This is not really a recipe per se, just a several simple ingredients that made a tasty and healthy Thursday night dinner.
I’m notorious for burning salmon fillets – but I think I’ve finally figured it out! The trick is lots of butter (I used about a tablespoon for 2 pieces), heated gently until it starts to clarify but doesn’t burn. You then thrown in the salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cook on the gentle heat for about 5 minutes one side, and 3 minutes the other (if you like it well done – if you like it rare you should cook it for less time). I added some red onion to the pan at the last minute, but probably could have cooked that for slightly longer (neither J nor I really like raw onion).
I served the salmon on a bed of cous cous, and tossed steamed broccoli with the onion and butter and served on the side. The sauce in the picture is a lime, tarragon and walnut dip that I got on our recent trip to New Zealand, but I actually think it was a bit too much for this dish. It might be simpler to serve with a wedge of lemon or lime.
I will just provide you with the link to this recipe – I found it on the NY Times website.
We bought several kilos of prawns (green, unshelled) over Christmas and we have slowly been working our way through them. My appreciation for prawns developed quite late in life, particularly surprising given I’m a Queenslander and appreciating seafood is like breathing for most of us! However, I have come to appreciate those succulent little morsels, but like most shellfish, they result in an overabundance of leftover shells. The great thing about this recipe is that it actually uses the shells to make a prawn stock, which provides a fundamental base layer of flavour to the dish.
This dish is very “prawn-y” so I don’t recommend it if you are not a fan. However, if you like prawns I feel sure you’ll love this dish. It is not overly complicated, although it does require a fair bit of stove time. The leek adds a subtle sweetness and the rice texture and depth. You will feel like you are eating a far more indulgent dish then you actually are. We wiped our plates clean with thick slices of white tiger bread and sat back, replete.
One of my favourite food blogs is Smitten Kitchen. The food pictures are amazing and I’ve yet to make a recipe I didn’t enjoy.
J and I cook nearly every night, but often the weeknight recipes aren’t that exciting. However, on Tuesday we had mushrooms and rhubarb that needed to be used, so I turned to the interweb for inspiration.
Both of these recipes are available in full on Smitten Kitchen.
For our main course we enjoyed Mushroom Bourguignon. This recipe is vegetarian unless you use beef stock like we did! I also added celery in with the carrot and onion – I think it added nice texture and it’s pretty hard to go wrong with onion, carrot and celery – I believe that’s considered the holy trinity in some parts! If you like mushrooms give this a try – I promise you won’t miss the meat!
Our decedant dessert was Rhubarb Cobbler. This was phenomenal. I actually halved the “cobbler” dough and I found that was plenty. We got two nights dessert out of this one, but we might be gluttons 
I have never made cobbler before – we’re more used to crumbles in my familiy. I was very impressed with the dense yet moist texture of the “biscuits” that cover the rhubarb. The dough comes together so quickly and easily if you have a food processor. The rhubarb is cooked with plenty of sugar to counteract the tartness. Served with a scoop of vanilla bean icecream this was a delight to my tastebuds. It was quite a treat and I will definitely make again, maybe with different fruit.
In English, it translates to casserole-roasted chicken with bacon, onions and potatoes – far less pretty!
This was my second attempt at a recipe from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”. I do not normally mind time-consuming recipes, so long as the end result is worth it. My one comment so-far on the recipes is that often they involve steps that seem fussy or unnecessary. But maybe I’m just doing it wrong?
This recipe is a bit more time consuming – each element has to be prepared before being combine in the casserole. However, I think it’s worth doing for the potatoes alone! I’ve suggested a few shortcuts that I think wouldn’t compromise the end result too much.
The chicken remains succulent and tender through this method of cooking. The potatoes are little ovals of deliciousness – they literally fall apart on your fork, but have been infused with the butter, bacon and herbs. I ate the lion’s share of potatoes when I made this…but I do love my carbs! The juices in the pan would be great mopped up with a thick slice of rustic bread.
Overall, I think this recipe is worth the effort. It’s French cooking at its best – simple ingredients, slow cooking and LOTS of butter.
Details
- :
30 min - :
240 min - :
4 h, 30 min
- 3 mediums Bacon rashers, diced
- 1 tbsp Butter
- 1 whole Chicken (vary your cooking time according to size)
- 3 mediums Onions, whole and peeled
- 10 smalls Potatoes, peeled and cut into large thick ovals
- 3 tbsps Butter
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 medium Herb bouquet with 4 parsley sprigs, 1/2 bay leaf, 1/4 tsp thyme, tied in washed cheesecloth
Directions
- In a large casserole dish (I used our dutch oven. Whatever dish you use must have a lid) saute bacon in 1 tbsp of butter until very lightly browned. Remove to a side dish but leave the butter/fat liquid in the dish.
- Add some oil to the pan (this will stop the butter from burning).
- Brown the chicken in the hot fat. Start by putting the chicken in breast down. Brown for about 3 minutes. The butter should be hot but not burning.
- Turn the chicken on on side - Julia recommends using wooden spoons or a towel. I can vouch from experience that metal tongs are far from ideal!
- Continue browning by first turning the chicken on its back then onto the other side. You want the chicken to be nice and golden all over, particularly on the breast and legs. The process takes between 10 and 15 minutes.
- Remove the chicken to a side dish and then pour the fat out of the dish (I don't know how necessary this is - if your butter isn't burnt I don't see why you can keep that as it will have lots of flavour.
- Preheat the oven to about 160*C but remember this depends upon your oven. Our oven was not very hot so we needed to turn the temperature up further.
- Whilst the oven is preheating, boil and salt a pot of water. Drop in the whole onions and boil for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. As I used normal onions rather than baby ones, I cut them into quarters at this point.
- Put your potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil. Drain immediately. This just par-boils the potatoes and removes some of the starch.
- In your casserole dish heat the 3tbs of butter, or add a tbsp to your existing butter mixture, until foaming. Add the drained potatoes and roll them around over a moderate heat for about 2 minutes - this helps evaporate the moisture.
- Move the potatoes to the edges of the pot then salt the browned chicken and then place it breast up in the casserole dish. It will rest amongst the potatoes.
- Scatter the bacon and onions over the potatoes. Add the herb bouquet (I didn't bother with the cheesecloth, just added the herbs in whole and picked them out at the end).
- Baste all the ingredients with the butter in the casserole dish, cover the chicken with alfoil and then put the lid on the casserole dish.
- Heat the casserole on top of the stove until the contents are sizzling, then place in the middle level of the oven and roast (Julia suggests this will only take about 1hr20 mins - as I said, ours took nearly 3!)
- You should keep an eye on the chicken and baste with the juices a few times. The chicken should be done when the juices run clear.
- Serve with green beans and carrots.
Risotto would have to be one of my favourite meals. I love mushrooms and I don’t think you can go past a good mushroom risotto. It’s often the thing I’m most drawn to on Italian menus.
However, when I don’t have mushrooms, I like to play around with my ingredients a bit. This time around I made a very easy and quick pumpkin, corn and chicken risotto. I realise now that this made for a very yellow photo! I hope you like the recipe anyway.
A lot of people have this perception that risotto is hard or very time consuming. I think this is a bit of a fallacy – it’s not difficult at all, but it is a bit time consuming and you do need to hover around the stove gradually stirring in the stock until it is absorbed. I am a fan of this method of cooking risotto, but it’s just not practical in summer. So this is my fallback recipe when I want the comfort of risotto, without having to sweat over the hot stove!
Be warned, this doesn’t produce a risotto with the same texture as if you used the traditional method. But I still love it. I found the chicken added a nice textural difference, and the corn and pumpkin added a gentle sweetness. This recipe is cooked without butter, so it is actually quite healthy. However, if you’re feeling decadent feel free to stir in a spoon of butter once the risotto has finished cooking.
- 3 cups Vegetable stock
- 1/4 cup Dry white wine
- 1 tbsp Finely grated lemon rind
- 1 medium Brown onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped or crushed
- 1 Chicken breast
- 200 gs Pumpkin
- 1 medium Ear of corn, kernels removed
- 1 1/2 cups Aborio rice
- 2 tbsps Lemon juice
- 1 cup Water
- 100 gs Baby spinach leaves, torn
- 1/2 cup Finely grated parmesan cheese
- 2 tbsps Sage, finely shredded
Directions
- First, I browned the chicken separately. I find this enhances the flavour. I set it aside until later.
- Heat 1 tbs of stock with wine and lemon rind in a large saucepan.
- Add the onion and garlice and cook, stirring, on a medium heat until the onion softens. You don't want the temperature too high here as it will burn the onion and garlic - the idea is gentle cooking.
- Add the chicken, mushrooms, capsicum, corn (or anything else you feel will be tasty) and cook stirring for another 5 minutes.
- Stir in the rice, juice, water and remaining stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat.
- Simmer, covered, for about 20 minutes until rice is cooked.
- Before serving, stir in spinach, cheese and sage.
- Serve with salad and crusty bread if you so desire.
This is a very easy recipe, but it’s one of our favourites. It’s adapted from Frances Mayes “Under the Tuscan Sun”, a lovely book which made me want to move to Tuscany!
I used a store-bought pizza base – it was a weeknight and I was feeling lazy. However, you can make your own dough if you would prefer.
It hardly seems fair to call this a recipe – it’s more a combination of ingredients that work well together. I do recommend using the best ingredients you have available. Our sausages (and all our beef) are from Honest Beef.
- 2 cups of onions, sliced
- 2 bags balsamic vinegar (more as needed). Use good quality balsamic vinegar - it will make or break the dish.
- 3-4 whole sausages (Frances Mayes recommends fennel and pork, which is a traditional Italian combination. However, I've used plain beef sausages and they work well too).
- handful Grated cheese to taste - I probably use 1/2 to 1 cup (parmesan works wonderfully, but in a pinch a sharp cheddar will do)
- pinch Pepper
- pinch Fennel seeds, crushed (optional - I know lots of people don't really like fennel. I wouldn't add these if I had used fennel and pork sausages either).
- pinch Dried majoram, to taste
Directions
- Preheat oven to 200*. Put your pizza stone or pizza tray in the oven to heat up
- In a frying pan spray some olive oil, or pour in about 1 tsp of oil. Add the onions and balsamic vinegar to the pan and gently "melt" over a medium-low heat for about 20 minutes. You don't want the heat up too high or the onions will brown - that isn't the objective here.
- Meanwhile, cook your sausages until they are browned and cooked through. Chop into small pieces.
- On your pizza base, spread the melted onions, top with some of the crushed fennel and pepper. Scatter the pieces of sausage over the onions. Sprinkle grated cheese over the top, as much as you'd like. Finally, sprinkle a bit of majoram on.
- Bake on your stone or tray in the oven until the base is cooked to your preference (I like mine a bit crispy) and the cheese is melted.
- Serve with a light green salad and a glass of red wine.
- Enjoy!
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