Chicken Parcels

I don't know exactly what the calorie, fat or sugar content is, but in my books this is healthy. It's also one of my favourites because it's so simple too.

First layer - sliced tomatoes

Second layer - sliced zucchinis

Third layer - oregano leaves, salt & pepper and olive oil

Chicken stuffed with mozarella

Blast! I overcooked the asparagus and had to jam them in a pot which was too small...hence why they are all bendy

A very simple, rustic looking dish that is also very enjoyable. And if you are like me (and have everything with rice), the sauce from the parcel goes great drizzled over boiled rice!

Bren's Chicken Parcel

Makes 4

Ingredients

4 squares of tin foil

4 chicken breasts

2 tomatoes - sliced

2 zucchinis - sliced

2 tablespoons of oregano leaves (I prefer to use fresh ones)

Approx 80-100g mozarella - sliced (depends how much you want in each parcel though)

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Method

1. Lay out your 4 sqaures of tin foil

2. Place sliced tomatoes in the middle of each square of foil

3. Place sliced zucchinis on top of the tomatoes

4. Spread oregano leaves on top of the zucchinis, drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle some salt & pepper

5. Slice the chicken in 3 places and stuff the mozarella in the slits. Drizzle more olive oil and sprinkle salt & pepper

6. Fold and seal the foil as much as you can to keep the moisture inside the parcel

7. Place in the oven and cook on 180 degrees for 30mins

NB - I served this with steamed asparagus and yes you guessed it....boiled rice!

Asian Style Marinated Chicken

Harris Farm was having a really good deal for chicken tenders - $5.99/kg
So I thought I'd try out this marinade (if it really sucked I wouldn't feel SO bad). Turned out quite nice actually. Nothing spectacular but the chicken had a nice zing to it.

The Marinade

We had this with rice and green vegies

Bren's Asian Style Marinated Chicken

For the marinade:

3 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon grated ginger

1 teaspoon sesame oil

4 tablespoons peanut oil

2-3 chillies

1 tablespoon soy sauce

juice of 1/2 a lime

Roughly 400g chicken (I used chicken tenders, but you could use drumsticks)

Mix everything together.

You could cook it straight away but best to let it marinate for about an hour.

It should only take 3-4mins to cook chicken tenders in a pan (shall vary if you use another cut).

Serve it with boiled rice and some fresh steamed vegetables.

Blood and Guts Pavlova - Happy Halloween

Australians don't really celebrate Halloween. Shame because it looks like so much fun but it's hard to get into the spirit of it when no else on your street does. I did put my little boy in a Halloween outfit....though it wasn't exactly scary. I bought a kung fu outfit for him and only ended up visiting my mum & dad and then my aunt. Did he even get any lollies? No. He got a biscuit and a couple of fridge magnets.....

So we tried to make up for it with a blood and guts pavlova.

You just can't go wrong with a pavlova (recipe here)

We used frozen raspberries (which ended up being a good idea because of that extra sauce in the bag creating the blood affect) and passhionfruit pulp. And don't forget the extra whipped cream too.

Maybe next year I can get more people into the spirit of Halloween.

Fire Roasted Sweet Potato and the coolest invite I've ever received

We had another one of our coal BBQ dinners and we always follow with a log fire afterwards. This time however, my genius of a father suggested we should roast some sweet potatoes (he was reminiscing about the good old days in China and talking about street food and poor people's food). Apparently roast sweet potatoes was a poor person's food.

Anyway, we thought it would be amusing to try roast some ourselves seen as I've never attempted it before. I have eaten them in Hong Kong and they were lovely.

Dad popped back to our place with 3 massive sweet potatoes and we were in business!

Hmmmm which is the log, which is the sweet potato?

There are many ways to describe this.....burnt, charred, blackened.....among other names

Dad scraping the exterior

Broken in half to make sure it's cooked

These were great! Probably not as good as the ones in Hong Kong but I was happy how they turned out. I was really expecting to fail big time. Wonder what I should try next time? What other things can you roast on a fire?

Something totally different.....I got the coolest invite ever:

Front of invite

Back of invite

Surprise surprise, I got a golden ticket!

Best part about the invite......I get chocolate!! Woo hoo!!!

Awesome invite. Thanks Oxford, you guys rock!

Potato and Leek Soup

Hubby decided to try make potato and leek soup. He's made this before, but this recipe was slightly different with the addtion of ground cumin.

A really lovely creamy soup that I'd definitely eat again. Here is the recipe from Exclusively Food. Not a food blog I've visited till now. And I was so impressed with the soup, I think I'd like to try more of their recipes. And so now another one to add to my blog list.....

Char Sui Chan Bao - Chinese Pork Bun (glazed version)

Christine's Recipes is a blog I follow to replicate any traditional Chinese recipes. I could just ask my dad, but he never has measurements and I'm damn fussy like that. So stay tuned because I will be attempting many more of her recipes in the future.

The Char Sui Chan Bao is one I recently tried, but my ones didn't quite turn out like her's. I think I needed to work the dough for longer (serves me right for being lazy). Anyway, this was the recipe I followed if you would like to try make some.

The "underworked" dough

The filling. Silly me used shallots as in spring onions because that's what I'm use to calling them. They meant the OTHER shallots. Doesn't matter it still tasted really good.

Ready for the oven (forgot to take a shot after I glazed them)

Straight out of the oven

On the inside

Although I got one ingredient wrong, it still tasted great. However, I stress that I really need to work that dough more. It was not as light and fluffy as Christines, but it's a lesson I have learnt for next time.

Spanish Marinated Chicken and Aji (Spanish Themed Lunch)

We were invited to Amra's house last weekend for a Spanish themed lunch and everyone was to help and bring a dish each. I've never cooked Spanish food before, all I've ever cooked was a chorizo on the bbq or mixed in pasta. That would not do. So I called upon my friend Steph who just so happens to know some wonderful recipes and was happy to share. Thank's Steph and Carlos!!!

My first dish I prepared was Spanish Marinated Chicken. Which Steph actually calls: Pollo Estefania (Poi-yo Estef-ania) Stephanie's Chicken. Great name!

Lime juice, garlic, salt & pepper, corriander and olive oil

I used chicken thighs and cut them into small pieces so they would cook faster. Steph normally uses drumsticks

I pan fried mine but I really should have cooked it over the coal bbq because it tasted much better. Recipe below.

My second contribution was Aji. A recipe Steph posted up on her blog.

Starting with diced tomatoes

Sliced onions

Corriander, lemon juice, chilli's, salt & pepper and olive oil

Mix, mix, mix

Recipe below

So what else did everyone bring to the table?

Amra & Duong - mussels

Chhay & Justin - Mini frittatas

Amra & Duong - Marinated baby octopus

Peter & Marita - Spanish salad

Vinny - Spanish rice

Prem - Spanish meatballs

Amra & Duong - Asado (grilled meats)

And the barbie with spanish sausage, asado, chicken and prawns
Amra - Tiramisu (dessert was not Spanish)

Side view

Slice view (yummo!)

Chhay - dark chocolate swiss roll

Chhay - milk chocolate swiss roll

How lucky were we? Not one type of swiss roll but TWO!!

There were some other dishes but I was so busy eating I forgot to take photos, sorry guys! Prem also made sage potato snacks and Irene & Albert made Empanadas and Amra made Sangria too.

What a wonderful, delicious and massive lunch! It's times like these I wish I had a bigger stomach capacity...

Thank you everyone for the fantastic food and a special thank you to Amra for organising the themed lunch and hosting it at her place. Next up....Mexican??? ; )

The recipes

Spanish Marinated Chicken (quantity is a guess and what I ended up using)

1.5 kg Chicken
Juice of 4 limes
3 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
1 1/2 bunches of Corriander
olive oil
3 chili's

1. Juice the limes and put it in a large bowl.

2. Chop the garlic, corrinader and chilli's and also put them in the bowl.

3. Add the salt & pepper, olive oil into the bowl.

4. Chop the chicken (if you want smaller pieces) and add it to the bowl. Mix and leave to marinate for at least an hour.

Aji

(NB - I doubled the recipe but the current quantity should be enough for about 4 servings)

Juice of 2 lemons
3 tomatoes
1 onion
1 bunch corriander
2 small chill's

Salt and pepper
olive oil
1. Dice the tomatoes and put them in a large bowl.
2. Slice the onion, add to bowl.
3. Chop the coriander, add to bowl.
4. Chop the chilli's finely, add to bowl.
5. Add salt & pepper (a lot more salt than pepper as it off sets the lemon juice)
6. Add a dash of olive oil. Mix and let it sit for at least an hour to bring the flavours.