Cast Iron Cookware

I'm not a chef but i love to cook and do it well. I hate it when food come out bad. Last night I decided to do a chicken dish in our new cast iron dutch oven, which we bought on the net for $70 (score).

First I browned the chicken(drums) in rice bran oil for about 2 to 3 minutes then took them out. Next I put in onion celery and carrot (chopped) until softened. Once that was done o put the chicken back in added 2 cups of chicken stock salt and pepper covered and simmered for one and a half hours.

While that was cooking I did a potato mash(made with some of the chicken liquid) and cabbage.

This is the first time I have cooked a casserole and when I took the first piece of chicken out , to my horror the bone came and the meat stayed in the pot.

It was soooooo tender and full of flavour I cant wait to do another now winter is coming.

Some people probably think " I've done that dish easy peasy" but like I've said before im not a cook just someone that loves to make yummies for me and my honey and the more I cook the more I want to try new things.

(And I love getting new cookware just for an excuse to try some new technique ha ha )

Pork Ribs

Last night my in laws came over to watch the Ausy Open tennis so we made a night of it. We had some pork ribs that i have never cooked before and some chicken breast.

I mixed together a dry rub for the pork using the following:
1tablespoon Paprika, Onion powder, Garlic powder, Black pepper, 2tablespoons Salt, 1 1/2teaspoons Cinnamon, 6tablespoons Brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon Cayenne pepper

I rubbed 2/3 on to the ribs and let sit for about 3 hours with the rest i mixed with tomato sauce and used to baste during cooking. After about 30minutes i wrapped the ribs in foil and put on the rack to keep warm while i cooked some sausages. With both now on the warming rack i cooked the chicken that had a Tandori rub.

With ribs, sausages and chicken we also had potato salad, lettuce salad cheese etc.

It was a very good fisrt time with ribs but take note "Cayenne Pepper made it quite spicy so beware".


YumYumYum

Easy Stuffed Chicken Breast

Tonight was a chicken night and i wanted to "kick it up a notch" so to speak and i did. Chefs toll away for hours doing the prep work but as we both work all day, something quick and easy but with heaps of flavour sound more like our kitchen. In our vege garden we put 4 basil plants(along with some other herbs) and they were getting bigger so we had to pick some. We also had some cashew nuts in the pantry so this is what we did for dinner.

First we grabbed a hand full of basil leaves put in a kitchen wizy thing with cashews 3 garlic cloves and some cheese and pulsed until it started to break down and at the same time added olive oil. We didn't mix to much because we wanted a bit of chunkiness to it. That gave us basil pesto (easy as).

Now the chicken. Using the breast i cut a pocket about 3/4 of the length and 2/3 the width (but any size hole will do) and taking some pesto(careful not to contaminate, we are using chicken here) i filled the hole, not full full but you know, some. When it was fullish i coated in breadcrumbs(flour then egg then crumbs) that had been mixed with dry chicken stock and onion powder and a grind of black pepper(no need to salt there is enough in the chicken stock we used) Then the Chicken goes into the oven about 160 to 180c till cooked (ours took 35 minute).

Tonight we served with a salad, tomato carrot cheese lettuce bell peppers sprouts etc and it was yum yum yum.

The first time i stuffed a chicken booby i used a store bought sun dried tomato and cashew dip and that was nice to but as our herb garden is taking off why buy a dip, we made our own and it only took a few minutes. The left over pesto we are going to use on some homemade pasta tomorrow night.

The flavours were amazing and easy meal done in 45minutes while the news was on tv.

Enjoy.

Left over potatoes 1

We had some cooked spuds left over from dinner so the next night i chopped them to cubes put them in a medium temp pan with olive oil. While they were gently frying i sprinkled chicken stock over , just enough for flavour . Simple but tasty. Served with a nice piece of steak and salad.

BBQ Brisket

With Xmas coming and having a new BBQ we have been trying all sorts of meats to see what we might cook for Xmas dinner. Yesterday we did a piece of Brisket. This is what we did.



Friday about 2pm the meat went into a marinade of beer, orange juice, garlic powder and Worcestershire sauce and covered over night. We turned it every couple of hours to make sure it was well soaked.



Saturday 11.30am, I heated up our hooded BBQ to 250F. While it was heating, the meat was drained, towelled down and put on a rack that was in a roasting dish (the one I use for smoking chicken). A good salt and pepper on both sides then on to the BBQ. I put it in the middle, indirect heat method, and the cooking began. We tried to keep the temperature around 225 to 250F.



Every hour I basted the meat with some left over marinade and at hour 4 (3.30pm) we took the meat out and wrapped in two layers of aluminium foil and left if until 6.30pm. 7 hours cooking sounds a lot, but man it was good.



Our guests turned up just as we took it our of the BBQ and the smell was amazing. On the bench I put 2 tea towels over it and let it rest for close to an hour and after a few drinks I took the meat out to crave. It was still hot and sooooooo tender, some had more than one helping and again there were those "um num num' noises.



We just had salad and potatoes with it, then apple pie with coffee ice cream for pudding. After stuffing ourselves with all that, bed was the nice place to beach ourselves.



Tip for next time: I think I might cover it after 1 to 2 hours just to keep even more moisture in the meat and maybe use a darker beer over it all. But over all it was success!

Vege's and Chicken Bake

Some days food just seems like to much hard work but this one i did in next to no time while i was making home brew ginger beer.

We had half a chicken breast left over(uncooked) from the night before and thought it wasn't enough for two so we cut it into 1cm cubes. We then cut up 3 small potatoes, some cauliflower, brocoli, carrot. Cooking the potato and carrot in water for 5 min then we put the other vege on top to steam a little. When they were not quite cooked we took the of the heat. Now the whole lot got put into a shallow oven dish and covered with a cheese suace made with garlic powder and edam cheese. Sliced tomatoes on top then grated cheese and a small dusting of paprika. Bake at 160 to 180c until the cheese bubbles a bit.

You can put any vege into it you like and even leave out the meat. One dish wonders are great , now you thinking pots for veges cheese sauce to make but its worth it food should be yummy. And you dont need to spend a fortune like the tv chefs to have good yummy's.

Cheese Sauce

My darling woman thing (she calls me her man thing so its ok to call her that) showed me how to make a cheese sauce about 5 years ago. Well as im allways looking to improve anything i do i tried the following with great success and now i do most of the cheese sauces when needed(shes a good teacher thankyou honey).

1-When the butter is melting add 1 to 2 tbls of chicken stock and mix until disolved the go with flour and milk , cheese as usual.

2-Instead of chicken stock try onion powder.

3-1 of my best is butter then onion powder with smoked paprika then flour milk then cheese poured over pasta with griddled chicken breast.

Now im now chef just someone who wants to learn more about good food so any new ideas greatly accepted.