Honey-Mustard Chicken

 

For this year’s Rosh Hashana I went back to basics. Gefilte fish, matzah ball soup and for the main course…Honey-Mustard Baked Chicken.  It was so great, light and of course, in the spirit of the holiday, sweet!  It’s so easy to make too!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken, cut into pieces (ask your butcher to do this and spend a little more to get organic – worth it)
• 1/4 cup mustard (Dijon is preferred but I used regular mustard and it was fine)
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder or 2 minced garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons chopped or ground parsley

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C

Place Dijon mustard, honey, oil, salt, garlic and parsley in a medium bowl and mix. Pour over chicken and turn pieces to evenly coat.

Place chicken skin-side down in a large casserole. Pour the mixture over chicken and to coat evenly .

Bake chicken 1 hour-1.5 hours.

As for a side dish  – Carrots and sting beans were great!

 

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds green beans, washed and trimmed
• 8 ounces carrots, peeled, cut into strips
• 2 tablespoons butter

Method:

Cook beans and carrots in separate pots until tender.

Drain the veggies. Heat up the butter in a small pot and add the veggies – stir, season with some salt and pepper

Serve Warm

Shana Tova! (Happy new year!)

Iraqi Meatballs with Rice and Potatoes

My family routes are from Eastern Europe so I never got to experience much of the genuine Middle eastern cooking.  I’ve only enjoyed it when mothers of my friends would cook.  Any one pot dish is great comfort food in my opinion and this is definitely one of them.  I was debating whether or not to put up a picture because I know it may not look very appetizing but trust me, it tastes so much better than it looks!

Ingredients:

• 400 grams of ground meat (I used a mixture of beef and pork)
• 1.5 chopped onions
• 8 garlic cloves
• About a handful of chopped parsley
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes (fresh tomatoes work too if you’ve got the time)
• 6 potatoes – sliced into cubes
• 2 tsp. of Sea salt
• 1 tbsp. Black pepper
• 2 tbsp.  cumin
• 1 tbsp. sweet paprika
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 tbsp. tomato paste
• ½ liter of boiling water
• ½ cup of rice- give it a good rinse (I used Jasmine)
• 2 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tbsp. cumin
• 2 tbsp.  hot paprika 

Method:

In a large mixing bowl, mix 1 chopped onion, 5 chopped garlic cloves and the chopped parsley.

Add the spices: 2 tsp. of sea salt, 1 tbsp. of black pepper, 2 tsp. of cumin, 2 tsp. of paprika and the rice – Mix well!

With your hands (slightly wet) make medium sized balls.

In a big pot set on low heat, add the olive oil.  Place the meatballs in the pot and fry it for 2-3 minutes.  Add the water, ½ of the chopped onion, 3 chopped garlic cloves, hot paprika, salt and cumin – turn up the stove to high heat.

Add the cubed  potatoes. Taste the mix – see if you need to add more salt

Add the chopped tomatoes and mix – turn back to low heat.

After 30 min  -add the tomato paste.

Cook on low heat for 1-1.5 hours – for the last 45 minutes of cooking time – take the lid off so the sauce will thicken.

Enjoy!

Baby Bear Pumpkin Soup

 

 

Fall is the perfect time for Pumpkins! So nothing is better than a nice bowl of pumpkin soup.

This is such an easy soup to make…you  really only need a good knife to cut the pumpkin

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 baby bears pumpkin (a mini pumpkin)

Half of a ginger

3 garlic cloves

1 onion

2 tablespoons of olive oil

4 cups of chicken broth (vegetable broth works fine too)

Method:

Cut the pumpkin in half and disregard the inside of the pumpkin, slice it up to small pieces.

Peel the garlic, remove the skin off the ginger and slice,  peel and half the onion.

Put the oil in the pan, sautee the veggies but don’t let it brown (usually about 3-4 min)

Add the broth and let it simmer on low heat for about 40 minutes  or until all the veggies have softened

Take off heat, using a blender or a hand mixer – puree the mixture – adding more water if its too thick

Once the texture is just how you want it, reheat it and serve.

You can add some nice pumpkin oil for the extra zest.

Serve with fresh bread

Tip – If you want it extra sassy, use the whole ginger

Enjoy!

Beef with Carrots and Potatoes

A classic Jamie Oliver recipe! It is sooooooo good! It took me about an hour, just because I was kind of frazzled at first and I was very nervous about cooking the meat, I didn’t want to overcook it but it came out really yummy. If I can cook it…anyone can

Serves two

Ingredients: 

potatoes:
500g little skinned potatoes
4 twigs of fresh thyme or rosemary (grounded is fine too)
1 bulb of garlic

beef:
fresh rosemary and thyme (I  forget to buy fresh ones, I was too lazy to go back to the supermarket so I used  the grounded ones)
700g fillet of beef ( I used Porterhouse but sirloin works too)

carrots:

About 500g small carrots

fresh thyme (again , I went grounded)

1 tablespoon brown  sugar
1 tablespoon of butter gravy:
½ an onion, chopped
1 tablespoon  flour
1 small wineglass of red wine
1 ¼ cup chicken stock
a bit of butter

Here’s what you do:

Wash the potatoes and leave the skin on. Chop in half and toss into the pot. Cover with boiling water, season with salt and cover with a lid. Turn the heat to high and let it boil for about 5 minutes (you don’t want it soft)

Drain the potatoes and toss them on a baking tray.add over some olive oil, season with salt , and some rosemary. Toss in some garlic and let it roast in the oven at 200 degrees (about 20-30 minutes- I have a toaster oven so I needed about 40 minutes)

Now time for the carrots. Add the carrots in a little pot and cover with water. Add  thyme, pinch of salt, some olive oil and the sugar.  Cook with a lid on until soft.  Drain once ready.

Now for the scary part…The meat!

Cut the fillet in half and then add all the herbs, salt and pepper to it, really get them soaked , each side should be coated nicely, you should really see the grains of sea salt on it.

Add some olive oil to a very hot pan. Place the meat on the pan. You really want to aim for a medium rare, cook for 2 minutes on each side – I was getting nervous that it was getting to be more then medium rare so I covered it with aluminum and let it finish cooking in a heated toaster oven for about 3 minutes.

Now for the fun part: The gravy!

When the meat is off of the pan, you have all those amazing  juices in there from the meat, add some chopped onion and oil, and mix it . Add the flour and keep mixing (I usually dissolve the flour in some water before and then add it to the pan to prevent those lumps of flour) …finally add the red wine. Cook to a boil and add the chicken stock, taste it and add the butter (really only a little bit)

Back to the carrots, pour them back into their little pot, add some butter and let it cook for a minute. Take the potatoes out and you’re ready to serve.

Slice the beef and pour the gravy over

Heaven!

Mussels in chilli tomato sauce

This is a great recipe I found at http://www.taste.com.au/. I made it and it was amazing, I literally drank the broth like a soup.   I only used one red chilly because I didn’t want it so spicy… Great dish!

Tip: Mussels are salty in general so no need to add so much salt

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 brown onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 small red chillies, deseeded, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1kg tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 lemon, rind finely grated, juiced
• 2 teaspoons caster sugar
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1.5kg mussels, beards removed
• 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
• crusty bread, to serve

Method

1. Heat oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and chilli. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until onion is soft. Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute.
2. Add tomato, lemon rind, lemon juice, sugar and wine to pan. Stir until well combined. Increase heat to high. Bring sauce to the boil. Reduce heat to medium. Simmer, uncovered, for 8 to 10 minutes or until thick. Season with salt and pepper
3. Add mussels to sauce. Cover and cook, shaking pan occasionally, for 3 to 5 minutes or until mussel shells open. Discard unopened shells. Ladle sauce and mussels into bowls. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with bread.

• To remove mussel beards

• Step 1: place mussels in a large bowl. Cover with cold water. Swish them around to remove grit from shells.
• Step 2: Remove mussels, one at a time, hold in one had. Using free hand, grab the beard (clump of hairs) and sharply tug down to remove. Transfer cleaned mussel shells to a fresh bowl of water.