Chicken Stew with Black Limes

My quest to discover and use new herbs and spices has led me to investigate ingredients that I have not used before and which you don't commonly hear about. Black limes are one of these ingredients.

Black limes are whole sun-dried limes. Inside the hard outer layer is a black, sticky pith with a pungent, citrus aroma. My spice bible (Spice Notes and Recipes by Ian Hemphill) informs me that black limes go well with fish and chicken and can be added whole to casseroles and stews (with a few holes punched through them with a skewer). They can also be pulverised and mixed with pepper to sprinkle on chicken and fish.

I was intrigued to use them, so I have created this chicken stew.

Normally a stew like this would go well with couscous. However, Mark has decided that he hates couscous and never wants to eat it again. So, needless to say, I have not served this dish with couscous. I've chosen healthy and nutty brown rice.

I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon allspice

1 tablespoon turmeric

1/8 teaspoon hot paprika

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup plain flour

500g boneless chicken pieces cut into 4-5cm pieces

2 medium white onions diced

2 cloves garlic crushed

1/2 cup white wine

1 cup chicken stock

2 black limes each pierced 4-5 times with a skewer

1 tablespoon fresh dill chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Place the spices in a mortar and pestle and grind to combine.

Place the flour, 2 teaspoons of the spice mixture and the chicken pieces in a plastic bag. Toss to combine. Heat half the oil in a pan. Shake excess flour off the chicken and brown in the oil in batches. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside.

Add extra oil and onion and garlic to the pan. Fry for a few minutes until soft. Add remaining spice mix and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add white wine, chicken stock and black limes.

Place chicken in a casserole dish. Pour over onion, spice and wine mixture. Cover with a lid and cook in the oven for one hour. Serve sprinkled with fresh dill.

Hearty Bacon and Vegetable Soup

Now that the weather is becoming cooler, I am starting to think about making soups. Because of the recent rain, I decided this weekend to make one of my favourites - a hearty soup with bacon and vegetables. I love to make a large batch of this soup and take it to work for lunch. I feel so healthy and satisfied when I eat it.

To add extra flavour, I have added parmesan rind which I remove at the end of the cooking process. When you have a piece of parmesan cheese, it is handy to freeze the hard, translucent rind and use it to flavour dishes such as soup or risotto.

I use a very large pot for this recipe, but you can really make as much or as little as you like. I normally fill the pot until about halfway with vegetables and then top with water until full. The quantities are fairly loose - add more or less of anything you like.

I like to serve this soup with a sprinkling of parmesan and buttered sourdough bread.

Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

4 rashes bacon rind and fat removed and cut into 1cm pieces

1 large brown onion diced

2-3 cloves garlic crushed

2 carrots peeled and diced

4 stalks celery diced

1 tin red kidney beans drained and rinsed

1 tin crushed tomatoes

1 tin tomato puree

6-10 cups water

3-5 teaspoons chicken stock powder (alternatively, use liquid chicken stock to replace some or all of the water)

1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried basil

3 bay leaves

Parmesan rind

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Salt and pepper to taste

150g baby spinach leaves washed and dried

Sourdough and grated parmesan cheese

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add bacon and fry until just crisp. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook until soft. Add tomatoes and tomato puree. Half fill the tomato and puree tins with water, swirl around and pour water into saucepan (so you retrieve ever bit of tomato flavour and add it to the soup). Add kidney beans. Stir to combine ingredients.

Add water, chicken stock, basil, oregano, bay leaves, rind and tomato paste. Heat over low heat. As the soup heats, any fat will rise to the top and form a foam on the top of the soup. Use a large spoon to skim the foam off the top.

When the soup boils, turn the heat right down and simmer for an hour or so or until the vegetables are soft. If the soup becomes too thick, add some extra water and also extra chicken stock powder if desired. Once the soup is cooked, but while still warm, add the spinach leaves and stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with sourdough and parmesan cheese.

Poached Chicken Salad with Roast Beetroot and Tomato

So Mark came home a few days ago and informed me that he had had the best salad ever for lunch that day at a cafe in Pyrmont. Of course I wanted to re-create this meal for him (I was probably a little jealous he was so excited about the cooking of someone else!).
But I had been thinking about creating a roast beetroot salad, so this came as very good timing really.

The version that Mark had in Pyrmont contained goats cheese. I'm not a huge fan of goats cheese, but I love danish feta, so I have used feta in mine (I already had this in the fridge anyway) and goats cheese in Mark's.

This salad is not really something you whip up on a weeknight because I have actually cooked the tomatoes and beetroot for quite a long time, but it is well worth it for a lovely weekend meal.
See my post from 22 February 2009 for my homemade mayonnaise recipe. For the mayonnaise dressing used here, I added about a tablespoon olive oil, and extra white wine vinegar, as well as a bunch of chives. I also let it sit for half an hour or so in order for the flavour of the chives to penetrate the mayonnaise.

I don't have a decent photo of this one, but will put one up next time I make it.

Very happily for me, Mark said this was just as nice as the one he had at Pyrmont.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts trimmed
1 quantity mayonnaise (see post from 22 February 2009, add extra white wine vinegar, olive oil and one bunch of chopped chives)
1 bunch baby beetroot (about 4 bulbs)
3 tomatoes
1 teaspoon sumac
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon pine nuts
1/2 bunch endive leaves separated, washed and chopped in half
1/2 lebanese cucumber sliced
1/2 red onion thinly sliced
1 avocado diced
Goat's cheese or danish feta, as much or as little as you want, crumbled

Method

Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. Season with freshly ground pepper. Place the chicken in the boiling water and place the lid on the saucepan. Simmer for 5 minutes, then take off the heat and set aside to cook through.

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. Cut the tomatoes in half. Place in a baking tray, season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with sumac and drizzle with olive oil. Clean and trim beetroot. Drizzle with oil, wrap in foil and place in the baking tray with the tomatoes. Roast for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, unwrap the beetroot and bake uncovered for another 30 minutes.

While the tomatoes and beetroot are cooking, place the pine nuts in a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.

Place endive, cucumber, red onion, avocado and cheese in serving bowls. Slice the chicken and place on top. Cut the beetroot into quarters and add to the salad with the tomatoes and pine nuts. Drizzle with mayonnaise and serve immediately.

Delicious Beef Casserole

When I was young mum used to make delicious beef casserole that I loved. Since I became obsessed with my spice collection, I have been wanting to create casserole that I would love just as much. So last night, I perused my herb and spice collection, decided what flavours I would use, and set about trying to re-create those delicious flavours from my childhood. I have no idea if this is similar to the ingredients Mum used, but it was wonderful anyway.

Slow cook recipes are fantastic, I made this one last night, ready for an easy Monday night meal after what I knew would be a long and stressful day. And all the ingredients I have used in this recipe are fairly standard, pantry items (except perhaps for the anchovies)...or perhaps they are just standard for me? Regardless, I really enjoyed this meal and it was quite easy to prepare, just brown the meat, add the other ingredients and then leave it on the stove for a few hours.

I have use rump steak because the supermarket did not have much of a range. You could also use any cheaper cut of beef.

Don't be scared of the garlic. It becomes incredibly sweet and soft after being cooked for so long and loses its pungency.

Ingredients

600g rump steak trimmed of fat and cut into 5cm pieces

1/4 cup plain flour

Freshly ground black pepper

3-4 tablespoons olive oil (you may need a little extra if the pan becomes dry)

2 white onions roughly chopped

1 head garlic individual cloves peeled

45g tin anchovies

2 tablespoons worcheshire sauce

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 dried bay leaves

1 tablespoon dried basil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 cup water

2 teaspoons powdered chicken stock (I used chicken stock because that is what I had, you could use beef stock also)

1/4 cup fresh parsley roughly chopped

Zest of one lemon

Method

Combine the beef, flour and pepper in a plastic bag and shake to combine. Heat a portion of the oil in a medium saucepan and brown the beef on each side. You'll need to brown the beef in batches to avoid crowding the pan. Remove the beef from the pan and set aside. Add extra oil as needed.

Heat remaining oil and add onion, garlic and anchovies. I used kitchen scissors to chop the anchovies while still in the tin and added them straight from the tin, along with the oil they were preserved in. You'll notice the anchovies will melt into the oil.

Return the beef to the pan, along with the worcheshire sauce, red wine vinegar, tomato paste, bay leaves, oregano, basil, water and powdered stock. Add additional freshly ground pepper. Stir to combine.

Cook over the lowest heat possible on your stove top for 2-2 1/2 hours, stirring every so often. I found that the longer I cooked this, the more tender the beef became.

Combine parsley and lemon zest. Sprinkle on top of meat just before serving,

Serve with baked potato or rice, and vegetables. I boiled our veges in some water and a little dried basil (another tip from my Mum).