Indian spiced roast chicken with Coconut sambal

My boyfriend is currently training me to help get my fitness up for our Everest base camp trek at the end of the year. This has meant a lot of excuses and whining on my part (unfortunately I am one of those people that LOATHES exercise), but has also meant coming home after running feeling really hungry and having to think of what to make for dinner... usually this would mean pasta or something else quick, however the other night I had bought a whole chicken, I don't know why I did this because i knew I would be home late, basically I'm starting to think I might be a bit sadistic, as I seem to enjoy torturing myself by making time consuming food when I'm in a rush, complex meals when I don't feel like being in the kitchen etc... so anyway the options on this particular night were basically eat nothing, or cook a chicken...

Due to insane hunger I wanted something that wouldn't take too long to prepare, and something that wouldn't take hours to cook. So cutting the chicken into portions was out of the question (which is what I had previously planned to do), and roasting appealed but was too time consuming, and then it hit me, butterfly the bird! And what a success, the chicken cooked quicker than a regular roast and required very little preparation, which was just what I needed when all I wanted was to lie on the sofa!

The sambal in fact was particularly good, it's fresh and punchy, and despite being made with dried coconut you would never know. It would be good with basically any meat, actually I suspect it would be great with fish too, and was even REALLY enjoyable just with rice. It's really good cold because it means it's spicy but really refreshing, in saying that though if I had more time I think it would be amazing stuffed either into the bird, or under the skin of the breasts... Anyway perhaps something to try another time, when exercise isn't in the equation!

Enjoy!



Ingredients

For the chicken:
1 whole chicken
1 tsp each of garam masala, turmeric powder, salt, oil (any sort)
2 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
1 dessertspoon natural yoghurt

For the sambal:
2 cups dessicated coconut
1/2 bunch of coriander (including stems and roots), roughly chopped
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
fresh ginger, grated (about a tablespoon)
chilli to taste (I used 1 heaped tsp chilli paste)
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt to taste (about a teaspoon)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

Take your chicken, pat off any excess moisture with kitchen towel and then, working with the backbone facing up, place your hands along the backbone and apply firm pressure to break it. Then use a small knife to cut from the neck end of the bird right down the the backbone until you've cut your chicken open completely, and it is halved. Transfer to a lined baking tray, breast side up, and push gently so it's flattened out (butterflied). Mix together all the spices, salt, oil, and yoghurt and put about 3/4 of the mix all over the chicken skin. with the remaining spice paste push it gently under the skin, over the breasts, and down towards the thighs, do this slowly and gently so you don't rip the skin. Put the chicken into the oven for 45 - 50 minutes until the juices run clear.

For the sambal, rehydrate about 3/4 of the coconut with about 1/2 cup of boiling water, leave this to sit for a few minutes. Place remaining ingredients and soaked coconut into a blender or processor and blend until the entire mix is finely chopped. At this point you may find it too moist, if so you can add the remaining coconut to dry it out. Place in a bowl and chill in the fridge while the chicken cooks.

Once the juices run clear remove the chicken from the oven, portion up and serve with a big spoonful (or two) of the sambal. We ate ours with rice, and some cucumber chunks, and poured the juices from the bird over the rice. Yum!

Now I know this is not the most attractive looking dish in the picture but trust me it was bloody delicious and was worth the effort in the end, even on a work night, even after a torturous run, and especially when it meant leftovers for an amazing lunch at work the next day!

Pork and Fennel Bolognese for the other Amelia

I recently had my friend over for dinner, who is fondly referred to by me as "the other Amelia", because I of course am the first Amelia... Anyway she liked my Bolognese ( although it was not traditional in any way and didn't taste like a regular Bolognese) so here we go, Pork and fennel Bolognese for the "other" Amelia...

Enjoy Mels, another recipe to add to your repertoire, and you can say it's an Amelia original and won't be lying! Gotta love that!

Pork and Fennel Bolognese

• 1 tbs butter
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 sticks celery, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, finely chopped
• 1 bunch of parsley stems finely chopped, leaves reserved for serving
• 500g pork mince (mine was quite lean)
• 11/2 to 2 cups white wine (old undrinkable wine is totally fine)
• 400g can diced tomatoes
• pinch or two of dried crushed chilli, or a shake or two of chilli powder
• 1 tsp each sugar and allspice
• 11/2 tbs crushed fennel seeds (I used a mortar and pestle, but by all means use a knife, but be warned they do tend to fly everywhere when you crush them this way!)
• 1 tsp chicken stock powder, or a cube

To serve:

• Pasta of your choice
• Freshly grated Parmesan

Instructions

Saute the onion, garlic, celery, and carrot in the oil and butter over medium high heat until the onions start to turn translucent (if it's going too golden turn the heat down).

Increase the heat to high, add the parsley stems and the mince and cook, breaking up the mince, until it has crumbled apart and is just cooked through, add the wine, allow to bubble until the alcohol in the wine cooks out (it won't smell so harsh once this happens).

Add all the remaining ingredients (apart from parsley leaves and Parmesan), turn down the heat to medium low and allow to simmer for half an hour to 45 minutes until sauce is slightly reduced. Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary at this point, and stir through the reserved chopped parsley leaves.

To serve simply stir a good amount of this sauce through cooked pasta. I served mine with beautifully coloured artisan orecchiette, but it would be just as nice with regular spaghetti, or any other pasta really.

Enjoy :)

Coconut Cremes

Coconut Cremes

For the past three weeks I have been trying to stay away from anything that could cause or enrage flu or cold symptoms, as a couple of weeks ago I was sick and was left with a cough I could not kick...

So this diet has seen me cut dairy, wheat, and alcohol from my life (for a few weeks anyway).... which has been surprisingly okay, except for the sugar cravings which have been bad, REALLY BAD, and I've found it really hard not having chocolate, ice cream, the occasional biscuit from the tea room at work, the list goes on, I have a nasty sweet tooth!

These cremes have been my saving grace, and they don't taste odd like a lot of the dairy free things I've discovered in the last few weeks. They are like a pannacotta in texture, and taste mildly of coconut but it is easy enough to mask that flavour if so desired. I've made them about four times in the past two weeks, all different flavours, the first were black sesame (pictured) which were delicious but very sweet. The second - lemon - was more subtle, I served those ones with pinapple and mint sugar and they went down very well with my friends. I then made star anise and lemon, hoping for a licorice flavour, they didn't quite get there, but were pleasant in a slightly strange way! Finally last night I made another attempt at licorice using Aniseed essence and the flavour was much closer to what I wanted, these will be tonights dessert with shaved dark (dairy free) chocolate, and some soy ice-cream.

So below is the basic recipe, alter as you wish. If you alter it with a liquid flavouring just replace some of the water with the flavouring of choice, if you use spices I would add it to the milk, then strain and add again to the water for a stronger flavour.

Okay so here we go:

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of coconut milk (full fat is best)
  
• 1 cup loosely packed brown sugar (or to taste)
  
• 1 cup water
  
• 1.5 tablespoons of gelatine powder

Method:

Empty the coconut milk into a saucepan and place over heat, you want to warm it until it's quite hot to the touch but not boiling. Then remove from the heat and pour into a large mixing bowl.

To the empty pan add your water, sugar, and the gelatine, and give it all a quick whisk to start dissolving the gelatine or it can be a bit lumpy, then place it over low heat until fully dissolved.

Once the gelatine mix is ready pour it into the warm coconut milk and stir to combine. You will know when it's well mixed because it will turn from milky white to a beige colour due to the brown sugar. Now is a good time to taste it and make sure it's sweet enough for your liking, be warned though it may not taste so sweet but once chilled it really intensifies!

Leave to sit for about 30 minutes to an hour to cool partially and then pour into either a large dish, or individual moulds or cups. If you wish to be able to invert them into bowls you will need to spray your moulds with some oil, plastic cups actually work really great because you can give them a squeeze right around and the cremes just pop out...

Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight, or if you are like me and need something sweet asap just throw them in the freezer and you will be enjoying them real soon! approx an hour should do it for ones iset in cups or individual moulds.

Enjoy!

Baked seafood with Real green salad, tartare sauce and roast sweet potato

I'm not going to lie, I'm a bit funny about fish and seafood. My friends and my boyfriend are mad for it but I just can't quite decide how I feel. I'll eat it out one day and love it and try it the next day and feel totally disgusted. I do know how good fish is for you though and one way I can always eat it is crumbed, so finding a way to eat crumbed fish without it being laden with fat is very exciting to me! This recipe has no real fat to speak of, and is really yummy and has that same crunch I love with the deep fried version, the secret is in the Panko crumbs I think!

I call the salad real green salad because I believe a green salad should be GREEN, not contain tomatoes, red onion etc etc! But I think they can only be truly good if you use some really interesting green veggies! I love finely shaved fennel, some spring onion, asparagus, broad beans, green beans, anything like that really, just something other than just leaves is great!

Anyway this meal was pretty good, healthy, and simple, and I think would go down well with any age!

Roast Sweet Potato

3 - 4 small sweet potatoes

1 -2 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Cut sweet potatoes in half lengthways and then into wedges. Place on a tray lined with baking paper and toss with oil and salt and pepper to taste. Place in the oven and roast for approximately 20 minutes, then turn and roast for a further 20 minutes.

Baked fish and prawns

400 - 500g fresh white fish fillets (I used flathead)

Approx 2 Large green king prawns per person

Panko Breadcrumbs

1 egg

Plain flour

Zest of one lemon

2 - 3 sprigs of fresh dill

Place flour onto a large plate (as much as necessary, it depends on the amount of seafood you use), add the finely chopped zest of one lemon and finely chopped dill and mix with some salt and pepper. Break the egg into a medium bowl and gently beat. Place the breadcrumbs onto a large plate also.

Cut fish into strips around 2 cm wide. Dip into flour and shake to remove excess, follow with the egg, and breadcrumbs pressing to coat. Repeat with remaining fish pieces and place on a baking tray. Peel and devein the prawns, and coat in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and keep aside.

bake the fish for 20- 25 minutes, turning halfway through cooking. When 10 minutes remain, add the prawns. I actually forgot oil accidently and it was still really good, but you could add a little oil if you wanted to.

Real green salad

Green vegetables (I used asparagus, brocollini, and green beans)

Any mix of salad greens you like

Oil

White wine vinegar

Salt and Pepper

Blanch any vegetables until cooked but still crisp and refresh under cold running water. Place in a bowl with one part vinegar to three parts olive oil and season with salt and pepper, toss to combine. Just before serving throw in fresh salad leaves and toss to combine.

Tartare Sauce

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

3 -4 tablespoons of whole egg mayonnaise

2 -3 sprigs of finely chopped fresh dill

3 large gherkins, finely diced

1 tablespoon of roughly chopped capers.

Mix all ingedients together, flavour with some lemon if desired and season if necessary.

Serve the salad with the hot fish and seafood, with a good serving of sweet potatoes and a good dollop of tartare.

Homemade Muesli

Now that the weather is warming up I'm becoming increasing sick of porridge for breakfast and decided some muesli might make a nice change!

I'm a fan of toasted muesli but I find the ones you buy from the supermarket are often overpriced and not particularly amazing, so I like the idea of making my own and adding in anything I like (lots of NICE dried fruit, nuts and seeds) and missing out anything i don't (sultanas, sunflower seeds etc). The great thing about it is if you don''t like fruit or nuts you can leave them out or you can add extra ingredients, whatever tickles your fancy!

Ingredients

1 cup runny honey
80g butter (or mild flavoured oil)

1kg of rolled oats (or a mix of oats and other grains)

about 1 cup sesame seeds

125g pistachio nuts

Mixed dried fruit about 500g (I used dried sour cherries, pears and apricots

2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp rosewater, 1 tsp cardamom (or any spices you like)

Method

Firstly preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line two large baking trays with baking paper. Place honey and butter in a saucepan and heat over medium heat until the butter melts, at the stage the honey should be more fluid as well. Remove from heat and in a large bowl mix the honey and butter with the oats, seeds and nuts until evenly coated.

Place the mix into the prepared trays and spread out so it's in a layer about 1cm thick. Place in the oven and bake for 20 - 30 minutes stirring every five to ten minutes and bringing the mix from the edges into the centre. Once it's nicely golden remove from the oven and leave to cool then mix in chopped fruit.

This would be really good with milk and fresh fruit, or even sprinkled over some flavoured or plain yoghurt. Yum!

Baked beans with perfect poached eggs

As it's the weekend I feel the need for a proper savoury breakfast, my boyfriend offered to

make porridge this morning, which I like mid-week, but it just wasn't going to cut it on a lazy sunday morning! So searching for something in the pantry led me to a can of fava beans and remembering there was tomato paste in the fridge and brown sugar in the cupboard it just had to be baked beans for breakfast.

These may not look so appealing but are really easy and quick as they are made from canned beans and despite their bland appearance are pretty tasty and make for a high protein meal especially when served with eggs. Poached eggs took me years to get right and were a cause of serious frustration for me for a vey long time, now that I have the technique down though they come out near perfect every time, once you know the tricks yours will too!

Baked Beans

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 stick of cinnamon
  1 tsp each of smoky paprika and dried oregano
• 1 can beans (I used fava, but butter beans or canellini beans would work well too)
• 1 tbs of tomato paste
• 1 capful of malt vinegar (or white wine vinegar, whatever you have on hand!)
• 1 heaped tsp brown sugar or to taste

Heat oil over medium heat, add onion, garlic and all the herbs and spices, fry until onions start to turn translucent. Add all remaining ingredients and lower heat slightly so the sauce is at a simmer. Cook until the sauce is quite reduced, about 5 - 10 minutes. I threw in some chopped coriander at the end but this is not a necessity.

Perfect Poached Eggs

• Eggs (preferably free range and as fresh as possible)
• white vinegar

Place your eggs in a bowl large enough to fit water to cover. Pour hot water over the eggs (not boiling, tap water is fine) leave to sit for about 5 minutes, this starts to get the egg whites coagulating. Heat a saucepan with about 1cm of white vinegar and enough water to cover the eggs until at a simmer.

Crack the eggs into a cup before gently slipping into the water, they should start to form straight away.

Leave to simmer for about 1 minute (or more or less depending how soft you like them). Carefully remove with a slotted spoon and place on a clean tea towel or several layers of paper towel, pat gently. This stops you from getting soggy toast due to residual water (my pet hate!).

Serve the eggs with beans and some nice toast if you like, we had rye sourdough which was pretty good.

Pulled pork Burritos with black beans and spiced rice

So my boyfriend is like totally in love with the burritos at Guzman and Gomez in Newtown (I have to admit I get a pretty intense craving for them once in a while myself) and in an effort to please him I decided to make some the other night, hoping they would be at least half as yummy as the ones from Guzman, luckily I must have had a stroke of beginners luck as while they didn't taste the same as the store bought variety they were still pretty great.

I think the secret to their success was the slow roast pork shoulder, it does take some time to cook but you can completely ignore it so is actually really easy! So much so that we just left it in the oven while we were out one night.

Pulled Pork

• 1 - 1.5kg pork shoulder (boneless)
• 1 heaped teaspoon each of ground cumin/smoky paprika/ground coriander and oregano
• 2 whole dried chillis, ripped into pieces
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• juice of 1 orange

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl or deep tray and leave pork to marinate in it for 24 hours (preferably!) turning it once or twice during this time.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius. Place the pork into a deep tray with all the marinade, season with salt cover with foil and bake for 4 hours or until incredibly tender (you should be able to pull it apart with a fork). Leave pork to cool then remove from pan, discard any excess fat or skin and shred roughly (two forks work well!). Place half the juices from the pork in a pan and reduce until quite syrupy to intensify the flavours then pour over the shredded pork meat and toss to combine (you can freeze the other half for stock, or discard).

Mexican style spicy rice

• 1 cup white rice, rinsed twice
• 1.5 cups water (or stock, I used some chicken stock powder)
• 1/2 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbs tomato paste

Mix all ingredients together in a pot and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and cook until water has absorbed and rice is tender, about 10 - 12 minutes. Add in some freshly chopped coriander if desired.

Black beans

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 a medium onion
• 1 can black beans (or kidney beans if not available)
• 1 tablespoon coriander stalks finely chopped
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tbs tomato paste
• 1/4 cup water

Fry onion gently in olive oil until translucent. Add beans and remaining ingredients and cook until warmed through and liquid is almost all absorbed.

Tomato Salsa

• 3 Ripe red tomatoes
• 1/2 onion (left over from the beans, red is best)
• 1/2 bunch chopped coriander leaves
• juice of 1/4 lemon

Mix. Done!

To Serve

• Any condiments you may like for example, chopped pickled jalepenos, guacamole, shredded cheese (a must I think!), chilli sauce, extra chopped coriander
• flour tortilla wraps

To serve place a few spoonfuls each of the rice, beans and pork onto a tortilla, add some salsa and any extra condiments you might like and enjoy! Make sure you have a plate and napkins aplenty these are messy work to eat!!

Serves 4 at least! However if you do have leftovers the rice is really good the next day for lunch topped with salsa, leftover pork and some grated cheese!