Spiced Chickpea Dip with Roasted Red Peppers

Appetizers and wine with the neighbours, I decided to make this easy but tasty dip, served with toasted naan bread sticks.

Start by dry roasting the spices. Measure the following into a pan:

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric





Cook over a low heat, stirring often, until the spices are fragrant, and start to darken slightly. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Drain a can of chick peas, and rinse well.

Place the chick peas into a food processor or large jug, if you are using a hand blender (which I do).

Add:

2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of olive oil
the roasted spices

Blend the chickpeas, spices, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil until smooth.

Roughly chop one roasted red pepper.

Add half to the chick pea mixture.

Blend to combine. The peppers will still be slightly chunky.

Add the remaining chopped red pepper, as well as 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley. Stir to combine.

Taste and adjust seasoning, with salt and pepper, and more lemon juice if it's needed.






   Brush naan bread with olive oil and cut into strips. Bake at 350F until crispy. Serve with the dip.

• This can also be served with fresh vegetables, or crackers.
• The dip can be made a couple of days ahead, and kept well covered in the fridge.
• Adjust the chili flakes and white pepper according to your taste.
• If you prefer a chunkier dip, puree 2/3 of the chickpeas and fold the rest on whole with the red peppers and parsley at the end.
• Instead of parsley use chopped fresh cilantro to add a bright, fresh taste.
• Use black beans instead of chickpeas, add garlic, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, olive oil, salt and pepper and you have a Mexican style dip. Serve with tortillas or taco chips.
• White beans pureed with olive oil, garlic, chopped fresh rosemary, lemon juice, salt and pepper and you have a Mediterranean style dip.
• Experiment with different herbs and spices, you'll be surprised at what you end up with. Serve with fresh vegetables, bread, crackers, or chips.
• This makes a tasty appetizer, quick and easy snack or lunch or side dish as part of a meal.
• The recipe can easily be doubles, or halved. If you have extra chick peas or beans, they can be frozen for another use.

Herbed Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Warm Peach Chutney

Fresh herbs and fresh peaches, two of the things I always miss when summer ends. Why not put them together in one meal?

I decided to stuff some chicken breasts with herbed goat cheese, and to use the peaches to make a warm chutney, nice and light with just enough sweetness and spice to complement the creamy tartness of the goat cheese.

Dice 1 large fresh peach, that has been peeled and pitted.

Mince 1 shallot and grate 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger.

I threw in a piece of star anise and a cinnamon stick.

 In a small amount of olive oil, cook the shallots until they soften.

Add the ginger and cook for a minute or two to bring out the flavour and aroma.

Add the peaches, spices, about 2 slightly heaped tablespoons of brown sugar and about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.

Cook over a low heat, until the peaches are soft, but still retain some shape, and the liquid is thickened and almost reduced away.

Taste, and season with salt and pepper. At this point you can adjust the sweetness and tartness to your liking by adding more sugar or vinegar.

I found it was perfect like this, but my husband felt a bit less vinegar would have been better.

This will be served warm.

For the goat cheese stuffing, mix together approximately 1 - 2 tablespoons of soft goat cheese with chopped herbs, salt and black pepper.

I used chives, basil and thyme, finely chopping about 1 tablespoon of each.

Using a small sharp knife, make a slit neat the fat end of the chicken breast. Carefully ease the knife into the breast to form a pocket.

Try not to cut through to the top or bottom of the meat.

Using a finger, carefully ease the pocket open so that you can stuff the chicken.

Divide the goat cheese stuffing by the number of chicken breasts you have and carefully push it into the pocket you have formed.

It gets messy!

Close the opening of the pocket with a toothpick. If your stuffing does squeeze through the front or back of the chicken breast, close that up with a toothpick as well.

Season the breasts with salt and pepper.

Cook the chicken breasts on a hot, well oiled grill, until cooked through.

The cheese does tend to ooze out a bit as it gets hot, especially when you are a bit too generous with the amount you put into each breast, as I was!!

Easy fix...transfer the chicken breasts to an ovenproof pan and continue to cook on the grill.
This way you can still use the cheese that oozes out.

 Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes before serving.




I served this with panfried potatoes and corn, and grilled vegetables. I cut the chicken in half before plating.

• Chutney relies on a combination of sweetness, spiciness and acidity. Sweetness can come from the fruit itself as well the addition of a sweetener such as brown sugar, maple syrup or honey. The spiciness is a blend of flavourful spices such as cinnamon, ginger, fennel or anise and hot spices such as chili flakes or cayenne pepper. The acidity often comes from the addition of vinegar, but other acids such as lemon or lime juice, or tamarind paste can be used as well. Start with less of everything, and add more to suit your taste.
• A quick chutney such as this one will keep for a few days in the refrigerator, since it has not been properly canned.
• Store bought chutney will work as a time saver, but nothing beats the freshness of a homemade chutney.
• Stuff your chicken breasts with cream cheese, brie or a soft blue cheese instead of goats cheese.
• Instead of just herbs add other flavours and textures such as finely chopped sundried tomatoes, olives, green onion, roasted or fresh red peppers, cooked mushrooms, roasted garlic or caramelized onions.
• The chicken breasts can be stuffed ahead of time, and kept well wrapped in the refrigerator, or even frozen. Defrost before cooking.
• These chicken breasts can be panfried, or seared in a hot pan and then placed in the oven to finish cooking. This allows you to use the pan to make a sauce or gravy.
• Pork tenderloin can be stuff the same way. Cut it into individual serving sized pieces, then make a cavity starting from one end, making sure not to go the whole way through. Dried apricots, soaked in hot water, then pushed into the cavity give a beautiful sweetness to the pork, and when you slice through the tenderloin, the presentation often sparks quite the conversation!

Mixed Green Salad with Grilled Chicken, Figs and Cambozola

Unfortunately summer is drawing to a close, and the number of evenings to have dinner on the patio are limited. So we took advantage of the beautiful evening and did just that.

I was looking at the last of the fresh figs, a piece of Cambazola cheese, and some baby heirloom tomatoes.

I added some chives from the herb garden, not much longer and they'll be dying down for the winter.

Finely chop the chives, and add the zest of half a lemon, ground black pepper, salt and a heaped teaspoon of Basil Pesto.

A couple of tablespoons of olive oil to bind everything together, and the chicken marinade is ready.

Rub the marinade over the chicken, and leave for 30 minutes.

This gives you time to get all the salad ingredients ready to go.

Lightly toast some chopped pecans, in the oven, or in a pan on the stovetop.

Slice the Cambozola, quarter the figs and halve the tomatoes.

Mixed greens in a large bowl, ready for the dressing.

I made a basic vinaigrette using balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Heat the grill, and cook the chicken.

When it is cooked through, let it rest for 5 minutes while you assemble and plate the salad.






Toss the mixed greens and tomatoes with the vinaigrette and portion onto the plates. Add the figs, some avocado slices, the toasted pecans and finally the sliced Cambozola. Slice the chicken and add to the plates.

Together with a nice bottle of Pinot Gris, some excellent company and a spectacular sunset, what more could I ask for near the end of summer?

• Figs pair well with fennel, lightly crush seeds for the marinade, or use chopped fresh fennel greens. Add thinly sliced fennel bulb to the salad, or grill it alongside the chicken.
• Use peaches instead of figs, another summer fruit that is almost finished for the season.
• Goat cheese would be a nice substitute for the Cambozola. If you are using peaches, halve and pit them and stuff the centre with the cheese, then bake until the cheese melts and the peach is warmed through.
• I used the pesto in the marinade as it was in the fridge. A good substitute would be minced garlic and chopped fresh basil.
• No heirloom tomatoes? This was a novelty purchase...I love the colours, but usually just have grape tomatoes. Larger tomatoes would work well too, just cut them up.
• Pinenuts or even hazelnuts can be used instead of pecans. Figs and hazelnuts are a good pairing.
• I bought a Mission Fig infused balsamic vinegar at a farmer's market, which I used for the vinaigrette. It really emphasized the fresh figs; a plain dark balsamic vinegar will be just as tasty. 
• This was a filling salad, but if you want to add fresh bread, go ahead...

Food for Thought...

Ever wondered what to do with some of the bits and pieces you end up with when cooking or baking?

I am going to give you some ideas of how to use them up, as well as some ways to eliminate waste when cooking.

• Don't throw out the Parmesan rind when you've grated all the cheese from it. Save it, well wrapped, in the fridge and add it to soups, stews, pasta sauces. It adds a lovely richness, and when it melts some of the cheesy goodness is added to your meal. It's also easy to remove when serving, simply scoop it out and discard.
• If you chop the leaves of fresh herbs, keep the stems, unless they're really woody. These can be added to soups, stock or sauces for flavour. You can also put them in the blender with some olive oil and make a flavoured oil to add to a salad dressing.Woody stems from rosemary can be saved and put to use as skewers for barbecuing. 
• Don't peel carrots, the skin contains a lot of nutrients and fibre. Just give them a good wash before using.
• If you boil beets, save the boiling water from the purple beets and use it to stain yellow beets for a funky, impressive canape or salad. Simply boil the yellow beets until cooked, cool and then cut into cubes or slices. Dip half of the yellow beet in the purple beet juice for a few minutes and you will have a bi-coloured piece of beet.
• The end pieces of sweet peppers that are left when you remove the seeds can be diced finely and added to tuna salad, fish cakes, salad or roasted as they are with other vegetables and turned into a hearty roasted vegetable soup.
• Cooked too much rice? Stir fry it with chopped cooked chicken, green onions, ginger and garlic, peas and egg to make a quick chicken fried rice. You can also use it to stuff sweet peppers and bake them...add chopped herbs, onion, cooked meat or cheese.
• If your recipe calls for egg yolks, freeze the egg whites for later. One fluid ounce is equal to 1 egg white. Use them for lemon meringue pie, angel food cake or Italian meringue buttercream. A quick and easy nut meringue served with whipped cream and fresh berries: Whip 4 egg whites to soft peaks. Slowly add 10 tablespoons of white sugar while continuing to whip the egg whites. You will end up with a stiff, glossy meringue. Gently fold in 1 cup of nuts, toasted and finely ground. Spread the meringue out on parchment paper, about 1/2" thick, and bake at 250F for about 30 minutes, until lightly coloured and starting to crisp. Turn off the heat and leave in the oven to cool. it will continue to crisp.
• Instead of wasting grapes that are starting to soften, freeze them. You now have a nice cold snack on a hot day, as well as an edible ice cube for drinks.
• Grate softer cheeses such as mozzarella and store in the freezer. Due to the high moisture content, they tend to grow mould sooner than harder, drier cheeses such as Parmesan.
• Fresh spinach doesn't keep as long as other lettuce in the fridge. After buying it, I use it for salad once, then wilt the rest down, squeeze out the excess moisture and freeze it. Now I have cooked spinach in a small amount when I am making lasagne, stuffing or baked pasta dishes.
• Start a container in the freezer for old bread or bread ends. When it is full, put them in the food processor and turn them into breadcrumbs. Store these in the freezer.
• Old bread can also be used for bread pudding, stuffing, panzanella ( a salad of bread and tomatoes, dressed with garlic, olive oil and fresh herbs), French toast or garlic bread (try using roasted garlic instead of raw garlic).
• Apples that are bruised on one side can still be used. Cut off the bruised bit, then add the rest to tuna salad; make apple sauce; cut into chunks and toss with ground cumin, honey and olive oil and roast to serve alongside pork.

There are plenty of other ideas out there, and I will continue to share them as they come to mind. Happy cooking!

Carrot Cake with Fresh Pineapple and Dark Raisins

There was just under half of a very large fresh pineapple sitting in the fridge, waiting to be eaten or cooked with. I went one better than that, and turned some of it into carrot cake...moist, sweet and bursting with flavour.

Combine the following:

1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1 cup diced fresh pineapple
1 cup dark raisins
1/2 cup apple juice

Leave to soak while you prepare the rest of the cake batter ingredients.

Measure out the dry ingredients:

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon







Heat the oven to 350F, and lightly grease a bundt pan.

In an electric mixer, cream

1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar


Add in 3 eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl down in between additions.

When the eggs are incorporated, add all the dry ingredients to the bowl.

Mix on a low speed until just combined. The mixture will be quite stiff and dry looking.

Add the carrots, pineapple, raisins and apple juice and mix until just incorporated. The batter will now be smooth and creamy, with colourful bits of fruit and carrots.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a wooden skewer comes out clean, about 45 - 50 minutes.





Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes before unmoulding and serving. This is yummy eaten warm or cold, for breakfast, snack or dessert! Enjoy!

• If you don't have fresh pineapple, use canned. Either drain the juice and use in place of all or part of the apple juice, or reserve it for another use.
• Leave the peel on the carrots, just give them a good wash.
• If you want a lighter looking cake, use golden raisins, or chopped dried apricots instead of dark raisins.
• You can leave the raisins out altogether, but the batter is a lot looser and takes longer to bake. You can replace the raisins with extra carrot, or even grated apple.
• Try using a combination of carrot, zucchini and apple.
• This recipe works well baked in a loaf pan, or in a cake pan (round or square), or as cupcakes and can be iced with cream cheese icing. We prefer it without icing, as it is very moist on it's own.
• If you are a white chocolate lover, make this white chocolate cream cheese icing:

      WHITE CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE ICING:

9 OZ WHITE CHOCOLATE, MELTED AND COOLED

12 OZ CREAM CHEESE, ROOM TEMPERATURE

6 OZ BUTTER, ROOM TEMPERATURE

1 1/2 TABLESPOONS LEMON JUICE

• WITH THE PADDLE ATTACHMENT, BEAT THE CREAM CHEESE UNTIL SMOOTH.
• GRADUALLY BEAT IN THE COOLED CHOCOLATE.
• BEAT IN THE BUTTER, AND THEN THE LEMON JUICE.

  

•  The carrot carrot cake freezes well.

Chicken Breasts with Rosemary, Lemon and Garlic

Other than the chicken breasts from the freezer, and the lemon, this wasn't really a case of using things up, but trying something different with things I had. Which will be an inspiration for another time, when I have something that needs to be used.

Peel and at least one large garlic clove per breast, and cut into slices.

Cut 2 lemon slices per breasts, and cut in half.

Lightly crush some fresh rosemary leaves.

Sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper, and drizzle with olive oil.




Leave for about 2 hours, allowing the flavours to infuse the oil.

Using a sharp knife, cut a pocket into the side of each breast, making sure not to cut the whole way through.

Stuff the pocket you have made with garlic, lemon slices and fresh rosemary.

Close the pocket and using the infused oil, lightly rub the outside of the chicken breasts with oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the breasts on a hot grill, turning halfway through, until cooked through.




 

Remove and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

I accompanied the chicken with grilled potatoes and asparagus. The lemon juice kept the meat moist, and the garlic and rosemary imparted beautiful flavour and aroma.

• You can remove the lemon, garlic and rosemary from inside the breasts before serving, or allow the guests to do so themselves.
• Cut some extra lemons in half and grill them alongside the chicken. They will caramelize nicely, and the juice can be squeezed over the cooked chicken, or used as a salad dressing.
• If you have woody rosemary stems, try using them as skewers for chunks of chicken.
• The pocket in the chicken breasts can be stuffed with 'edibles' as well...roasted red peppers and spinach; asparagus; cheese (not too much or it will melt and drip all over the BBQ); pesto; ham,prosciutto or cooked chorizo.
• Lightly crushing the herbs releases the aromatic oils and helps to flavour the chicken.
• To make a quick infused oil, heat the olive oil with herbs, spices or garlic and then allow to cook completely before straining. This adds a lot of flavour to the oil, which can be used for marinades, cooking or salad dressings.
• If you have limes instead of lemons, try using lemongrass, ginger and garlic, cilantro and hot chilies to stuff the chicken breasts.
• Orange slices will give a sweeter taste, combine this with thyme, fennel seeds, and black pepper.
• If you have fresh rhubarb in your garden, make a warm chutney to serve alongside the chicken, or use a store bought chutney, warmed slightly.

       
     WARM RHUBARB CHUTNEY

3/4 CUP BROWN SUGAR

1/3 CUP CIDER VINEGAR

2 TABLESPOONS WATER

1 TABLESPOONS FRESH GINGER, MINCED

1 1/2 TEASPOONS LEMON ZEST

1 CINNAMON STICK

2 CUPS FRESH RHUBARB, CUT INTO 1/2" PIECES

1/2 CUP CURRANTS

• BRING FIRST 6 INGREDIENTS TO A BOIL, STIRRING UNTIL SUGAR DISSOLVES.
• REDUCE HEAT, AND SIMMER 5 MINUTES.
• ADD RHUBARB AND CURRANTS, AND SIMMER UNTIL RHUBARB IS TENDER.

Chicken a la King

If you want to talk about comfort food and childhood food memories (the good ones), this would be it for me. Chicken, onions, mushrooms and peas in a creamy sauce served over rice...and very easy to make.

I had mushrooms and open chicken stock in the fridge, and some chicken tenders in the freezer to use up last night. This was what I made, and we all enjoyed it...none left for lunch today!

Start by cooking sliced mushrooms in a bit of olive oil. I used 4, as they were quite large.

Season with salt and pepper while cooking.

Remove from the pan and set aside.

Next up, the chicken. Cut the meat into cubes, about 1" in size. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat the mushroom pan and add some olive oil. Brown the chicken, removing when half cooked, to be added back into the sauce at a later stage.

Now for the sauce. Heat the same pan, it has all the mushroom and chicken flavour in it...

Melt about 2 tablespoons of butter with 1 teaspoon of olive oil.

Cook 1 medium onion, diced until starting to colour slightly. Season with salt and pepper while cooking.

When the onions are lightly coloured, and softened, add the flour. You will need enough flour to soak up the fat and lightly coat the onions, approximately 3 - 4 tablespoons.

Stir well, to prevent the flour from sticking to the pan and burning, for a couple of minutes.

 Add in the chicken stock, and whisk well until it starts to boil.

I had about 2 1/2 cups of stock. I usually add the stock a bit at a time, judging the thickness of the sauce when it boils, and then adjusting it by adding more stock if it is too thick.






Allow the sauce to simmer while you cook the rice.

 When the rice is halfway through cooking, add the chicken and mushrooms back to the sauce to finish cooking.

When the rice is done, add about 1 cup of  defrosted peas to the sauce to heat through.

Taste and adjust the seasoning one last time.







Serve the sauce over the hot rice, making sure everyone gets their fair share of chicken, mushrooms and peas, and of course the yummy sauce.

• When I buy chicken breasts I always buy them with tenders still attached. If you remove the tenders and freeze them, you eventually have enough for a meal, as we did tonight.
• Chicken tenders are perfect for chicken fingers or skewering and grilling, as they don't need any cutting.
• If you are using up an open chicken stock as I was, and find you don't have enough liquid for the sauce consistency that you want, use milk or water instead of opening another stock.
• As you are seasoning each step of the way, the sauce should we well seasoned, but always taste and adjust before serving. There's nothing worse than a bland sauce.
• Turn this into chicken pot pie, by adding chopped carrots into the sauce, and adding less liquid to achieve a thicker sauce. Place into an ovenproof dish and cover with rolled out pastry...you can purchase pre-rolled puff pastry at some stores, or you can use the pastry recipe in the post Goat Cheese Tart with Grape Tomatoes and Fresh Basil.
• I like to buy whole chickens on sale and roast 2 at a time, pick the meat off and freeze in small portions. These are perfect for lunch wraps or sandwhiches, but also work well for this recipe. Dice the cooked meat and add to the recipe at the end with the mushrooms. This allows you to skip a step if you are short on time.
• Leftover turkey (or chicken) from Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner can be used up the same way.
• Using the same pan for all the layers of cooking helps add  flavour and depth to the sauce.
• We like this over rice, but if you have leftover pasta, use that instead. It's even good served on toast!