Yet another dish I grew up with. For me there’s nothing like chicken in a homemade tomato sauce with some type of pasta or grain. Pure bliss! I used chicken breast but it’s normally made with thigh and leg pieces. I just can’t handle fiddling with the bones nor picking out the chicken fat. Although using these pieces makes this dish all the more juicier and succulent.
Author: thefussiesteater.com
Recipe type: Pasta & Grains, Poultry
Cuisine: Greek
Serves: 4
Ingredients
2 Organic Chicken breasts – cut into large cubes
1 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 med Spanish Onions – Shredded or sliced and diced very finely
3 Garlic cloves – thinly sliced
2½ cups ripe tomatoes – grated or pureed
2 cups of my ‘Homemade Tomato Sauce’ found under ‘Condiments’
2 Bay leaves
5 Pepper corns
1 Cinnamaon Stick
1-2 tsps Oregano
1 tsp dried Chilli flakes
Pinch of Coconut Palm Sugar
Sea Salt
Black or White Pepper
2 Cups of Orzo
Kefalogargera or Parmesan to garnish
Instructions
In a saucepan lightly cook the chicken in oil. Remove from pan and put aside.
In the same saucepan, cook the onions until soft and translucent.
Add the garlic, cook for a further couple of minutes.
Add the tomatoes and tomato sauce, herbs, spices and sugar.
Bring to boil, add the Orzo then turn down the heat to a simmer
Add the chicken and cook for approx ½ an hour or until chicken is cooked right thru.
When done allow to sit in the pot for approx 10-15min to settle and absorb any leftover liquid.
Before serving remove Cinammon stick and remove Peppercorns as and when you find them during serving.
Serve with grated Greek Kefalogargera Cheese or Parmesan and cracked Pepper.
One of my fondest memories of Greek Easter was decorating the Easter eggs. My mother would send us kids out to rummage thru the neighbors gardens, the parks, our back yard etc for odd shaped leaves. We would bring these all home, sit around our kitchen table where my mum had already cut up pieces of panty hose she’d been collecting for a while. We’d place the leaves as flat as possible over the egg, then with the piece of panty hose wrap it around the egg and tie a double knot on the back. We would do at least 3 – 4 dozen eggs this way.
My mum would dye these eggs in batches. There was always more red eggs than any other colour, this being the religious traditional colour. Probably symbolizing Jesus’ blood. I wasn’t paying attention in scripture. Then she’d do canary yellow, Green and Blue. They always came out vibrant. She’d then wait for them to cool down, then take off the panty hose and leaves, and then literally polish them with oil until they came out shiny!
She’d get the best bowl she owned or some lovely baskets and line them with lovely cloth, then fill this up with the eggs. All this was done with precision and attention to detail. She definitely took pride when decorating and showcasing these eggs. These eggs were then the centre piece on our humungous extra dining room table in our extra dining room which was only used on special occasions. Go figure.
She still does this to this day, (although we don’t have the extra dining room) unfortunately I’m not there to help her anymore as I’m living in the UK, and she’s in Australia.
So I’ve decided to do my own. I decided to use natural dyes. Even though the synthetic dyes bring out amazing colours, they’re also harmful to your health. So I opted for the natural option. I didn’t use the panty hose method because I wanted to master colouring eggs the natural way. I dyed a half dozen first, and they were a disappointment. I tried another recipe I found with another ½ dozen and they turned out a little better. Although I was by no means over the moon with the end result.
Next year I will try a different method. But for now this is what I did to get these marbling effects.
I love hard boiled eggs, especially first thing in the morning on Easter Sunday. We as a family (and this is traditionally Greek), would choose our egg, then each have a turn at hitting each other’s egg. Point end-to-end first, then arse end-to-end. The egg which is left last unscathed and un-cracked is the winner. Symbolising the winner will be having a great year. Then we sit and eat our egg. Perhaps eat a couple more eggs, and then attack the huge selection of Greek cakes and biscuits that my mum had been making over the week. Since we’d been fasting for the whole week, all we could do is look, drool and anticipate the coming of Easter Sunday were we could happily gorge ourselves in all the lovely delicacies and food my mother had slaved away all week to make. The feast on this day surpassed anything. And this was just breakfast… I haven’t even mentioned lunch! That’s for another day.
FRUIT/VEG REDUCTION TECHNIQUE – (You can use the beetroot and its water along with the Blackberries and their water to make a reduction to use in dessert!)
Author: thefussiesteater.com
Recipe type: Poultry, Snacks, Breakfast
Serves: 6eggs
Ingredients
6 Organic, free-range eggs
500g or 4 x Beetroot (vacume sealed)
300g or 1 tub of Blackberries
4 Tbs White Vinegar
Filtered water
Instructions
BEETROOT COLOURING
Place beetroot in a saucepan with 4 Cups of filtered water
Bring to boil
Add the 3 eggs and continue to boil for 5 min
Remove the eggs and place onto the egg carton to completely cool off
Then reduce the mixture to a simmer
Simmer for 1hour on the lowest heat
Allow mixture to completely cool
Strain the beetroot. Keep the beetroot for later use.
Add 2 Tbs vinegar
Place the eggs in the liquid and leave to soak overnight – covered with cling film (Keep the liquid)
Be careful when removing the eggs the following day as the outer skin is quiet delicate and may peel/rub off, hence the marble effect
Allow to dry for a few hours, the colours enhance and become more pronounced after 12 – 24 hours
Polish with oil
BLACKBERRY COLOURING
Place the Blackberries in a saucepan with 3 cups of filtered water
Bring to boil
Add the 3 eggs and continue to boil for 5 min
Remove the eggs and place onto the egg carton to completely cool off
Then reduce the mixture to a simmer
Simmer for 1hour on the lowest heat
Allow to cool completely
Strain the Blackberries, and keep for use later
Add 2 Tbs vinegar
Place the eggs in the liquid and leave overnight – covered with cling film (Keep the liquid)
Be careful when removing the eggs the following day as the outer skin is quiet delicate and may peel/rub off, hence the marble effect
Allow to dry for a few hours, the colours enhance and become more pronounced after 12-24hours
Polish with oil
(You can use the beetroot and its water along with the Blackberries and their water to make the following reduction)
FRUIT/VEG REDUCTION TECHNIQUE
WHAT TO DO WITH THE REMAINING LIQUID, BEETROOT & BLACKBERRIES
In one saucepan, place the blackberries with their water and in another saucepan do the same for the beetroot.
Bring to boil, and then simmer on the lowest heat until reduced. Be careful not to over reduce as they will caramelise and evaporate. Stirring occasionally.
Once mixtures have reduced to a pulp. Turn off heat, continue to stir, transfer to a bowl. Allow to cool
Now you have 2 concentrated flavours that can be used in making desserts. Here I used the Blackberry mixture to make truffle balls which turned out delicious. These are called ‘Blackberry, fig & Maca Balls’ found under Desserts. Also, I replaced the applesauce in cakes with the beetroot mixture. Turned out delicious!
Im not normally a meat eater, but on day’s like Christmas i make an exception. Each day this week i will be posting a dish that i made on Christmas day. I hope you enjoy them as much as i enjoyed making them.
A traditional take on the Christmas Turkey. Tender and tasty.
Author: thefussiesteater.com
Recipe type: Poultry
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1 Organic Turkey – i bought the smallest one 3.8kg
15 Cloves of garlic – cut in half longways or quarters, depending on how big they are
Vegan butter
Rock Salt
Cracked pepper
1 Lemon
1 Cup Vegetables stock
1 packet of Bacon rashers
6 sprigs of fresh Rosemary
Instructions
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Wash the turkey thoroughly under cold running water, inside and out.
Make sure all the pressies left inside the carcass are removed. I personally throw them out, but you can use them for gravy. They are the neck and giblets.
Once washed, stuff the turkey first with the stuffing, ( see my recipe for ‘Brown rice, chestnut, chorizo and pine nut stuffing’) then you can either sew the end shut or like me tuck in the legs in the opening where you placed the stuffing then stuff half or both half’s of a used lemon on the end to stop the stuffing from falling out.
Rub vegan butter all over the turkey, season the turkey all over.
Make small incisions all over the turkey and with your finger; push in a piece of garlic in each incision.
Pour the lemon juice all over the turkey.
Add a couple of fresh Rosemary sprigs on top of the turkey then cover with the bacon rashes. I usually place the ends of the bacon on the top of the bird, so the meatier part of the bacon falls on the sides of the bird. Then add the rest of the rosemary sprigs on top of the bacon.
Pour the vegetables stock gently over the turkey.
Cover the turkey completely with foil. You may have to use 2-3 sheets of foil to completely cover.
Place Turkey in the oven between the bottom and centre shelf.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Take out, and baste well. Not forgetting the legs. Re-cover bird and repeat another 2 times. So by this stage the bird has been in the oven for 2hrs, 15min. By this stage the bird should nearly be cooked.
Take out the turkey; baste one last time really well. Making sure you don’t forget the legs.
Make a very deep incision with a very sharp knife on the meatiest part of the bird, probably the breast. Open the incision wide and see how pink the meat is. If its pale pink, this means it’s nearly ready. So another 30 – 45 min is sufficient. If the colour is a dark pink to red, then it probably needs another 1 – 1.5 hours. So recover with foil if this is the case. The object is to have it uncovered for the last 30-45 min to brown it and give it colour.
Otherwise, if it’s pale pink take off the foil, and put back into the oven for another 30-45 min.
When you take it out, double check on the other breast that the meat is white and juicy right thru. No pink should be visible. If there is pink, put back in the oven and check every 10min.
The secret to baking a juicy turkey is to baste generously, thoroughly and regularly.
This post was submitted to ‘Fat Tuesday: January 10, 2012′ @ http://realfoodforager.com/fat-tuesday-january-10-2012/ and ‘Traditional Tuesdays – Nutritious and Delicious! ~ January 10 2011′ @ http://wholenewmom.com
