness that is required. Although, I would definitely serve it with more avocado next time, and maybe a margarita.

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My friends were rather impressed too with my sushi, making this week's cookbook challenge a huge success. This was the picnic spread at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's free concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. We were so lucky with the weather, unlike at Carols by Candlelight where we had torrential rain!

Sushi

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It's the first meatballs of 2010!
As many of you may know, I have a meatball obsession. So when I was in the mood for meatballs just recently, I decided to pull Bill Granger off the shelf to see if he had the goods.

This recipe is a fantastic mid-week meal. I thought it was a little strange that there was no egg in the mixture to keep it all together. I also found it weird that I baked the meatballs instead of pan frying them. This in fact made it super easy as most of the recipe is just bunged in the oven, then finished off on the stove.

I added more pancetta than required, but no one complained. I would easily make these again.

Check out my new cookbook stand. It has a splash cover so I don't make a mess of my cookbook! Not bad for $20 from the General Trader!


3 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teasponn ground coriander
1 red chilli, thinly sliced
500g (1 lb 2 oz) minced (ground) chicken
3 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
50g (1 3/4 oz) pancetta, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf (Italian) parsley
Sea salt
500g (1 lb 2 oz) cherry tomatoes, halved
Freshly ground black pepper
125ml (4 fl oz / 1/2 cup) chicken stock

500g (1 lb 2 oz) wholewheat fusilli, cooked
Parmesan shavings

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F / Gas 6). Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft. Add the coriander and chilli and cook for 1 minute.

2. Put the chicken in a bowl with the breadcrumbs, pancetta, parsley and salt. Add the spiced onion and mix well with your hands. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to firm the mixture. Wet your hands with cold water to stop the mixture sticking and roll into small meatballs.

3. Put the cherry tomatoes on a baking tray lined with baking paper, drizzle with 1 tablspoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Put the meatballs on a second lined tray and drizzle with the remaining oil. Roast the tomatoes and meatballs in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the meatballs are golden and the tomatoes start to pucker.

4. Put the stock and tomatoes in a saucepan and add the the meatballs. Simmer for 5 mintues and season to taste before spooning over pasta and serving with parmesan shavings.

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Happy New Year!
Hope you all had a great time sending out the noughties and bringing in the new decade. I spent the day roasting on the beach with my dear friend Alana... we thought we didn't get burnt as we put on lots of sunscreen on throughout the day... but it was not the case. We are slightly lobsterish.
I spent the night at a cocktail dinner party at another lovely friend's house, with some of my favorite people. I will be blogging about the amazing food from that soon.

Let's start off 2010 with an amazing chicken and leek pie.

The thing that drew me to this recipe was the use of wholegrain mustard. It was a very welcome condiment to be added in the pie mixture. Full of flavour, and a very good sized pie to feed 6 people. Another ingredient that was included that usually isn't in a chicken and leek pie was celery. Everything worked excellently together, and I would definitely make it again.

Chicken and Leek Pie

2 cups (500ml) chicken stock
600g chicken breast fillets
1 tablespoon olive oil
40g butter
1 large leek (500g), sliced thinly
2 stalks celery (300g), trimmed, chopped finely
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup (125ml) milk
1 cup (250ml) cream
2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard
2 sheets shortcrust pastry
1 sheet puff pastry
1 egg yolk

1. Bring stock to the boil in medium saucepan. Add chicken; return to the boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered about 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Remove from the heat; stand chicken in poaching liquid 10 minutes. Remove chickenl chop coarsley. Reserve 1/3 cup of the poaching liquid; keep remainder for another use or discard.

2. Heat oil and butter in medium saucepan; cook leek and celery, stirring, until leek softenes. Add flour and thyme; cook, stirring, 1 minute. Gradually stir in reserved poaching liquid, milk and cream; cook, stirring, until mixture boils and thickens. Stir in chicken and mustard. Cool 10 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Oil 1.5 litre (6 cup) ovenproof dish.

4. Line base and side of dish with shortcrust pastry, trim to fit; prick well all over with fork. Bake 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Spoon chicken mixture into pastry case; place puff pastry over filling, trim to fit dish. Brush pastry with egg yolk; cut two small slits in top of pastry. bake 20 minutes or until browned lightly.

Serves 6.

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Week 2 into the cookbook challenge, and the theme was Indian. I found a dessert I wanted to make, kulfi, but during the week I also found a main course I had time to make. Most of the Indian recipes I found required marinating or multiple processes that required hours of work, but the chicken tandoori wraps were something I could whip up quickly after work.

The wraps were amazing packed with flavour, I even got mum and dad eating cucumber, which they usually hate! It was such an easy meal to prepare, and everyone left the dinner table full and satisfied.

The kulfi was made a couple of nights before hand. It was a bit of an adventure as one of my kulfis spilt on the carpet on it's way to the freezer. Then another spilt on it's way into the freezer.

The flavour was pistachio and date, served with an orange syrup. The orange blossom water made it taste a little flowery. It isn't like your traditional icecream, but it was a nice cool way to end a meal. I probably wouldn't make it again though. Not really something I can see myself craving anytime in the future.

Chicken Tandoori Pockets with Raita

1 tablespoon lime juice
100g tandoori paste
70g yogurt
400g chicken tenderloins
8 large flour torillas
60g snow pea tendrils

Raita
280g yogurt
1 lebanese cucumber, halved, seeded and chopped finely
1 tablespoon finely chopped mint

1. Combine juice, paste and yogurt in a medium bowl with chicken.

2. Cook chicken, in batches, on heated oiled grill plate (or grill or barbecue) until cooked through. Stand 5 minutes; slice thickly.

3. Meanwhile, heat tortillas according to packet directions.

4. Make raita (combine all ingredients in a small bowl).

5. Place equal amount of each of the chicken, tendrils and raita on a quarter section of each tortilla; fold tortilla in half and then in half again to enclose filling and form triangle-shaped pockets.

Makes 8.
Pistachio and Date Kulfi

100g unsalted pistachio kernels
395g can sweetened condensed milk
300ml thickened cream
125g fresh pitted dates, chopped
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
3 oranges
1/2 cup caster sugar

1. Line six 150ml dariole moulds (don't worry, I don't know what they are either, I used plastic cups), with plastic wrap, leaving some overhanging the sides.

2. Process pistachios and condensed milk in a food processor until nuts are finely chopped and you have a coarse paste.

3. Lightly whip the cream in a large bowl, then fold in the condensed milk mixture, dates and orange blossom water. Divide the mixture among the dariole moulds, then cover with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for at least 6 hours or overnight until firm.

4. Zest the rind of 1 orange using a zester. Place in a saucepan with the juice of 2 oranges, the caster sugar and 1/2 cup water. Stir over low heat to dissolve the sugar, then summer for 5 minutes until the syrup has thickened. Set aside to cool.

5. When ready to serve, peel the remaining orange, then slice the flesh into rounds. Place on a serving place and drizzle with some of the candied rind and syrup. Turn out the kulfi onto plates, then drizzle with the remaining rind and syrup and serve with orange slices.

Serves 6.

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