Beetroot, Butternut & Chicken Salad

May I just say I’m a butternut freak, you’ve probably noticed. I post butternut recipes regularly. I guess I love it, because it looks like sunshine on your plate. Part of enjoying food is how it looks, if it’s pretty I enjoy it a whole lot more.

   

Ingredients:

300g cooked beetroot (you could buy it cooked or steam it for 15 minutes)

250g Steamed Butternut

300g baby leaf Spinach

2 Chicken Breasts cut into strips

1 tablespoon Honey

1 teaspoon Chicken Spice

Method:

Firstly coat the chicken in chicken spice and seal it into a hot frying pan. No need for oil, the honey will help the chicken to get golden brown.

Seal the flesh of the chicken and add the honey.

Fry for about 5 minutes and take off the heat. It should be cooked without being dry, nothing like dry chicken.

Now you could be creative, compile the salad in layers.

First layer will be spinach, followed by butternut and beetroot. Lastly add the chicken.

Drizzle the left over honey juice from the pan over your salad and viola; you have a tasty summer dish.

You could add pumpkin seeds, even some parmesan. I added almonds to my dish. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Honey Peach Chicken Skewers

It’s summer time again, well almost. This time of year South-African’s love to braai (barbeque). Sometimes I get tired of the same old thing over and over again. So we tried something new for the grill. It’s quick and easy to make, and tastes real good. Hope you enjoy it.

   

Honey Peach Chicken Skewers

Makes 4 skewers

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts cubed

250g Dried peaches

60ml Honey slightly warmed in the microwave to make it runny

Chicken spice

You will also need skewers.

Method:

Stack the chicken and peaches on the skewer.

Baste the chicken with Honey and lightly spice it with the chicken spice.

Braai until cooked, it will take about 10 – 15 minutes.

Enjoy with summer salads.

Butternut and Chicken Quiche

It’s almost summer time again. The time of year where you never feel like cooked food, and you definitely don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen when you could be enjoying the sun. This is why I think quiche is the perfect summer dish. Its light and you can serve it hot or cold. You can keep it in the fridge and just add salad to complete the meal.

Quiche is versatile, you can add almost any combination and it will still taste divine! My favourite combo’s are spinach and feta, and butternut and chicken.

Today I want to share my Butternut and chicken recipe.

You’ll need to start with the crust. They say woman are better pastry chefs, because their hands are colder :). Cold is indeed the trick to a light and flaky pastry. Try to have all your ingredients as cold as possible.

Butternut and Chicken Quiche

 

Pastry - You will need:

220g Cake Flour

Pinch of salt

180g Room temperature Butter

1 egg yolk

Cold water

Sift flour and salt, and the butter. Gently rub the butter unto the flour using your fingertips, don’t overwork it.

Add the egg yolk and just enough cold water to make a stiff dough. Shape into a ball and wrap your pastry in cling wrap and leave in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.

Again the key is not to over work the pastry, and to keep it chilled.

Now is the time you can start cooking the butternut and chicken for the filling.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and place it on a lightly floured surface.

Lightly flour the pastry and gently start to roll the pastry out.

It should be about 5mm thick, and big enough to fit a 24cm pie dish.

Place it in a dish, prick it with a fork and bake blind, (this means put some wax paper over your pastry and fill the dish with some beans or rice, it will help to keep the pastry’s shape) for 10 minutes in a 200 degrees Celsius oven.

Uncover the pastry and bake for another 7 minutes.

Your pastry is now ready to be filled with yummy ingredients.

Filling - You will need:

200g of cooked butternut,

2 Cooked chicken breasts flaked,

Some mushrooms thinly sliced,

1 fried onion,

Some chives, salt and pepper,

3 eggs + the left over egg white used in the pastry,

400ml of low fat Milk

Start by placing the fried onion all over the bottom of the pastry. Now layer the butternut, chives and chicken. Make sure that there’s an even spread of ingredients.

Now mix the eggs, milk, salt and pepper together. Pour this mixture over the filling ingredients.

Now bake the quiche in a 180 degrees Celsius oven for 30min or until golden brown.

The quiche will need to cool slightly; this will just help it set better.

There you have it, a basic quiche recipe. You can now make your own combination by replacing the butternut and chicken with your own ingredients, add more spices, try different things. You can even replace some of the milk with cream for a richer quiche.

Have fun!

Chicken Pie

I tried making my grandmother’s chicken pie, it did not taste like my gran’s pie. I'm sure she is hiding a secret ingredient from me… :)

Anyways, it still tasted good, and there wasn’t much left over. I think it was a success. The recipe isn’t creamy or rich, it’s actually very refreshing. Here’s what I did:

Note to self, next time remember to take the picture before calling people to the meal.

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

4 rashers Streaky bacon cut or scissored into small bits
4 Chicken breast fillets
1 tablespoon Plain flour
1 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
1 Tablespoon Butter
2 cups Chicken stock
375g Puff pastry (ready rolled)

Method

1. Cook the chicken and thyme in the chicken stock, uncovered. When it is cooked, take it out and set aside to cool down. Cut the cooked flesh into smaller pieces.
2. Let the juices reduce, and cook the bacon pieces in this reduction.
3. Add the flour and chicken pieces, let the sauce thicken.
4. Spoon into a prepared oven dish.
5. Press the meat down, to make an even flat surface.
6. Cover with the puff pastry, and brush the pastry with melted butter.
7. Bake at 200 degrees Celsius for about 20min or until the pastry is golden brown.

This dish can be prepared the night before and baked the next day. Perfect for those family gatherings when you never seem to have enough time.

Enjoy!

PS: You could also put some ready made pastry as a crust, it will absorb all the lovely juices.

Lemony Pasta

I used to order a dish similar to this when I still worked at Century City. I don’t have a clue what was in the original recipe, I just remembered it had a tangy, addictive taste to it. So of course I had to try and make this.

Lemony Pasta

Lemony Pasta - It looks good, doesn't it :)

Ingredients:

200g Spaghetti

½ Green pepper (thinly sliced)

½ Red pepper (thinly sliced)

2 Chicken Breasts

Cajun spice

Vinaigrette:

1 medium sized lemon

1 teaspoon of castor sugar

2 tablespoons Olive oil

Salt en pepper

Instruction:

Cook the spaghetti until soft. While it is cooking create the vinaigrette by dissolving the castor sugar in the juice of one lemon. (You can add lemon zest for a more lemony taste.) Add the Olive oil and whisk, salt and pepper to taste. Add the vinaigrette to the cooked pasta, make sure all the pasta is covered with it and set aside to cool.

Next spice the chicken breasts and cook it for about 7 minutes on a side. The chicken must be cooked through but still moist.

Add the sliced peppers to the pasta and mix well. Slice the chicken to be placed on top of the spaghetti. This dish is to be served cold.

I can’t begin to explain the flavours to you; it’s such a simple fresh dish. I love the flavours of this dish, and I hope you love it too.

Happy Cooking!

Chicken Snitzel

One thing you need to know about my hubby and I is, we both LOVE chicken! We eat loads of white meat during the week, and you can only eat your favourite dish so many times before you get bored with it.

Yesterday I decided to try something new. The challenge was to take something that is usually high in fat and calories and make a low fat alternative.

I think I might just have achieved this goal, and it tasted as good as it looks!

Chicken Snitzel

Ingredients for chicken

2 Chicken Breasts (flattened)
Some Corn starch for dipping
Some Plain flour for dipping
1 Egg whisked
Salt and paprika
Olive oil

Ingredients for roasted zucchini

• 500g of Zucchini/baby marrow
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Ingredients for mushroom sauce

• 250g of thinly sliced mushrooms (the thinner you slice it, the more flavour it will give to your sauce)
• 1 table spoon of corn starch (and more if you want the sauce thicker)
• ½ cup of water
• 1 cup of milk
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius
• I started off by tenderizing my chicken (you need it to be the same thickness over the whole breast for even cooking)
• I then created an assembly line, first a bowl with some corn starch, second a bowl with the whisked egg, lastly a bowl with plain flour. I added some salt and paprika to the plain flour; this helped to flavour the chicken.
• I first dipped the chicken in the corn starch, followed by the egg and lastly the spiced flour. Make sure you get and even coating of all three.
• Now place the breasts in a baking tray.

Zucchini

• Next you need to cut the zucchini in halves, lightly brush it with some olive oil. Add your salt and pepper and place the veggies in the baking tray with the chicken breasts.
• Place the tray in the oven for about 12 min, take it out and lightly brush the chicken with olive oil. Place it back in the oven for another 5 min, or until it starts to brown.
• Flip the chicken breasts and repeat the step above.

Mushroom Sauce

• While the chicken is cooking start on your sauce, cook the mushroom in half a cup of water, the water turn brown with all the lovely mushroom flavour.
• When the mushroom is cooked mix the corn starch and milk and add it to the mushrooms in the pot. Stir continuously, until the sauce thickens.
• Flavour with salt and pepper.

The chicken was soft and tender, with just the right amount of flavour. Paired with the mushroom sauce and a bit of grated cheese it was a hit. I will definitely make this again!

Enjoy making your own combinations!