Yummy baked chicken

Baked chicken is always a favourite in our household, mainly because it's always a surprise and also because it never really comes out the same. I have various versions and like to keep everyone guessing as to which combination it will be. The accompaniments are always the same: rice, peas, carrots, squash, that kind of thing, whatever you fancy, but the chicken is as follows:

Chicken - I use thighs because I think they are the tastiest part of the chicken. Use enough for the number of people you are cooking for, according to their capacity! Place a layer of thickly sliced onion in the bottom of a shallow casserole dish. Put the chicken pieces, skin side up, on top and pour any of the following over it. Ensure that the quantity is not too skimpy - there is nothing worse than not enough sauce to pour over the whole plate!

1. Mix 1 cup tomato sauce, 1 cup chutney, 1/2 cup syrup, 2 Tblsp Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Add chilli if liked. Pour over chicken and cover with lid or tin foil, bake for 30 mins at 180 deg C, take off foil and cook another 15 mins until skin is brown and crisp.

2. Mix 1 cup orange juice (or peach or mango), 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 cup chutney. Cook as above.

Experience will tell you whether to cook at a lower temperature and when the cut-off point is between cooked to perfection and burnt! Never wander off and check Facebook or emails when this critical point is about to be reached.

A meatless meal

Sometimes I just get tired of meat and long for a big plate of vegetables! I'm sure you do too, and here is the easiest way to solve that:

Lightly steam a selection of your favourite vegetables. My preference is: carrots, butternut, peas, beans, broccoli, celery and chopped spinach. Make a cheese sauce with plenty of mustard, or a white sauce to which a teaspoon of cayenne pepper has been added. Cayenne is exceptionally good for a variety of ailments and you should use it at every opportunity. There should be enough sauce to completely coat the cooked vegetables - there is nothing worse than a thin layer on top! I also add onions which have first been softened in a little grapeseed or olive oil, as the flavour is much better when a little brown. These should be added to the vegetables which you have placed in a suitable ovenproof dish and then the sauce poured over and cajoled into all the gaps with a spoon. You can see strips of streaky bacon on top - this is for the meat-eaters, or alternatively you can spread a layer of mashed potatoes like a pie crust, brushed with melted butter before putting into a hot oven for about 15 minutes, or until the bacon is crisp or the potato golden brown.

If you don't fancy a rich sauce, rather put big chunks of feta cheese all over the place to give it a bit of body before putting in the oven.

Delicious!

Traditional South African Bobotie

This is a couple of steps up from plain old meatloaf! You can add as much curry powder as you like, but it is actually the taste of the lemon leaves that gives it the memorable flavour.

1kg mince (beef or lamb, or you can use leftover minced roast meat)
Mix 1 slice white bread with milk (most recipes tell you to pour a cup of milk over the bread then squeeze it out. This is totally unnecessary. Just use enough milk to wet the bread.
Slice 2 onions thinly and simmer briefly in water to soften, then drain.

Combine these ingredients with the following:
1 egg
1 Tablesp curry powder or more if you like
2 teasp salt and 1/2 teasp pepper
1/2 (Tablesp turmeric
2 Tablesp vinegar
1/2 cup roughly chopped raw almonds
1/2 cup seedless raisins (I prefer unbleached sultanas)

Wet your hands with cold water and mix everything thoroughly with your hands. The water will prevent the mixture from sticking to your hands and it is more effective and creatively satisfying to get involved with your ingredients rather than poking around with utensils. Our hands were designed as the original utensils.

Pat into an ovenproof dish not more than 3 inches deep. Roll up 6 or 8 fresh lemon leaves and press them upright into the meat. Bake at 180 deg C for 45 minutes (adapt according to the size of the dish), then remove from oven. Beat 1 egg with 1/2 cup milk and pour over the bobotie. Return to the oven for another 20-30 minutes until  slightly browned.

Serve with rice and plenty of chutney.

One of our most traditional  and well-loved dishes here in South Africa.

Comfort food

When the days start to grow cooler, my thoughts turn to comfort food - one-dish, multiple ingredient recipes that are full of rich flavour and satisfyingly filling. If minced lamb is available, that is best, but otherwise leftover roast lamb, finely chopped or minced can be used and the cooking time reduced.

Chop 2 onions and fry until softened in oil of your choice - I prefer grapeseed oil which is healthy and has a higher flashpoint than sunflower.
Add 500g minced lamb and fry until crumbly and browned.
Add 2 grated carrots, 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon each of thyme and rosemary and 300ml beef stock. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can add any other vegetables you like, but then adjust the seasoning upwards. I like to add peas.
Simmer for about 40 minutes. Better if made in morning so that flavour can develop.

Put in baking dish and cover with a layer of fluffy mashed potato - no recipe needed for that!

Brush with milk and bake at 180 deg. C for about 30 mins or until topping is crisp and golden.

A delicious, tummy-warming treat!

At last! A recipe.

If any one has been relying on this blog to feed themselves, they will doubtless be starving by now! I will endeavour to redeem myself by sharing one of my favourite chicken dishes that requires almost no effort but may contain ingredients that won't be in your pantry. They should be, as they are a versatile addition to many otherwise plain dishes.

CHICKEN WITH CAPERS, PRUNES AND RED WINE

Feeds 4.

8 chicken pieces - I always use thighs as I find them the meatiest and most even shaped for cooking. Breast meat is best left for those who enjoy being martyrs.
3 cloves garlic - or to taste.
1 cup pitted prunes - buy unpitted, much cheaper and slice open very easily to remove stones. Never leave a stone in a prune (or an olive) unless you enjoy being at the dentist.
2 Tblespoons capers - children are unlikely to enjoy these, so don't waste this delectable dish on them.
2 bay leaves
2 Tblespoons brown sugar (don't know why - plenty sugar in prunes).
1 teaspoon dried thyme or 2 of fresh
1 cup red wine - nothing you wouldn't drink on its own.
Salt and pepper to taste.

If you like, you can brown the chicken skin in a hot pan for aesthetic appeal, but completely unnecessary. Put all ingredients in ovenproof casserole, cover and bake at 180 deg C for 40 minutes, then remove lid, baste chicken with sauce and cook uncovered for 15 minutes until appetisingly browned.

A taste sensation!

Utensils

There is nothing more satisfying to the eye than a kitchen filled with beautiful utensils (cooking tools - Chambers 21st Century Dictionary), and wouldn't we all love to have a complete set of that boldly coloured, cast iron, enamelled French cookware (if they would like to sponsor this blog, I will gladly mention the name and include numerous artistic photographs), or the fabulous medical grade stainless steel waterless cookware that lasts longer than any marriage and has a pot that costs more than a small stove. However, unless you put in the effort, even the most expensive pots will not produce a better meal than a cheap aluminium saucepan from the local hardware store (okay, maybe a little exaggeration - I personally cannot bring myself to cook in aluminium).

A set of stainless steel 18/10 grade pots and frying pans will set you up for life. Experience has taught me that coated pans do not last and I have wondered how, if the material used is non-stick, they make it stick to the pan in the first place. Also, it is supposedly indestructible even though it can chip off, and I don't really fancy having it going through my digestive system or even perhaps becoming part of it. A heavy bottomed pan is essential, as it won't warp and create an uneven surface for stoves with solid plates or a ceramic top.

A gas hob and electric oven are, for me, the ideal arrangement, but always keep a spare gas cylinder, as there is nothing worse than running out of gas as you are beginning dinner.

The most useful item in a kitchen is the hand-held, stick blender with the chopping bowl attachment; this saves an awful lot of washing up by using it directly in the pot of soup that you want to puree or potatoes you want to crush with a little butter and not much fuss.

You can get away with very little in the way of knick-knack type of gadgets, as long as you have a very good set of super-sharp knives and a top quality vegetable peeler. Once you have experience in chopping vegetables, you really will find that manual is the way to go. I have a drawer filled with gadgets collected over the years that are just too much bother to use e.g. a garlic crusher is no better than pressing the flat side of a large knife onto the garlic clove - same result, instantly.

Another essential - a dishwasher - don't believe it when you tell yourself you would never need it because there are only two of you. Just have enough plates for 2 days!

Last item - microwave - useful for defrosting and warming up.

Organising yourself in the kitchen

The secret to stress-free cooking and an enjoyable time in the kitchen is organisation. For me, the most important rule is: Clean As You Go! The first step is to fill the sink with hot, soapy water. I can't bear having dirty hands, so this is the easiest way to keep rinsing them off between handling ingredients, plus you can instantly wash those funny little items that don't fit in the dishwasher or only need a rinse because they aren't actually dirty. The ideal situation to be in once the food is cooking itself is to be stacking the last item in the dishwasher and wiping the surfaces clean. This also keeps the flies away. If you live in Kommetjie, it seems that the crayfishing season coincides with a huge leap in the fly population, the reason for which we draw our own conclusions but probably relates in large part to bait that gets dumped on the rocks or in public bins.

Once the sink is filled, assemble your ingredients. There is nothing worse than being halfway through a recipe and finding that the bottle of red wine that was in the back of the cupboard is no longer there, or that someone put the last of the parmesan on their potato the night before. Try to train your family to tell you when they use the last teabag or ate the nachos you were keeping for the Chilli Con Carne.

If you are anything like me, I buy ingredients that get put on a high shelf and forget about them, so that by the time I think of using them and have climbed the kitchen stepladder to find them, they are already 5 years out of date! This hasn't happened so frequently of late, as I have become much better in this department, mainly because after a really thorough baboon raid through the kitchen, you have to throw everything out and start again!

Unless you are making baked goods, I have never found it necessary to worry with exact measures. If you use a teacup to measure with, just ensure that everything goes into the recipe via the same cup and not a mug halfway through. Experience will very quickly teach you how to estimate everything with your eye and a couple of spoons! I would rather err on the generous side, particularly when making a sauce, as these can reduce to nothing very quickly if you have your temperatures too high.

The final important things to have handy are: the refuse bin to dispose of waste as it occurs, and a container with a lid for the vegetable waste to be separated for the compost heap or the porcupine (if you have one!) as you prepare your vegetables.

Next time I will talk about the tools and utensils that I can't do without.