Sunday Lunch: Chicken Tagine

This recipe has morphed from it's original into a total family staple. It originally comes from the little recipe booklet that came with my sister's Emille Henry Tagine, and in that version of this recipe, lamb is used as the principal ingredient. However, the first time I tasted it, my sister had made it with chicken, and I absolutely adored it. Since then, I've made it with eggplants and chickpeas in place of the chicken, so a completely vegan version, and it was delicious. The most important ingredients to give it its signature flavours are pitted prunes and cinnamon, and a long slow cooking time...

Ingredients: 

(serves 4)

5 free range chicken thighs, chopped into 2cm cubes

1 onion, diced

garlic, smashed

1/2 cup pitted prunes

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1/2cup peas

1 cup filtered water

1 tablespoon raw sugar

1/2 cup uncooked Risoni/Rice optional

Coconut oil for frying

In your tagine, heat oil over a moderate heat, then add onion and garlic and sautee until translucent. Add chicken and cooked until browned (NB, this is where I would usually add eggplant, if doing the vegan version). Add cinnamon and water and stir, then place lid on. Leave to simmer away for around an hour, checking occasionally that it's not sticking. It looks absolutely disgusting at this point, don't be concerned. 

Remove lid and add the prunes and stir, cook for an additional twenty minutes, lid on. 

Then, incorporate sugar, peas and risoni, stir and finish up for another 10 minutes or so, lid off, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn't catch on the bottom.

It's great with some nuts added through at the end too, or served with some oil and spicy chutney. The long cooking time is perfect for a mid-winter lunch as I can set it going early in the morning and just enjoy the fragrant aroma all day long! 

Cous Cous Sushi

I don't actually think wholegrain cous cous is a preferable alternative to brown rice. It did however have the advantage of being super quick to prepare, and that's the reason I made this sushi with cous cous instead of rice. 

The filling is a beautiful avocado and a sesame seed omelette.

It's  super easy to make sushi, and I often don't use a rolling bamboo mat x the trick, for me at least, is not overfilling the nori.

Simply prepare your rice or sushi as per the packet instructions, and your fillings of choice. Lay out the nori paper, shiny side down, and spoon rice/cous cous in the middle section only, leaving at least 4cm exposed on either edge. Wet one edge with a little bit of water and roll, keeping pressure evenly applied. Refrigerate before serving.

Happy 4th of July, Americans!

I hope your celebrations are filled with family and the best kind of food - healthy stuff! Here's a suggestion for your breakfast table. This is a flag made from organic frozen raspberries, organic forzen blueberries, and organic co-yo for the white. For those of you not in the know-know, co-yo is what I call this heavenly creation - youghurt mixed with dessicated coconut. The coconut stops the yoghurt from spreading too far, and gives this a delicious texture and taste. 

Enjoy your Independence Day, folks. 

Date & Malt Bisuits

In grappling with the rather diminutive size of my littlest one (at two, she's still barely fitting in size one clothes) I started looking at nutritious ways I could up her calorie intake. We had peanut butter & honey ice creams (amazing and dangerous because I just wanted to eat them all myself), lots of banana based treats, and malt extract, liquid, in its purest form. 

I was attracted to malt because not only is it high calorie and high carb, it's also filled with nutrients, and boasts some great side effects. According to the folk over at livestrong, malt "contain vitamins B2, B3, B6 and B12, iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, as well as some amino acids that can be used by your body to build protein...Drinking malt extract beverages at night might help you get to sleep more easily because of the mineral content, which relaxes your muscles. The maltose in malt extract is easy for your body to digest and provides a quick source of energy. B vitamins are needed for metabolism and energy production. Minerals are needed for normal muscle tone and strong bones."

And so, today, we set about baking some snacks using malt and dates for the sweetener. In fact, these awesome little guys have five ingredients (six including the optional 70% dark chocolate I finished them with). 

(Measuring and mixing is a SERIOUS business!)

Ingredients: 

1 cup sifted spelt flour plus a little extra for kneading

1/2 cup LSA

1/2 cup roughly chopped dates

1/3 cup liquid malt

75g butter, melted

Dark chocolate (optional)

Preheat oven to 125'c fan forced, and line a baking tray with baking paper.

In a bowl, combine all ingredients except the chocolate and mix with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Turn it out onto the baking tray and shape into a rectangle. 

Bake for twenty minutes then increase the temperature to 180'c and finish for five minutes. 

Remove from oven and cut into bite sized pieces immediately. 

Set aside. If you're using the dark chocoloate, melt it eithet in a microwave or using a double boiler, and spread over the bottom of the treats. I drizzled a little over the tops, too. 

The kids smashed these. They are sweet in the best possible way, and with a really great depth of flavour owing to the malt. I hope you like them as much as we did!

Here's a blog I wrote when we first discovered my little one is teeny weeny (funny, I remember feeling so distraught, and now her pocket-rocketness is just another awesome part of her!): http://littlelunching.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/thumbelina.html

And here's that sinfully wickedly yummy peanut butter ice cream recipe: http://littlelunching.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/honey-and-peanut-butter-ice-cream.html

Courgette & Kale Gnocchi

I feel as though my gnocchi is getting further away from the traditional version every time I make it, and I'm well aware that this recipe might shock puritanical pasta lovers. But, surprisngly, this clean and green version of the well-loved pasta is nutty and delicious. The trick was in pureeing the greens to such a point that they were pretty much slush. 

Ingredients

1 x courgette, washed and sliced. 

1 handful of kale, washed well

1 free range egg

Approx 1 cup spelt flour

In a food processor, combine first the courgette and kale and blitz until a paste like consistency is achieved. Add the egg and half the flour and blitz. You want to form a dough only a little wetter than a pie pastry dough. Continue adding flour, a spoon at a time, until it comes together. 

Turn out onto a chopping board and knead for a moment, then wrap in gladwrap and refrigerate to firm (approx ten minutes). 

Remove from the fridge and section it - we did four sections. On a lightly floured work surface, and using your fingers, roll the dough into long snakes. Slice into one cm pieces. (Older kids can do this with a butter knife, under supervision.)

Meanwhile, set a pan of water to boil on the stove. Add the gnocchi and cook until it has begun to float to the surface of the water (five minutes-ish). 

For the kids, I heated a little olive oil and truffle oil and sauteed the boiled gnocchi with some grated cheese. Voila! Easy dinner, and doesn't it look vibrant? (For grown ups, I would have made a sauce with capers and anchovies, oil and garlic, to set off the nutiness of the gnocchi.)

Mid-Week Baking: sugar-free muffins

I've posted before about how hard I find it to shake off my control-freak nature and let the kids help me in the kitchen. The thing is, it really is a great activity for them. My son, particularly, loves cracking eggs, stirring things, measuring out dry ingredients and counting the components of recipes.

Looking for an activity today, we settled on baking (my kids love to eat, and as you know, I prefer that they eat treats we've made ourselves).

These berry muffins are organic and sugar free, and so simple that even with a three and a two year old at the helm, they turned out beautifully.

Ingredients
1 cup organic spelt flour
1 tablespoon gluten free baking powder
1/2 cup LSA for extra fiber
3/4 cup organic yoghurt
1 cup berries (mine were frozen organic)
2 tablespoons coconut spread, melted
2 tablespoon manuka honey

For the icing, I used a handful of frozen berries, a cup of cream and a tablespoon extra of honey.

Pre-heat oven to 180'c fan forced.

The most important thing with ANY muffin recipe is not to over mix your batter. I don't understand the science behind it, but once you've added your wet ingredients to your dry, you only get three or four whips of the spoon to combine the components. Anythign more than that and they miraculously turn out rubbery and evil.

So, sift your dry ingredients together and stir to combine (I let my kids wear their arms out here - it's no fail). In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Make a whole in the center of the flour mixture and add the yoghurt/berries etc. 

Gently bring it together, again, being careful not to beat the fluff out of it.

Spoon mix into prepared muffin tins, and bake for around 15-20 minutes. Do the skewer test to check they're cooked through. If they are browning too much on top, cover with alfoil while they finish.

I served generously heaped with icing (I'm trying to put kilos on my littlest one!) but they are great without. Just a bit of warm butter would finish them nicely. And yes, the eggs are intentionally left out - they don't need them here. This is a matter of economy, really - we must go through two dozen eggies a week in our house, so any recipe I can get away with cutting them out, I do... 

I'm a fan of sugar-free muffins, using natural ingredients like banana, honey or coconut spread to sweeten instead. Here's a recipe I did a while back for banana and coconut muffins.

Fish & Chips

I suppose it was reasonably inevitable that my little guys would turn into foodies. The inevitability in no way detracts from the pride I feel when I hear my son evince appreciation for good flavour. He loves fish and chips, and asked for them tonight. When I make them at home, I use good quality veg, responsibly fished salmon and wholemeal crumb, so I love this dinner for the healthy side of it, and the fact I know it will get polished off. 

Plus, as my son is nudging closer to four, he's getting more and more helpful in the galley. You might be surprised to hear that I'm not one of those mums relishing the chance to let the kids loose in the kitchen. I'm a control freak by nature, and the kitchen is unequivocally MY domain. I'm also a bit of a neat freak and there is nothing neat about kids and cooking. Nonetheless, all that has had to fall by the wayside somewhat, given my son's interest in 'helping' me cook dinner. It's a great chore for him to feel a part of (what is more central to a family than meal preparation?).

So tonight, he crumbed the fish, taking great care to equally coat the pieces (and spilling - gulp - less breadcrumbs on the  bench than you might have expected).