Pad Thai Chicken Noodle

I never thought to use linguine instead of rice noodles in an asian dish before but this works really well.  I used it initially because I had everything else in my pantry and didn't want to go to the store just for pad thai rice noodles when this could work just as well.  The pasta gives it a slightly heavier feeling but when you use cabbage and a lot of veggies you can really limit the amount of pasta you need.  Of course you could use gluten free pasta if you wish but then you may as well find rice noodles!  Spaghetti squash for those really 'off' pasta. 

I have done this a few different ways in the past, using the slow cooker to cook the chicken while I've been at after school activities with the girls or quickly poaching it in chicken stock for 10-12mins and then shredding it.  Either way works just fine but the point is, poach it in liquid for a moist, soft texture then shred to chunky bite size pieces ready to toss into the dish when you're ready to eat.  You can have the chicken and the sauce all prepared earlier in the day ready to quickly pull it together in the evening.

The girls didn't think they'd like this but after a few mouthfuls, they realized there weren't any real surprises and it went down well.  You can always substitute the vegetables you think you're children would prefer, grated zucchini is always a good one to sneak in as it is almost undetectable in a dish like this.  

Ingredients:

poached chicken:
3 chicken breasts, (cut into 3 pieces per breast)
1/2 can coconut milk
2 tblspn peanut butter
2 tblpsn soy sauce
1 teaspoon sriarcha
200ml chicken stock

peanut oil
3 spring onions
2/3 cup of grated carrot
1/4 green cabbage, finely sliced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/4 cup cilantro, finely chopped
linguine
1/4 cup toasted peanuts, crushed as garnish

pad thai sauce
2 tblpsn peanut butter
1/2 can coconut milk
1/2 cup chicken stock
tamarind paste, 1 tspn
1 tblpsn fish sauce
1 clove garlic, minced

Method:

• place the 'poached chicken' ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for 2-3 hrs until you can  shred the chicken using two forks (or poach the chicken in a saucepan in chicken stock and reduced amount of other ingredients)
• start cooking pasta in salted water
• add oil to pan and heat
• add spring onions and sauté briefly before adding the cabbage
• pour a few splashes of chicken stock to help wilt the cabbage
• add the red pepper and carrot and continue to sauté 
• add the shredded chicken and warm through
• combine all the sauce ingredients together, heat it in a saucepan (or microwave jar) for a few minutes to ensure the peanut butter incorporates into the liquid.
• once the pasta is cooked to al dente, drain and add to the pan and then pour in the sauce
• stir through until the noodles and chicken are tossed well and coated in the sauce
• serve with a garnish of cilantro and crushed peanuts, add extra sriarcha if you like a little more spice.

Silky gingered zucchini soup

Not sure this is a true blog 'come-back' but I just had to share this recipe.  I found it via a Whole30 recipe search.  A friend of mine is doing the 30day challenge and I was looking at some recipes to see how it really works.  Cutting out dairy, wheat, grains, all sugar, legumes, processed foods and meat, alcohol etc etc sounded like a tough 30 days!  I'm not keen to eliminate food types so drastically but I am always keen for some fresh ideas and a new take on the same old thing.

I was interested in this recipe because the author http://theclothesmakethegirl.com/2012/11/05/silky-gingered-zucchini-soup/ suggested it as a good breakfast alternative?!  Soup for breakfast... I could be up for that.  I don't like eating a lot of eggs, I am bored with porridge and greek yoghurt is hard for me to eat on such cold winter mornings.  

With my husband away until the weekend I figured I could eat this all week if it was any good.   I made it today and I have to say it is one of the most delicious soups I've ever had.  The ginger is divine and after you puree it all together, it transforms into an amazingly silky, creamy but light soup.  The zucchini is so mild  it makes for a wonderful base to take on the fresh ginger.  I LOVED it!  Not sure how I'll feel about eating tomorrow it morning but I think it's really going to be a winner.  Like a warm green juice.  Do it, you won't be sorry.

Ingredients:
1 tblspn coconut oil
1/2 onion, diced
salt
pepper
1 tspn minced ginger
3 cups organic or homemade chicken broth
3 medium zucchinis, halved and diced

Method:

• Heat coconut oil in a soup pan
• Add diced onion
• Add salt, pepper and ginger
• Add chopped zucchini and chicken broth
• Bring to boil and reduce to simmer
• Simmer for 30-45mins until zucchini are so soft and the stock has reduced a little
• Using an immersion blender (or transfer to blender) and puree the soup in batches until you reach a creamy consistency.

Serve hot or store in glass jars in the refrigerator and enjoy!

Party Pies

My memory of childhood was a that a party was never a party without Party Pies.  Sausage rolls and party pies went side by side, and were a staple at all under age events in Australia!  I love their cute, dainty little size and the perfect balance of crunchy top pastry and slightly under-done base.  I remember always, ALWAYS biting into them too quickly and burning my tongue on the hot beef inside despite the number of times the cook would say ' now kids, they are just out of the oven, let them cool down a bit first'.  I loved them dipped in tomato sauce and eaten as quickly as possible, trying to get my share before the adults noticed they were available and the Dads ate their unannounced portion.

My girls are now nearly 7 and 8 and I fear that since living in the US since they were 3 and 4, perhaps their understanding of Party Pies and their place in the world of childhood parties is not so entrenched.  I decided to make them this week.  Not for any birthday party or event, just because.

I declared it a 'no-veggie night' and off I went....

Ingredients:
500g / 1 lbs chuck beef, ground
1 sml onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tblspn worchestershire sauce
2 cups beef stock
2 tblspn cornflour
fresh thyme, finely diced
3 tblpsn tomato paste
1/2 cup carrot puree
salt and pepper

Shortcrust pastry

Puff pastry

1 egg, beaten.

Method:

• In a medium hot skillet, sauté onions until clear, then add carrot, garlic and herbs
• Add your meat, season with salt and pepper and cook well, until browned
• Add the worchestershire sauce and cook until absorbed
• Now add the tomato paste and mix through. 
• In a bowl, whisk together your cornflour and beef stock before pouring over the meat.
• Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer.  Allow it to simmer for about 30minutes (or more).
• Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
• Allow the meat mixture to cool well before trying to compile the pies.
• While waiting for the mixture to cool, prepare your shortcrust pastry and then leave to rest in the refrigerator for at least 45mins before rolling out.
• The recipe I love the most for Shortcrust Pastry and which works every time is Gordon Ramsey's. It is SO easy, seriously there is no excuse for store bought shortcrust if you have a food processor - it literally takes less than 3 mins. Find it here at http://whatsfordinner-mum.blogspot.com/2013/04/chunky-beef-mushroom-pie.html but essentially it is 2 parts AP flour :1 part butter :1 part iced cold water.

To put together the party pies:

1. Bring out your puff pastry from the freezer to thaw. (I don't know how to make puff pastry and store bought is SUPER easy to buy!!)
2. Preheat your oven to 375'f or about 190'C
3. Prepare your muffin trays by lightly spraying with cooking spray.  I like to use a regular size muffin tray for party pies, you could use the larger Mexican size if you were making these for adults or some other large ramekin.
4. Roll out your shortcrust pastry, to about 3mm thick.
5. Using a cookie cutter or other round shape, cut out your shortcrust pastry bases to fit the bottom and sides of your muffin tray.
6. Spoon in the cooled meat mixture until almost level with the top.

7. Cut out your top pastry using the puff pastry sheets.  I used a scalloped edge cookie cutter which   

    looks nicer when cooked.  Lay it top of your meat and press lightly against the base.  I didn't use 

   egg wash or anything to helps seal, just a little pressure and it stayed pretty well stuck.
8. Continue until all the mixture is used.  If you wanted to keep them for another time.  Flash freeze 

   them in the muffin tray at this point and then when frozen enough to remove from the tray, bag and 

   label them in freezer bags.  
9. If cooking straight away, then brush the tops of the puff pastry with egg before baking for about 

   22-25mins.

Orzo pasta salad

During the summer I like to have some vegetables roasted at the beginning of the week to make my salads more chunky as well as healthy.  I don't always have protein for lunch so some roasted squash or red pepper or eggplant goes a long way for me.  Here is a summer dish I just love.  You could use pearl cous cous or orzo or quinoa, whatever you fancy.  The girls love that the orzo is small and cooking it in chicken stock gives it, it's own flavor.  You can substitute any vegetable or salad ingredient you like but here is a good balance of colors and textures to make a yummy lunch or light dinner.   Obviously if you don't have vegetables roasted already, then you would need to get the oven on and get those done first.  I have them in containers in the fridge so I just warm them through under the broiler or just mix them in with the hot pasta and thats enough for me.   I love to add chili flakes on mine as well for an extra kick.  

Ingredients:
orzo pasta
chicken stock

2/3 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup broccoli florets, small 

2 tblspn basil, freshly chopped

1 clove garlic
knob butter
sea salt

cracked pepper
2/3 cup diced mushrooms
1/3 cup shaved parmesan cheese

grilled eggplant, diced

or butternut squash, roasted
optional: Grilled chicken breast slices

Method:

• Cook pasta in boiling water with chicken stock
• Soak florets of boccoli in boiling water for 5-8mins (while the pasta is cooking)
• Dice mushrooms, heat a shallow skillet pan and cook mushrooms in a knob of butter. Add garlic, salt and pepper and cook until mushrooms release water and brown up.
• Dice other ingredients, and place in a large bowl. Season with sea salt and cracked pepper, a drop of olive oil, chili flakes (optional) and add cooked garlic mushrooms.  Toss well.
• When the pasta is cooked, drain well - retaining 1/3 cup of pasta water in a separate bowl.
• Mix through a 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese while hot and then add to mixed vegetables.

Drunken Short Spare Ribs

These short ribs are really easy to pull together and using the slow cooker makes for a simple cooking method allowing loads of time to infuse the deep flavors.  It is not too strong and definitely not spicy so the whole family devoured these.  My girls loved them so much I started to think they may have noticed the wine!

I have done this with both short ribs with bone in and also boneless spare ribs... they were both amazing however if you tie the bones up before you start you will have a nice presentation when serving.

I made a roasted garlic mash potato to have with it, which in my opinion is the only way to go. It would be something I'd be happy to serve at a dinner party and using the slow cooker means it would be ready whenever you were.

I found this recipe at www.eatliverun.com/recipes and I didn't change a thing.  I used whatever nice red wine I had in the house, but don't go cheap.  Use a quality red that you would enjoy now.

Serves 3-4

Active time: 25mins

Totally time: 6-7hrs

Ingredients:

3 1/2 lbs beef chuck short ribs

2 whole shallots, minced

3 stalks celery, diced

2 tbspn vegetable oil

2 1/2 cups Barefoot Cabernet Sauvignon

1 cup beef broth

3 tbspn brown sugar

2 tbspn tomato paste

1 1/2 tbspn all purpose flour

1 1/2 tspn salt

1 tspn pepper

Method:

• Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat.  When hot, add the short ribs.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over the ribs in the pan and brown.  This takes about 3-4 mins each side, as you want them nice and caramelized.

• After the ribs have browned, remove carefully and set them in the bottom of your slow cooker
• Take the pan off the heat briefly to cool down and drain or wipe out any remaining fat.
• Return to medium heat and add the minced shallots and diced celery.  Saute for about 5 mins until tender, then add the tomato paste.  Mix the paste into the vegetables and continue to sauté for another few minutes
• Pour the wine and beef broth into the skillet and stir. Add the brown sugar, a teaspoon of salt and pepper and flour.  Stir well to get rid of any flour lumps.
• Bring sauce to a bil and reduce to simmer for a few minutes.  Pour sauce right over the ribs in the slow cooker.  Sprinkle remaining salt and pepper on top and place the lid on.  

• Cook on HIGH for 5-6hrs or on LOW for up to 12hours.
• When done, the meat should literally be falling off the bone.

Beef & barley soup

Living in the mid-west this winter has been pretty tough.  The cold is really starting to get old for us now and we can't believe it's only just February.  I was speaking to a parent from school this morning and he put it well, he said when your kids aren't finding the snow fun anymore, then you really know we've had enough.  It's true.  No one can get outside, and more than that - we don't even want to be outdoors.  Our skin has dried up, our lips are chapped... we look like a hot mess to be frank!  So, here I am cooking away in my kitchen day after day with my heater up to about 70'F and this week I made soup.

This was a super easy and hearty beef and barley soup.  I used a bit of vegemite so those of you here in the US, unless you want to spend about $10 on a small jar of our National pride, then you should just leave it out.  The worcestershire sauce does a good job of boosting the flavor at the beginning and that's all the vegemite does.  It's a strong yeast extract which mirrors a dense beef stock.

We all enjoyed this soup, the girls loved the beef and my husband and I ate this for lunch for a few days. I could have probably used a stick blender and pureed some of the vegetables for the kids servings (leaving the meat whole) and they would have eaten more but it was a thick soup as is and I liked the chunkiness of the veg.  This was a good dish to transfer to the slow cooker as we all needed to eat at various times on this particular night so it stayed warm for every sitting.

Ingredients:
1 large knob of buttter
olive oil
1lb quality stewing beef/chuck steak, 1inch cubes
1 tablespoon vegemite
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1 medium brown onion
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 celery sticks, trimmed and chopped
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of rosemary
1 tablespoon flour
sea salt
black pepper
2 litres of organic beef stock
150g pearl barley (not quick barley, the regular stuff)

Method:

• In a large soup pot or saucepan, melt the butter and add a splash of olive oil
• Season the beef with salt and pepper
• Brown the meat on all sides
• Stir in the vegemite and worcestershire sauce. Turn up heat and cook until all the juices, and it does release a lot of juice, has evaporated and the meat is dark and rich in color.
• Add the onions, diced vegetables and herbs and place the lid on top and sweat over low heat until the veggies have softened, about 5 mins.
• Stir in the flour and mix through well for another minute or so, now add the stock.
• Bring to a boil and then turn it down to simmer.  
• Add your barley and cook gently for approx 1-1.5hours or until the meat is tender.
• Taste and season if necessary.  Remove the bay leaf and rosemary.
• If you wish, serve with big chunks of oven warmed ciabatta or french bread.

Back to school Lunch-boxes

It's back to school time in Australia so it got me thinking I should post what I make for my husband to take to work every day. Maybe once a week I'll buy a fresh bread roll and put some ham or cold meat in it but usually it's this... his 'snack box' he calls it.  My girls have hot lunch provided at school so I don't need to prepare their lunch, which I am pretty disappointed about to be honest.  Not that they would jump at the chance to eat this sort of combination - WAAAY to many vegetables for them!

This is often what I do for myself too if I am busy running errands all day and know I'll be out of the house.  I also sit watching my girls do gymnastics for 2 hours twice a week so this is the perfect time to eat a late lunch snack box!

sugar snap peas, baby carrots, homemade turkey meatballs with
chipotle sauce, hard boiled eggs

Other common options and combinations are:
hummus
meatballs and sauce
poached chicken pieces
falafels and tzatziki
hard boiled egg
sugar snap peas
olives
blocks of feta or favorite cheese
baby carrots
6 slices of aged cheddar cheese and rice crackers
dried fruit - sultanas, apricots, yoghurt covered raisins
guacamole
celery sticks (with or without peanut butter)
cucumber sticks
cous cous salad with mixed veg
sliced deli meats: salami, ham, turkey breast, roast beef

Breakfast frittata

Eat breakfast like a King they say... well this would do it.  I have started 2014 off with a high protein, low(er) carb diet as I am trying to build some muscle and strength.  A big healthy egg breakfast is the perfect way to refuel after an exhausting workout so here's one of my favorite ways to kick off my day. 

I have used a little cheese here, so even though I know it's not ideal I figure a little hard cheese in the morning is good with me if it's going to add something to a dish.  You could easily do without it but I don't want to :)

Ingredients:
1 egg (whole) + 1/4 -1/3 cup egg white, beaten
2 inches zucchini, diced in quarters
2 inches red pepper, diced
3 mushrooms, sliced
2 spring onions,finely diced
1 cup baby spinach leaves, wilted
cooking spray or a small tspn of butter
red chili flakes, fresh herbs like basil or oregano or a splash of tabasco (optional)
1 inch cube of non-fat feta crumbled (optional)
sea salt and cracked pepper

• In a hot oven proof skillet, add your spinach and a drop of water and cook until wilted, push to the side of your pan. 
• Add butter (or spray) and saute mushrooms with salt and pepper until browned and cooked through. Remove from pan while you cook your zucchini.
• Turn on your broiler/grill to heat up
• Add your zucchini and spring onions and cook until browned, then add peppers and any other veg of choice (cauliflower goes really well too!) and sauté for 1 minute.
• Turn the heat down a little on your burner, return your spinach and mushrooms to the pan, distribute your ingredients evenly over the pan and sprinkle with fresh herbs or a dash of red chili flakes then add your beaten eggs.
• If using, add your feta now and crumble sparingly over your egg.
• Cook, undisturbed, on this side for approx 4minutes until the base has firmed up
• Place the skillet under the broiler to cook the top of the frittata until the egg has set thoroughly, usually another 2-3minutes.

This is a big breakfast so if you wish to divide it in half,  you have breakfast ready for tomorrow!  

It re-heats and freezes well.