Happy Valentine’s Day!

This is our first Valentine’s day at our new house. Things have been chaotic for the past few months and I missed writing about food on my blog terribly.  With all the unpacking and settling down into our new house plus a new (clingy) baby I hardly cook these days let alone blog. So today being Valentine’s Day I decided to make a nice dinner for the hubs

Mushroom soup
Salad greens with balsamic vinaigrette
Grilled honey mustard lamb with crushed potatoes and tomatoes
Pasta with chunky tomato & mushroom sauce and grilled rosemary chicken
Trifle

Rocket Salad

No it’s not the rocket rocket, I’m talking about rocket leaves or to some you may know it as arugula leaves. A strong flavoured (peppery) salad leaves that is usually used in salad but you can have it with your pasta or meat. Heck the Italians even have it as their pizza toppings! This recipe is pretty simple and easy to make, you don’t have to be a scientist to make a rocket salad (rocket = scientist… get it? LOL, ahem ok excuse me with my lame joke).

Serves 2
You Need
A packet of rocket leaves (washed and spin dry with a salad spinner)
2 hardboiled eggs, quartered
1 cup of crouton
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tomato, deseeded and chopped (or you can also use cherry tomatoes)

Croutons 
1 slice of bread, cubed and drizzle with some olive oil, season with salt & freshly cracked black pepper Arrange the cubes on a baking sheet in a single layer, cook in a preheated oven at 180 Celsius for 20 minutes or until it turns crispy and golden .
Remember to toss the cubes every 10 minutes for even cooking

Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing
3 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
4 shallots, finely chopped
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
salt and freshly cracked black pepper to season

How To
1.To make the vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients in a bowl or add all the ingredients in a jar, cover with a lid and shake to mix. You can leave it to chill in the fridge if you like.
2. To make the salad, toss all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl except the vinaigrette. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad and lightly toss with your fingers.
3. Serve and enjoy!

Balsamic Chicken with Rosemary and Baked Potato Fries

I was going through my blog and I just realized that I forgot to post up two recipes and they were like a couple months back. Sorry!! *sheepish smile*

 

Ok for a couple of weeks I was into balsamic vinegar, almost all the dishes I made has to have balsamic vinegar be it as a dressing, sauce or marinade. I had my first taste of this wonderful liquid at Italiannies where they serve freshly baked bread with herbed olive oil and balsamic vinegar, so being the curious me I quickly went to the supermarket and got myself a bottle of balsamic vinegar not knowing what to do with it.

But as always I attended a brief stint at the University of Google and found out that a true balsamic vinegar is sweet and not at all acidic, and a friend who is currently staying in Italy mentioned that balsamic vinegar are usually quite syrupy and very expensive, as they are dark, sweet vinegar aged for many years in wooden barrels in Italy. The longer it is aged, the sweeter, thicker and more expensive it becomes. So the ones available here are those that hasn’t been aged for long but they are still good to use in cooking even though I feel kinda ripped off . Read more about it here. 

Well now that we have learned more about balsamic vinegar, it’s time to use it in our cooking as shown in the recipe below

 

Serves 2  
You Need
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cleaned and pat dry 
1-1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced, or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
4 shallots, minced
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar,
2 tablespoons of brown sugar,
2-3 medium sized Russet potatoes, unpeeled and scrubbed then cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick

How To
1. Combine rosemary, garlic, sugar, balsamic vinegar, oil, pepper and salt in small bowl; mix well.
2. Place chicken in large bowl, drizzle chicken with marinade mixture and rub over.
3.Cover and refrigerate several hours.
4.Preheat oven to 180 degree Celcius. Spray heavy roasting pan or cast iron skillet with nonstick cooking spray or you may drizzle olive oil all over.
5.Layer potatoes around chicken in pan; bake 10 minutes. Turn chicken over, stirring in 3 to 4 tablespoons water if drippings begin to stick to pan.
6.Bake about 10 minutes or until chicken is golden brown and no longer pink in center and the potatoes are soft when you pierce using a fork.
7.Transfer chicken and potatoes to plates. Stir liquid in pan; drizzle over chicken.
8. Serve with salad greens and enjoy!