Nigella's Ritzy Chicken Strips.. An Easy Lunch or Dinner..

This practically took minutes to prepare and a few more minutes to cook. But needs a couple of days for it to be ready, so prepare them a day in advance. If you have kids, they will love this recipe and grownups do too! I tried this Nigella Lawson easy breezy recipe accompanied by homemade Honey Mustard Sauce.. tastes sooo good!

Ingredients:

2 Packets of boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup buttermilk (Leban) - I prefer KDD because it's think and creamy
20 pieces of Ritz cracker crushed to form bread crumbs


Method:


. Put the chicken breasts into a freezer bag flat.
. Bash them gently with a rolling pin until the chicken is quite thin.
. Once done, take them out of the bag and slice them.
. In a bowl, place the butter milk and chicken and leave then in the fridge to marinade for 24 hours atleast.
. When ready to cook, prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat the oven.
. Take the bread crumbs and place them in a shallow dish to coat the chicken.
. Take the chicken out of the fridge, take each piece, shake off the excess buttermilk and dip them in the crumbs.
. Coat them well and lay them on the baking sheet, bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. and Voila !!!!

Dinner is served! ... or lunch ;)

Cheese Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup ~ NL

Ingredients:

2 cups strawberries, chopped into quarters
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar
3 eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup cottage cheese
1/3 cup flour


Method:

- Put the strawberries into a bowl and sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and sugar.Stir before covering with plastic wrap and leaving to steep while you make the pancakes.

- Mix the egg yolks with the sugar, beating well. Add the vanilla, cottage cheese, and flour. Then, in another bowl, whisk the whites until frothy with a hand whisk and fold into the cottage cheese mixture.

- Heat a nonstick skillet and dollop the batter onto it. Make pancakes of about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. Each pancake will take a minute or so to firm up underneath, then you should flip it and cook the other side, and remove to a warmed plate when ready.

- Turn the strawberries in the ruby syrup they've made and squish some pieces with a fork at the same time. Serve with the hot pancakes.


Enjoy...

Chocolate Cheesecake ~ NL

Serves 8

Ingredients:

125g digestive biscuits
50g melted unsalted butter
500g cream cheese
150g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
175ml sour cream
1/2 teaspoon lime juice
150g plain chocolate, melted

20cm Springform tin

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees; place a kettle of water on the stove and bring it to a boil.

Process the biscuits and butter together and press into the bottom of the tin, then stick the tin in the fridge until the filling is ready.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth, then mix in the sugar.

Add the eggs and yolks, one by one, beating in after each addition.

Now pour in the sour cream and the lime juice and beat until smooth and creamy.

Taste to see if you want sourer base-note than this and, if so, add more lime juice.

Gently fold in the melted chocolate; you want a cheese cake marbled with dark chocolate, so don't combine fully.

Line the springform with foil on the outside, and then tear off another square and repeat the exercise.

Stand the tin in a roasting dish and fill it with the mixture.

Pour hot water from the recently boiled kettleinto the roasting tray to come 2-3 cm up the side of the cake tin and place in the oven to cook for about 1 hour.

When the cheesecake's ready it should have browned a little on the edges and the centre should be just set on top, with a hint of wobble underneath.

Remove the cake tin and tear away the foil. Sit on a rack to cool, then refrigerate before unmoulding and leaving it to get back to room temperature.


Yummy...

Items used:

Toffee Pudding for this wednesday ~ NL

I'm making a rather large menu for this coming wednesday gathering..
For starters ..Beetroot corn salad and also a rocca & pomegranate salad .. our main dish will include a variety of..old fashoined mashed potatoes, Halloumi with tomatoes and Oregano and eggplant involtini and finely for dessert I'm making my famous fruit salad with special sause and Toffee pudding..

I'm going to share the Toffee pudding with you for now, since it's the easiest and most fun to do.. plus what's better than yummy warm toffee in kuwait's "now" so cold..cold weather..


Serves 6-8


For the cake:

100g dark muscovado sugar ( found in all co-ops across Kuwait)
175g self-raising flour
125ml full-fat milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g unsalted butter, melted
200g, chopped, rolled dates

For the sauce:

200g dark muscovado sugar
25g unsalted butter in little blobs
500ml boiling water


Method:

- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees and butter a 1 & 1/2 litre capacity pudding dish.

- Combine the 100g dark muscovado sugar with the flour in a large bowl. Pour the milk into a measuring jug, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter and then pour this mixture over the sugar and flour, stirring with a wooden spoon to combine. Fold in the dates then scrape into the prepared pudding dish.

- Sprinkle over 200g dark muscovado sugar and dot with the butter. Pour over the boiling water and transfer to the oven. Set for 45 minutes (it might need 5 or 10 minutes more).

- The top of the pudding should be springy and spongy when it's cooked; underneath, the butter, dark muscovado sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce.

- Serve with vanilla icecream, creme fraiche, double or single cream as you wish.

Enjoy....

Torta Alla Gianduia (Nutella Cake) ~ NL

I finely got this book that I ordered two and a half months ago, Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess". I chose this recipe because my mom loves hazelnuts, it's quite easy to make and tastes and looks fantabilous !!
on our regular gathering last Wednesday I baked it and had great reviews. Tyr it.

Serves 8

for the cake:

6 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt
1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
400g nutella (1 large jar)
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup ground hazelnuts
100g dark chocolate, melted (i use Baker's unsweetened chocolate from Sultan Center)

for the icing:

100g hazelnuts, pealed
1/2 cup heavy cream (double cream)
1 tablespoon water
125g dark chocolate

Method:

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

Prepare a 9-inch springform pan: grease and line with parchment or wax paper.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs whites and salt until stiff but not dry (this means that they will hold their peaks, yet still appear glossy and smooth).

In a separate bowl, beat the butter and Nutella together, then add the water, egg yolks, and ground hazelnuts.

Fold in the cooled, melted chocolate, then lighten the mixture with a dollop of egg white, which you can beat in as roughly as you want, before gently folding the rest of them in a third at a time.

Pour into the prepared pan and cook for 40 minutes or until the cake's beginning to come away at the sides, then let cool on rack.
Toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan until the aroma wafts upward and the nuts are golden brown in parts: keep shaking the pan so they don't burn on one side and stay too pallid on others.
Transfer to a plate and let cool.

In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan, add the cream, water, and chopped chocolate and heat gently. Once the chocolate's melted, take the pan off the heat and whisk until it reaches the right consistency to ice just the top of the cake.

Unmold the cooled cake carefully, leaving it on the base as it will be too difficult to get such a damp cake off in one piece. Ice the top with the chocolate icing, and dot thickly with the whole, toasted hazelnuts.

I'm a chocolate lover and I give it:

Chilli Halloum - NL

Servings: Makes about 30
Level of difficulty: Easy
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes


Ingredients:

2 tbsp red chillies, fresh, chopped and deseeded (about 2 medium chillies)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 packets halloum cheese, 250g each, sliced medium thin (i.e., just under half a centimetre)
1/4 lemon, juice only

Method:

1. Mix the chopped chilli and olive oil in a small bowl or cup and leave the flavours to deepen while you cook the cheese.
2. using a non-stick frying pan, without any oil, give the cheese slices about two minutes a side until they're golden brown in parts.
3. When all the slices of halloum are cooked transfer them to a couple of smallish plates.
4. Give the chilli oil a stir, spoon it over the cheese then give a spritz of lemon.

Enjoy...


Quote of the day:

I feel a recipe is only a theme, which an intelligent cook can play each time with a variation.
~Madam Benoit

Molten Choco Cakes ~ NL

You can make the mixture up a few hours in advance and put it ready and waiting in the prepared tins in the fridge until you want to cook them, which must be at the moment you're ready to eat them.

Ingredients:

50g soft unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
350g best dark chocolate
150g caster sugar
4 large eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g plain flour
6 individual pudding moulds, buttered
baking parchment

Method:

Unless you are making these up in advance, preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6, putting in a baking sheet at the same time. Lay 3 of the moulds on a sheet of doubled baking parchment. Draw round them, remove, and then cut out the discs as marked. Press them all into the base of the tins.

Melt the chocolate and let it cool slightly. Cream together the butter and sugar, and gradually beat in the eggs and salt, then the vanilla. Now add the flour, and when all is smoothly combined scrape in the cooled chocolate, blending it to a smooth batter.

Divide the batter between the 6 moulds, quickly whip the baking sheet out of the oven, arrange the little tins on it and replace in the oven. Cook for 10-12 minutes (the extra 2 minutes will be needed if the puddings are fridge-cold when you start) and as soon as you take them out of the oven, tip out these luscious babycakes onto small plates or shallow bowls. Serve these with whipped double cream, the same unwhipped in a jug, crème fraiche, crème anglaise or ice cream.

Serves 6.

Enjoy...