Buffet style sweet & sour dumplings

When TheHusband and I started dating I was living in a digs in "Little Mowbray". I wasn't really a student at the time but my friends were and well I was tired of living at home. My relationship with my parents was strained from moving out of home and smoking and (not really) working for my dad.

In walking distance from our house we had some great food options. Some for the begining of the month (Greek and Chai Yo), one for mid month and special (read: reasons to get drunk) occasions (Fat Cactus) and one for just before the end of the month (when you know you really shouldn't but you really don't want to eat at home) and that was a "chinese" buffet place. I forget the name, it changed so often as did the clientèle. They are no longer there, I believe their fatal mistake was adding a sushi bar (which was not all you can eat like their buffet)

Guest Post - Matt Allison - I'm no Jamie Oliver

Friday already, wow this week has really flown by and with it comes a new guest post. All my previous guests have been long time bloggers, most of them I have known since my food24 days, this week is different.

The world wide web is jam packed with food bloggers, every day more and more start up and you can spend hours looking through them. Some start for monetary reasons, others for fun and some have reasons that really amaze you like, for example, Matt Allison from I'm no Jamie Oliver. Before you read any of his other posts, read his intro, it's the entire reason I started following him. 

There are many people who are replicating the whole "Julie and Julia" project but I never really go that vibe from Matt, you know, that wannabe thing. In the short time that he's blogged and I have followed I have enjoyed every post, the pretty pics and the funny comments.

Guess what though, he not only can he cook from Jamie Oliver's but does his own thing too! Multi talented the man is, check it out:

LadyRaven approached me to write this weeks guest post, and while I was honoured, I’ve got to say I was nervous...

I’ve been an instinctual cook for years and until my current challenge of cooking my way through Jamie Oliver’s '20 minute meals', I’d never read a recipe before, let alone written one!

I’ve always loved the kitchen, but really don’t enjoy labouring over my creations, hence the push towards 20 minutes meals, and I can proudly state that this is one.

So without much further ado I present:

Thai Green Chicken Curry (serves 2 as a main course, 4 as an appetizer)

Ingredients:

2 medium sized chicken breasts
1/2 tin of coconut milk (200ml)
60g thai green curry paste
vegetable oil
sea salt
2 tablespoons of butter
1 lemon
1 small red onion
2 cups of mixed vegetables (broccoli, baby corn & sugar snaps)
A small bunch of basil leaves
150g of basmati rice

Step 1: Fill your kettle and bring to the boil, preheat your oven or warmer draw and place your bowls in to warm.

Step 2: Fill a pot with the boiling water and place on a high heat, once boiling add the rice, a pinch of salt, along with the zest of the lemon.

Step 3: Place a wok or shallow frying pan on medium to hot heat, add 15ml of vegetable oil and add the sliced onion. Gently sauté until the onion is soft and browning.

Step 4: Slice your chicken breasts into strips and add to the onions, stir fry for a minute, then add in the thai green curry paste and stir fry for another 2-3 minutes.

Step 5: Add the coconut milk and the mixed vegetables to the chicken, onions and curry paste mixture, simmer on a medium to low heat for 3-5 minutes.

Step 6: When your rice is cooked, drain it into a sieve, place it over the pot and add the butter, place the lid on the pot and let it sit.

Step 7: Remove the curry mix from the heat and set to one side, remove your bowls for the oven/warmer drawer and divide the rice between them.

Step 8: Tear the basil leaves and mix them in with the curry, then serve on the bed of rice

Chicken casserole

The other day polkadotcupcake blogged about a quick and easy meal she had made. The picture in her post was haunting me for weeks before I finally gave in and found a time to make it. My mom wasn't keen on having dishes for the Saturday and they were planning on getting fish and chips from Ocean Basket. Horrified at the thought of having Ocean Basket for Friday night supper I offered to cook something that didn't take a lot of dishes. Hence the chicken casserole was brought to the front lines.

Now I can't follow recipes, especially not when it comes to cooking. I am better with the baking, that being said I have even started messing with those recipes with some great results. So my chicken dish ended up being something completely different.

Firstly my mom doesn't really like food cooked with wine so I needed to find a substitute. I had heard so much good stuff about the new NoMu Fonds so I had to pop that in there as my liquid. Also once I was in the shop I let the ingredients available lead me and ended up buying a combo of thyme, parsley and rosemary as my herbs.

The dish was very well recieved, so much so that it's our contribution (with beef instead of chicken, though) to tonight's New Year's feast.

What you need:

1 tray thigh and drumstick mix

1 sweet potato

1 bag pickling onion

1 bag baby new potatoes

1 punnet mushrooms 

1 red onion

4 green garlic

Thyme

Parsley

Rosemary

1 litre Vegetable stock (NoMu fonds)

flour

2 tsp smoked paprika

2 tsp crushed garlic powder

salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

Mix the flour, spices and seasoning. Coat the chicken in the seasoned flour. Chop up all the vegetables roughly except the green garlic( just separate the stem from the bulb), the pickling onions and the baby new potatoes. Heat up some olive oil in your casserole dish on the stove. Fry the chicken pieces until golden and remove from the dish. Put down a layer of veg, then the chicken then more veg. Pop on the herbs and then add the veg stock. The stock should come up just under the veg and not cover. Pop the lid on and place in the oven at 180°C for about 1 hour or until the potatoes are soft. 

Serve with some crusty bread to mop up the juices.

The Shopping List

Disclaimer: I was not given any products or paid to endorse any products in this post

Journey to India Part I - Butter Chicken

This is the first post of 4 I will be making. I feel each dish I made deserves its own post not only because they are equally fantastic dishes but for future reference its easier to find them as I will be using them again.


Firstly I suggest that if you decide to tackle all these dishes (and make your own naan bread to go with them),t hat you plan to have lots of time OR do some of the work in advance.


Lets start our magical journey into the east with Butter Chicken

This version is lower in fat then the original. There is no butter and the cream is replaced with yoghurt and cornflour. I did move away slightly from the original low fat version slightly by adding cashew nuts.


The best thing about this dish is that there is no problem in making it veggie friendly. Trade the chicken for paneer, which if you ask really nicely your local Indian restaurant may supply with enough notice, or instead using haloumi (rinse well and soak in some fresh water for a bit to draw out the saltiness) 


What you need:

1 large onion, sliced finely
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 teaspoon crushed ginger
500 g chicken breast fillet or boneless thighs (cut into large chunks)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
½ teaspoon tumeric
½ teaspoon garam masala
½ teaspoons tandoori masala
2 tins tomatoes
½ cup low fat plain yoghurt mixed with 2 tablespoons of cornflour and water to 500 mls
¼ cup crushed cashew (crushed with a pestle and mortar)
Corainder leaves to garnish


What to do:

In a large wok, fry onions until golden.
Add ginger and garlic and fry for a few minutes.
Add chicken pieces and fry for 10 minutes until firm.
Add salt, cumin, red chilli, tumeric, tandoori masala and garam masala, cashew nuts, and fry for a further 5 mins.
Add tomatoes and cook for 5 mins.
Add yoghurt mixture, stir well, and leave to simmer for 10 mins.


Garnish with fresh coriander leaves, and serve hot with rice and/or naan.


The Shopping List



Part II - Palak Paneer 

Cocacola Chicken (Slimmer style)

When I was a teenager we used to go to a friend of my parents for supper quite often, and most times she made "cocacola chicken". I hadnt had it for years and suddenly I am craving it! So I searched for a recipe, then I searched for how to make it friendlier to the waistline. Unfortunately those who are staying away from Aspartame will have to use regular coke, or cola tonic with soda water.

What you will need -
1 pack chicken pieces
1 can coke zero (I use zero as it is only half aspartame)
4 onions (sliced)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs light all gold ketchup (or if you dont have light ketchup mix tomato puree with a bit of water and a little bit of sugar or xylotol)


What to do:
Layer the onion and chicken in an oven dish or tray. 
Mix together all the other ingredients and pour over the chicken
Bake for about 1 to 1½ hours on 180°C


Serve with some boiled baby new potatoes or wild rice.


Shopping List

Chicken Mashroom La la lasagna

I invited a friend over for supper and asked her what she felt like. She said something with cheese so I offered lasagna. Then she asked for it to be with chicken. Perfect. So off I went to shop for what I needed and decided that mushrooms were a must for this project. The result is this:

What you will need -

The chicken mushroom layer:

4 Chicken breasts

2 Large brown mushrooms (diced)

½ an onion (diced)

1 cup milk (I used low fat, you can use any milk or even cream or ideal milk)

basil infused olive oil (or died basil and olive oil)

Jenny Morris Italian herb mix

1 tablespoon flour (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

For the white sauce:

¼ cup lite butter

¼ cup flour

4 cups milk (more or less depending on your dish size and amount of layers)

2 cloves garlic (crushed)

1 tsp mustard powder

Salt and pepper to taste 

The rest:

1 box spinach lasagna

1 cup grated cheddar and mozzarella

What to do -

For the chicken and mushroom layer:

1. Use a nons tick pan with a bit of oil or olive oil spray and cook. Fry the chicken breasts until cooked. Set aside

2. Use a tablespoon of the basil infused olive oil or a tablespoon of olive oil with a teaspoon of dried basil. Throw in the onion and pour about ½ a cup of water in.

3. When the water boils off (the onion should be clear) throw in the mushrooms. Cook for about 1 minute.

4. Add in your milk and let it simmer

3. Cut up the chicken into bite size chunks (At this point you make take chef's tax) and add it to the mushroom sauce, season with italian mix, salt and pepper.

4. When everything else is ready, if the sauce has not thickened add the tablespoon of flour and stir well.

For the white sauce:

1. Melt the butter in a small pot (preferably one with a long handle) then add the flour and stir fast and well.

2. Mix the mustard powder and the garlic in with the milk and add to the pot. Stir as you pour to avoid lumps.

3. Stir well and remove from heat when sauce thickens.

To assemble:

In your dish put down a layer of white sauce, followed by a layer of lasagna and then a layer of chicken and mushroom. Repeat. The top layers should be lasagna, white sauce and then the cheese on top of that. Leave to rest for 30 minutes (If, like me, you leave this to the last minute and dont have time to let the lasagna rest you can do the following. While you are busy with the other parts of the dish soak the lasagna sheets in hot water) While its resting heat the oven up to 190°C. Bake the lasagna until golden brown on top.


 The shopping list

General Something

Some of my readers might know that I am getting married in March 2010 and so I have started trying to lose weight. I started with Sports Science and did well and now I am on Weight Watchers. Before all this I would eat anything and so one of my favourite foods was General Tsao Chicken. I was so happy when I found this recipe from WW for my favourite dish and so I immediately tried it out.

I will say this, it was tasty. It wasn't however the dish I was expecting (maybe the place where I used to eat it used a different dish entirely and this is what General Tsao chicken is supposed to taste like)

Here is the recipe from WW and my alteration in brackets

POINTS® value | 6
Servings |  4
Preparation Time |  20 min
Cooking Time |  10 min
Level of Difficulty |  Moderate

You will need:
¾ cup(s) canned chicken broth, reduced-sodium  (I used 1 Tbsp Thelma chicken soup powder and diluted it in ¾ cup of boiling water)
1½ Tbsp cornstarch 
2 Tbsp sugar 
2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce  (I used normal soya sauce, I want to remain healthy and lose weight and low-sodium soya sauce has a lot of added preservatives to make up for less sodium)
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar  (I used rice wine vinegar)
1/2 tsp ground ginger  (I used 1 Tbsp of freshly grated ginger instead)
2 tsp peanut oil 
2 medium scallion(s), chopped  (Those are spring onions for those who dont know)
2 medium garlic clove(s), minced 
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or 1 dried chili pepper, minced  (I used fresh green chillies)
1 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 2-inch pieces  (I floured the chicken as it gives it a nice coating)
2 cup(s) cooked white rice, kept hot  (I used Jasmine rice)
 

What to do:

In a medium bowl, whisk together broth, cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and ginger; set aside.
(I kept the corn starch out until just before adding the mixture to the chicken, it works better)
Heat oil in a wok or large pan over medium-high heat. Add scallions, garlic and pepper and cook 2 minutes. Add chicken and cook until browned all over, about 5 minutes.
Add reserved sauce and simmer until sauce thickens and chicken is cooked through, about 3 minutes.
Serve chicken and sauce over rice.