Chicken Soup with Talierini

Chicken soup with taglierini

Ingredients:

1 Chicken Breast (sliced in cubes)
1 round of taglierini (about a handful)
1 potatoe (diced)
1 red pepper (sliced in squares)
1 green pepper (sliced in squares)
6 stalks of green beans (sliced)
1 onion (sliced thinly)
1 clove garlic (crushed)
4 cups water (or chicken stock)
1 T. vegetable oil
Salt to taste

Preparation:

Sauté onion and garlic until onion complete soften. Add Chicken and stir fry for 1 minute. Add stock or water and bring to boil. Add diced potato and simmer for 5 minutes or until potatoes are done. Add beans and red and green peppers. Lastly add taglierini and cook for 2 minutes further. Serve hot.

Good for 2 – 3 servings

This reminds me of my childhood days, but we use misua instead. I just substituted with taglierini coz I can’t find misua here. Taglierini is an Italian egg noodle.

Grilled chicken breast with pepper marmalade

Grilled chicken breast with pepper marmalade

Quite lazy for lunch and didn’t know what to do. Switched the TV channel to BBC Food and caught Sophie Grigson doing pepper marmalade for her dish with Trout fish, my tastebuds wondered if the marmalade would go with chicken, since I always have chicken breast in the fridge. Hmmm… yes the flavors are blending indeed!

I’m quite lucky, I have all the ingredients which Sophie used except for red wine vinegar, which I don’t have, and I added yellow pepper to add color. I’m quite trained to settle with what I have huh, I used balsamic vinegar instead. I think everyone knows how to grill chicken, so I am just going to jot down for the marmalade, for the sake of the record. Well, thanks to Sophie Grigson!

Ingredients:
1 Red bell pepper (sliced in thin strips)
1 Yellow bell pepper (sliced in thin strips)
2 white onions (sliced thinly)
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 Teaspoons sugar
4 Tablespoons water
2 Pieces Star Anis

Preparation:
Cook onion with olive oil, in medium fire, until transparent. Add the peppers and star anis. Continue cooking until peppers are wilted stirring occasionally, add balsamic vinegar, sugar and water, simmer until all the liquid has evaporated.

Grill chicken and serve with the marmalade. This time, I served the dish with bread.

Chicken Sandwich with eggplant dip

Flat bread
Eggplant dip
Grilled chicken breast (thinly sliced)
White onion (thinly sliced)
Red bell pepper (cubed)
Tomatoes (thinly sliced)

To make flat bread:
1 cup flour (sifted)
1 tsp. salt
¼ cup water

Mix salt and flour in a mixing bowl. Add 1 Tablespoon water at a time while mixing until it forms rough dough. Add water if its too dry, this depends of the strength of the flour you are using. Knead the dough in a floured flat surface for about 3 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Form dough into sausage shape and cut 1 inch thick. Form each into a small ball and flatten with a rolling pin.

To make eggplant dip:
1 large eggplant
1 cube chicken stock
1 cup water
Red pepper (diced)
Tomatoes (diced)
Onion (diced)
Garlic (finely chopped)
juice of ½ lemon
chili powder
pepper

Determine a base for the eggplant and slice the skin off thinly; so that the eggplant will lay flat. Slice the skin off of the opposite side and carefully take the meat of the eggplant using a spoon. Dice the meat into cubes. Rub the exposed eggplant meat with lemon juice, wrap with plastic and refrigerate while making the dip.

Sauté garlic and onion until translucent add eggplant meat, add red pepper, water and stock. Bring to boil and simmer for about 5 minutes until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Season with pepper and chili powder. Place the cooked mixture into the prepared eggplant case.

In a hot pan, add onion and red pepper; cook until caramelized.

Assemble sandwich. Arrange in each flat bread with chicken onion, pepper as desired. Serve with the dip.

Roasted Chicken

There maybe a hundred ways of roasting chicken but this one is quicker than usual roasted whole chicken! Tender and juicy!

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
1 lemon
5 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
Fresh Mint
Gravy

Preheat oven to 250 degrees C. Butterfly the chicken. Crush 5 cloves of garlic, fresh mint, salt and pepper.Work the skin starting with your fingers, insert them in between the skin and the flesh working from bottom part of the chicken forming a pocket. Separate the tissues by pushing further your hand into the leg part, breasts and wings. Insert Spices into the just formed pocket and rub the spices to the flesh.Add slices of lemon in it.Squeeze the rest of the lemon over the whole chicken and season the other side with salt and pepper.

Pan-fry the chicken skin side down with olive oil until golden. This would take around 6 – 8 minutes each side. Transfer to oven proof dish and straight to the hot oven for 45 minutes. Done!

Serve while still hot.To make the gravy:With the meat drippings in the pan (where the chicken was fried) add ½ cup of water, chicken cube (stock), 1 tsp. cornstarch, and season with pepper.