culinary explorations of a new zealander who wants to broaden her food horizons, try new things, cook from scratch, find new favourite recipes, and share the fruits of her labour! please read, enjoy, try it yourself and leave comments!
Just a quick, delicious recipe for biscuits that I love. It's really easy, and I've been meaning to make another batch for my blog, since I haven't made these since I was about 11 years old. They are so messy to make but that's the fun of them!! INGREDIENTS
250g butter 2 eggs 2 cups self-raising flour 2 cups cornflakes 1 cup castor sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla 1/2 cup sultanas (optional) 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional) 2 extra cups of cornflakes METHOD
Preheat oven to 180 deg C
Cream butter and sugar well
Add eggs, one at a time
Fold in vanilla, sifted flour, (sultanas, chocolate chips) and 2 cups of cornflakes
Take teaspoonfuls of mixture and roll in extra cornflakes
Bake for 15 to 20 min
Be warned, they go golden, but are soft when they come out of the oven, so use a flat spatula to lift them off the tray/baking paper, otherwise they'll just fall apart.
THESE ARE SO YUMMY. 'Nuff said. (Oh, and light and chewy and just ... om nom nom)
This is a recipe I have wanted to try for a very long time, but all the versions I found included some spice mixes that are not available outside of USA (typical haha!) so I was keeping my eyes peeled for one I could make without them.
Cue my friend Fien, whose house I was at last week. We were thinking about what to have for dinner, and looking through cookbooks to find something because her partner is gluten-free so obviously had to be something he could eat. Then I saw this and was like "let's make this! I've always wanted to try it!".
So all our good intentions were there. And then, just after the slowcooker was turned on and we just sat down to start watching a movie... powercut. -_- Less than ideal. By the time it was eventually turned back on, it was almost 8pm, and dinner would need a further 2 or 3 hours to cook! By which stage, we had given up and got pizza. The dish however, did keep cooking, and when it was done, was put into leftover containers, for Fien and Hamlin to eat the following night, and they said it was delicious. So tonight, I made it at my house too!
INGREDIENTS 1 chicken (3-4lb/1kg ish) cut into serving pieces or 6 chicken pieces of your choice (I used chicken breast cut into large cubes) 1/3 cup olive oil 1 large onion, diced 4 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 red capsicum, diced 1 tablsepoon paprika 1 tablespoon chilli powder (or less - it is very strong!) 1 tablespoon ground cumin 2 teaspoons dried oregano 1 can diced tomatoes 1/2 cup dry white wine 1/2 cup chicken stock (gluten-free if you're intolerant) 1 bay leaf 1 cup uncooked long grain rice 1 cup peas salt and pepper METHOD
Put tomatoes, wine, stock and bayleaf in slow cooker
Brown chicken (but don't cook all the way through) and add to slow cooker
Heat oil in a pan
Add onion, garlic, and capsicum
Cook 3 min
Reduce heat to low and stir in paprika, chilli powder, cumin, and oregano
Cook 1 min, stirring constantly
Scrape mixture into slowcooker and stir well
Cook on LOW for 4-6 hours, or HIGH 2-3 hours, or until chicken is almost cooked through.
An hour before it finishes, cook rice in a pan and some oil, until it goes opaque (maybe 3 or 4 minutes), stirring often
Pour rice into slowcooker and raise heat to HIGH if cooking on LOW
15 minutes before end, add peas
Salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot
To be honest, while it was nice, it didn't taste as strongly or flavourfully as the smell of it cooking. It was spicy, and I even skimped on the chilli, so you don't need much chilli to get a kick. It was filling, but the chicken was a little dry, so in future I may either add more stock, or use bigger pieces of chicken.
Recipe: in "Gluten-Free Slow Cooking" by Ellen Brown, pg. 133
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