In a fit of New Year excitement, I decided to try out some new recipes.
My menu planning had become a little boring and I thought it was time to introduce some new flavours to Chez Joy.
I even bothered to make it look pretty.
The things you do.....
Lemon Chicken Skewers with Brown Rice Salad.
{recipe at the end of post}
You'll feel healthier just buying the ingredients...in anticipation of how great you're going to feel.
The recipe called for lemongrass. I have never, ever used lemongrass. All I knew about it was that if you're trying to be healthy, you should apparently have some of it about your person.
All those healthy TV chefs seem to be constantly banging on about lemongrass. So I bought some and waited for the right recipe to dictate how I should use it.
But look what it did to my brand new chopping board.
Well, actually it was me.
I was supposed to bash the lemongrass stem to "release the flavour".
Well, it turns out using a granite pestle on lemongrass releases my inner warrior kitchen goddess and I split the board in two.
I am cooking, hear me roar.
Any road, after marinating the chicken, I added all whatever veggies I had lying around
to bulk out the quantity for the troops.
I got into a rhythm and I was like a woman possessed.
Various children offered to help and they were quickly dismissed....this was my moment of kitchen zen.
You can tell by the number of photos I took that I was well pleased with myself.
Such vanity. As my grandmother used to say "Self-praise is no recommendation".
She had hundreds of these type of one liners.
Then I grilled them.
Ideally, you would do them on a BBQ, but if you live in Sydney you would be aware that for the last few weeks we have been inundated with enough rain to consider ark building as a viable new millennium business.
A word to the wise....
If in your moments of kitchen zen you consider uniform size of veggies too conformist for the moment.....may I humbly suggest you reconsider? Due to the random shapes and sizes of the veggies, these did not grill easily.
I ended up grilling both sides to get the obligatory stripes of char and then had to finish them off in the oven to ensure no one got food poisoning.
They were finger lickin' good.
Even the harshest of the Goofball critics were hands-down James Brown impressed.
If you want to tap into your inner Kitchen Warrior Goddess, here's the recipe:
Lemon Chicken Skewers with Brown Rice Salad:
Skewers:
4 chicken breasts, diced
juice of 2 lemons
1 lemongrass stick, broken into pieces
a bunch coriander
cherry tomatoes
zucchini - cut into chunks
red capsicum - cut into chunks
Method:
Soak wooden skewers in water before using to ensure the ends don't burn during cooking.
Marinate chicken in lemon juice, lemongrass stick pieces, coriander and salt in a bowl in the fridge. Leave for 30 mins to 2 hours. {Not much longer than that or the acid in the lemon will cook your chicken}
Thread chicken pieces and veggies onto skewers.
Place on grill or BBQ to cook.
Alternatively, if you don't have the facilities for that, you can wrap the skewers in baking paper and place in an oven dish {say two skewers per parcel}. Then cook in moderate oven for 15 - 20 minutes.
Brown Rice Salad:
Ingredients:
{make up into whatever ratio you feel is required...you can't go wrong, just don't be stingy on the dressing:)}
Brown rice
Frozen peas
Red capsicum
Almond slivers
Handful of coriander
Thai salad dressing
Method:
Cook brown rice as directed on packed. Allow to cool.
Add frozen peas, finely diced red capsicum and almond slivers.
I used a store bought Thai salad dressing that had a hint of sesame and coriander in it.
By all means use whatever dressing you like!
Love you more than my mortar and pestle,
Meredy xo
0 Yorumlar