3 Ways with Chicken and Mango Salsa

This mango salsa appears quite often during the warmer months as it can dress up a plain piece of chicken. I have included 3 different ideas for the chicken breasts, but you can cook your chicken anyway you want to.

I usually serve my chicken and salsa with rice and salad, the rice is particularly good for sopping up the salsa juices.

You can alter the salsa to your liking, I am just giving you the basic recipe that can be added to by you.

All chicken recipes are for 4 chicken breasts cut into strips about the size of the tenderloin, you can leave the breasts whole, but I think the littler strips gives you more area to flavour and enjoy.

Idea 1 - Tandoori

To 2 heaped tablespoons of tandoori paste add 3/4 cup greek yoghurt mix together, add the chicken and coat well.

Leave for at least 20 minutes before cooking.

Idea 2 - Lemon and herb

juice of 2 lemons, 4 tbsps chopped fresh herbs like oregano, thyme, parsley, mint and basil, 4 tbsps olive oil

Mix together add the chicken and leave at least 15 minutes but now more than an hour because the juice can start to cook the chicken.

Idea 3 - Jerk chicken

juice 2 limes, 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, 2 tsps each ground cumin and coriander, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp dried or 2 tsps fresh chopped thyme. 4 tbsps olive oil, 2 cloves garlic grated

Mix all together add the chicken, cover and leave in the fridge at least 1 hour for all the flavours to impregnate the chicken.

Mango Salsa

1 ripe mango, 1 small tomato deseeded and chopped into 1 cm pieces, 1/2 red onion finely diced, juice 1 lime = 1 tbsp, 1 tsp brown or palm sugar, 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes or fresh chilli finely chopped, 1/4 red or yellow capsicum cut into 1 cm pieces

In a small bowl, peel the mango and dice into 1 cm pieces, squeeze the pip to get some of the mango juices, add the remaining ingredients mix together. Taste it may need more lime juice, chilli or sugar.

You want a sweet and sour flavour with a hint of chilli.

So next time you go to cook your chicken and what to make it more alive think salsa. Ole !

3 Ways with Stale Bread

Now in our society we are encouraged to reuse and recycle, this can easily be done by thinking outside of the box when trying to reuse leftovers.

Now most people would throw out stale bread or perhaps turn them into crunchy croutons, but here a 3 recipes for stale bread that might give you inspiration to use it in other dishes.

I have travelled to Italy for inspiration, they seem to have lots of recipes for using stale bread. I have adapted some of Lidia Bastianich's recipes

Lasagna

1 bottle passatta, approx 16 , 2 cm wide slices stale bread, 1/2 tsp salt, olive oil, 2 cloves garlic finely sliced or grated, 1/2 onion finely diced, 1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano - or you can use basil or parsley or a combination of all, 2 cups grated Parmesan or 1 cup of each grated Parmesan and mozzarella

Preheat the oven 180.c

Heat 3 tbsps oil in a frypan add the onion, saute over medium heat till it begins to soften. Add the garlic, saute 30 seconds, then add tomato passatta, simmer 15 minutes or until it thickens. Stir in the herbs then season with salt.

Place some boiling water into a shallow dish. Brush the base and side of a 20cm x 30cm baking dish. Place a ladleful of sauce over the bottom, quickly dip the bread in the water turn over and dip again, this will soften it, place in a layer over the sauce, sprinkle with some more sauce then some cheese continue layering making sauce then cheese the final layer.

Bake for 2- 25 minutes until the lasagna is heated through and the cheese is golden and bubbling.

Rocket, Bread and Potato Soup

750gms medium-size potatoes, peeled, washed, and cut into 1/2-inch slices,7 cups water ,salt, 500 gms rocket,½ cup day-old Italian bread, without crusts, diced, 4 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil, 6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed, ½ teaspoon crushed chilli flakes, ½ cup Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated

In a deep, heavy pot combine potatoes and 7 cups water. Salt the water lightly and bring it to a boil. Adjust the level of heat to medium-high and cook the potatoes, covered, until they are tender, but still hold their shape, about 18 minutes.

Wash the rocket in cool water to remove all sand and grit, changing the water if necessary. Drain the rocket well and cut it into 5 cm lengths. Stir the rocket and bread into the pot. Continue boiling 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a separate pan, heat the olive oil over low heat. Add the garlic and chilli and cook until golden, about 3 minutes.

Scrape the contents of the skillet into the pot. Stir well. Season the soup with salt to taste. Serve in warm bowls, sprinkled with grated cheese.

Now for some thing sweet

Bread and Butter Pudding

75g unsalted butter, 75g sultanas, optional 3 tablespoons dark rum or other liquor of your choice, 10 slices bread approx, optional jam of your choice, 4 egg yolks, 1 egg, 3 tbsps caster sugar, 1 tsp spice of you choice - cinnamon, cardamom, anise etc, 500ml double cream, 200ml full-fat milk, 2 tbsps demerara or raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Grease a pudding dish with a capacity of about 1½ litres with some of the butter.

Put the sultanas in a small bowl, pour the rum over, and microwave them for 1 minute, then leave them to stand. This is a good way to soak them quickly but juicily.

Make sandwiches with the bread, with butter and jam if using , you should have some butter left over to smear on the top later.

Now cut the sandwiches in half into triangles and arrange them evenly along the middle of the pudding dish. I put one in the dish with the point of the sandwich upwards then one with flat-side uppermost, then with point-side uppermost and so on, then squeeze a sandwich-triangle down each side - but you do as you please. Sprinkle over the sultanas and unabsorbed rum that remains in the bowl.

Whisk the egg yolks and egg together with the caster sugar, and pour in the cream and milk. Pour this over the triangles of bread and leave them to soak up the liquid for about 10 minutes, by which time the pudding is ready to go into the oven. Smear the bread crusts that are poking out of the custard with the soft butter, mix the spice and demerara sugar together and sprinkle this mixture on your buttered crusts and then lightly over the rest of the pudding.

Sit the pudding dish on a baking sheet and put it in the oven to cook for about 45 minutes or until the custard has set and puffed up slightly. Remove, let sit for 10 minutes - and spoon out into bowls, putting a jug of custard, should you so wish, on the table to be served alongside.

So next time you go to throw out your stale bread have a think about how you can reuse it and make it into something much more tasty.

Egg and Bacon Tart

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah ! Big sigh everything is back to normal today, Miss Fish is back to work, also as a bonus she goes into respite today until Thursday. So I can just potter for the next 3 days, no driving in and out of town to drop her off or pick her up.

Now to the tart, this really is a cross between a tart and a flan, it is probably a cheek calling it either, as it is a sheet of puff pastry with the ingredients on top then baked.

Not the best photo I admit, I should learn not to take photos in a hurry,but never mind you can see what it looks like, and the taste was wonderful all baconny and cheesy a good combination.

Now you could have it as it is or serve it with a salad.

Bacon and Egg Tart

For each sheet of puff pastry you will need

2 handfuls of baby rocket, 1 cup grated tasty cheese, 2 eggs, 4 bacon eyes - I just used the eye part so you didn't have the fat, salt and pepper

Preheat the oven 200.c.

Line baking trays with baking paper. Place the pastry sheet on the tray. Top with the rocket, leaving a 2cm border around the edge. Whisk together eggs, cheese and salt and pepper, carefully pour over rocket, top with the bacon.

Bake in the oven 15 - 20 minutes or until the pastry is brown and the egg/cheese mixture has set.

Remove from the oven, slice and eat.

I was also busy on the weekend re doing my nails and I am quite proud of my design. The nail polish on my acrylic nails, my own nails are underneath the acrylic.

The red is my favourite - it is by Chi Chi called Mother in law Red, the glitter stripes are silver holographic by CM.

Easy Bean Salad and Another 2 Bite the dust

Not only have I managed to finish one quilt in the last month I have just finished the second one.

I am quite proud of my achievements as I have had some of these quilt tops sitting around for a while as I thought the process of preparing then quilting them to be quite daunting.

But as it turned out it wasn't that hard you just need time to prepare the quilt and make sure you don't spray your ironing starch about with gay abandon as Miss Fish found out last week when she went skidding across the kitchen tiles , and came crashing to the ground. I felt a bit guilty about that I must remember to put a towel under then ironing board first to catch the over spray.

So now just to sell them to fund more quilts.

Now to the bean salad this is what I served with my chicken dish for my Anniversary dinner. It is very simple and only takes about 5 minutes to make. I served it on some sliced baby cos lettuce leaves, the crunch of the leaves went well with the creaminess of the beans. You can use any canned beans you like, I choose a can of 4 bean mix.

Bean salad

1 x 380 - 400 can beans, drained and rinsed, 1/2 stick celery finely diced, 1/4 capsicum finely diced, 1 tbsp finely diced cucumber, 1 tbsps chopped fresh mint, champagne or white wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper

In a small bowl mix together first 5 ingredients. Pour over just enough oil to make the beans glisten, approx 1 dessertspoon, season with salt and pepper. Add approx 2 tsps vinegar, stir then taste you want a slight tang but not a biting sharpness from the vinegar.