Chicken Breast with Salsa Verde and Blue Cheese Pockets

First time salsa verde maker longer time admirer of the idea. Awesome sauce concept, get a whole bunch of green herbs and blitz them with some capers and citrus. I have listed here what I used but my understanding is anything green is applicable with heavier leans toward parsley and mint. If you grow your own herbs this will be cheap if not, find a friend who does. I served this with a spicy tomato pasta. Certainly hit the spot. Experiment with the flavours and adjust the salsa to suit your tastes.

1 handful basil leaves

1 handful parsley leaves

1/2 handful sage leaves

1 handful mint leaves

1/2 handful oregano leaves

1 handful thyme leaves

1/2 a lime juiced

2 garlic cloves

1 or 2 tbs capers

1 chicken boob per person

Plain flour

1 tsp paprika

2 cups Panko bread crumbs

Egg wash

Salt and pepper

Extra virgin olive oil for frying

Lemon wedges to serve

Blue cheese slices of your choice

Combine the herbs with the lime juice, garlic, some salt, 2 tbs extra virgin and 1 tbs of capers in a food processor. Check for seasoning and add more of whatever is missing eg capers or lime. Refrigerate the salsa verde until ready.

Make a small incision into the thickest part of each chicken breast with a paring knife and slice gently about inside to make a pocket without breaking the skin. Place a small slice of cheese inside each pocket with a heaped teaspoon of salsa verde. Seal with a toothpick.

Preheat an oven to 180C. Season the flour with salt and pepper and the paprika. Dust each chicken breast in the flour, dip in the egg and coat in the bread crumbs. Heat some extra virgin about 1cm deep in a frying pan over medium high. Add in the chicken breasts. Colour on one side, turn then place in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, season with salt and a squeeze of lemon and drain on absorbent paper. Add to your serving plate and top with more salsa verde.

Mussell and Chorizo Pasta

Mmmmmmmm, mussels. I have been meaning to cook some of these bad boys for a while. You should do it.

1 kg clean green mussels

3 tbs cream

1 cup white wine

2 cloves garlic

1/3 of a chorizo diced

2 shallots finely minced

1 handful parsley chopped

Salt and pepper

Sliced chilli

Freshly cooked pasta

Good bread

1 tbs butter

Have your pasta water ready to rock and roll, this doesn't take long. As soon as you add the mussels to the pot, start cooking the pasta.

Heat the butter over a medium high heat. When bubbling add in the chorizo, shallots and garlic. When fragrant pour in the wine and bring to the boil, add in the cream and heat. Add in half of the parsley, salt and pepper and pour in the mussels. Bring to a simmer and cover with a lid. Continue cooking for 5 minutes or until the shells open up, stirring occasionally. When ready, stir in the remaining parsley, sliced chilli and cooked pasta. Serve with some really good bread.

Semi-Saltimbocca

Nice. I saw a recipe for saltimbocca on Food Safari a few years ago and thought it looked simple and awesome. As the traditional recipe uses veal and I couldn't get my hands on any at the time I tried it with a pork fillet instead. Although I have never had the traditional version, this is successful. I recommend it thoroughly.

1 pork fillet

1 cup flour

Sage leaves

3 tbs butter

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Rind of 1/2 a lemon

Prosciutto

1 clove garlic sliced

Salt

Pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

Some good mash

Slice the pork fillet into 2cm rounds and beat out between clingfilm until quite thin. Season the flour with salt and pepper, lemon rind and some chopped sage leaves. Dust the pork slices in the flour. Place 1 sage leaf on each pork slice and top with some prosciutto, fold over a piece of meat and beat a little more to sort of seal it in place. Heat some extra virgin in a large frying pan and add a little butter. Fry the pork slices until they have nice colour on both sides.

Drain the oil from the pan and add in the remaining butter over a medium high heat. When bubbling add in the garlic and any remaining sage leaves. When fragrant pour in the lemon juice, stir then pour over the top of your cooked pork slices. Serve with good mash and some nice crusty bread. Very nice indeed.

 

Green Curry Crab, Corn and Ricotta Dip

I made some curry paste recently and have had fun coming up with uses for it. If you haven't made your own green curry paste before, give it a go its reasonably straight forward. Coriander, ginger, garlic, lemon grass, chilli, salt, lime juice, sesame oil (in my version) and another oil to keep it moist. Blend it all and then if you can be bothered, pound it some in a mortar and pestle to make sure it isn't stringy. In any case, I made this for adults to eat at a Kindy disco and surprisingly a wedge of kids ate it, fresh sliced chilli on top and all! To serve with this I halved wanton wrapper on the diagonal and deep fried them: unreal.

300 gms ricotta

1 or 2 tbs green curry paste

1 tub of picked crab meat

1 cob corn stripped

2 eschalots thinly sliced

2 tsp Chinese 5 spice

Juice of half a lime
1 avocado diced

Salt

Pepper
Olive oil

Chopped coriander

Sliced chilli

Heat some oil in a frying pan, add in the curry paste and cook for 1  minute, toss in the crab and corn and cook for another minute. Remove and add to a large mixing bowl. Combine the crab and corn with the ricotta, the eschalots, salt, pepper, Chinese 5 spice, some chopped coriander and half of the lime juice. Fold through the avocado. Check for seasoning and add more of whatever is missing - eg more lime juice, salt or pepper. Transfer into your serving dish and top with a little more lime juice, more chopped coriander and some sliced chilli. Serve with deep fried wanton wrappers.

Sticky Chicken Drumettes with Coriander and Nori

Sticky Asian chicken drumettes have been done before I know but these were tasty and the addition of chopped nori and coriander was really, really good. I was in a rush to cook these so they didn't marinade for more than about 5 minutes but I think that they would benefit from some time hanging out in the liquid. The danger there though is that the nori may take over so, I wouldn't recommend any longer than 1 hour.

1 kg chicken drumettes

3 tbs honey (more if you like)

3 tbs teriyaki sauce

1 thumb ginger grated

1 sheet nori

1/3 bunch coriander

2 cloves garlic minced

Juice of half a lime

1 tbs sesame oil

2 tbs olive oil

1 or 2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice

Process the nori sheet in a blender (its difficult to do with a knife). Mince the coriander and blitzed nori together with a knife until quite fine. Combine all of the ingredients except for the the chicken in a large bowl with a whisk. Mix the chicken through and allow to marinade for an hour in the fridge. Pour onto a baking paper lined baking tray (less washing up) and roast in a preheated 180C oven for 40 minutes or until golden, basting as you go. My daughter smashed 4 of these into herself after her own dinner.

Boned Leg of Lamb with Chicken, Mushroom and Blue Cheese Stuffing

I love this concept. Bone - stuff - secure - roast - over eat. Once you have boned the lamb, look for the extra thick bits and where appropriate - butterfly them out. This will hopefully give you a more even roll, particularly if you fan them out in to the gaps.

1 boned lamb leg (mine was 3 kg)

10 or 12 mushrooms chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

1/2 sprig rosemary stripped

1 honey flavoured chicken sausage

1/2 tbs blue cheese (or more)

1 handful baby spinach

6 slices prosicutto

Salt and pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

Remove the chicken meat from the sausage and discard the skin. Saute the mushrooms, garlic, rosemary and chicken in about 1 tbs of extra virgin (will depend on how thirsty your mushrooms are) with a fair bit of salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and mix through the blue cheese. Check for seasoning.

Line the inside of the boned lamb leg with prosciutto slices, top with baby spinach leaves, evenly spread out the chicken mixture, roll the meat tightly and secure with kitchen string at about 2cm intervals. Season the outside well with salt and pepper and rub in with some oil. Refrigerate until ready, mine was over night. Cook at 180C with 20 mins per 450 gms plus 20 minutes. I used the barbecue and had to do some guess work, if it bleeds when you stab it, cook it some more. As the chicken is already cooked though it shouldn't matter if the meat is medium however.

I made a sauce from the pan juices, resting juices, sugar, red wine and passatta.

Awesome the next day on rolls with some blue cheese flavoured gravy...