Beautiful Roast Rosemary Chicken

We’re deep into Australian “winter” right now, which means time for plenty of baking, roasting, and Christmas in July celebrations (which we’re celebrating this weekend—I’m already making cookies!). But, this recipe would be great year-round with some gorgeous fresh veggies and herbs, should you have a rainy weekend and a desire for a quick roast.

Originally this was a Donna Hay “Fast 50″ recipe, but I’ve altered it rather beyond recognition. What makes this dish lovely is using chicken thighs still on the bone (also a somewhat cheaper option at the butcher), plenty of rosemary, and a liberal smattering of smoked paprika. You could use any woody herb here; sage or thyme both work great with chicken, or you could use a combination.

I’m also pleased to announce that my kitchen just gained a slow cooker—so you can look forward to a few more recipes that take so little effort!

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Edited: July 13th, 2011

Eggplant Tomato Soup

Maybe my favourite thing ever is when cold weather mixes with gorgeous early summer produce. Australia is in the middle of one of its wettest and coolest summers on record (it’s only 25 C! woe, according to the Aussies!). This does mean that everything is lush and green and growing, though, so the produce these days has been fabulous. Despite a broken fridge—the true woeful part of this story—we’ve been taking advantage of all the fresh fruit and veg to the nth degree.

This soup is a wonderful combination of a cold weather comfort food made with fresh seasonal veggies—or a great recipe to use up a slightly aged eggplant, since the soup transforms it into a soft mushy deliciousness anyway. I figure you could even use zucchini instead of the eggplant for something more ratatouille-esque. I made my own chicken stock for this recipe; omit the chicken and use vegetable stock instead for something vegetarian, and use gluten free noodles for a gluten free option.

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Edited: December 7th, 2010

Dathipa’s Sweet & Sour Chicken

At my previous job in Sydney, I had the extreme good fortune of working in a multi-cultural store, and every day something new would come up about someone’s home—I guess standing around at the registers on a quiet day makes for good conversation! If you were really lucky, you’d walk into the tea room just in time to smell someone’s amazing home made lunch, and if you were even more lucky, you’d be able to wrangle the recipe from them.

This recipe therefore comes to you courtesy of Dathipa (aka Pins), who was very gracious to write it down for me! Though perhaps she was just trying to make me stop drooling over her lunch. Heh heh heh. It happens, guys! Pins is Thai, so you can even call this an authentic Thai sweet & sour dish. Enjoy!

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Edited: October 27th, 2010

Spinach Cheese Tart

I really wish that life had more recipes like this in it. Or rather, that I could eat more recipes like this in my life. It’s awesome and horrible sometimes having an athlete boyfriend—he can eat everything he wants, and so can all of his friends! (Though I can’t complain too much, because for a few months he’s got to keep on weight for regattas, and then in comparison I get to eat whatever I want.) The good thing is that he has friends who can eat whatever they want too, so I occasionally get to make really decadent dinners.

This spinach cheese tart is inspired by Jamie Oliver’s Jamie at Home, but is well and truly adapted by yours truly to hopefully fit ingredients that you’ll actually have in your fridge. I have it listed as ‘moderate’ but truly, there’s little you could do to screw this up. Anything smooshed between puff pastry and generous amounts of cheese will taste good, I promise! You could mix up this basic method by using different sorts of vegetable combinations (mushrooms, spinach, and sundried tomatoes?), different meats, or really whatever you can concoct. Enjoy!

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Edited: October 13th, 2010