Tag Archives: family

Chicken in a Pot with Pasta

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This delicious one pot recipe comes from one of my favourite no-nonsense cooks, Nigella Lawson. As the chicken, leeks and carrots cook they create a delicious stock which soaks into the pasta. Nigella uses a very small pasta called Orzo or Risoni, which looks a bit like grains of rice. I only had a small amount of Risoni at the bottom of a packet, so I made up the difference with another small pasta.

The recipe will serve at least six. We had it on its own, but you could always add a crusty loaf and a green salad to feed more people. Choose a large heavy pot with a lid which will hold the chicken, with room around it for the vegetables and pasta. Mine is an oval Le Creuset casserole (from the 1970s, when orange was a very popular colour!) which can be used on the stove top as well as in the oven. Nigella uses dried tarragon, but as I have fresh in the garden at the moment I used that.


1 Tbs olive oil
1 whole chicken (1.5 – 1.7 kg)
3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 leeks (the white part and some of the green) sliced
2 large carrots, cut into sticks
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 large lemon
2 Tbs fresh tarragon, chopped (or 2 tsp dried)
2 tsp salt
½ tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)
1L to 1.5L cold water
300g Risoni or other small pasta
6 Tbs chopped parsley
To serve:
Freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 180°C and prepare the vegetables. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based casserole with a lid. Dry chicken with paper towels and place in the pan, breast side down, for 3-5 minutes, or until nicely browned. Turn the chicken over and then add the garlic, lemon rind and juice, tarragon, salt and chilli flakes, if using, filling the space around the chicken. Add enough water to cover the vegetables, but not the browned chicken breast which should be left sticking out of the liquid. Turn up the heat to bring the liquid to the boil, then cover the casserole and place in the oven for an hour to an hour and a quarter, by which time the chicken will be cooked. Add the pasta, pushing it under the liquid and stirring it as best you can.

Cover and return to the oven for 15 minutes or until the pasta is cooked. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 15 minutes before serving. Mix in some of the parsley and scatter the rest on top. Serve a bowl of grated Parmesan on the side.

Serves 6-8

Note: if you don’t have a casserole dish which can be used on the stove top, brown the chicken breast in a frying pan, then put it into the casserole with the remaining ingredients and add boiling water instead of cold.

Spinach and Feta Pastries

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This recipe is one of my most popular posts, so here it is again. I’m travelling in Europe so there will be a few repeat posts while I’m away.

These are a great addition to lunch boxes, picnics and buffet lunches. They are also great to serve with drinks. Most kids love them and it’s a good way to get them to eat more green veggies.

Once cooked and cooled, if not serving immediately, you can keep them in the fridge for a few days or freeze them. They will just need a few minutes in a hot oven or an air fryer to heat up.

1-2 sheets bought puff pastry
Filling:
About 225g frozen chopped spinach, thawed (I used half a 450g pkt of spinach nuggets)
100g feta cheese, crumbled
¾ cup thinly sliced spring onions
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 egg
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Extra:
1 beaten egg to brush

Preheat oven to 200°C. Squeeze any liquid from the spinach then mix it with remaining filling ingredients. Cut out 12 squares of puff pastry, approximately 8cm or 3 inches square. I got nine from one sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry.

Lightly but thoroughly (mine got a bit stuck!) oil a 12-hole muffin pan and place a pastry square in each. Place a rounded tablespoonful of filling in each, then go back and use the rest to top them up. If you have too much you could use another muffin pan and make a couple more but I found the mixture made exactly 12.

Pull the four pastry points over the top of the filling and pinch lightly together. Brush with beaten egg, then bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Serve warm or at room temperature. Can be kept in the fridge for 2-3 days and reheated for a few minutes in a hot oven or frozen.

Makes 12

Feta and Spring Onion Bouikos

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The Middle East’s answer to cheese straws, these feta and spring onion bouikos are delicious. The recipe, slightly tweaked, came from a UK restaurant called Honey & Co.

Bouikos can be prepared ahead and left in the fridge until just before guests are due to arrive. They are at their best served warm, not quite so good at room temperature and should definitely be eaten on the day they are made. I doubt very much that you will have any leftover, but if you do please send them round here.

I’ve made them twice and used feta and cheddar both times, but I plan to try using other cheeses, such as a blue cheese and ricotta. You could even try adding some finely diced bacon.

2 spring onions
50g cold butter cut into four
40g grated sharp cheddar (about ¼ cup)
40g feta (about ¼ cup)
¾ cup plain flour
Good pinch salt
¼ cup sour cream
Nigella or Poppy seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 180°C unless you are making these ahead and planning to refrigerate them till serving time. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Place spring onions in a food processor and process to chop. Add remaining ingredients and process until mixture forms a ball, then stop the motor. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface then pat out or roll out to a rectangle with a thickness of about 1 cm. If using, sprinkle with Nigella or poppy seeds. Cut into 12 squares, then cut each square into two triangles. Arrange slightly apart on baking sheet then bake for about 15 minutes, turning the tray halfway through to ensure even colouring.

Makes about 24

Baked Beef and Onions

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I have quite a collection of individual dishes and found these oval ones in a secondhand shop.  They are ideal for freezing individual servings of lasagne, chicken parmigiano or baked beef and onions, a dish I often make the day after we have roast beef, to use up the leftover meat and gravy.

The photo looks a bit oily and I suppose it is a bit of a high cholesterol dish – but it’s low in carbs and really delicious!  Any leftovers make a great filling for a toasted sandwich.

Baked Beef and Onions

About 400g leftover roast beef, thinly sliced
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs olive oil
½ to one cup leftover gravy (see below)
½ cup grated cheddar cheese (or a mixture of leftover bits!)

Arrange sliced beef in a shallow ovenproof dish or 4 individual dishes, lightly greased.  In a frying pan heat butter and oil and saute onions over gentle heat until rich golden and quite tender. Add gravy then spread over the beef. Cover with grated cheese. Can be made ahead to this stage and kept covered, in the fridge, for a day or so.  Or you can freeze them.  Bake 20-25 mins at 200°C or until golden.  Serve with a green vegetable or salad.

Serves 4

Note: if you don’t have quite enough gravy add a dash of cream and a dash of tomato ketchup, but avoid adding water as the result will be watery.

Nana’s gravy: remove the roast (chicken, beef, lamb, pork or whatever) from the roasting pan and keep warm, covered loosely with foil.  Discard all but 2-3 Tbs of fat from the roasting pan, keeping all the brown bits.  Place pan over gas flame, add 2-3 Tbs plain flour and cook, stirring with a wooden spatula, for 2-3 mins or until flour is cooked.  Gradually add 2 cups water, 2 Tbs dry sherry, 2 Tbs cream (Nana used the top of the milk), and a good pinch sugar.  Taste the gravy adding salt and pepper to taste.  If the gravy lacks a bit of flavour or looks a bit pale you can add a stock cube.  The good old Oxo was used a lot in England back then to add colour and flavour to beef gravies and casseroles. Normally the gravy will taste fine without, but sometimes with a particularly lean piece of roast beef and insufficient pan juices I have been known to cheat a bit.  Sometimes half a beef Oxo cube is just what’s required to give a bit of colour.  Let gravy simmer while you carve the meat, adding a bit more water as necessary to keep it the right consistency.  Push it through a sieve if you want it to be perfect gravy without any bits.  For family I usually don’t bother.

Hot Smoked Salmon & Pea Salad

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Peas are pretty much the only vegetable I always buy frozen. We don’t grow our own peas as they would take up too much room in our vegetable garden. In Australia you rarely see fresh peas in the supermarkets or vegetable shops.

To be honest I reckon frozen peas aren’t at all bad. Not the same as fresh peas but a pretty good substitute.

This tasty salad will appeal to fans of peas as it’s the main ingredient.

3 cups frozen peas
250-300g hot smoked salmon
1 clove garlic, crushed
A handful of chopped fresh parsley or mint or a mixture
4 radishes, sliced then halved
80g soft goat’s cheese (I used Danish feta) crumbled
12 cocktail tomatoes, halved or quartered, depending on size
2-3 spring onions, finely sliced
2 Tbs olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon or ½ a large lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cook peas in boiling salted water for 4 minutes, then drain. Place in a large bowl with the salmon, broken into flakes, skin discarded. Add remaining ingredients, mix and serve.

Serves 4-6

Fried Cabbage with Bacon & Onion

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This simple side dish is easy and delicious. Serve it with a grilled steak or on it’s own.

2-3 slices bacon
1 medium brown onion
2 Tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ head of cabbage, shredded
Garlic salt (or ordinary salt) and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tsp paprika

Chop the bacon and the onion. In a large, heavy-bottomed pan cook the bacon for about 7 minutes, stirring, until starting to brown. Add the oil, garlic and onion and continue to cook for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add cabbage, garlic salt (or ordinary salt), black pepper and paprika. Continue to cook, stirring often, over medium heat for another 15-20 minutes.

Serves 4

Rhubarb and Apple Spice Cake

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This recipe was given to me by my friend Fiona.

She has made it many times and had success with several variations, such as using pears poached in red wine – drained and cut into chunks – instead of the apples. When she made it for our French group lunch she used poached quinces instead of apples and it was delicious. So as I had some poached quinces in the freezer which needed using up that’s what I did. Feel free to try other combinations.

1 tea bag (English breakfast or similar)
3 Tbs boiling water
A generous half cup of raisins or sultanas
2 cups caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla essence
300g plain flour (2 and 2/3 cups)
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp each cloves, nutmeg and mace
4-5 stalks of fresh rhubarb, cut into 2cm lengths
2 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup walnuts or pecans, coarsely chopped
To serve:
Rhubarb compote (optional)
Whipped cream, thick pouring cream or sour cream (shown in photo)

In a small bowl, pour boiling water over tea bag, press to release the flavour, then remove the tea bag. Add the raisins, mix to cover, then leave for half an hour. Drain raisins, discarding the liquid.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 25cm springform pan and line with baking paper. Place eggs and sugar in an electric mixer and whisk until thick and pale. Add the oil and vanilla essence and mix well for a minute or two. Place a sieve over the bowl then measure the flour, salt and spices and add them to the mixture through the sieve. Fold in the rhubarb, apple and nuts. Make sure there are no pockets of flour. The mixture will be quite stiff.

Bake for an hour and 3/4 or until golden brown and firm on top. Ovens vary so start checking after an hour and a half. Cool in the tin for half an hour then remove. Store in an airtight tin when cold.

The cake should have a crunchy top and a chewy centre and improves after a day or two of storage.

Serve with rhubarb compote and cream as a dessert.

Serves 12

Variations: I didn’t have any mace so I added more cinnamon. Use poached pears or quinces in red wine instead of the apples.

Pasta with Tomato & Vodka Sauce

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I decided to make a meatless tomato sauce to serve with pasta. Spag bol with lots of vegetables but no meat. I had a kilo of peeled tomatoes in the freezer which grew in our garden last summer and I wanted them to be the star of this sauce.

There are lots of recipes online for tomato sauce to serve with pasta and quite a few are enriched with a splash of vodka and some cream, so I thought I would give it a try. The first photo is the sauce without the cream and the second photo is with the addition of cream. I preferred without, Matthew preferred with.

2-3 Tbs vegetable oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
2-3 carrots, finely chopped
1 red capsicum, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 kg ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
2 stock cubes (chicken or vegetable)
Water as required
½ cup vodka
½ cup cream (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
To serve:
Cooked pasta of your choice (I used fettuccine)
Grated Parmesan cheese
Chopped parsley
Olive oil

Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and cook the onion, celery, carrot, red capsicum and garlic for 10-15 minutes over medium heat, stirring often, until softened but not browned. Add the tomatoes and stock cubes, then simmer for 1-2 hours stirring often and adding more water as required.

About half an hour before serving, add the vodka and continue to cook until the sauce is thick like a bolognese sauce. Add cream (if using) and adjust seasoning as required.

Serve sauce on cooked pasta, topped with the grated cheese, chopped herbs and a drizzle of your best Extra Virgin olive oil.

Serves 6

Variations: use sherry or wine instead of the vodka

 

 

No-Knead Bread

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My son in law makes this “no-knead bread” and says it’s so easy, so I thought it was time I had a go. The time involved in making it is less than five minutes, plus baking time. Minimum mess, quick and easy and tastes fantastic – just like a shop-bought ciabatta. If you look on Google you will find that there are heaps of variations of this recipe, though I believe it was first published in the New York Times. Here’s my version.

3 cups plain flour
¼ tsp dry yeast
1 heaped tsp salt
1 Tbs olive oil (optional)
1½ cups very hot water from the tap

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until you’re ready to bake the bread. In summer anywhere will do, but in the middle of winter it’s probably a good idea to put it somewhere cosy like the microwave or the oven, making sure you tell people not to switch it on! Recipes on Google vary on how long the dough needs to rise, so I reckon it’s fairly flexible. Anywhere between 4 and 24 hours you can go to the next stage.

At this stage, i.e. after the 24 hour rising period, the dough can be refrigerated for up to 3-4 days and this time in the fridge actually improves the flavour of the bread.

Place an iron pot with a lid in the oven – a le Creuset-type pot holding 6-8 litres – and turn the oven on to 250C or as high as it will go if it doesn’t go that high. Meanwhile tip the bread dough out onto a floured surface. Fold and flip it over on itself a few times, then form into a ball with the seams underneath and place on a piece of baking paper. Turn on the oven and let the bread rise a bit while it comes up to temperature. This could take around half an hour. If the dough has been in the fridge for a couple of days then give it 2 hours to come to room temperature and rise before baking.

When the oven is up to temperature use the paper to put the bread into the pot on the paper and make two slashes in the top with a pair of scissors. Cover with the lid and bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove lid and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until nicely browned. It depends on your oven how fast it browns, so keep an eye on it. In such a hot oven it browns fast. Remove and cool on a rack.

Tortilla French Toasts with Garlicky Mushrooms

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Topped with a delicious mix of mushrooms, garlic and cream, this makes a quick and tasty lunch or supper. If preferred serve it on toasted sourdough or Turkish bread, instead of the Tortilla French Toasts.

Tortilla French Toasts:
1 egg
2 Tbs cream
2 tortillas from a packet
1 Tbs olive oil
Mushrooms:
2 Tbs butter (or 1 Tbs butter and 1 Tbs olive oil)
250g mushrooms, quartered or sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbs dry sherry (optional)
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
½ cup cream or sour cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 Tbs finely chopped parsley

Beat egg and cream in a wide shallow dish. Submerge the tortillas in this mixture and turn to coat thoroughly. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and cook the tortillas, one at a time, on both sides until golden, then place on two serving plates.

Meanwhile in another frying pan, heat the butter (or butter and oil) and cook the mushrooms for 5-10 minutes or until cooked and starting to brown, stirring often. Add garlic and cook, stirring, for a minute or so. Add sherry, mustard, cream and seasoning to taste. Cook, stirring, until sauce has thickened. Spoon onto the tortillas and garnish with parsley. If liked, drizzle with a little extra cream as shown in the photo.

To make a more substantial meal, serve with a rocket, parmesan and pine nut salad, lightly dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Serves 2