herb and lemon roasted chicken

Yes, I am very proud that I have made two DH recipes in one week and am going to subsequently post this before my own deadline runs out (YESSSS!) Well, I did get on the DH website and found out that the 'weddings' issue, my first DH mag was issue four. I also found out that, sadly the first ever issue is sold out. So “no go” on getting that one unfortunately.

Last night I made this gorgeous meal for some good doctor friends of ours. It is very tasty and incredibly easy to knock together.

I am going to digress for a bit, I hope that you’ll forgive me. One thing that I have recently learned about DH mag, that has rather rocked my world, is that Donna does not make up all the recipes! Shocking, I know. I rather naively thought, or rather didn’t think that Donna had an endless store of recipes in her brilliant brain, which she logged into every other month and filled up the mag. Ah well. The truth comes out. So this recipe, which is on page 77 of Issue 50, is by someone named Jane Collins. Of course Jane's name is in incredible small print up the spine of page while Donna's is in huge bold letters on front of the mag. I am sure lots of people unwittingly just give Donna credit for everything.

It requires olive oil, which sadly I do not have, as it is incredibly expensive here and so must substitute all olive oil with canola oil or something like it, terrible I know. Chicken is something that is in abundance here and I had a packet of chicken bits called meaty bites, not the dog food, which were indeed quite meaty and they did the trick. Skin on and bone in, worked a treat as the skin crisped up very nicely in the initial frying of the chicken before popping it into the oven with the rest of the ingredients. Potatoes come next and I have an abundance of those, so not a problem at all. Capers are the ingredients in this recipe that I am most proud of. I do have capers and was so pleased to be able to finally use them. I was afraid that after having discovered them in a tiny store, ignoring the incredibly high price that was asked and having opened them a few weeks back; I would never find another recipe to use them in. But this one required ¼ cup and so I happily used quite a few. Garlic and oregano I do have, though it isn’t fresh oregano, which I am sure Jane would have preferred me to use. I find that dried herbs work wonders though and are for the most part a very good substitute. Now dry white wine I do not have but I used vinegar, lemon juice and water, which I think was a stroke of brilliance. Of course chicken stock was not a problem and I was please to note that my bullion cube was not as hard as a rock and I could crumble it very easily. Whack it all in the oven at 200 degrees and Wha La.

So there you have it, very simple, very tasty and just a really great meal.

lemon cake with passionfruit syrup

The new Donna Hay Mag got to me on Thursday. Wow what an amazing front cover. Yum!! I think I’ll have to give the chocolate buttermilk cake a go. Congratulations to Donna Hay for this 50th birthday issue. I remember my first Donna Hay was one I picked up outside a newsagents for $2!! It was a wedding issue. It just happened to be around the time I was planning my own wedding, talk about fate, or maybe just coincidence. I think I'm going to have to get on the DH website and check out what issue it was, number that is. I'd love to get my hands on the first ever issue and see how things have changed.

I have decided that I need to be more decisive about this whole blogging thing. I haven’t posted anything in over a month. So, henceforth I shall endeavour to cook and write something at least once a week. Which, in reality means I will need to work really hard to do it once a week.

I haven’t given up on the semi-freddo dream yet. I’ve got the strawberries in the freezer and eggs are coming quite regularly. I am now just waiting on someone who needs to be here when I make it as I am pretty sure this will be a once off deal. Particularly since I had to order like a gazillion strawberries to actually get a good amount that didn’t squish on the way here.

Lemon cake with passionfruit syrup, which apparently appeared first in the 4^th issue of Donna Hay is the gorgeous creation I attempted this afternoon in 100 percent humidity. I have to say it is pretty delicious and can be found in the new 50th issue on page 17.

So it starts off with castor sugar and butter, hmmm sorry no go on either of those, but I did use raw sugar and marg (sorry Donna). Eggs I did have, no sour cream unfortunately but I did happen to have yoghurt (yay for forward planning - or in my case, luck). Yoghurt is my sour cream, goes great with baked potatoes, burritos etc and worked a treat in this cake. I was in luck with lemons (side bar – it takes a whole bunch of lemons to get 1tbs of lemon rind but only 11/2 lemons to get ¼ cups of lemon juice. So what in the heck am I supposed to do with all those rind less lemons?). Flour and baking powder, not a problem, I did have to sift the flour for lumps and make sure I used the good baking powder and not the cheap nasty stuff. Chuck it all in the food processor, I love my food processor and thanks to super glue it still works. Note to self, stacking dishes is hazardous to thin plastic nobby thing-a-majigs essential for electrical appliances to work. Whacked it in the oven and it came out gorgeous and beautiful, I almost cried.

Next came the passionfruit syrup. This step was easy as; passionfruit pulp, sugar and water, no worries mate.

Serving it up for dessert with whipped UHT cream (nice!!)