Mediterranean Chicken Casserole

This is my fail-safe, when in doubt, easy to do, always delicious (you get the point) mid-week dinner: Mediterranean Chicken casserole. It takes about 10 minutes to put together and is a one-pot wonder. Perfect with couscous or mash, what more could you ask for?

Mediterranean Chicken Casserole

Ingredients: (serves 4)

• 8 chicken thighs
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 packet/20 Calamata olives (stoned)
• 2 red onions
• 1 tin tomatoes
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 tbs sugar
• 6 sprigs rosemary
• salt and pepper
• couscous/mashed potato to serve

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190*C
• Put a non-stick pan on med-high heat and fry the thighs, in batches, skin-side down for 3-4 minutes until nicely browned. Remove and pop into a casserole dish.
• Thinly slice garlic, cut onions into 8ths and mix together with olives, tinned tomato, wine, sugar and rosemary and pour over chicken. Grind over a little of salt and pepper and cover with foil/lid.
• Put in the oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for a further 45 minutes.
• Serve with couscous/ mash.
• Easy peasy.

Chicken and leek pie

A simple pie to please all tastes. Chicken and leek pie is comfort food at it's best and with leeks in season it's completely affordable. It won't take you long to make and will put smiles on dials in a second. Plus...making your own pastry has never been this easy.

Chicken and leek pie

Ingredients:

• Big bunch of leeks (about 5 leeks)
• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp Sasko cake flour
• 4 cups milk
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 1 tbsp thyme
• 1 roast chicken

For the pastry:

• 250g margarine/butter (at room temp)
• 1 packet Sasko Quick treats scone mix
• 100ml cold water

Method:

• To make the pastry simply mix together the scone mixture with the butter/margerine either in a food processor or using your finger tips.
• Once you have a bread-crumb like consistency and no clumps of butter/marg you can add the cold water and mix together to form a dough.
• Cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge to cool for 30 minutes.
• Pre-heat the oven to 180*C.
• Take all the meat off the chicken carcass, put it into a mixing bowl and tear into similar sized shreds.
• Wash and slice the leeks.
• Put 2 tsp butter in a pan on medium heat, add the leeks and saute them for about 10 minutes until soft, then add the remaining butter and the flour and stir for a further minute.
• Now add the milk, salt, pepper and thyme and simmer until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 4-5 minutes. Once thickened, pour the mixture over the chicken and mix well.
• Spoon the filling into a pie dish.
• Roll the pastry out to a thickness of about 7mm and to a size that is 2cm larger than the perimeter of the dish you are using.
• Use leftover pastry to line the edge of the dish.

• Carefully place the sheet of pastry on top and decorate with pastry leaves/writing/flowers, whatever you fancy really. Brush with some egg wash and put in the oven to bake for 25 minutes until golden brown.

•  Serve with a simple salad or mixed veggies

Tomato tarte tatin

Today in Joburg it hit 24*C, yes can you believe it, the end is nigh. It's heaven; sitting outside, glass of wine in hand, watching the sunset, celebrating the almost, ever-so-close, can-almost-smell-it end of winter.

In celebration I made one of my very favourite favourites: a tomato tarte tatin. It's the most wonderful combination of crisp pastry, sweet, juicy tomatoes, rich cheese and fresh herbs. It's a great first-impression maker as it's eye-rollingly devastating at a luncheon with the 'dearests' and the 'dahlings', the 'dahlings' will struggle terribly to say 'tarte tatin' and the 'dearests' will think you've spent far longer on it than you actually have. A Mother-in-law's-match-made-in-heaven.

Tomato tarte tatin with goat’s cheese and rocket

Ingredients: (serves 4 as a main/6-8 as a starter)

• 1 packet readymade puff pastry
• 400g cherry/rosa tomatoes
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp butter
• Pinch Salt and pepper
• 50g chevlin goat’s cheese/Danish feta
• 1 small packet wild/normal rocket
• 2 tbsp balsamic
• 2 tbsp Olive oil

Method:

• Preheat oven to 200*C.
• Place either an oven-proof frying pan or a non-stick frying pan on med-high heat.
• Put sugar and butter in the pan and stir until sugar is dissolved then pop in the tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes, tossing continuously to coat in the syrup. Remove from the stove and sprinkle oven salt and pepper. (If you aren’t using an oven-proof frying pan you will need to transfer the tomatoes and syrup to a greased 20-25cm round baking tin.)
• Take the sheet of puff pastry and cut into a circle slightly larger than the pan/tin. Place the pastry over the pan/tin and tuck the edges around the outside of the tomatoes and prick the centre with a fork.
• Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is lightly browned, carefully remove from the oven and place a large plate on top of the pan/tin, and, using oven gloves and some confidence, hold the plate and pan/tin tightly together and flip over. Remove the pan/tin to reveal a gorgeous, sumptuous tomato tarte tatin. Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes.
• To serve: Mix the olive oil and balsamic in a small bowl and coat the wild rocket generously in this dressing, decorate the tarte with goat’s cheese/Danish feta and top with the rocket.

Slow roasted deboned shoulder of lamb stuffed with lemon, rosemary and capers

The main event at this months' supper club was my slow roasted shoulders of lamb stuffed with lemon, rosemary and capers and let me tell you if you want to cook something magically rich and gorgeously indulgent then this is the one for you!

Without further ado here's my recipe:

Slow roasted deboned shoulder of lamb

Ingredients: (serves 4-6)

1 shoulder of lamb
zest of 3 lemons
good handful of rosemary (chopped)
good handful of parsley (chopped)
1/2 jar of capers (chopped)
1/2 cup of couscous (put in a bowl and with just enough luke-warm water to cover it, and left to stand for 15 min)
Salt and pepper
2 onions (quartered)

Serve with Potato and mint parcels

and green beans

For the gravy:

1/2 bottle red wine
lamb stock or stock cube
11/2 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp water to form a paste

Method:

Slide the string off the lamb and set aside, Roll the lamb out on a board.
Preheat oven to 150*C

Put the lemon zest, rosemary, parsley and capers on a board and give a final chop together to get their flavours mixing well.

Pop the herb mix into a bowl and mix in the couscous

Spread mixture evenly oven the inside of the shoulder, then carefully roll it up again.
Now either tie it up with string or (as I did) Get a large tube of sorts (I use a large jug or a vase) and roll the butchers' string you set aside earlier over that. Squeeze the top of the shoulder into the vase which will aid you in pulling the elasticated string back down over the shoulder once again - I know it sounds odd, but it does work.

Now pop it into a roasting dish, add the quartered onions, pour in 3 cups of water, season with a little salt and pepper and cover with foil.
Put it in the oven for 4 hours to roast before removing the foil, pouring the liquid and onions into a separate pan and turning the heat up to 200*C for a further hour, this will ensure you get that beautiful caramelisation around the edges - YUM. (5 hours in total)
Put the meat on a board, cover and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes.
Make a gravy by using the juices and onions from the roasting dish, 1/2 bottle of red wine, a lamb or vegetable stock cube/concentrate; simmer and reduce on high heat for 10 minutes before adding the corn flour mix and stirring until thickened.
Cut off the string and serve in think slices (It will fall apart as you cut it) with the mint and potato parcels and simple green beans.
Yes please!