Tag: roast

Honey & orange glazed chicken

Leave a comment

I recently bought some chickens from a farmers market – proper free-range farm chickens… Well they reminded me of the chickens we used to get in India, quite tough! Anyways, so there goes my grand ideal of eating proper free-range chickens… Although I must say that a bit of marinating helps a LOT!

Anyways, this honey & orange glazed chicken is not a farm chicken… {it’s funny though how much a free-range chicken from your favourite supermarket differs from one bought directly from the farm… I guess they just run around and have a better and more active life on the farm!} I will still try and eat proper free-range chickens as much as possible and just marinade it {with my own homemade marinade of course} – a small price to pay for wholesome goodness and a clear conscience!

The difference between shop-bought ‘free-range’ eggs and proper free-range eggs from our little hen is also quite amazing!

 

Honey & orange glazed chicken

You will need:

1 whole chicken

1 orange

1 tbs honey

freshly ground sea salt

8 carrots

Peel and cut carrots into quarters {length-wise} and place them in a casserole.

Place the whole chicken on top of the carrots and brush with the orange juice {squeezed from the orange!} and honey. Sprinkle with salt and bake at 180C for about an hour or until golden and cooked.

Serve with fresh salad leaves.

Enjoy! X

Related articles
Advertisement

Summer Lamb Roast

1 Comment

Ah – the Sunday roast… Surely a tradition in most homes?

With meat-galore and starchy side dishes until the cows come home… To me, the traditional Sunday Roast lunch is more suited to Winter – a kind of comfort meal.

So what to do when it’s Summer or Spring and you feel like making a roast? Well, just skip the heavy side dishes and focus on light and bright salads and veg.

My perfect Summer Roast Lamb:

Roast lamb with a herby rub {sea salt, rosemary, garlic, mustard, black pepper, paprika, brown sugar, lemon zest, nutmeg and bay leaf}

Steamed asparagus with garlic, butter and sea salt

Minty green salad {granny smith apples, mint leaves & cucumber}

Mint dressing for both salad & lamb {fresh mint, whole coriander seeds, apple cider vinegar & honey}

What you need to do:

Rub a leg of lamb (I used 1.3kg leg) with olive oil and your rub mixture an hour or more before cooking for all the flavours to absorb into the meat as much as possible. You can make your own rub with the above ingredients, or buy a ready-made version. I used the Lamb Rub from Woolies – simply divine.

Place the lamb in an oven dish (no lid) and cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hrs at 180C – in an oven, Weber or Big Green Egg. I used the Egg of course! {We actually cooked the lamb directly on the grill and used a drip tray underneath, so you get a nice golden crust on all sides of the meat!}

For your salad, cut an apple and cucumber into thin slices and add a handful of roughly chopped mint. {Each person can add their own dressing}

For the asparagus, break off the woody end bit off the stems and steam or boil with a tbs of butter and chopped garlic clove until just cooked. They should still be crunchy – please, no  and limp asparagus!

For the dressing:

Grind a handful of mint leaves and a tsp of coriander seeds in a mortar & pestle until you have a course paste. Add a splash of apple cider vinegar and a tbs of honey. Mix well and keep in a little jug for serving.

Keep an eye on the lamb and don’t let it dry out. It should be moist and juicy and just the teensiest bit pink.

Serve with a Chardonnay and enjoy! X

Summer Lamb Roast

Summer Lamb Roast

#BraaiDay – Roast Pork Neck with Apple & Sage stuffing

Leave a comment

Our Braai Day feast consisted of:

Corn bread & chicken liver paté for starters

Roast (and lightly smoked) pork neck stuffed with Apple & Sage

Roast beet & goats cheese salad

Buttery roasted sweet potato

Peach tart for dessert

Roast Pork:

2kg deboned pork neck

Woolworths BBQ rub (a brown sugar & coriander rub)

2 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored & cubed

butter

4 slices of thick white bread, crusts removed and cubed

8 fresh sage leaves

handful of dried apples

olive oil

brown sugar

1 onion, diced

1 egg, beaten

Slice pork neck open length-wise, but not all the way through – you should be able to fold open and have one large piece of pork.

Deboned pork neck

Rub with olive oil and BBQ rub – I used about half a pot – inside and outside. Fold the pork neck closed, place in a casserole, clingwrap and refrigerate overnight.

In a skillet or casserole, sauté onions, apples & sage until soft. Remove from heat and add bread, salt & pepper, egg and half a cup of brown sugar. Let this mixture cool before stuffing the pork.

Remove pork from fridge a while before stuffing, allowing it to get to room temperature.

Fold open the pork and spread stuffing mixture over the entire piece of pork.

Stuffing on pork

Roll up up gently, keeping all the stuffing inside. Fasten with string or secure with toothpicks.

Roast or smoke for 2 hours at 120C. (We smoked it low & slow, just to give it a hint of smokiness – but you can just roast it too.)

Roast pork

Roast beet & goats cheese salad:

Place beets into a casserole & rub with olive oil, balsamic & salt. Roast until tender (2hrs). Let them cool, peel and cut into quarters.

Toss cooled en roasted beets with mixed salad leaves, goats cheese chunks and ribboned cucumber. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and serve with olive oil & balsamic vinegar.

image

Buttery sweet potatoes:

Cut sweet potatoes into quarters, place dollops of butter on top and inbetween, sprinkle with peppadew spice and roast for 2hrs with the pork (in a separate casserole).

Corn bread: (recipe from Sarie.com)

500g self-raising flour

3ml salt

50ml sugar

30ml sunflower oil

2 eggs – beaten

200ml evaporated milk

1 can of creamed corn

100g grated cheddar

1tbs chopped parsley

Mix flour, salt & sugar. Whisk together oil, eggs & milk and add to flour mixture. Add rest of ingredients and mix well.

Place in a greased black ‘braai’ pot and bake on the coals (also place hot coals on top of the lid) for an hour.

image

Chicken liver paté: 

1kg chicken livers, cleaned

1 onion

1 cup of brandy

salt & pepper

1/2 cup of cream

bay leaves

butter

Soak chicken livers in brandy for an hour (do not discard liquid). Sauté onions in butter until soft. Remove livers from brandy. Add to onions and fry until cooked and no longer pink. Season with salt & pepper. Add cream. Transfer to blender and blend to a smooth consistency. Add the brandy that you soaked the livers in. Add half a cup of butter (soft) and blend until properly mixed.

Pour into desired dishes and top with melted butter and a bay leaf – refrigerate overnight.

Serve with corn bread.

image

Peach tart:

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of butter

1/4 cup of milk

1 cup of flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

3 dessert peaches

Cream together sugar & butter. Add milk And mix. Add eggs and mix again. Sift together flour, baking powder & salt and add to egg mixture. Place in greased tart dish, top with thinly sliced peaches and bake at 180C for 40 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

image

Enjoy! X

Rosemary & Yoghurt Roast Chicken

2 Comments

Roast chicken

This heat is making me super lazy! So here’s another easy & super tasty recipe:

Rosemary & yoghurt roast chicken

a cup of plain yoghurt (you can use low-fat / Bulgarian or Greek)

sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

pinch of salt

pinch of freshly ground black pepper

2 tbs lemon juice

half a cup of sauvignon blanc

3 tbs olive oil

Mix all ingredients and marinade one whole chicken (with skin is best!) for about an hour.

Roast in the oven or your grill for an hour and 45mins at a low heat of 150C. The low heat makes the chicken more succulent and if you’re using a grill (like a Big Green Egg or Weber), it imparts a delicious smokey flavour to the chicken. I used a small dutch oven to roast chicken in – for an hour and 20mins and the last half hour I placed chicken directly onto the grill to brown and get crispy.

Delicious – we just kept it simple and had a tomato, basil & feta cheese salad with the chicken.

Enjoy! X

Friday – Green Egg Roast Chicken

2 Comments

Roast chicken & caprese salad image

Can you say yum?!

The Big Green Egg – one of my favourite cooking tools! Yes, it’s a ‘braai’ of sorts, but you can do anything in it, I’ve even baked a cake! There is just no comparison to the taste it gives to your braai goodies, so yum.

Anyways, so enough punting of the Egg – here’s tonight’s recipe:

1 whole free range chicken

spicy Cajun rub

Robertsons portugese chicken spice

1 lemon

Olive oil

Rub chicken with olive oil, Cajun rub and Portuguese chicken spice.  Slice lemon in half and place both halves inside the chicken.  In a roasting dish, roast chicken in your Green Egg / Weber / braai for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, place chicken directly onto the grill and grill for another 40 minutes until done. (You want it to be just juicy and cooked – not overcooked! I think we had the temperature at about 180C)

While the chicken was roasting, I also added a few slices of aubergine onto the grill, along with the chicken (aubergine was dipped into the olive oil and spice mixture in the roasting dish that the chicken was in).

My take on a caprese salad:

aubergine slices (grilled as explained above for about 20 minutes)

mozerella cheese

sweet basil

tomato slices

toasted pine nuts

olive oil

salt

Assemble by layering slices of aubergine, cheese, tomato and basil. Drizzle olive oil and add a sprinkle of sea salt. Sprinkle with toasted nuts.

We enjoyed this scrummy meal with a glass of Van Loveren Pinot Grigio.

Enjoy! X