I’m thinking perhaps that the title of this recipe is perhaps a bit verbose but I can’t seem to cut out any element of deliciousness. Really it’s a simple roast chicken which I love because you can do it practically any way and serve it with a simple green salad and roast vegies or with a Moroccan spice and nut mix with pomegranate seeds.
There aren’t many types of food that I don’t like but I must say that I’ve never been a fan of sandwiches. Even as a child (to my mother’s dismay) I wouldn’t let her put them in the lunchbox. But Albert has converted me. He many not be that confident when it comes to cooking but gee, he can make a good sandwich. He is the sandwich king in our house.
After starting a new job in the last few weeks I have been re-acquainted with the concept of quick mid-week meals. Inspired by a Delicious Magazine recipe and a few handfuls of left-over Summer plums, this takes almost no time to put together. In a sweet-toothed household, these went down a treat. Use any fruit you like – the original recipe called for dried apricots with honey. Next time I plan to be a bit more adventurous and try some with a few beautiful figs.
A few finds at the weekly Sunday Camberwell Market.
Dated 1910's
I’ve finally finished a follow-up to the Kitchen Garden painting, which I’m really pleased with. It has a border, but I’m struggling with the formatting to get it to show. Click on the illustration to see the full size.
I like the idea of making illustrations like this but I’m running out of ideas for topics. Perhaps a different one for seasonal produce? All different types of sweets? Holiday themed ones, i.e. Christmas? Calender pages?
Any suggestions?
I’ve never been a big fan of barbeque sauce – it always seemed so artificial out of a jar but I thought the other day that I’d try out a homemade version based on a Jamie Oliver Recipe. Boy am I glad I did. There’s a lot of ingredients in this BBQ sauce but it seems to add a depth and complexity that you can’t get otherwise. Use it as a marinade or as a sauce, either work well. I thought that as a sauce it might be a little thin (though perfect for cooking the sticky chicken to keep it moist), but if you wanted to use it as a dipping sauce it would be easy to thicken by just reducing it somewhat on the stove after sieving it. One last tip, I used chicken breast because that’s what I had, but I really think chicken legs or drumsticks would take this to a whole other level.
Essentially very small piklets, this recipe is a family favourite of my mother’s who enjoyed them throughout her childhood and later became accustomed to making them for herself. For a modern twist on an old classic I make them with a strawberry moscato (a sweet sparkling rose dessert wine) jam and have even added some of the jam to the batter to make strawberry swirl drop scones. The batter freezes well and thus can be made in bulk, frozen, and defrosted overnight ready for the treat of a weekend feast. Go forth and experiment!
Lentils are an underrated food. They’re full of fibre, nutrients and feed the good bacteria in your gut. But really, I think they taste pretty good too. It all depends what you do with them. If your a purist, you can buy them raw and cook or soak them overnight. I prefer just to buy good quality tinned version to speed things up.
I have to thank my cousin Fi for inspiration for this recipe, who suggested a chicken and mango salad as her go-to dish in hot weather. I happened to have accidentally bought some coconut cream shopping the other week, thinking it was tinned tomato, and pushed it into the back of the cupboard wondering what I was going to do with it (I’m not a big fan of coconut milk based curries). But I was excited to realise that I could use its’ creaminess to poach the chicken. It’s lovely and fragrant, keeps the chicken moist and can be used as a base for a sauce once the chicken is poached. If I’d had it, I would have garnished the salad with some shredded coconut or perhaps some roasted peanuts. This will be a new favourite dish on rotation with the crispness of the green beans, sweetness of the mango, creamy softness of the chicken and kick of the lime.
