Coq au Riesling - Nigella style

My family know that I love books. Devour them. And I was lucky enough to be given 2 fantastic new cookbooks, for Christmas. Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson (thanks Emma), and 4 Ingredients, which is a cookbook written by 2 Australian mums, and every recipe has 4 ingredients or less - what a great concept!

Both books focus on delicious food, which is easy and fast to make. Now, as one of my posting categories is "Domestic Goddess", how could I go past starting off with a scrummy recipe by Nigella Lawson, for a French chicken casserole, Coq au Riesling.

Please excuse me, as I am typing this without the benefit of the recipe book in front of me. But it was so easy, that I can remember, I am sure!

Ingredients -

* 1 leek, chopped (do you have leeks in the US? Do you call them leeks?)
* 10 chicken thighs (either bone in or fillets, but either way, skin off)
* approx 1/2 cup chopped bacon
* oil for frying
* thickened or double cream
* 1 bottle Riesling
* 2 bay leaves

Method -

Heat oil in a deep saucepan / casserole dish. Saute bacon and leek, until soft and fragrant. Remove bacon & leek from pan, then add the chicken pieces to the pan and brown them. When chicken is browned, return bacon & leek to the pan, and add 2 bay leaves and about 3/4 of the bottle of wine (seriously - the left over bit is the 'cook's privilege'!).

Cover the pan with a lid, or tin foil, and simmer on low for about 45 minutes. Stir, remove bay leaves and add a good dollop of cream, to thicken the casserole mixture. Serve with mashed potato and green beans. Yummmm!!

Thank you Nigella, you are going to transform my family's eating habits... into decadent food, fast!

Mmm.... cookies!

Wow, the last couple of posts have been heavy going! So here is something lighter... cookies!

This is our favourite basic biscuit recipe:

Ingredients -

120 gms unsalted butter

1/2 cup castor sugar

1 egg

2 cups self-raising flour

Vanilla essence (just a tiny splash).

Preheat oven to 170 C (a moderate oven). Beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer, until light and creamy. Add the egg, and mix until combined. Add the flour and vanilla essence.

Knead the mixture, in the bowl, to form a ball. Wrap the dough in glad wrap (cling film) and refrigerate for about 20 mins.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured bench (this is easiest if you do it in 2 smaller batches). Use biscuit cutters to cut out cookes and put them on greased oven trays.

Bake for approx 8 - 10 mins, until lightly golden. Cool on a wire rack.

This is a great basic mixture, which can then be played around with - I add in a handful of dessicated coconut, or a large glob of peanut butter. or a squeeze of lemon juice and some zest ...

And of course, I bake wearing one of the delicous new aprons available at Sasha Sews!

Satay Chicken

While shopping in a variety store a few weeks ago, my eye was caught by a series of cook books, which were well-priced at A$10 each. There were about 7 different titles, but the one I bought is simply called "chicken". It is published by Murdoch Books, here in Australia.

We eat a lot of chicken - it is reasonably cheap, and easy for a 2 year old to eat. So the idea of having 75 new recipes for chicken appealled to me!

Here is the one we tried last night, for Satay Chicken:

1 1/2 tbsps oil
6 spring onions (scallions), cut into 3cm lengths (I actually used eschallots)
800 gms (1lb 12oz) of chicken strips / pieces
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
4 tbsps crunch peanut butter
270ml (9 1/2 fl oz) coconut milk
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsps lime juice

Method:

Heat pan to very hot, add some oil and spring onion, stir fry for 30 seconds. Remove from pan. Add extra oil and brown the chicken. Remove chicken from pan.

Add more oil to pan, and curry paste. Fry paste for about 1 minute, until fragrant. Add peanut butter, coconut milk, sugar and 250ml (1 cup) water and stir well. Bring to the boil, and boil for 3 - 4 minutes or until thickened. Return chicken and spring onions to the pan, stir in and cook for 2 minutes, until heated through. Stir in the lime juice, and season with salt / pepper to taste. Serve with steamed rice.

I actually skewered the chicken into kebabs, with some red capsicums (bell peppers), grilled them in the oven and just poured the satay sauce over the top. Naomi had fun skewering the meat, so it was a good child-entertainer as well!!

And the verdict? In Naomi's words .... "Mmmm.... 'licious".

Totally Decadent Mars Bar Cheesecake

With the only other adult in our house being Type 1 diabetic, it's not often that I make the effort to bake sweet things. But this one, I just couldn't resist. I have not tried making cheesecake before, but this one was so easy that I am now afraid that I might become addicted.... at least I have an excuse, while I am pregnant!

Mars Bar Cheesecake

Ingredients

2 cups chocolate biscuit crumbs (approx 15 chocolate cookies)

5 tablespoons butter, melted

500 grams cream cheese

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup thickened cream

3 level teaspoons gelatine, dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water

2 large Mars bars, chopped as fine as you want

Method - Base

Place 15 chocolate cookies in a large zip-lock bag and seal. Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin or anything that will whack them down firmly (feel the stress relief already!). Measure to make sure you have 2 cups of crumbs and place in a mixing bowl. Add melted butter and mix well. Press crumb mixture into the base of a greased springform pan. I found this quantity just covered my large pan - if you have a smaller pan, it will make a thick base and you may want to adjust quantity accordingly. Or you may like thick layers of crumbled choc cookies... mmmmm. Put the pan in the fridge while you mix the filling.

Method - Filling

Chop Mars bars and set aside. Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add caster sugar and cream, beat all together and set aside. Sprinkle gelatine onto hot water and stir gently until almost dissolved. Stir gelatine mix into cream cheese mix, making sure all ingredients are thoroughly combined (no lumps). Gently stir in the chopped Mars bars. Pour the filling onto the crumb crust, in the springform pan. Refrigerate at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.

When set, run a knife around edge of the tine and unclip the springform tin. Decorate with whipped cream, or grated Mars bars/choc biscuits. Anything you want, really!

Of course, you can change it up by substituting honeycomb, cherry ripe, or your favourite fruit, instead of the Mars bars.

Great sauce recipe

Last night I cooked pork chops, but was trying to think of a quick and easy way to jazz them up a bit. I threw the following ingredients into the frypan, after cooking the chops and draining off the grease (but be sure to leave the yummy browning stuff in the bottom):

A good dollop of cream
2 tsps crushed garlic
A shake of dried rosemary leaves
Fresh garlic chives, snipped up with scissors

Stir together and let it simmer on very low for a few minutes, soaking up the meaty bits in the bottom of the pan. This made enough for generous pour-over servings on 2 adult dinners.

I had intended to put some seeded mustard in as well, but didn't have any in the fridge. It was just as delicious without it. I think this would go well on any meat - steak, pork, chicken, even fish or prawns. And it was literally conceived and made in 5 minutes, from ingredients in the condiments shelf of my pantry and fridge.

Do you have a special sauce, or something quick that you use to jazz up otherwise plain meals? Please share it with me - leave a link to your site in the comments!