dinner date - roasted chicken, leek and pear salad

This tray-baked wintery salad has been doing the blog rounds, so I am sorry if it looks a little overly familiar...but I still wanted to share it as it is SO tasty, not to mention quick to throw together.  Chicken, pears and the much underrated leek make such good friends, especially accompanied by crunchy garlicky chunks of bread (they are too rustic to be called croutons!) and dollops of melting goats cheese.  A most satisfactory dinner, especially after a rather tiresome afternoon of yet more nasty earthquakes.

A little trick I have for the goats cheese - for cooking I love the flavour and texture of the soft, creamy french chevre de bellay logs, however these are pricey  - so I buy a NZ goat feta and blend it up in the food processor with some softened cream cheese.  It takes the harsh edge off the feta but still lets the fresh tang of the goats cheese shine through,  giving a result pretty similar to the french stuff. It is definitely easy on the wallet too so can be used with great(er) abandon. If you use a whole pack of both it will make loads, but it freezes beautifully. Lovely on pizza too...

Scoot over to Millie and Mel's blogs if you like for their versions of this salad (which originally appeared in Cuisine mag last year) but here's what we ate for dinner last night - 

roasted chicken, leek and pear salad with goats cheese (for 4)

6 x chicken thighs

1 tbsp yellow and black mustard seeds (or a dollop of grainy mustard)

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 leeks, diagonally sliced 1 cm thick

drizzle of olive oil

splash of red wine vinegar

s and p

chunks of old bread, ciabatta, focaccia etc

soft goats cheese, or feta

salad greens

Preheat oven to 200c. Place the chicken, mustard, herbs, garlic, leeks in a large roasting tray, drizzle over some olive oil and red wine vinegar, s and p, and toss well to combine, then cook for about 30 minutes or until chicken is done ( I used boneless thighs which cooked really quickly).  Once the chicken is nearly done scatter the bread over the other ingredients, drizzle with a little more oil and return to the oven for another 10 minutes so the bread crisps up.  Remove from oven,  throw over the goats cheese and let it melt a bit.  Serve warm in bowls with the salad greens tossed through.

coq au vin

I love autumn, when the cold weather is still a novelty rather than an uncomfortable annoyance, and comfort food reigns supreme. One of the wintery dinners we have enjoyed lately is Coq au Vin, such a classic but for good reason, it is so delicious. I based mine on Tina's recipe, but with drums instead of thighs; I like to cook this really slowly so the meat falls off the bone, and although I love thighs for most things, when slow cooked they can go a bit stringy. Drumsticks are often really cheap too, so are great to cook for a crowd.

If I make this in advance I will often pull the meat off the bone after the initial cook, which makes it easier eating after you reheat to serve. Making it in advance lets the fat settle on top too, so you can scoop it off easily, plus the flavours are so much better after some fridge time. Like anything with a rich wine-y sauce, this dish demands a lovely big pile of mashed potato or something similarly starchy to soak up all the beautiful sauce.

Coq au Vin

2 tbsp each of olive oil and butter
100g bacon, diced
pickling onions, peeled (12 or as you like..)
button mushrooms (12 or as you like...)
8 pieces chicken
flour seasoned with s and p

1.5 c red wine
1 c chicken stock
4 tbsp brandy
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
sprigs fresh thyme, rosemary, parsley
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp tomato paste
chopped Italian parsley to serve

Heat butter and oil and cook the bacon, onions and mushrooms, until the mushrooms brown and the onions start to go translucent. Remove with a slotted spoon and put aside. Dust the chicken in the seasoned flour, then fry, you may need to add more oil and butter. Once browned, return the vegetables to the pan, and add the remaining ingredients. Cover and cook at 160c for 1.5- 2hours or until the meat falls off the bone. I like to leave it overnight, then skim off the fat and reheat, thickening the sauce at the last minute with a little arrowroot.

dinner date - chicken ragu with pappardelle

On Friday I bought a new cookbook: Manna from Heaven by Rachel Grisewood. I'd almost bought this book on a couple of other occasions but had never quite got round to parting with my money. This time, I was spurred into action by the prospect of my Borders book voucher becoming worthless currency given the company's current financial state. It was slim pickings among the cookbook section of Borders Lambton Quay. There were plenty of Gordon Ramsey titles and generic 1001 baking recipe books but little that appealed. When I spotted the bright pink and orange cover of Manna from Heaven on the shelves it was an easy decision.

Wanting to make the most of my new purchase, I adapted the recipe for duck ragu with pappardelle for dinner on Sunday night. It was a wintery choice given the uncharacteristically good weather Wellington's experienced of late, but I like making slow cooked meals on Sundays when I'm not in a hurry. Not this was a difficult or time-consuming meal to make. It needs an hour and a half in the oven but while in there, it needs only minimal supervision.

This recipe lends itself to all sorts of adaptations. Like chicken instead of duck - so much cheaper and more accessible. In fact, it's a fantastic way to turn dirt-cheap drumsticks into a luxurious meal. I added a couple of boneless thighs too but drumsticks alone would do just fine. A little bacon or pancetta thrown in with the celery would make a delicious addition, as would a few sliced field mushrooms.

1tbsp olive oil

4-6 chicken pieces (I used 5 drumsticks and 2 thighs)

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

1 small red onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

200ml chicken stock

1 canned Italian tomatoes

3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (I used basil, sage, oregano and thyme)

3 bay leaves

200ml red wine

1 tbsp fresh cream

sea salt & cracked pepper

400g pappardelle pasta

parmesan cheese & fresh herbs, to serve

Heat the oil in an ovenproof & stovetop safe casserole dish over a medium heat. Add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside. Drain all but 1 tbsp of fat from the pan and add the celery and red onion. Cook for a few minutes to soften. Add the garlic and cook a further few minutes. Add the chicken, stock, tomatoes (plus half a tinful of water), herbs, bay leaves and wine.

Bring to a gentle simmer, cover with a lid and place into an oven heated to 180 degrees Celsius. Cook for 1.5 hours, or until the meat falls from the bones. Remove from the oven and leave to cool a little.

Remove the skin from the chicken (with tongs if too hot to handle) and cut the meat from the bones. Discard the bones and skin and set aside the meat. Simmer the sauce over a medium heat on the stovetop, adding extra water if too thick or reducing if too thin. Skim off any fat that comes to the surface.

Once it's at the consistency you like, return the chicken meat to the pan along with the cream and lots of salt & pepper and cook until warmed through.

Meanwhile cook the pasta in plenty of salted boiling water. Drain well once al dente and stir some of the ragu through the pasta. Distribute into bowls and top with more ragu. Serve with parmesan and more fresh herbs.

dinner date - chicken marbella

Chicken Marbella, a braised chicken dish with prunes and olives, is one of those classic recipes that has seemed to have done the rounds for years, albeit different versions of it. It originated (I think) at The Silver Palate, a culinary-ground-breaking-at-the-time New York deli that opened in the eighties and released several cookbooks thereafter. Chicken Marbella is the perfect dish for entertaining - most of the prep can be done beforehand, and it looks and tastes much more impressive than the effort taken to make it. Most importantly everyone seems to love it.

Thighs are the nicest cut to use - bone in or out as you prefer. The sauce is a delicious mix of sweet and sour and salty. I like to serve it with little roast potatoes or potatoes dauphinoise and a lightly dressed green salad - the sauce from the chicken on your plate coats the salad greens nicely.

Chicken Marbella

8-10 chicken thighs
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1/4c dried oregano
1/2 c red wine vinegar
1/2 c olive oil
1 c prunes
1 c olives
1/2 c capers, and a little of their juice
6 bay leaves
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c white wine
1/4 c chopped Italian parsley

Marinate chicken overnight in the first 8 ingredients. Arrange in a single layer in a roasting dish and sprinkle with brown sugar. Pour wine around the chicken and bake for 50 minutes or so, basting with the juices every now and then. Once cooked, strain off liquid into a small saucepan and cover the chicken etc with foil. Remove extra fat from the liquid with a ladle or mop it up with strips of paper towel gently laid over the surface of the sauce. Boil it hard for a few minutes to reduce down and thicken with a little arrowroot. Pour over chicken and sprinkle over parsley.

dinner date - star anise chicken and noodle salad

This summery dinner was inspired by a couple of new cookbooks - the noodle salad is from Ripe Recipes, and the chicken is from Belinda Jefferey's 100 favourite recipes. The braised star anise chicken is apparently her most requested recipe. It is a similar recipe to a chicken nibble marinade, but the star anise makes the flavour more complex. It was a fairly easy dinner, the chicken takes a while to cook but there's no major prep involved. Perfect for hot weather!

This meal would make great picnic fare too, if you shredded the cooled chicken through the salad for easy eating, or cooked drumsticks or nibbles in the marinade. Reducing some of the marinade at the end to make a sticky glaze to brush over the chicken skin is an optional step but one that is well worth it in my opinion; the finished chicken with its high-gloss skin looks rather impressive, a bit like peking duck. (The photo above didn't exactly capture the chicken's best side...) It would actually be pretty good served Peking duck style, rolled up in pancakes with spring onions and hoisin.

The salad would be delicious with some toasted peanuts or cashews tossed through it, or crispy fried shallots. It would also be a great base for some stirfried chicken, beef or asian style marinated salmon. If you don't have the ingredients below it is an easy one to freestyle - just be sure to include something crunchy like the bean sprouts, or some shredded cabbage.

Belinda Jeffery's Star Anise Braised Chicken

1 c kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

1 c soy sauce

1 c water

1/3 c brown sugar

2 whole star anise

2 tbsp sherry

2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed

2 chucks of ginger (the size of a 20c piece)

1 x 2kg chicken

Preheat oven to 180c. Put all ingredients except the chicken in a large flameproof dish (I used a scanpan wok) and bring to the boil. Place chicken breast side down into the liquid, cover with lid or foil, and bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven, turn over (Belinda suggests using a wooden spoon handle shoved into the chicken...which worked well) and bake a further 45 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the poaching liquid for at least half an hour. Boil some of the liquid in a small saucepan until it forms a thick syrupy glaze and brush over the chicken. The cooking liquid can be recycled next time - keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks or freeze.

Rice Noodle Salad - adapted from Ripe Recipes

250g pkt rice noodles, cooked in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, and refreshed in cold water

200g green beans, blanched and refreshed

1 head broccoli, cut into small florets, blanched and refreshed

1 red pepper, cut into fine strips

1 c fresh mung bean sprouts

1 c podded edamame beans (Asian stores often sell frozen packs of these), blanched etc

1 c fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

1 c fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

Combine all ingredients and toss with the dressing.

Dressing

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tsp sesame seeds, dry toasted

1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

juice and zest of 2 lemons

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp brown sugar

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Place all ingredients in a jar and shake until well combined.

dinner date - roast chicken with saffron, hazelnuts & honey

I made this chicken from the Ottolenghi cookbook after hearing how good it was from Chloe and Weston. They were right: it is AMAZING! It's so simple but so delicious and so fragrant. The recipe calls for you to cut a whole organic chicken into pieces - too much hassle when have no butchery skills so I just used bone-in chicken thighs. Boneless would work fine too.

I bought saffron especially for this recipe but I'm unsure whether you'd actually notice if you left it out with so many other flavours in there... it sure is expensive and although I knew that when to Moore Wilson to get the ingredients I still gasped when I saw the tiny wee tuft of strands I got for $9!

We ate the chicken with plain couscous and a green salad. It's a great meal if you're having people over on a week night as you can do all the prep the night before and throw it in the oven when you get home. Try it!

6-8 chicken pieces (I used bone-in, skinless thighs)
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
a big pinch of saffron
juice of 1 lemon
4 tbsp cold water
2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
100g unskinned hazelnuts
70g honey
2 tbsp rosewater
2 spring onions, roughly chopped (I forgot about these but they're only for garnishing)

Mix the chicken with the onion, olive oil, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, lemon juice, water, salt and pepper. Leave it to marinate for at least an hour (or overnight in the fridge).

Heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Spread the hazelnuts out in a baking tray and roast for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Keep a close eye on them as they can go from browned to burnt very quickly. The recipe says to chop and set aside but I placed them in a clean teatowel first and rubbed the skins off.

Place the chicken and marinade into a large roasting tray, with the chicken skin-side up (if your chicken has skin). Put in the oven for about 35 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the chopped hazelnuts with the honey and rosewater to make a rough paste. Remove the chicken from the oven and spoon a generous amount of the nut paste onto each piece, pressing it on to the top of each piece. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes, making sure that the chicken is thoroughly cooked and the nuts are golden brown.

a few of our favourite things

Becs: My favourite 'fancy' salt is Pacific Flaky Sea Salt, made right here in Marlborough, NZ. I prefer it to the imported Maldon salt, the Pacific salt flakes are perfect just as they are to use as a finishing salt. Best of all you can find it in most supermarkets for around the $5 mark. I buy the iodised variant.

Miriam: Despite my birthday being two months ago, this week I got two presents. One was this beautiful ring that my friends Lewi, Jane, Nat & Kate all contributed to. It's made in rose gold and has a sapphire in the middle. The other was a pair of glasses, spectacles in fact. A present from Dad, who proceeded to inform me that boys seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses! Humph!

Libby: I was contemplating boning a chicken but wasn't sure I'd still want to eat chicken afterwards so called the Wadestown Gourmet Butchery to see about getting a professional to do the job. I dropped off my stuffing and a short while later I picked up my boned, stuffed, free-range, corn-fed chicken that had been neatly "bazooka-ed" into netting! All for their everyday price for a chicken. Such service!

dinner date - burmese chicken curry

I spotted this delicious recipe for Burmese Chicken Curry a few weeks ago over at the blog pod and three peas (which is a great source of dinner inspiration, it's where I frequently get mine!) The curry recipe is from Australian cook Belinda Jeffery's book 100 Favourite Recipes. I love her book Mix & Bake, and have been trying to track this other one down in NZ but so far to no avail...Belinda Jeffery is sadly underrated this side of the Tasman.

This curry involves a fair amount of chopping at the start, but is well worth it, as once your prep is done it goes into the oven for an hour and a half to cook quietly until the meat nearly falls off the bone. If you use a stovetop to oven pan you can get away with very few dishes, just a chopping board, knife, wooden spoon and your pan. It's a great dish to make a day ahead, and can be happily reheated in a slow oven. Last time I made it, I doubled the recipe (apart from the chicken) and froze half the sauce to use next time so I will have a headstart.

It really is a delicious dinner, especially accompanied with some of the fabulous Kawan roti. Often I find homemade curry lacks the depth of flavour of those eaten out, but this one tastes really authentic, or so I imagine having never been to Burma....although Christchurch does boast NZ's only Burmese restaurant - The Bodhi Tree - which is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in town.

For the recipe, see here.

dinner date - Vietnamese chicken salad

Ok so sadly this post is coming to you from Christchurch not Vietnam...however the fresh flavours of this salad are perfect for spring when you are over casseroles and other rib-sticking dinners. The recipe is a bit vague, just make it up as you go along, depending on what you have in the fridge and how many you have to feed. I think one chicken thigh per person is plenty but suit yourself.

The dressing is fantastic, make a jar up at a time, it will keep forever in the fridge, and just needs to be diluted to serve. Use it as a dipping sauce with fresh spring rolls too.

The crispy fried shallots can be bought at Asian supermarkets, they are cheap as and addictive. Possibly not very PC (hmmm not really loving that palm oil...) but so tasty, adding a sweet crunch to this salad. This salad is all about texture so the crunchy mung bean sprouts, nuts and shallots are essential!

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

chicken thighs

vermicelli noodles

mung bean sprouts

cucumber, deseeded and julienned

red pepper

carrots

fresh mint and coriander

peanuts, roasted and chopped

crispy fried shallots

dressing

1-2 red chillis, finely chopped

1 tbsp white or wine vinegar

1/2 c fish sauce

1/4 c fresh lime juice

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 c sugar

Poach the chicken thighs by placing in a roasting dish, covering with water and baking at 180c for about twenty minutes or until the juices run clear when pierced with a knife. Cool and shred.

Blend all dressing ingredients in bowl, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Store in a jar in the fridge. Dilute with one part dressing to one part water before serving.

Toss chicken through the cooked noodles with the prepped veges of your choice. If I use carrots and red peppers I blanch them in boiling water for 30 seconds or so just to make them a bit easier to eat. Toss through with dressing to taste.

Serve bowls of fresh mint, chopped peanuts, crispy shallots and extra dressing on the table for people to add as they like.

dinner date - paella

I hosted a dinner party last weekend, and when trying to think of an appropriate dish to make, my friend Debbie suggested paella. I don't recall having ever made it before, but it always seems like quite a fun meal. I did a bit of a google search and came up with this, Jamie Oliver recipe.

Chicken, prawns, bacon, chorizo, this paella has it all! It had a great smokey flavour from the paprika. I haven't really cooked with saffron before, but bought some Equagold saffron extract to use in this dish. I'm not sure it added anything (or there may have just been so many other flavours I didn't notice). A tip mum taught me, is to always buy frozen (or fresh) prawns uncooked i.e. grey rather than pink. Some cooked prawns were mistakenly bought in my household for another dish a few weeks ago and we will never do that again - they were very tough and chewy.

I'd certainly make this dish again, and it's great to make when cooking for guests, as you can do lots of the prep beforehand. Plus, it's relatively low maintenance, as it doesn't involve lots of dishes, and you can just plonk the pan onto the table to serve. Delicious!

Dinner date - moroccan chicken

Moroccan chicken is another recipe in my repertoire that comes via the Manley family. Although not the most photogenic of dishes, it really is worth a try as it tastes much better than it looks here. Below is the recipe, as written by Libby (from her memory) in an email to me about 3 years ago;

Toast about a cup of blanched almonds (can do this in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes). Chop roughly in the food processor (you can reserve a few whole ones to scatter on top if you like).

Brown chicken (about 500g or however much you want) and a finely chopped onion. Add 1 tsp each of turmeric, cinnamon and cumin. Cook for a minute or two. Add 1-2 cups of liquid (it is nice to use about half and half orange juice and water), ground almonds, 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of honey (you don't need much if you have used orange juice) and the zest of one lemon if you have one. And then add the best part.... Prunes! As many as you like, about 1/2-1 cup. Simmer for about 20 minutes, adding more liquid if necessary.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds and whole toasted almonds if you have them but is just as delicious without. Serve with quinoa or couscous and salad.

morning tea

Last week it was my turn to bring morning tea to work. I decided to make something sweet and something savoury. So I settle on sausage rolls, and coca cola cake. I've been making both for years, with the recipes being given to me by Becs.

Sausage rolls are so quintessentially kiwi and ever popular. But once you've tried these chicken, bacon and prune ones, it's hard to ever go back to the frozen supermarket versions. The flavours go so well together and the moisture from the prunes means you don't even require sauce. The loose recipe is pretty simple;


Chicken bacon and prune sausage rolls
puff pastry
prunes
streaky bacon
chicken mince
relish / chutney
plenty of salt and pepper
1 egg
poppy seeds


Mix the chicken mince with a good few dollops of relish and season generously. Lines the chicken mixture, bacon and prunes along the pastry, then roll it up tightly and cut into bite sized pieces. Brush the tops with some beaten egg and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes or until the look golden. Enjoy warm or cold.

The photo of this coca cola cake doesn't really do it justice, but don't judge it by the photo alone - give it a go and you'll realise that coca cola cake is one of the simplest chocolate cakes to make, and the outcome is deliciously moist chocolately cake. Although you would never know it contains a cup of coke, it makes a great talking point!

Coca Cola Cake
1 3/4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cups cocoa
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
dash salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 cup coca cola
1 cup of buttermilk (I use trim milk and it works)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift all dry ingredients into mixing bowl. Add wet ingredients and beat on medium to high speed till combined. Don’t be alarmed at the consistency - this is a very wet mixture. Bake in 9 x 13 Inch cake tin at 180C until prong comes out clean (around 40 mins).

Incredible chocolate icing

100g soft butter
1 cup icing sugar
2/3 cup cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla
1-2 tablespoon milk
1-2 tablespoon hot coffee

Combine the above in food processor and blend. Add vanilla, milk and hot coffee. Ice the cake - and you may like to decorate with white chocolate (as I did with this cake - although there was some initial shock as it looked like the cake had been decorated with coconut....)