A man needs his meat...or is that vegies?

Since getting married and living with my hubby I thought I better always cook a man's meal, you know one that always contains MEAT! When I was single I barely ate meat, I was always busy with work and socialising so I couldn't be bothered defrosting and cooking it, so I mainly ate it when I had dinner out or in a quick Lean Cuisine. Fortunately being a lover of cooking I had many recipes to feed my manly man, but I was very surprised when he requested some more vegetarian recipes! So out of my trusty Jamie Oliver - Happy Days with the Naked Chef guide, Jamie hosts a variety of tasty vegetarian options, which I thought I would try the "Hamilton Squash" on page 226.

Instead of relaying the recipe I thought I'd give you a link to his website, complete with pictures: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetarian-recipes/hamilton-squash

The recipe overall was a little messy, but lots of fun mixing together the tasty ingredients. I cooked and stuffed the filling into my awaiting butternut pumpkin, wrapped tightly in aluminum foil and baked in a hot oven for over an hour.

Jamie sure knows how to give your nostrils a work out, unwrapping my parcel sure had me drooling for dinner! Hubby and I both enjoyed this dish, which was a welcome change to our usual repertoire. We ended up having a lot left over which we used the following evening when my mum stayed over, interestingly it tasted even better, a night in the fridge sure did it justice!

I certainly will give this dish another go, perhaps at a dinner party as a side to Jamie's delectable "Old Mans Superb Chicken" which you can find on one of my earlier blogs.. I know meat again, what can I say a man still needs his meat after all! Happy cooking friends!

little work...BIG RESULTS!

Well you may be asking "Where have you been?". I know it has been a while since my last blog, I have been slightly distracted (houses arhh.. another whole blog) and slightly uninspired to write. But I'm back and I have been cooking up a slight storm to write about and even remembered to take some photos!

After spotting whole chickens on special I decided to give "Flour and Water Crust Chicken" page 176 a whirl!

Well this was a load of fun and much easier than I thought. Basically you get a whole uncooked chicken that has had the innards removed. Stuff some cut lemons into the cavity and rub the skin with a pounded mixture of lemon rind, sage, thyme, garlic and olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Not mandatory, however I let this marinate on the chicken for a few hours in the fridge as we had yet another house to look at before I could start cooking!

Once I was ready, I mixed together some flour and water to create a dough. Once the dough was pliable I rolled it out so I could wrap the whole chicken neatly inside the dough with no gaps, thereby steaming the chicken in the marinade.

After some careful wrapping and fixing I placed it into the 220 degrees Celcius, preheated oven to cook for around 2 hours.

Et Voila!

As you can see I did have a little olive oil leakage, but it was only a small amount and it didn't affect the results. Once I cracked open the tough exterior (please do not eat the dough, not soo nice) it looked like this...

I tell you the smell was divine, the intoxicating aroma of sage, lemons and thyme filled the air, surely ensuing jealously from the neighbours! We tried the breast meat, it was perfectly cooked through, moist and the flavours were infused into the meat. So all in all definitely one to be tried when you have a tribe to feed or guests over. I saved the rest of the meat for the following evening and roasted it in the oven. This is also something I suggest as the crispy skin and flavourful meat was a step up from the steamed chicken, so next time I will let it steam for over an hour then crack the crust and bake again to crisp up the skin! Delicious!