Tinfoil chicken

No, no, you don't literally eat the tinfoil. You only eat the chicken that's baked in a shiny tinfoil envelope. 

1 chicken breast

1/4 head of broccoli

1/3 yellow capsicum

1/3 green capsicum

1/3 red capsicum

1 onion

1 tomato

2 cloves of garlic

25g butter

25g cream cheese/ 2 tablespoons of cream

2 tablespoons white wine

1 tablespoon thyme

salt and pepper

tinfoil

Chop the capsicum, tomato and onion into chunks, and break the broccoli into smaller pieces - keep everything around the same size, so they all cook at the same rate. Peel the garlic cloves, but leave them whole. 

Cut/tear two large pieces of tinfoil. Place the first into a baking tin, then place the second one over the top, but laying the opposite way. 

Throw in all your ingredients, putting the chicken on top. Fold the two layers of tinfoil over the top, and crumple up the edges so they form a tight seal. Bake in the oven for around an hour at 180C.

Be careful when you open up the tinfoil at the end - it will be filled with steam, so you don't want to scald your own face! Take out the chicken and slice it, then serve with the vegetables and the juices from the bottom of the pan. Good with polenta or mash potato, because they soak it all up!

Apple butter booze cake

More baking! I bought a large bag of Granny Smith apples, before remembering that I don't actually like fruit. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the fresh food, but I'm more of a vegetable lover than a fruit fan. 


This cake is incredibly moist, mainly because it has lots of butter in it, and a little booze - hence the title. I also made a rather tasty glaze rather than icing, which looks much prettier, and tastes a little like marzipan. In terms of booze, use whatever is in the house - I used Benedictine but brandy, apple schnapps or rum would all be good additions!

Cake

2 apples

2 tablespoons of your chosen alcoholic beverage

140g butter

1 tablespoon honey

160g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons ground almonds

3 eggs 

100g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 200C, and grease a cake tin. 

Peel the apples, and chop into pieces around the size of a dice. Sprinkle over the booze, stir, and leave to sit for half an hour. 

Melt the butter and honey in the microwave on low for 1-2 minutes, then leave to cool. 

Sift together the flour and baking powder, then stir in the ground almonds. 

Whisk together the eggs and sugar until thick and slightly foamy, then fold in the flour in 2 lots, using a spatula. 

Drizzle in a little of the honey and butter at a time, folding in to combine. Finally, fold in the apple and booze. 

Pour into your cake tin, and cook for 40 minutes until golden brown on top. 

Glaze

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

2 tablespoons almonds, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon poppy seed

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 teaspoon almond essence

Pop the sugar and water into a saucepan, and bring to boil over a medium-high heat. Simmer for around 6 minutes, swirling the pan every now and then to make sure it doesn't burn - it will start to turn a golden brown colour though. 


Add the butter and honey, and stir. Cook for another 4 minutes until golden. Add the nuts and seeds, remove from the heat, and leave to cool for 15 minutes or so. I made the glaze while the cake had its last 10 minutes in the oven, then left both to cool. The cake needs to be cooled lightly before you can add this topping, or it will all dribble over the sides. 


Once everything has reached room temperature, pour the glaze over the top of the cake, and leave to set. 

Brunch-time muffins

In a moment of house-wife madness that comes over everyone when they realise they're unemployed, I offered to bake for my boyfriend's officemates. I decided to make them like a miniature brunch - bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese - because I know they will eat them as soon as they get to work, because the public sector isn't known for its self-restraint in relation to baked goods. 

220g self-raising flour

5 slices of bacon

6 mushrooms

1 cup of grated cheese

1 tablespoon of paprika

1 tomato

1 egg

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup of canola oil

Chop the bacon and mushrooms in to bite-sized pieces, and fry for around 5 minutes until the bacon is crispy, and the mushrooms have lost most of their water. Chop the tomato finely.

In one mixing bowl, mix together the flour, paprika, bacon, mushrooms, and cheese. 

In another bowl, mix together the milk, oil and egg until well combined. Add the chopped tomato, stir, then pour onto the flour mixture. Stir everything together well with a spatula. 

Pour the mixture into 12 large muffins cases, making sure the best bits (bacon and mushrooms!) are evenly distributed, so no one gets upset. Bake at 180C for around 20 minutes, when their tops should be a golden brown colour. 

Smoky tomato salsa

Summer! Almost! But that's OK, because no one told the tomatoes they aren't supposed to be ripe yet, and they're already making an appearance in my kitchen. The ingredients in this salsa are "smoky" in that you cook them in an extremely hot, dry pan before hand, which transforms even mealy and pasty tomatoes into ingredients worthy of the noble name, "SALSA". 

Ingredients - and a large knife, lurking menacingly in the background...

2 large tomatoes

1 clove garlic

1/2 spring onion

1/2 cup herbs such as chives, coriander, parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried chilli or cayenne pepper

1 lemon

salt and pepper

Heat up a frying pan over a high heat. Throw in the tomatoes, garlic, and spring onion. Cook for around 5 minutes for the garlic and spring onion, and 10 minutes for the tomatoes, turning frequently so burnt patches develop all over the skin of the tomatoes. Remove from the heat, and leave somewhere to cool for at least half an hour, so you can handle the ingredients without burning your fingers!

Finely chop the garlic, spring onion, and herbs, and put into a mixing bowl. Dice the tomatoes, removing the hard bits around the stalk. Add to the bowl, along with the dried chilli. You can use powdered chilli or cayenne pepper - I used a whole dried cayenne pepper that my dad grew, and just broke it up into small pieces before adding it. 

Squeeze the lemon juice over the top, and stir everything together. I would recommend leaving it somewhere cool for at least half an hour before mixing again and seasoning, because it allows time for the flavours to all mix together. This salsa is great with...well, almost anything, really!

Fajita marinade

I'm a big fan of Mexican food, but, what with living in New Zealand, don't get many chances to eat "authentic" Mexican. Instead, most people seem to enjoy those awful packets of Old El Paso spice mixes - gross. I make my own mix instead, because I'm all fancy like that. This marinade can make friends with any kind of protein that comes your way. Along with the marinated steak in the picture, we had mushrooms, onions, peppers, salad and tortillas, and it was amazing!

1 tablespoon paprika

1/2 tablespoon tomato puree

1/2 tablespoon fresh chilli

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon oil

salt and pepper

something to marinade

Put all the marinade ingredients into a ziplock bag or a mixing bowl - a bag is good because you can squeeze all the air out and make sure the whole surface area of your protein in is contact with the marinade. Nom. 

Mix it all together, so it forms a deliciously red paste. Add your protein, smother it in the marinade, and leave the two alone for at least an hour. By this point, they should be the best of friends. Cook quickly, in a very hot pan, and eat quickly. Because you will want to. 

Cream of green soup

After 6 years as a student, I'm pretty darn thrifty, and this "Cream of green" soup is the epitome of cheap food. Any time I'm cooking green vegetables, and have leftover raw cuttings, or bits that aren't great for fancy recipes, I throw them in a ziplock bag in the freezer. In recent weeks, this bag has accumulated woody asparagus ends, broccoli stalks, the green bits of a leek...Anything that isn't perfect enough to use straightaway, but too good to throw out. After a couple of weeks, you have a bag full of soup-worthy ingredients that you would otherwise have wasted. Thrifty! Defrost them, and chop them, and give them the soup-treatment they deserve. 

The ratios for making more or less of this soup are pretty easy - the recipe uses 1 cup of stock to each cup of vegetables. I would recommend a guideline of 4 measuring cups of ingredients per person. Try to cook it for the shortest amount of time possible, so that everything stays an eye-wateringly bright green.

3 cups left-over green vegetables

1 cup of frozen peas

4 cups of stock (I used chicken)

1 clove garlic

1/2 an onion

splash of white wine 

1 tablespoon cornflour

2 tablespoons cream cheese (or ordinary cream, ricotta, mascarpone, sour cream...anything creamy-ish)

olive oil

salt and pepper

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Heat a little olive oil over a medium heat in a large frying pan or wok that's big enough for all your vegetables and stock. Add the onion and garlic, and cook for 3-4 minutes until softened. In a separate pan, heat up your stock so that it is almost at boiling temperature. 

Finely chop all your vegetables so they are around the same size, and smaller than a 1cm dice. They won't be cooked for very long so that they keep their colour, which means they have to be cut up quite small. Add to the pan, and cook for another 3 - 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Turn the heat up to high, and add the white wine. Cook for another 30 seconds while the wine soaks in, then sprinkle the cornflour over all the vegetables. Stir briskly to mix, then start adding the stock one cup at a time, still stirring. 

Once all the stock has been added, add the cream cheese, and stir. Bring the soup to the boil, and cook for a couple of minutes until it starts to thicken. 

Blender time! Transfer the soup to a blender or food processor. Add the frozen peas to the soup - keeping them separate until now means your soup will stay a lovely green-colour. Blitz for a minute or two in the blender, until the vegetables have broken down and you have a creamy-looking soup. Have a taste, to see if you need salt and pepper, then eat!

Dukkah and yoghurt chicken

Ah, marinading. The cheat's way to food that tastes delicious and tricks people into thinking you made an effort. Yoghurt has a tenderising effect on meat, so is great in marinades, while dukkah is just delicious. I have some hazlenut dukkah from the Main St Deli in Greytown out in the Wairarapa, which doesn't appear to have a website, but is amazing, all the same.

4 chicken drumsticks
2 spring onions
1 cup plain yoghurt
1 tablespoon dukkah
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 tablespoon ground almonds
1 tablespoon polenta
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper


Lots of ingredients, but it's super simple, actually. Mix all the ingredients apart from the chicken and spring onions in a large mixing bowl until thick and creamy. Add the chicken drumsticks, cover with the marinade and leave in the fridge for an hour or so.


Preheat the oven to 180C. Pour the chicken and marinade into a baking tray, and pop into the oven for an hour. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken and add the spring onions, chopped lengthways. Put the spring onions under the chicken, so they soak up all the spare marinade.

After an hour in the oven, the chicken should be browned and delicious, and ready to munch. We had ours with some cous cous, and ratatouille.

Baking Day Biscuits

Please forgive the amount of pink in the above image. The baking day biscuits are slightly almond-y, and have a nice soft texture without crumbling everywhere, and will keep for a few days, unless you eat them all first. These biscuits are based on a Nigella Lawson recipe which she describes as good for entertaining young children on rainy days, but to be honest I think she underestimated how entertaining biscuit-making truly is, for immature people of all ages. As you can see, despite the many, many gadgets in our house, we do not have any biscuit cutters, but this recipe is surprisingly easy to roll out and cut freehand. Nigella's recipe uses slightly different proportions, but I found it too soft, so adjustments had to be made. This recipe makes a million biscuits. Well, at least 40, which is more than even the most sugar-crazed fiend can eat (this theory was tested using my willing assistant, and even she paled after 4 or 5 biscuits). Baking days aren't to be hurried, and neither is this recipe. It takes time to make the perfect biscuit - time, and plenty of icing.


Biscuits


175g soft butter (or a mixture of half butter, half margarine, which makes it easier to cream together with the sugar)
200g brown sugar
2 eggs
 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
375g plain flour (plus more for rolling out the biscuits)
50g ground almonds
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt


Icing
around 300g icing sugar
pink (or other, non-gender normative colour) food colouring
the tiniest bit of water


Cream together softened butter and the brown sugar in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon until creamy, then add the eggs and almond extract, and mix together. In another mixing bowl, mix the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt. Add to the butter and egg mixture a little at a time, mixing it in thoroughly. The mixture will get tougher and tougher to mix, until you finally give up and it looks like a smooth biscuity mixture.


Roll out a sheet of baking paper, and split the mixture into two piles, then wrap each up in the baking paper. Pop it in the freezer for about half an hour to rest, while you have a spot of lunch and gossip.


Turn the oven on, at around 180C. Dust your counter-top or chopping board with flour, and coat a rolling pin with flour as well, so the biscuit dough doesn't stick. Take your dough out of the freezer, and grab a reasonable sized lump of dough to roll out. The dough is surprisingly easy to work with, and doesn't break up too much. Roll out to about half a centimetre thick, then start cutting! Use a small knife to cut out whatever shapes take your fancy, or if you're feeling lazy just use cookie cutters. Our biscuit shape ideas ranged from the relatively simple (hearts! letters! crowns!) to the ridiculous (brontosaurus! little dogs! cats!)


Pop the biscuits onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, and bake for 5-8 minutes - they cook very quickly. Leave to cool.


Icing time! We used three different shades of icing - white (no food colouring), light pink (the tiniest drop of pink food colouring), and a grotesque bright pink (a fair bit of colouring). Mix icing with various amounts of icing in separate bowls, then add the smallest splash of cold water possible. It always takes a lot less water than you think, so go slowly. Once the icing is mixed, but not too runny, scrap into sandwich bags and squeeze down into one of the bottom corners. Seal up the bag, and snip off the corner. You now have a piping bag!


Decorate your biscuits as needed. Obviously brontosauruses will need little boots and a collar, but I will leave the specific pattern up to you. Try not to eat them all at once, children.

Fish cakes

I found some mystery fish in the freezer, in an unmarked bag, and being the daredevil I am, decided to make fish cakes. I hate fish cakes that are hard like hockey pucks and have no flavour. I left out the egg and breadcrumbs people usually put in the mixture, because the egg is just more protein (and who really needs that?) and I have a theory that both ingredients are to blame for most of the hard, firm texture in fish cakes. This recipe makes softer fish cakes, that still get a nice crispy outside when you cook them. Makes enough for 2 hungry people.

300g-ish of fish
1 medium potato
2 - 3 tablespoons natural yoghurt
2 - 3 tablespoons green herby things like parsley, chives, coriander.
2 cloves garlic
3 teaspoons polenta
salt and pepper
zest of 1 lemon


Cut the potato up into chunks, and microwave in a bowl for 4-5 minutes until soft. Pop the fish onto a baking tray lined with some baking paper, along with the garlic, and grill for the same amount of time, turning halfway through.


Throw your fish and potato into a large mixing bowl, and mash lightly (oxymoron? mashed enough that it mixes together, not mashed so much it's baby food) with a fork. Chop the garlic a little before you throw that in too. Finely chop your herbs, and add them to the bowl along with the lemon zest.


Now the make-it-up-as-you-go part. Add the yoghurt, and mix. Then, add the polenta 1 teaspoon at a time, until the mixture start to look firm enough to make into fish cakes.


Wet your hands with cold water. Grab a small handful of the mixture, shape into a ball, then flatten. Place each one onto a piece of baking paper while you work. If the mixture is too soft, just put it back in the bowl and add more polenta.


Leave your fish cakes to rest in the fridge for 15 minutes or so. This stops them from breaking up when you cook them. Heat a non-stick frying pan, and cook your fish cakes for 2-3 minutes on each side until nicely browned. All the ingredients in the fish cakes are already cooked, so it's just a matter of heating them up and making them crunchy. We ate ours with rocket salad out the garden, minted peas...and chips. Because we like a bit of decadence every now and then.