Feast - Heather Honey Chicken

It has been a long, long time since I have been compelled to blog about a recipe immediately after having finished it but I just had to tonight.

I don't often buy Feast magazine anymore. I find that so many of the recipes have stuff in them that I just cannot access. I was looking through the magazines last night when I was shopping and flicked through this issue. I noticed a few things that I would like to make and have access to all the ingredients. This is the first of those recipes.

So this dish was amazing. There is so much flavour and the meat just melted. I would use a bit less oil next time, and there will be a next time. I just loved this. The name refers to honey from heather flowers. They said in the magazine that it has a very limited availability here and to substitute manuka honey. Well, I didn't have that but I had recently bought 1 kg of local honey so, of course, used that. I think a leatherwood honey would been good. I didn't have any dijon mustard either. I had two choices a hot mustard or wholegrain. I went with the wholegrain. Although maybe a mix of the two would have been better. Oh it doesn't really matter, it was wonderful just the way it was.

Heather Honey chicken

Feast magazine - September 2014 - page 60

1.7 kg whole chicken

2 onions, cut into wedges

6 sprigs rosemary (apparently my plant is dead, I used dried)

100 ml olive oil

90 g (1/4c) manuka honey

1 1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp curry powder

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Preheat oven - 180 C

Put onion & rosemary in casserole dish with a lid. Add half the oil.

Mix remaining oil, honey, mustard, curry powder & garlic. Place chicken in casserole dish & pour over honey mix.

Roast, covered, 30 minutes. Remove lid & bake further 1 hour or until cooked basting as necessary.

Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Asado in Black Sauce with Chocolate

I haven't bought an issue of Feast magazine in a long time. I did buy the first 6 or 8 issues but found that it wasn't really my thing. I found that a majority of the recipes called for speciality ingredients that I just could not get easily or, because they were perishable, not at all. There were no substitutes offered for those speciality ingredients. The reason given for this was to encourage people to seek out the ingredients in areas they wouldn't normally go. This is fine if you are in a city but when in a regional area it is a lot more difficult and can end up very expensive. Most of the time when I would go looking for ingredients online there out be only one thing that I would want to purchase from the particular online store, or I would pad out orders to make the postage seem worthwhile. However all that ended up happening was I got a bunch of stuff in my pantry that I didn't really want. So I stopped seeking the ingredients out and then stopped buying the magazine altogether.

Occasionally a cover would catch my eye and I would flick through it but I was never struck enough to purchase. However, this time I was caught by two things. The idea on the front cover of how to make my own mozzarella and haloumi, which I haven't done yet, and the Asado in black sauce with chocolate recipe. The picture just looked fantastic and I have always been interested in how chocolate works in savoury dishes. This was really, really easy to make. I know from previous recipes that my butcher does up packs of beef short ribs so I just bought some of them instead of asking for asado. Besides the ribs all I had to do was to buy some red wine. It turned out to be an expensive trip as they had one of my favourite wines on special, 2 for $40 when they are $32 each so I bought 4...oops. Since the recipe only used 1 cup I didn't buy anything else for cooking with. The meat ended up fall off the bone and the chocolate added an amazing richness to the sauce. Just a little bit of sweetness but so much depth. I was actually surprised at just how much it added to the over all dish. I wasn't really sure what to serve with it and looked around for something to go with it. In the end though I decided to go with something simple on the side so as not to take away from the flavour of the ribs and served with steamed broccoli and corn on the cob. I highly recommend this dish and I will definitely be making this again. 

Asado in Black Sauce with Chocolate 

1 kg asado beef ribs (or short ribs) 

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped 

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper 

60 ml olive oil 

1 onion, finely chopped 

1 celery stick finely chopped 

1 large carrot, finely chopped

110 g dark brown sugar (I didn't have dark so used regular)

70 g tomato paste 

1 c (250 ml) red wine

2 c (500 ml) beef stock 

20 g 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped

Grind 3 garlic cloves, oregano, allspice, cayenne and 1/2 tsp salt into a paste. Rub all over meat, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. 

Brown on each side in batches, set aside. Cook onion, celery, carrot and the remaining garlic until softened. Add sugar and cook 2 min. Add tomato paste, cook 2 min. Return ribs with wine & stock, bring to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 2 hours or until tender. (I think it would be good at about 160 C in the oven too). 

Remove ribs. Boil sauce until reduced 1/3. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Pour over ribs to serve. 

Feast - August 2011 - Beetroot Salad

There is a new food magazine on the Aussie landscape. Coming from the SBS stable is a wonderful magazine. It is full of some amazing recipes and wonderful articles. Recipes from many different cuisines. I have to admit to being completely engrossed with this magazine right from the start. My only small issue is with something in the editor's opening remarks: 

"Some of the ingredients may not be on your local supermarket shelves, but we believe unearthing new flavours, food stores and neighbourhoods is all part of the culinary adventure". 

That is all well and good if you are living in a major city or even in an area with a diverse population however there are those of us that do not live in areas where there are an Asian supermarket, Middle Eastern deli, Indian grocer etc, etc. There is only so much that can be purchased over the internet or by mail order. I am passionate about food, I love to create and try new recipes and cuisines. I make do with the resources that I have available. While I understand the desire to push people to move out of their comfort zones and explore, I would have thought that for a wider appeal for their magazine perhaps offering alternative ingredients would help people out. Yes, I can sit here and google what might be an appropriate substitute but sometimes it would be nice to have a suggestion from the author of the recipe.

Okay, now that I have vented that I will move on. I was quite taken with the feature on Argentine food in this issue. I was particularly taken with the look of two of the dishes, the Beef & Corn Pie and the Beetroot Salad. I ended up making both of these dishes on the one night. I was completely torn by these recipes. The Beetroot salad was absolutely to die for. I was so in love with it. The combination of the beetroot, potato, onion with a balsamic dressing was amazing. I have made it a number of times since and will definitely be making it again and again. The pie, however, was really not for me. The picture looked wonderful, the recipe sounded fine, I like all the ingredients in it but put it all together and I just didn't like it. There were two different fillings, a beef layer topped by a puréed corn/egg layer and it just didn't seem to meld for me. It was a lot of work and a lot of ingredients so I was really disappointed. The salad though was glorious and that is the recipe that I am going to be sharing with you. 

Beetroot Salad (Ensalada de Betarraga) 

Ingredients: 

• 1 large white onion, thinly sliced (I used a red onion) 
• 1 tbsp salt
• hot water
• 4 beetroot, roasted until cooked
• 2 large desiree potatoes, peeled and diced 
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar 
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method: 

• Combine onion and salt and then cover in hot water. Stand for 15 minutes and then drain and rinse. 
• Peel roasted beetroot and then dice to the same size as the potato. (The recipe said to slice thinly, I find it better diced.)
• Add potatoes, 1 tsp salt and white wine vinegar to water and boil until tender and then drain. 
• Combine onion, beetroot and potatoes. Dress with balsamic and olive oil and season to taste.