Chicken Tagine

There are a few celebrity chefs that I love.

Nigella Lawson is amazing to watch. Her kitchens are beautiful, her food is delightful and she is absolutely spectacular to watch. Jamie Oliver is a kitchen whiz and I love "At Home with Jamie" where he shares all kinds of secrets about his garden.

One celebrity cook I can't stand to watch is Bill Granger. I can't figure out what it is, but on television I don't like him. That said, I have been in love with his cook books since I was in primary school. His books are gorgeous and filled with delicious and achievable recipes. While my Jamie Oliver and Nigella cook books gather dust, my Bill books stay off the bookcase and on the kitchen bench.

This is a delicious dish that is great for weekend dinners when you have a bit more time to spend in the kitchen but don't have to sit and watch while it is cooking. The other great thing is that it is super easy and is served with couscous. Couscous is my secret pleasure. I love the way it soaks up the juices of everything it is paired with.

Here is my take on Bill Granger's Chicken Tagine from "Simply Bill"

Chicken Tagine
Chicken breast or thigh
1/2 brown onion
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
handful of diced green capsicum
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Couscous
1/2 teaspoon butter
mixed herbs

In a large saucepan place the chicken, onion and spices in 500ml of water. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Once boiling reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. The meat should be very tender. As the liquid thickens add the capsicum and the lemon juice and take the lid off until the mixture is at your desired consistency. I like mine a little more juicy to soak into the couscous.

Prepare the couscous (for 2 people I did 3/4 cup couscous to 3/4 cup water). Boil the water and pour over the couscous. Cover with a lid and let sit until water is dissolved. Stir through the butter and mixed herbs. Serve the tagine over the couscous.

Honey Chicken

This is a delicious dinner that I like to make about once every 2 months. It always seems like a lot of clean up but it is worth it and I love it.

When I was a kid we used to get Chinese food very rarely. It was always a super awesome treat for birthdays or Mother's Day. When I moved to the middle of nowhere a few years ago there was no local Chinese food shop to go to so I wasn't even able to have it on special occasions! There were times when I dreamt of honey chicken, no really, dreamt! Eventually I came to my senses and realised - it's chicken and honey.....how hard can it be?!

My Fried Rice & Honey Chicken 
Rice
2 eggs
2 bacon rashers
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup corn
1-2 tablespoons soy sauce
Chicken breast
1 cup flour
1 cup water
Vegetable oil to fry
1/2 cup honey

Cook the rice as you wish. Whisk the eggs and put them into a frying pan with a little piece of butter. Cook like scrambled eggs, once cooked through remove from the pan and rest on a plate. Dice the bacon and fry until cooked. Add to the egg and put the peas and corn on the plate with them. Add anything else you feel is necessary to make your fried rice awesome (like mushrooms, capsicum, shallots). Once the rice has cooked drain the water out and tip the egg, bacon, corn and peas into the rice. Add soy sauce to flavour and let the whole thing sit on low heat.

Cut the chicken into smaller pieces. Mix the batter by combining the flour and water (whisk if it becomes lumpy). Add the water gradually depending on the consistency - obviously you want the batter to stick to the chicken and not drip off everywhere!

Pour about 1cm of oil into a large frying pan and let the oil heat. Dip the pieces of chicken into the batter and place *carefully* into the oil. Let the chicken cook through and brown evenly. Turn carefully and keep an eye on the oil temperature to avoid spitting and burning yourself!

After the chicken is cooked put into a large bown and stir through honey. Serve the fried rice with the chicken on top and drizzle on more honey because it amazing!

*ugly photo :(

Cranberry & Sultana Muffins

Gorgeous red ruby cranberries paired with plump sultanas folded into crispy topped moist dough.

Cranberry & Sultana Muffins
1 1/2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup sultanas

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and prepare a muffin tray with paper liners.

Combine the flour, soda, oats and sugar. In a small bowl whisk the buttermilk, oil and egg and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix to combine and fold through the fruit.

Bake for approximate 25 minutes. These are great straight from the oven with a scrape of butter or left to cool and popped into a lunch box each day. They also freeze really well for use later in the week and to assist portion control!

Worth It Vegetable Lasagne

I love lasagne. Meaty, tomato goodness sandwiched between smooth lasagne noodles and blanketed in heavenly, crispy melted cheese. What's not to love? But in this heat it is just not happening for me. This vegetable lasagne, however, is a delightful addition to my summery kitchen. It takes a little while to make but the end result is totally worth it!

Worth It Vegetable Lasagne
Lasagne sheets/noodles (fresh or dry)
1 cup extra light ricotta cheese
handful of spinach leaves
a few leaves of basil
1 egg
dash of cream
1 sweet potato
1 tin crushed tomatoes
1 zucchini thinly sliced and quartered
half eggplant (or 1 labanese eggplant if you can get it), cut the same as the zucchini
a few mushrooms, diced
1/2 onion, diced

Start with the sweet potato, leave the skin on because it is delicious and thinly slice it. Put it in a 180 degree oven for about 15 minutes until it is soft (not crisp!).

As the sweet potato is cooking slice the other vegetables. How you slice them and how thick is a personal preference. I like mine thin, they are easier to cook and have much better texture once the lasagne is complete. Put these vegetables into a sauce pan with a dob of butter. Let these cook away...I think the actual word is sauté (how's that for fancy. It is important that the vegetables are very well on their way to being quite soft as you add the crushed tomatoes and combine. Let the sauce heat through then remove and let cool.

Remove the sweet potato and let it cool. In a small bowl whisk the ricotta and egg. Add the cream bit by bit because this mixture can become too runny very quickly. You don't even have to add cream if you don't want to, I just find it makes it go that little bit further and makes it, well....creamier. Once whisked stir in the spinach leaves and basil. You might want to tear these up or leave them whole.

Let the layers begin. Lightly spray your lasagne pan or line with baking paper. Start with a little of the tomato-vegetable mixture and layer lasagne noodles, ricotta mixture, sweet potato and more tomato-vegetable mixture. Top the whole lot off with a delicious handful (or 2) of cheese because lasagne without cheese is like......well, I wouldn't know I've never been silly enough to do that.

Bake it all in the oven for about an hour until the lasagne sheets are cooked through the cheese is melted and browning.

Serve with a salad and freeze or enjoy the left overs hot or cold.

February Cupcake Challenge

I know I've done red velvet before but I can't get enough of them How could you not love this luxurious, rippling mixture. Ooozy, dripping, oh-so-good passion. With Valentine's Day knocking on the door (and a wedding for some friends) I decided to cook up a batch of sugary indulgent love for my teaching team.

I have spent a good few weeks moaning about starting back at work.  The hurdles have been phenomenal at my new job and there are many more to come. However, amongst all this, I have failed to point out that I have a great and supportive teaching team. There are 5 ladies who have made me very welcome, who have listened to my endless stories about a life teaching so far away, they have attempted to be as supportive as they possibly could be and seriously, I would be lost without them and their combined knowledge of my new school. I also have a supportive administration, and lets be honest, that's what makes a school. The kids can be great, the teachers can be great but if the admin aren't on the same page it all goes pear shaped. I am lucky. But I'm still struggling with it.

You know when something changes and, even though you didn't like the old stuff, the new stuff seems even worse just because it is new? I think that's where I'm at. So now I've chewed you're ear off lets look at things that don't change, that are always reliable and that will forever make me happy:

My Bloody Valentine Red Velvet Cupcakes
makes about 15
2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup buttermilk
200g butter
2 eggs
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
red food dye

Heat oven to 180 Celsius and prepare muffin tray with paper cases.

In a large bowl combine the flour and cocoa powder. In another bowl use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla. Continue to beat until well combined. Add the butter milk to the egg mixture and stir with a spoon to combine.

Tip the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir to combine. Add the red food dye to this mixture. How much you use is up to you I find about a tablespoon does the trick but it depends if you are using liquid or gel.

Finally add the bicarb soda and the vinegar on top of all of this. It should fizz a little. Mix it all together, if it is a little lumpy use a handheld whisk to gently smooth it out.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin paper cases and bake for around 20 minutes.


Creamy Valentine Frosting
30 grams butter
80 grams cream cheese
1 1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Beat the cream cheese until it is smooth. Add the butter and continue to beat until mixture is fluffy.

Gradually add the icing sugar, mixing continuously until the icing is at desired consistency and smooth. Add the vanilla and mix through.

Pipe on top of cupcakes or dip cupcake tops into the icing mixture.

Chocolate Caramel Fudge Cupcakes

Yes, you read that right. Chocolate. Caramel. Fudge. Mr Scumpalicious had a day off this week - we still haven't managed to align our schedules - so he decided to spend some time in the kitchen (ah-mazing!). This was the incredible concoction I came home to on Friday afternoon and, after spending 6 hours with the 9 to 11 year olds this was the best thing that happened to me all day! I love my husband!!

Chocolate Caramel Fudge Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups water
2 1/4 cup caster sugar
185 grams butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon bicarb soda
2 1/4 cup self-raising flour
3 eggs
Caramel top-n-fill 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and prepare a muffin tray.

Combine the water, sugar, butter cocoa and bicarb soda in a large saucepan. Stir over medium heat but don't let it boil, until the sugar has dissolved and the butter is melted. Bring to the boil then reduce heat to low. Simmer for four minutes then transfer to mixing bowl. Let this cool to room temperature.

Add the flour the bowl and beat on a low speed until combined. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tray. Bake for about an hour or a little longer to crisp up the tops (fan forced oven seemed to help this).

Let the cupcakes cool then carefully cut out the centre and spoon in the caramel top and fill. Cut the centre piece down slightly and replace on top of the cupcake to cover the caramel.

Fudge Frosting 
90 grams butter
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cup icing suga
1/3 cup cocoa powder

Combine the butter, water and caster sugar in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved.

Place the icing sugar and to cocoa into a mixing bowl and gradually add the hot butter mixture to the bowl. Cover and refrigerate until frosting cools and thickens. Mix until spreadable and then pour or pipe over cupcakes or dip the cupcakes into the mixture.

Banana Bread

You know there is still some life in my kitchen - it just hasn't been appearing on my blog. Sometimes I wish the awesome posts I think of while I'm cooking would just show up here by osmosis....can someone invent an app for that?

I am settling back in to the routine of being a teacher, though I am still loathing my position. I find if work solidly all day Saturday and part of Sunday as well as get up at 5am and work til 6:30am two or three mornings during the week and stay at work til about 4:30 or 5 two or three afternoons a week I feel about 80% prepared for classes. So that is leaving very little time to do anything much that I really enjoy.

Anyway, something that is getting me through is a firm favourite of mine - Banana Bread.

Banana Bread is special to me. It reminds me of Rose and spending mornings standing behind the coffee machine, serving drinks and talking about the life that seemed oh-so-complicated at 18 years of age. Years later, my own banana bread gives me so much comfort, especially when paired with some sweet iced chai tea.

Banana Bread
1 1/2 cups wholemeal self-raising flour
1/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
50 grams butter
2 or 3 bananas
1/3 cup walnuts (cut, crushed, broken...however you like them)

Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line or butter up a nice loaf pan. Combine the flours, cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl.

In a smaller bowl whisk the eggs and add the milk and butters. Lightly mash the bananas and add them, with the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Sprinkle in the walnuts over the top and gently fold it all together.

Scoop the mixture into the loaf pan and bake for about 35-45 minutes. Check it with a skewer because it is very dense and can remain wet for a while.

Enjoy it toasted with oozing butter.

Week 2

So last week was actually awful. I don't think I've ever come home and just wanted to hide under the blankets for ever......but that was how I felt. There are a handful of things that make teaching difficult

1. teaching kids who don't know you - obviously you are JUST meeting them, you need time to develop relationships and understand how each of you do things

2. the workload - what is up with the start of the year and the end of the year and that part in the middle? starting from scratch at a new school is always tricky.

3. locked out of school computer network - i dont get why it seems like a great idea to totally delete you from the network when you start at a new school, like it isn't hard enough already

4. unknown routine - changing from secondary to primary school is hard, so is getting used to things like Music and Library, apparently these are actual subjects! 

Fingers crossed this week is better and I can find a bit more balance to enjoy some time in the kitchen. I want to make Panna Cotta and Brownies sometime this week. That's the goal...we'll see!