Herb and Mustard Roast Chicken

Ta-dah! Roast chicken! I made this herbaceous, mustardy roast chicken for a lunch party back in January. It's very easy (5 minutes prep time, then the oven does all the work) and super tasty - perfect for entertaining. Or just regular dinner!

So, the marinade recipe comes from Donna Hay. I came across her recipe for herby mustard chicken with olive oil mash when searching for a weeknight dinner, and totally loved the flavour combination. (Obviously I made my mashed potatoes with butter instead of olive oil - delicious). The only problem I had with the recipe was that it took ages to fry up all the chicken pieces, and it was quite messy, splattery work.

Herby mustard chicken with butter mashed potatoes

So when it came time to cook for my lunch party, I wanted something with the same flavours but that would be easier to prepare. I used the same marinade, but slow roasted the chicken in the oven, using the same method as Nigella's St. Tropez chicken (recipe in Feast). Boom boom.

Here's the marinade - parsley, rosemary, garlic, Dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, olive oil. It's really fragrant, and the vinegar helps to tenderise the chicken.

Marinade

Chicken pieces

Basically, you cover the chicken in the marinade, cover the tray in foil and roast it at 170C for two hours. (Breasts cook faster than legs, so if you're super keen I guess you could take the breasts out after one and a half hours, but I left all of them in there for the whole time and didn't find the breasts dry).

Ready for the oven

After the first 2 hours

Once that's done, you blast the chicken pieces in a hot oven until crispy. I removed the pieces to a separate tray before browning, to help the crispening process.

Ready for the hot blast

Nice and crispy

That's it! Crispy skin, tender meat, heaps of herby flavour. Yum yum yum. Enjoy!

Herb and Mustard Roast Chicken
Marinade adapted from Donna Hay, Method from the St. Tropez Chicken in Nigella's Feast

Ingredients
1 cup flat-leaf parsley
1 sprig rosemary
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 large chicken (approx. 2 kg), cut into 8 pieces (ask your butcher to do this)

Method
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Place all the ingredients (except the chicken!) into a food processor or blender, and whizz to combine. (If you don't have a food processor, you can chop the parsley and rosemary, crush the garlic, and stir everything together).
Pour the mixture over the chicken pieces in a large baking tray, and (preferably wearing food gloves!) smoosh it all over the chicken. Season with salt and pepper.
Cover the tray with foil, and roast for two hours.
Remove the foil, and if there is a lot of liquid, transfer the chicken pieces to a fresh tray. Too much liquid will prevent the chicken pieces from browning and crisping up. (If you like, you can serve the pan juices in a little jug as a sauce).
Sprinkle the pieces with a little salt.
Increase the oven to 220C, and place the chicken back in the oven. Cook for 10-20 minutes, or until golden brown and crisp.
Serves 4-6, depending on what you serve with it.

Wow, March was incredibly busy! At the end of last month's Unblogged Files, I said March would be "quiet yet fun", with "one or two events, spending time with family and friends, work, gym, the usual"... it was actually nuts! Here we go.

So, I've been busily blogging in March, with heaps of things I did this month already appearing on the blog. I've already blogged my visit to the Artisan Bakery and Bar as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, my visits to The Arbory Launch Evenings, the eggplant parmigiana dinner party, India Delights, my white chocolate and raspberry scones, and the avocado cheesecake. But there was more. Heaps more!

Avocado and lime cheesecake, avocado choc mint smoothie from Five Plus Smoothie

Breakfasts! Here are some oaty, berry combinations...

Top left: Oatmeal & raspberries x 2 Bottom left: Chocolate Cake, sour cream, blueberries, coffee Top right: Strawberry Oat Breakfast Crisp Bottom right: Yogurt, Green Press granola, raspberries, coffee

... some bread-based brekkies...

Left: Irrewarra Sourdough fruit bread, Pepe Saya butter Top right: Eric Kayser Baguette, Vue de Monde Hot Cross Bun Bottom right: Homemade focaccia, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, rocket

 ... and all of the avocados.

Left: Light rye toast, chilli scrambles, bacon, sliced avocado Top right: Irrewarra Sourdough fruit toast, Avo on toast Bottom right: Peanut butter toast, avocado on toast

The subscription is over until June, phew!

Avocado toast!

Here are some homecooked dinners.

Top row: Pumpkin risotto; Chicken fajitas Bottom row: Frikadellen with cauliflower & potatoes; Pork schnitzels, roast vegetabls, Ofen Makkaroni alla Mamma; Bratkartoffeln with scrambled eggs and bacon

Top left: Vegetable soup Top right: Taiwanese Meat Sauce on rice Bottom left: Salmon, broccolini, pumpkin, avo, spinach Bottom right: Honey pepper chicken

I did a little unblogged baking throughout March too - making Smitten Kitchen's Everyday Chocolate Cake...

Smitten Kitchen's Everyday Chocolate Cake

... and a variation on that cake, her "I Want Chocolate Cake Cake", for my friend Kimba's birthday!

I Want Chocolate Cake Cake

And speaking of Kimba's birthday, we celebrated with drinks and nibbles at Heart Attack and Vine (329 Lygon Street, Carlton VIC 3053)...

Espresso Martinis, Aperol Spritz

... then All Of The Cheese at Milk the Cow (323 Lygon Street, Carlton VIC 3053).

5 Cheese Platter - $37

Espresso Flip - garnished with BellaVitano Espresso Cheese - $18

And just in case that wasn't enough dairy, we stopped in at Pidapipo (299 Lygon Street, Carlton 3053) for gelato! I still think Spring Street Grocer is the best gelato in Melbourne, but Pidapipo was still pretty darn good.

Pidapipo - Hazelnut and Peach

I didn't make any new cafe visits this month, visiting good old Plantation Coffee (Shop 253, Level 2, Melbourne Central, 300 LaTrobe Street, Melbourne VIC 3000) whenever I needed a caffeine hit!

Plantation Coffee (Shop 253, level 2, Melbourne Central 300 La Trobe Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000)

Also Little Rogue (12 Drewery Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000).

2 x Magic at Little Rogue

And Spiga (2 Menzies Alley, Melbourne VIC 3000).

Cappuccino, Bacon Sandwich

Here are some weekday lunches.

Top left: Kay's Chicken from Hanaichi, QV Top right: Thr1ve bowls! Bottom left: Dips from The Borek Bakehouse, (481 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000), Bread from Eric Kayser Bottom right: Miso Ramen from Little Ramen Bar (346 Lt Bourke St, Melbourne VIC 3000)

Top left: Beef Bimbimbop from By Korea (1/222 La Trobe St, Melbourne, VIC 3000) Top right: Soy fried chicken and rice from By Korea Bottom left: Curry Tonkatsu from By Korea Bottom right: Bebek Penyet with Sambal, Es Teler (Emporium, Level 3 321 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000)

One night, we went to an old favourite for dinner - Tutto Bene (Mid Level Southgate,Melbourne VIC 3006), followed by the musical Sweet Charity. Yay! I know Tutto Bene is famous for their awesome risotti, but their espresso martini and eggplant chips were also very impressive.

Tutto Bene

One day, I went to Yum Cha with my parents at Taipan (237-239 Blackburn Rd, Doncaster East, VIC 3109). Best.

Yum Cha

Last Friday, we went to see Hannah Gadsby at the Comedy Festival, with a few sneaky drinks before and after at Ferdydurke (31 Tattersalls Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000) and Murmur (17 Warburton Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000). TGIF!

Cocktails at Ferdydurke

Murmur (17 Warburton Lane, Melbourne VIC 3000) Front: Old Pal - Rye whiskey, campari and russo vermouth - $19 Left: Chili Mojito - $19

We had some friends over for a games night - I made spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and a giant chocolate chip cookie!

Spaghetti and Meatballs, Garlic Bread

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie

Finally, I was invited to the launch of the Jameson Festival Club VIP night at HiFi Bar (125 Swanston St, Melbourne VIC 3000) as part of the Comedy Festival. Whiskey tasting, comedy, DJs and deelicious barbecue from The Beaufort. (P.S. the food was seriously impressive - I loved the pulled pork sliders, ribs, tomato salad and fried pickles. Totally want to go to The Beaufort for dinner now!)

Jameson

Phew! That was March.

Upcoming in April: MY BIRTHDAY YAAAAAAAAAAAAY

White chocolate and raspberry scones

The other day, my team at work had a catch-up at The Tea Salon in Emporium. I purposely didn't bring my wallet so I wouldn't be tempted to indulge in scones. But then I watched my team eat scones, and couldn't stop thinking about scones all day. So, when I got home that evening, I whipped up a batch of raspberry and white chocolate scones. Then I spent all week eating the scones. Scones scones scones. Oops.

So, these are more of an American-style scone than the ones I normally make. Being full of tart juicy raspberries and buttery rich white chocolate, they're great on their own, with no need for cream or jam. (Although I snuck a little butter onto mine - yum). I chose to make raspberry and white chocolate because it is one of my favourite flavour combos, and I happened to have two punnets of awesome raspberries in the fridge. I totally love raspberries, and am so happy that they're abundant (and reasonably cheap) right now!

Raspberries

I adapted this recipe from Martha Stewart's recipe for Fast Raspberry Scones, with the main changes being that I added white chocolate chips, and that I made the dough by hand rather than using mechanical assistance. (I often find that dragging out the food processor - and then cleaning it, ugh - is more hard work than just getting stuck in with my hands, especially if I'm not working with big quantities).

The dough for these scones is a standard one - rub butter into dry ingredients, then pour in liquid ingredients and stir to a form a dough. In this case, tangy buttermilk for a tender dough and an egg yolk for extra richness. Boom.

Flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, butter

After you've added the liquid ingredients, the dough is quite shaggy, but don't be tempted to add more liquid. The dough comes together as you press it out, and it gets extra moisture from the raspberries.

Dough

Dough, berries, white chocolate

I used fresh raspberries this time, but frozen raspberries would work too. Come to think of it, frozen raspberries might be even better, as they wouldn't squish as much. As you can see, I got a couple of super moist areas on the dough from the squashed raspberries, which were messy and a little tricky to slice (but still delicious).

Ready to be cut

Scone squares!

Raspberry and White Chocolate Scones

White Chocolate and Raspberry Scones
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients
2.5 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon extra for sprinkling
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoons coarse salt
112.5 grams cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3/4 cups buttermilk
1 egg yolk
1.5 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Place flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
Rub the butter into the dry ingredients using your fingertips, until the butter is evenly distributed and the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Whisk together the buttermilk and egg yolk. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined.
Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and press out into a large rectangle. Scatter half the raspberries and chocolate chips over, then fold in half and gently press out into a large rectangle. Top with the remaining raspberries and chocolate chips, fold in half again and gently press out into a rectangle approximately 4 cm thick.
Cut into roughly evenly sized squares and place on a lined baking tray. Sprinkle over the extra tablespoon of sugar.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until golden brown and cooked through.
Allow to cool slightly, then eat.
Makes 15 scones, depending on how big you cut them.

More scone goodness:

• Classic Scones
• Spelt, Buckwheat and Buttermilk Scones
• Date Scones

Raspberry and white chocolate deliciousness:

• Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

Sandwich!

So last weekend, I made this awesome eggplant parmigiana sandwich. You make an eggplant parmigiana, you make a focaccia, you put the eggplant parmigiana IN the focaccia and then shove it in your face. Amaze! I saw the recipe in Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food (which is a fantastic book, by the way!) and knew I just had to have it! The only problem was that Jamie's recipe serves sixteen people (ahem), and even using all of my amazing mathematical prowess, I could only scale it down enough to make it a four-person parmigiana... so there was nothing else to do but throw an eggplant parmigiana-themed dinner party!




We invited fellow eggplant-enthusiasts (yes, it's a thing) Jenni and Jimbo, and I decided to make tiramisu for dessert, because it fit in with the Italian theme and JJ both love coffee. As a bonus, I'd been looking for an excuse to formalise my mum's old tiramisu recipe which a friend scribbled on a piece of scrap paper for her 20 years ago. It essentially says: "6 egg yolks, 500 grams mascarpone, coffee, alcohol and sugar to taste, savoiardi biscuits, cocoa on top". (Spoiler alert: the tiramisu worked, hooray! I wrote down all the quantities I used and I'll publish the recipe here soon!) The espresso martinis were added to the menu because, espresso martinis.

When friends ask what they can bring, my habitual answer is: "alcohol", so that it doesn't mess with my menu (heh), but I have to stop saying that, as we have way too much booze at home! Over the years we've amassed dozens of bottles of wine and spirits, but we almost never drink at home, especially throughout the week, and only if it's a special occasion or if we've got friends over. Our wine racks and liquor cabinet have literally run out of room!

So this time I asked JJ to bring snacks, "like chips and dip or something". They brought this...

Cheeeeeeese

Speaking of alcohol, Sandra was on cocktail duty, making Pimm's Cups with freshly muddled strawberries, citrus and cucumber. Soooo tasty.

Cocktail Station!

I was super organised and had done all the cooking and preparation in the afternoon, so I was free to get stuck into the cheese and cocktails until it was time for dinner. Here's the focaccia! (Confession time: I also bought a back-up focaccia, just in case mine didn't turn out right. But mine did. Phew!)

Focaccia dough

Homemade Foccacia

Also, how good is grilled eggplant? Scroll down for the full recipe, but basically it is layers of grilled eggplant, basily tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Boom.

Eggplant!

Here it is, all topped with melty mozzarella and baked.

Eggplant Parm

Focaccia

Eggplant Parmigiana Sandwich

It was super yum. I was actually impressed that the eggplant parm sandwich managed to sustain structural integrity as I was eating it - much less messy than anticipated! Although having said that, everyone else ate very daintily with a fork and knife on their plates.

Then it was time for dessert! Plus cheesy 90s music because, well, why not! The espresso martini was perfect with the tiramisu (good job, mixologist-Sandra!) So much caffeinated alcoholic goodness.

Tiramisu & Espresso Martini

Eggplant Parmigiana Sandwich

Recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food

For the Focaccia

3.5 grams dried yeast (half a sachet)

500 grams strong bread flour

Extra virgin olive oil

For the Eggplant Parmigiana

2 medium eggplants

Olive oil, for frying (you will need lots)

2 cloves garlic

4 sprigs of basil

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

75 millilitres red wine

800 grams tinned crushed tomatoes

200 grams mozzarella cheese, torn up or finely sliced

50 grams breadcrumbs

50 grams Parmesan cheese, grated

50 grams rocket leaves

Method

For the Focaccia

Whisk the yeast into 300 millilitres warm water and set aside for 5 minutes. Place the flour and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt into the bowl of a stand mixer and knead slowly using the bread hook until the dough comes together. Turn the mixer up to medium and keep kneading for 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for an hour, or until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough to de-gas it (heh), then push it out into a large rectangular shape on a baking tray. Poke it all over with your fingertips, to make dents all over the dough. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle generously with sea salt and pepper. Set aside in a warm place to prove for an hour, or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the focaccia for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Eggplant Parmigiana

Slice the eggplant crosswise into half-centimetre thick rounds. Brush with olive oil and grill or pan-fry until cooked through and softened. Set aside.

Finely slice the garlic and basil stalks (reserve the leaves for later). Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan, and add the garlic, basil stalks and oregano. Cook for a few minutes or until lightly golden. Pour in the red wine and allow to bubble away. Add the crushed tomatoes. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until the sauce is thickened.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Lightly oil a 20 x 30cm roasting tray with high sides.

Cover the base with a third of the eggplant slices, followed by a third of the tomato sauce, basil leaves, mozzarella, breadcrumbs and Parmesan. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make three layers in total. Drizzle with a little olive oil, and cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and piping hot all the way through. Allow to stand for 30 minutes before cutting into portions and stuffing into the focaccia, adding rocket leaves.

Serves 4-6