Chicken St Clements à la Abla

It is always nice to have some chicken fresh from the oven or, indeed, to be able to pull a container out of the freezer to form the basis of a meal. Abla’s garlic chicken has been a favourite of mine for years, though I never quite cook it according to her recipe. This time rather than having only lemon juice, I made the sauce from the juice of an orange and a lemon. Hence the name chicken St Clements! 

It was delicious with rice, and also with stir fried vegetables. And there are a couple of serves in the freezer. I am hoping that now that we are circulating more I might even get to try Abla’s own version, as might any Melbourne readers. In the meanwhile, enjoy this version!

 Ingredients

16 chicken drumettes (about 1 kilo)
2 dessertspoons rock salt

1 lemon

1 orange

2 tbs crushed garlic

Mode

Preheat oven to 210c.
Arrange the chicken drumettes in a baking dish
Sprinkle with rock salt
Roast for 30 minutes
Meanwhile juice the lemon and orange
Add minced ginger to juice to total about 150 ml

Stir thoroughly

Remove the chicken from the oven and pour the  mixture 

Return to oven and roast for another 25-35 minutes.

Serve with rice, pasta or roast vegetables  

Marinated chicken with pickled plums

After nearly a week of being uninterested in food and cooking due to a non-Covid infection, on Sunday my interest was suddenly stirred by a chicken thigh recipe in an ABC newsletter. Whilst the ABC recipe and my final recipe in the end bear little relation to each other, the ABC recipe was definitely the trigger for my imagination and made me think about chickens and the plums I have had pickling in a high cupboard for years (based on Stephanie Alexander’s recipe which she suggests will last a year). The ABC writer also wrote about what she was cooking in a way to use the process to stir the imagination with different tastes and that started me thinking about what to cook. 

The end result with some cauliflower and Chinese broccoli added to the other ingredients was quite a delicate blend of flavours all of which could be sensed. I served mine with brown rice which mopped up the plum-flavoured chicken juices. Thank you to the ABC and to Stephanie both of whom constantly inspire me! 

Ingredients

5 chicken thighs (skinned) - about 800 gr

3 tbs soy sauce

3 gloves garlic crushed

3 tsp crushed garlic

Rind of half lemon

150 gr olive oil

4 dsp spiced plums

A handful of cauliflower florets

2 cups chopped Chinese broccoli

150 gr Zero shiraz

Mode

Crush the garlic and ginger

Finely slice the rind off the lemon and cut into slivers

Place the chicken in bowl

Pour over the soy and olive

Add garlic, ginger and lemon rind

Stir to cover the chicken

Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight

Preheat the oven to 200c

Assemble the ingredients in a baking dish or tray with an edge

Place the chicken in the dish

Pour over it any remaining marinade and scrape in any delicious ginger, lemon and garlic bits

Spoon the pickled plums around the chicken

Break the cauliflower into florets and poke in

Pour over the Zero shiraz 

Give it shake and put it in the oven

Bake uncovered for 40 minutes

Just before then chop the Chinese broccoli roughly

Remove the chicken dish from the oven

Stir through the broccoli and turn over chicken in the process

Cover with foil or a lid.

Cook for another 20 minutes. 

Chicken, coriander & ricotta balls in tomato sauce

So it is June again and I have been meaning to sit down and do a #blogjune post on this blog which I have regularly continued to post in. The last time I completed #blogjune every day of June was in 2016.  But I still get tempted by the notices and by reading posts by long ago connections and friends. So it’s just one for me this June. 

This is a serendipity dish. I bought some minced chicken to make chickens simmered in tomato sauce, but I grabbed it quickly off a shelf without looking at quantity. Ah well, necessity is the mother of invention they say, so I eked out the mixture with half a tub of ricotta I had in the fridge. And the end result? I liked it a lot and will make the dish again. 

As an alternative to simmering on the top of the stove, you can also bake in the oven. If you want to do that, start with preheating the oven to 180c. Then make and sear the chicken balls. Put the sauce into an ovenproof dish, add the seared balls, cover with a lid or foil and cook for 45 minutes. This method can also be used to reheat any remaining chickens but 30 minutes should enough for that. 

Ingredients 

230 gr minced chicken

140 gr ricotta

2 spring onions

2 cloves crushed garlic

2 tsp crushed ginger root

1 tsp Sambal oelek

I bunch coriander

Breadcrumbs

Ready-made tomato and basil sauce

Olive oil

Mode

Place tomato sauce in pan and bring to boil

Reduce to simmer

Chop spring onions

Crush garlic and ginger

Place minced chicken in bowl

Add ginger, garlic and Sambal oelek and stir to combine

Roughly chop coriander and add to mixture

Add ricotta 

Stir to combine 

Place breadcrumbs on plate

Form balls from chicken mixture and roll in breadcrumbs

Pour olive oil into frying pan and heat

Quickly sear the chicken balls in batches

Add to tomato sauce and simmer for 30 minutes

Sunday Night Pizza: with figs, honey and rocket pesto

One of the lovely things that happened to me during the last two years of Covid has been a very simple thing. A group of us who years ago used to meet for Sunday night pizza (and red wine) in Melbourne started to make Sunday night pizza at home or to report why we were cooking something else and what it was. It has provided a great reason to catch up virtually every Sunday be it just briefly or to share and explore current issues.

This week for my Sunday night pizza I made one that focused on some fresh figs I wanted to use. Stephanie told me that figs went with white cheese, rocket and something sweet like sugar. So that’s what I did including some mushrooms. For the sweetness I dribbled on some Beechworth honey I was lucky to receive for Christmas from my neighbours Elina and Graeme. Thanks Elina and Graeme! 

Ingredients

1 Wattle Valley wholemeal wrap

Sacla rocket pesto

Ricotta

Swiss brown mushrooms

Fresh figs

Honey

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c.

Spread rocket pesto as a base on the wrap

Add ricotta and spread as next layer

Slice mushrooms and add to cover other layers

Chop figs and add on top

Using a metal spoon heated in hot water drizzle honey over the pieces of figs

Cook for 12 minutes 

Eat with delight at the tastes

Chicken with tomato, basil, capers and olives

At some point the last week I saw a headline somewhere for a recipe including chicken, tomatoes and capers. I didn't read the recipe as it was behind a paywall but I immediately thought of a couple of my recent recipes inspired by Mediterranean cooking in Sicily, Calabria (and Greece). Magna Graecia indeed! 

This time the recipe uses a mixture of large and small green and black olives which I bought locally, as well as chicken thighs which I think give better flavour than breasts for such dishes. I enjoyed the final product with some gnocchi and Parmesan. 

Ingredients

Olive oil

2 spring onions

4 cloves garlic crushed

900 gr chicken thighs

1 can (400 gr) diced tomatoes

2 heaped tbs mixed olives

3 tsp capers

3-4 tbs chopped fresh basil

Water as needed 

Mode

Heat the oil in a pan large enough to simmer all the ingredients

Chop the chicken

Chop the spring onion

Crush the garlic

Lightly fry the garlic, and spring onion

Add the chicken 

Stir fry until chicken sealed 

Add the tomatoes,  capers and olives and stir to combine

Chop basil and add it and stir to combine

Turn down heat and simmer. 

While cooking add water as needed for consistency

Simmer until everything tender and the sauce reduced

Sardines with tomatoes, olives, celery and leek

This dish, like my last similar recipe, is inspired by Mediterranean cooking in Sicily, Calabria (and Greece). Magna Graecia indeed! This time the recipe uses mammoth green olives which I was given as a present, a leek I needed to cook and the fish component was comprised of fresh filleted sardines. This week’s heat delayed my cooking but now that the cool has come (along with rain, thunder, lightning and hail) I can get on with it. I doubled the tomatoes in this recipe as the addition of the leek required this.  While cooking I also added gradually about a cup of water to keep the consistency as I wanted it.

Last time I cooked the earlier variant of the recipe I said I felt like I was in Greece. My friend Letizia said she felt she was in her homeland when she read the recipe. What will she think this time? Despite the green olives I still feel that I am in Greece (or Magna Graecia) and indeed wonder if I will ever get to Sicily or even Greece again.  

Ingredients

Olive oil

2 stalks celery including leaves

1 leek

3 cloves garlic crushed

2 cans (400 gr) diced tomatoes

10 mammoth green olives

3-4 tbs chopped fresh basil

1 tbs capers

400 gr fresh filleted sardines

1 cup water

Mode

Heat the oil in a pan large enough to simmer all the ingredients

Chop the celery

Finely slice leek

Crush the garlic

Lightly fry the garlic, celery and leek

Add the tomatoes and olives and stir occasionally

Chop basil and add it and capers

Turn down heat and simmer for about 5 minutes

While cooking add water as needed for consistency

Add the sardines and stir to cover the fish

Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes

Swordfish in tomatoes with olives and capers

I got my inspiration for this from a regular newsletter I get from eatingwell.com  And they say they were inspired by Mediterranean cooking in Sicily and Calabria. Ah Magna Graecia! I didn’t follow their recipe exactly and amongst other changes substituted their green olives with my favourite mammoth black ones. I served it one evening with roast vegetables and another with gnocchi whereas the original recipe had polenta as a core element. Mine tasted like I was in Athens. 🇬🇷

Ingredients

Olive oil

2 stalks celery including leaves

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 can (400 gr) diced tomatoes

8 mammoth black olives

3-4 tbs chopped fresh basil

1 tbs capers

400 gr swordfish

Mode

Heat the oil in a pan large enough to simmer all the ingredients

Chop the celery

Crush the garlic

Lightly fry the garlic and celery

Add the tomatoes and olives and stir occasionally

Chop basil and add it and capers

Turn down heat and simmer for about 5 minutes

Add the swordfish steaks and stir to cover the fish

Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes