Marinated Chicken

Here is a tasty marinade for chicken which I used on some chicken thigh fillets for my birthday bash on the weekend. The chicken was lovely, tender & the blend of sweet tangy marinade flavours plus Michael’s superb char grilling powers made this great for any Barbie. Note the recipe from Women’s Weekly Great barbecue Food specified chicken wings which I ditched for thigh fillets, sometimes I’m just not in the mood for chewing on a lot of bones to get a little meat! As you can see from the photo, there was a lot of meat being grilled to perfection & the pic doesn’t even sow half of it! Guess what I’ll be eating for the rest of the week?

Marinated Chicken

1.5kg chicken wings (I used about the same weight in thigh fillets)
1 cup (250ml) tomato sauce
½ cup (125ml) plum sauce
¼ cup (60ml) Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup (50g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 cloves of garlic, crushed

Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl, stir, add chicken, stir to coat. Cover & refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

Drain chicken & discard marinade. Grill on barbecue or griddle pan until cooked through (about 40 minutes on barbecue).

Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Here is s simple marinade for tuna or any firm fish or even prawns, great for the bbq or grill. It’s healthy & the flavours are fresh & clean, serve it with a salad & do your insides some good. The recipe comes from Ben O’Donoghue and Curtis Stones’s Surfing the Menu.

Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Marinade
2 tablespoons chopped shallots (escahlots)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped ginger
2 tablespoons chopped chilli
2 tablespoons crushed lemongrass
zest & juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped basil
2 tablespoons chopped coriander

4 tuna escalopes, weighing about 150g each
1 tablespoon olive oil
mixed salad leaves, to serve

To make the marinade, place all ingr4edients in a large bowl & mix well. Add the tuna & rub in the marinade. Cover & chill for 30 minutes.

Heat the barbecue or grill. Add the olive oil to the bowl & toss to coat. Cook on a hot barbecue or flat grill until cooked through. Serve on a bed of fresh salad leaves.

Salmon with Horseradish & Beets

This recipe comes from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef, under the chapter, Quick Fixes which is exactly what I needed last night being busy prepping some stuff for the bbq we’re having today. It was very quick apart from boiling the beets, I had giant ones as no babies in the shops & they took quite a while so you need to get them started pretty early on. The beets were fantastic, this was a lovely way to serve them & I loved the marinade, the marjoram really stood out & has a lovely & unusual (to me) flavour, I have some growing on my herb shelf so nice to find good uses for it. If I had known how nice they would turn out I would have bought heaps & made a bowl for the Barbie today! Also the horseradish cream brought it all together, going very well with both the salmon & the beets.

Salmon with Horseradish & Beets

2 x 225g Salmon fillets, pin boned & scored ½ cm deep
salt & freshly ground black pepper
6-8 baby beetroots, cooked until tender then sliced
1 small handful of marjoram, leaves picked
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons crème fraiche
2 tablespoons creamed horseradish
juice of 1 lemon
a handful of rocket or watercress

Add your salmon fillets, skin side down, to a hot non-stick pan. Lightly press them with a spatula so they don’t curl up. After a minute they should be lightly golden. Turn the salmon over, sprinkle with salt & then place under a grill for 10-15 minutes until just cooked. While cooking, marinate your beetroots with the marjoram, a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar & seasoning. Mix the crème fraiche with the horseradish & season to taste, carefully, with salt, pepper & lemon juice. Place the beets & salmon on your serving plate, sprinkle over the rocket & drizzle with the horseradish sauce.

Lamb Cutlets & Greek Salad

This dinner is a week late, I had the lamb sitting in the fridge all nicely marinated when I went into labour last week. My mum suggested freezing them, marinade & all so that’s what Michael did & now we have finally cooked them up. From Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer. The freezing did no harm & the lamb was beautifully tender & the marinade provided great flavour. The Greek salad on the side was yum too with a nice twist on the traditional.

Lamb Cutlets with Yoghurt & Cumin

450-500g Greek yoghurt
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 large onion
1 head garlic
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
20 lamb cutlets

Empty the yoghurt into a large shallow dish (big enough to fit all of the chops in) & then stir in the cumin. Peel & roughly chop the onion and add it. Break the head of garlic into cloves, peel them & squash them slightly just by pressing on them with the flat of a heavy

The Ultimate Greek Salad

1 red onion
1 tablespoon dried oregano
black pepper
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
200ml extra virgin olive oil
5 good tomatoes
1 teaspoon caster sugar
pinch of maldon salt
1 large cos lettuce
1 bulb fennel
125g pitted black olives
400g feta cheese
juice of half a lemon

Peel & finely slice the red onion then sprinkle over the oregano and grind over some black pepper. Pour in the vinegar & oil & toss well, cover with cling film & leave to step for at least 2 hours. Cut the tomatoes into quarters, then cut each quarter into quarters (always lengthwise) again, so that you have a collection of very fine segments. Sprinkle with the sugar & a pinch of salt & leave while you get on with the rest. Wash the lettuce, tear into large pieces & place in a salad bowl. Slice the fennel & add that, then the olives & feta cut or crumbled into large chunks & toss well. Now add the tomatoes, the red onion in its dressing & the lemon juice. Toss gently so that everything is well combined.

knife, then stir into the yoghurt along with the salt. Add the cutlets & stir well. Cover with cling film & put in the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Heat a ridged grill pan & then take the cutlets out of the marinade, wipe with some kitchen towel. Fry for a few minutes each side until cooked to your liking.

Char Sui Pork with Asian vegetables

Another quickie tonight – so quick in fact that Michael whipped it up as I was held up on my way home from work (shopping & late trams as usual). After I marinated the pork last night there wasn’t much left to do except for a bit of chopping & grilling. The recipe comes from Ben O’Donoghue and Curtis Stone, Surfing the Menu. The pork is fantastic, juicy & tender from all the marinating & char sui is such a delicious flavour, with the added extra’s it was even better. The veggies were ok however the sauce was a bit too strong for my liking so wont be making them again.

Char Sui Pork with Asian vegetables

Marinade

200g char sui paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
1 garlic clove, bruised
1cm piece ginger, sliced

2 medium pork fillets

Vegetables

½ head of broccoli
1 zucchini
1 carrot
¼ each of red, yellow & green capsicum
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Asian shallot, sliced
1 small clove garlic, crushed
¼ teaspoon grated ginger
½ head pak choy, shredded
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a ceramic or glass bowl and add the pork fillets, turning to coat. Cover & refrigerate for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 180c. Remove the pork from the marinade & seal on both sides in a medium fry pan, 5-6 minutes. Transfer to a roasting dish for 8 minutes in the oven, remove & rest covered with foil for 3-4 minutes.

Cut the broccoli, zucchini, carrot & capsicum into bite sized pieces. Heat oil in wok add the veggies & shallot, garlic, ginger & pak choy. Stir fry for 15-20 seconds. Add soy & oyster sauce & continue to fry until vegges soft, about 20-30 seconds. Stir through sesame oil & serve with the pork carved into 1 cm slices. Drizzle ay juices from the roasting dish over & serve.

Saffron Scented Chicken Pilaf

Apologies if the cooking is a bit light on lately, I am too busy going to Christmas parties & enjoying other peoples efforts so not much time for the home kitchen. It is making a nice change I must say. So last night I did my first bit of cooking for the week. This lovely & simple rice dish from rom Nigella Lawson, Forever Summer , was perfect for a quick mid week fix, the chicken flavours after marinating in yoghurt, lemon & cinamon were spectacular - dont think I have tried this flavouring before & the subtle & exotic flavours in the rice, cardoman, nuts, saffron, etc were beautiful.

Saffron Scented Chicken Pilaf

500g chicken breast, cut into approx 2 x 1cm pieces
1 x 200g tub Greek yoghurt
juice of half a lemon
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon saffron threads
1 litre chicken stock
15g unsalted butter
2-3 tablespoons groundnut oil
500g basmati rice
3-4 cardamom pods, bruised
juice and zest of 1 lemon
50g cashew nuts
50g flaked almonds
25g pine nuts
3-4 tablespoons shelled pistachio nuts
small bunch fresh parsley, chopped

Marinate the chicken in the yoghurt, lemon and cinnamon for about an hour. Soak the saffron threads in the chicken stock.

Over medium heat, in large pan with a lid, melt the butter along with 1 tablespoon oil and add the rice, stirring it to coat gently. Pur in the saffron & chicken stock, add the cardamom pods, lemon juice & zest & bring the pan to the boil, then put on the lid & turn down to very low heat for about 10-15 minutes, by which time the rice should have absorbed & the liquid cooked through.

While the rice is cooking, shake the excess marinade off the chicken using a sieve. Then fry the meat in a hot pan with the remaining spoonful or so of oil, do in batches if necessary.

When the rice is cooked, take it off the heat & fork through the chicken pieces. Toast the nuts except pistachios, by shaking in an oil free frypan until they begin to colour. Add to the pilaf along with chopped parsley & top with chopped pistachios.

Cook Islands Trip

We have just returned from our week of Paradise in The Cook Islands, as you can see from the photo, it is gorgeous over there & the pic doesn’t even do the place justice. We even got to spend a day & night in Tahiti as on the way there some very strong winds – apparently 120kms/hour, prevented us from landing so we had to divert, thanks to Air New Zealand for providing all we needed it was actually really enjoyed rather than being the disaster it could have been. They put us up in The Intercontinental which was beautiful, we spent the day swimming in their gorgeous & mammoth pool, walking around & chilling out. As for the food, well I know resorts aren’t usually the best but I have to say the buffet lunch was pretty awful so the eating extravaganza I had planned was not off to a good start.

All in all our food experience did not end up being that great apart from a couple of good feeds, for the most part I thought it was pretty awful, so as you can imagine I was very disappointed. Most of the food is imported from New Zealand which brings the prices up for a start, they are more or loss on a par with Australian restaurant prices which I wouldn’t mind paying if the quality was the same. The fact that it wasn’t & there really weren’t any cheap & easy options available for dinner didn’t make me any happier paying these prices. Lunch was a bit better with more available & at more reasonable prices. We had a tropical breakfast included daily which was fine, not much can go wrong with cereal, fruit, toast & pastries after all! I hate to write about bad experiences but really wasn’t left with much option. So anyway that being said now I will tell you about the good bits.

When we finally made it The Cooks, our first port of call was the stunning Island of Aitutaki, the photo is actually One Foot Island which is one of the surrounding motu’s (Islands). We did an Island cruise taking in a few surrounding Islands & some snorkelling – fantastic, and we had a local lunch on Honeymoon Island put together by the cruise people. This was great as they laid out a platter of traditional fruits & vegetables including Sea Grapes, these were very weird looking, a small branch with lots of very small ‘green grapes’ attached, squeezed with lime juice very tasty & apparently very good for you too, paw-paw, guava, lady bird bananas (as you can imagine I made the most of readily available bananas & stuffed myself with them for the whole week), some baked tapioca pudding – yum, steamed tapioca, purple kumara, fresh coconut & some fresh tuna sandwiches. Most of it was delicious though I was a bit iffy on the kumara & steamed tapioca. It was all served in a tiny little open hut on woven plates lined with freshly picked leaves of some sort, really enjoyed this experience.

That night was Sunday & not much is open on Sunday nights in Aitutaki so we opted for Te Vaka Bar & Grill, we caught a taxi there & the lovely driver gave us a piece of sponge cake for the ride that she had freshly baked that afternoon, it was delicious & moist & as you can probably tell the people here are very friendly, a very nice experience & cheap too! The restaurant was in a lovely open air building with the usual wicker furniture & Island feel, the food here was quite nice too, not fantastic but pretty good. Michael tried the Cook Islands speciality ‘Ika Mata’ which is fresh tuna marinated in lemon juice then tossed in coconut cream with onions, garlic, tomato & cucumber, he gave it the thumbs up, being pregnant I had to take his word for it as raw fish off the menu for me for now. I had Garlic chilli prawns, these were good too, with the marinade all making a lovely thick jammy sauce for the prawns. Michael then had some coconut topped Mahi Mahi (very nice fish if done the right way – we had a lot of it over the week) with calamari & I had an Island chicken curry, absolutely huge servings, don’t think I even ate half of mine. I then had some ice cream with freshly grated coconut & chocolate fudge sauce, their desserts were not overly creative! All in all it was a pleasant experience.

As you can probably tell by now they are very big on coconut on EVERYTHING in The Cook Islands, I was ok with it at first but by the end of the week hated it as most of the time thought it was way overdone & think it will be a while before I eat anything with coconut again which is a shame as I really like the stuff.

Anyway back on the mainland, Rarotonga a couple of places worth mentioning. FBI fish and chips , near the main bus stop in town. As we were getting off the bus we could smell it and you know what that smell does to you, we had no choice but to then find the place & order up. The fish was Parrott fish & the batter was light & crispy & all seemed to be cooked in nice fresh oil & at NZD11.50 for the 2 of us very good value for a change.

We went to Trader Jacks for dinner one night which is apparently the place to go, unfortunately I thought the food was crap here, our char grilled octopus was very tough & chewy & the coconut braised lentils it was served on well, yuk! For the mains Michael had some Wahoo fish, pan fried with garlic, lemon, fresh herbs & fries, this was nice & simple & really good, I ended up eating half of it as my Mai Mai wrapped in banana leaf & served on a bed of ginger, coriander, chilli & COCONUT cream was disgusting, I had one bite & didn’t go any further. So I was pretty hungry after this & ordered dessert, Chocolate & apricot cake with chocolate fudge & ice cream – bad mistake again, cake was dry & I don’t know what the fascination is with bloody vanilla ice cream & hot chocolate fudge on anything either! The place had a good feel & was fun but I would definitely order plain if going again, the bar pizzas looked & smelt terrific too – maybe that’s the way to go?

For our last night we went to Tamarind House, recommended as the best spot on the Island I had high hopes & it didn’t disappoint, the setting is a majestic restored colonial era building & the piano player perched in the corner all night also added to the ambience. Michael started with the seafood chowder, another Island specialty which he enjoyed & I chose the chicken & mushroom won tons which were delicious, I finally learnt not to order Cook Islands food which I have developed an intense dislike for! For mains I had some smoked salmon spaghetti & Michael some Island style swordfish, we both left very happy customers for once.

All in all it’s a gorgeous & relaxed place for a holiday, Aitutaki was the highlight & highly recommended but if you go don’t have too high expectations for the food, hope I am not being too critical here, who knows maybe its just my pregnant taste buds after all.

Pollo Alla Cacciatora (Hunter’s Chicken Stew)

Michael cooked up this lovely dish for dinner with only a little help from me. I varied the recipe slightly in that firstly I had bought chicken thigh fillets instead of pieces on the bone as the recipe called for as I always find these work well & you end up with a nicer result in the end. Also I didn’t have any Chianti on hand so rather than go out & buy a bottle I used something from my already plentiful wine collection, went with a Sangiovese in the end having no idea what to substitute the Chianti for. This seemed to work well & didn’t cause any disasters. The recipe comes from Jamie Oliver’s Italy & as usual with his recipes it was sensational! I have made this dish before from other recipes & this was definitely the best, I think the baking in the oven was what did it, the intensity of all of the flavours, combined with the chicken so tender it was falling apart made for a mouth watering feast. I seem to have got one part wrong though, according to Jamie it should have been I who cooked this after my man spent a hard day out in the countryside, oh well! And seeing as how it is still Winter we served this with a good size helping of mash rather than the suggested salads. Fantastico!

Pollo Alla Cacciatora (Hunter’s Chicken Stew)

Cacciatore means ‘hunter’, so this is obviously the type of food that a
hunter’s wife cooks for her fella when he gets home from a hard morning
spent in the countryside. This is also a great dish for big parties, as it
looks after itself in the oven.

1 x 2kg / 4lb chicken, jointed, or use the equivalent amount of chicken
pieces
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 bay leaves
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
3 cloves of garlic, peeled (1 crushed, 2 sliced)
½ a bottle of chianti
flour, for dusting
extra virgin olive oil
6 anchovy fillets
a handful of green or black olives, stoned
2 x 400g tins of good-quality plum tomatoes

Season the chicken pieces with
salt and freshly ground black pepper and put them into a bowl. Add the bay
leaves and rosemary sprigs and the crushed clove of garlic and cover with the
wine. Leave to marinate for at least an hour, but preferably overnight in the
fridge.

Preheat your oven to 180c / 350F / gas 4. Drain the chicken,
reserving the marinade, and pat dry with kitchen paper. Dust the chicken pieces
with flour and shake off any excess. Heat an ovenproof pan, add a splash of
olive oil, fry the chicken pieces until browned lightly all over and put to one
side.

Place the pan back on the heat and add the sliced garlic. Fry
gently until golden brown, then add the anchovies, olives, tomatoes (broken up
with a wooden spoon) and the chicken pieces with the reserved marinade. Bring to
the boil, cover with a lid or a double thickness layer of foil and bake in the
preheated oven for 1 ½ hours.

Skim off any oil that’s collect on top of
the sauce, then stir, taste and add a little salt and pepper if necessary.
Remove the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs, and serve with a salad, or some
cannellini beans, and plenty of Chianti.

Stir-Fried Hokkien Noodles with Sweet Pork Fillets

Tonight for dinner I got to try out my brand new Kylie Kwong Simple Chinese Cooking book that I have been dying for after all of the rave reviews. I must say this dish sounded very simple yet the flavours were amazing. The pork was oh so tender & sweet without being overpowering & the addition of the Sichuan salt & pepper at the end really added that final touch to make it stand out. Can’t wait to try them all out!

Stir-Fried Hokkien Noodles with Sweet Pork Fillets

400g pork fillets, cut into 5mm slices
½ large red pepper
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 small white onion, cut in half & then into thick wedges
4 spring onions, trimmed & cut into 10cm lengths
12 ginger slices
3 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 x 450g packet fresh Hokkien noodles
2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
½ teaspoon sesame oil
pinch Sichuan pepper & salt (see separate recipe)

Marinade
1 tablespoon shao hsing wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon malt vinegar
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
½ teaspoon sesame oil

Combine Port & marinade ingredients in a bowl, cover, and leave to marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Remove seeds from pepper, cut into fine slices & set aside

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a hot wok, add pork & stir fry for 1 minute then remove & set aside

Add remaining oil to wok with pepper, onion, spring onions, ginger & garlic & stir fry for 1 minute or until onion is slightly browned. Add noodles & pork & stir fry for 30 seconds. Finally add wine soy sauce, oyster sauce & sesame oil & stir fry for a further 1 ½ minutes or until pork cooked through & noodles hot.

Serve in bowls with a pinch of the Sichuan salt & pepper

Sichuan Salt & Pepper

1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
3 tablespoons sea salt

Dry roast peppercorns & salt in a heavy based pan. When pepper begins to pop & become aromatic, take off heat. Allow to cool, then grind to a powder inmortar & pestle. Store in an airtight container.

Chicken Curry

Tonight’s dinner was a chicken curry by Ben O’Donoghue inspired by all of the Indian restaurants in London’s East End. The recipe appeared in a recent delicious magazine. Its quite easy to make & produces a lovely light curry, a little spicy – I omitted the seeds to you could really heat it up by leaving them all in. I love all types of curry & am constantly trying new recipes, this is a goodie

Chicken Curry

5 long red chillies, seeds removed (or leave in for a hotter curry)
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
8 garlic cloves, crushed
2-3 lemons, juiced
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
1.5kg free range chicken, cur into 8 pieces, skin removed (I actually used thigh fillets)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 onions, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed
12 dried curry leaves
1 tablespoon chopped coriander, plus extra to garnish
½ Lebanese cucumber
100g plain yoghurt
steamed rice, to serve

Puree the chillies in a food processor, add a little oil if necessary. Place the chillies in a bowl with the garlic, lemon juice, turmeric & chicken, stir it all up & cover & leave to marinate while doing the next stage.

In a large deep frypan that has a lid, fry cumin seeds in oil over medium heat for 1 minute until fragrant. Add onion, fry for 5 minutes or until soft, then stir in coriander seeds for a further minute. Add 2 teaspoons of cracked black pepper & curry leaves with the chicken & all of the marinade, turning evenly to coat. Cover, reduce heat to low & cook for 30-40 minutes, turning occasionally until chicken is cooked through.

Combine the coriander, cucumber & yoghurt in a bowl. Serve curry on steamed rice with yghut mixture & garnish with extra coriander.

Marinated Duck Breast with Moroccan couscous, braised leeks & paprika oil

On Thursday I headed out to the Vic Market at lunch time to gather the last of the ingredients I was missing for this dish, duck (key ingredient I couldn’t do without!) and Rice wine from the Asian supermarket across the road.

So at home after work I thought I was all prepared, opened up my cookbook ‘A Slice of Port Douglas' & read the first line of the recipe, ‘To prepare the duck, sprinkle salt onto the skin of the duck and refrigerate overnight, uncovered to draw out the moisture.’ Bugger, missed that line when I picked out the recipe, anyway really don’t like cooking on Fridays & wanted to get the dish done so thought I would skip part 1 as figured it wouldn’t make that much difference. Moved on to part 2, measured out my five spice, went to the cupboard for ginger & you guessed it NO BLOODY GINGER, checked the fridge & didn’t even have ginger in a jar. Contemplated going out to buy ginger, looked at clock, already after 7 & needed an hour of marinating, realised that unless I wanted to eat at midnight this dish was not to be done tonight, I was defeated! Sighed, salted the duck as per part 1 and scrounged up some steak & salad from the fridge for dinner instead.

Friday night now being all prepared after heading out at lunch time & buying my missing ginger I was ready to go & do it all according to the book. There were a few steps involved though none that had any degree of difficulty & the flavours were great. The couscous in particular I loved, the dates & sun dried tomatoes really stood out & gave it a unique flavour. Also the leeks were good though I didn’t really think they complimented the dish all that well, seemed like an odd side so would skip them if making again.

Marinated Duck Breast with Moroccan couscous, braised leeks & paprika oil – from Stephen ‘Fester’ Gates, Iron bar saloon restaurant/bar

4 duck breasts
½ cup sea salt

Marinade

1 tbspn chinese five spice
2 tbspns ginger, grated
2 tbspns garlic, finely chopped
1 ½ tspns rice wine
1 tbspn sugar
½ cup olive oil

Braised leeks

4 leeks, white part only, washed & sliced
2 cups chicken stock
¼ cup white wine
2 tbspns lime juice
cracked black pepper

Couscous

1 ½ cups couscous
2 cups chicken stock
1 tbspn butter
2 bocconcini cheese, chopped
3 shallots, finely chopped
1 large red chilli, seeded & finely chopped
½ dates, finely chopped
¼ semi-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
¼ roasted pecans, finely chopped
salt & pepper to taste

Paprika Oil

2 tspns paprika
¼ cup olive oil

To prepare the duck, sprinkle salt onto the skin of the duck and refrigerate overnight, uncovered to draw out the moisture.

To make the marinade, place all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl & mix well. Remove the salt from the duck & add to the marinade, refrigerate for 1 hour. Place the duck on a greased tray & bake in a 160c oven for 20 minutes, increase to 180c & cook for a further 10 minutes until the skin is crispy.

To prepare the leeks, place all the ingredients in a baking dish & cook for approx 35 mins or until soft.

To make the couscous, place the couscous in a bowl, pour over the boiling stock, cover for 5 mins or until the liquid is absorbed. Mix with a fork to separate the granules, then add the rest of the ingredients & mix well to combine. Place the paprika & oil in bowl to combine.

To serve, place the duck on top of couscous with leeks on the side. Drizzle the oil around the plate.

Lime Marinated Fish & tomato rice Saturday 18th Feb 2006

Last night my lovely hubby graciously agreed to cook dinner for me as I had been like a mad woman all afternoon on the computer categorising this site by sweets, savoury & out & about & also by cookbook, I was still going at 6.00 & like a woman obessed refused to stop until the job was done. I had put off this mamoth task for so long that now that I had started knew I couldnt stop.

Luckily I had planned on throwing together some fish & rice using one of the simple Marie Claire recipes. When I met Michael his idea of cooking was taco's or chicken tonight, these were beatiful & romantic the first times he cooked them for me though now he has moved on as I slowly show him how to cook some simple yet delicous recipes from scratch! Amazing how most men like to say they cant cook yet its really only coz they have never tried. Michael manages to produce great results even though it still takes him a bit longer than you would expect & the kitchen is like a bomb has hit it when finished!

Lat nights effort from 'Zest' was really really yummy, the full savoury flavour of the tomato rice complimenting the lovely tanginess of the fish. Oh & by the way for the first time Michael didnt ask me what Kaffir lime leaves were & cut them straight of the tree!

Lime Marinated Fish

2 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
2 limes, juiced
1 red chilli, seeded & finely chopped
1 tspn fish sauce
2 tblspn grated fresh ginger
60 ml (1/4 cup) olive oil
80g (1 bunch) coriander
4 x 150g blue eye cod fillets

Put the lime leaves, juice, chillis, fish sauce, ginger & oil in a bowl & stir to combine. Remove the stems & roots from the coriander & wash carefully. Finely chop & stir into the marinade. Add the fish & toss until well coated. Cover & leave in the fridge to marinate (prepare the rice while marinating).

Heat a frying pan over medium heat & add the fish. Sear on one side for 3 minutes before turning over & cooking for a further 3 minutes or until cooked through.

Tomato rice

1 tbspn sesame oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 ripe tomatos, diced
1 cup basmati rice

Put the sesame oil into a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion & garlic & cook until the onion is soft & transparent. Add the tomatoes, rice & 1/2 tspn sea salt & stir for a minute before adding 375ml (1 1/2 cups) of water. Raise the heat & bring to the boil. Cover with a lid & reduce the heat to low. Leave covered for 20 minutes & then remove form heat.

Serve teh fish on top of rice & garnish with fresh coriander

Chicken Baked in Limoncello Monday 6th Feb 06

Monday night I cooked up this fabulous chicken from the Delicious 2006 Diary. The recipe also came with Zucchini 'spaghetti' which I also made. The zucchini was nothing special & in my opinion was way too buttery & oily - yes you can have too much of a good thing, though maybe it was just my cooking, anyway I am omitting the recipe for the zucchini. The chicken however was really very nice, the limoncello plus lemon thyme plus lemon juice all gave it a wonderful lemony (derr) taste that beleive it or not was not overpowering. The chicken also had the skin on, I know very wicked & was baked so had a lovely crispy texture on top to add to the lot. I would serve this with mash & greens if making again. Here is the recipe. Note I didnt have the wing bone attached as hard enough to buy chicken with skin on let alone with a wing too at my local shopping complex! Photo omitted as really either need a new camera or some serious lessons, ie blurry photos...

Chicken baked in limoncello

4 x 180g chicken breasts with skin on, wing bone attached
8 garlic cloves
Pared rind & juice of 2 large lemons
6 sprigs lemon thyme
1 cup (250ml) limoncello
50g unsalted butter
2 tbs olive oil

Plce chicken in a non-metallic dish with garlic, rind & juice, thyme & limoncello, cover & chill for one hour.

Preheat oven to 180c. Heat butter & oil in a large heavy based frypan over high heat. Remove chicken from marinade (reserve marinade) & brown for 2-3 minutes each side. Place skin side up in a baking tray & roas for 10 minuts or until cooked through.

Return frypan to medium heat, ad reserved marinade (including garlic & herbs) & stir for 5 minutes to reduce. Remove chicken from oven & rest for 5 minutes. Place on a serving plate, pour over sauce.

Glazed Salmon with warm broccolini Tuesday 20th Dec 05

Another busy day was had & lots to do at home so Michael cooked me this simple but yummy Salmon dish from Bills Food by Bill Granger, heres the recipe



Glazed Salmon with warm broccolini

80 ml (1/3 cup) Mirin
80 ml (1/3 cup) Soy Sauce
2 tblspns grated ginger
2 tblspins red miso
2 tspns sugar
2 tspns lemon juice
4 Salmon Fillets - skin on
1 bunch broccolini

Dressing

125ml (1/2 cup) soy sauce
125ml (1/2 cup) mirin
2 tspns sugar

To serve

1 tspn black sesame seeds
steamed rice

Stir the mirin, soy, ginger, miso, sugar & lemon juice in a bowl, add the salmon & marinate in fridge for at least 15 minutes & up to 1 hour

To make the dressing, bring the ingredients to the boil in a small saucepan, then reduce heat & simmer for 10 minutes or until syrupy or like thin caramel. (At this point in the recipe we realised we had now run out of mirin & had to leave it out - still tasted fine though)

Heat the grill, remove salmon from marinade & place skin side down in a lightly oiled non stick frying pan, cook until fish is still pink in the center & is nicely colored

While Salmon is cooking, steam or blanch the broccolini for 2 minutes or until tender but still bright green & crisp. Sprinkle the salmon with sesame seeds & drizzle with dressing, serve with broccolini & rice. Serves 4