Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Chickern and Chorizo Paella

 

1/4 cup olive oil
1 large red capsicum, cut into 5mm strips
600g chicken thighs, cut into 3cm cubes
200g chorizo, cut into 2cm slices
200g mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbs lemon zest, grated
800g tin crushed tomatoes
200g green beans, cut into 3cm lengths
1 Tbs rosemary, chopped
2 Tbs parsley, chopped
1/4 tsp saffron threads soaked in 1/4 cup hot water
2 cups paella rice (short grain- Calasparra, Bomba or Velencia- Aborio as second choice)
3 cups hot chicken stock
6 lemon wedges, to serve

Heat olive oil in a large, deep heavy-based frying pan over medium heat. Add capsicum and cook, stirring, for about 5mins, remove from pan. Toss in the chicken and cook for 10mins, or until browned and remove. Cook chorizo in pan for 5mins, remove. Add the mushrooms, garlic and lemon zest to the pan, cook for about 5mins. Stir in tomato and capsicum, and cook for 5mins. Add the beans, rosemary, parsley, saffron mixture, rice, chicken and chorizo. Stir briefly and add the stock. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30mins. Season with salt and pepper, serve with lemon.

Essential Rice Cookbook, pg. 49

Monday, September 19, 2022

Construction Cake

 

 I've been looking forward to trying a digger/construction cake for a while! Myles' 3rd birthday was a perfect time for it as he loves all things digger/construction! Not sure if he was more excited to eat it or play with it!! I was nervous about cutting into the cake and what chocolates to use but it was very easy in the end and effective. I made two round cakes on top of each other, then roughly ripped some of the top off and placed it on the board. I then iced it all over (it didn't matter if cake crumbs got mixed in the icing as it looked like dirt anyway). I then used crushed choc ripple biscuits to cover the 'hole' with 'dirt', added broken honeycomb and Malteasers and placed the mini construction vehicles on. The only problem was the honeycomb shrunk due to moisture being in the fridge over night, so needs to be added last minute to keep it's colour and shape. After cutting the back of the cake off we let him play in the crumbled down bit, which he of course loved!