Chicken Parmesan # Basil Sauce

This recipe is based on one from the one of the Woman’s Weekly series of Cookbooks. From memory I think it was an 1980’s one called Dinner Parties, something like that.

Let me tell you, this chicken dish is as delicious now as it was was then. Don’t let my awful photo of the half-eaten meal put you off – try this one. A big plus for this recipe is that you prepare it early in the day, put it in the fridge and bake it when you’re ready. Oh, how I love things that take the strain off making meals Of course, the basil sauce needs to be made just before serving but that only takes minutes.

Whole chicken breasts are brushed with a mixture of melted butter, garlic and Worcestershire sauce, covered with a scrummy crumb topping, baked in the oven and served with fresh basil, olive oil, garlic and egg yolk sauce – a bit like a hollandaise.

This recipe is adaptable too, make it for 2 people or make it for 20. Too easy!

On this occasion I used 6 whole chicken breasts.

MAKE THE CRUMB TOPPING

• 2 cups of fresh bread crumbs – I just whizzed up some slices in the blender
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 crushed cloves of garlic
• the very finely grated zest of 2 lemons
• 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
• 1/2 a finely chopped onion
• 1/3 of a cup Parmesan ( or similiar) cheese
• 100g finely chopped pancetta, prosciutto or bacon ( these of course can be omitted or substituted with halal or kosher products)

Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onion, garlic and pancetta (or whatever you’re using). Mix this up with all the other ingredients and season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add 3 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce and a crushed clove of garlic.

Lay your chicken breasts out in a single layer in a greased baking dish.

Brush with the melted butter mixture.

Press the crumb topping onto each chicken breast.

At this stage you can cover it and put it into the fridge until you’re ready.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and bake the chicken for about 40-50 minutes. I usually cover it for the first 30 minutes then take off the foil, drain off most of the liquid and then bake it uncovered for a while to crisp up the crumb topping a bit.

About 10 minutes before you’re ready to serve up make the basil sauce.

In a small saucepan combine 1 cup of chopped fresh basil ( measure it before you chop it), 1/3 of a cup of olive oil and 1/4 of a cup of white vinegar.

Now whisk in 2 egg yolks.

Put it on a gentle heat and slowly heat it up, slowly, slowly does it here, whisking all the time. The sauce must not boil or the egg will curdle and go funny.

Keep taking it off the stove and putting it back on if you get worried. You want it just below boiling point.

The sauce will thicken slightly.

Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This sauce can be poured over the chicken before it’s served (this is what I do) or served seperately for people to add themselves.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Any questions? Please do not hesitate to ask

Peach & Panettone Bread Pudding

I think I like even “bad” bread & butter pudding, it’s all comfy, like baby food

However, I can assure all the bread & butter pudding doubters out there that recipe is absolutely delicious and worthy enough to be served at your next special dinner.

It is VERY rich so it’s one of those special treats

One small thing before I give you the recipe – we didn’t eat this the evening it was made. We were all so full from the main course (a scrumptious basil parmesan chicken recipe I’ll post later) Consequently the custard set quite firm – like firm mousse. Let me tell you, it was still absolutely delish!

Oh, and as usualI have to apologise for the photo – those ‘whitish” bits around the side of the bowl – to the right? That’s the set custard.

• You will need about 200g of the bread of your choice. For this recipe I used the Italian leavened bread Panettone. It’s common in the shops at Christmas and I got these two in the after-Chrissy sales

It’s a light, kind-of dry cake/bread lightly flavoured with citrus and sultana. I know some people like to make their bread and butter pud with brioche or croissant – 2 more very rich options!

Good quality bread is a fine option.

• about 60g softened, unsalted butter. Do not use margarine for this recipe
• Your choice of jam, conserve or marmalade. I used peach jam for this one. Marmalade is a lovely option, as is apricot jam. The berry jams don’t really seem to work as well.
• 4 whole eggs and 2 extra egg yolks
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 300ml cream
• 300ml full-fat milk
• some vanilla paste or extract if you fancy ( I did and added 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste)

Grease your baking dish and set the oven to moderate – about 375F/160C

I cut the panettone into slices about 2cm thick and spread them the butter and jam.

• I then put them in a single layer into the baking dish.
• To make the custard I whisked the eggs and yolks, sugar, cream, milk and vanilla up in the blender. This was then tipped over my slices of buttered and jammed panettone.

 

• The panettone/bread will bob up to the surface, don’t worry about it. Push it down a couple of times to make sure it’s able to soak up the custard and then leave it, in the ‘fridge for a few hours. The bread will suck up the custard nicely and will be sodden. The bits that are sticking up glaze in the oven and make the pudding delicious.
• I think I baked this for about 40 minutes. It was golden and firm but the custardy bits were still wobbly. Like I said thought, it all firm up after being in the fridge overnight.

Perfectly lovely on its own, even more luscious with extra cream and some poached or stewed fruit, or maybe fresh raspberries if you’ve got any

Roast Chicken for Dinner

Just a simple meal using a beautiful free-range chicken and vegies from the garden. Sometimes the simple things are the best.

I roasted the chicken without covering it because I wanted that dark skin – I know it looks overdone, trust me, it was delicious. The chicken was rubbed with salt, pepper, paprika, dried sage and olive oil and popped into a hot oven for about one and a half hours. I didn’t bother peeling the potatoes that went in with it. They got a wash and I chopped them into wedges.

I love my Denby divided baking dish! You can do two different things in it at once, saving time and dishes and it’s beautiful enough to bring to the table.

Carrots were baked with butter and honey and then sprinkled with Italian parsley.

The tomato and eggplant bake was so easy too and so delicious. I was lucky enough to be able to use eggplant, tomato and basil from the garden.

EGGPLANT AND TOMATO BAKE

• Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and add 4 finely chopped cloves of garlic, 2 chopped jalapeno chillies (or to taste) and 1 sliced brown onion.
• Saute until very light golden.
• Add 4 of the ripest, reddest, more flavoursome tomatoes you can find (or use a tin of good quality roma tomatoes. I just chopped the tomatoes into chunks.
• Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and a pinch of sugar.
• Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until the tomato starts to break down and become a bit “saucy”.
• Grease your baking dish and starting with a spoonful of your sauce layer the dish with slices of eggplant and the sauce – like a lasagna I guess.
• Cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes – 1 hour. The cooking time will depend on the quantity you’ve made, the depth of your dish etc, etc. I do take the foil off for the last 15 minutes to drive off some of the liquid and to expose the top to the direct heat of the oven.
• Sprinkle with finely shredded basil and serve.

This delicious bake meant no gravy or sauce was needed with roast chicken – bonus

Super Easy Quiche

I don’t really know if this should be called a quiche…the filling is not custardly, in fact, it is so firm you can slice it into pieces if you like. Super easy to make it’s perfect for a light meal, picnics and to serve as a nibble when guests come over.

Because the recipe is flexible please feel free to add or delete to the filling ingredients. I was unwell this week and for some reason couldn’t face meat – so my quiche is vegetarian. The chickens are laying well, the tomatoes and basil are plentiful and there was a few mushrooms in the ‘fridge – this is how mine came about

• Line a quiche plate or tart flan with shortcrust pastry. I used the Pampas shortcrust sheets from the freezer.

• Bake in a hot – around 200C oven until it’s light golden brown. Press out any air bubbles with a clean cloth.
• Saute some finely chopped onion and mushroom in a pan with some butter or olive oil. I guess I used about 4 big mushrooms and a small onion. How much butter or oil you use depends on you, I used about 1 tbsp of butter.

• Whisk up 4 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks in a bowl and season with freshly ground salt and pepper. A little grate of nutmeg is nice too. I added 1/2 cup of cream to this mix and whisked it all again.
• I mixed in about 1/2 cup of shredded basil with the mushrooms and onions and spread this over the cooked pastry base.

• Then I grated over what I guess was about 1 cup of mature cheese.

• I carefully and evenly tipped the egg mix over this.
• Thinly sliced tomatoes were spread all over the top and the quiche was popped back into a moderate – about 160C ove for about 40 minutes. I like a longer cooking time when there’s sliced tomato involved – they kind-of roast and the flavour intensifies.

It really was very, very nice. We had it with salad. I am so sorry that I forgot to take a photo of the finished tart – we just gobbled it all up before I remembered the camera

Pie? Tart? Flan?

I was thinking about what I wrote about a pie not being a pie unless it had a pastry lid and I got to thinking about all those lovely desserts I call PIE that definately do not have a pastry lid:

lemon meringue pie

mince pie

pumpkin pie

meat and potato pie – obviously not a dessert but an old English favourite

and all those American pies I have only read about and dream about eating one day – coconut cream pie, shoofly pie, chocolate cream pie…

I humbly stand corrected

Banana Caramel Tart

Sometimes also called banana caramel pie (although strictly speaking, because it doesn’t have a pastry lid it isn’t a pie at all…) and Banoffee tart. I think the Banoffee tag is an English thing – combination of banana and toffee I guess.

It’s always been a favourite in Australia, I don’t think it’s popularity has waned much over the years. Its rich, insanely sweet and ab-so-lute-ly scrumptious!

Now, I’ve made the cheats version. I used ready bought shortcrust pastry for a start. Some people use a biscuit base, like you would for a cheesecake. In fact – I think most people would use a biscuit base but pastry is fine ( especially when you are lacking in energy or motivation )

The other thing I did that saved heaps of time was resort to the old Aussie tried-and true method of making the caramel. An unopened tin of condensed milk is boiled it a big pot of water until it turns into the most luscious caramel. Aussie cooks have been doing it for decades and the results are exactly what you want but I feel the need to add the following cautions:

• boil the can of condensed milk in a BIG pan. You want the pan to be at least twice the depth of the can.
• watch like a hawk to make sure the water stays way above the level of the can. The can of caramel/milk can explode if the water runs dry and I’ve heard awful stories about people cleaning caramel from the kitchen ceiling…
• I boil the can of milk for 1.5 hours and then I leave it in the pan of water to cool down to tepid. Be careful, if you open the tin straight away the contents will be VERY hot. On the other hand, using the caramel before it goes cold makes it easier to spread.

EASY CARAMEL AND BANANA TART

Boil one unopened tin of condensed milk for 1.5 hours (see notes above) and leave in the pan until the water is tepid.

Line a tart dish with shortcrust pastry or biscuit base.

Bake in a 200C oven until golden. Now… with this recipe I don’t bake blind, can’t be bothered. When the tart shell comes out of the oven I get a clean tea-towel and flatten any bubbly bits. It probably doesn’t do much for the flakiness of the pastry but this is the easy version.

Slice two bananas over the base of the cooled tart base and then tip in the condensed milk caramel. Spread it evenly over the base. Try not to eat too much of it while you’re doing this…

Top the caramel with another 2 sliced bananas. This is optional if you haven’t got enough bananas in the house.

Put in the ‘fridge to cool.

Whip some cream and making sure the caramel filling has gone cold spread your cream over the top. If you have renewed surge of energy you could pipe the cream on

Decorate with chocolate shavings (use the potato peeler or the grater) or toasted coconut or, and this is very yummy, 1, 2 or 3 scrumbled up Cadbury Flake bars.

It does well to set this again in the fridge for a couple of hours. Helps everything come together.

When you serve this people will love you and fall at your feet

Easy Fish Curry with Roti Telur

This is a fish curry recipe I use when time is short. It makes a delcious meal with minimum effort and just a few ingredients from the pantry.

We usually have it with roti telur, all the better to sop up the gravy, but it is also lovely with rice.

Here is my recipe:

• 250g-500g of firm, white flesh fish. I usually buy something like snapper or bream. Because I don’t use a lot of fish in this recipe I splurge with these more expensive fishes How much you use depends on how much fish you want in your curry.
• 1 can of Yeos Singapore Hot Curry Gravy. This is great to have in the pantry for days when time is short.
• some vegetables of your choice. I used tomatoes cut into wedges and small ladie’s fingers or okra.
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
• about 10 curry leaves if you’ve got any. When I get them from the Asian grocer I just keep them in the freezer – perfect!
• 1/2 teaspoon of black mustard seed – again, optional
• 1/2 teaspoon whole fennel seeds – you guessed it, optional
• 1 tablespoon oil

Heat the oil in your pan and add the onion, garlic, curry leaves and seeds. Fry, stirring often until the onion softens and the aroma develops. You don’t really want the onion to brown but you do want it to be soft.

Tip in the can of curry sauce and add the vegetables.

Simmer on a medium heat until the vegetables are done to your liking. I prefer that the tomato keeps it’s shape and the okra doesn’t get too soft.

Ten minutes before you think the veggies are going to be ready toss in your fish. I like to keep mine in rather large chunks, that way, when I serve up I can just add a piece to each bowl.

Don’t have the heat too high, you don’t want the fish to break apart.

Taste the gravy and add salt if required. You might also like to sharpen the sauce with a squeeze of lime juice, or, if the tomatoes have added a bit too much acidity, add a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar to mellow things out.

I hope you find this recipe useful. I know it’s been a lifesaver for me after a long day at work

Christmas Cream Puffs

I don’t make many things with choux pastry – but I had the urge to make cream puffs. I was tossing up between the cream puffs or piping out the pastry and making chocolate eclairs but the simplicity of the puffs won!

Choux pastry is really very easy to make and very versatile. The cases can be filled with either a sweet cream or custard, or with a savoury filling .

The pastry can be made into tiny little cocktail “one-bite” puffs, tea-time puffs, or long eclairs. Dessert profiteroles are cream puffs, filled with a cream or custard of your choice and drizzled with warm chocolate sauce – yum!

The beautiful wedding cake croquembouche is made with choux pastry puffs, usually filled with a liqueur flavoured cream, piled into a pyramid shape and drizzled with toffee, which also serves as a “glue” to hold the masterpiece together. Crystallised violets or rose petals provide the final elegant touch. Have a look HERE for a  photo.

My cream puffs were filled with double cream whipped and flavoured with sugar and vanilla bean paste. They were dusted with unsweetened quality cocoa powder and icing sugar.

This is the recipe I used – there are many different recipes, all with the same basic ingredients but with varying quantities of butter or egg. This is the one that works for me and the one I am happy to share as foolproof. Having said that, they are some very important tips I want to pass on first:

• always pre-heat the oven to 220C. The pastry must go into a hot oven
• after 15 minutes of baking, open the oven and without taking the puffs out prick them in about 4 places with a skewer or pointy end of a knife, this releases the steam that has built up inside. Lower the heat to 170C and bake for another 5 minutes.
• No matter what anyone says puffs are best eaten on the day they are made. They will soften over time. This does not detract from the yumminess at all, at least I don’t think it does, but they won’t be so crisp.
• Puffs can be iced with melted chocolate or dusted with icing sugar. They can be filled with cream, custard, mousse or your choice or savoury filling.

Here is my recipe. This made about 12 puffs:

• 125g butter – not margarine
• 1 cup of water
• 125g plain flour
• a pinch of salt
• 4 good quality eggs

Put the butter and water into a pan and bring to a fast boil over a high heat. Don’t boil for too long, just ’till the butter melts – you don’t want to lose too much liquid through evaporation.

Take the pan off the stove and tip in the flour ALL AT ONCE. Stir vigorously until the pastry balls up, becomes smooth and comes away from the side of the pan. This doesn’t take that long, maybe about 20-30 seconds.

Tip the paste into the bowl of your stand mixer and leave it to cool down a bit. Spreading it up the sides of the bowl quickens the cooling. It needs to cool a little so the eggs don’t cook when you add them.

Add the eggs one at a time until each one is well mixed in. At first it will seem like the paste is resisting the egg but it will happen.

I used 2 soup spoons to blob my mixure onto a baking sheet lined with non-stick baking paper. You can pipe them out in any size or shape you fancy. Remember though, baking times will need to be adjusted depending on the size you choose.

Here’s another very important point. Do not open the oven door until at least 10 minutes has passed. The pastry needs this time to puff up using the steam inside that will be generated by the hot oven. After this time they do become more stable and you can have a little peek to see how they’re going.

When they look almost done remember to poke the little holes in them to release the steam and give them another couple of minutes in the oven.

Cool on a wire tray.

When you split them there may be some excess wettish pastry inside – just pull it out with your fingers if you want.

Fill before serving and either dust with sugar and/or cocoa or glaze with melted chocolate.

I hope my recipe works for you. These really are a lovely tea-time treat or special dessert.

Christmas Cookies for Special People

I’ll call them cookies – you can call them biscuits if you like Cookies sounds more festive somehow.

I decided I wanted to batch a huge, enormous assortment to make up into special gift packs for some very special people. The whim came quite late in the day but luckily I had plenty of good butter, flour, vanilla paste and a bar of Lindt chocolate so I was good to go!

Here’s what I made:

CHOC-CHIP & PISTACHIO NUT

Basic choc-chip recipe with chopped Lindt chocolate and chopped pistachio nuts

 

MELTING MOMENTS

Best butter is creamed with icing sugar and vanilla paste and combined with flour and cornflour for an incredibly delicate and delicious cookie. Some got a little blob of jam and some a sprinkle of green coloured caster sugar.

 

STEM GINGER # SPICE & A CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE

Brown suagr, honey, cinnamon and nutmeg were combined with chopped glace ginger and drizzled with melted dark chocolate.

 

Here is one of the finished gifts. I had some new tea-towels I could use to line some sushi trays ( I seem to have a lot of these – I can’t resist them when they are on special LOL) I also had a roll of cellophane and ribbon so it all came together beautifully.

My friends – thank you all for your kind words, affection and friendship – you know who you are If I was able you would have all received one of my Christmas cookies for special people

Have a joyous Christmas.

Christmas Dinner Menu

My friends – most of you will know that Christmas came early for us this year. My “little” sister came over from the UK and as it had been a long, long 30 years since we had shared Christmas we decided to gather everyone at our place and have it in October!

We did what we usually do at Christmas – the lights were on,the tree was up, the candles were hanging around the garden and the garden was looking so beautiful. Tracey received gifts  ( yes, including a faux fur jacket and a knitted Irish hat – both of which she put on straight away!) and we had a house full of people dear to our hearts.

Here is the menu and some photos to share with you:

• Roast turkey. Stuffed with a dried fruit and toasted nut bread stuffing and baked in the Weber.

• Roast loin of pork, with crackling, cooked in the Weber.
• Sweet potato gratin. Thinly sliced orange sweet potato was put into a buttered baking dish and baked in a mixture of orange juice, melted butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• Roasted vegetables – the same as last Christmas. The recipe is HERE
• Steamed broccoli
• Gravy and cranberry sauce
• A green salad made with lettuce,baby spinach, tomato, cucumber, red onion, feta cheese, olives and basil and dressed with a lemon, olive oil and dijon mustard dressing
• My mum made the most beautiful desserts – a lemon tart and a gorgeous coffee and chocolate meringue torte along with mango ice-cream. Just perfect, so rich and beautiful, my favourite was the torte, it was spectacular

We ate outside on the back porch. There was the usual odd selection of chairs!

Myf had a function at work a couple of days prior and they allowed her to bring home 2 of the most stunning flower arrangements that they’d used for the event. They were just perfect for our Christmas theme and we put on in the hall to greet people as they came in and one on the lounge coffee table.(My baby looks so tired – she didn’t get in from work ’till 2am!)

The Christmas feast!

Those glorious desserts

I hope that your Christmas dinner is as perfect as ours was. It wasn’t formal, it wasn’t “fancy” but it was one of the loveliest meals ever I know it can sound like a cliche but it is all about the caring and sharing Blessings to you and yours at Christmas time.