Potato Tuturuga from Fire Islands, Recipes from Indonesia by Eleanor Ford

A couple of weeks ago, amongst the cake madness (see previous post) I received a beautiful book in the mail. Fire Islands, Recipes from Indonesia by Eleanor Ford. I had a brief flick through and thought wow, yum, um I need this now, ooo I think I had that in Bali, mmm noodles, but had to put it down to get back my cakes. It wasn't until last week I finally got the chance to have a real read and start cooking from it. And let me tell you, this book will make you hungry. It will make you hungry to source fresh turmeric and water spinach, and it will make you hungry to go and book a flight to Indonesia and not just sit on the beach of Nusa Dua drinking beer and eating Nasi Goreng every day, as delightful as that is.

The flavours and colours of the dishes in this book show waaaaayyy more variety of Indonesian foods than what we experienced. I have been completely oblivious of Indonesian cuisine before this year, and I'm embarrassed to say, the only Indonesian food I'd had was Mi Goreng from a packet, cooked in the microwave. Don't judge, I know you love the stuff too! Spicy and salty noodles, perfect street food/late night snack after too many drinks.

Pomodori al riso aka Tomatoes stuffed with rice from Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome

I've become lazy and blank on this space.

We all have those days where everything you make/eat tastes meh...well I do. So my reason for silence and blank-ness is that everything I make lately is meh and there are thousands of food blogs out there with flashier photo's and a much broader recipe base, not just about what I made (& ate) for dinner which lately has been meh for you to read and drool over. Saying I feel lost in cyber space is an understatement.

Brain fart, sorry.

The last tasty thing I made was a couple weeks months ago now and I still can't stop thinking about it. Pomodori al riso aka Tomatoes stuffed with rice from 'Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome' by Rachel Roddy who writes the blog Rachel Eats. I have a thing for stuffed vegetables... stuffed anything really. If you can fill it and bake it, why not!? isn't everything better when its stuffed and baked?

You don't see recipes that double carb it much these days with all the 'super foods' and 'clean eating' shenanigans around but it was nice to read a recipe that was just honest home cooked food. Nothing there to convince me what health benefits it would have on me other than to fill an empty tummy and serve to friends with a nice side salad and a good bottle of wine.  I mean the first ingredient is 8 firm, fruity, fleshy and flavoursome tomatoes... how can you not want to make this instantly??

With a little bit of prep and planning, once it is all assembled and ready to go in the oven you can forget about for 1-1 1/4 hours and then once the timer goes off you have another 30 minutes to fix your hair (also so the tomatoes, which are pyroclastic-ly hot don't burn the roof of your mouth) before you serve a dinner that looks impressive and isn't shy on flavour. The recipe says you can leave them until they are at room temperature as it allows the flavours to settle and get better but I'll be completely honest with you, I only left mine long enough so I didn't singe my mouth off because as always... hunger wins! Next time I'll wait though, all the little grains of rice soak up the olive oil and tomato juice and have time to mingle with the basil. I had leftovers for lunch the next day and it was perfect! I love how this meal is honest home cooking that doesn't skimp of taste. No flashy ingredients or techniques, just a damn delicious dinner. I make again and again over summer, just have to wait for the big juicy tomatoes to come into season... bring on summer!

Pomodori al riso aka Tomatoes stuffed with rice

from Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome by Rachel Roddy
(recipe adapted ever so slightly to avoid the washing up of extra bowls)

8 firm, fruity, fleshy and flavoursome tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
8 basil leaves, torn
10 tablespoons risotto rise (I used Arborio)
100ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for the potatoes
1kg potatoes
salt and freshly ground pepper

- Preheat your oven to 180C/400F.

- Cut the tops of the tomatoes, keeping the little lids aside and one by one hold each tomato over a bowl and, using a teaspoon, scoop out their insides - flesh, seeds and juice - into the bowl. Sprinkle a little salt in the inside of each tomato then turn cut side down onto paper towels, set aside.

- Process the tomato flesh, seeds and juice in a food processor or blitz with a hand blender. Add the garlic, basil leaves, rice and olive oil to the pulverised tomato flesh, season generously with salt and pepper. Stir everything together well and then let sit for at least 45 minutes so the rice soaks up all the juices.

- Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into 1cm thick, 3cm long matchsticks. Place them in large baking dish, pour over a little love oil, sprinkle with salt and using your hand toss the potatoes until they are well coated. Spread them out evenly on your baking dish and place the hollowed out tomatoes in amongst them.

- Spoon your rice mixture into the hollow tomatoes until they are 3/4 full then place the lids on top. Slide the tray into your pre-heated oven and bake for 1-1 1/4 hours, or until the tomatoes are soft and just starting to shrivel, the rice is plump and tender and the potatoes are soft and golden. Allow them to sit for about half an hour before eating.

Warning - the tomatoes are blistering hot when they come out of the oven (no joke!) so I advise you don't skip the last step and let them sit and cool down slightly before digging in.

Corn, chile, and potato soup from Bon Appetempt, A Coming-of-Age Story (with recipes!).

The other week while the Antarctic Vortex tried to freeze us all in our sleep I made a soup which reminded me summer does still exists somewhere out there. This soup looks summery, tasted fresh but also warmed my belly which was just what I think we all needed. As much as I wanted it to snow in the Sydney area I live in, it didn't. It just got bitter cold and with no heating in our apartment (except for the oven which works surprising well on occasion) it was fun for all of about 10 minutes.

I made Amelia Morris' corn, chile and potato soup from her book 'Bon Appetempt - A Coming-of-age story (with recipes!)' - which is a great memoir by the way. This isn't just another potato soup or corn chowder. This is topped with corn chips, avocado and grated cheese. Yes you read right.... corn chips, avocado and grated cheese. Um yum! The corn chips on top give the soup crunch while the avocado which is covered in zesty lime juice cuts through the sweetness of the corn kernels and smoky-ness of the chipotle chillies.

This is a great winter recipe when you are a little sick of the heavy winter stews and soups and crave for something with a freshness to it but that is still going to warm you up.  It would also make a great mid-summer soup to have when we start getting cooler nights because it's like the middle-man...you can equally enjoy it in winter as much as you can in summer.

I am completely smitten with this recipe. Have you ever made soup and topped it with corn chips, avocado and grated cheese?? I know I certainly haven't until now but if you have, please share the recipe with me at once!

Corn, Chile, and Potato Soup

Recipe by Amelia Morris from her memoir 'Bon Appetempt, A Coming-of-Age Story (with recipes!)'
Serves 3-4

900g potatoes, peeled and chopped into 2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1 to 2 canned chipotle chiles in abode sauce, minced
2 avocados
juice of 1 to 2 limes, (reserve 3-4 wedges)
450g frozen corn (not thawed)
Tortilla chips
shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

- Heat oil in a large heavy based saucepan over a medium heat and add onion, ad a few pinches or salt and some pepper. Cook until the onion softens, about 4 to 5 minutes.

- Add potatoes, chicken broth, water and another pinch of salt and bring to a boil and add the minced chipotle chile. Bring it to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 15-17 minutes.

- Meanwhile, slice the avocados into strips and place into a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover with half of the lime juice.

- Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes right in the soup until coarsely broken up. Add the frozen corn and simmer for about 2 minutes more, until heated through. Turn the heat off and add the juice of lime. Give it a good stir and taste to see if you need to add more salt and pepper.

- Serve and top with broken up tortilla chips, sliced avocado, grated cheese and a wedge of lime on the side.

Anya von Bremzen's Potato Soup with Fried Almonds.

Since it started to get chilly here I have been completely obsessed with soup. Yes soup.

Growing up there was a few soups we got the choice of; pumpkin soup with a swirl of cream on top, chunky beef with vegetable and lentils that always tasted better the next day and parsnip soup which was only ever made when Mum was hosting a dinner party and she made extra for my dinner as well.

The first soup I made was Nigella Lawson’s Minestrone soup from ‘How to Eat’ and it was about 7 years ago. I remember this soup being a huge deal. I searched for a perfect minestrone recipe for days and when I found Nigella's I had to have the exact amount of everything and chopped exactly as it was written in the book. I even insisted on making homemade bread from 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' to go with it which turned out like a large rock that just crumbled. My intentions were good and all I wanted to do was serve a homey meal and use the huge stock pot in the back of the cupboard but we ended up eating dinner at 10 o’clock at night and I’m pretty sure I yelled at one or two family members who attempted to enter the kitchen to see how dinner was coming along.

Had I cut the vegetables in the right sizes? What if mine were bigger than Nigella’s? What if they wouldn’t cook perfcetly? or what if they were smaller and they turned to mush? These were my worries when I made my first soup.

I’m feeling like a soup-pro these days and my soup making skills have come a long way since I was 19 and cooking in my mother kitchen. The chicken soup a made a few weeks ago was a revelation. I was amazed that I could create a chicken soup in less than an hour and that is had all the flavour locked in it still. The vegetable soup with a dollop of pesto on top is always a winner in our apartment but now I wanted to try Anya von Bremzen's Potato Soup with Fried Almonds from Food 52's Genius Recipes. And by golly it's a winner!

I’ve been wanting to make something out of this cookbook for a couple of weeks now but haven’t gotten around to it until recently.

I made it for a couple of girlfriends who came over for dinner and I’ll be honest I was hesitant to make it...I mean potato soup isn’t the most appealing sounding dinner is it? But I trusted the reviews of the recipe and the fact that it was in a cookbook call ‘Genius Recipes’ and let me tell you it didn’t disappoint. I loved it! It was easy to make, ready within the hour and really freakin’ delicious.

You can easily double the recipe to feed more people like I did, (I made one and a half recipes) as I have nightmares of having people over for dinner and them leaving hungry…

I’m not really sure how else to explain this soup but Luisa from the blog ‘The Wednesday Chef’ (one of my favourite blogs) made this soup a few years ago and called the soup 'sexy'. I guess it kind of is but I don’t have a way with words like she does and can’t quite explain why. Just make it!

Anya von Bremzen's Potato Soup with Fried Almonds

(Serves 4 as an appetizer or 2 for dinner)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup whole blanched almonds
6 large garlic cloves
55g finely diced prosciutto 
680g Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled & cut into irregular 1 1/2-inch chunks (I used ordinary 'washed' potatoes)
4 cups chicken stock
1 pinch saffron, crushed (I forgot to crush it...)
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (I used verjuice as I didn't have any sherry vinegar)
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Crusty bread & Salty butter, for serving

- Heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the almonds and garlic and cook, stirring, until golden, 4 to 5 minutes, adjusting the heat so the oil doesn't burn. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the almonds and garlic to a bowl to cool slightly. 

- Add the prosciutto to the pan and stir for 1 minute. Add the potatoes and cook, stirring, for another minute. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the soup.

- Meanwhile, place the almond and garlic mixture in a food processor and grind it. Add all but about 2 tablespoons to the soup. 

- Steep the saffron in a few tablespoons of the soup broth for 2 minutes, then add it to the soup. Simmer the soup, partially covered, until about half the potatoes have disintegrated, about 35 minutes. Continue to skim the soup as it cooks, and add a little more stock if the soup seems too thick.

- When ready to serve, break up some of the potatoes using a fork. Add the vinegar (verjuice) to the reserved ground almond mixture and stir it into the soup. Add the parsley and cook for a minute. Season with salt and pepper and taste, adding a little more vinegar (verjuice) according to taste. 

- Serve with bread smothered in salty butter.

Hit 'n' Run traybaked chicken.

Chicken tray bakes. For a while I thought these would be the end of me but I have gotten to know my oven inside and out and I know what works and what doesn't.

Chicken tray bakes are easy mid week meals (note that this is a new revelation) which you can easily throw in the oven and then fluff around for an hour while the oven looks after everything. I love these kind of recipes where I can multi-task while knowing dinner is cooking away  and I can get on with other things. If you're a regular reader you'll know I'm more of a pasta girl than chicken and potatoes kinda girl. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy chicken and potatoes but give me a big bowl of pasta any day!

Tristan on the other hand LOVES chicken and potatoes. I could spend hours making hand made pasta with a slow cooked ragu and ciabbatta made from scratch but chicken and potatoes would still win. Of course he would enjoy the hand made pasta and tell me that he loved it but I know all too well when he actually loves eating something... it's like when you're a kid and you get your favourite food and the excitement beams out as you try and shovel another mouthful in an already full mouth. That's Tristan, when I serve chicken and potatoes.

Every week when I ask him what he feels like for dinner this week, trying to get some inspiration, this is how the conversation normally goes...

'What do you want for dinner this week?'

'Can we have that chicken and potatoes tray thing you cooked last week again?' 

'Again?' 

'Yeh it was really good'

'Umm maybe...' *scrunches face*

'Well why did you ask me then?!?'

'Ok ok, we'll have a chicken tray bake but it'll be different than last time'

'I'm sure it'll still be amazing'

*rolls eyes at him*

The way to his heart is chicken and potatoes.

So of course I made a chicken tray bake this week. Sometimes it's what ever I can find in the fridge but this week I found a recipe called Hit 'n' Run traybaked chicken by Jamie Oliver from his cookbook Save with Jamie. It sounded perfect to me until I realised when I started throwing everything into the tray that there was no potatoes in it... uh oh I thought... do we even have any potatoes? Thankfully there were three potatoes floating around with the onions so I chopped them up small and added them to the tray with the chicken, tomatoes, onion, garlic, capsicum with the rest of the ingredients and threw it all in the oven. Ah ha done for an hour or so!

Time to throw my feet up and relax.. ha! If only there was that much time during the week :)

This recipe is really really tasty, I'll admit it's another recipe thats not going to win the pretty award but by golly it's good. The garlic cloves go all soft and sweet and the tomatoes almost slow roast and all the natural sugars come out and give the whole dish that humble slow roast taste.  

There is only one thing I can say is...

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!!

Hit 'n' Run traybaked chicken.

Serves 2 

(Recipe adapted from Save with Jamie by Jamie Oliver)

4 skinless and boneless chicken thighs, cut into 2 inch pieces

1 red capsicum, chopped into 2 inch pieces

3 medium potatoes, chopped into 1 inch chunks

4 cloves of garlic, skin on

2 ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges

1 red onion, cut into wedges

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

1 small handful of fresh oregano, leaves washed and picked

- Preheat your oven to 200C or 400 F.

- Throw everything (yes everything!) in a large baking tray (roughly 25cm x 30cm) and give it a good mix. Make sure it is all evenly spread out then bung it in the oven.

- Bake for 1 hour - 1hour 15 min. Check your potatoes and chicken are cooked through then serve with a simple green salad or some crusty fresh bread.

Donna Hay's potato salad from Modern Classics 1.

There is always a divide between people who like creamy potato salad and people who like an olive oil based dressed potato salad. I'm going to have to stand square in the middle because I personally love ALL potato salads. Ok maybe not the ones that have pineapple in them... ew. I don't have a specific preference if its creamy or not... having potato salad means the beginning of summer to me. It reminds me of Christmas day, beach BBQ's, hot summer days by the pool, eating off paper plates using plastic forks and always being surrounded by friends and family. It's such a gathering's food that I sometimes make it for the two of us and indulge in it the next day enjoying my huge bowl of carbs telling myself it's all ok because potato is technically a vegetable so I'm being health conscious.. right??

This specific time I made potato salad it wasn't to stuff myself but we had friends over for dinner and our little oven heats the entire apartment up when you turn it on and on hot days it turns into a sauna so anything other than boiled potatoes was out of the question. I decided to make Donna Hay's potato salad from Modern Classics 1. It is a creamy version so if you hate the creamy version probably stop reading now but if you like them or sit in the middle like me, keep reading because this is a simple and devilishly naughty but divine potato salad. It wont win any health awards let me tell you but mmmm yum!

The recipe says boil the potatoes whole then slice them but as normal I didn't read the recipe properly until I had cut all my potatoes and then it was too late so I cut them first then boiled them which seemed to work ok too. I also added a splash of vinegar to the dressing as I couldn't help myself and I love a good little tang on a dressing.

I served this potato salad with Jamie Oliver's Beer Butt Chicken I blogged about earlier (yes this post is LONG over due.. Im very sorry about that) and I also apologise about the lack of photo's... hunger always wins!

I would definitely make this again if friends were over but if your not a fan of creamy based salads this one is unfortunately not for you. I on the other hand, LOVED IT!

Potato salad.

serves 4 -as a side dish

recipe adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 1

1kg potatoes, washed

1/4 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

3 spring onions, finely chopped

dressing:

1/2 cup whole egg mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

splash of white wine vinegar
pinch of salt and pepper

- Cook potatoes in boiling water until they are cooked through and soft (keep checking them as time will vary depending on the size of your potatoes). Drain. Refrigerate them until cool then cut into desired shapes. I sliced mine thickly to match the picture in the cookbook but this is where you can get creative.

- Make the dressing: combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, vinegar, salt and pepper in a small bowl and mix well. Taste and see if you need more seasoning or vinegar to your taste.

- Combine the cooled potatoes, parsley, spring onions and dressing together in a large bowl.

- Keep chilled if not serving straight away or serve it and enjoy!

Nigella Lawson's Double Potato and Halloumi Bake from Nigella Bites cookbook.

So I've been a little bit bad on my posting this week. I started so well and I feel I've gone down hill which is dissapointing. I am hoping to be better this week and try and post more frequently.

I've just got home from fathers day breakfast. HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD! Hope you had a good breakfast, I enjoyed it! Mum and Tristan cooked scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, grilled tomatoes, bacon, sourdough and then fruit toast to finish. It was so delicious! I ate too many chip sangers last night for dinner... terribly unhealthy dinner but quite tasty so it was nice to have a big breakfast.

Ok back to what I made on Thursday night.... eeek it's Sunday and I haven't posted what I made on Thursday for dinner yet. I'm terrible... Muriel.

I decided that because I'd mastered the chicken tray back last week that it was a new tray bake to try and I guess because Nigella Lawson's worked so well last time I'd try another tray bake of hers. I made the Double Potato and Halloumi Bake from Nigella Bites. Who doesn't love cheese? This was a delicious mixed potato bake with all the little extras that roast veggies should always have (garlic cloves and onions) with sweet capsicum throughout it then covered in burnished thin slices of squeaky halloumi cheese. YUM! We had it with steak that Tristan cooked on the BBQ. One day I'll cook a steak on the BBQ but I'm a little hopeless on a BBQ... I always end up with either well done steak with charcoal bits or a steak that is still moo-ing on my plate.

This dinner is another great dish to bung everything in an oven tray, shove it in the oven, go have a shower or potter around before dinner then just add the cheese for the last 10 minutes of cooking and  serve. It would be great by itself as a vegetarian main or as a side like we had it. I even had it cold for lunch the next day. Just add a little splash of balsamic vinegar to it when it's cold and you have an amazing roast vegetable salad. The halloumi doesn't do so well the next day so eat all of it straight away (I'm sure that won't be hard) and then add some feta the next day to turn it into a kick-ass salad!

Such a pretty colourful dinner!

The recipe says to use sweet potato and normal baking potatoes. When we were at the supermarket I found a  red sweet potato. I had no idea what it was like but I did expect it to be red on the inside but it was white and oxidised very quickly and turned a very unappetising splotchy brown colour. It tasted great when cooked, sort of in between a sweet potato and a normal baking potato. This is also a great recipe to double if your having friends over and just divide everything between two baking trays and there is no exact amount of any ingredient. If you want just sweet potatoes then just had sweet potatoes, if you don't like sweet potatoes this can be made with normal baking potatoes or carrots or pumpkin!? Ahhh the vegetable combinations are overwhelming!! Just bake it all until the veggies are cooked through and top with cheese... mmm I love halloumi.

Nigella Lawson's Double Potato and Halloumi Bake from Nigella Bites cookbook.

serves 2-3
(recipe adapted to suit to amount of potatoes I had at home)

3 medium sized baking potatoes
1 medium sweet potato
1 medium red sweet potato
1 red onion
6 cloves of garlic
1 red capsicum
1/2 yellow capsicum
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
 black pepper
180g halloumi cheese, thinly sliced

- Preheat oven to 200 C or 400 F.

- Cut the baking potatoes into 2cm pieces.

- Cut both sweet potatoes into 4cm pieces, they don't take as long to bake as normal potatoes.

- Peel and cut red onion into 8 wedges.

- De-seed and roughly cut both capsicums into 2cm pieces.

- Throw everything into a baking tray with the garlic gloves and extra virgin olive oil and give a good toss together. Make sure everything is spread out on a single layer and you haven't over crowded the tray. Split into two trays if you need to.

- Bake for 45 minutes (or until the potatoes are soft/cooked through). Place the halloumi over the top and bake for a further 15 minutes or put under a grill until melted and golden.

- Serve by itself or as a side dish. (don't forget it makes an amazing roast veggie salad the next day with a splash of balsamic vinegar!)

Nigella Lawson 's Italian Traybake from Nigellissima.

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again"

Remember that saying? Also remember my chicken tray bakes that take forever to cook and we end up eating at midnight or serving raw chicken to a dinner quest? Well... guess what?! I have not been put off by a chicken tray back. Nope. And all my efforts paid off!

SUCCESS!!! Wahhoooooooooo

This week I chose Nigella Lawson's Italian Traybake from Nigellissima. I was only serving two for dinner so halved the amount of meat in the recipe and made sure I didn't over fill my baking tray. No double layers, everything on a single layer. I pre-heated my oven as soon as I got in from work. And I left it in the oven for an hour, turning half way through. I cut my potatoes to the size the recipe told me to and butterflied my sausages. I was going to make this fail safe.

We had fluffy roast potatoes and chicken thighs that fell apart and sausages that had gnarly little crunchy bits on them. Soooo Delicious! Oh how I've missed fluffy roast potatoes. They were crunchy and soft and YUM!

I should have trusted Nigella first... She was one of my first true food hero's and her recipes always seem to impress! Her book 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' was the first Cookbook I stole from my mother and I still have that copy today. Oh I do love her and her dramatic and colourful ways of describing ingredients when she cooks.

 I found this recipe on her Nigellissima App....this weeks meal planning was pretty shocking. I worked an extra day this week and was totally not organised, so on my way home while I was stuck in traffic I meal planned. Yes I know... very illegal but I was a hungry woman who was stuck in a fogging up car in the pouring rain with a window half open getting a wet arm on a mission... who still had to face the supermarket. Most of the recipes I found online, knowing I had the books at home. There are so many good recipes online but I have thousands of pages sitting in my living room waiting to be cooked from and shared with you lovely readers. So I tried my best to find recipes that were from books I was yet to share with you. There are still so many recipes and meals and food I want to make and blog about. If time and money weren't an option I would eat like a king every meal (ok I defiantly want a dishwater too... or washing up wench). I would also probably be the size of a house...

I definitely recommend this meal as a mid week dinner you can quickly throw everything together in a baking dish, chuck it in the oven while you have a shower or get comfy and an hour later you have a mini roast dinner. The only addition I would add is some garlic cloves chucked in there in their skins so they get soft and mellow.

Yay so excited a tray bake worked!! (photo looks like it was a little burnt but I swear I wasn't!).   It proves the saying right... keep trying (or traybaking) and eventually you'll get it right. Tristan was also pretty happy eating at a decent time and everything was cooked :)

Nigella Lawson's Italian Traybake from Nigellissimia.

serves 2

(recipe adapted slightly)

500g potatoes, cut into 2cm chunck

4 chicken thighs, deboned

3 italian sausages, butterflied

4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

1 lemon, zest

Salt and Pepper

olive oil

PRHEAT YOUR OVEN! 220°C or 400°F.
(if your oven is fan forced you make not need it on so high)

- Line the very base of your baking tray with foil or baking paper.

- Arrange your chopped potatoes, chicken thighs sausages in your baking tray. Make sure nothing is overlapping or on top of each other. If it is, split everything between two baking trays.

- Finely chop half the rosemary leaves and sprinkle over the chicken. Place the other sprigs of rosemary around the tray.

 - Zest the lemon over everything and give it all a good helping of salt and pepper.

- Finally drizzle with some olive oil and bung it in the oven for 1 hour or until everything is cooked through and the potatoes have a fluffy centre. If your oven is an uneven cooker (like mine) turn it half way through.

ENJOY!

Jamie Oliver's Shepherd's Pie vs Milkman's Pie from Jamie's Great Britain.

I don't think I'm having a good cooking week this week and it's only Tuesday.... I will explain in tomorrow's post... #dinnerpartynightmares eeekkk

Last nights dinner was Slop pie... sorry I mean Shepherds Pie. My mum always made Shepherds pie when I was a kid and used her recipe of beef bolognese sauce and added mash potato on top. I was never a huge fan of mash, my dad always says potatoes give him a headache even though we all know he just doesn't like them, where as mum, LOVES mash potatoes. To her horror I would smother the entire shepherd pie in tomato sauce (ketchup) and sit there wishing I was having pasta for dinner.

It is cold and rainy at the moment in Sydney so I wanted something that meant the oven got to stay on for a while to warm the place up but also something that was cozy and homey.  Choosing from a book I haven't yet blogged about I went to trusty Jamie Oliver. I love his recipes and books! But I think you already guessed that one. I can't wait to make the honey and lavender shortbread from the book!

I thought... cold and rainy.... England is cold and rainy. (Sorry UK readers... I've only ever been to the UK in winter and thats all my mum ever says about England... She got rained out and moved to Australia and never looked back) But I do love a rainy night when you can hear the pitter patter on the roof as you drift off to sleep all rugged up in woollen blankets and sock tucked into your pants. So thats how I chose a recipe from Jamie's Great Britain. Shepherd's Pie vs Milkman's Pie. It was very different to what I would normally call a Shepherd's pie but in a good way. It was creamy and meaty with the soft mash potato on top and a surprise cheesy layer in the middle. Even better for lunch the next day reheated.

But let me explain the slop pie... this is not dissing Jamie at all. When it was time to dollop the mash potato on top I hadn't let it reduce enough so the lovely creamy dollop of mash potato started to sink into the saucy filling which was then starting to rise and flow over the edges of my pie dish. I proceeded to continue dolloping the mash on top thinking it would be ok until it started to look like an upside down shepherd's pie on the verge of over flowing if I didn't stop what I was doing and pour some of the sauce out. As I poured some out, some of the potato came out with it, I had melted stringy cheese over the edges, sauce down the side of the dish, sauce slopped and splashed over the bench.... It was a HUGE MESS. A delicious mess but still huge and a lot of washing up. Given all that I still scraped the pan to not waste any and ate it as entree while my Slop... sorry Shepherd's/Milkman's Pie was cooking in the over.

If I've got any tips.... Let it reduce properly... don't be impatient like me (I blame hunger) and get your self a dishwasher or washing up wench. My wench is still in a sling so he's only a bench wiper at the moment.

I would definitely make this again but would maybe rethink my pots and pans situation...hmmm...

Jamie Oliver's Shepherd's Pie vs Milkman's Pie from Jamie's Great Britain.

serves 6
(recipe adapted slightly)

2 onions, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
olive oil
50g butter
salt and white pepper
8 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
2 bay leaves (I used dry but it says fresh)
500g veal mince
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
1 lemon, zest only
1 chicken stock cube, crumbled
110mL Bitter (I used VB)
800g potatoes, peeled and quarted
splash of milk
150g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
200mL pure cream
50 cheddar cheese, grated

- Fry the onions, carrots, bay leaves, thyme, some salt and pepper in a pan with the olive oil and butter until vegetables have softened. Make sure you stir often so they don't catch and burn.

- Add the veal mince and break up with a wooden spoon while browning it. Add flour once the meat is broken up and the zest of the lemon. Cook it until the liquid which came out of the meat has cooked away.

- Once it it frying again, add the bitter and just enough water to cover the meat (don't add too much here.. I think this is also where I went wrong and added maybe a little too much water). Bring everything to a boil and then reduce heat and allow to simmer with the lid half on for 1 hour on a low heat.

- Meanwhile preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and boil your potatoes until soft and almost falling apart. Drain the potatoes and allow to sit for a couple of minutes so that can steam off any excess liquid. I mashed them with a hand masher with a splash of milk, a dollop of butter and a generous serving of salt and pepper. For someone who doesn't like mash... mmmm mmm yum!

- Let mash sit until your sauce has had its 1 hour cooking then add your mushrooms and cream and simmer until the sauce has thicken considerably.

- Once it is no longer swimming in sauce, pour it into a baking dish and sprinkle over the grated cheddar cheese. Dollop your mash potato on top or use a fork to squash it down and as Jamie puts it - "make squiffs and quiffs".

- Place it in the oven for about 40 minutes or until golden on top and serve with some steamed broccoli or buttered peas.

So so tasty!!

Karen Martini 's Roast Chicken with green olives, almonds and oregano.

This week has been a bit of a busy shamozzle.

Monday night I had planned to cook... grocery shopping didn't finish until after 7pm and the thought of cooking and having to wash up was so daunting that when Tristan offered to buy us pizza I jumped at it.

Tuesday night I cooked Karen Martini's Roast Chicken with green olives, almonds and oregano but instead of it taking about 30 minutes in the oven like the recipe said it took about an hour which meant we didn't eat dinner till about 8:30pm and then still had the washing up to do so blogging didn't happen.

Wednesday night I had team meeting at work and we are spoilt and get fed dinner during the meeting. We had a delicious vegetarian Nepalese Feast which also made up my lunch on Thursday.

Thursday night I finished work later than normal and Tristan had cooked chicken taco's for dinner and cleaned up too (spoilt rotten!).

Friday night went pear shape after I popped my car tyre trying to turn around in our street to park and hit the gutter and ended up in a flood of tears sitting in my car after a stressful day. That then meant we were going out for a strong drink and pub dinner.

Saturday was kind of productive... feeling a little sorry for myself after too many $5 vodkas the night before I made a red velvet cake for my sister's birthday BBQ that night, a mexican layer dip and burnt toasted sandwiches. I barely had time to recover before I was handed a glass of champagne and Saturday night shenanigans started - which were very chilled out after the Friday night we had.

Lets get back on track with Tuesday's dinner. Karen Martini's Roast Chicken with green olives, almonds and oregano from Where the Heart is. It was soooooo tasty but it also could have been the fact that my stomach was eating itself because we were so hungry by the time it was ready and so over hearing my iphone timer going off every 15min while I checked if the potatoes were done or not. I think my down fall was that I put it all into a dish that was deep so it took longer for the potatoes to cook rather than if I had spread it out in a shallow baking dish or it could have been our oven... it isn't fan forced and things do take a little longer in there and 90% of the time I get the conversion of celsius to fahrenheit wrong.

Tristan didn't seem too keen that there was almonds in the dinner when I started cooking it but I added them in there anyway and I got no complaints when I served it. My photo's of the final result aren't crash hot so I haven't uploaded them considering I had the hunger grumps when it was finally ready. I would defiantly make it again but allow more time to cook it and put in a different tray. It would be a great recipe to double and make for a dinner party because you can have everything ready before and just bung it in the oven. Not your average one pot roast chicken thats for sure!

Roast Chicken with green olives, almonds and oregano by Karen Martini (from Where the Heart is).

serves 4

1 cup of blanched almonds, roughly chopped
80g pitted green olives, chopped
1 cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 bunch oregano leaves, finely chopped
2 green chilli's, sliced
100mL extra virgin olive oil
cracked black pepper
2 red chilli's, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 lemon, juice and zest
salt flakes
1.5 tbsp dijon mustard
4 free range chicken marylands (I used 'lovely-legs' instead)
3 desiree potatoes, peeled and finely sliced
2 red onions, sliced into rings
1/2 cup water (125mL)
1/2 cup white wine (125mL)

- Turn oven on to 200 degrees celsius.

- Put your almonds, olives, parsley, oregano, and green chilli's and some of the olive oil in a bowl and season with black cracked pepper.

- In a separate bowl, mix together the red chilli, garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice and mustard then season with salt flakes and cracked pepper. Coat the chicken pieces in this mixture and let sit for 10min to absorb the flavours of the marinade.

- Add the remainder of the olive oil to a frying pan on high heat and brown chicken pieces until golden on all sides. Once all the chicken is browned add it to the almond mixture and mix together.

- Add potato and onion to a greased oven proof dish then top with the chicken pieces and all the marinade misture. Pour over the wine and water. Cover with foil.

- The recipe says to bake it for 15min covered then 10-15 min uncovered but it depends on when your potatoes are cooked. Check how they are doing after the first 15min and you may need longer if you stuffed everything in a dish too small (I baked this fro about 1 hour total). Enjoy.

Chicken in white wine with lemon potatoes from Donna Hay Magazine - Issue 76.

First off let me tell you that meat in general doesn't exactly photo very well on an iphone camera. A new camera is on my wish list and I've picked it out, its just in the works at the moment. So I start by apologising for my photos... and I don't think this will be the first time I apologise for my photos either.

I've done the meal planning again this week and I had no dramas at the supermarket...yeehaa!

Back home now and back to no dishwasher so a one pot dish was perfect for tonights dinner. I think it could have definitely gone for some sugar snap peas thrown in at the last few minutes of cooking to give a little crunch and sweetness... also might have given the dish a little colour. Yes I know some people hate that when herbs or vegetables are added 'just for colour' but this would have also improved the taste and texture not just the overall colour. And its easy for a food stylist or photographer to make a dish look better than someone like me who is cooking dinner at night with no natural light whatsoever or fancy flash that makes it look like there is no flash at all. I did my best with what I had (and yes I used a filter on my phone for a couple of them).

Oooo and lemon zest... I would zest my half a lemon and add it in somewhere while everything cooks.


The chicken was deliciously juicy and the potatoes soaked up all the lovely sauce. In the magazine it looks almost baked but mine turned out kind of poached even though I did as the recipe said and browned it in olive oil to start with. I would put it under the grill or in the oven next time to brown the top up and help evaporate some of the sauce as it ended up swimming in sauce on our plates.

A very tasty chicken dish and best of all, hardly any washing up!

Chicken in white wine with lemon potatoes from Donna Hay magazine Issue 76.
(recipe adapted)
Serves 4

1 tbs olive oil
4 chicken breasts, skin removed
salt & pepper
200g marinated artichokes
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
500g chat potatoes, sliced into 1cm thick
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
handful of fresh thyme
2 handfuls of sugar snap peas (optional- although I would add them!)
juice and zest of half a lemon
parmesan, to serve

- Heat olive oil in a heavy bottom oven proof pot. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts then add them to the hot oil, frying on each side until toasted brown.

- Once the chicken is browned on both sides remove it from the pan and add the garlic and artichokes and cook in the oil left in the pan until garlic is tender.

- Add the stock, wine, thyme, zest and potatoes to the artichokes and garlic and bring to the boil. Add the chicken back in the pot and place a tight fitting lid on top and cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and soft and the chicken is cooked through. If your adding sugar snap peas add them towards the end but don't over cook them, you still want them to have some crunch.

(If your chicken isn't very browned on top I would put the pot uncovered under the grill or in the oven for a bit to reduce the sauce and brown the chicken on top.)

- Squeeze the lemon juice over to finish and a sprinkling of parmesan.