Recipe - BBQ Chicken Stuffed with Rice and Mushrooms

Ingredients

-          1 chicken, cavity removed

-          6 Cloves Garlic

-          ¼ cup dry white wine

-          1 cup chicken stock

-          Approx 1 cup mushrooms

-          6 shallot stems

-          100g pancetta finely chopped

-          1 tbsp. butter

-          1 tbsp. oil

-          ¼ cup port

-          ¾ cup raw medium rice, boiled in salted water until barely tender

-          ¼ tsp. thyme or oregano, plus extra

-          1 egg, lightly beaten

-          Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.       Drop the garlic gloves into a pan of boiling water, boil 1 minute, drain, and slip off the peel. Then simmer the garlic cloves very slowly for 30 minutes with the white wine and stock. Meanwhile continue with the rest of the stuffing.

2.       Lightly chop the mushrooms and shallots then (because I hate fiddly tasks) pop into food processor to finely chop

3.       Finely chop the pancetta

4.       Sautee the mushrooms and shallots in better and oil over moderately high heat for about 2 minutes, then add pancetta and sauté a minute more. Then, pour in the port and boil rapidly until liquid is almost entirely evaporated. Scrape into a mixing bowl

5.       Bring water to the boil for the rice. N.b we’re doing rapid boil method vs. absorption so use plenty of water. Also, if you have any leftover chicken stock (e.g. you took the 1 cup of chicken stock from a 500ml packet, so it doesn’t go to wastes throw this in with the water too). Add rice when water is boiling and you’re aiming to boil it till it’s barely tender which should take about 8 minutes.

6.       Mix the rice, herbs and egg into the mixing bowl

7.       Drain cooked garlic and mash into the mixing bowl along with 2 tsp. of the cooking liquid

8.       Taste stuffing, and carefully correct seasoning

9.       Stuff chicken then seal it

10.   Coat the chicken on both sides with salt, pepper and the extra thyme or oregano.

11.   Cook on BBQ in a tray for an hour and a quarter

This recipe was inspired by Mastering the Art of French Cooking By Julia Child and Simone Beck, Volume Two, Page 275

Review - The Italian, Willoughby

What's great?
The staff are friendly, cool and genuinly trying to get it right. Our pasta dish (daily special - a $33 truffle pasta) was a huge let down and this was rectified nicely. The 4 seasons pizza however was awesome and the best in the area at this point in time.

What's not?
See picture of how they're currently cooking pasta. The teething issues also include forgetting orders (one hour in between the pizza and pasta that was meant to come one after the other) and giving us someone else's bill. The dessert menu (or lack thereof) is also an opportunity for them.

In saying all this I do genuinely look forward to going back and seeing how they fine tune what they're setting out to achieve. What they do well, they've nailed. What they're not doing well, all the signs are there that they've got the right intentions to get it on track.

Recipe - Lime Syrup Coconut Cake

This recipe is from http://www.sydneymarkets.com.au/recipes/Lime%20syrup%20coconut%20cake.pdf

Recipe - Yakn’t – Lebanese Lamb Shank and Potato Casserole

This is a Nouha Taouk recipe taken from her recipe book Whispers From a Lebanese Kitchen

On this occasion I did chicken instead of lamb.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

·         Vegetable oil for cooking

·         4 lamb shanks or kilo of chicken casserole pieces

·         40 g butter

·         2 onions, chopped

·         ½ garlic bulb, cloves separated and peeled

·         1 tsp baharat spice mix

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         6 potatoes, washed, peeled and diced

·         125g tomato paste

Method

1.       Heat a large saucepan over high heat, add a little oil and sear the lamb shanks (or chicken) until brown. Remove from the pan.

2.       Reduce the heat to low, melt the butter and cook the onion until soft.

3.       Add the garlic, baharat and salt and mix well.

4.       Pour 3 litres of water into the pan and bring to the boil

5.       Simmer, covered, for 1 hour or until the lamb is tender

6.       Add the potato and tomato paste and cook for a further 30 minutes

7.       Season to taste

8.       This is ideal served with boiled rice with egg noodles.