dinner date - spanish spiced chicken breast with hot chorizo and chickpea salad

My friend, Ash, presented me with this recipe, which comes from Nosh. I served it up for dinner on Sunday night, much to the delight of my flatmates. We bought the chorizo in a 60g piece from the deli section of nosh, but I guess you could use any variety of chorizo. It's a simple dish to make, and oh so delicious and satisfying. I loved the combination of flavours and textures, and it was just as good for lunch the next day. I think it will become a regular in our dinner repertoire.

Ingredients
salt
olive oil
4 x boneless chicken breasts
4T flour
1½ T paprika
1 pinch cayenne pepper
60g pamplona chorizo, cut into lardons
60g traditional chorizo, cut into lardons

1T fresh oregano, finely chopped
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 can baby roma tomatoes, drained
1 large onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lemon, zest & juice
120g pkt baby spinach

For the hot chorizo and chickpea salad: Add chorizo lardons to a saucepan with a little olive oil and cook until the lardons start to crisp. Once the chorizo has let off a bit of the paprika infused oil add your oregano, onion, garlic, celery, carrot and cook for 2 minutes. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, chickpeas and drain the baby roma tomatoes. Cook for a further 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Once the ingredients are cooked turn off the heat and stir in the baby spinach.

For the Spanish spiced chicken: In a large bowl mix together the flour, 2 tablespoon of paprika, 1 pinch of Cayenne pepper and salt. Lightly oil your chicken fillets and dredge in the spiced flour. Heat your heavy based pan to a medium high heat and cook the breasts on each side for 5 min or until juices run clear. Season again and set aside to rest for 3 min.

Present the salad on a white plate topped with the chicken breast and served with a wedge odlemon, extra lemon zest and unsweetened yogurt.

Thursday baking - lemon yoghurt cake with orange blossom

This weeks Thursday baking is brought to us by Jessica:

This cake didn't initially leap out at me from the book. I don't think 'Lemon Yoghurt Cake with Orange Blossom' as a title really does it justice when it is packed full of such interesting flavours and textures. If I was coming up with a name for it, I'd call it something more evocative like 'Middle Eastern syrup cake', because of the distinctive use of pistachios, semolina and orange blossom water in the flavouring. I was eventually drawn to it because Susan Fleischl described it as a 'great dinner party cake', which appealed when I was looking for something to make for my Book Club- a slightly special desert cake which would still be nice the next day or so. The lemon flavour really isn't that pronounced, so I'm glad I included some orange zest in both the cake and syrup. I might even include some more if I was making it again. The cake has a pleasantly 'grainy' texture, which doesn't really sound that pleasant, but you'll have to believe me that it is. It's very moist and crumbly and refrigerates well.

Lemon Yoghurt Cake with Orange Blossom Susan Fleischl

Cake
250g butter, softened
250g caster sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
zest of 1 lemon (I also used the zest of an orange)
150ml yoghurt
250g semolina
2 tsp baking powder
200g shelled raw pistachios, ground in a food processor

Syrup
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup sugar
juice of 1 lemon
few drops of orange blossom water

To serve
mascarpone icing sugar (I stirred the icing sugar into the mascarpone rather than dusting the cake with it)

Preheat the oven to 165C. Grease a 22cm round cake tin and line it with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, with the zest and yoghurt and slowly beat together. Sift the semolina with the baking powder and gently fold into the mixture with the pistachio nuts. Bake for 40-50 minutes (it took an hour for me for the cake to cook) Leave to cool in the tin.To make the syrup, boil the first three ingredients together for 1 minute. I also added some lemon and orange zest. Remove from the heat and stir in a few drops of orange blossom water to taste (be careful, it has a strong flavour and can end up tasting like soap if you use too much!).Remove the cake from the tin and place on a plate. Pour the hot syrup over the cool cake and leave it to soak in. Dust with icing sugar, if desired, and serve with mascarpone. This cake will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container but is best eaten on the day it is made.

Thursday baking - melting moments

As we bake our way through a treasury of New Zealand Baking

For Daisy's first birthday I was delegated the task of making mini melting moments. I used the recipe from ATONZB, which I've made several times before with good success. Halfway through making these, I realised we were low on cornflour, so I made the difference up with custard powder, which worked well. These melting moments were melt-in-your mouth, and perfect in miniature, as otherwise all that butter can make one feel rather ill.

Here's the recipe (adapted to the way I made it)

Melting Moments - Alyson Gofton

Biscuits

275g butter, softened

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups standard flour

1/4 cup cornflour

1/4 cup custard powder

Lemon butter icing

100g butter

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

few drops of vanilla essence

1-2 tbsp milk

grated zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat the oven to 160C. To make biscuits beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla together until light and creamy. Sift dry ingredients and mix into beaten ingredients. Do not over-mix. Roll small spoonfuls into balls and place on a lined baking tray. Dip a fork into four and flatten the dough balls gently. Bake for 18-20 mins until the biscuits are firm and beginning to brown a little around the edges.

To make the lemon butter icing, beat the butter until it is pale and fluffy. Sift the icing sugar and beat into the creamed butter with the vanilla and sufficient milk until you have a fluffy, light mixture. Add the lemon zest and juice to the butter icing and beat them in well. Once the biscuits are cold, join them with icing. Store in an airtight container.

thursday baking - lemon, lime and poppyseed syrup cake

I love the Meyer lemons that are around at the moment - lovely and juicy with bright yellow zest - the perfect lemon for baking with. They were on special at the supermaket last week so I bought a bowlful (I don't have my own lemon tree, sadly) and made these loaves. The recipe says to use a ring tin but I made these cute wee loaves. I had intentions of freezing some but they were so yummy they all got eaten before they made it to the freezer.

The addition of lime made these little loaves especially tangy - I'm going to try using a mix of lemon and lime next time I make my favourite lemon yoghurt cake (Alison Holst's recipe) as although delicious, this recipe didn't have the keeping qualities of the Alison Holst recipe. This surprised me as I expected drowning the little loaves in syrup would have kept them moist but instead they were showing their age after a couple of days.

Lemon, lime and poppyseed syrup cake - Catherine Bell -Week 27

Cake

125g butter, softened

2 tsp finely grated lime zest

2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

250g castor sugar

3 eggs

200g flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp poppy seeds

100ml natural yoghurt

Syrup

3 tbsp lime juice

3 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp castor sugar

Preheat oven to 180c. Place butter, lime and lemon zest in bowl of cake mixer and blend well until light and creamy. Add sugar gradually, beating well after every addition. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Combine the flour, bp and seeds and fold into the butter, alternating with the yoghurt. Spoon into a greased and lined 4-cup capacity ring (or bundt) tin. Bake 30-35 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow cake to stand in tin for 5 mins, then turn onto a rack.

To make the syrup combine all ingredients in a small pan, simmer, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved, then boil for 3 minutes without stirring. Poke holes all over cake with a skewer or fork, and pour syrup over the hot cake. Serve warm or cold with dollops of yoghurt.

Thursday baking - lemon tartlets

As we bake our way throught A Treasure of New Zealand Baking

Now that lemons are back in abundance, I've been doing lots of lemon based baking. We had a work midwinter party last weekend, and I was charged with bringing something sweet. I trawled through ATONZB and thought these lemon tartlets would be perfect.

When making the lemon curd, I absentmindedly allowed the butter, sugar & lemon mixture to get quite hot before I added the egg. Such an amateur mistake that I realised almost immediately when the egg scrambled before my eyes and I was powerless to stop them! All I could do was admit defeat, abort the mixture and start again. In attempt two I was far more careful, and successful. These delicate little tartlets were quite a hit.

Lemon Tartlets -Kathy Paterson (Week 15)
Lemon curd
170g caster sugar
115g unsalted butter
grated zest and strained juice of 2 large lemons
3 eggs, beaten

Pastry
225g high-grade flour
115g unsalted butter, softened
115g caster sugar
4 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

To make the lemon curd, place the sugar, butter, lemon zest and juice in a heavy-based saucepan. Cook slowly until the sugar is dissolved and the butter melted. Sieve the eggs into the saucepan and stir well, using a wooden spoon. Continue stirring and cook until the mixture is thick (do not allow to boil as this will make it curdle). Leave to cool then refrigerate.

To make the pastry, sift the flower onto the bench. Make a well in the centre and in this place the other ingredients. Using the fingertips of one hand. work on the butter, sugar, yolks and vanilla together. Then once creamed, draw in the flower and kneed lightly until smooth. Chill, wrapped in baking paper for 1 hour before using.

Preheat the oven to 180.
Lightly flour a bench and roll the pastry out thinly. Using a 5cm plain pastry cutter, cut out rounds to fill small tartlet tins. Press each pastry round into ist tin and prick with a fork. Chill the pastry cases again until firm. The bake unitl a pale biscuit colour, about 6 minutes. Remove pastry cases from tins and cool before filling each case with a good teaspoonful of lemon curd.

I also topped some of the tartlets with meringue! Delicious!

A few of our favourite things...

Miriam: A couple of years ago, Becs gave me this lemon/lime squeezer as a birthday present. You place half the citrus, cut side down in the squeezer, then squeeze. The citrus is turned inside out, thus extracting every last bit of juice. There are wee slits in the bottom that don't allow any pips to creep through - genius!

Libby: Free rosemary! There's no need to grow your own rosemary in Wellington as it grows like a weed all over the place. It's particularly abundant just down the hill in Thorndon where I know of several spots I can pick a sprig or two from when I need it. This sprig was finely chopped along with a clove of garlic and lemon zest and sprinkled over a wintery beef and vegetable casserole. Yum!

Becs: At home we have a 'chocolate drawer' that is always full of packaged sweet treats, as well as chocolate for baking. You would think this drawer would be a constant temptation, however for some reason most of the time this doesn't seem to be the case, and often things remain in it for months or even years. However one recent addition to the chocolate drawer that I find impossible to resist is Whittakers Ghana Peppermint. I have always loved Whittaker's plain Ghana block for baking with, but this deliciously dark chocolate with the addition of a flowing peppermint centre it is seriously good. It is impossible to stop at one piece...

Thursday baking - sticky lemon slice

As we bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...

Due to an issue with my copy of ATONZB still in storage, I have been thus far unable to participate in our Thursday baking challenge. Thankfully last weekend Becky lent me her spare copy, so now I'm back in the game!

I decided to make this sticky lemon slice as my friend Natalie was visiting and she loves lemon treats. It was an added bonus that the recipe doesn't need any special ingredients - so didn't require a trip to the supermarket. And thankfully I was able to scavenge the first of the yellowing lemons off the lemon tree.

This slice is quite similar to a lemon tart. It was delicious - very gooey and lived up to its name in stickiness. In fact it was so sticky and gooey that I got 'told off' for eating it too loudly! It is quite sweet, so nice to have with a cuppa - I had it with a peppermint tea, which complimented it nicely. I will definitely make this again. Here's the recipe;

Week 5: Sticky Lemon Slice (Julie Biuso)

Base
225g butter, softened
70g icing sugar
275 standard flour

Topping
400g sugar
4 medium sized eggs, beaten
4 tbsp standard flour
1 tsp baking powder
grated zest of 2 lemons
90ml lemon juice, strained
icing sugar

Preheat oven to 170C. Line the base of a non-stick 32 x 21cm tin with baking paper. For the base: process butter in food processor until whipped. then add icing sugar until light in colour. Sprinkle in the flower and process until the mixture forms a ball. Tip into the tin an press flat. Bake for 15 mins, then remove from the oven. While the vase is cooling, make the topping.

Topping: Process eggs and sugar in food processor for 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, then sprinkle the flour and baking powder over the top. Add the lemon zest and juice, mixing it all together with a large spoon. Pour the mixture on top of the base (it will fill the tin).

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until golden in colour and firmish to touch. Cool in the tin, then dust with icing sugar and cut into squares. Transfer to an airtight container when cool. This slice will keep for 3-5 days.

lemon meringue - from the 90's to today

For Easter, Mum presented me with a recipe book entitled desserts & after-dinner treats. We don't normally get Easter presents, but Mum had noticed that the book featured a variation on our favourite circle of choux, so decided it must be good and purchased us each a copy.

I took a look at the book, screwed up my face like a spoilt child and proclaimed it to be 'very 90's'. Unlike the simplicity of modern recipe books, each dish was photographed surrounded by a variety of goodies - usually flowers (fresh and/or dried), some raw ingredients (eggs were an favourite), a few serving utensils, some fine china, and ALWAYS a piece of random fabric draped round the dish.

I thought I better try making something from the book before I judged by it's food styling alone. We were having people round for lunch, so I decided to make the Lemon Meringue Pie featured in the book. I made double the filling, and modified the method of cooking slightly - as otherwise it would have taken all day - the recipe suggested blind cooking the pastry, then letting it cool and similarly making the lemon filling then letting it cool, then putting the cooled lemon curd into the cooled pastry, topping with meringue and cooking again... too much admin for me, so I put the still warm lemon filling into the hot pastry added the meringue and cooked the lot. And the results were very pleasing. The pie was nice and high, and easly came out of the pie dish. The lemons I used were fairly bitter, so the meringue provided a nice sweet contrast, and the pastry was lovely, light and crisp.

Inspired (I'm not sure if that's quite the right word?!) by the food styling in the book, I decided to jazz up my photos too, with some flowers, fabric and a whole lemon! Here's the recipe if you too feel inspired:

Lemon Meringue Pie from deserts & after-dinner treats (reprinted best-seller)

Pastry

1 1/4 cups plain flour

2-3 tablespoons icing sugar

125g butter, chopped

Filling

1/4 cup cornflour

1/3 cup water

1 cup lemon juice

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

3/4 cup caster sugar (I used normal sugar)

4 egg yolks (I only put two egg yolks in - not sure why!)

30g butter, chopped

Topping

4 egg whites

3/4 cup caster sugar (I used normal sugar)

For the pastry:
sift flour and icing sugar, rub in butter until mixture is fin and crumbly. Add almost all the water, mix to a firm dough, adding more liquid if necessary. Roll out, and cover base and sides of a 23cm round pie dish. Refrigerate for 20 minutes the blind bake for 10 minutes (temperature was not specified in the book, but I cooked it at 180c)

For the filling:
combine cornflour with a littler water to make a smooth paste. Combine remaining water, juice, rind and sugar in a small pan, stir until sugar dissolves, then add cornflour mixture. Stir over moderate heat until the mixture thickens. Remover from heat, whisk in egg yolks and butter.

To make the topping:
Beat egg whites until soft peak forms, add the sugar gradually, beating constantly until dissolved. Poor filling into pastry shell, spread with meringue to cover, bake at 150C for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

We had a gluten free guest for lunch, so I also made an individual pie in a wee ramekin with just the filling and meringue... and of course used the 90's food styling!