February 2010 - Tangy Honey and Mustard Chicken

So I come to the end of February and another month of delicious. read and re-read, scoured and agonised over. From most of them I could made the majority of the recipes in them. There were a few let downs, things not a good as I had hoped and changes to the menu when ingredients couldn't be located or time didn't permit. I am definitely more enthused about looking at the back issues more often. Hopefully now I will return to them again and again and not just the same recipes but to choose something new as often as possible.

Issue 90 of delicious. is an all-Australian issue and there are so many good recipes in it. I wanted to make at least half of them. The recipes from the usual contributors, Ben O'Donoghue, Jill Dupleix, Belinda Jeffery and Curtis Stone all looked great. I considered making Jill's Thai Kangaroo Salad with Crisp-fried garlic, however other recipes caught my eye and I forgot about it. I will have to add it to my ever growing list of recipes to make at a later date. Belinda's Not Quite Peach Melba looks so good and will make a fantastically simple and tasty dessert for the next time I have people here.

There is a very interesting feature in on three icons of Australian food culture, Stephanie Alexander, Maggie Beer and Alla Wolf-Tasker. I have to admit to not knowing who Alla Wolf-Tasker was before reading this feature but it was certainly very interesting. Each of these wonderful women provided 3 recipes. I would have loved to make one of them but none of them were exactly what I was looking for. Not that I was really sure exactly what I was looking for but while they all sounded really good they didn't grab me and say make me instantly.

The guest "chef" in this issue is Paul Mercurio who, I remember, as an actor. The short article indicates that he now has a cooking show, I have never seen it, and has released a cook book. I guess that the term chef is being used rather loosely here. Perhaps I am just being a bit of a foodie snob though....I am not sure. I do find myself annoyed when people call themselves or are called by others a chef when they haven't done the years of apprenticeships and studying and work in kitchens to earn that title. I started out training but, and I will be honest, couldn't hack it. My love of cooking revolves around making the things that I want to and that I enjoy making and not being forced to make what others want. I was starting to resent cooking so decided that I would find a different day job and keep my love of cooking for myself, my family and my friends. Whenever someone says I am a great chef, I correct them. I am a cook, I am not a chef. Oops, kind of got off on a rant there, sorry. Paul's dishes do look good and I would be interested in having a look at his cook book at some stage.

As always, Bill Granger's food looked awesome. It was a barbecue feature. I do own a barbecue but I do not have a gas bottle for it at present. The other problem with it is that it is a very big 4-burner hooded barbecue and it seems ridiculous to heat it up for one person. I am planning on selling it when I have a garage sale and then purchasing something smaller. Probably the lovely Weber Baby Q or perhaps this great looking Cobb Premier Portable Grill. For now though I tend to make most barbecue things on a grill pan on the stove but some times it would be nice to actually do it outside. Even if just to keep the kitchen cooler in the middle of summer.

In the end after a long day at work and a special on free-range chicken thigh fillets I decided on one of the most simple dishes in the magazine, Tangy Honey & Mustard Chicken. I really enjoyed this. It was easy to make after work and was full of flavour. The recipe has it served with a salad but it was a cooler here the night that I made it so decided on serving it with some vegetables instead, some left over harvard beets and pea, corn and carrot mix. It made of a lovely meal and was definitely better that the first thought I had upon arriving home, take away pizza. Plus it was quicker to make this than it would have been had I ordered a home delivered pizza and significantly cheaper.

Tangy Honey and Mustard Chicken

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp honey
  
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
  
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 8 chicken thigh fillets
  

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 160 C (fan forced)
  
• Mix first 4 ingredients in a bowl until well combined.
  
• Add chicken and marinade for at least 5 minutes. (I left mine for about 30 minutes)
  
• Heat a char-grill pan over a high heat, lightly oil and cook each side until defined grill marks show.
  
• Transfer to a tray, I used a pizza tray lined with foil for ease of clean up, and bake in the oven for 10 - 12 minute or until cooked through.
  

The original recipe just had the chicken cooked on the char-grill pan but I find that I always end up with a burnt outside and uncooked inside just using the char-grill pan so I prefer to colour the outside and finish off in the oven.