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.