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Tuna and sweetcorn pasta bake

October 24, 2010 in Fish, Pasta

Give this meatless Monday dish a go. Imagine tuna and sweetcorn combined with pasta and cheese sauce then baked…mmm. Hub isn’t a huge fan of tuna, but I still made a whole dish and froze the rest! I love this bake because it’s a classic pantry dish(you’ll have all the ingredients at home!). Replace tuna with bits of smoked haddock and use the poaching milk to make the sauce, yum! If this is not quite what you are looking for, try cauliflower mac ‘n cheese or MOG mac ‘n cheese . Planned on photographing this dish earlier, but was so hungry I forgot! HA HA! So below this is my half eaten pasta bake…

You will need:

1 heaped cup macaroni, cooked in salted water until al dente

SAUCE:

50 g butter

50 ml cake flour

500 ml milk

125 ml grated cheddar

handful of chopped parsely

salt and pepper

1 small onion, chopped

250 ml/ 1 cup sweetcorn

1 tin of tuna in brine, drained

125 ml grated cheese

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees

To make the sauce, prepare a roux with the butter and flour, then add the milk and whisk continously over high heat until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese, seasoning and parsley.

Heat a small frying pan with a little oil, saute the onions until soft then stir in the sweetcorn and heat through. Remove from the heat and add the tuna.

Combine the cooked and rinsed pasta, cheese sauce and tuna mixture and spoon into a greased medium baking dish. Top with more grated cheese and bake for +- 20 minutes or until golden on the surface.

Serve with a simple green salad.

Here’s to a new week of eating healthy and trying to go to gym 3 times. It is much needed after taking my brother out for dinner for the first time after being in bed 5 months! He can finally walk with 1 crutch and has use of his right hand again, so he was in high spirits and the first meal he wanted was chilli poppers. First option was Panchos, but was fully booked(good on them), so we went to Fat cactus in Mowbray. Lets just say, we ate our selves into a stupor! Go Mr D, it’s great to have you back! I am so proud to have him as my big bro!

Time to make some java and watch what is left of the 8 ‘o clock movie!

C xx

by bitsofcarey

Coronation chicken salad

October 20, 2010 in Chicken, salads

13 Comments »

Coronation chicken is another dish that takes me back, way back to the days when I lived in my bentley belt and spent hot summer days swimming in a heavily chlorinated pool with our cousins, while the dads stood next to the braai and the moms prepared salads in the kitchen. Those were good times…

What can you not love about this salad? it hits the spot if you feel like curry, the sweetness of the peaches work, it’s cool and refreshing and most of all easy! It’s great for the times when you have left over chicken in the fridge too. So here’s my coronation chicken salad…

You will need:

Dressing:

Olive oil

1 small onion chopped

10 ml medium curry powder

2 ml turmeric

15 ml tomato paste

juice of 1/2 lemon (20 ml or so)

Reserved peach juice(+-125 ml)

45 ml hot chutney

+- 180 ml(tub) bulgarian yoghurt

125 ml mayonnaise

Salt and pepper

3 cooked chicken breasts, shredded (+- 3 cups)

1 tin of sliced peaches, reserve all the juice for the sauce

1/2 green pepper, chopped

Cos lettuce or shredded Ice berg lettuce

4 slices low GI seed bread, sliced into 4 fingers.

Heat some oil in a pan and saute the onions until soft, then add the spices, tomato paste and lemon juice and continue frying over a gentle heat for +- 5 minutes, allowing the raw spices to cook.

Deglaze the pan with the peach juice, add the chutney and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, transfer into a bowl and allow to cool slightly.

Fold in the yoghurt and mayo, season to taste.

Add the shredded chicken, peaches and green pepper, stir until well combined and refridgerate when needed or eat as is. I prefer cooling it down completely as I do not want my lettuce to wilt!

Arrange the cos in a serving bowl(or individual ones), top with a generous spoonful of the mixture and place a few fingers of bread around the salad.

And if you want to be cute, slice a little tomato up like I did! ha ha!

Variation: You could add a chopped grannysmith apple and a handful of raisins instead of the tinned peaches using apple juice instead.

To see other dishes that brings back some good memories…see my chicken stroganoff or lemon meringue pie

Lovies Cx

by bitsofcarey

A very generous Caesar salad

October 18, 2010 in Chicken, salads

21 Comments »

I love a good Caesar salad and because it’s my salad of choice at most restuarants, I have become quite the fussy one. I spent the whole day dreaming about my perfect Caesar salad and before I knew it, I was at the shop buying my essential ingredients and back home in my kitchen preparing this heavenly salad. This one is really generous, I don’t hold back on the crispy streaky bacon! But if you are worried about the calories, just see how I do the bacon and croutons, you will be rather pleased. As for the dressing, I’ve reduced the oil in that too! But believe me, the flavours are just as( I would say even more) intense! And let’s not forget about the sweet and juicy rosa tomatoes, soft boiled egg, tender chicken and crispy cos lettuce. Sound good to you?

You will need:

Serves 2

2 chicken breasts, roasted or poached and shredded

2 eggs, boiled for 4-5 minutes, peeled and quartered

+- 12 rashers of streaky bacon

olive oil

2 slices of best of both white bread, crusts removed and but into batons

salt and pepper

125 g baby rosa tomatoes, halved

1 cos lettuce, washed well and broken into leaves

a few shavings of parmesan( as little or as much as you like!)

DRESSING:

1 tin of anchovies(I used the ones that are rolled with a caper), finely chopped, reserving the oil for the dressing

6 capers, chopped(if you have plain anchovies)

juice of 1 lemon

30 ml extra virgin olive oil

50 ml plain yoghurt

2 cloves crushed garlic

ground pepper

Start by making the dressing to allow the flavours to develop, while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Mix all the dressing ingrdients together until well combined, cover and refridgerate.

For the bacon: Put your grill element on in your oven and adjust the shelf to the highest level.

Place the rashers onto a drip rack and grill under the elements until slighlty crispy on the one side, then turn them over and grill until dark and crispy. Dab with paper towel, cool and chop up. This is the best way to get ‘em nice, crispy and non greasy!

For the croutons: Add +- 45 ml olive oil to a non stick pan, when hot add the bread and brown bothe sides until golden and crispy. Season with salt and pepper.

To assemble: Place a the cos into a large bowl, followed by the chicken, bacon bits, tomatoes, croutons, eggs and parmesan shavings. Drizzle with the dressing or serve on the side. I love drowning the salad in the dressing when ready to eat, because the bread and cos absorbs and holds the dressing so lovingly!

Deeply satisfying and oh so delicious!

Have a great week everyone! C x

by bitsofcarey

Fruit and seed crunchies

October 16, 2010 in Baking, Snacks, Sweet treats

6 Comments »

Last week I had to develop a low fat and low GI snack. I pondered long and hard and eventually came up with these bikkies. They are packed with cranberries, dried apricots, mixed seeds and oats. The fat and sugar content is low in comparison to many other biscuit recipes I have seen. They are delicious and you don’t feel bad eating 2 or 3 of these with your tea. I can guarentee you won’t eat more than that because it is no.10 on the satiety scale, with all the slow energy release oats, high fibre dried fruit and omega fatty acid rich seeds. These will be great crumbled up and sprinkled onto your yoghurt in the morning. What great timing, Inspiration set a biscuit challenge last week, so I thought why not share with you all!

Makes +- 25 biscuits

You will need:

125 g soft margarine(e.g Flora)

250 ml brown sugar

5 ml vanilla essence

4 egg whites

250 ml cake flour

5 ml baking powder

125 ml nutty wheat flour

750 ml rolled oats

250 ml mixed seeds(sunflower, pumpkin ans sesame)

250 ml dried cranberries

125 ml chopped apricots

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

In a large bowl, cream the marg and sugar until light and fluffy, add the vanilla and then pour the egg whites bit by bit beating continuously until combined.

Add all the remaining ingredients into the bowl and stir until well combined, damp and sticky.

Squash into small balls and place onto a greased baking tray.

Press the balls down with fork.

Bake for 10 minutes then reduce the temperature to 170 degrees and bake for a further 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

OTHER IDEAS:

Replace seeds with 250 ml of dessicated coconut(this will increase the fat content though).

Add some cinnamon or all spice to the mixture if you like.

Replace the cranberries with any other dried fruit, eg. sultanas, raisins, chopped dates etc.

Now look at that! Bursting with goodness!

by bitsofcarey

Eton Mess

October 13, 2010 in desserts, Fruit

8 Comments »

In the past I loved Eton mess for the times when I had broken or ”not so lekka” meringues in the house. Now I often bake meringue, only to break it up so I can prepare this sumptuous delight. It is so light, the perfect dessert to have after a big meal. Layers of crunchy and sticky meringue bits, subtly sweet strawberry cream and slightly tart fresh strawberries. YUM! Eton mess oozes “summer pud!”

For the meringue:

4 egg whites (+- 160 g of egg whites)

200 ml castor sugar

15 ml hot water

5 ml vinegar

Preheat the oven to 140 degrees

Add all the above ingredients into a large clean(metal or glass) bowl and beat with a hand blender or kenwood mixer on high for 5 minutes. Will be thick, glossy and have soft peaks.

Dollop the meringue in the centre of a baking tray lined with baking paper and sprinkled with cornflour.

Spread it out to form a pavlova.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours and allow to cool.

Or bake small meringues for about a hour.

Perfect for pavlovas, mini meringues and of course eton mess!

For the strawberry cream:

250 g strawberries

2 heaped tablespoons of sugar

seeds of one vanilla pod or 5 ml vanilla essence

1 tub of cream

Place half the berries in a pot with the sugar and vanilla, cover and simmer gently for +- 20 minutes or until soft and mushy. Allow to cool.

Beat the cream until it forms firm soft peaks. Fold the strawberry mush into the cream and chill until ready to use.

Cut the other half of the berries in quarters and break up the meringue in bite size pieces.

Layer some meringue bits, cream and berries in a large bowl and serve immediately.

TIPS:

Freeze your left over egg whites and thaw them out overnight.

Buy meringues at a good bakery or deli(not those corn floury ones you find in most retail stores) if you don’t have time to make them yourself.

Try using half whipped cream and half greek style yoghurt sweetened with a bit of honey if you are not in the mood to cook the berries. Or use just use plain greek style yoghurt or whipped cream.

Add some chopped nuts in between the layers.

Do the exact recipe with fresh or frozen berries.

by bitsofcarey

Moroccan chicken salad that hits the spot!

October 12, 2010 in Chicken, grains and pulses, salads

8 Comments »

I am not a regular couscous muncher, but every now and then I come across a recipe that entices me to cook with it again. I recently spotted this Moroccan chicken salad in a lovely cook book called Feast Bazaar by Barry Vera. It is a delightful read, Barry writes about his travels and culinary experiences in India, Morocco and Syria and his recipes are user friendly and actually work! I tweaked his recipe a bit by adding extra roasted veggies and feta but it is just as yummy without. This is a delicious and perfectly substantial summer salad. Deeply satisfying.

What you will need:

SERVES 4 – 6

4 chicken breasts

MARINADE:

125 ml greek style yoghurt

10 ml harissa paste( I used John west)

10 ml cumin

10 ml coriander

2 cloves garlic, crushed

15 ml oilive oil

salt and pepper to taste

2 red peppers

6 courgettes, sliced length ways (1 cm thick)

1 small aubergine, sliced(1 cm thick)

250 ml hot chicken or veg stock stock( use a good one or home made)

5 ml cinnamon

250 ml couscous

1 tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained

100 g sundried tomatoes(Ina paarman’s are good), diced

Juice of 1 lemon or 2 limes

handful of mint, chopped

handful of coriander, chopped

1 wheel of feta, cubed

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees

Mix the marinade ingredients together and coat the chicken breasts well, set aside in the fridge to marinate while preparing the veggies.

Place the peppers whole in the hot oven and roast until a few black blisters form( +- 45 minutes), then place into a bowl and cover with cling film and allow to sweat for 15 minutes.

Arrange the sliced vegetables onto a greased baking tray and roast for +- 30 minutes or until slightly charred. Set aside.

Cut the sweated peppers in half, remove the pips and peel the skins off(will literally fall off) and dice. Set aside.

Turn the oven heat down to 200 degrees and roast the chicken for 12 minutes, remove from the oven and cover with foil.

Prepare the couscous in a large bowl by pouring the hot stock and cinnamon over the couscous, cover with a cloth and allow to stand for + – 5 minutes(to allow the stock to be absorbed) and break the couscous up with a fork.

Slice the chicken thinly. Set aside.

Add the prepared veggies, chicken, chickpeas, sundried tomatoes, juice, herbs and feta and gently combine using two forks.

Eat warm, room temperature or cold.

Delicious the next day for lunch.

TIPS:

If you are not in the mood to roast veggies, just buy about 500 ml(2 cups) of ready roasted veggies from your local deli.

The longer you marinade the chicken, the more pronounced the flavours will be. Try marinating over night or before you leave for work.

Try 100 g of goats cheese instead of feta…yum.

Just half the recipe if just making for two, works out perfectly.

by bitsofcarey

Smoked snoek and spinach “cheesecake”

October 6, 2010 in Baking, Fish

10 Comments »

I developed this recipe about a year ago when I was going through a savoury cheesecake phase and I have to say that this is a legendary one! You’ll have to bake this and taste what I am going on about! Now, if you do not eat smoked snoek, you can replace it with same amounts of smoked salmon offcuts, smoked angelfish or roasted butternut…something nice and bulky. I throw in baby spinach, for some colour and it does add to the flavour somewhat. It’s called a cheesecake because it has 2 tubs of smooth cottage cheese, some gruyere for richness and of course some eggs to help it set when baked. This is very easy to make, you just pop all the prepped ingredients into a food processor, pulse until smooth, pour over a tuc biscuit crust, yes you read correctly, a tuc biscuit crust and bake! So so more -ish…

What you will need:

1 packet of tuc biscuits or 200 g savoury biscuit of your choice

50 ml butter or olive oil

1 onion, chopped

100 g baby spinach

pinch of cayenne pepper

15 ml cake flour

250 g smoked snoek, stripped off the bone(make sure you get all the bones out!)

2 tubs smooth cottage cheese

250 ml grated gruyere cheese

3 eggs

black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Crust: Place the biscuits and butter(you don’t need to melt it) in a food processor and blend until it resembles damp sand, then press into a greased 23 cm springform tin and bake for 8 minutes.

In a frying pan, saute the onions in a little oil until soft and slighlty golden, then add the spinach and allow the leaves to wilt. Remove from the heat and stir the flour through to absorb the excess liquid.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180 degrees.

Put spinach mixture and all the remaining ingredients into the food processor and blend until smooth.

Pour over the crust and and bake for +- 45 minutes, will have a slight jiggle in the middle but mostly set.

Allow to cool slightly before slicing. Even better refridgerated overnight and brought back to room temperature.

Serve with a light watercress salad.

P.S you may notice that I did not add salt, I find the snoek salty enough. However, it’s up to your own palate!

We are off to Tulbagh for the weekend and I cannot wait, I might even try my hand in fishing! ha ha! Let’s see how that goes…

Have a SUPER weekend all!

C x

by bitsofcarey

Chicken Stroganoff brings back good memories…

October 4, 2010 in Chicken

12 Comments »

I could not help myself! I had a creamy craving and stroganoff it was! And you know what? I did not feel bad at all! It was worth it and oh so yummy. I love the slight tartness of this sauce. It’s a amazing how taste can take you back to a time or experience in your life. A bite of stroganoff takes me back a few years (around the time I just finished studying food science and nutrition) when I wrote in to Women’s value(now called Ideas). I sent them a wad of my favourite tested recipes(in the hope that they would notice me, pleb and all). A few weeks later, Louisa Holst(the Ed) called to say I have been chosen to feature in the reader’s recipes section! Now it wasn’t a job offer, but I was just as ecstatic! Some of the recipes featured were funnily enough all my lemon craving (yes I have alot of cravings) recipes…so a lemon theme it was! Mini lemon muffins with cream cheese and salmon, Lemon polenta cake with caradamom syrup, lemony bread and butter pud with meringue topping and of course my turkey stroganoff with lemon and herb tagliatelle. That was one of my personal proudest moments. This was about 6 years ago, but I remember it clearly to this day, buying every mag I could find, showing complete strangers at the till points…”look! look! this is me!”. Who knows, maybe I’ll dust off that mag and make one or two of those recipes for sh*# and giggles. For now, here’s my stroganoff 6 years on…

What you will need:

olive oil

seasoned flour

+- 500 g mini chicken breast fillets, or breasts cut into strips

1 onion, sliced

+-150 g mushrooms of your choice

250 ml reduced fat cream or sour cream(then leave out the lemon juice)

Juice of 1/2 lemon

salt and pepper