Chicken & coriander pesto meatballs in tomato sauce

After a year when I seem to have been eating nothing but pies and other carbs, now I am trying to get over all that comfort food. When I was food shopping today, masked up at Piedimonte’s, minced chicken caught my eye. Mmm chicken meatballs. The other ingredients were what happened to catch my eye in the pantry and refrigerator when I was wondering what to cook this evening.

I used a ready made and purchased coriander pesto (yum) and a ready made tomato sauce (Five Brothers Tomato and basil sauce) but you could be more creative and make your own!

Ingredients

500 gr minced chicken

2tbs coriander pesto

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp minced ginger root

2 spring onions

Olive oil

500 gr ready made tomato sauce

Mode

Place minced chicken in mixing bowl

Crush garlic and add

Add ginger and coriander pesto

Chop spring onions and add

Stir until thoroughly mixed

Using a tablespoon  spoon form in into meatballs

Finalize shape with hand and place on plate

Meanwhile place the tomato sauce in a pan on heat 

Fill bottle with water, shake to clear jar

Add to pan and stir

Bring to boil and reduce to simmer

Heat olive oil in frying pan

Add meatballs in batches and cook to seal 

Add to tomato sauce as sealed

Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes

Eat alone if avoiding carbs or otherwise serve with rice, pasta or noodles. 

Enjoy!!

Tasmanian salmon with coriander pesto and lentils

After a 2020 Covid year of cooking pies and feeling rather plump, I felt January 2021 was the time to try cooking something with a little less in the way of carbs. This salmon dish is cooked in the oven under foil, regrettably without a whiff of puff pastry, but delicious for all that. Enjoy!

Ingredients 

200 gr Tasmanian salmon

400 gr canned lentils

2 spring onions

1/4 red capsicum

1 tbs coriander pesto

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp crushed ginger root

Mode

Preheat the oven to 180c

Chop spring onion and capsicum

Crush garlic and ginger

Open lentils and drain

Place as base in oven dish

Add salmon

Coat with coriander pesto

Top with spring onion, capsicum, garlic and ginger

Cover with foil

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Spanish style pasta sauce

 A couple of weeks ago when we were first allowed to meet people from another household in the open, I met my friends Penny and Mark in the rotunda at Darling Gardens one afternoon.  They very kindly brought me some garden produce, including silverbeet and coriander. When I was wondering what to cook the next evening I remembered a recipe I sometimes cook with sherry, mushrooms and pinenuts. Its origins are a bit obscured by the passing of time but my memory is that it was originally based on a tapas recipe that I read in a library book. Sometimes I cook it with ham but this time I added coriander, silverbeet and some chicken that I happened to have. As it was once a tapas you could eat it as such or by itself, but I had it with some pasta!  The serving is enough for one person.

Ingredients

1 leaf silverbeet

5 mushrooms

1 handful of pine nuts

1 clove garlic

1 stem coriander

1 spring onion

100 gr chicken cut for stirfry

1 sherry glass dry sherry

Olive oil

Mode

Heat some olive oil in a pan on the stovetop

Crush the garlic

Slice the spring onion

Add the garlic and spring onion to the oil and stir until covered

Slice the mushrooms and add

Chop the coriander and add

Add the pine nuts

All the while continue to stir

Add the sherry and stir

Chop the silverbeet including the stems

Add the silverbeet and the chicken to the mixture

Continue to stir until the chicken is sealed

Turn the heat down to a simmer

Cover and summer until the chicken is tender

Serve with rice, pasta or noodles.

Rainbow σεσκουλόπιτα

Μιαμ μιαμ! I haven't used rainbow silverbeet to make σεσκουλόπιτα before. However, when I saw it in the supermarket yesterday while shopping for food to cook for some friends who had been in an accident, I thought I would get it and experiment. It was delicious and I will use it was an ingredient again.  I haven't heard the verdict of my friends yet, but I enjoyed it.

With these ingredients you could make make one large pie.  I made a medium size and a small to accommodate for the two households.

Ingredients

1 bunch rainbow silverbeet (including stalks)

4 spring onions

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp Sambal oelek

3 tsp crushed ginger root

400 gr ricotta

150 gr fetta

1 egg

Phyllo pastry

Olive oil

Poppyseeds 

Mode

Place a steamer on the stove and bring water to the boil

Turn on oven to preheat to 180c

Meanwhile roughly chop the rainbow silverbeet including coloured stalks

Add to steamer

Chop spring onions and add to steamer

Crush garlic and add to steamer

Crush ginger root and add to steamer

Add Sambal oelek

Steam until vegetables tender

Meanwhile place ricotta in mixing bowl

Crumble fetta and add

Add egg

Add steamed vegetables

Stir to mix completely

Place one sheet of phyllo on the base of the oven dish

Baste with olive oil

Repeat the process 5-6 times

Spoon the mixture on the phyllo and smooth 

Fold the ends of pastry over the vegetables and cheese basting as you go

Cover top with an extra sheet or two of phyllo basted with oil

Sprinkle poppyseed on top

Cook in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Lemon and silverbeet chicken after Abla

This is what happened when you have a few chicken drumettes left over from the previous recipe and wonder what to do with them! This is the basic original Abla recipe but with silverbeet on top. Be sure to cover the baking dish for the second part of the cooking so that the silverbeet doesn't dry out.  I enjoyed it with rice.

Ingredients

6 chicken drumettes
2 dessertspoon rock salt
1/2 lemon

1/2 tbs of minced garlic

Silverbeet 3-4 leaves

Mode

Preheat oven to 210c.
Arrange the chicken drumettes in an uncovered baking dish
Sprinkle with rock salt 
Roast for 30 minutes
Meanwhile juice the lemon
Add minced garlic to juice (about 50 ml in total)

Stir thoroughly

Roughly chop the silverbeet including white but discarding ends

Remove the chicken from the oven and pour the mixture over chicken

Add silverbeet to top

Place a lid or foil on top of the baking dish
Return to oven and roast for another 25-35 minutes.

Serve with rice or roast vegetables  

Lemon and mushroom chicken after Abla

Lots of nice fresh chicken drumettes sprang to my eye when I was at Piedimonte's the other day on an allowed outing from lockdown. So, of course, I thought of my variants of Abla's chicken wings.  This time the variant to my Abla chicken recipe was to use wild mushroom sea salt instead of her normal salt and to add mushrooms to her recipe. I cooked wholegrain Basmati rice to accompany the chicken. It was a lovely meal for a cold Melbourne night in lockdown and I had plenty left over to share with friends. 

Ingredients

16 chicken drumettes
2 dessertspoon wild mushroom sea salt
2 lemons

1.5 tbs of minced garlic

5 mushrooms

Mode

Preheat oven to 210c.
Arrange the chicken drumettes in a baking dish
Sprinkle with mushroom sea salt 
Roast for 30 minutes
Meanwhile juice the lemons
Add minced garlic to juice (about 150 ml in total)

Stir thoroughly

Slice the mushrooms

Remove the chicken from the oven and pour the  mixture over chicken

Sprinkle mushroom slices over the top
Return to oven and roast for another 25-35 minutes.

Serve with rice or roast vegetables  

Cheat’s seskoulopita

This is for you, Ελένη μου! Sometimes I make a pie very akin to Greek spanakopitta or tyropitta but using ready made sheets of frozen puff pastry instead of phyllo. Yes, I know it is not the traditional way. But let’s face it, if you are in a hurry, you can create a very nice product more quickly using frozen puff pastry.  Imagine my amazement recently when Ελένη sent me a photo of her tyropitta made with puff pastry! Yes, it is a thing and I can surely enjoy it as a fast-food thing if my Greek teacher does?

Ingredients

Half bunch silverbeet (including stalks)

2 spring onions

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp Sambal oelek

375 gr ricotta

100 gr fetta

1 egg

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

Poppyseeds 

Mode

Place a steamer on the stove and bring water to the boil

Remove pastry from freezer to thaw

Turn on oven to preheat to 180c

Meanwhile roughly chop half a bunch of silverbeet including white stalks

Add to steamer

Chop spring onions and add to steamer

Crush garlic and add to steamer

Add Sambal oelek

Steam until vegetables tender

Place ricotta in mixing bowl

Crumble fetta and add

Add egg

Add steamed vegetables

Stir to mix completely

Place one sheet of pastry in the bottom of a square oven dish

Spoon the mixture on the pastry and smooth 

Place the second sheet of pastry over the vegetables and cheese

Fold the two sheets of pastry together and press to seal

Sprinkle poppyseed on top

Cook in 180c oven for 45 minutes