Recipe Twenty Eight: Roast Chicken

I'm not sure why but doing a 'Roast' seems to be something that has an unnecessary 'difficult aura'.

This is a good and bad thing.

Good:

 'You'll have to wait I'm making a roast' 

is an perfectly acceptable excuse for when you pour yourself a glass of wine make your self a cup of tea, grab a new magazine and shut yourself in the kitchen away from the rest of the world.

Bad:

So many people avoid making them all together.

So to dispel that myth (for the cook only, everyone else should still think you are slaving away all day just to present them with the horrendously difficult to prepare meal) here is a dead easy, quick prep Roast Chicken.

Roast Chicken:

A medium sized chicken ( Around 1.6kg)

1 Lemon (cut in half)
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

2 Garlic Cloves
Garlic Salt 

Paprika

Preheat your oven to 220C.
Rinse your chicken and inside the cavity. Pat it dry with some paper towels.
Place a wire rack in your roasting pan & place chicken on top.
Squeeze the juice from your lemon over the bird & massage into the skin.
Brush your chicken all over with the olive oil.
Sprinkle the outside liberally with garlic salt & paprika.
Smash your two garlic cloves with the flat side of a knife, don't worry about peeling them & place the cloves & the rest of the lemon halves inside the chicken.
Tie the legs together with kitchen string.

Roast the chicken in the oven for 1hr & 10 minutes or until cooked through.
You can test for this by piercing the thigh with a skewer and making sure the juices run clear.
Stand for 10 minutes covered loosely with tin foil & then serve.

xx

Recipe Twenty Five: Chilli, Soy & Sesame Drumsticks.

It has been a super quiet week around the kitchen this week.

It has also been super hot & I'm just one of those people who turn into a 'tired four year old who is constantly on the verge of tantrum' when its hot.

It's not an admirable trait...I know I should work on it.

Anyhow our air conditioning doesn't quite make it to the kitchen so on days like these I am effectively preparing food in a sauna. 

Now I hear sauna's are supposed to be good for you HOWEVER this kind of sauna (any any kind of prolonged exposure to temperatures over 35) seem to be really bad for my marriage

(Love you Honey!)

So in normal Courtenay fashion I am apologising with food,

this recipe in fact:

Chilli, Soy & Sesame Sticky Chicken Drumsticks

1/4 cup of Soy Sauce

1/4 Cup of Tomato Sauce

1/3-1/2 Cup of Sweet Chilli Sauce 

(I added this to taste so I have to estimate the actual amount)

2kg of Chicken Drumsticks

1 Tablespoon of Sesame Seeds

1/4 cup of sliced spring onion (for garnish)

Arrange your chicken legs in an oven proof dish.

Whisk your three sauces together.

Taste & add any extra of the sauces to taste.

Pour over your drumsticks

Turn all of the drumsticks to coat them in the marinade.

Put the dish in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.

I only marinated them for half an hour and still got a very nice flavour.

 However I did complete one of the next possibly completely unnecessary pain-in-the-but step.

Preheat your oven to 200C
Put the chicken in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Because I only marinated my drumsticks for half an hour I basted the legs with marinade every 10-15 minutes. I think this may have help with the moist factor too...

Take the chicken out of the oven and decoratively sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Return to the oven for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven again and let rest for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with sliced spring onions and serve.

Optional step:

Ask for forgiveness for your crappy attitude the last week...turn up air-conditioning.

xx

Recipes Twenty One and Twenty Two: Arancini & Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni.

Last night, after work I had a dinner party.

I'm not sure when I decided getting home from work & having only an hour to get myself, the house and food ready for 5 guests would be a good idea but I must have been seriously sleep/caffeine/sanity deprived.

That said the night actually turned out really nicely.

No-one mentioned the slightly unkempt house or host and everyone ate up with tonnes of enthusiasm.
We then made coffee and had the funniest, uncivilized game of scrabble I have ever been involved with.

Like I said, excellent night.

On the menu was Arancini, Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni & Double Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake.

The last of which I will be putting in its own glorious post on Monday.

Oh, and before I get started a big thank you to my little, although much taller brother  for manning the camera whilst I cooked away.

Arancini:

2 cups of left over Risotto.

(I am doing a post of my favourite, 'non stir-stick in the oven and wait' recipe soon)

1/2 a cup of Plain flour in a bowl.

1 Egg

1 tablespoon of Milk

1 cup of Panko bread crumbs in a bowl.

1cm cubes of Mozzarella

Vegetable oil for deep frying (the amount will depend on the size of your pan)

Roll two tablespoons of risotto into a ball and press one piece of mozzarella into the center, 

mould the risotto back over the cheese.

Combine milk & egg in a small bowl and give a slight whisk so they are combined.

Once all of your balls are made coat them all in this order:

Flour

shake off excess

Milk & Egg mix

drain off excess

Bread Crumbs

Next up you want to heat up your oil until a cube of bread dropped in there will sizzle around and brown in about 10 seconds. Then gently fry your arancini in batches until heated through and brown.

Serve nice and hot so your mozzarella is nice & melty.

Serve.

Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni:

8 Lasagne Sheets

500gms of Ricotta Cheese

100gms of Fetta (crumbled very finely)
1 cup of grated cheddar
1/2 a cup of parmesan

1 Tablespoon of Basil

1 Jar of Passata
1 teaspoon of sugar.

1 large red capsicum

1 packet of frozen spinach, thawed.

Preheat the oven to 200C

Slice your capsicum into 4cm strips and place under a very hot grill until the skin blackens.
Once the skin is black immediately transfer to a tupperware container or zip-loc bag. The capsicum will sweat in here and make the skin very easy to remove.

Combine ricotta, fetta and Parmesan in a bowl, add thawed spinach and the salt and pepper to taste.

In blender add the passata, basil, sugar and skinned capsicum.
Blend until smooth.

Take 1/2 of this sauce and spread over the bottom of a large oven safe dish.

Cut each lasagna sheet in half through the long side.
Then on the short side of the half spoon approx 1/4 cup of filling along the edge.
Roll up and place join side down on the sauce in the dish.
Continue until all cut sheets are filled.

Spread the rest of the sauce over the top of the cannelloni and sprinkle with the cheddar and more Parmesan if desired.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cheese has browned and the cannelloni are warmed through.

Serve.
Play Scrabble.

xx

Recipe Eighteen: Savoury Muffins

This recipe was adapted from 'Savoury Mighty Muffins'

I made these at night and as such the light wasn't very good for pictures. 

I made the decision to take a picture of the finished product in the morning.

To be honest it was quite a new year miracle that any of them survived that long. 

They just sat there on the counter tempting me with their cheesy, bacon-y goodness.

1 1/2 cups of Self Raising Flour
1 Zucchini, Grated.
150gms of diced Bacon.
2 cups of grated Tasty Cheese.
2 thinly sliced Spring Onions
 1 Egg
3/4 of a cup of Milk
1/4 cup of Sweet Chilli Sauce
OR
1/4 cup of Fruit Chutney

Preheat oven to 200C and grease a 12 cup regular size muffin tin.
Sift your SR flour into a bowl.
Add your zucchini, bacon, cheese and spring onions and combine
In a separate bowl whisk together you egg, milk and chilli sauce or fruit chutney.
Make a well in the center of your flour mix and pour in the milk mix.
Using a silicone or metal spatula mix the dry ingredients into the liquid in the center.
Divide the mix between the sections and bake for 15-17 minutes.

xx

Recipe Fourteen: Whiskey Meatballs

I first saw these babies here.

And then followed them back to here.

And now, with a few alterations they are being eaten by my Christmas Eve guests.

My main change to this recipe was replacing the bought frozen meatballs with some home-made frozen meatballs and swapping out the Bourbon for plain old Tennessee Whiskey.

This will definitely become one of my 'make-ahead/pot luck/easy entertaining' recipes.

Meatballs:

500gms of Pork and Veal Mince

(Our butcher minces and sells them together otherwise you want 250gm of each)

1/2 an Onion, finely chopped.

1 cup of Breadcrumbs

1 clove of garlic, minced.

1/2 a tablespoon of dried thyme.

1/4 of a cup of cheddar cheese.

2eggs

Salt and pepper.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and either using you hands (which is far more satisfying and does a much better job) or a wooden spoon mush all the ingredients together until mixed evenly.

Rolls mixture into balls and place on a plate, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat a little oil in a large pan and in two batches brown meatballs all over.

Don't stress about cooking them all the way through, they are going to be cooked again in their glaze for a couple of hours.

Pop these babies in the freezer until a few hours before you want to serve the dish.

The Whiskey Glaze:

1/2 a cup of Tomato Sauce

1/2 a cup of Brown Sugar

1/4 cup of Whiskey

1 teaspoon of Lemon Juice

1 teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce

Combine all of these ingredients in a bowl and whisk until mix is smooth.

In a pan on low-medium heat on the stove (or in a slow-cooker set on high) place your frozen meatballs and pour over the glaze, stir the meatballs around so they are all covered.

Let the sauce heat through and the meat balls warm up (stirring every now and then) then turn your stove right down to low (or your slow-cooker onto low) and let them stew away for 2 hours.

Serve!

xx