Creamy garlic sauce

 





For Surf and Turf or garlic prawns

Funny enough I picked up this recipe during my waitressing days, where a chef on a quiet night taught me how to make it.

Since I have moved down South (of Australia) from the sunny north a good Surf and Turf (or Reef and Beef)  is something I have really, really missed. Up North it is found on almost every menu, but down here (and I'm not sure why) it really isn't something I have seen very often.

A lot of people might think it is really hard to make at home. After you find out how to make the garlic sauce that completes this dish you will be amazed why you haven't had it more.

Creamy garlic sauce

Serves 4

As a rule of thumb, use 1/2 cup of cream, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic,  parsley and chives for each serve of steak you are making. This makes a generous amount of sauce for each steak.

2 cups of thickened cream
2 teaspoon garlic
2 teaspoons of chopped fresh parsley or dried parsley
2 teaspoons of chopped fresh garlic chives (optional - you can leave this out if you don't have it)
1 teaspoon of butter



Once the sauce is thick and a
creamy yellow colour your know the
sauce is done.



Simply melt your butter in a small pan with the garlic and let it cook for a couple of mins until you can smell the aroma of the garlic. Turning down to medium to low heat add your cream and herbs and allow it to come to the bowl before turning it down to a low heat. Let the cream simmer away until it starts to thicken and turns a creamy yellow colour. This is the key to this sauce, because if you don't let it get to this stage you would simply be pouring cream over your steak.

And you're done.

I know right - so simply it's not funny!

If you are making Surf and Turf, I always start cooking my steak first then go straight into my sauce so it can simmer away. Then with your prawns and calamari I always put them in the pan with the steak just to get a little bit of colour on them before adding them into the sauce to finish cooking - I think this adds the most flavour.

If you are making garlic prawns that you are going to be serving with rice I would make 1 cup of cream per person so that you have extra sauce for your rice.

I also love this sauce for chicken breast, and for a creamy mushroom sauce simply cut down the amount of garlic and fry off mushrooms and a little onion with before adding the cream.

This isn't a recipe that I tell you to make but don't have it myself ... I just made this tonight! And if you know my facebook page well, you will know that I have made this garlic sauce many times ... I. Love. Garlic - what can I say?!

Enjoy!
Steph xo

Cooking with Thyme

Fresh thyme is a great plant to have in your garden.

Thyme seems to be one of those herbs that is a jack-of-all trades so to speak, going with almost anything you want to throw together. It goes with not only red meats but also your white meats, such as fish or chicken. Unlike some other herbs if also plays nice with vegetables and eggs. About the only thing thyme can't do is sweets ... no surprise there though!

Myself - I think thyme and chicken are a match made in heaven - so it is my go-to herb when cooking with chicken, and I absolutely love thyme with mushrooms.

Something that my Mum told me long ago and a lot of people might not know is that thyme is a key ingredient in the mixed herb mix you buy in the shops. Next time you open the container just have a smell and you'll know what I mean. Knowing this I always use mixed herbs when I could thyme as a rule of thumb.

I love growing thyme because it seems to be one of those tough little herbs that seems to just keep on growing - no matter what happens to it! I've had mine almost be twig like with the heat on the underneath of the plant yet it just kept sprouting new sprigs for me on top. In winter it seems to keep very stable and although slows in growth still allows me to hack away at it for my stews and casseroles.

 As I mentioned before if I don't have thyme I simply use mixed herbs as a substitute, but you can also substitute it with basil, marjoram or oregano. If you are cooking with fresh thyme you can add the little leaves whole or roughly chop them and sprinkle them into your dish. You can add whole sprigs of thyme to stews or casseroles - as a rule of thumb if you are simmering the dish down I would use the sprig as I think it adds extra flavour. I do the same with rosemary which is also a woody stemmed type of herb.

There are many different types of thyme including lemon thyme - which my Mum swears by for fish!

Little tips and ideas when using thyme

• Try sprinkling a little bit of mixed herbs or thyme on your mushrooms next time you are baking or frying them up - and using butter while cooking them is a must!
• You can keep fresh thyme in the fridge for up to a week if you wrap it in a tea towel and then wrap it tightly in cling wrap. I have also found that wrapping them in cling wrap alone is enough.
• I absolutely love adding thyme and cubed apple pieces in my stuffing. It adds such great flavour to the chicken, and the apples add that touch of sweetness.

Some great recipes using thyme:

• Bacon and cheese quiche
• Linguine with lemon, garlic and thyme mushrooms
• Spring-thyme chicken stew

 

Butterscotch cookie sundae



This sundae is simple and most of the elements in it can be done ahead of time. It's great if you have kids (or big kids) and something a little different for guests. If you aren't obsessed with caramel like I am chocolate sauce would go just as good.

I choose to do bananas in mine as they have been amazing recently, but spiced apples would also be good with the caramel sauce. Any sort of berry would be the perfect match for the chocolate version.

The cookie bits are the best part - and what is really great is you can make the cookie bits by themselves and keep them in an airtight container, simply sprinkling over icecream ... no, I'm not a comfort eater at all!

Cookie crumble butterscotch sundae

For the cookie bits:

Essentially you are making cookie dough for this bit, and instead of rolling into balls you will be crumbling it onto the cookie tray.

Makes enough cookie bits for five to six sundaes (depending how much cookie crumble you like!)

1 egg
1/3 cup butter
1/3 sugar
1 1/2 plain flour
2 Tbsp crushed peanuts  

Cream the butter, sugar and egg until the mixture looks smooth and fluffy. Add your crushed peanuts and mix through. If you don't have crushed peanuts simply smash up some whole ones by placing them in a zip lock bag and smashing them gently (so not to break the bag) with something with a bit of weight.

Shift the flour and add it to the mixture half a cup at a time; you may have to use your fingers towards the end. Now the fun part - line a baking tray with baking paper and crumble the cookie mixture over the top. You can make them as little or as bit as you like. Alternatively you can always bake them as cookies and simple blitz some up in the food processor later on - but personally I like crumbling!

Bake in a moderate oven for around 10-15 mins or until the cookie bits have a little colour. Pop them aside to cool. If you're making them the day before keep them in an airtight container.  

For the rest of the sundae

Vanilla icecream
2 bananas  
1 Tbsp butter

Butterscotch sauce

Cut up your bananas in half, then each half into three. If the pieces are too small they could mush in this next part - but that's ok too! Melt the butter and fry off the banana until it has a little colour.   

Now the fun part - the assembly!!!  

Add the ice cream to the bottom, followed by the banana and cookie bits. Finally pour the butterscotch over the top ... and enjoy!

All I can say is ... Yum, yum ... Yum ...

Enjoy
Steph xo

Stuffed chicken breast with semi-dried tomatoes, cheese and basil

I made this stuffed chicken recipe for dinner yesterday and it was great! I then had that moment of "Oh, I'll have to put this on my blog" ... then followed the usual thought of 'why can't I measure what I'm doing BEFORE I think I'll add this', because I don't know about you but I am terrible and don't measure anything when I'm just cooking for myself.

So this recipe will be a little basic but it is really easy that you almost don't need a recipe!

Stuffed chicken breasts with semi-dried tomatoes and cheese

One chicken breast with the skin on for each person you are cooking for.

Slices of a nice cheddar cheese (the more it crumbles the better I think)

50g of semi-dried tomatoes per chicken breast

4 fresh basil leaves per chicken breast (using dried is fine too)

Simply cut a pocket in the middle of the chicken breast, making sure you only cut on the one side and don't cut through. In the pocket lay out around 6-8 semi-dried tomatoes, depending on the size of the chicken breast, followed by the cheese. Arrange the basil leaves on top of the cheese. If you don't have fresh basil you can simply sprinkle a little dried basil inside the pocket. Using toothpicks pin down the sides of chicken to close off the pocket - the more secure the better so that you don't lose your cheese!

Cook skin side up in an 180°C oven for 30-40 mins depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is cooked through.

I served this with some roast vegetables and (with me having this need for sauce of some kind) a creamy garlic sauce.

Enjoy
Steph xo

Chicken and bacon pizza



Pizza at home is always the best! Last night I thought I would throw together something a little bit different: a chicken and bacon pizza on a yummy tomato and oregano base. And it was amazing! So although this recipe post will be a little short, I wanted to share because ... well, YOU SHOULD HAVE IT FOR DINNER! ... subtle enough?

No, really ... if you can try it, I would recommend because it was such a good way to just sit and relax after being so busy.

 

What you will need

1 large pizza base - I much prefer making my own base, so if you would like to try your own check out my pizza base recipe. Otherwise, I pre-made one is fine as well.

For the topping:
4 chicken thigh fillets, cut into pieces
4 pieces of short cut bacon, cut into slices
1 small onion, diced
1 - 1 1/2 cups of cheese, depending how much you cheese you like

Optional: Pineapple pieces (around 200-250g), and black olives

For the base sauce:
1/4 cup of tomato sauce
2  tablespoons of tomato paste
1 Tbsp of oregano
1/2 tsp of garlic


Fry off the chicken, bacon and onion in a frying pan with a little bit of oil until the chicken is cooked, then put it aside to cool slightly while you do the sauce. In a small bowl add all the sauce ingredients and mix together. Spread the sauce on your base, followed by your chicken, bacon and onion from the pan, and the pineapple and olives. Finally top with cheese.

Bake in a 200°C oven for 20 mins or until the cheese is melted with a little bit of colour.

Enjoy
Steph xo

P.S. it is always great with a BBQ sauce base.