Monday, March 14, 2011

Garlic Chicken

I love Garlic. Almost as much as I love Creamed Rice. But Garlic would be my top savoury love. I always use heaps in my cooking (probably why I don't get sick often) and could always use more. I grew up with my Dad eating pickled Garlic, straight from the jar. My poor Mum. I love Garlic a LOT, but not that much.

Pretty close though.

There are quite a few Garlic Chicken variation recipes in Seasons. I am so excited at this. I go through episodes where I just crave garlic, so I just had to try this one out.

Oh wow. It's so simple. Cut up Chicken - check. Cut up some Parsley - check. Crushed Garlic - chec....wait. No. I don't have a garlic crusher.

And I refuse to buy one. I don't mind that chefs use it, I completely understand the easiness of having a garlic crusher and if I'd never had one before, I'd go out and buy one. But I have. All I can say is, it's all well and good for a chef to use a garlic crusher. They don't have to clean the damn thing.

So I finely cut up my garlic instead.

Cook the chicken - check. Add the garlic and parsley - check. Breathe in deeeeeep and absorb the aroma garlic creates in my tiny little kitchen - check! Again, this recipe suggest serving it simply, but again I'm having it for dinner and need my veggies. So I chop up some Leek and Zucchini and after removing the Chicken from the pan, I quickly fry off the veggies in the remaining garlic fumes, with a little splash of Lemon Juice to help get all the yummy garlic flavour off the bottom of the pan. I eat it with the veggies and some polenta. No, I didn't serve it. Hubby was at footy training, so I just ate (inhaled) it myself.

And enjoyed every Garlicy minute of it. Definitely a recipe I will be making again. And again. And again......


And again!

Garlic and Mustard Beef Skewers.

I made these a while ago and just haven't gotten around to blogging about them. I have free time now but am on holiday, so I don't have the photos.

I'll up load them for you all when I get home!

Garlic and Mustard Beef kebabs with Aioli. These were really great. The recipe, I thought would be predictable, but it included Red Wine Vinegar, which I wouldn't have picked. When cooked I really think the vinegar helped mellow out the spiciness (yes, that's a word) of the mustard. I absouletly love mustard seeds though, so I wouldn't have minded anyway, but my 16 month old does mind.

I used some fresh beautiful grain-fed Rib Eye Fillets from out local butcher for this recipe and oh-mi-gosh, they were so so so so good. The meat was marinated in the garlic and vinegar and mustard mix for an hour, while I made the Aioli, before being threaded onto skewers and grilled on my George Foreman. The recipe suggests serving it with Lavish Bread, but as we were having them for dinner I whipped up some mashed Sweet Potato instead. Matched like a dream.

The aioli was a basic mayo recipe, egg yolks, garlic, a few other things, olive oil. It came together in my mixer great and I bottled it and refrigerated it for when the skewers were ready.

We forgot to eat it. But, I did serve it a few nights later with some basic grilled Chicken. Yum.