Chicken Cacciatore

I made this at the beginning of November, but as I had my university exams around then, I decided to prioritise, and study for those instead of writing a blog post.  Wise choice, because I passed all my classes!

This recipe comes from a recipe book my family has had forever, and I decided I wanted to make this because I felt like pasta, and we had chicken leg pieces to use.  Sometimes it's a matter of finding a recipe that suits what you have in the pantry to use up, instead of going out to buy stuff new and fresh specifically for a recipe, which can end up quite expensive!!

INGREDIENTS

4 chicken leg portions (or 8 drums/thighs, or 4 thighs + 4 drums)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, diced into thin wedge
1 garlic clove
sprig of fresh thyme (I only had dried, so I used a tsp)
sprig of fresh rosemary
150ml dry white wine
200ml chicken stock
400g can chopped tomatoes
40g black olives, pitted (we didn't have any olives, so I just left them out)
15g capers, drained (again, we didn't have these either, so left them out)
salt and pepper
freshly cooked fettuccine, linguine or pasta shells

METHOD

• Heat 2 tsp oil and lightly brown the chicken pieces for 2 - 3 mins each side
• Remove from pan and set aside
• Add remaining 1 tsp oil to juices in the pan
• Add red onion and gently cook for 5 mins, stirring occasionally
• Add garlic and cook for a further 5 mins until beginning to brown
• Return chicken to the pan
• Add herbs, then pour in wine and allow to bubble for 1 - 2 minutes
• Add stock and tomatoes, then gently simmer for 15 mins
• Stir in olives and capers (if you have them!)
• Cook uncovered  for a further 5 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and sauce has thickened
• Remove (fresh) herbs and season with salt and pepper
• Serve over freshly cooked pasta (500g dry pasta)

This was WAY yummier than I expected and I really loved the chicken with the tomato!  It was a lot easier to make than I thought as well, so that was a bonus!  Definitely one I shall make again in the future, because you all know how much I love pasta.

Recipe Inspiration: Everyday Cookbook: Low Fat (2006), edited by Gina Steer, p114

Arroz Con Pollo (Mexican Chicken & Rice)

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

Tender Beef Brisket

I've been putting off writing about the brisket I made, and I'm not entirely sure why.  I think I'm getting a bit tired of writing.  Not tired of cooking, just the writing bit.  It takes me about half an hour to do each post, and I've been too busy cooking to sit down and write about it! ;)  Plus, I often write when the TV is on in the background etc. and I've been finding that way too hard... so I need to make time to sit down without TV, just with some good music playing softly so I can concentrate on what I'm saying.  Otherwise it's all jumbled and can easily not make sense!!

Anyway, back to the food.  Brisket is a cut of beef (from the neck, I believe) where there is a lot of marbling in the meat, so you have to cook it looong and sloooow so that it melts the marbling stuff and the meat falls apart.  I've mostly associated brisket with Jewish cooking in the past, and I've never cooked it before and had no idea where to start.  I think this Jewish stereotype comes from The Big Bang Theory possibly, where Howard's mom is legendary for her brisket.

I searched on Pinterest for brisket recipes, and came up with two possibilities I could use.  First was one that used an entire bottle of ketchup mixed with a packet of onion soup, and baked slowly for 4 hours.  The second one is the one I used.  I chose it because I liked that it used a range of ingredients (while still being simple), and I didn't trust the simplicity of the first one.

INGREDIENTS

1 brisket (we used 1.1kg, which is smaller than the original recipe suggested, but it was still good - lots of sauce!  They said around 1.8kg)

2 large onions

2 medium carrots

10 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole

2 cups tomato juice

1 cup red wine

1 cup beef stock

salt and pepper

baking paper and tin foil

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
• Season the brisket with salt and pepper and place in a LARGE glass/ceramic oven proof dish (9x13 size, the original recipe suggests)
• Top with diced onion, carrots, and garlic cloves, and sprinkle with some more salt and pepper
• Pour over tomato juice, beef stock and wine, making sure it comes up at least halfway on the brisket; if not, add some more broth(the size we used was small, the sauce covered the whole thing! LOL)
• Cover with a rectangle of baking paper that sits just inside the edges of the pan
• Cover the dish tightly with tin foil
• Put in the oven and leave for 3 & 1/2 to 4 hours
• Remove from the oven and take off the covers carefully (watch out - the sauce bubbles madly!)
• Use tongs/fork to make sure the meat is tender (it will come apart easily along the grain of the meat if it is!), and cut into 4 or 5 manageable chunks (if brisket was whole to begin with) and let cool slightly
• Pour the sauce into a saucepan and cook at a high simmer for 5 - 10 mins over medium-high heat, to cook off any remaining alcohol, and to reduce and thicken the sauce for more concentrated flavours, stirring occasionally
• Mix 3 tablespoons cornflour with 3 tablespoons cold water, and add to the sauce to thicken more if necessary
• Put the sauce and brisket back together, and serve!

So this turned out like a casserole, and it was delicious.  We ate it with potato bake and steamed green vegetables - broccoli and peas.  In the sauce, the wine wasn't overpowering or anything, and the garlic cloves were like little nuggets of gold hidden among the meat!  The onion and carrot was a nice change in texture, and the meat itself melted in my mouth.  Delicious!  Going to make this again if we ever get another cheap cut of brisket!!

Recipe Inspiration: http://tummyrumblr.tumblr.com/post/4988668577/pimpin-aint-easy

Chicken Parmesan Meatloaf

Another recipe that appears repeatedly on www.pinterest.com is for chicken parmesan (or chicken parmigiana) which is essentially a chicken breast, crumbed, baked (or fried) and covered with a tomato (marinara) sauce, and grated parmesan cheese, then grilled.  This was a dish my mum and I used to order a lot at one of our regular "haunts" when we lived in Malaysia.  Something we never made or ate at home.

Anyway, all the recipes I saw for the chicken breast version looked long and convoluted, with many steps.  However, I'm all for simple, quick and easy, so when I saw a meatloaf version of chicken parmigiana, I was sold on the idea.  All that remained was to find somewhere that sold (or would make me) some minced/ground chicken.  Luckily there's still an old fashioned butchery in a neighbouring town who were more than happy to help me in my quest; heck, they even made the mince fresh especially for me!  :)  No such quality service like that in your supermarket butcher section, that's for sure! 

Meatloaf tends to have a bad reputation in general and I'm not sure why.  It's quite yummy, in all its' forms really.  Served with boiled potatoes and steamed greens, it's a great meal.  Or in winter, with mashed potato and gravy for some good comfort food.  I have even seen a recipe for meatloaf cupcakes?!  SAY WHAAAAAAT.  I'm going to try this one day.  Perfect little savoury bites.  Omigoodness.

INGREDIENTS

500g chicken mince

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 egg

1 small onion, finely diced

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup pasta sauce (tomato/marinara - homemade or store bought)

1/2 cup cheese (for the top... I just used Edam)

METHOD

•  Preheat the oven to 180 deg C
• Line meatloaf tin with baking paper
• Combine the ground chicken, egg, breadcrumbs, thyme, oregano, basil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese in a large bowl
• Mix well, but try not to over-handle it (it can get tough)
• Put the mixture in the meatloaf tin
• Top with pasta sauce
• Bake, uncovered, for 40-45 minutes
• Take out and sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup cheese on top
• Bake again until cheese is golden and melted
• Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving

 

This recipe has ended up in my "favourite recipes" book already, and I've only made it once!  While I have to go out of my way to get the chicken mince, and also only use 1/2 a cup of pasta sauce (leaving me with the remainder of the jar to find a use for), I fully don't mind - it's 100% worth it!!  This meatloaf was amazing.  The tomato sauce and cheesy topping works beautifully with the herbs in the meat, and arghhhh I just cannot explain how delicious it was! 

Just go and make it for yourself!!  Om nom nom...!

Recipe Inspiration: http://joelens.blogspot.co.nz/2010/06/chicken-parmesan-meatloaf.html

Big Batch of Spaghetti

I was going to try making mi goreng from scratch for lunch, but decided we didn't have enough fresh veges to make it a worthwhile stirfry.  So then I decided I really felt like a big bowl of pasta in tomato sauce.  I set about making a sauce, based loosely on a recipe (see bottom of this post) I found on Pinterest a while ago.  It's almost a version of the vodka cream sauce, but without the vodka.  But mostly, I just made it up as I went along!

Serves 5 - 6 (it makes A LOT!)

INGREDIENTS

1 can whole peeled tomatoes (drained half the sauce they were in)

1 can tomato puree

2 tablespoons tomato paste

a squirt of tomato sauce

1/2 cup strong chicken stock

1 big teaspoon crushed garlic

1 big onion, diced

2 tablespoons oil

2 tablespoons butter

garlic salt (to taste)

oregano (dried or fresh)

basil (dried or fresh)

1/4 tsp chilli powder (to taste)

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup grated cheese

2 tablespoons cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water (to thicken)

spaghetti, cooked according to packet instructions to al dente 

METHOD

• Fill a pot with salted water and cook the spaghetti to al dente 
• Meanwhile, heat oil and butter in a pan, add garlic and onion and saute until tender
• Add chicken stock and simmer for a couple of minutes
• Add drained tomatoes, tomato puree, tomato paste, tomato sauce, basil, oregano and garlic salt.  Simmer for 10 minutes
• Mix in sour cream, cheese and cornflour/water mixture, simmer for another 5 minutes, stirring continuously
• Drain cooked pasta, and stir through the sauce
• Serve immediately, with cheese to sprinkle on top

It certainly satisfied my craving for a big, glorious bowl of spaghetti.  And of course, it's fun to eat!  Even if you do end up with a red ring of sauce around your mouth, like I always seem to! :D  The other good thing is that this dish doesn't sit heavy in your stomach - you feel full, but not disgustingly bloated or anything.  :)

Recipe Inspiration: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/09/pasta-with-tomato-cream-sauce/

AMAZING Pasta Sauce

Tonight for dinner, I made a variation of the Spaghetti with Vodka Cream Sauce that I made earlier in the blog.  Having cream that needed using, and feeling somewhat confident having made the basic recipe a couple of times, I decided to try and play around a little bit.  The result?

THE MOST AMAZING PASTA EVER!

Ok, so I'm not being terribly modest, but hell.  That was some damn good pasta!  I don't think I'll EVER make the basic Vodka Cream Sauce again!  I'm going to do it this new way from now on, because it was so good.  It was terribly refreshing, not heavy sitting in your stomach, and it's vegetarian (which is a bonus - cheap, and you don't need meat at every meal - sometimes it's nice to have a change up... after all, we are omnivores!).  

Another good thing is that it has lots of vegetables in it, but you barely even notice!

INGREDIENTS

dry pasta (enough for 4 - 5 + serves), cooked al dente, drained, kept warm - I used penne tonight!

2 tbsp oil

2 medium onions, diced

1 & 1/2 tsp salt, divided

a pinch of dried chilli powder (to taste - but be frugal, trust me)

1 generous teaspoon of crushed garlic

1 cup vodka

1/2 cup vegetable or chicken stock (I made it quite strong for extra flavour)

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can whole tomatoes

1/2 cup cream

diced capsicum (bell peppers)

1 medium carrot, grated

cherry tomatoes, halved

mushrooms (optional - I fried these on the side in a bit of butter for my Dad to add to his sauce - I personally don't like mushrooms)

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

2 tbsp cornflour mixed in 2 tbsp cold water to thicken (if necessary, add at the end)

shaved or grated parmesan cheese, for on top!

METHOD

• Heat oil, add onion and sauté until tender.
• Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, chilli, and garlic; sauté 1 minute.
• Add vodka (when cooking with alcohol, there is always the chance of it catching on fire, so be very careful); bring to a boil
• Reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes or until liquid is reduced by about half
• Stir in 1 tsp salt, stock, and cans of tomatoes (you may want to smoosh the whole tomatoes up a bit as it simmers); bring to a boil
• Add diced capsicum, grated carrot and halved cherry tomatoes.  Season with dried basil, oregano and garlic salt.
• Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes, tasting the sauce and adjusting seasoning if necessary
• Mix in cream, stirring constantly while cooking for another 2 minutes
• If the sauce is a little thin, mix the cornflour and water and add to the sauce, simmering for a few more minutes while stirring constantly
• Serve immediately on al dente pasta, with cheese to garnish.

It smelled and looked so good, I wanted to eat ASAP and I forgot to take a picture on the bench... hence why you can see my legs haha!

Then once you've eaten this pasta, come back to my blog and thank me for introducing you to the best sauce of your life! ;)  It's so easy.  It may look like a lot of steps, but it's really not, and I've kept it as simple as possible! :)  I prepared all my diced veges first so I could just chuck them in as needed, so that keeps it easy. :)

Happy cooking!

Chicken, Tomato and Parmesan Pasta Bake

Oops, I cheated again.  HA!  OK so I never promised outright that I would always 100% make stuff from scratch,  but that was kind of my goal on my culinary journey.  However, when there is a jar of stuff in the pantry to use as a recipe base, you use it.  You don't just let it sit there forever.

So I had a jar of "Creamy Tomato and Parmesan Pasta Bake" from Heinz (they were on special at the supermarket one day, so we thought "why not" and got one to try).  Lemme just say, when I cracked it open, it didn't smell too good; it wasn't off, I think it was just the parmesan aroma haha!  You can tell I'll never be one for fine dining huh?  I've put a pic of the jar below, so you can see which one it was.

Anyway, I had found a recipe online for a chicken pasta bake to make with this jar, which was all well and good.  Except when it came time to make the pasta bake, silly little me didn't read how much pasta to cook.  HA!  It said 200g or something of pasta for this 500g jar of sauce (plus the chicken).  Out of habit, I cooked 500g of pasta.  -_-  Oops.  

When I realised, I thought "oh snap - there's not going to be enough sauce in that jar to cover TWICE as much pasta, AND chicken AND the onion I'd added - we're gonna have a dry pasta bake - yuck".  DOH!  So I improvised.  Luckily, although we had run out of canned diced tomatoes (which would have been a lovely juicy addition), we still had some cans of tomato puree.  So I chucked that in too.  And you know what?  It worked well!  Yay me! :)

Serves about 6, I guess - we had 3 main meals, and 3 meal sized left overs too... yum!  One thing I have to complain about though, is that it made & used a LOT of dishes.  Poor Dad, he had to do them all haha!

INGREDIENTS

500g cooked penne pasta (al dente)

500g chicken breast (skinless), diced

1 onion, sliced

500g jar of Heinz Creamy Tomato & Parmesan Pasta Bake

1 can tomato puree

Grated cheese (about 1 cup?)

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.
• Put the pasta on to cook to al dente (as per packet instructions). Drain, and set aside.
• Meanwhile, brown the onion and chicken in a fry pan with a lil bit of oil.
• When it's cooked, toss in the pasta bake sauce, and the can of tomato puree.
• Mix the pasta into the chicken sauce, making sure all the pasta has some sauce on/around it.
• Pour the pasta into an oven safe casserole dish, and sprinkle over grated cheese.
• Bake for 20 mins in a moderate oven (180 deg C) or until the cheese is golden

I may or may not have got a bit distracted and let my pasta bake overcook a little last night... but I just pulled out the blackest bits of pasta and threw them away haha.  It still tasted ok!

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.foodinaminute.co.nz/Recipes/Chicken-Tomato-and-Parmesan-Pasta-Bake

Devilled Sausages

Somehow, we ended up with an excess of sausages in our freezer, needing to be used.  I was like "Hmmm.  Sausages.  That's a bit boring." but then I remembered that there was the possibility of devilled sausages.  The day I decided to make this started out as overcast and miserable looking, perfect weather for turning the oven on for comfort food.  (Alas, the day warmed up and by the time we ate dinner, the house was like a sauna!).

Anyway, I didn't have a "go-to" family recipe for devilled sausages (nor did I have a packet of recipe base seasoning that I've used before).  I knew I liked the recipe because of the tart tangyness so decided to just google and see what it came up with.  I picked the recipe that looked the easiest (which was the first one...score!), with the simplest ingredients that I knew we had, and the cool thing about devilled sausages is that it uses all pantry staples - so you can make it from scratch even with bare looking cupboards!  Win!  And lordy, it was FAST to prepare. 

The best part is, it tasted AMAZING, if I do say so myself.  My parents and I were fighting over who would get to eat the leftovers for lunch the next couple of days.  This is a recipe that is also being honoured by going straight in my "Favourite Recipes" book.  It's a new family favourite, and I was so proud to have made it from scratch. :)

INGREDIENTS

600g sausages (pork or chicken, the original recipe suggests)

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 clove garlic, crushed (or pre-crushed garlic, whatever you've got!)

2 onions, thinly sliced

1 large apple, thinly sliced (I used braeburn - nice and tangy)

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

1/4 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup BBQ flavoured sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons malt vinegar

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180 deg C (aka moderate oven).
• Cook the sausages (if they are pre-cooked sausages, you can skip that), cool, and chop into pieces.  Place in a casserole dish.
• Heat oil in a frypan, and fry the garlic, onions and apple until soft.
• Mix the soft garlic, onions and apple with the can of tomatoes.
• Add tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, malt vinegar and brown sugar, and stir thoroughly.
• Pour the sauce over the sausages.
• Cover casserole and cook for 25 - 30 minutes.
• Serve with mashed potato or rice and steamed veges.

I'm not normally a huge fan of chunky tomato, and even when it's cooked in sauce I'll often pull bits aside, but this sauce was so amazingly delicious, I ate every single tomatoey morsel on my plate.

So, in advance, I shall say, you are WELCOME.  This recipe, so easy, mind blowing.  YUM.

Recipe inspiration: http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Devilled-Sausages-L5797.html

Spaghetti with Vodka Cream Sauce

I think this is the recipe that started it all for me.  Because I kept hearing about this sauce, and how it had vodka (something that tends to stick in ones mind!) and cream and tomatoes and you just serve it with al dente pasta, and BAM it blows you away because it is so AMAZING.

They were right.  It was delicious.  And it is DEFINITELY going in my special book of favourite recipes (trust me, this is a real honour!). 

The beautiful thing about this recipe, is that you can do SO much more with it; it's a perfect base for all sorts of variations.  Let your imagination run WILD!  Also, ingredients don't have to be exact, like chill out, if you don't have fresh basil, use dried.  If you don't have basil at all, try oregano.  Cooking is FLEXIBLE! :)

It serves 3 - 4.  Everything I cook will probably serve about that much, because we are a family of 3.  :)  I'm not gonna bother with nutritional info, that's way too involved haha... and I'm lazy.

INGREDIENTS

dry thin spaghetti pasta (OR any other pasta, enough for 3-4 serves), cooked al dente, drained, kept warm

1 tbsp (olive) oil - I used canola/rice bran oil - whatever you have is cool.

1/2 cup finely chopped onion (OR 2 to 3 shallots)

3/4 tsp salt, divided

a pinch of dried chilli powder (to taste - be frugal, trust me)

1 garlic clove, minced (OR the equivalent approx crushed garlic, that's cool too!)

1/2 cup vodka

1/4 cup vegetable or chicken broth

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1/4 cup cream

3 tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil - or dried, up to you, whatever is in the cupboard!

shaved or grated parmesan cheese, for on top!

METHOD

• Heat oil in a large pan over medium heat, and sauté onion until tender.
• Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, chilli, and garlic; sauté 1 minute.
• Add vodka (when cooking with alcohol, there is always the chance of it catching on fire, so be very careful); bring to a boil. 
• Reduce heat, and simmer 3 minutes or until liquid is reduced by about half. 
• Stir in scant 1/2 teaspoon salt, broth, and tomatoes and dried basil (if you're not using fresh); bring to a boil. 
• Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. 
• Remove skillet from heat and let cool slightly.  Now at this point, the original recipe I followed says to use a stick blender to puree, or to take it out and use a conventional blender to puree before returning to the pan for finishing touches.  But personally, I don't mind a chunky lumpy tomato sauce.  So I skipped this step.
• Mix in cream, then cook the sauce for 2 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat. Stir in cooked pasta and fresh basil (if you're using it)
• Taste the pasta and adjust seasoning if needed. 
• Serve immediately with copious amounts of cheese, because who doesn't love cheese.  If you don't have parmesan, no stress, any cheese is good pretty much!  We usually just have Edam. 

Et voila!  Amazeballs pasta.  YUM.  Unfortunately, when I first made this, I wasn't planning on having a food blog, and I didn't take photos, but I promise next time I make it, I will take a photo and add it to this post.  But pretty much it just looks like a bowl of heaven. 

Now I'm going to give credit to the website I got this recipe off, as the above is only a slight variation of her instructions... and I don't plagiarise.  I just set the method out in an easier way to read, and altered it to what I actually did as opposed to what was written in the original.  :)  It's here: http://www.6bittersweets.com/2010/11/boy-approved-spiked-pasta-spaghetti.html