Roasted Chicken Breast with Creamy Butternut Squash & Chilli
This was the last of the roast chicken for one recipes – there have been four – and now that it’s done and after a quick flick through my remaining 40 recipes (yew – only 40 to go!), it’s becoming increasingly harder to find the quick and easy mid-week dinner options.As much as I’ve tried to avoid leaving a glut of tricky ones to the end, perhaps my planning hasn’t been quite as thorough as I thought!There are quite a few slow-cooked dishes (3-4 hours cooking time kinda ones) that I will aim to do on the weekends, but I’m prepping myself for a few late night dinners after work!
So you can understand why I was keen to savour tonight’s easy bake chicken.
In a baking dish I sprinkled the chicken breast with S&P, chopped chilli and oregano.Then I surrounded the chicken, nice and snug, with finely sliced butternut squash.I squeezed some sour cream down between the pumpkin slices, sprinkled nutmeg over the top, then drizzled the whole lot with oil.Into the oven for 35 minutes and dinner is served (with a fennel and asparagus salad).
It was spicy & creamy and really really tasty.Perfect for a rainy Tuesday.
In a heat proof bowl I mixed some crushed fennel seeds, a finely chopped chilli, zest and juice from half a lemon, a very finely sliced fennel bulb, crab meat, olive oil and S&P.Then I sat the bowl over a saucepan of salted water, on the stove to boil.Keeping an eye on the crab mixture and the water, I finely shaved half a bunch of asparagus (using one of my favourite kitchen tools – my prized Zyliss veggie peeler), then squeezed over some more lemon juice and a drizzle of oil.Once the water came to the boil, I removed the bowl from on top and added the pasta to the water.With the cooked and drained pasta, I stirred through the crab mixture and the asparagus shavings and sprinkled with some more chopped chilli.
So, you remember the Summertime pasta, from many months ago, that nearly stopped my heart with all the oil and cheese and severe lack of Summery-ness?Well, tonight’s dish is the real taste of Summer.It should be called Lovely Summertime Crab Linguine.Perhaps this was more like an Aussie summer and the creamy one more like a British Summer…?The lovely crab was by far a fresher, tangier, crisper, skinnier model of any other Summer I’ve met with Jamie so far.
Thursday night’s dinner actually started on Wednesday.It started with a battle (yep, you guessed it…The FSL) and ended with a murder.But I did not kill the fish shop lady.I swear.
My Black Cod with Steamed Pak Choi & Cucumber
Jamie’s black cod needs to be marinated for 24 hours in order for it to go black, so on Wednesday, I went to the fish shop and asked for cod, with the skin on.But no, they didn’t have that and they couldn’t seem to find any customer service either...There’s a shocker.So I rang Ash.Ash was to be my dinner guest and had put the request in for the black cod recipe.We discussed skinless cod or snapper with skin and in the end decided the crispy skin factor was too important to forgo, so we ditched the cod and I swore to myself I’m ditching that fish shop.
The marinade was a combo of lemon grass, chilli, ginger, honey, white wine and miso paste, simmering together for a few minutes over medium heat, then left to cool before coating the fish fillets. Into the fridge for 24 hours.
Come Thursday night, at the end of relatively crappy day at work, Ash and I sat and enjoyed a vino on my balcony, before getting the frying pan nice and hot and throwing in the snapper, skin side down, so it sizzled and crisped.A quick flip to cook it through then served up with some rice and the steamed pak choi and cucumber (never cooked cucumber before – that’s a new one Jamie – and it was about as good as uncooked cucumber…) and drizzled with some of the marinade, which I’d set aside the night before and thinned out with a squeeze of lime.
It was interesting.The fish was pretty rich – you could really taste the miso and the honey – but the lime in the dressing and squeezed over the top, cut through it. I don’t think I’d rush to make it again, but it was different.Not different like poached salmon (I mean really!) but different like a black fish would be.
Oh and the murder – that was in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which Ash and I saw at the movies after dinner.Gruesome.
Xx
PS – I already know I’ll break my promise about boycotting the fish shop.The convenience unfortunately outweighs the attitude problem.Dammit.
PPS – I just put a piece of paper with “FSL” written on it in the freezer.Good trick that one.Or so I’m told!
I had Mum for dinner on Monday night.I’d already planned which recipe I was making, but it worked pretty well for Mum coz it was a whole bunch of her favourite things.
Apple & Walnut Risotto with Gorgonzola
Jamie calls this risotto a Waldorf risotto, like a Waldorf salad.Except I don’t like Waldorf salad, so it was a good thing someone was going to enjoy it.Mum loves Waldorf salad.
I made the basic risotto, then took it off the heat and stirred in goats cheese, gorgonzola cheese, parmesan cheese, a knob of butter, and some chopped apple.Then I served it up with a sprinkling of crushed and quickly pan-fried walnuts.
Not surprisingly, Mum loved it.More surprisingly, so did I.Who would have thought that apple would be nice in risotto.But the tangy crunchiness was the perfect compliment to the ultra cheesy – did I mention there were three? – rich ricey goodness.And the crunchy nut garnish finished it off perfectly (and I definitely don’t usually like nuts in my food – they’re meant for nibbling, not masquerading as ingredients).
It’s the pictures.If the photo of the finished product doesn’t inspire me, then I just can’t get excited.
Poached Salmon Steak
The picture for this recipe has a half-in-the-water-half-out, picture of a u-shaped cut of salmon (I think it’s called a darne) floating with a bunch of insipid looking vegetables.Now look, I know that the vegies add to the flavour and I know that it’s pretty unlikely that Jamie is going to have a tasteless concoction is his book, but if it ain’t pretty, I’m just not convinced.Does that make me a superficial foodie?
Regardless, I knew it had to be done and as I had most of the vegies already in the fridge I decided today was as good a day as any.So, into a saucepan I put sliced carrot, fennel, tomato, celery and onion with thyme, parsley, a bay leaf, salt, black peppercorns, a splash of white vinegar and enough water to cover it all.Then I brought it to the boil and dropped in some peas and the salmon steak (of the normal fillet shape – not a u-shaped darne).I turned it down, left it to simmer for 5 minutes, then turned it off and left it to sit for another five.
Come on – you have to admit, it doesn’t look great.
Jamie makes a kind suggestion at the end of the recipe – other ways to eat the poached fish other than just as piece of poached fish with some vegies, one of which was mixed with mashed potato to make fish cakes.Which I did – well the mixed with mash part, but they didn’t exactly look like fish cakes.
Not to worry, it looked a lot better than the picture in Jamie’s book, that’s for sure.
Last night was like couples night in my little apartment. Well, that and a bit of a school re-union. Oh and a farewell of sorts...
I had four girls from school – Katy (who’s heading overseas shortly – hence the farewell), Jen, Kate and Meals. And they came with their hunky better halves – Nick, James, Oli and me! Meals and I make a very handsome couple...
As a Sunday night dinner for eight, the day after I’d been at a wedding, I wanted to keep things simple, so I went for the most obvious simple choice – steak and mash!
Pan-Fried Sirloin Steak with Simple Chianti Butter Sauce & Olive Oil Mash Slow-Cooked Leek Soldiers with Bacon Eton Mess
Next was the potatoes – I got them on the boil and once they were well and truly soft, I mashed them up with an unsightly amount of butter, olive oil and parmesan cheese. I can’t say for sure how much butter was in there – how does one quadruple a knob anyway?
Then came the steaks (by this point the gang had arrived and were chatting away over a glass or two of vino). Tender scotch fillet steaks, rubbed with oil and seasoned with S&P, pan friend quickly on both sides in a very hot pan, then left to rest. Straight into the vacated steak pan, went finely diced red onion, butter and some fresh thyme. I then added a good slug of Aussie merlot (not quite Chianti, but a close substitute!) and let the onion sauce reduce.
Then came the plating up, which drew a crowd in the kitchen as Meals and I figured out that if we entered My Restaurant Rules, we’d be the perfect team, coz she is a gun at the presentation, which I am not! The plating up is my absolute downfall. I just pile it all on!
Anyway, on a pile of mash (ha!), I placed the sliced steak with the onion red wine sauce on top, served with peas and slow-cooked leeks on the side. The crispy bacon was chopped and sprinkled on top.
It was absolutely divine. The best steak and mash I’ve ever had. And probably the simplest meal I’ve ever served up at a dinner party. But SO tasty.
I’d done a small amount of prep work for the dessert, by making the meringue a few days early. I crushed them up and sprinkled them as the bottom layer in individual ramekins. The next layer was the cream – whipped with the seeds from the vanilla pod and a tablespoon of sugar. Then the strawberries – sliced then bashed and mashed in a bowl with some sugar and balsamic vinegar.
I’ve made Eton Mess many times before and pride myself on being able to shake it up a bit and really make it my own, but this was by far the best Eton Mess I’ve ever eaten and I will no longer shake things up and boast about my creativity, I will simple make Jamie’s Eton Mess over and over again.
Xx
PS – loads of farewell hugs and love to Katy and Nick for their big move to the UK.
PPS – It really was the best mash I’ve ever eaten. Even today when I had leftovers for lunch, you could just feel your arteries hardening. And you got the little cheesy stingy bits from the parmesan. Yum.
On Tuesday night I called on the spirit of my German holidays and gorgeous German men (don’t read into that OK?) and had a pork, potato and cabbage meal.Wunderbar!
April’s Rosemary Straw Potatoes with Lemon Salt
Braised White Cabbage with Bacon & Thyme
I’m not s big lover of pork.I leave that to Dad, who always requests roast pork for his birthday dinner, but I’ll admit, that there is something pretty fantastic about a good pork chop and some sauerkraut!
In a saucepan, I brought to the boil, some chicken stock, rashers of bacon and fresh thyme leaves, then added finely sliced cabbage, covered with a lid and left to simmer for 20 minutes.
While the ‘kraut was cooking away, I finely sliced a potato into thin matchsticks and heated sunflower oil to deep frying point.I tossed in my matchstick potatoes and when they were almost ready, then I threw in some rosemary leaves, to add flavour.Once they were crispy, I drained them and tossed them in the lemon salt (salt and lemon rind crushed in the pestle and mortar).
I served up the cabbage and the chips with a BBQ’d pork chop and some good Dijon mustard.
The cabbage was seriously amazing.Slowcooked and full of thyme flavour, it was soft and mushy and oh so German.I think I was a little distracted when tossing my chips through the lemon salt though and unfortunately I added too much salt, so the chips were not ideal.They would have been though and they were a lot easier to make than I’d thought, so maybe I’ll try them again, but without the lemon salt next time.
Note to self, don’t watch other people cooking in the kitchen on My Kitchen Rules when you’re supposed to be concentrating on your own kitchen.Distraction!
On Monday night, I finally made a recipe that I’d been blissfully ignoring for a while and even though it turned out looking more like baby food than the last risotto I made, it was somewhat more gourmet than Heinz.
Tomato, Basil & Ricotta Risotto
To the basic risotto recipe (which, lets face it, I’m a bit of a gun at these days!), I added the tomatoes that I’d prepared earlier. They were deseeded, chopped and marinated in red wine vinegar, S&P and oregano. After I’d stirred them through, I took the risotto off the heat and added the ricotta.
So the thing with ricotta is, I don’t really like it. I think that, coupled with the fact that I just hadn’t really been all that fussed about this recipe at all, meant that when reading through it before writing my shopping list, I obviously completely ignored the part where Jamie said to use crumbly ricotta, not creamy ricotta, and that if I couldn’t get the crumbly stuff, to use crumbly goats cheese instead. Oops. What did I have? Yep, creamy ricotta. Ahem…
Anyway, apart from the fact that I had the wrong ingredient, I still followed instructions and baked the ricotta with dried chilli flakes and some olive oil for ten minutes. Whereas the crumbly version is meant to sort of go crispy and golden, my creamy version just turned into a puddle of goo. Yum. Incorrect, but still yum. And I don’t even like ricotta!
Needless to say that when I added it to the risotto, it didn’t exactly stiffen the mixture. Rather the opposite in fact and once the knob of butter, the basil and the parmesan were added as well, it turned out looking like a very tasty and sophisticated baby food.
Apart from the texture and the look, the best way to describe it was Italy on a plate. For babies.
My Favourite Crunchy Squid with Lime & Chilli Mayonnaise
Unbelievable Root Vegetable Salad
Grilled Chilli Dressing
Homemade Ice Cream
Plus a Pink Velvet Cake (not Jamie though!)
I think I’ve mentioned I’ve been taking orders and Ween had baggsed the crunchy squid recipe a while ago, so of course it had to be done for her birthday.And thanks very much Jamie for recommending serving the crunchy squid with the root vegie salad which apparently goes really well with the grilled chilli dressing.Hello menu choices made.
First of all I made the lime chilli mayo – mayo with chopped fresh chillis, lime and lemon zest and juice and S&P.Very zingy.
I then sliced the vegies for the salad.I sharpened my Global knife, got in position and got stuck in.There is nothing more therapeutic than concentrating on finely chopping vegetables, especially when you’re knife is sharp, the music is loud and the vegies are varied.I had carrots, fresh beetroots, fennel, witlof, celery and radishes.A veritable rainbow of root vegies!They looked fantastic and I had a lovely chopping time. It was all quite Geena Davis a la The Long Kiss Goodnight – don’t you just love the scene where her previous life as an assassin first starts to shine through and her husband and kid start throwing her all kinds of things from the crisper and she just keeps on chopping like a highly skilled and trained killer.Oh wait, that’s what she is!Well, I’m no spy or assassin, but I don’t mind a bit of knife skill in the kitchen!
Once the chopping was done, I made the dressing.Jamie gives two options for grilling the chillis.Either hold the whole chillis with tongs over a naked flame on the gas stove, rotating them til they’re chargrilled all over (pricked a few times with a knife so they don’t burst. Could you imagine?! Firey.)OR as with me, if you don’t have a gas stove, pop them under a hot grill for a few minutes.Once done, put them in a bowl and cover with glad wrap for 15 minutes, so they soften in their own steam.Then I peeled them, scraped out the seeds and finely chopped.Add olive oil, lemon juice and finely chopped mint.Dressing done.
Finally the squid.Unlike the norm of scoring then slicing then cooking, this time it was scoring, cooking then slicing.So I got my oil nice and hot, I scored the squid (tubes flattened out, but whole – I’m not even sure that makes sense, but you know what I mean right?!), dipped them in seasoned flour then dropped them into the oil.They curled into long tunnels of curly squid and once they were cooked, I sliced them into curly strips of squid.There was no real flavour to the squid except for the little bit of S&P in the flour, but once it was served up with the lime chilli mayo and the sensational salad and grilled chilli dressing, it was perfection.
And finally, the birthday cake!I ventured outside of Mr Oliver’s bubble and went for a classic AWW cake.Until recently, when I ate one of Weens specialty Red Velvet cupcakes, I actually had no idea what red velvet was all about, but Ween’s cupcakes were so spectacular, that when I saw a recipe for a quadruple-decker Pink Velvet cake, I knew I had to make it!And you know what, it looked exactly like the picture!This may not be the best way for me to gauge success in the kitchen, but it’s a big part of it for me.If it looks like the picture I’m aiming for, then I can be so happy about that, I don’t even care about the flavour.Sad.Luckily, in this instance, it was satisfying on both fronts!
I served the cake up with the homemade ice cream that I’d made on the weekend, which being rock hard, had several sessions in the wave to soften it up, before we could break through with the scoop.But the flavour?Just like ice cream!
I’ll admit I was surprised by this, coz Jamie’s ice cream is quite simply custard (cream, milk sugar, vanilla, eggs) cooked, cooled and frozen.Though I can’t imagine normal ice cream is as simple as this (hence the doubt), it can’t be too far off, coz the homemade was almost as good as the Blue Ribbon.
And so.Another birthday bites the dust, another multiple recipe session is ticked off.
We had an absolute ball, Ween and I, and though she might kill me for putting these photos on public display, I just have to.HB WB.
Tomorrow is Ween’s birthday and I’m cooking her a birthday dinner filled with all her favourite things.OK, so maybe not all of them, but hopefully a few.I can’t reveal anything here until after tomorrow’s dinner, coz Ween will be reading, but I am looking forward to it!Tonight however, was a night of cake baking, so dinner had to be quick.
Delicious Crab Crostini
This was the last recipe in the crab chapter and I can’t say I’m too sad to see the back them.Look, I do love a fresh mud crab, cooked in the wok with salt and pepper, sucking out the meat, the juices running down your arms.But you know I haven’t had the best of luck with whole crustaceans during my experiment, so I avoided the whole crab thing and just went with the crab meat from Woollies.Which is fine when it’s cooked in a curry, but it’s very crabby when it’s a crostini.Check the alliteration!
I mixed the crab meat with chilli, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil and S&P.I made some aioli and toasted a bread roll.Crab crostini with aioli served.
It was actually really nice, but very crabby or fishy, you might say.And about the haunting, let’s just go with the fact that I’ve already brushed my teeth three times tonight.Gross, I know.I’m the one living with it.
A Year In My Kitchen: 1 cookbook, 1 food lover & some culinary fun is Lizzie's first attempt at blogging. She's undertaken a cooking experiment where she's cooking every recipe in a chosen cookbook in one year. The blog combines her love of food and cooking with her passion for writing. Enjoy.
