a beautiful life — Cook, Eat, Live

Crumbed Chicken

by Fiona Rossiter on May 1, 2013

Crumbed Chicken is one of those meals which seems much more convenient to just buy ready-made but there is nothing better than making it yourself, and in my opinion, homemade is much healthier! It is much easier than it looks to prepare and tastes utterly delicious! I add Parmesan cheese and thyme to the bread crumbs, for an extra punch of flavour. I usually serve my crumbed chicken with oven roasted potatoes and a green salad, but for a more substantial, wintry meal, you can also serve roasted veggies.

Ingredients:

Crumbed Chicken

6-8 Skinless Chicken Breasts (deboned)
2 Eggs
100g Plain Flour
150g Toasted Bread Crumbs (I use the Woolworths Toasted Bread Crumbs)
½ Cup Grated Parmesan(or similar) Cheese
1 Tbsp Fresh or freeze-dried Thyme
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Coriander Pesto
½ Cup Mayonnaise
Salt & Pepper to taste

Oven Roasted Potatoes:

8 Mediteranean potatoes
2 Garlic cloves
1 Sprig of Rosemary
Olive Oil
Juice of Half a Lemon

Preheat you oven to 180°c. Butterfly the chicken breasts slightly to ensure even cooking. In a pestle and mortar mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese and thyme, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper. Place each of the seasoned flour, beaten eggs and bread crumb mix into separate bowls.

Firstly coat your chicken breasts in the seasoned flour, then the beaten egg – ensure an even coating of egg otherwise your bread crumbs will not adhere to the chicken properly. Lastly coat in the bread crumb mixture and set aside on kitchen towel. Continue until all the breasts are coated.

I place my crumbed chicken breasts in the fridge to rest for at least ½ an hour before cooking, as I find this helps the crumbs to stick properly and makes cooking the chicken much easier.

While your crumbed chicken breasts are resting in the fridge you can prepare your oven roasted potatoes. Cut the potatoes into quarters and place in an oven roasting dish with a splash of olive oil, rosemary sprigs, garlic and a squeeze of lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Coat the potatoes thoroughly and bake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes until golden and crispy, stirring occasionally.

After the breasts have rested, you can place them directly onto an oiled baking tray and bake in the oven, but I prefer to shallow fry them in a pan, for a minute or two on either side, before placing in the oven, to ensure a crispy, golden crumb. Oven roast for 20 minutes until the chicken breasts are cooked through, turning once during cooking.

For a quick tasty sauce to drizzle over the chicken, combine mayonnaise with a teaspoon of Coriander Pesto and mix well. Serve the cooked chicken with your oven roasted potatoes, a green salad, lime wedges and the coriander mayonnaise. I paired this meal with a glass of crisp Leopard’s Leap Sauvignon Blanc.

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Groot Constantia Wine Tasting Event

by Fiona Rossiter on April 26, 2013

I recently attended a wonderful event at Groot Constantia Wine Farm and I thought I would share a few of the highlights and photographs from the event with you. You can see the full post here.

This event was being held to celebrate the new Groot Constantia Gouverneur’s Reserve label, as well as the official unveiling of the upgraded tasting room. This was definitely an event that I had really been looking forward to attending!

Upon arrival at the farm, we were greeted with a glass of Groot Constantia bubbly and delicious canapes, courtesy of Jonkerhuis Restaurant. The bobotie spring rolls were rather delish, even for someone like me who is not a lover of the dish!

After a few opening speeches we moved over to the new tasting room for the official opening and ribbon cutting of the newly revamped space, which epitomizes how Groot Constantia, successfully blends the old with the new. The tasting room is warm and inviting and beautifully decorated.

This was followed by a tasting of the newly labeled Gouverneurs Reserve range of wines. The “new” wine label is a celebration of the Groot Constantia heritage and is in fact an exact reproduction of one of the Estates historical labels, which has been brought back into use to distinguish and honour the Gouverneurs Reserve range of wines.

After a rather informative cellar tour we made our way to Simons restaurant to continue the festivities. We were greeted with a glass of Port, perfect considering the chilly weather and the treated to an array of delicious finger foods and yummy Groot Constantia wines. My personal favourite wine was the Shiraz – which was perfect as it was definitely red wine weather!

One truly has to experience Groot Constantia to feel Groot Constantia – it is about rich history, a beautiful setting, friendly people, memories to be made, fun to be had and, of course, wine to be savoured and enjoyed.

Thank you to Groot Constantia and the organisers for a wonderful day, enriched by good food, amazing wine and great people!

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Tomato Sauce Recipe

by Fiona Rossiter on April 14, 2013

Homemade-Tomato-Sauce9

Knowing how to make a fresh tomato sauce is a great basic recipe to have in your cooking repertoire you can use it as the base for so many other recipes and it is something you could do in advance and either store in the fridge or freezer, for when you need it. If you blend this recipe after cooking you can also use it as an alternative to store-bought tomato sauce.

This recipe for my Fresh Homemade Tomato Sauce will make quite a large quantity, which is perfect to store for later use, which you can use on your homemade pizza base or when preparing a quick easy weekday pasta dish. I have used chilli’s in this recipe if you would like to make it suitable for small children simply leave them out.

Ingredients for the Fresh Tomato Sauce

1 tin large plumb tomatoes in their juice (or 2 smaller tins)
15ml tomato paste
2 -3 garlic cloves(crushed or finely chopped)
1 Tbsp. fresh or dried oregano (If fresh then chop finely)
1 Tbsp. fresh or dried basil (If fresh then chop finely)
2 tsp. chilli paste or 2 small chilli’s (chopped finely)
1 tsp. sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
A splash of balsamic vinegar

In a large saucepan heat a tablespoon of olive oil and then add your garlic, chilli and herbs; sauté over a medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Then add the tin of whole tomatoes to the pan and cook on a gentle heat for 10 minutes. You can begin to break up the tomatoes now, then add the sugar, tomato paste, salt & pepper, balsamic vinegar and stir to combine. Continue simmering for a further 20-30 minutes to soften the tomatoes and reduce the liquid. Once you are happy with the consistency remove from the heat and set aside.

Homemade-Tomato-Sauce10

Once the tomato sauce has cooled you can pour it into either glasses bottles or jars for storing in the fridge or into freezer proof containers and place in the freezer. This sauce will store for up to 2 weeks in the fridge and 2-3 months in the freezer.

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Chicken and Leek Pie

by Fiona Rossiter on April 9, 2013

This is one of my family’s favourite meals, which actually started out as a casserole recipe and evolved into a Chicken and Leek Pie! It is very simple but looks impressive if you are entertaining and want to impress your guests! It is not as heavy as a traditional pie in a pastry shell, as I use phyllo pastry as a topping.

Ingredients:

800g Skinless Chicken Breasts
400g Mushrooms (Combination of Portobello and Button)
4 Leeks (Finely sliced)
50g Butter
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Plain Flour
250ml Chicken Stock
350ml Cream
150g Sliced Gypsy Ham (Optional)
1 Tbsp Chopped Parsley
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 Box Phyllo Pastry
Extra Butter (for brushing the pastry)

Preheat your oven to 180°c. Cut your chicken breasts into small pieces and season with cayenne pepper and set aside for cooking later. Melt half the butter in a deep pan and cook the finely sliced leeks on a low to medium heat stirring often, do not allow the leeks to brown. Once the leeks have softened add your sliced mushrooms to the pan and cook for approximately 2-3 minutes. Remove the leeks and mushrooms from the pan and set aside.

Heat the remaining butter and olive oil in the pan and brown your chicken pieces in batches, on a medium to high heat. Once browned return all the chicken to the pan and stir in your plain flour allowing it to coat the chicken. Cook for 1-2 minutes over a medium heat and then stir in your chicken stock.

Return your mushrooms and leeks to the pan and stir to combine. Simmer over a low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Take the pan off the heat and add your sliced ham pieces and cream, stir well and return to a low heat for 5 minutes to allow the sauce to thicken.

Remove your pan from the heat, season with salt and pepper and stir in your chopped parsley. Pour your chicken mixture into individual ramekins or a large pie plate and top with phyllo pastry, brushed with lashings of melted butter. Bake in your preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes until the pastry is golden and lovely and crispy.

Serve immediately with sauted vegetables, a green salad and a glass of chilled white wine! ENJOY!

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2013 Taste of Cape Town

by Fiona Rossiter April 9, 2013

~TASTE OF CAPE TOWN A CARNIVAL OF POP-UPS, BREWS, CULINARY HEIRLOOMS AND REBEL CHEFS~ I am so excited to be attending this gastronomic event later this week – it is a first for me and I am looking forward to many new experiences to wow my senses! The Pick n Pay Taste of Cape Town is [...]

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