Mango chutney with Lamb

I have this recipe book that I got from the supermarket, one of those "quick meal" books and they had a mango chutney on grilled lamb chops. Super idea I thought.

There is a lovely mando chutney made by Sharwood's that I have used before. So I brushed that onto the lamb chops and grilled them on the bbq grill. (I don't have a pic because my battery was flat the night I cooked).

Then I was planning on making a mango salad but fresh mango's were $8!! So I bought a tin of mangos and used half of the tin. I placed it in a pan, with 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder and warmed that up so it was like a paste with small chunks of mango.

Once the chops were cooked I placed them on the plate and put the mango paste I had made on top.

The kids didn't eat it (they don't really eat lamb) but hubby and I loved it. I don't like hot curry or anything so for me the flavour was just right but Hubby would of preferred a little more curry powder. So taste it as you go and get it right for your taste.

Sweet and Sour chicken

I love sweet and sour chicken so decided to make my own. There are so many different recipes out there, so I looked at about 4 different ones and came up with something similar to those (and different in some ways too). I can't believe there are some that tell you to add food colouring though! LOL. I won't be doing that thanks. I like lots of veggies, so add or take if you want.

This will serve 4 adults well (it did 2 adults and 2 children with left overs for two more adults).

2 chicken breast cut into pieces

1-2 carrots julienne style

1 stalk celery chopped

handful of snow peas

1/2 red capsicum (pepper)

1/2 green capsicum

1/4 onion chopped

1 garlic clove chopped

1 cup cauliflower

large tin of pineapple (or you can use fresh pineapple like I did, around a cup or so I think).

Sauce

2 tablespoon tomato sauce (ketchup)

1 teaspoon ground ginger or fresh if you have it

1 garlic clove chopped finely

1/3 cup vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoon corn flour (starch)

3 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons oyster sauce (you can just add 4 of soy sauce if you don't want to add oyster sauce).

Juice from the pineapple (probably 1/3 cup or you can do what I did and finely chopped the fresh pineapple and squeezed what I could from the remainders).

Mix until combined and set aside to add last minute to the chicken and vegetables.

1. Cook chicken in wok until almost brown, add onion and garlic.

2. Place veggies into wok and stir fry until almost cooked.

3. Add sauce and warm through.

4. Serve with your favourite rice.

Review- this was perfect for us. I made the tastes to suit us, so please, taste ALL THE TIME when you are cooking as you may prefer it sweeter, or with more sour. The kids loved it, they eat all those veggies I put in it. And they love rice.

Mongolian Beef

Mongolian Beef was delicious! Such simple flavours but so so nice. Hubby even wanted seconds but there was none :)

This made enough for 2 adults and 2 children

500gms beef (I used stir fry beef that was already cut for me) most recipes say to use flank steak

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/4 cup corn flour (corn starch)
1/2 teaspoon ginger (I used powdered)

1 tablespoon (2 cloves) garlic chopped

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup oyster sauce (or you can just use 1/2 cup soy and no oyster sauce)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 green onions (spring onions)

1/2 brown onion

salt and pepper to season

1. Coat your beef strips in corn flour and let sit for around 10 mins (this seems to be important, don't know why)

2. Heat oil in pan and add garlic and ginger and fry til just brown. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce and brown sugar and water and let boil for around 2 minutes, then emove from heat.

3. Heat 1/4 cup oil in wok or other pan and fry the beef until almost cooked (it will cook again later so no need to over cook and make it tough). Remove from the pan and let it drain on some paper towel.

4. Remove excess oil then add the onions and fry for a minute or so. Add the meat back, fry for another minute. Add the sauce and mix well.

5. Serve with rice and your choice of sides. I lightly stir fried some yellow and red capsicum (peppers) and zucchini.

REVIEW- I have made this twice now, exactly the same way and I wouldn't change anything. The kids love it too which is good.

Lemon cookies

I found a lovely easy recipe for lemon cookies HERE. So I won't repeat the recipe. I will say that I doubled it so I got around 20 cookies. They spread a bit too so leave adequate space. My lemon icing doesn't look as good as the ones from Delightfully sweets ones, but they taste lovely :)

Maple Syrup chicken

This was a really easy meal to make and so tasty! I did forget to add the mustard though, so be interesting to try it again with it. It was gorgeous without too though!

2 chicken breasts or you can use thighs, drumsticks etc (this served 2 adults and 2 children)

pinch of sea salt

pinch of black pepper

3 tablespoons really good maple syrup

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon thyme

(1-2 tablespoon English or French mustard which I forgot to add)

METHOD

Season chicken with salt and pepper

Place the oil, syrup, thyme and mustard into a oven proof dish with the chicken pieces, cover chicken with the syrup sauce and place in preheated oven at 180 degrees C for around 30 mins or until the chicken is cooked. I used skin on breast so that we had a nice crispy skin and also keeps the chicken moist while its cooking.

Serve with your choice of veggies. I served with rice and vegetables.

Menu this week

So this week we will be eating

Maple Syrup chicken
Shepherds Pie
Mongolian Beef
Lamb with roast pumpkin and spinach salad
Honey Lemon chicken

and something else, not sure just yet. Might see what meat is on special and go from there :)

Non-spicy Jamaican Jerk chicken

A friend of mine always talks about having jerk chicken and I never really knew what it was until I asked her a few weeks ago. I was glad that I did! It's delicious!! Now I didn't add the scotch bonnet pepper (chilli) but if you want to then feel free. This is the non- hot and spicy version :)

Marinade will cover 5-6 chicken breasts well.

You mix everything in a blender so you don't have to cut things that finely as the blender will do that for you.

1 onion chopped

4 cloves garlic

3 spring onions (green onions)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup orange juice

zest and juice from one lime

1 tablepoon all spice

1 tablespoon dry thyme

1 tablespoon black pepper

1/2 tablespoon sea salt

3/4 tablespoon nutmeg

3/4 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon brown sugar (I didnt have any so I used white and it was fine)

1/4 tablespoon ground ginger

Put all ingredients into a blender and mixed until combined well.

Pour over chicken pieces and leave to marinade (min 1 hour) best results over night (I did mine for about 6 hours). You can make slits in the chicken and press the marinade in (known as to "jerk the chicken"). Place in pre heated oven at about 200 celcius for 30 mins or until cooked, or place on grill.

Traditionally it seems to be served with rice and beans (peas) in Jamaica which is rice cooked in coconut milk with kidney type beans and spices added to it. I served with mashed potato and veg so the kids would eat it :)