What came first, the chicken or the pie?

10 July 2011 - Sian and Jo’s Chicken Pot Pie

After one of the worst weeks of all time, I felt I had earned some comfort food, so decided to cook a Chicken Pie. If I’m honest, this was mainly so I had an excuse to eat chips (ahhhh logic) which wasn't the best idea since on the weekend my suspicions were confirmed and my belly is in fact bigger than my pregnant friend's! Oh well, I didn't have a recipe yet, but Sian said she'd show me how to make it and then it became Sian and Jo's Chicken Pot Pie.

Sian hadn't watched me cook for some time (as she's become the international man of mystery of late) and was waxing lyrical about my skills! Apparently I'm a genius at cutting these days and have a great technique (“just please curl your fingers under!”).

Sian was telling me what to do, step by step, which resulted in me even having two pans going at once. I had no idea why I was doing what I was doing, but I was excited anyway! The searing of meat has always been a concept that goes way over my head (why would you cook something so it doesn't over cook?) but I did as I was told and followed her very patient instructions.

I felt like a bit of a pro tasting the mixture and adjusting it as I, aka Sian, saw fit. The whole experience was totally easy. We added a handful of grated cheese and a big chunk of cream at the last minute to thicken it up, and we couldn't have made a better decision. It turned from ‘ok’ to ‘yum!’ just like that!

I popped the pastry on the dish, cut up the leftover pastry so I could write Jo on top and it was good to go. It went on the top shelf of the oven with the chips underneath, no problem.

Problem! There was a hole in my pastry and the pie overflowed onto the chips. As a result they weren’t quite as crispy as I would have liked, but who doesn’t like a gravy soaked chip?

All in all, it was pretty easy and something I'll make again for sure.

Tips: make sure the pastry is sealed and have Sian on standby for recipe.

Music: Adele (Sian's choice).

Thai Me Down.

24 May 2011 – Mini Thai Chicken Burgers by Kate

No time to do anything this week as I am so busy and important, but Cam and I decided to head out to a Zumba class and I decided to cook her Mini Thai Chicken Burgers by Kate, when we got home.I rushed home from work and called my friend (from here on known as baby mama) while I chopped up all the ingredients in preparation for the cooking later - told you, so busy and important I don't even have time to concentrate on cutting up ingredients. None of this was too tricky, but I’d never used Lemon Grass so didn’t know which bits I was meant to cut and if some bits didn’t get used. I just decided to cut off a bit at the top and the bottom and use the middle.

Cam arrived and we headed off to Zumba which was hilarious as usual.

Everything was ready to go when we got home, so I just combined everything together and cooked it up. Cam was a great help reading the recipe to me, preparing some things and chatting away.

Everything was happening at the same time, so I was putting stuff in the freezer (didn’t have time to cool it) and stuff under the grill and stuff on the stove, I felt very skilled with all my multitasking! It all seemed to go to plan and I didn’t have any major stuff ups. The patties were really sticky and fell apart a bit when I put them in the pan but apart from being a bit misshaped it didn’t really matter. They also seemed to need a lot of oil to stop them from sticking and it kept on splashing me and burning my hands but I shouldn’t complain.

Kate had told me that these Mini Burgers in fact worked better as regular-sized burgers so I made six patties out of the mixture and didn't chop the Turkish bread up into smaller pieces. I assembled it all and was slightly concerned about how plain it all looked. I don't like cucumber so I had tomato instead but it didn't look like the regular burger that is bursting with colour and looks all delicious, it looked bland and boring. I stuck a knife in it (Hogs Breath style) instead of a toothpick and we sat down to eat.

I was totally impressed! They we're kinda of spicy (probably because I used two small chillis instead of one) but really nice. I was surprised at how Thai they actually tasted. While it was cooking I had said to Cam it smelt like walking past a Thai restaurant but I sort of forgot that it would taste Thai too.

We watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs while we ate, which as it turns out is the best movie of all time: “I wanted to run away that day, but you can’t run away from your own feet!”

Tips: I love mayo sick so put heaps of the mayo mixture on mine, but it was too much and I had to scrape it off again – it isn’t like regular mayonnaise and is kind of an overwhelming taste.

Music: Arctic Monkeys

Schnit Happens

11 May 2011 – Sarah’s Chicken Schnitzel

Had a freezing weekend in Canberra for Groovin the Moo which was amazing! I somehow managed to control my emotions this time and didn’t cry when The Wombats came on!

This week Sarah emailed me her chicken schnitzel recipe and I gave it a red hot go. She's good at writing recipes because she gives me enough information without making me feel like an idiot. Anyway, I couldn’t be bothered to buy Dijon mustard, so I just used a mix of mustard and mayonnaise instead. I always shock myself when I just decide to trust my lack of skills and change a recipe I've never cooked before, but oh well. I couldn’t find the rolling pin so whacked the chicken with a chopping board instead – didn’t make much difference to be honest.

Sarah had said the oil needed to be quite hot, but I think mine was a bit too hot because the outsides of the schnitzels got a little bit burnt. The first ones didn’t go golden brown, just a weird dark brown burnt type thing. The second ones were better, but then they didn’t cook all the way through. I ended up putting them in the oven for a while because we weren't ready to eat anyway.

Overall they were really nice. I do love a good schnitty. Sian was impressed with my skills and said it was "yum... crunchy on the outside tender on the inside... except the bit that wasn't cooked that I didn't eat."

I scoffed it. I had more of my mustard mayonnaise with it which was delicious. Good call Sarah! It was the perfect type of recipe too, because I don’t have many that are just good to make for an after work regular dinner. Yum.

Tips: next time I'll probably cook them in the oven for the whole time so I hopefully won't burn them.

Music: Amy Winehouse

April Review - By Meg Keely

Beer Butt Chicken

I had been waiting and waiting for JJ to ask me over for her cooking blog experience and FINALLY she did.

I arrived at the perfect time – didn’t have to wait very long for the chicken with a VB up its arse to come out of the oven, but enough time to see JJ’s glasses fog up and the whole knife on the foot debacle!

No, it’s the 2^nd toe, not the mangy 4^th one.

So onto the review. Basically it was hit! The chicken was perfectly cooked and the skin could not have been yummier. The pumpkin was the best vegetable as Sian and I both expressed while stuffing our faces.

I’m not a fan of beans but I ate 4 and they were good… I might even eat beans again, who knows. The gravy which was a joint effort between Sian and Jo was delish. Forget that packet stuff, this was proper gravy made in the pan! Cudos!

Jo thought the chilli was a bit much and the beer might have tainted the vegies when she knocked over the chicken with the beer in the oven, but really I liked it. I know I even said in a stepford housewives voice “ooh JJ, what spices did you use on the chicken, it’s delicious!!”

I knew that part of my experience was to listen to music while it was all happening but I did something to the computer and the music was a no go on my behalf.

Do I regret getting 2nds? Yes, but I couldn’t help it cause it all was all so good! I will play the blame game and blame Jo.

Company: 5/5 – inappropriate topics that involved midgets and google image searches. My favourite!

Movie choice: 3.5 – but only due to technical difficulties.

Chicken: 4.5 – the wing was the best part

Vegies: 4.5 - pumpkin was the winner!

Running around like a chook with its head cut off (and a beer up its arse)

28th April 2011 - Beer butt chicken by Ed

After the amazing long long weekend I decided to get back on track and invited Meg over for dinner. It was a kinda hectic day, my shoe fell off in the middle of the road while I was running to escape the rain, I tripped down the stairs on a packed train and everyone stared, and I sat next to a woman who made someone vacate their seat for her and her pram... that had a dog in it! Mad.

Anyway, as it’s getting winterish I decided a delicious roast would be the perfect thing for Meg to review... it was time for Beer Butt Chicken by Ed.

I made Sian be on standby to help me out, but secretly I think I nailed it while she cleaned out the pantry.

Everything seemed to go pretty much to plan. I'd never cooked a whole chicken before so it was kind of fun to be able to do that. Sian said it reminded her of a baby and she wanted to hug it which is slightly worrying, luckily she didn't hug it, and I did cook it.

I made double the seasoning so I could chuck the rest of it on the veggies which turned out really well. I didn't have regular chilli powder so I used a Mexican one I had which smelt really strong and was slightly overpowering. You actually put a beer inside the chicken which was fun and it just stands there magically balancing, weird.

I only cooked it for around 45 minutes, but when I checked it was all looking perfect! I asked Sian to help me get it out of the oven and stop it from tipping over and (not blaming anyone) it tipped over and beer and chicken juice spilt all over the veggies. I’m not sure what we could have done to stop this from happening really. I wanted to - slash did - throw a little tantrum and then made Sian stop everything she was doing and make the gravy.

Meg seemed pretty excited about the whole dealio and was mocking me relentlessly. Maybe because I was wearing glasses and they kept fogging up when I'd open the oven. It all turned out pretty well though. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not at first, but then I couldn't stop eating it...neither could Meg.

It was quite a success - until I ate so much I wanted to vomit and had to put my pjs on to make myself feel better.

Overall, I was very impressed. As Em would say... RE-SULT! This is the perfect meal for when you want it to look and taste like you’ve done something amazing, but don’t really have the skills and time to do something too fancy.

Tips: Try not to drop a sharp knife on your foot, it hurts, bleeds and doesn't look good in front of guests (unless you're wearing steal capped boots, if that’s the case I'd be throwing shit at my feet to see what happens).

Music: George, Polyserena and The Beatles, White Album

It's my party and I'll cook if I want to

15^th January 2011 – Showcase #1

- Jo and Carly's Portuguese Chicken
- Cam's Mediterranean Warm Veg Salad
- Sarah's Mum's Potato Salad (rehashed)

So, it was finally time for the very nerve-wracking experience of my first showcase. As Ash is going to Europe in a couple of weeks it was the last time we’d get to hang out. What better way to say goodbye than to force her to be my first reviewer, make her wear a silly hat as the judge and potentially give her food poisoning?

My sous chef (Carly) and I spent a rocking Friday night eating takeaway pizza and looking through recipe books. We eventually decided we'd have a BBQ. Since Sian and I loved Sarah’s Mum’s Potato Salad so much last time I thought I’d do that again. We found a recipe for Portuguese chicken and spent the afternoon making the marinade and getting everything prepared, we were feeling very cool! We forgot to buy oregano so used Italian herbs, used sweet paprika instead of hot paprika and chicken breast instead of thighs. Didn’t realise until the next day that we actually left the oil out of the mixture (quarter of a cup) - apparently we can’t even read a recipe!

My sous chef and I quite enjoyed all the cooking, even though she complained relentlessly about the heat. We discussed such fascinating topics as how many couples would have sex on their wedding night and if we’d prefer to be called Donka or Wee Ping Dong.

Had six people for the dinner and was feeling the pressure! Everything seemed to go down a treat. Sarah’s Mum’s Potato Salad was again amazing (was pretty much entirely sweet potato this time), Cam’s Mediterranean Veg Salad was good (perfectly charred by me and very well chopped by my sous chef) and the flavour of the chicken was really yum. Some of the pieces were perfectly cooked, some of them kinda overcooked, but no one mentioned it (Jen said “Oh, can you overcook chicken?”). The whole meal was pretty much a hit. Sian’s friends came over and polished the leftovers off – compliments all round!

Went out for a big night out with the girls which was cool. We complained about how old we are and ‘how can one vodka cost nine bucks, they used to only be three?!’ I fell down the stairs in a club, but you know, all in a day!

While dancing Ash accidentally elbowed a ‘little person’ in the head and then patted her on the head and said sorry. Brilliant.

Tips: Make sure you put all the ingredients in the chicken dish.

Music: The Wombats, Tales of Girls and Boys and Marsupials.