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.

Death by Chicken

There's a good reason for the title... it's calor-lethal. My mom used to make the less lethal version (but with chicken pieces) often when we were growing up, everyone remembers it, but often can't remember how to make it.

If you're watching calories, rather scroll down and use the calorie controlled recipe version.

Ingredients

125ml Cross 'n Blackwell Mayo
1 x 1/4 Tin Apricot Jam
1/2 x Pack Brown Onion Soup
1 x Cup water
1 x Whole Chicken, cut into pieces, extra skin/fat removed
Oil
Seasoning

*If you like to have some rice with your sauce.. double up on the mayo, jam, brown onion soup and water

Brown the chicken pieces with a little oil in a pan to seal
Place the chicken pieces in a big enough oven dish so the pieces aren't on top of each other
 (drain as much of the oil and fat off as you can - you can even pat the pieces with kitchen towel to absorb the fat/oil)
Mix together the mayo, jam, brown onion soup and water
Pour that over the chicken pieces and bake until the chicken in cooked through and the sauce has thickened
Half way through swoosh the sauce around to mix and recoat the chicken pieces

Calories -720 Cals per serving if served with rice.
Food for thought... every 100g of mayo contains 50g fat
Although it looks like 'only' 720 Cals, it's loaded with Fat

Less Lethal Version

Instead of chicken pieces, use chopped up chicken breast pieces
(still important to seal the chicken)
Mix 1 packet of brown onion soup with 250ml liqui fruit apricot juice (if the sauce gets too thick, add water)
 - Follow the rest of the instructions as is

Calories - a more modest 550Cals and a lot less fat

Capsicum Crazy - Beef and Pepper Wraps

Makes 4 fat wraps, or 6 skinny wraps

Ingredients

4-6 Wraps
300g Rib Eye Steak
2 peppers
1/2 punnet mushrooms
1-/2 onion
fresh cucumber/tomato
Oil
Butter
Beef Marinade

Be careful with this one, there's not much calorie control but it's bloody good
Thanks to a friend, I heard the weigh less wraps are quite low in calories, it's a better choice becuase wraps tend to be quite high in calorie content

Remove all the excess fat from the steak and slice it up into thin strips
Swoosh it around in your marinade and leave it one side
You can use whichever marinade you like, I like a mixture of honey and soy

Heat some oil in a large pan (I use coconut oil as usual)
Fry your sliced onion and sliced peppers
When the peppers start going soft, add your mushrooms (cut them nice and chunky)
season with salt and pepper and fry gently until the mushrooms are soft
Don't use too much oil, rather stay at the pan and keep stir frying so it doesn't stick and burn

The reason I do the peppers and mushrooms in sections, if you put the onions, peppers and mushrooms in at the same time you end up over filling the pan resulting in too much moisture from the peppers and mushrooms, you'll end up simmering them instead of frying them.

When that is done, remove from the pan and put it one side. (I use a warmed stainless steel bowl so the mixture doesn't lose too much heat)

At this point you should wash the pan for the beef - but I'm too lazy. The reason I do the beef seperately, same as above, you don't want to overfill your pan and also, keeping the flavours seperate makes a tastier wrap.

Melt a blob of butter in the pan and fry your steak in 2 batches. There has to be enough space between the strips (same reason - moisture released from the steak)

When one batch is done, dump it on top of the set aside peppers etc to do the next batch of strips.

When the last batch of strips is done, put everything back in the pan and give it a quick wirl to mix it up and reheat what went a little cold.

Put the wrap in the microwave for a few seconds to heat through, they do go cold rather quickly, but they shape better and don't crack when warm.

Stuff and wrap and voila!

I stuff mine quite a bit, I prefer to have more filling than wrap becuase of the wrap calories, and then secure with a toothpick. For thinner wraps, roll it up like a roti and cut it in half.

Once your tummy is satisfied, eat that chocolate cupcake that's been waiting to be devoured all day

Variations

(if  you're not worried about calories)
smear a mixture of mayo and chutney over the wrap before filling it and top with cheese

I like to add sliced cucumbers and tomatoes before wrapping up

A winter variation I call Samchillada's

Add chillies when frying your peppers etc for a bit of heat
Add julienne carrots when doing your peppers, if you don't want crunchy carrots, steam them a bit seperately
Roti roll your filling in the wraps
place in a square or rectangle baking dish
top with a bottle or two of ina paarman's chunky veg pasta sauce
grate cheese over that and bake until the cheese has melted and browned

Capsicum Crazy -Bolognaise stuffed Red Peppers

 

This is one for that left over bolognaise sauce that's in the freezer...

Cut the tops off the red peppers, remove seeds and boil for about 5 minutes, drain and set aside

Defrost the bolognaise and mix with 1 cup of under-cooked rice

stir in a lightly beaten egg 

stuff the peppers with the mixture and bake uncovered for about 45 minutes until all the juice has been absorbed by the rice and it's set nicely.  If it still looks runny, bake some more

Top with parmesan or grated mature chedder and let it brown under the grill for a few minutes.

Calories.. about 600-700 depending on the size of the peppers and how much stuffing goes into it.

Capsicum Crazy - Chicken Stuffed Green Peppers

Ingredients

4 large green peppers 
1\2 chopped onion 
1 garlic clove
Blob of butter
2 cooked, schredded chicken breasts (keep broth aside)
2 cups chicken broth (if you cook breast fillets and end up with no stock, ina paarmans chicken stock with water will also work)
1 cup uncooked rice
Sliced celery 
Grated carrots 
Fresh basil and thyme
1 can italian tomatoes
1 /2 punnet mushrooms
Fresh parmesan
Salt/pepper

Directions

Cut tops off peppers and remove seeds.
In a large pot, boil the peppers for about 5 minutes, drain and set aside
Saute the onion, chopped garlic and mushrooms in butter until it's soft
Add the rice with your chopped veggies(except the tomatoes), herbs and seasoning
let it fry a bit, add more butter if need be. (yes, we're frying uncooked rice - we're sealing it)
When the colour looks good, add the chicken and broth
Soon as that's boiling, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer slowly, this is important so that the rice doesn't burn on the bottom of the pot. It's also important to not stir the mixture.
Keep an eye on it, if you see the rice isn't cooked enough yet and you need to add a bit more water, by all means. To check the water level, put a spoon down the side of the pot and gently 'part the red sea' to see what's happening at the bottom. DO NOT stir it.
When the rice looks almost done and all the water/broth has been absorbed, chuck in the chicken and chopped tomatoes and give it a stir. (the juice of the tomatoes will absorb into the almost chooked rice when baking)
Bake at 180degrees for about 30-40 minutes, the mixture needs to set nicely
grate some fresh parmesan over the top and voila

Calories - +-500