Pomegranate Molasses Chicken Recipe

One of my purchases at the recent Food Show was Pomegranate Molasses. I know I have seen several recipes recently with this ingredient in them that looked fantastic. I tried a few different options at the food show but this one was the best...pity you can't buy it yet in NZ apart from the food show.

I used smoke garlic from 'The Original Smoke and Spice Company' that I got at the Food Show. I always try to have their Smoked Garlic Salt in the pantry - I use this in lots of dishes!

I served this with mashed potatoes (a family favourite) and a salad with vegetarian option for the non meat eater.

From Nici Wickes, host of World Kitchen on TV3

Pomegranate Molasses Chicken

You will need:
6 chicken breasts (buy the best quality you can afford at the time)
2 tablespoons olive oil
50g butter
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
250mls stock (vege or chicken)
4 tablespoons pomegranate molasses*
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Salt and pepper

What to do:
In a heavy based pot, melt the butter and oil until almost smoking. Gently add the chicken breasts, skin side down. Leave to brown (about 5-8 mins) - try not to fiddle with them until they are well browned! Turn them and brown the other side.
Remove the chicken and set aside. To the remaining juice/fat in the pot add the onion and sauté until it begins to soften. Now add the rosemary and garlic and sauté for a further 3-4 minutes.
Add the stock, pomegranate molasses, sugar and seasoning and bring this to the boil. Once it has come to the boil add the chicken back into the pot.
Simmer for a further 15-20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Check that the seasoning is sufficient, add salt and pepper as required.

Whilst this is cooking, prepare your polenta or mashed potatoes.

Di-Nana's never fail Banana Cake Recipe

Isabella calls my mother Di-Nana (a mixture of Diana and Nana). This recipe is one of hers that I make over and over and it never fails despite my not very precise measurements.

It is good for cakes or made into muffins. I also add chocolate chips...as if it wasn't unhealthy enough as it was!

Isabella and I made a double recipe this time for John's birthday cake. The key to a good banana cake is old bananas...old brown squashy ones.

I used a smallish round tin and put baking paper up the sides (like in soufflé recipes) to make a really high cake.

The decorations were a compromise between what I wanted and Isabella wanted...I think she 'won' the compromise!

Banana Cake

115 grams of butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 mashed bananas

2 tbs milk

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup flour

1 tsp of baking powder

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg, eggs and bananas and mix.

Heat milk and stir in soda, it will be froth up a little. Mix into butter, banana etc mixture. (At this stage I add chocolate chips...about 1/2 - 1 cup)

Sift in four and baking powder. Mix only until the dry ingredients are combined.

Pour into greased, lined baking tin or individual muffin cases.

Bake at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes or until a fork poked into the middle comes out clean.

Not for eating, but still a recipe...

One of the purposes of this blog is to have a quick reference for recipes the I use regularly but have not committed to memory...and hopefully for others to use to.

This recipe is for homemade laundry detergent that is way less toxic of harmful to the environment that what I usually use from the supermarket.

The recipe came from Wendyl Nissen's most recent book. I'm experimenting with making a variety of household cleaners in an effort to reduce the toxic chemicals we use on a daily basis. The hardest part was finding the 'feel good' soap base. By feel good I mean fair-trade, natural, organic...Dr Bromner's castile soap.

Laundry Detergent

1/2 bar or 60 grams of castile or vege based or sunlight soap, grated (I used sunlight soap since I had brought it ages ago with this in mind)

1.5 litres of water

1/2 cup washing soda (supermarket in washing section)

1/4 cup borax (found at a bulk bin place on dominion Road)

1 litre of hot water

5 litres of hot water

Place soap and first quantity of water in saucepan and heat on low till soap dissolves.

Stir in washing soda and borax. Stir for a few minutes till thickened and remove from heat. (If using castile or vege based soap it won't thicken...but will over night)

Add 1 litre of hot water to a bucket, add soap mixture an stir well.

Add the other 5 litres of hot water and stir well.

When cold add 20 drops of lavender oil.

Pour into bottles.

Use about half a cup per load of washing.

A lower fat option for Duaphinoise Potatoes

I have a real soft spot for the thin layers of potato cooked with butter and cream in Duaphinoise potatoes. As much as I try not to, this dish comes out for large family meals because it is so easy and can be cooked in advance.

While watching some cooking programme (no idea which one) recently the chef made a similar dish with thinly sliced potato, onion and chicken stock. It was cooked covered for about 40 minutes.

Having recently invested in a mandolin(e?) vegetable slicer from The House of Knives on Mt Eden Road (Auckland), it seemed like a good idea to try this one while I already had the oven on.

We had it tonight...not quite as good as the cream version...but a lot better for us.

Braised Chicken with Bacon, Chorizo and Olives - This one is for Patrick!

Patrick (17) has a few things that he really really likes to eat. I managed to find a recipe that contained three of those things...chicken, bacon and chorizo in the latest (July) Cuisine Magazine. It had a very distinctive smoked paprika influence and the olives were great - Yum!

This meal is one of those 'one pot' wonders that should mean minimal effort and dishes, but did have quite a few steps. It will be a make again one.

Braised chicken legs with tomato, chorizo & olives

Ingredients6 free-range whole chicken legs (with thighs), bone in (1.8kg)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika

½ onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, sliced

80g dried chorizo, sliced

5 rashers (60g) bacon, diced

2 large Agria potatoes (700g), peeled, cut into 1.5cm dice

400g can chopped peeled tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste

12cm sprig fresh rosemarygood pinch of dried thyme

100ml red wine

100ml chicken or veal stock

60g Kalamata olives

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the chicken legs in a deep oven dish. Add the oil and paprika and season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss to coat then arrange the legs so they are skin side up and cook, uncovered, in the oven for 20 minutes.

Add the onion, garlic, chorizo and bacon to the dish then return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.

Reduce the oven to 160°C. Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl then add to the chicken, making sure the chicken legs are evenly covered. Cover with foil then cook for 40 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for a further 40 minutes, stirring once so the chicken skin doesn’t become too dark. Remove from the oven, taste and season. Serve with a green salad.

Chilly Chilli

I have only just pulled out my chilli plants. They have grown really well in the green smart planters we have on our deck. Over the summer they produced crop after crop of chillies. I decided to try freezing some and used one last night for the dressing of the tuna, potato, pea and avocado dish I cooked.

I simply put them in a snap lock bag and then straight into the freezer. It was really easy to use. I didn't defrost it and scraping the seeds out was really easy. Ok, it wasn't as juicy as fresh but it worked well for this dish and I imagine it would in any dish where it was to be part of a wet dressing or sauce.

I will be freezing them again next summer!

Banana and Blueberry Muffins - recipe

One of the major reasons for writing this blog is to create an 'online recipe book' to pass on to future generations. My mother has the hand written recipe book my grandmother used, and since I'm not likely to handwrite anything, this has got to be the best option for me and my family!

This recipe isn't spectacular but it is a good dependable one that I use a lot. I got it from someone who made it dairy free - instead of butter there is oil and the milk was substituted with soy milk. It is also on a scrap of fading paper that has been stuck by magnet to our exhaust fan...so I really need to get it written down before I loose it forever.

Isabella (3) loves helping to make these, although the helping is more me finding ways to keep her occupied while I quickly make them...putting muffin cases in pans, mashing banana etc.

I use really old brown bananas (the look like they should have been thrown away), often frozen that way - I struggle to throw out food and bananas don't go in my compost or work farm. The blueberries are usually frozen and just stirred in at the end of the recipe.

I usually make a double recipe and freeze lots of them. They defrost well.

Banana and Blueberry Muffins

2 cups of flour (1 of while, 1 of wholemeal works well)

3/4 cup brown sugar (I love demerara dark brown sugar)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp of baking soda

1-2 bananas (ripe)...I usually use two to get the fruit content up

1/2 cup oil (vege oil)

1/2 - 1 cup milk

Mix flour, b-powder, b- soda and sugar.

Mash banana, add banana and oil into dry ingredients.

Add milk to moisten.

Carefully stir in blueberries.

Bake at 200 degrees c for 15 - 20 minutes.

Disaster and Success! Seared Tuna recipe

We had a guest for dinner last night and despite a carefully planned menu and much preparation nothing was as good as I had hoped. Isn't it always the way when you have guests! Sorry Jacki. Last night's menu started with one of the dishes from our degustation meal at Number 5 - caramelised onion topped with goat cheese on a pastry base, followed by seafood risotto topped with salmon and prawns with fennel salad, then white chocolate creme brûlée. The creme brûlée is one of the desserts I make a lot and ALWAYS works well. Last night I learned that when a recipe says caster sugar it probably can't be substituted with normal sugar! Pictures at bottom...they look better than it tasted.

Tonight however, for a simple family dinner I made a seared tuna dish that I had quickly found on the Cuisine Online website - a picture of my version on the top left of this post. Their dishes sometimes require a few ingredients and a little bit of prep but are usually well worth the little bit of extra effort. I probably should have cooked the tuna a bit less (or followed the recipe more closely!), and new seasons potato and peas would have been better, but apart from that it was really nice.

Seared Tuna, Potatoes, Peas and Avocado

Ingredients

For the peas & potatoes

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons lemon juice, strained

1 large red chilli, deseeded and finely

1 tablespoon lemon zest

salt

freshly ground black pepper

16 baby waxy potatoes, boiled in salted water until tender, then cut in half

1 cup peas, boiled in salted water until tender

2 spring onions, finely sliced

1/2 cup coriander leaves

2 avocados, sliced

For the tuna

800g tuna loin, cut into 4 steaks

2 tablespoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt

freshly ground black pepper Do all your zesting, juicing, slicing and chopping first then cook the potatoes. When the potatoes are cooked, cook your peas and tuna so that your salad and the tuna are ready at the same time. Method For the peas & potatoes In a large bowl, combine 1?4 cup of the olive oil with the lemon juice, chilli, lemon zest and plenty of salt and pepper. Add the hot potatoes and peas, the spring onions and coriander leaves, then mix well. Divide the avocado among 4 plates and then spoon the potato and pea mixture over the top. Add the seared tuna and drizzle each serving with the remaining olive oil.chopped For the tuna Coat the tuna steaks with the lemon zest, olive oil, salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Sear the tuna in a hot pan or on the barbecue, cooking 2 minutes on each side or until cooked to the desired doneness (I prefer my tuna very rare). The cooking time will vary depending on the thickness of the tuna fillet. Slice as desired. Serves 4 as a main.

Benediction Cafe

I discovered Benediction Cafe several years ago and have been there many times. The food is great, the service friendly and it is a good central location.

At the beginning of this year John (husband) got a job on St Benedicts St where it is located so it has become a regular stop for him...actually daily for his coffee fix...he calls it his second office. He seems to know the menu and staff pretty well to so I suspect it is not just for coffee.

We often meet there for a quick lunch in holidays or on the odd occasion when I am working from home. The menu is varied with something for everyone, from the health conscious to

those wanting to indulge.

My lunch today was absolutely on the healthy side! I had the raw energy

salad which was jam packed with fresh crispy lettuce, beetroot, carrot, bean sprouts and wheat with a lemony oil over it. Light, refreshing and guilt free!

Bella on the other hand opted for a lime milkshake and chocolate brownie, and John's iced coffee and scone didn't quite fit the guilt free category!

Baby Celeriac

I have been patiently growing celeriac in the raised vege gardens we put in last Christmas holidays. Many of my crops are a bit of an experiment. I am trying to grow things that are not always easy to find at the supermarket or things we really like. I read yesterday that now is about the right time to harvest them. After pulling the first one up it was pretty evident that one bulb would not feed us as a side dish as the recipe below suggests. In fact I pulled up all of the 10 plants. It almost felt criminal they were so small.

The recipe though was easy to follow and really nice...even thought the portions were VERY small.

Jamie Oliver recipe

Smashed Celeriac

• 1 celeriac, peeled
• olive oil
• 1 handful of fresh thyme, leaves picked
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3–4 tablespoons water or stock

Slice about 1cm/½ inch off the bottom of your celeriac and roll it on to that flat edge, so it's nice and safe to slice. Slice and dice it all up into 1cm/½ inch-ish cubes. Don't get your ruler out – they don't have to be perfect. Put a casserole-type pot on a high heat, add 3 good lugs of olive oil, then add the celeriac, thyme and garlic, with a little seasoning. Stir around to coat and fry quite fast, giving a little colour, for 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to a simmer, add the water or stock, place a lid on top and cook for around 25 minutes, until tender. Season carefully to taste and stir around with a spoon to smash up the celeriac. Some people like to keep it in cubes, some like to mash it, but I think it looks and tastes much better if you smash it, which is somewhere in the middle. You can serve this with just about any meat you can think of.

Spanish Orange and Rosemary Chicken - Recipe

This recipe is a family favourite which I had not made for a while. It comes from Nici Wickes 'World Kitchen' which is one of my regular 'go to' recipe books - of predominantly chicken recipes.

The beauty of this dish for me is that the marinade can quickly be made the night before so it is ready to cook when I get home from work. It is ideal with a salad and cous cous (flavoured with chicken stock and orange juice)

Not the best presentation in the photo...but the taste makes up for it!

Spanish Orange and Rosemary Chicken

8 chicken thighs, boneless and skinless

1 tbspn olive oil

1/2 cup orange juice (freshly squeezed)

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 tsp brown sugar

1 clove crushed garlic (I just use a microplane for this)

1 tbspn finely chopped rosemary

1/2 tsp salt

freshly ground black pepper

Cut slashes into the meat to allow marinade in and put all ingredients in a large shallow dish.

Cover and put in fridge for 30 mins (overnight is great).

Bake in ovenproof dish for 45 minutes at 200 degrees C.

Baste occasionally with marinade.

I served it with cauliflower mash...cooked cauliflower in chicken stock, blended with freshly ground pepper and grated cheese. Bella (3) tried it and loved it!

Sunny Sandringham Market

I noticed a fruit and vege market one day driving to work...along Sandringham Road to the South West Motorway (Auckland). This market I call the Sandringham Market is actually the Wesley Community Centre Market) is on every Tuesday and Friday from 7am - 1pm. It is a great way to buy fresh seasonal fruit and veges both mainstream (similar to the supermarket) and some catering more for the different ethnic groups that live in the area. This is no pristine up market farmers market catering for those wanting beautiful organic fruit and veges, it is more families doing their shopping for good priced basics.

I have learned the hard way to go for the stalls with prices displayed rather than those not displaying them...I think I may have been caught unawares (ripped off) a couple of times at these stalls. I noticed the cost of my veges were a lot more than the next person who spoke to the stall holder in a different language!

Bella and I loved our visit this morning on a crisp but sunny winter's morning. The photo shows her 'twirlling' with delight at the end of our shopping.

Focaccia Bread - My Recipe

When we are going somewhere for a meal or event and I ask "what I can bring?", the answer is usually the same...focaccia bread. I'm not sure I want to have this as my 'signature dish' but I have to admit it is a pretty easy request to fulfill and it always gets gobbled fast.

I make bread at least once a week, often more, and yes, I use a bread maker. The purist in me sometimes thinks I should be kneading it by hand but the realist in me knows I don't have time!

There are a couple of things I have learned through trial and error when making bread (and there have been some pretty major errors/disasters), is to make the dough in the bread maker and then let it rise in a slightly warm oven. The rising needs several hours...bread making needs around 6 hours from start to finish. A long time but minimal effort is needed in this time.

The secret to my focaccia bread is to put a frozen cube of home made pesto (this recipe will come next summer when my basil is growing again) into the bread mixture at the start. Again not authentic Italian Focaccia, but really yummy.

Focaccia Bread

1 1/2 cups of warm water

2 tablespoons of olive oil

4 1/4 cups of bread flour (high grade)

2 tsp of salt

2 tsp of sugar
2 tsp of yeast

1 cube of frozen pesto (or Italian Herb Mix)

Fresh rosemary, thyme and flaky sea salt

Optional: cherry tomatoes or olives

Put wet ingredients in first, followed by dry and pesto.

Set bread maker to 'dough setting'

Once dough is made, spread on oven tray lined with baking paper and sprinkled with flour in a large flat oval shape and leave to rise in a slightly warm oven for a few hours (or over night).

Once it has risen, rub gently with more olive oil, sprinkle with fresh rosemary and thyme and a lot of flaky sea salt. Press cherry tomatoes or olives gently into dough to decorate.

Bake for about 20 minutes at 200 degrees.

The smell in the house when this is cooking is amazing. The fresh herbs make a huge difference.

The biggest challenge is to keep it uneaten if we are taking it somewhere!

Simply Fennel - Recipe

I'm a real fan of simple good quality ingredients and simple recipes...

Last night our Oooby box had fennel in it. While I love it, my attempts at cooking it in the past have made it a vegetable that does not rank in the most popular in our house.

We were recently served a really simple fennel salad when we had dinner at a friend's home...simply marinated in a lemon oil.

I gave it a try (well I made my interpretation of it) last night and it tastes great.

Fennel with Lime Infused Avocado Oil

Fresh Fennel (washed and with any dirty or blemished parts removed)

Lime Infused Avocado Oil

Maldon Sea Salt

Use a vegetable peeler to slice all of the white fleshy part of the fennel.

Dress with oil and add a little salt to taste.

Leave overnight for the flavours to infuse.

(I wondered if a squeeze of fresh lime might add a wee bit of zing to it too)

Simply Fennel - Simply Delicious!

Confort Food on a winter afternoon - recipe

Worthy of a blog post? The family seemed to think so. Tonight's dinner was pretty simple...chicken and vege soup ( a good excuse to use up veges left over from the week in the fridge) and cheese scones. "yours are the only scones I have ever eaten and liked" was the verdict from one discerning diner!

My scone recipe is too simple for words...

Cheese Scones Recipe

2 parts (cups) self rising flour

2 parts (cups) grated cheese

1 part (cup) milk

salt (I use garlic and herb salt)

(I use edam to keep all family members happy but prefer a really tasty cheese...blue cheese would be fantastic)

You could also add...combinations of bacon, red pepper, mushroom, tomato, fresh herbs...

Mix cheese, flour and salt, pour in milk and combine - try to mix only just enough to combine.

Pinch off balls and put on baking tray lined with baking paper and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Bake for about 10 -15 mins (depends on size) at 200 degrees.

Great hot out of the oven with butter melting into them!

Winehot (say it) - don't judge a book by its cover!

Winehot wine bar in Kingsland, Auckland is one of those places that looks nothing from the outside (in fact it is hard to tell if it is even open), but takes your breath away when you walk inside...once your eyes adjust to the candle lit interior. While this blog is predominantly about food, I think the ambience of a venue and the service is really important too! Winehot had both a fantastic ambience and great service. All of the walls were painted black and it was decorated in kind of 'modern french antique' (is that an oxymoron?). I've taken picture of the interior from their website since getting anything on my iphone in such low light would be near impossible.

The wine list was pretty impressive, we did as reviews we

had read suggested and let our very knowledgeable french waiter select the wine for us. We had two bottles of different reds - one french, one Italian. Both very different and both excellent matches to our food. The food is more 'platters to share' than individual meals...although I did notice a pretty impressive looking steak burger at the next table. We had a 'fromage and salami platter' served with a piping hot baguette, a 'white meat and seafood platter' - salmon and shrimp terrine, a pork terrine and a crab pate and

a 'chocolate terrine with coffee sauce'. The cheeses and the chocolate terrine were my favourites

. I have included pictures I took but they really don't do justice to the food.

Overall, I was really impressed and can't wait to take friends there. Hard to believe this little gem has been there for at least 4 years and we have never been before!

Roast Chicken with Chestnut Stuffing - Recipe

A roast chicken is usually a weekend meal since no one gets home early enough to start it cooking in time for our early dinner time. Today I spent the day at home with a sick little person, so had the perfect opportunity to cook a roast chicken and also to use the last of the chestnuts from a previous week's Ooooby box as part of the stuffing.

The original stuffing recipe I used had chicken livers in it - not at all appealing to me, so in my usual fashion I have modified this recipe to suit us.

The stuffing is great, really nutty flavoured. If you like it quite solid and able to be sliced add an egg to the mixture in the food processor.

Chestnut Stuffing Recipe

3 Tbs butter

1 onion , finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

4-6 slices of bread (I used Vogels or sour dough)

200g chestnuts, roughly chopped

1 Tbs fresh thyme

Handful parsley

zest from a lemon

Melt butter and fry onion and garlic till soft without browning.

Bread, chestnuts, parsley, thyme into food processor, pulse until combined and roughly chopped into pieces about the size of lentils. Add the onion and garlic and pulse to combine.

Stuff inside cavity of chicken and roast.

Now that it is recorded within this blog I can finally throw out the screwed up scrap of paper this recipe was on!

The morning after the night before...

After quite a big night last night, Shaky Isles Cafe, Kingsland, Auckland was the only logical place for breakfast this morning. As with so many other cafes, bars and restaurants, Shaky Isles is just a walk up the hill from home.

This morning called for an extremely indulgent 'mocha', a coffee with a whittakers dark chocolate sante bar melting into it. The little people scoffed blueberry pikelets and lime milkshakes, while for

the adults something 'stodgy' was was called for. The breakfast menu is great, some interesting combinations and a build your own breakfast with eggs as a starting point.

Thank you Shaky Isles, it was just what I needed!

Taken by Taiko

You know a meal or experience is really good when all intentions of taking photos are forgotten. Our group of 9 adults and little people went to Taiko Japanese Restaurant in Kingsland, Auckland for a informal get together. Taiko is short walk up the hill from our home and has been the location of many fabulous dinners for family and friends and celebrations ranging from a venue for my staff work Christmas function to a before wedding dinner venue for us.

Our preferred way of dining is to order a heap of different dishes from the menu for a big group and all share them. Last night was one of those nights with everyone from adults, to 3 year olds to the grunting 17 year old big brother all getting a meal to suit them. Ian the owner is

incredibly accommodating, mixing a special 'cocktail' for the little people to make them feel special and important and ensuring the sushi orders of 'salmon and avocado sushi - without skin please' were catered for. I love the noisy busy atmosphere, lots of happy diners talking and and background music that would usually make you cringe fitting in perfectly.

My favourite is always the sashimi, closely followed by the most divine teriyaki chicken. The Ika rings - calamari was a hit with the little people and the Takoyaki - octopus balls topped with waving katsuobushi - shaved dried tuna (yes it actually moves) was a great source of fascination for everyone.

The meal was finished off beautifully with special Japanese ice cream for the little people and 'Umeshu' - plum wine for the adults.

Our out of town visitors are already planning a trip back to go back and do it all again!

The sashimi picture is from another visit...ours was scoffed so fast there was no chance of a picture!