Bridget's sticky chicken curry and noodles

This is another meal that Mum made for us while she was staying after Stella was born. Its so delicious and decadent and yummy that I could happily eat it every week. Its on a monthly rotation here at the White House.

4 tbs teriyaki sauce

2 tbs brown sugar

2 tbs olive oil

500g of diced chicken thigh (you could use chicken wings or mini-drumsticks, just messier to eat)

2 tbs tikka paste (this is what the original recipe calls for, we weren't able to find it here in Oz so we used a thai basil & garlic stirfry paste instead)

1x 400g can coconut milk

200g padthai noodles (I used thick egg noodles)

2 ripe mangoes (I used one tin. First time using tinned mango and I wouldn't eat it straight from the can but its good for cooking when ripe mangoes aren't available)

1 red onion thinly sliced

1 green chilli finely chopped

1 cup of coriander finely chopped

Juice of a lime

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Combine the teriyaki sauce, brown sugar and 1 tbs olive oil, toss the chicken to coat and then place on a baking tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes turning and basting with the remaining marinade until cooked and sticky.

In a saucepan saute the stirfry sauce until fragrant and then add the coconut milk. Allow to simmer for 25 minutes until reduced. Add the cooked noodles and coriander and lime juice. Distribute between bowls and top with chicken, sliced mango and onion and a garnish of chilli and coriander (to taste.)

Amy loved the sticky chicken on its own and I have left the chilli out the last few times I made this as it disagrees with Stella. I also added a splash of fish sauce to the coconut milk sauce but only because we love it! You can use different stirfry sauces and make it as hot or as flavoursome as you like!

This is our new favourite meal and given half a chance we would eat it at least once a week! Its a forgiving recipe and I am sure you could adjust it to suit your tastes, hold the capers, increase the olives, leave off the coriander.

Bridget's chicken with capers, olives and prunes.

Marinade:
8 chicken thighs - remove skin
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup dried oregano (or Italian herbs)
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup pitted prunes
1/2 cup pitted green olives
1/4 cup capers (with a little of their juice)
3 bay leaves

Before baking:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white wine
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh coriander

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a glass jug and pour over the chicken thighs. Marinade overnight or all day. I find depending on how much olive oil I use that sometimes the marinade can solidify in which case leave the chicken out for longer before cooking.

Before cooking sprinkle the brown sugar and wine over the chicken. You can adjust the amounts you want to use at this point. I like to make sure the baking dish I use is shallow enough that some chicken pokes out so this goes brown and sticky when cooking.

Bake uncovered for 50-60 mins, basting frequently.

At this point remove the chicken from the marinade and transfer to a serving dish. Pour the sauce into a pan and reduce until thickened to your liking. I usually boil rapidly for a few minutes and then add a mixture of 2 or 3 tsp of cornflour dissolved in hot water. This helps the sauce to thicken and gives it a glossy texture.

Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve over steamed rice.

This meal is even better the next day for leftovers.

I have been wanting to organise our eating habits and meal plans a little better now that Stella is a little older and less likely to sleep for hours at a time. I really need to be more organised with our meals so that we can spend less and eat more healthily. I will be working on this over the coming weeks and posting my meal plans, recipes, shopping lists etc to the blog.

These are the current meals on my meal planner, in no particular order.

Chicken fajitas
Mince Tacos
Spaghetti bolognaise
Chicken and Rice with peas
Chicken risotto
Fish and chips
Fishcakes and Cous cous
Pasta Bake with sausages
Sausages and mash
Meatballs and Sauce with Spaghetti
Meatballs and gravy with mash
Pasta with tomato, peppers & peppadews
Cauliflower soup
Lamb chops
Thai Beef Curry
Thai Chicken curry
Ham and pea Soup
Spicy pumpkin and coconut soup
Citrus chilli pork with cashews
Sticky Chicken curry and noodles
Pasta E' Fagioli
Chicken with prunes and capers
Beef burgers
Chicken snitzel
Chicken Tikka Masala
Creamy chicken pesto pasta
Homemade pizzas
Pork stirfry with ginger and green beans
Sweet and sour sausage stew
Taglietelle with chicken
Vietnamese lemon chicken with peanuts
Oxtail and mash
Lamb shanks

This is another one of Mum's recipes from when she stayed with us and took care of us after the birth of Stella. I have made it twice since, its fast becoming a firm favourite.

Sticky Chicken Curry & Noodles

Ingredients

4 tbs teriyaki sauce

2 tbs brown sugar

2 tbs olive oil

quantity of diced chicken thigh fillets (I use about 5/6 for 2 people)

2 tbs tikka paste (we weren't able to find this here in Oz so have been using Thai basil and garlic stifry paste)

the juice of a lime

1 400g tin of coconut milk

200g pad thai noodles (I have been using a packet (containing 2 serves) of thick egg noodles - couldn't find them this time so thin egg noodles are pictured)

2 ripe mangoes sliced (no ripe mangoes so used one tin)

1 red onion thinly sliced

1 cup coriander, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180degrees celcius and combine in a mixing bowl the teriyaki sauce, brown sugar and olive oil. Toss the chicken in the marinade to coat and then place on a baking tray and bake until cooked through and sticky.

In a saucepan add the remaining olive oil and the tikka/stirfry paste. Fry over a medium heat for 20 seconds until fragrant then add the coconut milk. Simmer for 20 minutes until slightly reduced, add the cooked/heated noodles and coriander and squeeze in the lime juice. Distribute amoung your serving bowls and leftovers containers and then top with the sticky chicken, diced mango and sliced onion. Garnish with coriander.

We had a BBQ at our house on Sunday to take advantage of the Queen's Birthday long weekend. Ron and I used to entertain all the time and then we moved to Australia, into a small house with a dangerous deck and had our entertainment budget cut by one salary. I realise that having friends round doesn't mean a three course dinner like it used to and so we have had casual evenings, BBQ's and lunches but nothing with quite this many people, and a new baby. There were 8 adults and 8 children under the age of 4 which was fun. I made sure to keep the menu simple and easy to prepare ahead of time.

This is what we ate:

To start - a selection of cheeses served with grapes and crispbread, a selection of dips with crackers/chips and doritos with salsa dip.

For main Ron did two easy carve legs of lamb on the BBQ, these are an brilliant invention prepared by our butcher where the leg is boned out leaving one section still on the bone then rolled back up again and tied so you roast it with the bone attached but can carve it straight down like a rolled roast. The lamb was heavenly, perfectly cooked by Ron and served with mint sauce/jelly and preserves.

I served the lamb with my special roast potatoes and a winter salad of mixed leaves and baby spinach with roasted butternut and pinenuts. I only realised the next day that I forgot to crumble the feta cheese over the salad but no one missed it.

The meal was wonderful, everyone commented on how delicious and simple it all was and it was so easy to prepare that morning thanks to my angel baby Stella who slept all morning. But where I really excelled myself was with dessert. I hardly ever make desserts unless I bake but I really wanted something tasty with wow-factor that was easy to make, luckily I found just the recipe a few days before.

Banoffee Pie
250g digestive biscuits
160g melted butter
300ml thickened cream
5 small ripe bananas

Toffee sauce - 1/2 cup or 100g brown sugar
395g can condensed milk
160g butter

Line the base and sides of a 22cm springform pan with baking paper, chop the biscuits in a food processor and pour the melted butter in until the crust comes together. Press into the pan and chill in the fridge until needed.

For the sauce combine the brown sugar with 3 tablespoons of water in a heavy bottomed pan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium-high and boil without stirring, occasionally swhirling the pot and brushing down the sides with a pastry brush dipped in water for about 3-5 minutes until the syrup turns a deep amber. Reduce the heat to medium-low and whisk in the butter and condensed milk. Continue whisking for 5-8 minutes until the sauce thickens.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool then spread 3/4 of the mixture over the chilled crust and put it back into the fridge until ready to serve. Whisk the cream until billowy peaks are formed and then slice the bananas finely. Stir most of the bananas through the cream and spoon onto the toffee filling using the reserved bananas to decorate the top. Just before serving reheat the remaining sauce and drizzle across the top of the pie.

Some meals and tastes are so ingrained in my past that to smell an old favourite cooking can take me right back to my childhood. This is one of those meals. It was a recipe that my aunt used to make on request and I seem to recall that it became a special occasion dinner, on the eve of returning to boarding school, or the first night of holidays for both my cousins and myself. Eventually it found its way onto our request list too so Mum would make it for my sister and I. She even made it in huge batches and froze it into bags for me to take back to university one time which made me immensly popular in my student digs!

While Mum was staying with us in the days after Amy was born in 2006, she cooked endless meals that just appeared in front of us whenever we were hungry. Its a wonderful gift to have someone you love prepare food for you when you are least capable of making your own and she really helped Ron and I through the rollercoaster that was Amy's first few weeks in the world. This visit was the same excecpt this time Mum had Amy at her feet in the kitchen! She still managed to make us a wonderful selection of delicious meals and like last time, she left her recipe binder with me so I can add some of our new favourites to our regulars. I will post some of these new recipes but I only had one request this time, sweet and sour sausage stew!

Sweet & Sour Sausage Stew.
The quantities are easily adjustable, more sausages, more sauce, more veg depending on how many you are cooking for and how many leftovers you want. The recipe as it is feeds 4.

6 pork sausages
2 onions
1 carrot
1 capsicum/pepper
1 small cucumber/ can be substituted for a handful of small gerkins if you like the flavour
1 can pineapple chunks

Sauce - I like to double this to make it extra saucy, depends on how much veg you use.
60mls water
60mls pineapple juice
60mls brown sugar
30mls vinegar
15mls tomato sauce
15mls soy sauce
10mls cornflour

Fry the sausages in a casserole pot until browned. Remove and cut into chunks.
Cut the veg into strips and gently fry in the casserole, add the drained pineapple chunks.

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a pot and heat, thicken with the cornflour and pour the sauce over the veg in the casserole. Add the sausages back, stir and put into the oven at a low temp 140degrees for about 30mins until bubbling and hot.

There is massive room for personal input with this recipe, more pineapple juice in the sauce if you prefer it sweeter, more vinegar and the gerkins if you like it sour. I like to double or triple the recipe and add lots more carrot and capsicum and then freeze it into portions for later.

Serve over steamed white rice.

Tonights dinner was a variation on this Thai Curry recipe which has become my go-to quick midweek meal.

Ingredients:
600g diced chicken breast (grabbed a pre-cut bag from the freezer)
1 medium onion diced
2 tbs green curry paste (this was the open jar in the fridge, could have been red)
juice of a lime
dash of fish sauce
big handful of finely chopped coriander
1 can of coconut milk
1/2 bag of frozen green beans

Instructions:
Fry the onion and chicken in a little vegetable oil until browned, make a hole in the middle and add the curry paste, fry for a few seconds till fragrant and then stir in. Add the coconut milk, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and add the frozen beans. Cook until softened, add the lime juice and a few splashes of fish sauce and the chopped coriander.

Serve over fragrant steamed rice, or for an even quicker meal like we had tonight, soak some egg noodles in a little hot water and serve over those.

Unbelievably delicious and ready in under ten minutes. This hit the spot BIG TIME tonight and I might pull a Nigella and sneak into the kitchen in the middle of the night to tuck into the leftovers that Ron is supposed to be taking to work tomorrow!