Time to confess

Right, so we're up to 'j' in the #abcmeals challenge. I had Jaffas in my head all week, and then couldn't find any. I even considered going to the cinema in search of them, that's how desperate I was. My plan was to crush some up to put in the Jaffa Cake batter, but because of their scarcity we ended up substituting Darrell Lea 'Chocolate Orange Balls', which weren't red like Jaffas, were larger than Jaffas, but still tasted pretty much the same. I wasn't going to tell you they weren't actually Jaffas, but in the interests of full public disclosure, and because maybe you're a Jaffaholic and you have stashed them all at your house and you noticed in the picture that they didn't look right, I thought I'd better come clean!  If you're hiding all the Jaffas, please send me a pack - express post, please!

Anyway, what else did I rustle up?  Well, Jatz crackers of course.  With a throwback to their heady days in the 70's I came up with a few classic combos - roast beef and horseradish, pizza (salami, sundried tomato, feta, olive and basil) and the standard tomato and cheese.  To add to the 70's style starters I also julienned (because that starts with 'j') some carrots, it wasn't very good julienning - got to have something to work on.

In between those two delectable delights (whoops wrong letter), was a spicy cajun Jambalaya, which is a great one pot wonder. It probably ended up with a touch too much chilli powder, but you can't ever tell till you're about 5 mouthfuls in.  This would freeze well and indeed was delicious the next day for lunch.

To accompany all of this I whipped up some 'jam jar' cocktails - how cool am I?  These were just gin (which starts with a 'j' sound, bit of a stretch there I know), juice of half a lime, lemonade and mint.  Very refreshing on a hot Wednesday evening and helped negate the Jambalaya fire!

Jambalaya (serves 4 - 6)
2 - 3 chicken thighs, chopped into rough pieces
1 - 2 spicy chorizo, sliced
1 - 2 rashers of bacon, roughly chopped
1 brown onion, roughly chopped
1 red capscium, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 - 2 tbsp cajun spice (or make your own, see below)
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
350 - 400mL chicken stock
200 - 250g long grain rice
Parsley, to serve

1. Heat a splash of olive oil in a large fry pan (which has a lid) and add the chicken.  Cook for 5 - 8 minutes until golden.  Remove and set aside.
2. In the same pan, add the chopped chorizo and bacon, and cook through.  Remove and set aside with the chicken.
3. Using a small amount of the bacon and chorizo fat, in the same pan gently saute the onion until beginning to soften.  Then add the capsicum, garlic and cajun seasoning and cook for about 5 minutes.  Stand back when you add the cajun seasoning!
4. Add the chicken, chorizo and bacon back into the pan.  Add the rice and stir to coat it in the juices. 
5. Add the tomatoes and stock.  Stir well. Cover and allow to gently simmer for 20 minutes, until the rice is tender.  Add more stock if necessary.
6. Serve sprinkled with parsley and a flat bread and natural yoghurt in case it's too spicy!

NOTES:

• Cajun spice mix - 2 tsp each of sweet paprika, dried oregano and dried time, 1 tsp cayenne pepper or chilli powder (be careful!)
• Adjust the amount of rice and stock, depending on how many people you are serving.

Jaffa Cake
125g butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups self-raising flour
3 tbsp cocoa
3/4 cup fresh orange juice
zest of an orange

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C.  Prepare muffin tins with cases, or grease and flour a cake tin.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and creamy
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well in between
4. Mix the flour and cocoa together.  Add this alternatively with the orange juice and beat well in between each addition, to ensure it is fully combined.
5. Add the orange zest at the end and mix in.
6. Pour/scoop about 1/2 cup of batter into each of 12 muffin cases or pour mixture into a cake tin and smooth the top.
7. For cupcakes bake for 20 minutes, then lightly touch the to see if they spring back.  If they do then remove to a wire rack to cool.  If they don't spring back, then leave another 5 minutes and re-check.
8. For a large cake: bake for 45 - 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. When cooled, top with jaffa icing (below) and a jaffa.

Jaffa icing
These are rough measures, as I don't usually measure ingredients when making icing
2 tbsp (about 50g) butter, softened
1 - 1 1/2 cups icing sugar (possibly more)
2 tbsp cocoa
juice of an orange (about 1/2 cup or 125mL)

1. Place 1 cup icing sugar and cocoa in a small bowl.  Mix to combine, with a metal spoon.
2. Add softened butter and begin to mix again.  Add a small amount of orange juice and mix.  
3. Keep adding small amounts of orange juice until icing is desired consistency.  If you add too much, then add more icing sugar.

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I scream for ICE-CREAM

Sorry this post has been a little while in coming. 'I'was two Wednesdays ago and we have since had 'J'. Rose is waiting patiently for me to put this up. 'I' was a very hard letter to cook for as 'I' ingredients are limited; Ice, Iceberg Lettuce and Ice-cream. Countries were a little easier to gain inspiration: Italy, India, Iceland. I decided to tackle some Indian food. For entree, I went with some Red Onion and Chilli Bhaji, main was a chicken korma and for dessert I made up some Lemon and cardamon Ice-cream.

Red Onion and Chilli Bhaji with Mint and Garlic Raita

2 red onions
100g chickpea flour (gram flour)
½ tsp baking powder
2 tsp curry paste or powder
1 red or green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
vegetable oil, for frying

Finely chop one onion and thinly slice the other. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add the curry paste or powder, chopped chilli and a good sprinkling of salt. Add about 150ml of cold water to make a thick batter. Stir in the chopped and sliced onions until they are well coated.

Heat about 5cm of oil in a wok or deep pan. Add a tiny speck of batter, if it rises to the surface surrounded by bubbles and starts to brown, then the oil is hot enough.

Add heaped tablespoons of onion mix to the pan, a few at a time, and cook for a few minutes, turning once, until they are evenly browned and crisp, about 3-4 minutes. Drain on kitchen paper, sprinkle with a little salt and keep warm while you cook the remaining bhajis. Serve with the raita.

Garlic Raita
150g tub natural yogurt
2 tbsp chopped mint
1 small garlic clove, crushed

Mix together the raita ingredients with a little salt and pepper, then spoon into a small bowl.



Chicken Korma

small knob fresh ginger, peeled and finely sliced
1 garlic clove
1 onion, sliced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp garam masala
100ml chicken stock
3 tbsp low-fat natural yoghurt or creme fraiche
2 tbsp ground almonds
handful toasted, sliced almonds, to serve
coriander leaves, plain rice, naan bread or chapatis, to serve


Cook the ginger, garlic and onion in a large pan with the oil until softened. Tip in the chicken and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes, then add in garam masala and cook for 1 minute further.
Pour over the stock and simmer for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Mix together the yoghurt/creme fraiche and ground almonds. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the yoghurt/creme fraiche mixture. Sprinkle over sliced almonds, garnish with coriander and serve with boiled rice, chapatis or plain naan bread.

Lemon and Cardamon Ice-cream

5 lemons
1 tablespoon cardamom pods, crushed
1 cup light thickened cream (12% fat)
1 cup sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
6 large egg yolks
3 cups whipping cream

Peel 1 lemon with a vegetable peeler, taking care not to cut into the bitter white pith. Place the peel in a nonreactive medium saucepan with the crushed cardamom, light thickened cream and sugar. Scrape the vanilla pod seeds into the pan and drop in the pod. Heat over high heat to just under a boil. Remove from the heat, and allow to steep for 10 to 15 minutes.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks, and then pour in some of the hot cream mixture, stirring constantly. Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it coats the back of a wooden spoon, 4 to 5 minutes.

Pour the mixture through a strainer into a bowl. Finely grate the zest of 2 lemons and add it to the mixture. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

Add the cream to the mixture. Juice all 5 lemons and add the juice (you should have about three-quarters of a cup) to the cream mixture. Chill thoroughly.

Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.

I served with a squeeze of lemon syrup and a few crushed pistachio nuts.

How good is harissa!

This week it was 'h' week for me in our #abcmeals challenge - so what else to choose but haloumi, harissa, herbs, honey, honeycomb and hazelnut spread.  Now, haloumi I could eat for every meal of the day and still not get sick of it's salty, squeaky taste and texture.  There's nothing much you need to do to prepare it, just pan fry till it browns and throw on a plate.  Eat it plain if you want or with some sweet chilli sauce drizzled over the top, or with rocket and a squeeze of lemon juice as we did.

As for harissa, it goes with any red meat you care to choose and I chose my favourite - lamb.  To help cut the heat of the harissa I added a honey lemon mint yoghurt, which sounds like an interesting combination and not one you might normally think of.  However, it was delicious and sure did it's job, especially since I used double the harissa suggested below!

Time got the better of me for dessert and it wasn't till the last minute that I decided to whip up some crepes (thanks for the suggestion Sue) with hazelnut spread, and by hazelnut spread you know I mean Nutella but that doesn't start with 'h'!  It's been a long time since I've made crepes and needless to say I was out of practice!  We managed to get two almost decent ones and once spread with Nutella and crumbled honeycomb (i.e. Crunchie) on top, they were quite delicious.  Forgive the picture here, as I will definitely have to work on my crepe making skills and will write another post about them once I remember how to do it so that they don't just taste good, but also look good.

Harissa Lamb with Honey Lemon Yoghurt (Serves 4)

1 - 2 tablespoons of harissa
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
salt and pepper
500g lamb rump steaks

Couscous
1 1/2 cups couscous
20g butter
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock (or 2 cups boiling water with stock powder/concentrate/cube)
large handful of mint, roughly chopped (about 40g)
1/3 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
2 spring onions, finely sliced (the long green ones)

Honey Lemon Yoghurt
1/2 cup greek or natural yoghurt
small handful of mint, roughly chopped (about 10g)
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp honey
1 tbsp lemon juice

1. For the lamb - combine harissa, garlic, olive oil and water in a bowl, with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Add lamb and toss to coat.  Cover and set aside for at least 10 minutes to marinate.
2. For the couscous - warm up the stock (or combine boiling water with stock powder/concentrate/cube.  Place couscous and butter in a large bowl, and pour hot stock over couscous.  Stir until butter has melted. Cover and let stand for about 5 minutes until liquid is absorbed.  Use a fork to fluff up the couscous and add chopped pistachios, mint, spring onions. Season to taste.
3. For the yoghurt - combine all ingredients and refrigerate until required.
4. Cook lamb for 3 - 4 mins on each side or until cooked to your liking.  Allow to rest for 3 - 4 minutes, then slice.
5. Serve sliced lamb on top of a couscous, with yoghurt drizzled across the top.  Add a lemon wedge on the side and a sprig of mint too.

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It's not really soup weather

Still being in the midst of summer here in Australia (yes, even though it's March now and technically autumn), soup is not the first thing that usually springs to mind for a quick and comforting dinner.  But on this occasion it did and being a light soup it worked a treat.  I was feeling a bit run down and soup is always a great pick me up.  So without further ado I give you Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup.

Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup (serves 2)
1 chorizo (peeled if necessary, sliced)
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely diced (optional)
200g sweet potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
100g white potato, peeled and cut into small chunks (you could use all sweet potato)
300 - 400ml vegetable or low-salt chicken stock
50 - 100g baby spinach

1. In a medium pan, fry chorizo with a little bit of oil, until cooked.  Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Depending on how fatty the chorizo was add a splash of olive oil to the same pan, then add onions and garlic and cook until starting to turn translucent.
3. Add potatoes to the pan and stir often, cooking for about 10 minutes until they start to soften.  Add a splash more olive oil if they are starting to stick.  It's ok if they do stick because all of that crunchy goodness will come off the pan in the next step.
4. Add the stock to the pan, it should pretty much cover the potatoes.  Stir to loosen the crunchy bits from the bottom of the pan.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through.
5. When potatoes are soft, get your potato masher and roughly mash some of the soup so you end up with different sizes of potato. 
6. Divide chorizo between bowls, ladle soup over and then top with as much baby spinach as you like.  Stir the spinach through, so that it wilts into the soup.

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