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09 August 2009

Crumbed Chicken Strips

Growing up, crumbed chicken and chips was my favourite meal. It was what I requested every birthday until we became conscious of cooking with too much oil and butter. Mum also used to deep fry the chips - something I have only ever done once as a very special treat (because unfortunately the deep frying does make them taste better).

Now that I am older, we occasionally still have crumbed chicken (minus the deep fried chips) cooked in oil and butter (though, more often it is actually oven baked) and I love to serve it with homemade mayonnaise and avocado.

For the party I decided we could treat ourselves and have crumbed chicken strips, golden fried in oil and butter and served with aioli as a dipping sauce. And they were delicious. We just pre-crumbed the chicken (thanks Renee!) and fried it in batches just before serving (thanks Mum!). Easy!

Ingredients
2kg chicken breasts cut into thin strips
5 eggs lightly beaten
4 cups breadcrumbs
3 cups flour
Oil and butter for frying

Method
Coat each chicken strip in flour, then in the egg and finally in the breadcrumbs. Refrigerate to set coating. Heat butter and oil in a fry pan and fry until golden. Serve with aioli.

Mini Chicken Pies

For this dish, I just made up a batch of the mixture for Mum's Chicken Pie (see post from 21 February 2009) but instead of making a big pie, I bought mini foil pie dishes and made about 36 smaller pies instead. The mini pie dishes I found at my local 'Discount Variety' store which I find has many useful items such as this.

They worked beautifully and were the fastest dish to go!

Roasted Beef on Potato with Salsa Verde

I was really excited when this canape popped into my head while I was trying to sleep. And they seemed to be a bit hit with our guests.

Again, they could be prepared in advance and then assembled just before serving. Initially I was going to re-heat the potato before serving, but then I decided that it was unnecessary.

These are very easy and effective.

Ingredients (makes 60)
10-12 large potatoes, each cut into 6 rounds
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
750g beef fillet cooked to medium and cut into 60 chunks
Salsa verde (see post from 12 April 2009)

Method
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place potatoes, olive oil and salt and pepper in a bowl and mix to combine. Place potato rounds on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cook for about 30-40 minutes or until cooked through and crispy.

To serve, place a piece of beef on each potato round and drizzle with salsa verde.

Open Beef and Chorizo Pies

I made about 70 of these pies, and still had some of the mince mixture left over, so my quantities may be a bit off here. If you try to make these, you may therefore need to make a little less of the mixture. Or else, just pop the left over in the freezer like I did.

Otherwise, these were delicious and most seemed to be snapped up by our guests.

Ingredients

8 sheets shortcrust pastry
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 brown onions finely chopped
3 cloves garlic crushed
3 chorizo sausages finely chopped
1kg beef mince
3 tins of crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup chicken stock
Dash Worcheshire sauce
2 teaspoons hot paprika
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
Salt and pepper

Method

To make the pastry cases, preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Use a round pastry cutter to cut rounds from the pastry. Line mini cupcake tins with the pastry. Stuff pastry with scrunched up baking paper to ensure it keeps its shape. Bake in the oven until just golden (about 10 minutes). Remove baking paper and brush the inside of each case with egg. Bake for another 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool.

For the filling, heat the olive oil in a large fry pan. Fry the onion and garlic until soft. Add the chorizo and fry until crisp. Add the mince and brown, breaking up any lumps. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, Worcheshire sauce, paprika, basil and oregano. Simmer for approximately 40 minutes or until most liquid has evaporated.

Fill pastry cases with mince mixture just before serving. Re-heat mince mixture if necessary.

Mini Roasted Tomato and Bocconcini Salads

As with the Mini Caesar Salads, I would normally serve these in bread cases that have been baked with garlic and butter, but again, the bread cases just did not work for me here.

Again, you can pre-prepare all the ingredients and then fill them just before serving.

Ingredients (makes 18)
2 sheets shortcrust pastry
1 egg lightly beaten
18 cherry tomatoes
Olive oil to drizzle
Salt and pepper
18 mini bocconcini
Pesto (see post from 15 March 2009)

Method
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Use a round pastry cutter to cut rounds from the pastry. Line mini cupcake tins with the pastry. Stuff pastry with scrunched up baking paper to ensure it keeps its shape. Bake in the oven until just golden (about 10 minutes). Remove baking paper and brush the inside of each case with egg. Bake for another 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile, place the tomatoes in a roasting dish, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper and roast for 20-30 minutes or until soft.

To serve, fill pastry cases with one roasted tomato, one mini bocconcini and drizzle with pesto.

Mini Caesar Salads

I have made these salads on a few occasions prior to the party. Normally for the cases I use white bread that has been rolled very thin and flat and buttered with garlic butter, but some reason when I was making these this time, the bread just would not work. So I decided to use shortcrust pastry that I had purchased instead. It saved a lot of time.

For the aioli, see my post from 22 February 2009 for Mayonnaise and add one clove garlic. I like to use aioli instead of traditional caesar dressing, only because I like the taste better.

These are very easy to make - I recommend them for entertaining. Just pre-prepare the cases and filling in advance and then fill just before serving.

I used mini cupcake tins, but you can always use standard size cupcake tins.

Ingredients (makes 18)

2 sheets shortcrust pastry
1 egg lightly beaten
3 slices prosciutto
Cos lettuce shredded
A few handfuls grated parmesan cheese
Aioli

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Use a round pastry cutter to cut rounds from the pastry. Line mini cupcake tins with the pastry. Stuff pastry with scrunched up baking paper to ensure it keeps its shape. Bake in the oven until just golden (about 10 minutes). Remove baking paper and brush the inside of each case with egg. Bake for another 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Bake the prosciutto until crisp and break into shards.

Just before serving fill the pastry cases with lettuce, prosciutto and parmesan and top with aioli.

Pine Nut and Ricotta Ravioli with Roasted Tomato Sauce


So a few weekends ago I felt inspired to make fresh ravioli. Scott was coming over for dinner and I knew he would appreciate fresh pasta.

Believe it or not it was a lot quicker and easier than you might think. And so, so satisfying.

See my post from 8 March 2009 for how to make the fresh pasta.

Ingredients (serves 3)

3 eggs
1 3/4 cups plain flour ('00' strong flour is best - this is now available from the supermarket)
1 1/2 cups fresh ricotta
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup fresh basil finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 - 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
6 tomatoes halved
6 cloves garlic peeled but left whole
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
Olive oil to drizzle
Salt and pepper
Dash red wine vinegar
Freshly chopped basil (extra) to serve
Parmesan cheese to serve

Method

For the fresh pasta, please see my post from 8 March 2009 for Roasted Red Onion and Garlic Ravioli.

To make the filling, combine all ingredients (except the breadcrumbs) in a bowl and mix to combine. Add breadcrumbs until a creamy, but not to soft, consistency is reached.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the tomatoes, garlic, dried basil and oregano and olive oil in a roasting dish and roast tomatoes for 40-50 minutes until soft. Process tomato mixture in the food processor. Just before serving, heat tomato mixture in a saucepan and season with salt and pepper and a dash of red wine vinegar. Stir through extra basil.

Cook ravioli and serve topped with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese.

Jacket Potatoes with Danish Feta, Bacon and Garlic Chives


As a child I just loved potatoes baked in their skins. Mum would always bake them so that they were crunchy on the outside and then pop a bit of salt and butter in the middle making them delicious and creamy on the inside - simple but so wonderfully comforting.

After I moved out of home I made baked potatoes very rarely - in fact until recently the only time I can remember baking a potato in its jacket was when I had my tonsils out and felt like something very plain but homely (unfortunately I could only manage a few bites). But lately potatoes baked in their skins have made a come back with me. Naturally, I normally cannot go past just the simple butter, salt and pepper filling of my childhood (though Mark prefers chives, bacon and sour cream), but on occasion I have tried something different - resulting in this combination which I really loved.

Ingredients (serves 2)
2 medium - large potatoes in their skins, scrubbed clean and pricked with a knife (or a few smaller potatoes as I have used in the photo)
Olive oil for frying bacon
2 rashes bacon finely chopped
Butter
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons Danish feta crumbled
2 tablespoons garlic chives finely chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the potatoes directly onto the oven rack and bake for at least an hour (you can also pre-cook the potatoes in the microwave and bake for less time).

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and fry the bacon until crisp. Drain on absorbent paper.

Once potatoes are cooked, cut a cross in the top of each and fill with a small knob of butter, salt and pepper, bacon, feta and chives.