Lemon Chicken with broad beans #blog12daysxmas Day 7

What do you do when you have some chicken thighs but haven't done the marinading you intended and it's 7.30pm?  Well, of course, you look around the kitchen for what you can find and then do a variant of Abla's lemon chicken, though she probably wouldn't recognize it as such.

The combination of garlic, ginger and turmeric is lovely and includes some of my favourite flavours.  I then added some chilli infused-olive oil, but you could add a bit of Sambal oelek or some chopped chilli with plain olive oil.  For the final stage, as well as lemon juice I added some frozen broad beans because there happened to be some in the freezer and that's how I was rolling. If you wanted to use fresh ones, I'd par-cook or cook them before adding to the dish. Or chickpeas (again cooked or canned) would make a very nice addition. I served it on a bed of nutty wholemeal Basmati and the flavours all blended beautifully.  Maybe I'll try it with chickpeas next time?

Ingredients

600 gr chicken thighs
1 dsp salt flakes
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp sliced ginger
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbs chilli infused olive oil
juice of two lemons (about 150 ml)
1/2 cup frozen broad beans


Mode

Preheat oven to 210c
Chop the chicken roughly
Arrange the chicken in a baking dish
Sprinkle with salt flakes
Peel and crush garlic
Add garlic, ginger, turmeric and oil to chicken
Mix thoroughly
Roast for 30 minutes
Meanwhile squeeze lemons
Remove the chicken from the oven and pour over the lemon juice
Add frozen broad beans and stir to combine
Return to oven and roast for another 20 minutes.

Raspberry and strained yoghurt icy-poles #blog12daysxmas Day 6

A couple of weeks ago when the mercury hit 41c in Melbourne, I was so cross with myself that I had not had the forethought to make some "icy-poles". However, with hot weather coming up for New Year's Eve and beyond today I got organized and made some. The recipe is very simple: strained yoghurt (what we call Greek yoghurt in Australia) and frozen raspberries.  I just mixed the two ingredients together and spooned the mixture into the moulds. This way you really get both tastes. If you want a sweeter taste, you could add some honey or sugar to the mix, but I prefer the tartness of the raspberry and yoghurt.

I haven't given any measurements but for my moulds I used about three heaped dessertspoons of strained yoghurt and a handful of raspberries for each. But you can experiment depending on what you are making them in. You don't have any moulds? You can make them in muffin tins or make bars wrapped in foil.  Make some before New Year and enjoy in the summer heat!

Ingredients

Strained yoghurt (aka Greek yoghurt)
Frozen raspberries


Mode

Place yoghhurts and raspberries in bowl or jug
Mix together until they are well-combined
Spoon into icy pole moulds
Place into freezer for 10 minutes without sticks
Remove from freezer and insert sticks/lids
Return to freezer
Freeze for at least five hours or until solid (overnight is good)
Loosen from mould by holding under warm water

Edible presents #blog12daysxmas Day 4

People tend to know that I like edible Christmas presents, particularly ones that I can use in cooking. This year provided quite a haul. Apart from a stock of Care tea (True Black, Pure Green, Hibiscus Red, and Minty Green), I got Berenberg Chilli jam and Yarra Valley Eggplant and chilli chutney as well as Stefano's Preserved lemons, more Screaming seeds, this time Rainforest season, and some Wild mushroom sea salt. 

The Screaming seeds and the "flavoured" sea salt are new versions of previous gifts which have given me great fun.

What fun will these lead to in 2016?