Satay Chicken Skewers

I did it! I finally tried one of my new recipes that I have had planned for weeks! Super simple satay chicken skewers. These were adapted from the Woman's Weekly Five Day Diet recipe book. I love the idea of this book. It is full of delicious looking, fresh, simple food and allows you to have your weekends free to eat whatever you want. My only (personal) problem is that while each recipe has the nutritional information the days don't seem to stick to a calorie intake amount. This is all personal preference though, I find I get better results if I set myself a calorie goal. So I took what I felt would work for me from the book and adapted it to fit. I often find that calorie controlled recipes (Woman's Weekly, Michelle Bridges, etc) are lacking in a variety of vegetables as part of the meal so I often bulk them out with extras because I love veggies (and I'm not going to beat myself up for going over my goal with veggies).

So the first recipe I decided to try was the satay chicken skewers. They sounded tasty and super easy. And they didn't disappoint. I tried the pickled carrot and cucumber but found it a bit lacking only having the two types of vegetables and will probably have a salad next time. I also cheated and used 90 second rice, which I guess is only really cheating on the cooking time, but I hate cooking rice so I loved this. I was just cooking for myself tonight so I also appreciated that the recipe is very simple to halve. Add a glass of white wine and I was very happy.

My hints/tips this week are:
 Soak the skewers in water for about 30 minutes before you want to use them. It makes it easier to skewer the meat and stops them from burning when you are cooking.
While you can use any type of peanut butter, I think crunchy would work best. I used smooth as that was what I had in the pantry but think the extra crunch would have been awesome.
This recipe serves two.
Enjoy!

Satay Chicken Skewers



Ingredients
1 tablespoon finely chopped lemon grass
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
250g chicken tenderloins (I cut mine into 6 strips of similar size)
2 tablespoon peanut butter
1 cup chicken stock
brown rice, to serve

Method

Combine lemongrass, cumin, coriander, turmeric and chicken tenderloins in a bowl. Allow to stand for 15 minutes.
Thread chicken onto skewers.
Cook chicken in frying pan over medium-high heat until golden and cooked through.
Remove from pan and cover with foil to keep warm.
Add spices leftover from marinating chicken, peanut butter and stock to pan. Stir until combined and allow to simmer over a low-medium heat until the sauce thickens.
Serve with your choice of sides. Drizzle satay sauce over the top of the skewers.

I served my meal with brown rice and a simple pickled carrot and cucumber salad. To make the salad finely slice 200g carrot and 150g cucumber. Toss is 2 tablespoons of lime juice and 2 teaspoons of caster sugar. Allow to stand for 30 minutes. Drain off excess liquid and serve.

Nan's Pavlova Roll with Mixed Berries and Pistachio

Ahhhh what is that saying about life and the best laid plans? Let's just say that despite my meal planning, shopping and excitement about my list of new recipes to try, I am yet to try one. Thanks to Aunty duties (which I love), gastro, a busy weekend and now a lovely (note the sarcasm) cold. I did manage to sneak in a dessert to use up some leftover egg whites though.

 One of my Dad's favourite desserts is pavlova. I recently made my first ever pavlova and was quite surprised by my success. I wanted to try something slightly different this time though and my Nan makes a fantastic variation with her pavlova roll. Thanks to my 'best laid plans' I had a variety of berries in the fridge begging to be eaten, so all I needed was some cream and I decided to spice it up with some pistachios. This is a super easy recipe, which takes very little time to prepare, only 15 minutes to cook and then a little while to cool, roll and decorate. And it is delicious!

My couple of tips or words of warning. I overwhipped my meringue, there was about 20 seconds between not whipped enough and over, I was doing it in Doris my thermoblend though which I haven't mastered yet. Luckily it still worked well, but just be careful. Also while you need to roll the pavlova while it is still slightly warm make sure you give it some time to cool or you will melt the cream. After rolling I placed it in the fridge for about 15 minutes before I decorated the outside. Finally the sky is the limit with your filling and topping. I used berries because that is what I had and I love berries but anything that you would top a traditional pavlova would work. My family love peppermint crisp with pavlova and I think that would be awesome with this variation!

Well, with out further ado unto the recipe! Enjoy! And please let me know if you try it out.

Nan's Pavlova Roll with Mixed Berries and Pistachio

Ingredients
6 egg whites
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon white vinegar
2 cups fresh mixed berries
A handful of crushed pistachio nuts
500ml whipped cream

Method
Line a tray with gease proof paper.
Preheat oven to 170°C.
Beat egg whites until firm peaks form.
Add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating until dissolved.
Blend in vinegar and vanilla.
Spread meringue evenly into pan.
Cook in oven for 12-15 minutes.

Assembly

While pavlova is in the oven, whip the cream, chop up the berries and crush the pistachio nuts.
Remove pavlova from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
Once slightly cooled spread 1/3 of the cream onto pavlova. Place 1/2 the berries down the centre of the pavlova (length ways).
Roll the pavlova, so that the berries run down the centre of the roll.
Place pavlova roll on plate and refrigerate for 15 - 30 minutes.
Once completely cool cover the pavlova roll with remaining cream and top with remaining berries and the pistachio.

Go-to Cake and White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting recipe.

Sorry for the radio silence everyone. I've been in a slump, lacking inspiration and motivation in the kitchen for the last few weeks and as a result I let The Weekly Feast slide.

Do you ever find yourself at the end of a project looking at your finished product and being disappointed, even though it is perfectly fine? That is how my slump started. A few weeks ago I decided to try my hand at thrice cooked chips. They are something that are always raved about on cooking shows and I was intrigued. Deep frying is not something I have much, okay any, experience with. We don't even own a deep fryer. But I decided to give it a go the old fashioned way, with a saucepan full of oil. I took the time, researched the technique, I made sure my chips were all very similar size and I even used a timer. All up I think I spent 2 hours on these chips, and I was disappointed. To be perfectly honest they tasted no better than store-bought oven chips, actually they weren't even as crispy as oven chips. They tasted fine but lacked that distinctive crunch. I don't know if it was the oil I used, my technique, my timing or the fact that I was just guessing with the temperature of my deep frying oil. But the end result left me disappointed.

Now while the chips were a small failure, the rest of the meal was quite tasty, but I was already in that funk. I had decided to have pork spare ribs with the chips. I mean what a classic combo, ribs and chips! After searching and procrastinating I landed upon this recipe for slow-cooker southern pork ribs. Looking back now I can appreciate this recipe, however I will admit that at the time the whole meal left me disappointed. I didn't even bother to plate it nicely and photograph it. The problem was that the whole meal did not match up to the picture I had in my head. But now I can see it was not the disaster I imagined it to be. The chips, while not crispy, were tasty and the sauce from the ribs was delicious. 

Since the 'failed' feast I have lost my mojo in the kitchen. I have been keeping things simple and boring. Cooking so I can eat, not because I am enjoying it. I decided to skip last weekend as I was going away and hoped I would come back refreshed and ready to get back in the kitchen. It was just what I needed. I headed down to the Hunter Valley to see the Eagles play at Hope Estate. They are one of my all time favourite bands and I've been hanging for this concert since 2013 when Glenn Fry mentioned the possibility of them returning in the near future. Couple that with the fact that we had seats closer to the stage than I have ever dreamed of being (21 rows from the front!!) and I was pumped! Well let's just say that the concert was...Spectacular! Amazing! Fabulous! Everything I wanted, basically. And it worked. I came home and spent Sunday evening and Monday trawling through my recipe books and picking out new and exciting things. To add to my new inspiration I went out to lunch on Tuesday, just a simple meal at the ex-services club but it was so tasty and presented so beautifully that it made me want to get in the kitchen and work to evolve some of my own recipes to make them something special. So keep an eye out for some of my own recipes hitting the blog in the future! Then I spent today grocery shopping for the next fortnight, when I will be trying out lots of new recipes. I promise to share my stories on time! 

I haven't been in the kitchen yet but as a sorry for going MIA I'm going to share my go-to cake and white chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe with you. What I love about this recipe is that the frosting isn't sickeningly sweet and the cake is so versatile. Add some cocoa for a simple chocolate cake, add your favourite flavoured essence, colour it, shape it. The sky is the limit. As you can see I love rainbow cakes. I simply make a double batch of batter, divide evenly and colour, then bake each cake. So enjoy the recipe and I will be back soon! I would love to see your creations if you try out the recipe.

Go-to Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe



Ingredients

Cake
125g butter, softened
1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups (225g) self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup (125g) milk

Frosting
170g white chocolate
455g cream cheese
3/4 cup butter, softened
3 cups icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste

Method
Cake
Preheat oven to a moderate temperature. I generally set my oven to 160°, but every oven is slightly different. Grease and line cake pan/s.
Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time until combined.
Stir in flour and milk, in batches. Be sure not to over mix in this stage, you want your batter to stay light.
If adding colouring now is the time.
Pour batter into cake pan/s.
Bake until a skewer inserted comes out clean, generally between 25-35 minutes depending on the thickness of you cake.
Allow to cool in pan/s for 5 minutes, then turn out onto cooling rack to cool completely.

Frosting
Whip cream cheese until soft and smooth.
Add butter and whip until smooth and light in colour. The longer you whip the paler you frosting will be.
Add icing sugar and vanilla. Whip until pale and fluffy. If the mixture stays on your paddle/whisk/spoon when you hold it up you have reached the right consistency. If it is too runny, try placing in the fridge for an hour.
Melt white chocolate. I melt mine in the microwave but you can use a double boiler. If using microwave, place in a safe bowl, microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring with a metal or plastic spoon in between.
Allow chocolate to cool.
Once cool beat chocolate into frosting and refrigerate for several hours to firm up.

Assembly
Once cake has cooled and frosting has set, it is time to assemble your cake. This part is all about your imagination! I love assembling as a layer cake with frosting sandwiched between each layer. This recipe makes A LOT of frosting but it's my favourite so I would rather have too much, than not enough.