Chicken Thyme Bake (adapted from Jamie Oliver)

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1kg chicken thigh fillets

1 large turkish bread (Helga’s brand size)

1 medium lemon

Fresh thyme, leaves stripped

Olive oil

Salt

Method

Preheat the oven to about 150℃ fan-forced (depending on your oven).

Line the base of a large baking tray with 2” chunks of Turkish bread. Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle thyme leaves and salt over the bread.

Cover bread with chicken fillets to stop it from burning. Juice a lemon and drizzle over the chicken. Drizzle over more olive oil and add more thyme leaves.

Place in the oven for about 20min. Check and turn over the chicken fillets, cook for another 10min until chicken is done and the bread smells delicious.

Take the chicken out of the tray and rest, return the bread to the oven until it is caramelised and crispy but not burnt - around 15min. 

Serve with plenty of salad and a good mayo. Pray for your arteries.

***Can also lay bacon rashers over the chicken to stop them from drying out - but use less olive oil.

Christmas Potato Salad with Dill, Capers & Pickles

Christmas Potato Salad with Dill, Capers & Pickles

One quantity is enough for family of 5 as a large side. Double the dressing and 1.5 x the potatoes makes about 15 portions as a small side for a buffet.

Ingredients:

2 small orange sweet potato, peeled & cut into 1.5cm cubes

Olive oil to toss

6 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 2cm cubes

6 rashers bacon, chopped

Dressing:

125g mayonnaise

100g light sour cream

¾ cup (120g) gherkins, finely chopped (or dill cucumbers)

1.5 tablespoons dill, finely chopped

3 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons baby capers (or large capers, chopped)

Black pepper

1. Toss the sweet potato in olive oil and bake at 150 degrees fan forced until golden and starting to brown. Set aside to cool.
2. Cover the potatoes with cold water and bring to the boil, cook until tender, drain and allow to cool.
3. Cook the bacon in a pan with a little olive oil, until as crisp as you like, drain on paper towel and cool.
4. Combine the dressing ingredients in a bowl, then gently mix with the cooled potatoes and place in serving bowl. Sprinkle bacon over the top and serve.

Can prepare the day before but the textures are nicest when it hasn’t been chilled for too long and is mixed just before serving. Either way it is pretty delish! D's favourite holiday food.

Almond & Rum Fruit Cake (gluten free)

~Almond & Rum fruit cake~

adapted from Taste.com

In a bowl, combine :

2 cups almond meal (can substitute part hazelnut meal)

3/4 teaspoon bicarb soda

2 cups total dried fruit

> we used 1/2 cup dried apricots diced, 1/2 cup prunes diced, 1 cup mixed dried fruit

In a second bowl whisk together with a fork :

3 eggs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

zested rind of 1 orange

1 cap Bundaberg rum

1 tablespoon rice malt syrup

Stir the egg mix through the dry ingredients to combine. Spoon into a baking paper lined loaf tin (8 x 19cm, or thereabouts).

Cover with alfoil and bake at 150 Celcius fan forced for 35 minutes. Take the alfoil off, turn the tin around and bake another 15 minutes. Test with a skewer and if it comes out clean it's cooked.

Remove from the oven and cool in the tin 5 minutes or longer.

Cherry Ripe Icecream

We almost ran out of fuel near Peachester, returning from a late summer weekend at the beach, so stopped at a fruit shop for some fresh lychees as a pick-me-up. They also made gelati in yummy flavours and we needed that - the boys chose Cherry Ripe. There was a lot of discussion on the ingredients, so over the following weekends D experimented with making our own and this is the latest, closest version of deliciousness.

~Cherry Ripe Icecream~

1. Make the cherry swirl :
1 kg frozen pitted cherries, cut in half
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tab brandy or choice of liqueur
1 teaspoon gelatine
Heat the cherries, sugar, water and brandy until cherries are cooked. strain off the cherries and reduce the liquid by half. Stir through the gelatine to dissolve and set aside to cool in fridge.

2. When the cherry mix is cold, make the icecream.
Beat the following in a mixmaster until smooth and thickened :
600ml cream
1 tin condensed milk
250g cream cheese
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

3. Fold through the icecream mix :
1 cup dessicated coconut
180g packet Cherry Ripe chocolates, cut into small pieces
168g packet Flake chocolate, crumbled (maybe try grated dark chocolate instead)

4. Swirl the cold cherry mix through the icecream mix.

5. Pour into a container and freeze. Drizzle melted dark chocolate over the top and serve.

Thai Beef Salad

Salad:
500g eye fillet / rump steak, trimmed of all visible fat
1 tbsp peanut oil
200g of rocket or mixed lettuce leaves, washed and drained
2 Lebanese cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp mint leaves, finely sliced

Dressing:
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small red chili, seeds removed and chopped finely
2 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
1 tbsp peanut oil
Mint and coriander leaves, to taste

Season the meat with salt and pepper and brown in peanut oil in a nonstick pan over high heat. Rest the meat for 4-5 minutes.

Slice the meat thinly across the grain and place in a large serving bowl. Add rocket or mixed lettuce leaves, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and mint.

To make the dressing, place all ingredients in a food processor until well blended. Toss the beef and salad with the dressing and serve.

Other salad ingredients to suit taste can be added eg, red onion, shallots etc.

tribute to Mango Weis bars

something like a Mango Weis bar :

Ingredients :

3 large very ripe bananas

2 large mangos

½ can condensed milk

300ml cream

½ tsp vanilla bean paste

Peel and cube the bananas and mangos into roughly ½ inch cubes; place in a single layer on a baking paper lined tray and freeze.

Place the frozen fruit in a food processor and process until smooth and creamy; you may need 2 batches, and to scrape the sides down a few times.

Line a deep tray or cake tin with baking paper and spread the frozen fruit mix to a depth of about 2 cm; freeze.

Whip the cream, condensed milk and vanilla until firm peaks form; spread in a thin layer over the frozen fruit mix and re-freeze.

Slice into small slices. Lie in a hammock. Eat. Yum.

Autumn Skirlie

This is an adaptation of an old Scottish dish. We've eaten it a lot lately in the cooler evenings, rushing into the house after 6pm five nights a week and juggling homework, vision therapy, showers and sibling rivalry... somewhere there I try to feed us more than vegemite toast and this fits the bill pretty well.

The boys love it, and reheated with scrambled eggs in front of the fire the next morning, it's pretty close to wonderful.

~Autumn Skirlie~
(serves 3 as a main with a bit leftover)

4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped (or spring onions, leeks etc)
2 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
1.5 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves
about 1/3 cup boiling water?
1 cup tinned red salmon, drained and flaked
1 large lemon, zested and juiced (2 if they're small)
2 large handfuls spinach, washed and roughly shredded
(or any other greens - kale, par-cooked broccoli, red lettuce are all good)
freshly ground black pepper


Heat the oil on low in a non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and cook until transparent.

Add the thyme leaves and oats and stir well. Cook on a lowish heat, tossing every few minutes, until the oats are beginning to colour -  about 5-10 minutes.

Add the lemon zest to the boiling water and pour over, stirring well and cook a couple more minutes - the oats will soften slightly but keep their shape. Add more boiling water if needed.

Stir in the salmon, lemon juice and black pepper, then pile the spinach on top and put the lid on to steam the spinach. When the spinach has cooked down, stir it through and serve - preferrably in front of a fire!

Cumquat Cordial

The original recipe for this was in ounces and pints and came from a woman who lived near us; her life was a story of resilience and hard work, intelligence and cheerfulness. As time passes and I learn more about life's challenges, I find her even more inspirational. Mrs O'C gave us recipes and conversation; challenged us to think critically but act pragmatically; loaned us boxes and boxes of books and encouraged us to believe that we could achieve whatever we set our minds toward.

As my boys made their own version of Cumquat cordial recently I thought of Mrs O'C and what a wonderful woman she is. My parents brought an enormous bag of cumquats a week ago so D helped me juice them and we made the real thing - it's tangy and sweet and a hundred times better than any commercial mix.

I've removed the sodium benzoate preservative, which means you need to store it in the fridge/freezer. The best cumquats for this are the round sourer Calomondin variety - they are also best for Cumquat jam.


~Cumquat Cordial~
2 1/2 cups cumquat juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 cups water
900g white sugar
1 teaspoon citric acid

To juice the cumquats, halve them and squeeze over a seive in a bowl. Reserve the seeds and freeze them for use in setting jam.

Heat the water and sugar in a saucepan and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Dissove the citric acid in a little hot water and stir in.

Stir in the juices while the sugar water is still warm, then bottle in sterilised bottles. Store in the fridge or freeze until needed.

Once makes almost 2 litres of cordial.

Quince Paste/ Membrillo

It's a year to the day since last posting; we've had lots of food memories with friends since then but none have made it past my folder into blogland. Running too hard with work, kids and life. But there have been exciting discoveries - sweet potato leaves are a fabulous substitute for spinach or silverbeet. Truly.

Now quince time has come again, and we are making quince paste. This recipe has evolved from combining several others and is made in the microwave - no possibility of burning. Very easy.

~Quince Paste~
quinces
white sugar

We make reasonably large amounts, so say 8 quinces and about 600g sugar. Wrap each quince in alfoil, place in a baking paper lined tray, and roast in a medium oven until they are tender. Remove and cool in the alfoil.

Unwrap quinces, peel back off the skin and work out the core and any lumpier granules around the core; discard these. Push the flesh through a seive with your hands and a large spoon, then weigh the seived quince.

Measure out half the weight of sugar, so for 1.2kg seived quince you will need 600g sugar. Stir quince and sugar together in a large microwave proof bowl (twice the volume of the quince+sugar) and cook on Medium for 10 minute bursts, stirring between each. Continue cooking until it is thick enough - when you pull a spoon across the bottom of the bowl it will leave a distinct trail.

When it is ready, spread the quince flat in a baking paper lined tray and place it somewhere to dry. We use the fan oven with the fan turned on and no or very low temperature, but have also tried a dehydrator and under glass in a sunny spot. A solar dehydrator would be perfect, or the back window of your car in the sun.

Test it to see when it is set, then store wrapped in alfoil in an airtight container.

Homemade quince paste is more granular than the commercial product, but the smell is divine and the colour deep ruby red. Perfect for autumn picnics.

Lemon Yoghurt Cake with Passionfruit syrup

Adapted from a Donna Hay recipe. We made this recently to use the lemon and passionfruit glut, and it was delicious - beautiful texture. Would be good for afternoon tea or dessert.

~Lemon Yoghurt Cake with Passionfruit Syrup~

125g butter at room temperature (cool climate!)
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup thick plain yoghurt
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
2 1/2 cups SR flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

syrup:
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup water
2/3 cup passionfruit pulp

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Sift flour and baking powder together. Stir juice, rind and yoghurt together.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add a little flour at the end to stop the mix curdling.

In a large bowl fold the dry and wet ingredients through the creamed butter mixture and combine so it is mixed well. Spoon into a 23cm round cake tin or large ring tin (I used a large bundt tin) and bake for 40 minutes or until skewer is clean. I covered it loosely with alfoil for the first 20 minutes, and then it needed only a further 8 minutes uncovered to finish.

Leave the cake in the tin for 5 min to cool, then turn out on a rack and cover loosely with a cloth. I left the bundt tin upended over the top of the cake, which allowed space to cool but kept it warm.

For the syrup: combine ingredients in a saucepan and heat on low heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Simmer 4-5 minutes until the syrup thickens.

Pour half the hot syrup over the cake and serve with cream or icecream and the remaining syrup.

D rated it 95 out of 100 and T gave it a 9 out of 10.

Frangipane Tart

This began with an apple flan from the Woman's Weekly a long time ago. I've substituted pear, nectarine, peach and plums, and all are good. Figs look beautiful but somehow the taste doesn't work. I think quince could look spectacular, must remember to try it when they are in season again.

~Frangipane Tart~
350g frozen puff pastry
1.5kg Golden Delicious apples or similar amount of fruit to substitute
100g ground almonds or hazelnuts
7 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
375ml cream
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 tablespoons brandy
3-4 tablespoons flour

Butter a 12" flan dish (in future I'll try a rectangular dish to cut squares) and line with pastry.

Peel and core apples and cut into 1cm thick slices, or halve and stone plums/nectarines etc. Mix fruit with lemon juice, zest, and 2 tab sugar.

Sprinkle the pastry base with almond meal and arrange fruit evenly on top. Bake at 200 degrees C for 15-20 minutes.

Whisk cream, eggs, vanilla, brandy, 5 tab sugar and flour together until smooth - I use a stab mixer. Pour over the fruit and cook 15-20 minutes until the centre isn't wobbly and the bumps are starting to colour.

Serve warm or cool, with cream.

Chicken (& Lamb Shanks) with 39 Garlics

We ate this a few nights ago, on a cool rainy evening, in an effort to use the beautiful purple striped garlic from early summer; this Italian hardneck variety doesn't seem to store for long, whereas the Australian white keeps well.

It's an adaption of an Ian Parmenter recipe from the mid 90's. He used red wine rather than oil for the base, and I prefer stock. Unsuprisingly he didn't use lamb shanks, but we had a few on hand and they were delicious; sticky, rich and sweet with garlic. I think it would be fine to substitute beef, lamb or pork for the meat.

~Chicken & Lamb Shanks with 39 Garlics~
1 medium onion, chopped roughly
slurp olive oil
2 lamb shanks
6 chicken legs
500ml chicken stock
39 unskinned cloves garlic
500ml chicken stock
rosemary and thyme sprigs
(6 juniper berries crushed - I left these out)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
100ml milk
2 tab cornflour

Heat the oil on low and cook the onion until golden and sweet. Remove from the pan and turn up the heat. Brown the lamb shanks and chicken legs all over and remove.

Use some stock to deglaze the pan and pour this into a crockpot or casserole dish. Place all of the ingredients (except the milk and flour) in the crockpot/casserole and cover.

Cook for 6-8 hours in the crockpot, or 1-2 hours at 140 degrees C in the oven (casserole) - or until the meat is tender and falls away from the bone.

Remove the meat and bones, and garlic, to a large serving bowl and keep warm. Strain the liquid and simmer this in a pan until it is reduced to half its volume. Squeeze the pulp from the garlic cloves into the reduced liquid. Mix the cornflour and milk until smooth, then thicken the reduction with this, and simmer for several minutes to cook the flour.

Pour the thickened reduced stock over the meat and serve with jacket potatoes and lots of crunchy steamed veges.

Lemon Meringue Slice

Jules adapted this from a Woman's Weekly recipe last year and we have passed it on to many people since. The topping is crunchy-sweet, the filling smooth and tart and the base very short - most probably good over vanilla icecream or with clotted cream, but we have it for decadent smokos. It doesn't last long around here!


~Lemon Meringue Slice~
125g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 eggs, separated
1 cup self raising flour, sifted
1/2 to 3/4 cup lemon butter
1/2 cup caster sugar extra
1 cup desiccated coconut

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line an 18x28cm slice tin with baking paper.

Cream the butter and 1/2 cup sugar, then add the lemon zest and egg yolks and beat well.

Mix in the flour; it will be a very soft mixture. Spread over the base of the tin with floured fingers and bake for 10 minutes until golden.

Remove the base from the oven and allow to cool while you make the meringue. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar gradually until it is all dissolved and you can't feel any granules in the mix. Fold in the coconut gently.

Flatten the base with your hands if it is too puffy, then spread with lemon butter to cover. Spread the meringue over the top, starting at the edges and working inwards.

Turn the oven down to 150 degrees and bake for 20 minutes until meringue has golden peaks. Check half way through and adjust the temperature down if needed - we covered it with alfoil for the first 10 minutes to stop it burning in my thermostat-challenged oven.

Cool in the tin, then lift out using the baking paper. Cut into small squares on a board when it is completely cooled.

Corned Beef Curry

This was something we had often as children, to use up the leftover corned (or other) beef. It's sweet and salty comfort food. The approximate recipe is something like this :

~Corned Beef Curry~
2 double handfuls of cubed cooked corned beef
slurp olive oil
about 1 tablespoon Keens dry curry powder
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, sliced in rounds
1 stick celery, sliced
leftover veges, eg capsicum
hot water to cover
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dessert spoon brown sugar
1 large handful sultanas
1 green apple, cored and diced
flour and water to thicken

Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan or frypan and fry off the onion, carrot, celery and any other veges. Add the curry powder and stir through.

Cover with hot water, add salt, sugar, sultanas and apple and allow to simmer for about 20 min. Add the meat and allow to simmer for another 20 minutes or so.

At this stage you can turn off the curry and leave to sit until ready to thicken before serving; the flavours will develop if it sits a while.

Before serving, reheat the curry till simmering; mix a tablespoon of flour to a paste with a little water and stir through; stir whilst simmering for several minutes to cook the flour and thicken the curry.

Serve with rice and lemon juice. This quantity is approx 4 smallish meals.

Zucchini baked with Fetta and herbs

This is an adaptation from Paul Gayler. We ate it a lot last summer, and have just begun to bring it to the table again with the glut of new season zucchini. He makes it with a yellow tomato sauce which I didn't care for, so we eat this on its own, as a side, or as a delicious leftover the next day.


~Zucchini baked with Fetta & Herbs~
8 small to medium zucchini about 2.5cm thick (or the equivalent - this is particulary good with golden button squash)
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed with a little salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
100g crumbled fetta
2 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
black pepper

If you wish to follow Paul Gayler using small baton-like zucchini, slice off their ends and remove the centres with an apple corer (easier than it sounds). Or if, like me, your zucchini have grown past baton size or are the round type, halve and scoop out the flesh. Either way, chop the scooped out flesh into a small dice.

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add shallots, garlic and zucchini flesh, then cook down until tender and a little reduced. Turn into a bowl and cool a little, then add the cheese, breadcrumbs, herbs and pepper and mix well. Extra herbs are always good.

Par cook the zucchini shells in the microwave if you wish (I do this as my oven is a dud and seems to burn without cooking). Stuff baton zucchini with your fingers and a teaspoon, or the large halved type by piling the filling high.

Paul then grills the oiled and stuffed batons under a hot grill, and this is quite delicious, but generally I bake them in a moderate oven for a while until they are nicely browned and smell good.

Chilli Apple Jelly

This is only a mild heat, so add more chilli if you wish. I like it with avacado on thick toast, or with cheese. It would make a good glaze on roast meat or veg too.


~Chilli Apple Jelly~

3.2kg cooking apples
2 cups lemon juice, plus pips
lemon rind in strips
2.5L cold water
about 2.8 kg sugar
5 teaspoons chilli flakes

Roughly cut up the apples - skin, core and all. Add water, lemon juice, rind and pips. Bring to the boil in a heavy based pan, reduce the heat and simmer until the fruit is pulpy.

Pour the fruit and liquid into a "bag" made from tying up the corners of a clean cheesecloth or old linen teatowel, and hang to drain over a bowl until it stops dripping, about 3-4 hours or overnight. Do not squeeze the bag to force juice out, or the jelly will be cloudy.

Measure the juice and allow 250g sugar and 1/2 tsp of chilli flakes for every 250ml of juice. Place the juice, sugar and chilli flakes in a clean heavy based pan. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Reduce the heat to a slow boil and skim any scum off the surface - a lot of the chilli flakes will come out with the scum but the flavour will remain and there will still be enough to look pretty. Allow to boil for 15-20 minutes or until it jells on a cold plate, skimming regularly. If you let it boil too long it will begin to caramelise and you'll have toffee flavoured chilli apple jelly.

Remove the pan from the heat and leave to settle for a few minutes. Bottle hot in sterilised jars and store in the dark. Refrigerate after opening.

Jules' Chicken Soup

Jules' version of chicken soup, for me to remember :

Fry off minced garlic and ginger and onions in olive oil.

Add chicken stock** with some herbs - parsley, lemon thyme etc - and bring to a simmer.

Add pearl barley and puy lentils or French green lentils.

Add finecut carrot, celery, other root veg, potato. Simmer a while.

Add corn, beans, squash etc. Simmer a little more.

Add shredded spinach or silverbeet, and shredded roast chicken meat. Simmer another 10 min or until the barley and lentils are soft.

Serve. Great with a little sesame oil drizzled across the top. Or shredded hot salami crisped in the frypan.

** homemade chicken stock - cover roasted chicken bones, or bones from a home-roasted chook, with water and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently until any shreds of meat are falling off. Remove the bones and pick off any meat. Discard the bones & strain the stock. Finely shred the meat and return to the strained stock.

Yoghurt Banana Blueberry Cake

Adapted from a taste.com recipe. I've reduced the butter and sugar and added blueberries and coconut - and left it un-iced. We have a local blueberry farm where you can pick your own, and will be growing our own next season, otherwise I wouldn't use them. The yoghurt makes it tangy and the bananas keep it very moist.


~Yoghurt Banana Blueberry Cake~
80g butter
120g sugar
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
200g plain yoghurt
200g plain flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
large handful of blueberries
2-3 tabs shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line a ring tin with baking paper (or butter and flour if you wish).

Cream butter and sugar, then add eggs one at a time and beat well. I add a little flour with the eggs to stop the mixture curdling.

Mix the bananas and yoghurt together. Sift flour, cream of tartar and bicarb. Fold these two mixtures alternately into the butter/sugar/egg mix.

Fold through the blueberries and pour into the prepared cake tin. Sprinkle over the coconut and press in lightly.

Cover loosely with alfoil and bake about 30-40 minutes. Check for done-ness and leave the foil off for the last 5 minutes of cooking time, to brown the top. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out. Eat warm or cool. Freezes well.

Mather Street Tuna Pasta

The boys helped me create this recipe when we lived at Mather Street. T was only 4 but he chose what veges to add, and the result was delish.


~Mather Street Tuna Pasta~
6 single handfuls dry spiral pasta (can substitute cous cous)
4 large broccoli florets, cut small
1/2 large sweet potato, cubed into 1cm squares (sustitute pumpkin/zucchini/squash)
1 large tin tuna in oil
2 lemons, juiced and zested
2 finely sliced scallions
handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
black pepper
(parmesan to serve)

Cook pasta and drain cooking water into large serving bowl to warm the bowl.

Steam the veges, drain oil from tuna, then combine all ingredients in the (empty) serving bowl and toss well.

Serve with plenty of grated parmesan.

Roast Tomato & Chickpea Salad

This recipe is very quick, and at the height of summer, when tomatoes and basil are at their peak, it's delicious. It's a great side dish, or a quick main with some extra veges and heavy bread to serve.


~Roast Tomato & Chickpea Salad~
2 punnets cherry tomatoes, or equivalent other tomatoes
1 tin chickpeas, drained
150g fetta
large handful basil, torn

Cut tomatoes in half (or quarters if large tomatoes) and roast until they collapse.

Mix through chickpeas, fetta and basil and serve while warm.