Creamy Chicken Volovants

Today is a sad week for me. My younger cousin, who happens to be one of my best friends is off on the trip of a lifetime to America for 10 months. I'm incredibly proud of her for taking on this adventure at only 17 but already feeling so lonely without her. Some comfort food to fill my sad little lonely self was on the cards and these volovants certainly helped- rich + creamy + hearty = comfort.

Creamy Chicken Volovants

Prep time:10 Cooking time:15  minutes  Serves:4

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast
• 3/4 cup button mushrooms
• Small bunch of spring onion
• 1 cup full cream
• 1-2 teaspooons seeded mustard
• Small knob of butter
• Salt
• Cracked pepper
• Olive oil
• 1/2 cup tasty cheese
• 4 large volovant cases

Method:

1.Dice chicken breast and cook in a large frying pan with a dash of olive oil and cook until sealed on all edges (not browned). Add bacon into the pan and cook with the chicken until both are browned and thoroughly cooked.

2. While the chicken and bacon is cooking, slice the mushrooms and spring onions. And add to the pan with a knob of butter until softened.

3. Pour the cream, seeded mustard and cracked pepper into the pan and let the mixture cook until thickened. 

4. Into the pan add the cheese and turn off the heat and let it sit until the cheese is melted. 

5. Pour the mixture evenly into the volovant cases and bake according to the instructions or until the shell is golden and the top of the volovants are browned.

The perfect sausage roll

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! I'm sorry for my absence.. it seems I thought I was a bit better at understanding blogger than I really am. I set up a quite long queue of recipes which somehow didn't post and has also disappeared from the face of the earth (or should I say, the face of blogland). If anyone knows what could have caused this/ if theres anyway to get them back your insight would be highly appreciated. Luckily I still had some edited photos on my laptop so I'll be able to retype some including this one I'm giving you today. From memory, the opening for this recipe was some witty remarks about how sausage rolls can be perfect for every occasion, perfect for every kind of person and perfectly easy to make for lunch dinner ... which is still all very true. This is an amended family recipe and can be as plained or jazzed up as you wish, the possibilities are endless. 

The Perfect Sausage Roll

Prep time:20 (using pre-made pastry)  Cooking time:30  minutes  Serves:6

Ingredients:

• 500g sausage mince
• 1 packet puff pastry slightly thawed or 2 quantities of puff pastry (link below)
• 2 large carrots
• 2 cloves of fresh garlic or 2 1/2 teaspoons or minced garlic paste
• 1 brown onion
• 1/4- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 1tbs worcestershire sauce
• Salt
• Cracked pepper
• 2 eggs

Method:

1. If making puff pastry from scratch, follow directions found in this link here to allow for chill time (for the purpose of this recipe I made puff pastry from scratch, images shown below). If using pre-made frozen pastry then take from the freezer to allow to thaw slightly. 

Pastry at the 'breadcrumb' stage

Pastry at the 'clumping' stage

The folding and rolling of the pastry

2. Preheat oven to 200c 

3. Cut the tops from carrots and chop in half (or smaller depending on the abilities of your food processor), peel and quarter onion, peel garlic and add all these ingredients and your bunch of parsley to your food processor and chop until pieces are small and well combined. 

4. In a large mixing bowl combine vegetable mixture, sausage mince, worcestechire, salt, pepper and 1 egg and use hands to combine, alternatively this can be done in a mixmaster on the 'dough' setting.

5. Once the mixture is well incorporated, slowly add breadcrumbs and mix until your sausage mixture can hold a sausage shape when squeezed into it but is still slightly gooey to the touch.

6. Cut the square of puff pastry into 2 or roll a portion of your pastry into a rectangle that is approximatley 20 x 10cm. Beat 1 egg and set aside with a pastry brush.

7. Working a centimetre in from the edge closest to you, spoon a sausage width amount along the length of the pastry with a little extra built up on the end. 

8. Brush the beaten egg along the opposite length of pastry, fold over the top edge of pastry and continue rolling until a log shape has formed. Brush the tops of sausage rolls with beaten egg.

9. Cut the sausage rolls into even sized pieces and place on a baking tray, seam side down and brush with beaten egg. Repeat for the remaining sausage mixture and pastry.

10. Bake sausage rolls for 20-30 minutes until dark golden and serve hot with homemade tomato relish.

Lemon thyme fish

There's a family story I am always reminded of when I make fish. As a toddler, my Dad used to go fishing quite frequently and for some unknown reason I fell in love with a particular type of fish. A yellow belly fish to be exact (technically Golden Perch), or, as I used to call it a 'lellabelly'. Often as he came home from a day of fishing, I would immediately pester him "Daddy you bring me a lellabelly?!" If the answer was yes, I was of course delighted, but if the answer was no I would cry, sook and sulk. Not even a consolation of "but sweetie look I caught you these big red fins!", could make it better. Thankfully, I'm now older (and hopefully a bit wiser) and love most kinds of fish and seafood but this marinade in particular has been making frequent appearances on my dinner table. This spring, pink ling has been my 'go to' fish for this recipe, although I hope that soon I'll get a chance to try it with some 'lellabelly'!

  

Lemon thyme fish

Prep time:10  Cooking time:10 minutes  Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 4 fillets of your chosen fish either fresh or fully thawed (I used pink ling)
• 1 cup of plain flour
• A small bunch of lemon thyme 
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp dried thyme leaves 
• 2 tsp onion salt
• 2 tsp garlic salt
• Cracked pepper to season 
• Oil for frying 

Method:

1. Combine flour, onion salt, garlic salt and a generous amount of cracked pepper on a large plate. 

2. Finely chop lemon thyme and combine with lemon juice and a dash of olive oil.

3. Prepare a frying pan with oil on place on medium to high heat. As the pan is heating, place the fish in the flour mixture and liberally coat both sides 

4. Place fish into the pan and cook until the side that is down is a rich golden brown, and then flip.

5. Once the fish is flipped, spoon on some of the lemon thyme mixture on top. Only placing it on one side makes sure that while the flavour still sinks in to the fish, it is overpowering and the outer of the fish still stays relatively crisp. 

6. Cook until the other side of the fish is golden brown and crisp, adding more oil between fillets as necessary and serve with sides of your choosing. 



Mango chicken

As the days are getting warmer, I'm finding it hard to match the cravings I'm having with  flavours that are suited to summer. On the hottest of days, I've been unexpectedly feeling like hearty meals. While a stew or roast might fill me up, it certainly doesn't have the fresh flavours that are so suited to Aussie heat. For me, this mango chicken is the perfect solution. Rich in flavour and colour, it's made relatively quickly and the sauce can be prepared earlier if needed. Every bit as substantial as a winter meal and balanced with all those refreshing summer flavours I love.

Mango chicken

Prep time: 15 mins Cooking time: 15 mins Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• Coconut oil to cook
• 1 red capsicum
• 1 green capsicum
• 2 carrots

Mango sauce:

• 2 cups of mango- fresh or frozen is preferable but canned can be used also
• 3 large red chillies
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tbs rice wine vinegar
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 2 tbs kecap manis
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 2 tbs fish sauce
• 1 thumb sized piece of galangal or ginger
• 1 can of coconut cream
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. De-seed and roughly chop chili. If using fresh ginger, peel and grate. Cut and juice lime.

 2. Add the chili, ginger and lime as well as all other ingredients for 'mango sauce' into a bowl, blender or food processor.

3. Don't put away any ingredients as you may need to adjust the balance of flavours once blended and then again once heated. I blended my sauce using a stick blender but the easiest way to do this would be in a food processor. Blend until it is combined and of a smooth consistency, add more coconut cream or a touch of water if its too thick.

4. Once blended you should have a delicious smelling sauce looking something like this ^ you now need to taste the sauce and see if its 'missing' anything.

• For saltiness add fish sauce or salt. 
• For sweetness  add kecap manis or brown sugar
• For a more sour flavour add lime or rice wine vinegar
• For a spicier sauce add more chili

Remember its better to add things in a little at a time- its very easy to go overboard with these strong flavours!

5. After adjusting the sauce, set it to one side. Dice the chicken breasts and add them along with some oil, into a large pan or wok to brown.

 6. While the chicken is browning you can peel and chop the carrots and chop the capsicums. They can either be diced or sliced, just try to keep the pieces a similar size.


7. Once the chicken is browned, add the sauce to the pan and allow it to heat through. Taste the sauce again, once heated and adjust it to taste.

8. The sauce should thicken sightly and bubble at the edge of the pan, add your vegetables and stir well. If desired you can now also add a handful of mango chunks to really highlight this flavour in the dish.


9. Cook the dish for a further 5-10 minutes until the vegetables are cooked to your liking.

10. Serve the meal with rice and roti bread for a delicious, filling meal.