Wednesday 27 November 2013

Roast chook LFW stylee


I usually do a large roast chicken every other week or so. We try and avoid all processed meats... can't remember the last time I brought any. Too full of crap. So doing a big roast chook makes for supper that night and then sarnies and/or salads the next day or two if having a lunchtime meat craving.

Sooo I have a bit of a fav way of doing a roast chicken and it goes along these lines:

Ingredients 


1 large free-range chicken (anywhere between 1.7-2 kilos)
1 onion cut in half
5 tbsp of tomato sauce
Lots of chopped fresh herbs (I usually pick a big handful of basil, parsley - flat leaf and curly and sage from the garden), or can use mixed dry herbs
Small glass of red or white wine
1 or 2 tomatoes sliced
Knob of butter, plus a little extra
Celtic sea salt & freshly ground pepper

Recipe


First off, preheat oven to 190 degrees.

Wash your chicken and pat dry with paper towel and transfer to oven dish. 

Stick the two onion halves up its bum with a knob of butter and some seasoning. Gently lift up the bird skin, careful not to tear it, and gently massage a little butter under the skin and into the flesh, leaving some little chunks there along the way.

Dollop most of the tomato sauce on top of the skin and spread evenly over the bird. Next sprinkle half of your herbs on top. Add your small glass of wine to the oven dish, and then cover with foil.

Cook for an hour and a half, basting every half an hour or so.

Remove the foil, add the remaining tomato sauce on to the skin and your thinly sliced tomatoes to cover. Drizzle with some olive oil and put back in the oven for a further half an hour.
Take out, check cooked and then sprinkle with remaining herbs before carving.

I always drizzle the juices from the dish over the meat. It's pretty yum and always lovely and moist. Nothing worse than a dry bird!

Tonight we had this with mini jacket potatoes and peas.

Do you have any fav ways and flavours for roasting a chicken? Love to hear!

Friday 15 November 2013

Perfecto Pesto



Got asked this morning, how I do this, so thought... geeeeez, I better remember now and would share with y'all.

Have recently started making up some yummy big batches of pesto as we've had an abundance of delicious basil growing in the garden. We all love it in this household. I've mixed up the recipe a bit and instead of pine nuts (which I LOVE) have been using cashews instead (which I also LOVE). Reason? The good old cashew is delicious and creamy and cheaper then a tiny pack of pines.

Also started adding some parsley to the concoction, which adds another flavour and is packed with goodness. I read somewhere the other week that parsley offers as good a punch of nutritional good stuff as kale. Go parsley! I usually use a combo of flat leaf and curly as we have both growing here.

So, it goes something like this:

Ingredients


1 & a half cups of fresh basil (completely stuff it in the cup... use LOTS)
Half a cup of parsley (same principle as above)
1 cup of cashews
2 small garlic cloves (some peeps might omit this, but we like a little)
Lots of shredded parmesan* cheese. Approx 70gms
* Try not to buy your parmasen already shredded...it usually has horrible preservatives added to keep it 'fresh'
About quarter of a cup of good quality, first cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil
Good quality sea salt to taste

Recipe


Stick your leaves, garlic, nuts and cheese in your food processor or good blender (if you like me don't have a food processor!) and blitz it up, gradually pouring in your oil with a pinch of salt to taste. From here I might add in a bit more oil, nuts, leaves..just taste and adjust to your liking.

If you have lots of basil and parsley, I'd recommend doubling the batch, which is what I did last Saturday, to be used throughout the week. We've had it on pasta, on sourdough, in cheese and salad sandwiches, with salad and straight on the spoon. Yes we love it :)

Enjoy and let me know how it turns out! Love to hear any other ways as well, that you make yours?

Pesto on sourdough. The Bear's lunch yesterday