Chicken Chilli

I've got my new slow cooker and now get to try some of the recipes I've been pinning to Pintrest. This one was for turkey chilli but I used chicken mince.
It was easy and nice but I want to play with getting more flavour into it next time.

My new slow cooker has the ability to sear the meat or fry the onions first - which I did. It was fantastic being able to do it all in the slow cooker rathe than making more dishes.

The recipe originally came from a site called Hazel Street Eats via Food Gawker

We had it with corn chips, sour cream and grated cheese.

I served the portion for our little person before adding the chilli with worked well...despite her being adamant that she wanted hers 'spicy'.


Slow-Cooked Turkey Chili adapted from Global Dish
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed
1 can cannelini beans, rinsed
1 medium white onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 cup firmly packed fresh baby spinach
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste
Sour cream, salsa, chopped green onions, and shredded cheese of your choice, to serve (optional)

Instructions:
1. Cook the ground turkey in a medium frying pan until browned and cooked through; transfer to the slow cooker.

2. Combine the next 10 ingredients (tomato paste through vinegar) with the turkey in the slow cooker, cover, and cook on low for 8 hours. When done, stir the chili, add salt and pepper if necessary, and spoon into serving bowls. Top with sour cream, salsa, green onions, and cheese.

A yummy easy to make soup is a great meal on a cold night. It isn't really easy to distinguish what exactly is in it. I love anything with cannellini beans in it but they weren't obvious in this soup once they were blended in with everything else.












Roasted Asparagus and White Bean Soup 
Serves 4-5, adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 bunch asparagus, about 1 1/2 lb, ends removed
• 2 leeks, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 baking potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 head cauliflower, chopped
• 1 cup dried white beans, soaked overnight and boiled until tender
• 6 cups vegetable broth, water, or bean cooking liquid (or any combination of the three)
• 2 oz grated parmesan cheese
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450.  Arrange asparagus on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Roast for 10-15 minutes or until tender.  Set aside.
2. In the meantime, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat.  Add the leeks and saute until tender, 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add in the garlic and rosemary and cook for 1 minute, or until fragrant.  
3. Stir the potatoes, cauliflower, cooked white beans and vegetable broth in to the pot.  Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil, then lower it to a simmer, just so that the mixture remains bubbling even when partially covered.  Let simmer for 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through.
4. Puree soup with an immersion blender.  Stir in the parmesan cheese.
5. Chop the asparagus and add it to the soup.  
6. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

I saw this recipe in my latest Cuisine magazine. The recipe used apples but since we have feijoas dropping to the ground literally every few minutes I decided to give it a go replacing apples with feijoas.
Mine didn't get serves with creme Anglaise as suggested but I did add some brandy to custard to pour over it so it was almost there.

These little desserts were great. I made them in a silicone jumbo muffin pan. The recipe easily did 6 and probably could have down 7 because I over filled them.
I think they would probably freeze well too.

Ginger and Apple Puddings

For the puddings
2 large apples, peeled, cored, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon mixed spice
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
120g butter
4 tablespoons golden syrup
3⁄4 cup brown sugar
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons baking soda
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Liberally butter 6 ovenproof ramekins or cups and half-fill each with apple slices. Reserve.
Put the mixed spice, ginger, cinnamon, flour and baking powder in a bowl. Mix well then set aside.
Put the butter, golden syrup, sugar and milk in a saucepan. Place over low to moderate heat until just about boiling, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Stir in the baking soda – it will foam up, but this is as it should be.
Add the baking soda mixture to the dry ingredients and mix well. Spoon this mixture over the apple slices in the ramekins, filling each ramekin almost to the top.
Place the ramekins on a baking tray then bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the puddings comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and stand for a few minutes before running a small knife around the sides of each pudding to unmould. Turn out on to plates and serve with the creme Anglaise.

Calvados creme Anglaise
300ml full-cream milk
100ml cream
3 tablespoons caster sugar
5 egg yolks
4 tablespoons Calvados (or whisky, brandy or rum)*

Put the milk, cream and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Meanwhile, put the egg yolks in a heat-resistant bowl and beat lightly.

Pour a little of the hot milk mixture on to the egg yolks, whisking continuously to combine, then slowly pour in the remainder of the mixture, stirring continuously.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir continuously until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Strain and allow to cool. Stir in the Calvados then refrigerate until ready to serve.

* Calvados is a French apple brandy.

Cheese and Bacon Puffs

I saw this on the Good Morning Show website. The comment about getting your oven on fast because they are so quick to make really appealed to me!
Of course anything with cheese and bacon is usually pretty good too.
To make it really fast I used my mini blender to grate the cheese. The mixture really was ready before the oven had time to heat up!

The are really just little scones and would make a great snack or addition to a soup meal.
Mine were a little bit. The teaspoon measures need to be quite small.

These delicious little morsels disappeared VERY fast!

June 2012 - I made these again for a function. I sliced them in the middle and added to some a pesto and cream cheese mixture and to the others cream cheese and capsicum. They disappeared quickly and I had lots of very good feedback!

Cheese and Bacon Puffs

Makes about 24

Ingredients 1 cup flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 and 1/2  cups grated cheese (tasty is best)
1/2 cup chopped bacon
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk

Method Get your oven to 200C first.
This is so fast that it'll barely have time to pre-heat.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg till it goes frothy.
Tip the egg, milk and cheese into the flour and mix well.
Chuck teaspoon sized balls of the mixture on a lined tray

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.

Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken

Another slow cooker recipe. This was an interesting one and I made lots of changes to the original recipe.
The quantities and times were just not right. Maybe it was a difference in slow cooker between countries?

I've made the changes and additions to the recipe below but if you want to check out the original go to the blog 'Cooking Classy'.

I did really enjoy it though. A good addition to my slow cooker repertoire. This will be one I make prepare the night before, turn on when I go to work, then thicken and finish off when I get home.

I tasted the sauce before thickening it and added more vinegar and some salt. I didn't use the tabasco because I had a little person eating the meal but would have love to.

While I always make sure our meals have a good proportion of vegetable, I'm on a bit of a mission at the moment to add even more. My thinking is that if the vegetables are part of the 'meat' part of the meal, them not only bulk it out but are virtually unnoticed.
You could also add broccoli, celery and carrots to this dish get more colour and a greater variety of vegetables in it.

I think I'll experiment next time and use the pineapple juice and try to reduce the amount of sugar in the dish.

The recipe made quite a lot. I served it with rice and vegetables and still had the other half to freeze for another meal.

Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Chicken
Ingredients:
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into chunks
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup white vinegar (you may need to add more later. I did, but I like a strong vinegar hit)
3 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp tomato paste
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1 tsp of finely grated ginger (or 1/4 tsp of ginger powder)
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 - 1 tsp tabasco sauce (optional)

1/3 cup chicken stock
2 tbs cornstarch
1 tin diced pineapple (you could use the juice but it is quite sweet already)
1 onion, cut into chunks
2 capsicums cut into chunks (I used a red and green for difference in taste and colour)
1/2 cup cashew nuts

Directions:
Place diced chicken in a slow cooker.  In a mixing bowl combine, 1/2 cup chicken broth, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, tomato paste, garlic powder, ginger, pepper and optional hot sauce.  Whisk until well blended.  Pour mixture over chicken in slow cooker, press chicken into sauce to cover.  Cover slow cooker with lid and cook chicken on low heat for 4-5 hours. 

This is a good time to check a piece of chicken is cooked and to adjust the flavour...vinegar, tabasco, salt.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together 1/3 cup chicken broth and cornflour.  Whisk until well blended then gently fold cornstarch mixture into chicken mixture (chicken will be very tender that's why I say "fold").  Fold in diced pineapple, cashews onion and bell pepper.  Cover slow cooker with lid and cook mixture on low for an additional hour until sauce thickens and fruit/veggies are slightly tender.  Serve warm with white or brown rice.

Feijoa and Apple Muffins

Yes, another feijoa recipe! I have to use them up! I can't possibly waste them!

This recipe took quite a few and while meant for a cake made amazingly soft fluffy muffins.
I couldn't stop eating them.

What I really liked was that is was pretty much all made in the food processor.

feijoa & apple cake

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups raw sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil (not olive)
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ cups sliced feijoas
• 1 ½ cups sliced cooked apple (tinned is fine)
• 1 tsp ground ginger
•  ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

Method

1. Set oven to 180ºC. Grease or spray a 25cm tin or 12 deep muffin tins.
2. Break eggs into processor bowl then add sugar. Pulse for a few seconds and leave sitting while you assemble other ingredients.
3. Sift white flour, baking soda, ginger and salt together then gently stir in wholemeal flour. Set aside
4. Add lemon zest to chopped and measured feijoa and apple flesh.
5. Process the sugar and egg combo for a further couple of minutes. With the motor, running dribble the oil very slowly down the feed tube.
6. Process for another couple of minutes, remove lid and add half the dry ingredients, pulse, add the remainder and pulse again.
7. Add the fruit to the mixture and pulse briefly until just combined.
8. Spoon mixture into prepared tins and bake small versions for about 25 minutes or about an hour for the large cake.

Chicken Shepherd's Pie

Hard to believe but I have never made Shepherds' pie, possibly because I have a potato topped chicken pie that I make that is really good. I'm obviously in comfort food mode as it started to get a bit colder so recipes like this one are really appealing.
This pie was fantastically good and even better the next night when we had the second half.

I made this (or at least a variation of the recipe) with just a plain potato top.
I pretty much doubled the first part of the mix but not the chicken and made loads of mashed potato for the top. It did make it heavy on potato but no one seemed to mind.

The version I made produced two reasonable sized trays. This meant I could give one to a friend who has been helping us out a lot at the moment - although John suggested just keeping it for us after a few mouthfuls of his dinner!
I used disposable aluminium trays which is a bit lazy but I have a few floating around from the BBQ season.

The recipe came from the website Simply Delicious

Shepherd's Pie

1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 celery sticks, finely sliced
1kg Chicken Mince
1 tin cherry tomatoes or chopped tomatoes
1tbsn tomato paste
2 bay leaves
salt & pepper to taste
handful fresh parsley, chopped

200g (7.05 ounces) potatoes, peeled and roughly quartered
300g (10.58 ounces) sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks
300g (10.58 ounces) butternut, peeled and chopped into chunks

2tbsn butter
1 cup warmed milk
1 cup mature cheddar, grated
1/2tsp nutmeg, grated
salt & pepper to taste

• Fill a large pot with water and place on high heat. Add the potatoes, sweet potato and butternut.
• In a large saucepan, fry the onions, garlic and celery until soft and translucent.
• Add the chicken and fry until the meat starts to brown.
• Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, bay leaves and 1/2 cup water and turn down the heat. Cover and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.
• When the vegetables are soft, drain and mash with the butter and milk. (I used my handheld mixer which worked incredibly well to get rid of all the lumps and only took a minute)
• Add the cheese and seasoning and mix through.
• Spoon the chicken mixture into an oven-proof dish and top with the mashed vegetables. I like to take a fork and make patterns on the mash but you can just dollop it on if you don’t feel too creative.
• Place in a pre-heated (200°c) oven and cook for 10-15 minutes until the vegetable layer is slightly browned.
• Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.