Jam Tartlets with Roasted Peaches and Ice-cream

I mainly made this dessert because I had puff pastry left overs from making a pie.

Ingredients:
Puff pastry squares
Jam (cranberry & apple), 1 tsp per square
Ripe peaches slices into 1 cm strips
Sugar
Vanilla ice cream or plain yoghurt
Honey for drizzling


Method:
You can cut your own pastry squares once rolled out, about 5cm for all sides. Make a little hollow in each square for the jam to sit in. The cranberry jam worked nicely, but as it heats up, the berries slide off and stick to the pan instead of the pastry, so try to avoid that from happening.

Lay your peach strips, gently sifted with sugar, next to the pastry in a roasting pan and cook for 15 - 20 min on 200 degrees until lightly browned. Serve with ice cream or yoghurt after drizzling with honey.

Roast Chicken & Mushroom Pie

My own invention and hence might need some tweaking here and there :)

Serves 6

Ingredients:
1,2kg free-range chicken
A lemon
3 cloves of chopped garlic
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp chicken stock powder
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp herbes de provence
400g brown mushrooms chopped into 2cm squares
2 tbsp butter
1 roll of puff pastry (defrosted)
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 c milk
1 egg



Method:

Squeeze the lemon into the olive oil, chicken stock powder, herbes, 2 cloves of chopped garlic, 3 tbsp olive oil, a sprinkle of salt, 1 tsp chilli flakes and stuff the chicken with the rest of the lemon. Mix the oil and rub into the chicken. Roast at 190 degrees celsius for an hour. When the juices run clear, it's cooked and the meat can be pulled from the bone and shredded.

In a saucepan, heat a tbspn butter and add in the cornstarch once dissolved into the cold milk and stir until thick. Add in some pepper and remove from the heat.



In a big frying pan sauté the mushrooms (wiped down with a damp cloth so that they aren't waterlogged!) in a tbsp butter with a clove of crushed garlic and some more chilli flakes, a pinch of salt an a little pepper. Once all the water has been released and evaporated from the mushrooms, pour the sauce over and stir in the chicken. The filling mutn't be too liquid, but more like a sloppy mud viscosity.


Roll out your pastry and lay it into a greased pie dish. Add the filling on top, and put your second layer of pastry over the top, squeezing the edges together with your thumb and forefinger. Decorate the pie with extra pieces of pastry and poke a few breathing holes in the top. Return to the oven, after brushing with a beaten egg, for 30 min at 180 degrees celsius until golden.

Teriyaki Chicken & Pineapple Burgers

Teriyaki is a Japanese sweet soy sauce. As I understand it has sake and mirin in it if you are to make it properly, but I just cheat and use sugar. It still tastes good.

Ingredients:
4 sesame seed burger breadrolls
4 free-range chicken breasts
1 pineapple (4 slices)
Lettuce leaves
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp freshly chopped ginger (or 1/2 tsp dry)
1/4 c Tamari soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch/Mazina
1/4 c cold water


Method:
Prepare your burger roll by cutting it in half and lining it with lettuce (also stops the sauce making it soggy).
Cut up your pineapple into 1cm wide slices and fry these with your chicken breasts (or after) until the chicken is cooked through and browned (fry for about max 10min on medium heat). Remeber to put the bigger pieces of chicken in the middle of the pan and the smaller ones on the outside.
While that's frying, make the teriyaki sauce by heating the sugar and soy sauce with the garlic and ginger over the stove on a medium heat. Dissolve the cornstarch into the cold water and add it into the hot mixture on the stove, stirring continuously until thick. It'll go almost as thick as melted chocolate. 
Layer the chicken, pineapple and sauce onto your burger and enjoy! :)

Smoked Turkey Pasta

Because of those amazing 50% off Christmas meat sales at Woolworths, we ended up with a lot of turkey in our fridge. I haven't eaten much turkey in my life so it was slightly challenging trying to find ways to eat it in a meal. This quick-to-make and absolutely delicious turkey pasta is a good reason to invest in a chunk of ready-to-eat turkey for any occasion.


Ingredients:
250g pasta (spaghetti)
50g Gruyere
200g baby tomatoes
1 tsp herbes de provence
1 tsp dried garlic
2 hot chillies
A glug of olive oil
Salt
Pepper


Method:
Cook the pasta through with a tsp of salt and drain. Add it back to the pot with the Gruyere (grated), mix in the olive oil and the turkey (cut into 2cm square chunks). 
Remove from heat once cheese is melted.
In another pot, throw in your washed tomatoes and chopped chillies. Set the stove plate on a high heat and poke a few of the tomatoes so that the juices can run out and become sticky. Sometimes this happens on its own when the tomatoes get very hot. 
Quickly add the herbes and the garlic and stir very few minutes until you are convinced that your tomatoes are soft and sweet inside.They should be soft to the touch and not firm.
Add the tomatoes to your spaghetti and serve.
Serves 3