Tag Archives: easy

Lemon Crumbed Chicken

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This delicious chicken recipe is one I’ve had for decades. It comes from a time when nobody worried about cream and butter. If you want to cut down on the cholesterol and calories just leave out the sauce. Having said that, what’s half a cup of cream between four people?

The recipe is easy to halve for two people and makes a perfect mid-week dinner served with a salad. Kids will probably like it without the sauce and in fact chicken breasts are so big these days you might find once you’ve sliced them here’s enough for more than four servings, especially a couple of small kids.

DSCF08584 chicken breasts
¼ cup lemon juice
½ cup dry white wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 Tbs vegetable oil
2 Tbs seasoned flour
1 egg beaten with 1 Tbs milk
½ cup dry breadcrumbs or Panko crumbs
2 Tbs ground almonds or cashews
1 tsp dry oregano
2 Tbs finely chopped parsley
1 Tbs finely grated lemon rind
1 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs oil, extra
2 tsp flour, extra|
½ cup cream
1 Tbs chopped parsley, extra
4 wedges of lemon

Hammer out the thicker part of the chicken with a meat mallet so breasts have an even thickness, then marinate in lemon juice, wine, oil, S and P for 2 hours. Make the ground nuts by whizzing them in a food processor. Mix breadcrumbs with ground nuts, oregano, parsley, lemon rind and Parmesan. Drain chicken, keeping marinade. Coat in the lightly seasoned flour, then the beaten egg and lastly the breadcrumb mixture . Press on well and if there’s time refrigerate until ready to cook.

Heat butter and extra oil in a non-stick frying pan over moderate heat and cook chicken on both sides until golden brown and cooked through. This will take about 7-8 minutes each side. Remove from pan and keep warm. Add extra flour to the pan and stir to cook. Add marinade and simmer for 1 minute, then cream and heat but don’t boil. Slice each chicken breast into 5-6 slices and arrange on serving plates. Spoon sauce over chicken and garnish with extra parsley and lemon wedges.

Serves 4

Cappuccino Puddings with Coffee Ice Cream

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These puddings are quick and easy and all the preparation can be done in advance. Make them in coffee cups or small ramekins and keep them for up to 24 hours in the fridge, covered, until you’re ready to cook them.

The puddings aren’t very sweet but the ice cream is, making a nice contrast. If you can’t be bothered making the ice cream, just serve the puddings with cream. The recipe serves six if you use smaller cups and is easy to double.

Unfortunately the ice cream started to melt before I took the photo, so it looks even more like a cappuccino!

unnamedCoffee ice cream:
300ml thick cream
½ of a 395g can condensed milk
2 Tbs instant coffee mixed with 1 Tbs boiling water
Puddings:
125g unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate, broken into squares
1 Tbs instant coffee mixed with 1 Tbs boiling water (see note)
4 eggs
2 Tbs plain flour

For the ice cream, whip cream with electric beaters until soft peaks form, then whip in the condensed milk and the coffee until thoroughly combined. Scrape into a plastic container with a lid and freeze for several hours or overnight.

For the puddings, lightly oil 4 to 6 coffee cups or small ramekins. Melt butter in microwave. Add chocolate and stir till dissolved, then mix in coffee mixture. Thoroughly beat eggs with a fork, then mix into chocolate mixture with flour. Divide between the coffee cups and refrigerate, covered, until serving time.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Bake puddings for 10-11 minutes until nicely risen. They will still be soft inside. Serve with a scoop of coffee ice cream on top.

Serves 4-6

Note: if preferred leave the coffee out of the puddings and just put it in the ice cream.

Lemon Feta Dip

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This recipe comes from a book called Sweet Paul Eat and Make by Paul Lowe who describes it as “the most blogged, tweeted and pinned recipe I have ever created.”

I made it this weekend and have to agree – it’s a keeper.

Following my grandmother’s rule of adding a little sugar to anything savoury and a little salt to anything sweet, to bring out the flavours, I added a touch of sugar to the original recipe. I also used some fresh red chilli to garnish as I have never seen red pepper flakes here.

Serve as a dip or as a spread in sandwiches or on bruschettas.

Lemon Feta Dip250g crumbled feta cheese (about 1 cup)
1 Tbs grated lemon rind
1-2 Tbs lemon juice (I used 2)
1 garlic clove, crushed
6 Tbs Extra Virgin olive oil
salt to taste
½ tsp sugar
To garnish:
Extra Virgin olive oil
Some finely chopped red chilli
A few cumin or fennel seeds
To serve:
Vegetable sticks, crackers or toasted baguette

Place feta in food processor with remaining ingredients and blitz until smooth. Scrape into serving dish and garnish with the oil, the chilli (or something else that’s red such as paprika powder or dried chilli flakes) and the cumin or fennel seeds.

Serve with vegetable sticks, crackers or toasted baguette.

Makes about 1 ¼ cups

Panko Prawn Balls

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The QANTAS business class lounge in Bangkok is currently serving some delicious prawn balls. Light and crispy on the outside and soft and prawny in the middle, they are served with sweet chilli sauce for dipping. Very moreish.

Having read through a few similar recipes online I came up with the following version.

Panko Prawn Balls

3 spring onions
¼ cup drained canned water chestnuts
300g peeled and deveined raw shrimp or prawns
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp cornflour
1 egg white
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
2 tsp Chinese rice wine or sherry
To finish:
Panko crumbs (see note below)
Vegetable oil
Sweet Chilli Sauce

Finely chop spring onions and water chestnuts in a food processor using the pulse button or by hand. Tip into a bowl. Finely chop the prawns – not too fine – you don’t want a puree, so leave a few chunky bits. Add to the bowl with remaining ingredients and mix well.

Place panko crumbs in a shallow bowl. Using damp hands, form prawn mixture into balls about 2cm in diameter, roll in panko crumbs, then place on a tray. Refrigerate until needed.

Heat 2-3 cm of vegetable oil in a frying pan or wok. When hot add the prawn balls, a few at a time and cook, turning so they cook both sides, for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.

Serve prawn balls warm on toothpicks with sweet chilli sauce for dipping.

Makes about 20 balls

Note: Panko crumbs are much lighter and crunchier than normal breadcrumbs. You can find them in most supermarkets.

Spanish Eggs with Jamon

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The Parlour Wine Room in New Acton Canberra has a great lunch menu at the moment where you can choose a main course from a selection of about half a dozen options for just $16, including a glass of wine or beer. I chose Spanish Eggs and it really hit the spot. The servings were quite large – I think there were 3 or 4 eggs per serve – so I have cut back a bit in my version. If you’re hungry this recipe will serve two rather than four.

Jamon is the Spanish word for ham and usually refers to dry-cured hams. Substitute Italian prosciutto or German black forest ham. I used the latter from Aldi.

Spanish Eggs with Jamon1 large onion, peeled, halved and sliced
4 red capsicums, seeds removed and sliced into strips
¼ cup olive oil
Salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar
8 eggs
8 slices Spanish jamon (prosciutto or black forest ham)
4 slices sourdough bread, toasted and buttered
Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat oil in a frying pan and add the onions. Fry gently until softened then add the capsicum strips. Continue to fry gently for 15-20 minutes, stirring often. Add half a cup of water and continue to cook until the liquid has evaporated and the mixture is soft. Can be pepared to this stage and kept in the fridge until needed.

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Divide onion and capsicum among four individual oven-proof shallow dishes. Break two eggs into each dish and top with the ham, cut with scissors into pieces about 2-3 cm long.

Bake for about 8 minutes, or until eggs are set and ham is crispy. Season with salt and pepper. For a low carb meal skip the toast!

Serve with buttered sourdough toast on the side.

Serves 4

Churros

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Many moons ago I was in Spain for the first time on a school exchange when my host family took me to an establishment which served churros and nothing else. The queue of people waiting to be seated went out the door and halfway up the block. Always a promising sign.

We eventually sat down to a huge plate of warm crispy churros rolled in cinnamon sugar which was placed in the middle of the table. We each had a mug of very thick hot chocolate to dip the churros into. And I mean thick – you could almost stand your spoon up in it! I was hooked.

Like eclairs and profiteroles, churros are made from choux pastry, but instead of cooking them in the oven they’re fried in hot oil, like doughnuts. I have a special gadget for pushing the dough through, but a piping bag with a large star nozzle works just as well.

Instead of a mug of thick hot chocolate serve the churros with a simple dipping sauce made from cream and chocolate. For a more grown up combination try them with salted caramel sauce. Either way they are delicious.

Churros

1 cup milk
75g unsalted butter
¾ cup sugar
1¾ cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
Vegetable oil for frying
sugar and cinnamon for rolling
Chocolate sauce:
1 cup thick cream
125g chocolate (milk or dark)
Salted Caramel Sauce:
½ cup sugar
½ cup cream
60g butter
½ tsp salt

In a non-stick saucepan heat milk, butter and sugar until boiling point is reached. Remove from the heat and add the flour and baking powder, all in one go. Beat well with a wooden spoon until lump-free and mixture leaves the sides of the pan clean. Return to the heat and cook, stirring for 2 mins. Remove from heat and add the beaten eggs gradually, beating well after each addition. Cool.

Heat oil in a large deep frying pan or deep fat fryer. It should be at least 4cm deep. Place some of the mixture in a piping bag with a star nozzle or in a special churros gadget. When oil is hot pipe in the churros a few at a time, using a knife to cut them off when they are 10-15cm long. Cook, turning once, till golden on both sides, then remove from oil and toss in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Serve warm with chocolate or salted caramel sauce.

Chocolate Sauce: heat cream until boiling point is reached then remove from heat. Add chocolate broken into squares and stir until melted. Cool a bit and serve warm.

Salted Caramel Sauce: melt sugar in a small heavy-based pan until melted and dark caramel colour, swirling the pan from time to time. Add cream and butter and mix until smooth. Cool a bit and serve warm. Can be reheated.

Serves 6-8

Pork Belly Restaurant Style

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Pork belly has become a regular addition to restaurant menus over the past couple of years. Its popularity is an indication that people aren’t so scared about eating a bit of fat every now and then, which is good. Succulent, juicy meat with a golden crispy skin, often served with creamy mashed potatoes, pumpkin or sweet potato and some wilted greens, with maybe a tangy sauce or glaze. Delicious.

Getting the pork right takes time, so it’s not something you can whip up in the half hour before dinner. Fortunately most of the work can be done in advance, which is how they achieve perfect results every time you order pork belly in a good restaurant. With this recipe you can do the same. Start the recipe in the morning or even the night before.

I use my coffee grinder to grind up the spices. Son James, a serious coffee drinker, says this is sacrilege. But I do give it a good wipe out afterwards and it makes the next brew of coffee interesting!

Pork Belly Restaurant Style

1.5 kg boneless pork belly, skin scored
2 Tbs olive oil
Spice Mix:
3 tsp dried thyme
1 star anise
1 tsp juniper berries or all spice
1 tsp fennel seeds or coriander seeds
6 whole cloves
½ cup salt
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Sauce:
Reserved pan juices
1 Tbs honey
1 Tbs lemon juice
To serve:
Creamy mashed pumpkin (or potatoes or sweet potatoes)
Wilted buttered spinach or kale or roast kale (see below)

Place pork in a shallow dish. Grind thyme and spices in a spice or coffee grinder, or use a mortar and pestle. Mix with salt, garlic and pepper. Rub half over one side of pork, then turn it over and rub the rest into the other side. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight, turning from time to time.

Preheat oven to 150ºC. Rinse pork under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Place skin side up on a rack in a roasting pan. Add enough boiling water to come 2-3 cm up the sides of the pan, but it shouldn’t touch the meat. Cover with foil and roast for 4 hours. Check from time to time to see if water needs topping up. Remove pork from oven and cool. Strain pan juices, place in the fridge and when cold remove and discard the fat from the top. A spoonful of this fat mixed into our dog’s biscuits and he’s in heaven! Use a very sharp knife to cut pork into six neat rectangular servings – you might even get eight, depending on the size you want. Recipe can be prepared ahead to this stage.

About an hour before dinner preheat oven to 200ºC. Place oil in a cold frying pan large enough to take all the pork pieces and swirl to cover the bottom. Choose a pan with a handle which can go in the oven. Rub pork skin with a little salt then arrange the pieces on top of the oil, skin side down. Turn on heat and cook for 15 minutes on medium, or until skin is golden and crunchy. Turn pork over so it’s skin side up and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes to brown the bottom of the meat and heat through.

Meanwhile boil the pumpkin, or potatoes or sweet potatoes and mash them with lots of butter, salt and pepper and maybe a dash of cream. Cook spinach or kale in a little butter until wilted, then season, or roast – see below.

Remove pork from the oven. Place pork pieces on a plate and keep warm while you make the sauce. Tip off all the fat from the pan. Add reserved pan juices, honey and lemon juice and cook over high heat, stirring, for a couple of minutes, until slightly thickened.

Serve pork on a bed of mashed pumpkin (potatoes or sweet potatoes) with some greens on the side. Drizzle the sauce over and around the pork. If liked serve with apple sauce on the side – see below.

For a low carb version just skip the mashed potatoes or pumpkin and serve with more kale or some spinach or other green vegetable.

Serves 6

Roast Kale: An unusual way to cook kale is to roast it. Break off pieces of kale 3-4 cm long and arrange on a baking tray lined with foil. Spray with oil, sprinkle lightly with salt, then place in a hot oven (with the pork) for 5-8 minutes or until turning a bit brown and crispy on the edges. Watch carefully as it burns quickly.

Apple Sauce: peel, core and slice two large Granny Smith apples or cooking apples. Place in a small pan with half a cup of water and 2 Tbs sugar and simmer until soft. Use a potato masher to crush the apples into a chunky sauce and serve at room temperature.

Stuffed Eggplants

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If I had to become a vegetarian I would eat a lot of eggplant as it’s definitely the “meatiest” of all the vegetables – very filling and satisfying. This recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi and is delicious served warm or at room temperature.

Stuffed Eggplants2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli flakes or powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup olive oil
2 medium eggplants
150g fine cracked wheat (bulgar)
50g sultanas
2 Tbs chopped fresh coriander
2 Tbs chopped fresh mint
2 Tbs pitted green or black olives, halved
2 Tbs flaked almonds or pine nuts
2 Tbs finely chopped preserved lemon skin (from specialty shops)
3 spring onions, chopped
1½ Tbs lemon juice
To serve:
Greek yoghurt
Olive oil
Chopped coriander

Preheat oven to 200ºC. Mix garlic, cumin, coriander, chilli, paprika, salt and about two thirds of the oil. Cut eggplants in half lengthwise. Score flesh with deep diagonal criss-cross scores being careful not to cut through the skin. Spread spice mix evenly over the eggplants then bake 40 mins or until completely soft. Meanwhile cover cracked wheat with boiling water and leave for about 20 mins. Soak sultanas separately in some warm water for about 10 mins.

Drain sultanas and cracked wheat and place in a bowl with the remaining oil, herbs, olives, nuts, spring onion, lemon juice and preserved lemon. Season to taste..

Serve eggplants warm or at room temperature. Arrange on serving dish and spoon over the cracked wheat mixture, allowing some to fall over the sides. Garnish with a dollop of yoghurt, a drizzle of oil and some coriander.

Serves 4

Sweet Potato Rosti with Fried Eggs

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Sunday’s a good day for a leisurely cooked breakfast and about 3 weeks ago I decided to make this sweet potato rosti which I had seen in the free brochure published monthly by Coles supermarket and available at the check out.

Sweet potato, bacon, onion and thyme – preferably fresh – is a winning flavour combination, but I had to make this four times before I got it right. The first time I made one large rosti, as per the recipe, but the outsides started to burn before the middle was properly cooked. Second time I made individual rostis, like fritters, but they had a tendency to fall apart. Third time I added an egg and a bit of flour to the mixture and again made small fritters, but the flavour wasn’t the same.

The original recipe said to microwave the whole sweet potato for five minutes before grating it, but this overcooked the outside while leaving the inside raw. So on my fourth and final attempt, instead of microwaving the sweet potato I stir fried the mixture and then made it into one large rosti. This worked well and here’s my version of the recipe!

To make a more substantial meal serve rosti on a slice of buttered toast, with a green salad on the side.

Sweet Potato Rosti with Fried Eggs

1 large sweet potato (about 800g)
100g bacon, diced
1 brown onion, finely diced
3 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme (or use dried)
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 eggs
Olive oil

Peel and grate the sweet potato into a bowl. A food processor with a coarse grating disc makes this a breeze. Alternatively use the coarsest side of a hand grater. Mix in bacon, onion, thyme, salt and pepper.

Heat a little olive oil in a medium sized non-stick frying pan. Add sweet potato mixture and stir fry for 5-10 minutes, or until the mixture has softened. Heat a little oil in a smaller omelette pan about 20 cm in diameter. Pack sweet potato mixture into the pan and smooth the surface, pressing down with a spatula. Cook over medium heat for 5-10 minutes or until golden underneath. Loosen around the edges, then place a plate on top and invert the pan so the rosti ends up on the plate. Slide back into pan, adding a bit more oil if necessary. Cook for 5-10 minutes on the other side.

Meanwhile in another pan, fry the eggs sunny side up, or however you like them.

Cut rosti into 4 and arrange on individual serving plates. Top each serving with a fried egg.

Serves 4

Prawn Cakes with Corn Salsa

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One of my foodie friends Karen sent me the link to this recipe for Seductive Little Shrimp Cakes. It comes from a book called Tacolicious by Sara Deseran and was recently reposted by Ruth Reichl. American-style, it calls for shrimp, which you can’t buy in Australia, so I used prawns and made a couple of other small adjustments.

Prawn Cakes with Corn Salsa750g cooked prawns (about 375g peeled)
1 egg
Juice of half a lime
1 stick celery
3 spring onions
Handful of parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp celery salt or garlic salt
3 Tbs mayonnaise
1 Tbs juice from a jar of jalapeño chillies
1 cup Panko crumbs + extra (see note below)
Oil for shallow frying
Corn Salsa:
3 cobs corn
2 large tomatoes
1 Lebanese cucumber
½ red onion
1 jalapeño chilli from a jar
Juice half a lime
1 tsp salt

Place peeled prawns in food processor and pulse briefly to chop but still leave some chunky bits. Scrape into a large bowl and mix in the egg and lime juice. Place celery and spring onions – cut into 3cm lengths – in food processor Add parsley and pulse to chop finely. Scrape into the bowl with prawns. Mix in celery or garlic salt, mayonnaise, jalapeño juice and Panko crumbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place some extra Panko crumbs on a plate. Take about a heaped tablespoon of mixture and form into a small cake with your hands. Roll in the crumbs and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. You should end up with 12-14 little cakes. Refrigerate for an hour or several hours. If only an hour, no need to cover, but if longer cover with plastic wrap.

Cut the kernels from the corn and place in a bowl. Quarter tomatoes, remove seeds and dice. Add to the bowl with the diced cucumber, red onion and chilli. Add lime juice and salt and leave to macerate. Taste before serving to see if it needs more salt.

Heat 1-2 tablespoons oil in a frying pan and cook the prawn cakes for about 3 minutes each side. Serve with the salsa.

Serves 4

Note: Panko crumbs are Japanese-style breadcrumbs. Very light and crunchy, they’re a good addition to your pantry. Sold in most supermarkets – ask if you can’t find them – or substitute ordinary dry breadcrumbs.