pumpkin, chicken and lemon bake

We have enjoyed this dish twice now, it is ideal to use lemons and pumpkins from our garden.

We have served it mashed potato and some greens, in this case beans.

The first time we made it I used the juices to make a lovely gravy, which was super yummy and had a nice lemony flavour to it.

This time B2 and B3 did most of it, and then I realised too late about the gravy, the juices served with it were still nice though.

This recipe was originally from BHG mag and I double it to feed 8 of us.

Pumpkin, chicken and lemon bake

1.6 kgs chicken pieces

1t paprika

1t sumac

1t salt

1T olive oil

1 kg of pumpkin

3 lemons

1 C white wine

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Combine paprika, sumac and salt and sprinkle over chicken. Heat a large heavy based frying pan over medium heat and cook chicken on all sides until golden. Transfer to oven proof dish (I use a large roasting pan)

2. Leaving skin on cut pumpkin into 1.5 cm thick slices. add to chicken. Thinly slice 2 lemons and add to dish. Juice remaining lemon and pour over chicken with white wine.

3 Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the juices run clear when a thigh piece is pieces with the tip of a knife. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

homemade take away

This is our homemade version of KFC.

We have this occasionally for a Sunday Night Tea.

I originally saw Fast Eddie do it on BHG one night and everyone commented on it, so we thought we would give it a go.

The kids really like these as they are not greasy like KFC but crispy and crunchy.

He uses thighs, but I found they take too long to cook and you are always worried that they haven't fully cooked through, so we now use wings which have just had the tip cut off.

We serve them with corn on the cob, I just buy the frozen ones from the supermarket and boil them,

and my secret recipe spicy BBQ sauce (which of course won't be so secret after I tell you! SSSH just don't tell VCH and the B's)

Fried Chicken and Spicy BBQ Sauce

1 kg of chicken thighs on the bone (I use wings and get about 1.5 for 8 of us works out at roughly 2 each)

3 eggwhites

1/2t salt

1/2t freshly ground black pepper

1/2C cornflour

1 C plain flour

2t dried thyme

3t smoked paprika

2t cumin

1tsp allspice

1/2 t ground ginger

Cut chicken thighs in half at joint and pat dry with paper towel

Put egg whites into a bowl add salt and pepper, then whisk until soft peaks form

Sift flours into a plastic bag (I find two clean shopping bags inside each other best)

Add herbs and spices.

Dip chicken into eggwhite and shake off excess. 

Put chicken into bag and shake well to coat with flour mixture.

Heat oil in deep fryer or large heavy based pan

When hot cook chicken in batches (I find 4 at one time is enough) for 12-15 minutes (I find 10min is enough for the wings) or until golden and crisp and cooked through.

Drain chicken and serve. I put mine in the oven at about 160C to keep warm until the others are cooked

Spicy BBQ sauce

This was a make and taste experiment that worked.

Put BBQ sauce, tomato sauce and some sweet chilli sauce in a bowl, sprinkle with smoked paprika and mix.

Add more or less sweet chilli sauce depending on how hot you like it.

my favourite things: simmer mat

This is my simmer mat, I bought it from a local kitchen shop.
It allows me to cook things without burning or catching them.
It is great to use instead of a double boiler.

Here it is with lemon butter.
I use it for all those things that need a little bit of extra care.
I would thoroughly  recommend it for any kitchen.

doughnuts

We made doughnuts for morning tea yesterday from a recipe out of a BHG magazine.

They were cake style doughnuts, not yeast style.

They reminded me of my childhood.

Every winter when I was little the local department store would cook them in their cafeteria.

You would always know it was winter when you entered Gerard's and the smell of doughnuts cooking wafted through the store.

It was always so exciting and my mum would buy me a doughnut.

Now of course the department store no longer exists, we have two speciality doughnut shops in town, and doughnuts are available all year round in an amazing variety.

It was fun, the kids liked seeing the process and comparing it to the automated machine at the doughnut shop.

I found these a little heavier than the shop bought but still delicious- now looking at the recipe I am wondering if I put in enough bi-carb which should make the batter lighter.

Doughnuts

3 1/2 C plain flour

1 T baking powder

1/2 T bi carb soda

1 cup sugar

1tsp mixed spice

1t salt

75g butter- softened

2 eggs

1 C milk

2t pure vanilla extract

Extra sugar and cinnamon for dusting.

1. Put flour, baking powder, bi carb, sugar and spice into bowl of food processor and turn on to mix.Put in butter and whizz until resembles bread crumbs (As usual when I recipe calls for rubbing in I use my trusty food processor).  

2.Add eggs, then add milk a little at a time until well combined then add vanilla.

3.Sandwich dough between two pieces of baking paper and roll out until 2cm thick. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

4. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured bench. Cut out into doughnut shapes (the recipe calls for a doughnut cutter - I just used two of my circle cutters) 
 Re-roll and use up rest of dough

5. Heat oil in a deep fryer until 170C or large heavy based saucepan. Fry doughnuts in batches of about 5 for 4 minutes each turning several times until doughnuts are cooked through.
Drain on wire rack, then dust with cinnamon sugar (to make this I put 1C sugar into the food processor with 1t cinnamon and processed until fine)

Cooking in the deep fryer. 

I washed the fryer out and put in fresh oil so we didn't have chip tasting doughnuts- yuck!

Dusted in sugar on the wire rack.

Ready to eat.

Did you know that doughnuts make an "o" shape!

orange cake with chocolate icing

VCH was home on Wednesday so I thought I would whip up the orange cake and ice it with chocolate icing.

It was delicious. 

I love the combination of chocolate and orange.

This was a simple cocoa powder, icing sugar and hot water icing.

On Friday we had two lots of visitors, some for morning tea and some for afternoon tea, so I made this cake again but cooked it in two smallish loaf pans.
I then made a chocolate ganache.

Heat 200ml cream- do not let it boil and then add 200g dark chocolate and stir until dissolved, it thickens as it cools.

For the first cake I just put some on like icing when it had cooled a bit.

For the second cake that I served in the afternoon I reheated the chocolate and put it in a jug. 

The cake was then served with the chocolate sauce poured over it and whipped cream.

Just delicious!

Served like this it would make a lovely dessert if you wanted be be a little decadent add some Grand Marnier to the chocolate.
My next experiment with this cake recipe is to use one of the tangelos that VCH was given last week.

lemons, lemons, lemons

The other day I had a bit of a bake up and went a bit lemony.

I made a lemon tart, lemon ice cream and candied lemon slices.

The lemon tart recipe came from a free Coles recipe booklet.

I made my own pastry instead of using the frozen pastry they suggested.

I halved the pastry recipe from the apple pie and left out the egg as I wanted a shorter pastry- this seemed to work well.

The recipe is as follows

Lemon Tart

1 sheet frozen pastry

4 eggs

1/2 C caster sugar

1/2 C lemon juice

finely grated lemon rind from 1 lemon

1/2 C cream

1. Preheat oven to 180 C or 160 C fan. Grease a 22cm pie dish

2. Line dish with pastry. Trim edges. Chill for 15minutes.

3. Blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove paper and weights and bake for a further 5 minutes. Cool in pan.

4. Mix together eggs, sugar, juice, rind and cream. Pour into tart shell. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until just set, but still a little wobbly. Cool in pan.

5. Dust tart with icing sugar. Serve in wedges with thick cream.

I found the recipe for the lemon ice cream on the internet, but I am not sure where from.

It was very nice with a nice lemon flavour but not sour and easy to make.

Lemon Ice Cream

Juice and grated rind of 1 large lemon

1C white sugar

1 cup milk

250ml thickened cream chilled

1. Blend the lemon rind and sugar in a food processor until the rind is very fine.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the lemon rind sugar and milk until the sugar has dissolved, then stir in the lemon juice.

3. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until stiff but not grainy. Gently fold the whipped cream into the lemon mixture until evenly blended.

4. Pour the mixture into a loaf tin (I used two very small loaf tins lined with plastic wrap) and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for 3 hrs until firm.

I just tipped it out of the tin and sliced it to serve.

I also attempted to make candied lemon slices, they were going along fine and then all of a sudden they sugar went brown- so next time I will need to keep a closer eye on them, they were still fine however even if they were a little crunchy. I think this recipe came from Martha Stewart.

Candied Lemon Slices
 1 large lemon
1 C sugar

1. Prepare an ice water bath; set aside. Using a mandoline, v sliver or sharp knife slice lemon into 12 paper thin slices; discard seeds and ends of rind.
2. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and add lemon slices; stir until softened, about 1 minute. Drain, and  immediately  plunge slices into ice-water bath. Drain.
3.Bring sugar and 1 C water to a boil in a medium skillet, swirling to dissolve sugar. When liquid is clear and bubbling, reduce heat to medium-low. Add lemon slices, arranging them in one layer with tongs. Simmer (do not let boil) until rinds are translucent, about 1 hr.
4.Transfer to a baking sheet lined with non stick baking paper. Let stand ready to serve.
Although I had the heat really low- the sugar went brown at about the 20 minute mark so will have to look at this next time I cook it- maybe a thicker pan and a simmer mat?

These looked pretty on the tart after it was cooked

Amended to add- I have just seen a recipe in BHG for candied lemons and they only cook it for 6 minutes- so will give this a go and let you know how I get on.

roasted pumpkin soup

We have heaps of pumpkins at the moment from the garden, so some pumpkin soup was in order.

I love pumpkin soup but VCH is not so keen, so I tend to make it for a winter lunch when he is not home.

My favourite way is to roast the pumpkin with some onion and garlic and a little olive oil.

Then I add it to some chicken or vegetable stock I have made and blend it.

Salt, cracked pepper and some freshly grated nutmeg finish it off.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Yesterday I also made some cheese scones.

I made scones the usual way adding some grated cheddar, parmesan cheese and a little bit of smoked paprika when mixing in the milk.

After cutting them and putting on the tray I sprinkled on some more parmeson and paprika. 

Served hot with the soup they were delicious!