Honey lemon chicken

Hello everyone. I am back...back from an epic trip around europe, 137 days :) By golly it was good fun, and I cant wait to go back again. While on the epic trip I ate mountains of food, and plan on getting that sorted into something soon. But, right now I would like to introduce one of my favourite dinners to you all. This recipe was given to me from my mum, who got it from her friend, who pulled it out of a cookbook. Its one of those 'chuck in the oven' meals that requires little preparation for big WOW factor. The amazing mix of chilli, ginger, lemon and honey just makes you beg for more, and its has great 'eat next day' qualities. Oh and you get to get your hands all sticky and gooey when you marinade the chicken ;) The marinade also makes a great sauce after cooking. Bring it on...(btw sorry dodge pics...but everyone was waiting for me before eating so i had to go fast)




Honey lemon chicken

7 chicken breasts (or more/less depending on who you're feeding)
1 large kumara (sweet potato)
1 red chilli chopped finely
2 tbspn brown sugar
2 tbspn fresh grated ginger
2 cloves garlic crushed
1/4 c honey
1 lemon
3 baby zuchini (or squash)
Cous cous to serve



Preheat oven to 160 celcius. Slice lemon thinly, remove pips. Peel kumara and cut into wedges. Add chopped chilli, brown sugar, grated ginger, crushed garlic, honey and chicken to a bowl. Use hands to stir the chicken into the ingredients, making sure the surface of the chicken is well coated with marinade. Place chicken in a deep baking dish (the flatter you lay it out the faster it will cook). Place kumara wedges around the chicken. Lay lemon slices ontop of the chicken.




Place in oven and cook for about 30 minutes. Make cous cous and cut zuchini into wedges. After 30 min, add zuchini to chicken dish, and allow to cook for further 15 minutes.

Serve the chicken, zuchini and kumara ontop of cous cous with a little marinade sauce.

Tips
You can use rice instead of cous cous in this recipe
This is a great meal to use for lots of people, just increase the amount of chicken per person, and add a little more spices and honey. The chicken doesnt need to be swimming in marinade, just coated...it will make its own marinade as it cooks.
You can add other vegetables like capsicum or eggplant to the dish.

Chicken and Leek Soup (a)

Hey Hey!

I'm in norway. HEL-LO NORWAY! its an interesting country...very beautiful, and even though the weather is so bad (ie cold, cloudy and sporadically raining) I like the blustry-ness of it all. I guess it helps that I am

staying with hannah and her aunt/uncle, so im in a real house and everything is great...lots of cups of tea (yes i have developed a fondness for tea). Hannah and I were in Kristiansand yesterday, and we saw a lady riding a bicycle with one solitary leek on the newspaper holder on the back of her bike. We then came across the vege market, and in a flash of inspiration decided it would be a good idea to buy some leek, and then some potatoes, and cook dinner for her a

unt and uncle...my mums chicken and leek soup. So, for those cold winter days (yea totally not happening in perth right now I know) go to your local greengrocers and pick up some leek and have a go:

Chicken and Leek soup

4 chicken thigh fillets

1/2 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste

1 large leek (or 2 small ones)

2 cloves garlic

5 medium potatoes

1.5L of chicken stock

2 tbspn vinegar

1 tspn lemongrass

Coriander and Pepper (to serve)

Cut chicken into bite sized pieces. Place flour, salt and pepper into a plastic bag, add the chicken and mix until the chicken is coated with flour. Heat oil in a pan, and cook the chicken until browned (you might need to do this in batches). Remove chicken and set aside.

Cut leek thinly, peel potatoes and chop into bite sized pieces as well. Add leek to the pan, and cook with the garlic (crushed) until soft. Add the chicken stock, lemongrass, vinegar and potatoes. Let it simmer for about 1/2 hour or until the potatoes are cooked. Add the chicken. Let it simmer until ready to serve...the longer you leave it the more flavoured the potatoes and chicken will get :)

Serve topped with cracked pepper, coriander and crusty bread with LOTS of butter

Tips

You can sautee some onion before cooking teh chicken and add it to the soup if you dont have enough leek or want some mroe flavours.

We used brown vinegar, and it turned out well too :)

This tastes better the day after, and also freezes really well!

swiss vanilla cupcakes

wow. its been so long since i have written a blog i dont even know what font i usually use. and i noticed that i tend to go a little bit overboard with the different font styles. promise to try and tone it down...a little.

but anyways, IM IN SWITZERLAND!!! which is one of the main reasons why i ahvent blogged, being without a computer means no time, unless its like tonight, im babysitting, and am having trouble staying awake, so thought i would share some food with you all. im currently travelling europe for 6 months, and surprisingly, havent really taken as many photos of food as you would think. but, i ahve had the biggest craving for cakes. they dont eat cakes over here like they do in australia (ok like I do in australia). luckily, this weekend there was a flea market on at the campground im staying at, and i decided that it would be an awesome idea to make some food to sell. so lula (the girl that i look after) and i spent friday afternoon baking, and this is one of the products...we made three batches of swiss vanilla cupcakes (recipe adapted from smitten kitchen) oh, and remember how i said that i wasnt very good at butter icing? this is an AWESOME butter icing :) and the recipe is super easy for kids to do to!

swiss vanilla cupcakes

3 tbnspn butter

1 c flour

3/4 c sugar

1/2 c milk

1 tspn baking powder

1 egg

1/2 tspn baking soda

1/2 tspn vanilla

Icing

2 c icing sugar

5 tbspn butter (softened)

2 tbspn milk

1/2 tspn vanilla

sprinkles

Preheat oven to 190 degrees and line cupcake tin with papers. Put flour, sugar, butter, baking soda and baking powder into bowl and beat until mixture is sandy. (i just used a whisk...make sure the mix isnt lumpy, otherwise you pay later). pour in half the milk and beat well (no lumps!!!) mix egg and vanilla in remaining milk and pour into mix and beat well to make a smooth mixture - but dont overmix! spoon butter into prepared cases (about one tbspn per case) and bake for 20-25 minutes. cool completely on wire tray

Icing

beat butter and icing sugar until well mixed. with a wjick this takes a while, but dont be discouraged because all of a sudden it will come together. combine milk and vanilla and pour into mix, beat well to combine and continue to beat until mix is light and fluffy.

Place sprinkles in a shallow bowl. cover cupcakes with layer of icing a lightly press icing side up into sprinkles. enjoy!!!