Sunday, March 23, 2014

Chicken Sausage Rolls with Vegetables

Adapted from:
http://foodforlittlesouls.com/2013/06/18/chicken-pumpkin-leek-sausage-rolls/

 Ingredients:
- 1 kg of chicken thighs (minced)
- 1/4 butternut pumpkin
- 1 large zucchini
- 1 large leek
- 3 small apples cored and grated
- 2 cloves garlic
- 25gm butter
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2.5 cups of breadcrumbs
- 2 eggs (1 for egg wash)
- salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon vegetable stock
- sesame oil
- sesame seeds (garnish)

Method:
1. I used the thermomix to do all the mincing. First goes the pumpkin. After mixing at Speed 5 for 2-3 seconds, remove and set aside. Then place the apple and zucchini together and mix on Speed 4-5 for a few seconds
2. I sliced the leek manually into small pieces and set aside
3. First cook all the vegetables. I wanted to make sure the vegetables juice are dried off before mixing into the sausage mix. I have been having issues with very soggy homemade sausage rolls, so trying out a different method this time as compared to mixing them raw into the meat mixture.
4. In a non stick frying pan add butter and oil. Over a low-medium heat, saute the leeks for 10 minutes or until they are soft and golden. Add the zucchini, pumpkin and apple. Cook for a further 10-20 minutes until all the moisture has evaporated out of the pan and the vegetables have collapsed. Set aside and cool completely.
5. Once cool, add the chicken minced, breadcrumbs, thyme egg,vegetable stock, dash of sesame oil and seasoning. Add the egg as well and mix with hands till well combined. I used a hand glove to get them all well mixed up.
6. Defrost frozen puff pastry sheets. Cut each square of pastry in half to make two rectangles. Using a clean spoon, place mince mixture along the middle of each rectangle. roll them up nice and tight, seal the ends by pressing with a fork. Then brush the bottom and top of the rolls with egg wash. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and then place in the oven to bake for 20 minutes at 180C. Remember to pre heat the oven first and line up baking trays with baking paper. I tried the first batch with the cooking raw as i wanted to make sure all the moisture drips to the bottom of the tray and pastry stays dry and flaky but it did not turn out well as the pastry got stuck in between the racks. So lining them flat is a better idea

7. I used up 10 pastry sheets for this volume of meat/mix. The pastry were not soggy due to the egg wash and because i have rolled them tight. Finally a good recipe for getting nice crispy sausage rolls.

8. those sausage rolls were very yummy and moist, too much herbs and must cut down on them next time.



Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Chicken Nugget with CornFlake crumbs

This is the easiest chicken nuggets I have prepared and taste just as yummy. I omit the flour and egg step and the less mess makes a happier me.

Ingredients:
Minced:
1kg chicken thigh fillet (minced up in the Thermomix till resembles mince)
1 large zuchinni
1 bunch of kale leaves
Garlic Salt -a few shakes of this and to suit taste
Dried parsley- another few shakes
Salt and pepper
Crumbs coating:
3 cups of smashed up corn flakes. I use the Thermomix for half of the cornflakes and found it disintegrated into powder form, so for the other half i manually squashed them to give it that crunchy texture when i coat the chicken.
at least 1 cup of breadcrumbs- i used all my leftover breadcrumbs
Onion powder- just a dash
Garlic powder- another dash

Method:
prepare the bed for coating your chicken first. I mixed all the coating together and place it in a large baking tray
Prepare all trays for baking and line with baking paper
Next prepare the mince. I minced all the vegetables in the Thermomix for a good Speed5-6 for couple of seconds. Then in another bowl goes the chicken, Speed 10 and longer as the chicken was hard to get into a nice minced texture. 
Then mix them all up with the seasoning. The mixture should be wet so you do not need to coat with flour and egg and crumbs.
 The mixture goes straight into the coating. I rolled them up in ball sized and dip them in the coating.
make sure they are nicely coated
Bake for first 10 minutes at 200C and the next 10 or until cooked at 180C.

My kids gobbled them up despite seeing all the green vegetables in them. They are truly yummy with the crunchy cornflakes.