Dina’s tuna pie

This tuna pie is for Dina who wants to cook a fish pie for our time in isolation in Melbourne!  The fish I had to cook was a fillet of fresh tuna. I added various vegetables that attracted me when I peered into the fridge as well as garlic, ginger and some basil paste. I had intended coriander but the frozen stock I had of it seemed to have lost its flavour. However, the basil paste sufficed and was indeed yummy.  

Ingredients

1/2 red capsicum

2 spring onions 

1 mushroom

2 cloves garlic crushed

2 tsp crushed ginger root

2 tsp basil paste

200 gr fresh tuna

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

Poppy seed

Mode

Remove pastry sheets from freezer to thaw

Preheat oven to 180c

Chop spring onion

Slice mushroom and red capsicum

Crush garlic and ginger

Place one sheet of pastry in baking dish

Add tuna

Arrange vegetables around salmon

Add garlic, ginger and basil paste

Cover with second sheet of pastry

Roll edges to seal

Add pastry forming a Δ for Dina

Sprinkle with poppy seeds

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Alba’s chicken with citrus soy

It is true. In lockdown I am not being creative. Instead I am returning to the comfort zone of favourites and making them as I always have or making a slight change. Such is the comfort we need in these times. 

Today I cooked my beloved favourite but a variant naturally of both my own other attempts at the dish as well as the Alba original. Abla calls it “chicken wings in garlic” but I always cook the recipe with drummettes and other variants. This is tonight’s dinner. The minor variant tonight was the addition of ginger as well as some citrus soy my sister gave me for my birthday.

Ingredients

10 chicken drumettes
2 dessertspoon rock salt
2 lemons

1.5 tbs of minced garlic

2 tsp minced ginger root

2 tablespoons Saori citrus soy

Mode

Preheat oven to 210c.
Arrange the chicken drumettes in a baking dish
Sprinkle with rock salt 
Roast for 30 minutes
Meanwhile juice the lemons
Add minced garlic, minced ginger and citrus to juice (about 200 ml in total)

Stir thoroughly

Remove the chicken from the oven and pour the  mixture over chicken
Return to oven and roast for another 25-35 minutes.

Enjoy! 

Iso pie for Maria’s birthday!

Another day another iso pie. This one is for my dear friend Maria Brent in New Jersey on her birthday!  So sorry we can’t share it in celebration! 

Today is freezing in Melbourne. No not literally as 7c is not freezing. But I am particularly cold as my heating system has seized up and I am reduced to wearing ugg slippers to keep my feet warm. Faced with the chill, I guess that when I came to think about dinner I was always going to choose to cook something in the oven and let a little of its warmth permeate.

Yes salmon I had as the basis. On checking the fridge, zucchini, red pepper, coriander and spring onions emerge as the preferred candidates. A bit of garlic and ginger. Frozen puff pastry and M on the top. Perfect. So simple to do with an oven. 

Ingredients

1/2 red capsicum

1/2 zucchini

1 spring onion 

2 cloves garlic crushed

2 tsp crushed ginger root

Fresh coriander

300 gr skinless Tasmanian salmon

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

Poppy seed

Mode

Remove pastry sheets from freezer to thaw

Preheat oven to 180c

Chop spring onion

Slice zucchini and red capsicum

Crush garlic and ginger

Chop coriander

Place one sheet of pastry in baking dish

Add salmon

Arrange vegetables around salmon

Add garlic, ginger and coriander

Cover with second sheet of pastry

Roll edges to seal

Add pastry forming an M for Maria

Sprinkle with poppy seeds

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Salmon pie with vegetables

It’s cold and rainy in Melbourne. Well it is winter. What will I cook for my iso dinner? I stand at the fridge door contemplating. But it is a no brainer really. I have Tasmanian salmon and frozen puff pastry. It is just a matter of what I cook with the salmon in the pie. 

Silverbeet, red pepper and spring onions emerge as the preferred candidates. A bit of garlic, ginger and Sambal oelek. Perfect. So simple to do with an oven. 

Ingredients

1/2 red capsicum

1 spring onion

1 leaf of silverbeet 

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 tsp crushed ginger root

1/2 tsp Sambal oelek

220 gr skinless Tasmanian salmon

2 sheets frozen puff pastry

Poppy seed

Mode

Remove pastry sheets from freezer to thaw

Preheat oven to 180c

Chop spring onion, silverbeet and red capsicum

Crush garlic and ginger

Place one sheet of pastry in baking dish

Add salmon

Arrange vegetables around salmon

Add garlic, ginger and Sambal oelek

Cover with second sheet of pastry

Roll edges to seal

Sprinkle with poppy seeds

Bake in 180c oven for 45 minutes

Chicken and dill balls in tomato sauce

This is for you, Maria Ganotis Brent, as I try to stop hitting the carbs during COVID lockdown. Sadly we didn’t get to meet this year in Greece or the Lake District but there will always be του χρόνου. But I often think of you as I gobble down bread (albeit multigrain sourdough) and know that I should be reducing my carb intake, particularly the refined products and sugar.  Yes, I know I served this with rice but you don’t have to.

As readers of this blog know, I love meatballs in any shape or form. These happened because I found chicken mince in Piedimonte’s and looked to see what I had in the fridge and pantry. The other evening I watched a cookery show of Jamie Oliver and was in awe about how he used up all his dying vegetables to make sachets of tomato sauce to freeze. Yes, I do use whatever is around to make sauces but not usually in volumes enough to store.  I find there are good ready made sauces in the supermarket and I always have some of those ready at hand in the pantry whether I am in Melbourne or Athens. This time I used a Melbourne favourite, the Five Brothers tomato and basil pasta sauce.

Ingredients 

500 gr tomato sauce

250 gr water

500 gr chicken mince

3 teaspoons crushed garlic

3 teaspoons crushed ginger root

2 tablespoons chopped dill

2 spring onions

Olive oil

Shaved Parmesan 

Wholemeal brown basmati rice

Mode

Place the tomato sauce in a pan to heat

Add the water to sauce jar, shake and add to sauce

Stir to combine

Bring to simmer and reduce heat

Place chicken mince in bowl

Crush garlic and ginger and add

Chop dill and add

Chop spring onions and add

Stir to combine thoroughly using hands if needed

With a tablespoon sized mixture form balls

Meanwhile heat olive oil in frying pan

In batches seal the chicken balls in the oil and add to the tomato sauce

Simmer in sauce until cooked through and imbued with tomato sauce flavours

Serve with multigrain basmati rice and sprinkle with shaved Parmesan. 

Lemon and pomegranate chicken

I always love cooking Alba’s chicken wings in garlic and as well as the constant variants on it I decide about when I look in my pantry while cooking. The focus in this one includes the normal salt, garlic and lemon but with the addition of ginger and pomegranate molasses. Yummy! 

Ingredients

16 chicken drumettes
2 dessertspoon rock salt
3 lemons

1.5 tbs of minced garlic

2 tsp minced ginger root

4 tsp pomegranate molasses

Mode

Preheat oven to 210c.
Arrange the chicken drumettes in a baking dish
Sprinkle with rock salt 
Roast for 30 minutes
Meanwhile juice the lemons
Add minced garlic, minced ginger and pomegranate molasses to juice (about 350 ml in total)

Stir thoroughly

Remove the chicken from the oven and pour the  mixture over chicken
Return to oven and roast for another 25-35 minutes.

Spicy orange chicken revised!

Ah spiced orange baked with chicken! How delicious is that! I had forgotten until in lockdown a suggestion from a Greek friend reminded me that I had been intending to roast  a chicken and to use it to make soup as well.  So I went off to buy a chicken and on the way home thought of my Stephanie Spiced oranges stored in a high kitchen cupboard. Just the thing!

And indeed they were! I had previously cooked a variant of this, but this time I added the fresh orange I had bought to go with the chicken before I remembered the delicious spiced oranges.

Ingredients

1 fresh chicken
6 cloves garlic
Spiced oranges (orange and syrup)
4 potatoes
1 orange sweet potato

1 parsnip

1 navel orange

Dried rosemary

Olive oil

Mode

Preheat oven to 220c
Quarter potatoes, chop sweet potato and place in bowl

Peel parsnip, chop  and add to vegetables

Crush with blade of knife three garlic cloves still in their skins

Add these garlic cloves and rosemary to vegetables
Dribble with olive oil
Pull up your sleeves and mix vegetables to coat with oil

Rub the chicken inside and out with several pieces of the spiced orange
Place remnants of spiced orange inside cavity

Quarter orange and place in chicken cavity 
Peel and crush the remaining garlic cloves and rub over chicken

Add any remnants of garlic to the cavity
Sprinkle several spoonsful of the spiced orange syrup over top, bottom, sides and cavity of chicken
Place chicken in baking dish on its side
Arrange vegetables around
Rub chicken with remaining oil from bowl
Place in centre of oven and cook for 20 minutes
Bring out of oven and turn chicken to other side

Pour several spoonsful of spiced orange syrup over chicken
Turn the vegetables
Cook for another 20 minutes
Bring out of oven and turn chicken onto back (ie breast facing upwards)
Turn the vegetables
Cook for another 20 minutes
During this final 20 minutes of cooking prepare salad or vegetables to accompany.