Dinner for Jo and Harvey - Main - Chicken in White Wine Sauce

This is a great french casserole style dish. I served it with rice, sauteed peas and baked potatoes for this dinner (it was a week night so for time reasons I skipped the entree and made up for it with 3 sides with the main).

Ingredients

-          50 gm button mushrooms

-          2 tbsp hazelnuts

-          2 chicken breasts

-          8 chicken lovely legs

-           (2/3 cup) seasoned plain flour

-          40 gm butter, coarsely chopped

-          1 onion, thinly sliced

-          1  carrot, thinly sliced

-          1 celery stalk, thinly sliced

-          4  garlic cloves, lightly crushed

-          150 ml dry pinot gricio and the more yellow the better for this recipe

-          100 ml pouring cream

Method

1.       Dust chicken in seasoned flour, shake off excess, add to pan, seal on all sides until golden (6-8 minutes), remove and place in slow cooker set aside.

2.       Add butter, add vegetables and garlic, stir occasionally until tender (5-6 minutes).

3.       Add 2 tbsp raw hazelnut kernels

4.       Add 2 cups white wine (dry pinot gricio)

5.       Add 1 cup chicken stock

6.       Bring pan to the boil

7.       Pour vegetable/hazelnut/wine/stock mix into slow cooker. Cook for several hours

8.       Remove vegetables (discard), and put the liquid into a saucepan

9.       Put chicken in a casserole dish and put a lid over it to keep warm

10.   Bring the saucepan to the boil and reduce by two-thirds (2-3 minutes), add cream and mushrooms, gently simmer for 10 minutes.

11.   Cover with a lid, turn off the heat, and stand for 10 minutes.

12.   Pour sauce over chicken

13.   Serve

Dinner for Tracy - Salad - Green Veg

Chop to same size:

-          Roast waxy potatoes in onion, garlic, salt and pepper

-          Boil in separate batches of salted water

o   Zucchini

o   Peas

o   Asparagus

o   Beans

-          When cooled stir through

o   Fresh mint

o   Dried ricotta (or shredded feta)

o   Good Olive Oil

Dinner for Tracy - Dessert - Ricotta Cheesecake Moulds

I've promised myself id put the good, the bad and the ugly in this blog. This dessert tasted good but darn it looked ugly! It dropped significantly after cooking. Note to self - always do this recipe in a tin.

Cheesecake – Ricotta Cheesecake - Annick's Recipe

8" spring form pan

Crust

-    1 cup honey flavoured tiny teddy crumbs (1 x 200g packet makes well over 1 cup)

-    1/4 cup regular or raw sugar

-    1/4 cup butter

-    All the above together with hands and press in bottom of pan

-    Bake at 165 for 5 mins in fan forced oven.

Filling

-    500g cottage cheese

-    3 eggs

-    3/4 cup sugar

-    1 tsp vanilla

-    Cream in blender or with hand mixer and pour over crust.

-    Bake at 165 for 45 mins or until cooked.

After

-    Cool well. Can be frozen.

Top with:

- Whatever you prefer

Fruit

Butterscotch sauce

Ingredients for Butterscotch sauce:

-          50g butter

-          1 cup (220g) brown sugar

-          1 cup (250ml) cream

-          1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1.       Combine butter, sugar, cream and vanilla in small saucepan over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves.

2.       Bring sauce to the boil, reduce heat and cook for 5-6 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly.

3.       To serve, slice the hot pudding into individual pieces, top with butterscotch sauce

Recipe - Bolognese Sauce - Chicken

Serves: 4-6

Recipe:

•  2 tbsp olive oil
• 1  onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 500g chicken, minced
• 4 rashes of bacon, rind removed, minced 
• ½ cup white wine
• 2 x 400 gm canned crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp fresh herbs, finely chopped (basil or oregano)
• Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil till translucent
2. Add the minced chicken and bacon and cook until starting to colour
3. Add white wine
4. When the white wine has mostly evaporated add tomatoes, chicken stock, tomato paste, herbs, Salt and pepper
5. Cook for approx 40 minutes on medium - medium/high heat so liquid is evaporating as you go

Napoletana pasta sauce

There are so many recipes out there for Napoletana pasta sauce but this is how I do it. I use it for parmigianas and pasta sauce.

INGREDIENTS

-       1/3 cup (80ml) olive oil

-       1 medium brown onion (150g), chopped finely

-       3 cloves garlic, crushed

-       20 lge basil leaves chopped

-       1 teaspoon sea salt

-       1 tbsp tomato paste

-       1kg ripe tomatoes, chopped coarsely

METHOD

1.       Put the ontion and garlic in a small food processor to chop (or hand chop if you prefer)

2.       Sautee the onion and garlic in the olive oil till brown

3.        Add tomatos

4.       Add half the basil and salt

5.       Add paste

6.       bring to the boil then reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes or until sauce thickens.

7.       Stir in a little oil and remaining basil

8.       simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes.

Makes 4 cups.

NOTE: the sauce will keep, covered, under refrigeration for up to three days. Freeze sauce in sealed containers for up to three months.

Better Baked Beans

One of my own recipes xo

Serves 6

Ingredients:

-       3 x 400g cans cannelloni beans

-       Extra virgin olive oil

-       1 brown onion, finely chopped

-       2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

-       1 stick celery, strings removed, diced

-       1 tbsp thyme

-       2 cups chicken stock

-       4 good quality sausages

-       6 tbsp tomato paste

-       1 tsp tobacco

Method:

1. Fry the sausages in a large pot in the olive oil, when cooked remove and chop up
2. Sautee onion, garlic, celery and thyme
3. Add the cannelloni beans
4. Retrun the chopped sausages to the pot
5. Add chicken stock, tomato paste and tobacco
6. Simmer for atleast 40 mins