Spicy Chicken with Apricots, Rosemary and Ginger

Intro
I got the best Christmas present ever last year: a tagine! A gorgeous red tagine which can be used the oven or on the stovetop or even in the microwave. My clever son clearly has exceptional taste in woman because I'm fairly certain he didn't choose the presents this year.

So expect a whole bunch of recipes in a row because everything I have cooked so far has been gorgeous.


Recipe

• 2 tblsps olive oil
• a knob of butter
• 1 onion
• 3 sprigs rosemary - 1 chopped, 2 halfed
• 40g fresh ginger
• 2 red chillies or 1 teaspoon chopped chilli
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks
• 8 chicken thighs
• 175g dried apricots
• 2 tblsps clear honey
• 400g tin plum tomatoes
• sea salt
• black pepper
• small bunch basil leaves

Melt oil and butter in tagine, add chopped rosemary, onion, ginger, chilli and cook for a few minutes. Add the chicken and brown on both sides. Add cinnamon sticks. Toss in apricots and honey then stir in tomatoes. Add a wee bit of water if need be to ensure bottom of tagine is covered with liquid, tuck apricots under the liquid. Bring to boil, simmer 40 mins.

Serve with couscous, rice and green salad.

PS I used 750g chopped chicken breast and 1 tin of chopped tomatoes and a handful of cherry tomatos.

Cardamom Almond Cake

Intro
I can't believe I havn't shared this recipe already! It is hands down my favourite cake. Kids hate iced cakes so this one is not iced either but is it a bit special and can taken out in public if you just lightly dust it with icing sugar. It improves over a few days too ... oh and I usually double the recipe and make it in a meat dish ... unless it is going to sit on a cake plate and look pretty.

Recipe

• 185g butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1/4 cup ground almonds
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup golden syrup

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, beat in the eggs one at a time (adding a tablespoon of flour with the second one). Melt together the milk and golden syrup in a saucepan and add to the butter mixture along with half the sifted flour, the spice and almonds. Stir to combine then add remaining flour.

Bake for about an hour or until done in a greased 20cm tin in a moderate oven.

Fruit Muffins

Intro
Having made this recipe twice in as many weeks it is clearly time to get up online. This is one of my sister Jackie's recipes and is totally adaptable - use any fruit you fancy :)

Recipe
Sift together

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• quarter teaspoon salt

Stir in

• 1.5 cups fruit (tinned, fresh, frozen or dried)

Mix together

• 100g melted butter
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg

Add liquid to dry ingredients, stir quickly and lightly then spoon into greased muffin tins.

Cook 12 - 15 mins at 220 degrees celcius.

Variation: half fill muffin tins, make an indentation in the mixture, put a teaspoon of Lemon Honey in middle and then fill the muffin tins. Sprinkle crumble on top then bake as usual.

Lemon Souffle

Intro

I don't know where this recipe came from but it is one of my Mums. Its more of a mousse so I don't know why we call it a souffle ... but we do.

For our family Christmas lunch would not be complete at all without a big glass bowl of this light as a feather gorgeous dessert. We usually don't decorate it at all - just plain - and serve it with big fragrant strawberries or raspberries. On a whim once I added tequila, on the assumption that tequila improves pretty much anything, and while it was nice I wouldn't mess with the recipe too much. Its perfection just as it is.

Recipe

• 4 separated eggs
• 8 tablspoons caster sugar
• 2 and a half lemons - finely grated zest and juiced
• 2 teaspoons gelatine soaked in 5 tablespoons cold water
• 1/2 pint cream

Place the egg yolks, sugar, lemon rind and juice in a basin over hot water on the stove and whisk until the sugar dissolves and mixture thickens a little. Remove from the heat, place in a cold water bath and whisk until it is cooled and thickened.

Take the dissolved gelatine and stir into the egg yolk mixture.

Whip cream until thick and fold gently into yolk mixture. Its much easier to get a smooth dessert if you don't over whip the cream.

Whip the egg whites until stiff - again not too stiff - and fold through gently.

Pour into serving bowls, 1 big or individuals, cover with gladwrap, refrigerate overnight and and serve.

Bagels

Intro
The bambini love bagels and I too have, it has to be said, developed a fancy for them myself. However, at $5 a pack of 4 they are a treat. This weekend I decided to have a crack at making them. I found this recipe online - complete with pretty pictures - but I am going to write it up here as well in case the original site ever ceases to exist.

They are so yummy - the kids have just gobbled up the first tray hot out of the oven with butter and strawberry jam dripping down their chins and all over their hands. Luckily I ended up making 2 dozen because I wasn't sure if any of my 3 jars of yeast were good so I made 3 starter brews and when all of them turned out fine; I just trebled the recipe.

Recipe

• 1.25 cups of warm water
• 2 teaspoons active dried yeast
• 1.5 tablespoons sugar
• 3.5 cups flour
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

Dissolve the sugar in the warm water, add the yeast. Leave for 1 minute then gently disperse the yeast granules by stirring with your finger. Leave for 10 minutes until its formed a scummy, frothy mass. If it hasn't 'grown' then your yeast is buggered so throw it away and go buy some fresh yeast.

Put the salt and flour into a bowl, add the yeast mixture. Stir together then knead for 10 minutes until smooth and glossy adding flour as necessary. (I had to add about 1/2 cup of water).

Place into an oiled bowl and cover loosely with pleated greaseproof paper, plastic wrap or a damp teatowel until its doubled in size. Punch it down, rest for another 10 minutes then punch down again. Form the dough into 8 pieces. Roll into smooth balls, poke a hole with your finger and then 'form' smooth-ish round bagel-shapes. I spun mine around my index finger :) Place them on an oiled tray for 10 minutes.

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Drop the bagels into the water and simmer 1-2 minutes on each side. Lift out, place on a baking sheet (lightly floured), brush with olive oil and sesame seeds and ground sea salt.

Bake 15-20 minutes in hottish oven (about 200 degrees).

Seafood Quiche with Cheese Pastry

Intro
I am a terrible shopper, hate shopping anytime but especially hate the super market after work. I am also a bit unorganised sometimes and forget to get meat out of the freezer brfore work. Therefore we often have no food in the house, empty fridge and only frozen meat come 5.30pm when I'm driving home from work and racking my brain for what to cook. Tonight I called into the local Four Square and wandered around there looking for inspiration, but no fresh meat or gorgeous veges (and I don't buy prepackaged or processed meals ...).

So I bought 300ml of cream and wandered home again because I remembered I had a leek and some leftover smoked salmon at home. Quiche is my friend and I have a couple of standby recipes that can be used to fool anybody into believing I am a good mummy that cooks balanced nutritious meal for the bambini.

Cheese Pastry Recipe

• 8 ounces flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• shake pepper
• shake cayenne
• pinch mustard
• 4 ounces cold, cubed butter
• 3 ounces grated cheese
• 2 egg yolks
• cold water

Put everything except the eggs and water into the bowl of a kitchen whizz or food processor and pulse for 3 or 4 three second pulses. Add eggyolks and just enough cold water so that the pastry just starts to form into a ball. Quickly form into a ball, wrap in gladwrap and rest in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Filling Recipe

• 1 large leek - washed and sliced
• 1 large onion
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon or 2 of olive oil
• 2 teaspoons butter
• salt
• cracked pepper
• 300g sliced salmon / frozen and thawed prawns or shrimps (OR sliced chopped ham etc)
  
• 300ml cream
• 3 eggs
• handful of grated cheese
• fresh herbs
  

I use a cast iron frypan about 30cm in diameter and later I will cook the quiche in it; This way I know I have enough filling.

Gently saute the leeks, onions and garlic in the oils and butter until softened. Season and turn off heat. Add the prawns and salmon. If you havn't got a frypan about 3/4 full of filling make some more (tinned corn, grated carrot, wilted spinach, sliced mushrooms etc). Tip into a bowl, wash the frypan and grease it.

Roll out the pastry and line the frypan. Put the filling in, sprinkle with cheese and herbs.

Combine the eggs and cream, season, then tip over the filling. You want to just about cover the filling with eggs / cream. If you need more ratio is 1 egg : 100ml cream.

Bake in a moderately hot oven for 30 minutes or so. Once filling is set its cooked.

Serve with mesclun salad, crusty bread and relish or chutney.

Ginger Fudge Slice

Intro
This recipe is really delicious just plain as is, but for a special occasion flash it up with melted dark chocolate:

• dip each square diagonally in melted chocolate,
• splatter chocolate on top,
• line tin with tin foil and spread a thin layer of chocolate on the bottom, then add biscuit mixture, when set add chocolate on top as well.

Recipe

• 4 ozs butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons condensed milk
• 1 packet wine biscuits (plain sweet)
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup crystalized ginger

Melt butter in saucepan, add sugar and condensed milk. Cook gently, stirring all the time, until sugar is dissolved.

In a kitchen whizz or food processor grind biscuits into fine crumbs, and the walnuts, and the crystallized ginger. Mix butter mixture into crumb mixture. Press into a tinfoil lined tin and refrigerate. Cut into small squares once set. Store in refrigerator.