Tag: food

Can you say yummo? This recipe comes from the Nigella Lawson book Forever Summer(p143 under the title Saffron-Scented Chicken Pilaf). Nigella does not include the eschalots or peas but adds some chopped parsely at the end.
This book is chock full of delightful foods all fit for entertaining a small party or certain to have leftovers after feeding a family of four. I am going to provide the recipe as I made it but if you only want to make it for two or three people it is incredibly easy to just use one chicken breast and reduce the other ingredients.

Nutty Chicken Pilaf
3 chicken breast (about 750g) cut into thumb size pieces
couple of tablespoons Greek yoghurt (enough to coat the chicken)
juice of a lemon
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1L chicken stock
15g butter
3 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
600g basmati rice
5-6 cardamom pods, bruised
juice and zest of a second lemon

4 eschalots, chopped
1 cup or so peas

50g cashews
50g flaked almonds
25g pine nuts
4 tablespoons shelled pistachios

Place the diced chicken in a suitable sized container with the yoghurt, cinnamon and lemon juice. Give the mixture a good stir to ensure the chicken is covered and leave for 1hr to marinate. Meanwhile soak the saffron threads in the chicken stock (this is done to ensure that the dried saffron threads release all their flavour and colour).

In a hot pan, add 1 tablespoon of oil and in batches cook the marinated chicken after shaking off any excess yoghurt. As this is cooking you may need to add a second tablespoon of oil for later batches.

When you have the first batch of chicken cooking, start the rice cooking.
In a large pan over medium heat, melt the butter and 1 tablespoon of the oil; add the rice, stirring it till it is nice and glossy. Pour in the chicken stock and saffron mixture; add the cardamom, lemon juice and zest. Place lid on pan, turn down to a low heat and leave for 10-15mins or so. After about 8 minutes or so add the peas and eschalots give it a stir and put the lid back on to leave it cooking.

When the rice is cooked, remove from the heat and stir through the cooked chicken.
Toss the cashews, almonds and pine nuts in an oil free pan over a medium heat until they colour and start to release their scent. Then stir them through the pilaf and top each plate with some pistachios.

Serves 7-8

When we are at the fruit shop the other day they had a large bin of Butternuts for $1 each, so I grabbed one though in retrospect I should have grabbed a couple more.

I had planned to use the Pumpkin Soup recipe I have used before but to play with it a bit more. However, then I got thinking about the fantastic Roasted(?) Pumpkin Soup that Mary had had when we went to the Chocolate Buffet so I googled Roast Pumpkin Soup and lo and behold the first result up is from the ABC 🙂 The various ABC radio stations all feature various recipes and then the recipes from all across the country are placed in the one index – Backyard Recipe Index.

So seeing that the first result up was an ABC recipe I thought why the hell not, I’ll use this one, sure I made a few changes but it was so good, even Mum was chowing into it!

Roast Pumpkin Soup
adapted from a recipe by Elaine Wilson

Ingredients
1 butternut pumpkin, peeled and diced into medium sized cubes (3.5cmish)
4, 5, 6 cloves garlic, unpeeled (I would say use a clove per serving, it just enhances the flavour a bit)
a couple of tablespoons of soft brown sugar
1 large onion chopped
2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 carrot chopped
1 stick of celery chopped
4 cups chicken stock
natural yoghurt, butter milk or sour cream, to serve
chopped fresh herbs, to serve
rye bread, to serve

Method:
Preheat oven 180C. Place the pumpkin and garlic on a well oiled tray and sprinkle with the brown sugar (to caramelise the pumpkin and just enhance the flavour more. Roast for 30 minutes or so until the pumpkin is cooked through
Whilst the pumpkin is roasting, add a little oil to a large pot and fry the vegetables until the onion is soft. Add the cumin. Add the chicken stock to the pot, bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes or so. Add the pumpkin to the pot, peel the garlic and then add to the pot. Remove the pot from the heat.
In batches puree the mixture until smooth. If you are making this in advance and have time to allow the mixture to cool before pureeing do, or if like me and the clock is fast approaching dinner time before pureeing, pour the mixture into a separate container and then after each batch pour the pureed soup back into the original pot over a low heat to warm it up.
Serve with sour cream or natural yoghurt or butter milk, fresh chives or parsley if you have them and some hearty rye bread to dip with.

I was checking my RSS feeds yesterday when I stumbled across a recipe on Bakingsheet for Cinnamon Muffins, next thing I knew I was in the kitchen making them. 🙂 They are oh so yummy.

As these were cooking, the cinnamon wafted through the house, it smelt gorgeous. 🙂 Best eaten after a short spin in the microwave to warm them up. Even better if after warming them up, you cut it in half and spread with a little bit of butter. MMMMM