Bang bang chicken - Westcourt Rd Kitchen

This was a winner. Fresh, crunchy and even better the next day as a leftovers lunch.
Poach a couple of chicken breasts in water ( just covering) with salt, ginger and sliced spring onions. After fifteen minutes turn off heat and leave to cool for 30 minutes. Then discard the poaching liquid.
Cut a cucumber, a carrot and a stalk of celery into matchsticks. A bit of sliced sping onion is nice as well. Shred the chicken and mix with the veggies along with 1 tsp each of sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and toasted sesame seeds.
Top with the sauce ( see below ) and serve.



Sauce - 1 tbsp sesame oil, 2tbsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp sweet chilli, 2tbsp soy, 2tsp castor sugar, 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar 1 small red chilli, finely sliced. Mix all ingredients till you have a paste and then whisk n up to 100ml water until runny but still quite thick.

Hunter St Kitchen

I thought I would share a literary gem I came across yesterday, whilst reading my favourite author, Sebastian Barry. (On Canaan's Side)


"Mother sauces. The infinite delicacy of the bain-marie saucepot. 'Heat is how the pot thinks, Lilly. It is like my Grandma singing a lullaby, not too loud so you keep sleep away, not too soft and baby can't hear the words. Try and hear the heat, Lilly. Hear the pot thinking. You hear it? You hear it? It's there. You will. And when you do you'll be able to do any sauce in the world."

Hunter St Kitchen

In the local paper yesterday there was a double page spread about  food bloggers. We weren't featured! One woman even makes money out of her blog.

I have decided that I cannot perfect the soufle until I can perfect the omelette - proper omelette, not the brick-heavy, potato-laden, Spanish variety that has fed the family for years. I had some success. The taste was right, the fluffyness was right, (I deliberately cooked the inside because I don't like  runny centres). However, the left a lot to be desired. I guess it is like pancakes, one must gain confidence in flipping and turning! 

I put the eggs, chopped herbs, salt, black pepper and little blocks of cold butter into a shallow dish. I didn't whisk them until the pan was hot and some butter in the pan was foaming (but not yet brown). Within a minute, I whisked them together and cooked the omelette, folding the edges in with a fork.  I folded both sides inwards but it was in the turning of the whole shape to seal the "join" that I came unstuck. The result was one thick omelette, not a flat one.   As I said, it tasted wonderful! I will try again tomorrow.



Three quick steps - all done within a minute





 



Also, I need some tips from anyone out there about quinoa. I cooked some last night but I think there must be a trick. Mine was all husky. Is that over-cooked or undercooked?  I feel this is a "good" food to eat on a regular basis as, unlike cous cous, it has low GI - and that's supposed to be good.



King st kitchen

I tried a recipe from the recent Woolworths magazine that was a cross between caneloni and lasagna, made for a nice looking dish that was easy to serve. I used the rectangular lasagna sheets, which I had to precook to roll, more on that later. The filling was sautéed leeks, pumpkin chunks, cut in small chunks tossed in oil and black pepper and roasted in oven for 40 min or until browned, silver beet blanched, drained and all water sqeezed out and chopped, and small carton of ricotta. I added some salt too but not a lot as silver beet can be salty.

Back to lasagna sheets, I cooked these until soft in small batches then kept them on hold in tray of hot water. Once ready I placed some filling at the end and rolled it up. I cut each roll in half and stood them up on their ends in a baking dish with high sides. I covered them with my regular pasta sauce which is a meat one, but I think the recipe would work with a plain tomato sauce or even perhaps a chess sauce if you wanted to avoid the tomato altogether. I also put our Haberfield Parmesan on top and baked until the sauce was bubbling. I made this dish a second time and put the rolls in a smaller baking dish which is pictured here. They were packed in so tight that the sauce did not run down into the rolls, so leave some space around them.

Wareemba Avenue Kitchen - Moroccan Nights

I am afraid that this entry to the blog is more “What I made a few nights ago” than “What did I cook last night”!

The results of my second Moroccan jaunt were quite pleasing!!

I first made meatballs (lean beef mince, an egg, a couple of carrots grated and some salt and pepper) while I browned off an onion in the bottom of my Tagine with some Moroccan spice. I also added a good teaspoon of chilli flakes and let the flavours release into the onion. Then I added the meatballs and browned them off before putting in a tin of tomatoes and 2 zucchinis cut into large chunks. I let the sauce cook down for about 20 minutes and then added a large handful of baby spinach leaves.

I allowed the spinach to wilt and then cracked in 2 eggs, replaced the lid and let the eggs poach for around 5 minutes.

I served the meatballs with some cous cous. Bernie told me that it is difficult to cook something which fits all three criteria of being appealing to the eye, filling and tasty. He said that his appetite was well and truly sated and that he wanted to mop up the sauce with a slice of bread. I guess that is a compliment ...

On another exciting note, I have been desperate to start cooking some Indian dishes (one of my sisters is a vegetarian and I often struggle to find a meal which is tasty for her). Bern has an amazing Indian spice shop down the road from his workplace at Chatswood and just dropped by to get all of the ingredients which I could not buy at the supermarket. Being Bernie, he made friends with the owner who threw in a few extras for us to try out! You know what I will be doing this weekend!!

Valerie didn’t lift a paw to help me out on this one, though I am going to have her frying off pappadums over the weekend!! What a slacker!

King Street kitchen

Hey Christina Street, a great first contribution. It sounds like there are some unusual chefs at Wareemba Avenue Kitchen. And it is good to see the  Douglas Street "Kitchen hands" making an entry onto the blog in concert with Hunter street.

Mushroom pasta for two, a quick and yummy pasta around two key ingredients, mushrooms and butter. I like to make this with a few different types of mushrooms but last night only had the ordinary champignons, around .5 kg.

Slice the mushrooms. Also prepare some sort of onion, any kind, yellow, red, green or leek. Last night I used leek. Heat some olive oil in a saute pan until hot, add onions and toss lightly, put in the mushrooms and toss till coated, leave heat on high until first mushrooms start to brown then lower the heat. Add salt and pepper. Add a good pinch of dried chile flakes. If you like using wine, a good splash of a white at this stage goes well. Then turn off the heat and allow to sit.

For pasta papperadelle is great or fettucine. The trick is to not use too much. 100 grams is plenty for two people. Prepare pasta.

When it is nearly done, reheat the mucshrooms and add a GENEROUS (don't skimp) chunk of butter and allow this to melt.  Drain pasta thoroughly and add to pasta and stir until heated through.

Turn into serving bowl and add a generous covering of parmesan cheese and chopped continental parsley. Some good bread is handy for sopping up those juices. The smell of this pasta dish is fantastic!

Wareemba Avenue Kitchen - Quick Moroccan Chicken

Thanks Christina St Kitchen! The Potato Wrap Bread looks great!

Last night in the Wareemba Avenue kitchen I was left to my own devices and I whipped up a quick chicken tagine while Bern and Val were out taking an evening stroll. First I browned off an onion in a little oil and added Moroccan seasoning mix to release the flavours. Then I added about 3 single chicken breasts cut into larger pieces and sealed that off.

Then came a tin of tomatoes, a couple of carrots cut into larger pieces, some zucchini and a little bit of chicken stock to make up the sauce.

I let it cook on the stove top for about 20 minutes waiting patiently, with lovely smells wafting, for the other members of the wolf pack to get back. The recipe worked very well and my first attempt at using the tagine produced delicious results! Bern had some couscous which looked lovely (and I had it without ... trying to cut out all pm carbs).

I am definitely going to try this one again and do some more experimenting with my tagine. I didn’t realise that you could use your tagine for a quick meal and thought it was more for “cook all day” type recipes. I even have some mince out for tonight and am going to try some Moroccan style meatballs. Hopefully Valerie won’t slack off and I will get some help (though I am not sure how easy rolling meatballs is when you don’t have opposable thumbs). I will let you know how it goes!