OH EM GEE Chicken and Veg Bake

This is the most delicious Chicken and Veg combo EVER!

Very quick and easy, I’ve got a feeling this one’s going to be a winter favourite in my house this year.  People who aren’t used to high veg in their diets will look at this recipe and think.. urgh.. vegetables. If you think veggies are urgh, is more than likely because you don’t know how to cook them other than boiling, steamed, mushed, frozen or out of a can. This type of person is also prone to frying foods well and eating a lot of takeaways.  Sound familiar? Yup! Now have a look at this recipe, it’s sinfully good.

Servings:

6 Skinny Portions (420cals)

4 Piggy Portions   (624cals)

Ingredients:

900g Raw Fresh Mixed Veg
2 Large Chicken Breast Fillets
50grams Butter
1/2 Onion (Chopped)
Handful Mushrooms (optional)
1 Teaspoon Mustard Powder
1 Teaspoon Paprika
30g Chickpea Flour
1 Cup Milk
1 tin (400g) Cream of Tomato Soup
50g Hard Parmesan (Grated)
Salt/Pepper
150g Cheddar Cheese

Chicken Marinade:

2 tsp Soya Sauce

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

 

*Veg - good choices are (Broccoli, Butternut, Sweet Potato, Mixed Peppers, Onions, Green Beans, Carrots, Baby Marrow)

Method:

Cut the chicken breasts up into strips, mix the soy sauce and dijon mustard together, swoosh it around to coat the chicken and stick that in the fridge.

Get all you veggies prepared and chopped up into cubes. (no smaller than 3x3cm) If you've bought prepacked veg, you can do the microwave in the bag option, or lightly steam it on the stove. Do NOT boil the veg.. and do NOT cook it soft. This still needs to bake and you don't want to end up with mushy on your plate. If you're doing the in the microwave bag option, 4 minutes will do, if you're using baby marrows, don't cook those, they go soft too quickly.

Once the veg is pre cooked, gently put it in a caserole dish and leave it alone. 

In a pan, melt the butter over low heat and gently fry the chopped onions. If you're using mushrooms you can add them in after the onions have been going for about 5 minutes. You can also add some fresh chive at this point.

Once all that is looking good, add the paprika and mustard powder and mix it all up.

Now add the chickpea flour and mix it until it looks crumbly

Pour the milk in, and using a whisk, start whisking it until you have a nice smooth thick paste

Pour in the tin of tomato soup straight away and whisk the lumps away

Add you grated parmesan and seasoning and stir.

Pour this mixture over the veg in the caserole dish.

In the same pan.. or a clean one, whichever you prefer, lightly coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil.

Once the oil has heated, seal the chicken on both sides. It doesn't need to cook through as there's still some baking to be done, just as long as it's sealed.

Finally, toss the chicken with with the veg and sauce and GENTLY mix it all up careful not to mush your veg.

Top with the cheddar cheese and bake at 180degrees for about 30 minutes. Grill for a few minutes to crisp the cheese on top and voila! :)

Let it stand for about 20minutes to set before dishing up.

Lemon Basil Roast Chicken

Last weekend I decided to take a drive out to Spier wine farm to get some pasture reared chicken. I was a bit dissapointed to find out they don't sell frozen or fresh chicken in their deli (I could however order it online and have it delivered) but I did go away with a good supply of pasture reared chicken eggs and a whole cooked bird. Had my chicken supplies delivered earlier this week..

So this is my first ever home cooked pasture reared chicken... and damn was it good!

Ingredients:

1 whole bird
big handful of fresh basil
garlic cloves
olive oil
2 lemons
lemon pepper
salt

 Chop the basil and garlic up.. here's the fun part, gently seperate the breast skin from the meat and shove about 3/4 of the garlic and basil mixture under the skin spreading it out nice and evenly

chop the lemons up in quarters and place that in the cavity of the chicken

mix some olive oil with the remainding basil and garlic mixture and rub that all over the chicken

season the chicken the salt and lemon pepper

Line a racked oven dish with foil and place the chicken on the rack. This is so the chicken doesn't end up doing breast stroke through chicken fat/drippings.

Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the bird. Leave it in at 200degrees for an hour or so. To check if it's cooked, insert a skewer into the thickest part til it reaches the bone, the juices must run clear, if it's bloody, your bird aint cooked.

If you're satisfied that it's cooked, take it out and give it a good baste with the juices from the bottom of the pan and put it under the grill for a few minutes, careful not to burn it.

When it's done, let it rest for 15 minutes before cutting it up.

Bon appetite!

Oven Baked Angelfish

So although Saturday nights are my red meat nights, I'm banned for a month while my body works out some nasty bacteria. What better than Angelfish!

You will need:

Angelfish Fillets
Apricot Jam
Sage Leaves (dill is the usual herb for this dish, but there's no dill in my kitchen windowsill at the moment)
Fresh Garlic
Butter
Salt/Pepper
Fresh lemons
Heavy Duty Foil

You don't need to make a lot of marinade else you'll destroy the flavour of the fish. This is just for a light brushing over the fillets, so make as much as you'll need for however many fillets you have.
A blob of butter, a blob of apricot jam, (put in in the microwave for a few seconds to soften up, it makes it easier to brush on the fish)
Chop a few cloves of garlic and your herb leaves and mix that all together with the jam and butter.

Take a moerse long piece of heavy duty foil and fold it double on a baking sheet.
Place your fillets on the foil in the centre (I rub the bottom with a bit of butter so the skin doesn't stick - not that it should but just in case)
Brush your basting on the fish, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper
* If you haven't made enough basting, it's ok.. it's quick and easy enough to make a little more

Fold the foil in without the top of the foil touching the fish, so you're making a foil oven so to speak
If you haven't made the foil long enough, take extra foil for the middle and dome it out by pinching in the sides.

Bake for 10 minutes in a preheated oven. (180degrees)
Take the top of the foil off and grill for a few minutes to give it some colour
This fish cooks very fast so be careful, over cooked dried out Angelfish don't taste too good.

Once it's out the oven and on your plate - a good squeeze of a fresh lemon (it's a good counter flavour against the sweetness of the jam)
TIP: jab the segments with a sharp knife before squeezing - the juice releases easier

Calories based on a 150g fillet of fish - 300Cals

The Perfect Chocolate Mud Cake

This one I can't take any credit for so I'm reposting the recipe link...

http://www.insanitytheory.net/kitchenwench/perfect-chocolate-mud-cake/


You need to follow this recipe to the absolute T if you don't want to f *ck it up, as in dot the i's and cross the t's right down to lining the baking tin and leaving it there to cool. (I learn the hard way)
Here's a few tips and pointers:
Did I mention to follow the recipe to the T?
My experience is that is was easier to bake in one large round tin that in two. Two rounds for me, the mixture bubbled over, and besides that.. it doesn't really need any filling.
Use your experience with your own oven to gauge temperature and cooking times.
for example, recipe calls for 1h45min at 160degrees, I bake this cake on 150degrees 1h45-2h depending on how many times I've checked on it during the last bit of cooking time.
My first 3 attempts flopped, once by bubbling over 2 small round tins, and twice by not having the right temperature which ended up with a burnt cake on the outside and a raw inner.
It is quite a moist cake, so as long as the testing skewer comes out clean, you're good to go.
Wait until the cake is cold before turning out and then GENTLY peel off the lining, if you don't, it'll fall apart.
What works best I've found is a springform tin, it's so much easier to get the cake out without it breaking.

For the Chocolate Ganache:
For a stiff ganache: 350g chocolate (I mix milk and dark) and 250g fresh cream
Chop the chocolate into pieces and put it in a bowl
Put the cream in a pot and bring to the boil
Soon as it's boiling, pour it over the chocolate and start stirring
Stir until all the chocolate has melted and all little lumps are gone, once it's a good pouring consistency (it needs to cool down of course)
pour it over the cake
*If you want a thicker smearning chocolate, add a bit more chocolate and let it cool down almost completely before piping.
*add a tot of good qaulity rum to the mixture for a extra twang

Serving with ice-cream takes the edge off the intense richness of the cake

TO DIE FOR!!!!

Calories (without the icecream) 791Cals

Carrot & Pineapple Salad

Super delicious for a afternoon snack..

Grate as much carrot as you'd like
chop as much FRESH (not canned) pineapple as you'd like
Juice of 1 orange (2 oranges if you've making a really big bowl full)

Toss it all together and put it in the fridge for a few hours
Resting in the fridge allows the carrots to soften a bit and the flavours and juices to mingle

Calories? Not enough to mention

Most delicious Gluten Free Cheese/Mushroom Sauce Imaginable

Yummiest Gluten Free Cheese/Mushroom Sauce in Town

Tops 4-6 beautifully grilled Rumps
(leftovers freeze well)

 Ingredients:
50g Butter
1/2 Onion
1/2 Punnet Mushrooms
1 Tbsp Freshly Chopped Chive
30g Chickpea Flour
250ml Reduced Fat (or regular) Cream
125-250ml Milk
1/2 tsp Mustard Powder
150g Mature Cheddar Cheese
Salt/Pepper

Melt the butter over a low temperature (high temps will burn the butter and you don't want that)
Lighty cook the diced onions, mushrooms (sliced or chunky doesn't matter) and chopped chives
When that's looking deliciously soft toss the flour in.
The idea is for the flour to be absorbed by the butter, it'll look crumbly, that's right
Pour the cream in and with a whisk start whisking all the lumps away
Gradually add milk (you're still whisking away) until the sauce is the thickness you want, keep in mind the flour thickens as it cooks so you'll eventually get to a point (only takes a few minutes) until the flour is cooked
Add mustard powder, salt/pepper and cheese
Once the cheese has melted, you're done :)

* What I like about chickpea flour.. firstly, it's gluten free. The bonus is that it adds a delicious flavour without having that regular flour taste that's usually left behind if the flour isn't cooked enough.

Bon Appetite!

Calories (without the steak and potatoes) 290Cals based on 6 servings - rather high so be careful with this one

Almost Gluten free Chicken Schnitzels

INGREDIENTS
How ever many schnitzels you want = breast fillets
Flour (for gluten free use Chickpea flour)
Breadcrumbs - A mix of regular and chunky toasted (you can get the chunky from woolies)
                        (I use oragon rice crumbs mixed with chunky crumbs)
2 Eggs (beaten)
Seasoning
Fresh tomato
Fresh basil
Parmesan
Olive oil

HOW TO
Who needs shop bought schnitzels when you can make it yourself knowing exactly what's in it and what you're really putting in your body.

In 3 seperate bowls..
  1) beaten eggs
  2) Flour mixed with seasoning
  3) Mixed breadcrumbs

To get breast fillets to resemble schnitzels, place one at a time on a wooden chopping board, cover with plastic (this is avoid bits of chicken getting stuck in the tenderizer because it's a pain in the ass to clean)
Take the tenderizer and bash the chicken fillets about until it's as thick as you like your schinitzel to be.

Firstly, coat both sides of the schnitzel well in the flour
Then give it a swish in the beaten eggs
and immediately thereafter coat with the breadcrumbs

You can fry it, but it's obviously a much better option to bake it. Give it a spray with olive oil so it can get nice and crispy. If you don't have olive oil in a spray bottle.. VERY sparingly drop some on the baking tray to coat the schnitzels by moving it around on the tray.

Bake for about 20min per side at 180 degrees.

Absolutely deeeevine topped with freshly chopped basil, tomato and freshly grated parmesan.

Serve with oven roasted veggies.