Orange, Honey and Ginger Chicken

Martina again, I originally posted this recipe up on my Facebook page and my wonderful friend Michele made it (in the oven) and told me how great it was, along with taking a picture! Since I misplaced my flash card and haven't been able to take pictures of any of the food lately, I'm giving full credit to Michele for this delicious photo. 

I also made this recipe last week again and it was a hit, Andreas ate, I cooked.

Orange, Honey and Ginger Chicken

3 - 4 people

1 whole chicken or parts of the chicken with skin

Marinade

2 oranges, juice 2 and zest of one

2 limes,  juice 2 zest one

1/2 cup olive oil

1tsp sesame oil

4 ground chilis

handful of cilantro

3 tsp ground coriander seeds

2 garlic cloves, pressed

1 2" piece ginger

3 tbsp honey

dash soy sauce

salt to taste 

Take all of the ingredients of your marinade and put them in a glass dish or ziploc bag, stir them all up, adjust the marinade in any way to your particular taste preference. 

Now take your whole chicken and butterfly it (flatten it) or pieces of chicken and massage the marinade into it. Let it rest for a couple of hours; 4 if you have time or 1 if you don't. When it's finished marinating place your chicken on the grill on medium/low heat or in the oven at 350 until it's cooked.

You will have some marinating liquid left over, if you are inclined, reduce it on the stove until it becomes sticky and sauce like and baste the chicken with it while it cooks.

Enjoy!

Martina & Andreas

 

Sweet, Spicy — Butternut Squash Soup

Hi, Martina here, Andreas has his friend over from Sweden so we've sort of been on the downlow with cooking the past 2 weeks but I made my favourite soup yesterday, one I've been making for a while and still haven't gotten sick of. I first ate it years ago at my mum's friend Cathy's house when my family was invited for dinner and have been in love with the flavour ever since. I've changed it a bit to suit my taste so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Butternut Squash Soup 

4 people

1 squash (25 cm tall)

3 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic crushed

2" piece of ginger

5 cups of chicken stock or water

2 shakes of chili flakes

3 tbsp maple syrup

4 tbsp whipping cream

salt to taste

cilantro as garnish

Cut your squash in half and prick the top with a fork, place it in an oven proof dish which has 1 cm of water in it. Roast the squashin a 350˚ for 45 minutes — 1 hour until it's soft.

While waiting cut up your onion, garlic and ginger into course chunks as the soup will be pureed later there is no need to make them to fine.

When the squash is cooked sautee the onions in the 3 tbsps of olive oil until they're transluscent on med/low heat. Add the garlic and ginger and continue cooking until they are transluscent as well. Once this is cooked you can start scooping the roasted squash into your pot, stirring it and getting all the flavours in. Sautee the squash for about 5 minutes and add some salt and the chili flakes. Stir it well and sautee for another 5 minutes making sure the squash doesn't brown.

The squash will look like squash paste now so add your 5 cups of preferred liquid and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every once in a while. After 20 minutes blend the soup with a hand blender or food processor and return it to the pot. Taste your seasonings to see if you need more salt or chili and adjust it to your liking. Turn your heat to low and add your maple syrup and cream, cook the soup for another 15 — 20 minutes, stirring and making sure it doesn't bubble too much.

If the soup is too thick, add some more liquid or if it's too thin cook the liquid out.

serve this with a sprinkle of cilantro and enjoy!

Martina & Andreas

Spinach, Tomato and Goat's Cheese Pasta

Back to the kitchen! I've been away for 10 days and have had serious cooking withdrawal symptoms. Seeing as though Andreas graciously and deliciously cooked for Laura and me when we got back from our trip to Spain on Sunday night I thought I would repay the favour and make him dinner on Monday. Maybe a bit selfishly I was craving pasta so I decided to make pasta with spinach, tomato and goat's cheese. Here's the recipe:

Spinach Tomato Sauce with Goat Cheese

4 people

1 can pureed tomatoes

1/2 white onion chopped finely

1 clove garlic crushed

2 tbsp olive oil

salt to taste

handful of basil

150 gr  (8 blocks) frozen chopped spinach, (fresh spinach cut up is good too)

1 block of soft goat's cheese like chevre

Heat up your oil and sautee the onions until they are fragrant on low heat, add the garlic and keep cooking until everything is slightly translucent. When the garlic and onion are see through add your full can of tomato puree plus a half can of water. Let this all sit on medium low heat for 25 minutes stirring every 5. 

Your sauce will now be cooked through and it should not have an acidy flavour but taste smooth and tomatoey. Turn the heat to low and add your salt to taste and the spinach and basil. Melt the spinach in the sauce stirring it in and tear the basil so it releases some of it's flavour. Your sauce is now basically done and you can turn the heat off when the spinach has melted.

Mix in your cooked pasta (I served it on rigatoni but any pasta is ok, I've served this on fresh pasta with success) and crumble in some goat's cheese, as little or as much as you like. Serve!   

Enjoy!

Tack

Martina & Andreas

Japanese finger food — tuna sushi, sashimi and maki

So, we found the nicest piece of tuna at the market the other day. It looks like we eat a lot of fish no? We don't really, there's just been an influx this past month due to a way too long hiatus of it from our diets. This piece of fish was just too nice and fresh to cook so we decided to slice it up and serve it in various raw formats, we made some sushi rice and made maki, sushi and had a bunch of pieces left over to dip in some lime sauce. Sooo good! mmmm tuna! I'll include how to make the rice as well as it's so important to good sushi.

For everything we used 175gr of tuna and had enough left over for the next day!

Sushi Rice

200gr  calrose rice

1 1/2 tbsp sushi seasoning (we bought this ready made, no msg)

Take your rice and place it in a bowl rinse it until the water runs clear. Cover the rice with water and let it sit for 20 minutes - 1 hour. After it's absorbed some water, drain it and place it in a pot. Cover the rice with water so that there is 3 - 5mm excess water floating on top, put it on your stove, steam without a lid until it boils, cover it and turn the heat to low for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes turn the heat off and let it steam for 20 minutes. After your 20 minutes of steaming are up put it in a bowl and pour the sushi seasoning on it. Slowly fold in the seasoning while fanning the rice. Let it sit until it cools. While the rice cools we prepare everything else! 

Tuna Prep - 

Mini Sushi

With a sharp knife! slice 12 pieces, 1cm x 6cm x 2mm, tuna place them on the side

Maki

slice 8 or 10 slices, 1cm x 6mm, of tuna off your piece.

Sashimi

We cut little cubes from the rest and heaped it on the board to eat it with soy or lime sauce.

Maki Prep - 

Leeks, Avocado, Cucumber, River crayfish

Slice the leeks, avocados and cucumbers into thin strips. Clean your crayfish.

Assembly

Now you've got all your ingredients together and they are ready to be assembled. I made the sushi and sashimi and Andreas 'master roller' Olsson made the maki.

Pile your sashimi slices on a plate and that's done! I had the easier job obviously... For the cute mini sushi, my nimble fingers took a thumb sized amount of rice and molded it into a little rectangular block and stuck a piece of fish on it. Andreas will let you know how he made the maki in the next post.

We served our platter with soy sauce and some lime-chilli dipping sauce and the remaining leek and avocado pieces.

Enjoy!

Martina & Andreas