buttermilk marinated fried chicken & creamed spinach

So once again it has been ages since my last recipe post, but somehow time has gone by much quicker than I would like to acknowledge. I started mid-year exams this week and after the weekend there will only be two weeks left between me and a two month much deserved Winter holiday!

My Dukan diet has been going very well. I find it so easy to follow and generally very satisfying. Of course there have been a few cheats and naughty treats, but I've lost 6.7 kg (about 15 pounds) in the first 5 weeks and some of my clothes that I haven't been able to squeeze into since the beginning of last year fit comfortably now so I am still very positive and motivated, even if I still have a looong way to go. Chris has lost almost 10 kg (22 pounds) in the same time. I must admit that I'm a little jealous of this, but I suppose it is natural since he is a man and he has been saying no to a lot more treats than I have :P

In other (very exciting) news I won an essay writing competition that was run by the French Institute of South Africa. I had to write an essay (in French) about the challenges for Human Rights in the twenty-first century and my prize: a 10 day trip in Paris, France from 6-16 July! I don't have much information about the trip yet, but from what I can gather by browsing blogs and photos from previous winners I will be experiencing Paris with young people from more than 80 different countries and everything is paid - flights, accommodation, visa, food, transport in Paris and admission for sightseeing. I've been doing French classes for more than 7 years and of course travelling to Paris is an absolute dream come true for me, even more so with everything being paid for!

But enough of my lifestory, now for the food:

The boyfriend and I made some buttermilk marinated fried chicken and creamed spinach for dinner. I suppose it's not all 100% in the Dukan diet regulations, but it's Friday and after a long, dedicated week of dieting and studying we definitely deserve a treat :) The buttermilk marinade makes the meat extremely tender and juicy, but in all honesty it is probably optional if you don't want to waste a lot of buttermilk or if you stumbled upon this recipe and need your dinner to be ready pronto! Feeling a bit guilty after such a hearty meal, but it was definitely worth it!

Buttermilk marinated, fried chicken and creamed spinach

Ingredients (this makes enough for two people, but could easily be halved)
2 chicken breasts, cut in half and pounded until flat
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
a pinch of mustard powder
2 teaspoons mustard
salt
pepper
250 ml vegetable oil
1 cup + 3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter
250 g baby spinach
1 onion
1 garlic clove

Instructions
1. Marinade the pounded chicken breasts in the following mixture: 1 cup buttermilk, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 2 teaspoons mustard, a pinch of mustard powder, a sprinkle of pepper and a teaspoon salt. It should preferably be marinated overnight, but we only marinated it since this morning.
2. Take the chicken out of the marinade, allowing the excess to drip off. Dip it in half a cup of milk and let the excess milk drip off as well.
3. In a large flat dish, make a flour coating mixture with 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon paprika and 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper. This might seem like a lot of cayenne pepper, but it isn't spicy at all. After dipping the chicken pieces in the milk, drench it in the flour mixture until well coated.
4. Dip the flour coated chicken pieces in the beaten egg and again in the flour mixture until it is entirely coated. Leave it in the flour mixture until it is frying time.
5. For the creamed spinach, finely chop one small onion and a large garlic clove.
6. Heat 1 tablespoon butter on medium heat until melted.
7. Fry the chopped onion in the butter until soft, about 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic and fry for 2 or 3 more minutes.
8. Wilt the spinach by putting it in a colander and then pouring a kettle of boiled water over it.
9. Add 2 tablespoons of flour to the fried onion and garlic, mix and cook 2-3 minutes to avoid a raw flour taste. Stir continuously.
10. Add the remaining cup of milk bit by bit, stirring it until the flour and butter dissolves. The mixture will thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
11. When slightly cooled, roughly chop the wilted spinach and add to the creamy milk mixture. Veggies done!
12. Heat 1 cup of oil in a small pan to medium high heat. The chicken will be shallow fried so take care not to use too much oil.
13. Once the pan is heated, fry the chicken pieces 4-5 minutes on each side. It should be golden brown. Take care not to overload the pan.
14. Place the chicken pieces on a paper towel and season with salt if needed.
15. Serve and enjoy!

This chicken will go really well with a sweet chilli or hot sauce. I had neither of these so I made a mixture of some mayonnaise and Tobasco, but in all honesty the chicken is so good it doesn't really need a sauce!

Time to hit the books again! :)

chicken roll-up & the dukan diet

It's been more than a month since my last blogpost/recipe and I suppose any potential followers I might have gained have given up hope on ever reading anything on here ever again, but here I am with a brand new cooking-for-one recipe :) I have had a busy semester so far (luckily with a short holiday in between terms) and besides the fact that I have sort of forgotten about this blog, I must confess that I have mostly been eating convenience meals and fast food :O

However, last week Wednesday I started the Dukan diet. It comprises of four phases and yesterday I completed the Attack Phase, where I basically only had pure proteins, fat free dairy and oat bran for 5 days. I thought I would find this particular phase extremely difficult as I generally survive off carbs, but it went by quickly and I was never hungry and never really felt deprived (except when we had a braai at my boyfriend's house and everyone except us had chips, drinks and starchy side dishes!). In the first four days I lost 2.2 kg (most of it is probably water weight, but I do have to get another hole punched in my belt soon, so some of it definitely is body fat). Today I started the Cruise Phase, where I will alternate pure protein (PP) days with protein and vegetable (PV) days. I must admit that I've never been so excited to prepare and eat vegetables as I was today :) This phase will be followed until I reach my goal weight and then the Consolidation and lifelong Stabilization Phases will follow.

Besides the extremely motivational daily weight loss, I have been feeling extremely energized since I started this regime. In the mornings when my alarm sounds, I open my eyes and get up, instead of instinctively hitting the snooze button like before. It sure is a welcome "side effect" of the lack of carbs in my diet! So far I can really recommend this diet to anyone wanting to get back in shape. I would also recommend getting a "buddy" to do it with you - my boyfriend is also following this diet now (he lost 2.5 kg in 5 days and his 60-year-old mother has lost 10 kg in 4 months) and being able to share accomplishments and recipe ideas with someone really helps. Yesterday we went for a fast-paced 10 km trail walk/jog in the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve and after that we had a Dukan-friendly picnic (so it is possible to stay social while on the diet!) :)

And now for the recipe, which is after all the reason you are reading this blog in the first place: I saw something similar on Masterchef Australia during the week and decided I would try my own version of chicken roll-up, served with baby carrots (since I can eat vegetables now...yay!). I have also decided to give my recipes in a more user-friendly bullet form, so I hope you find it easier to follow now :)

Chicken roll-up served with baby carrots

Ingredients
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped or grated
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 skinless, deboned chicken breast
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon thyme (dried or fresh)
1 teaspoon cottage or cream cheese
2 slices pastrami
(baby carrots)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Fry the onion and garlic in the olive oil on medium heat for 5-6 minutes.
3. Reduce the heat. Add the salt, cayenne pepper and thyme and mix thoroughly.
4. Remove from heat and blend with blitz stick or in food processor together with cheese until it forms a paste.
5. Cut the chicken breast lengthwise, cover with cling film and pound until thin and pliable.
6. Spread the onion paste mixture on the chicken breast and later with one slice of pastrami.
7. Roll up and roll the other slice of pastrami around the chicken breast.
8. Tie with string or "pin" it closed with toothpicks.
9. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
10. Cut into thick slices. Make sure the chicken is cooked (no longer pink and/or slimy)

I made the baby carrots according to this recipe and used only the amount of carrots I wanted to eat of course.

The end product was very tasty, the outside slice of pastrami was nice and crispy and the onion mixture delightfully sweet and all Dukan diet friendly! :D

Bon appétit!

individual rammiken chicken & mushroom pie

So...here is my very first recipe post!

Yesterday I saw the cutest little casserole rammikens in a Mr Price Home store. It was on a 50% off sale and since I already find it hard to resist clearing out the store on most days, I just had to have them (and so I bought four). They are oven proof and therefore perfect as individual pie dishes...which is exactly what I used them (one) for today!

Start off with some puff pastry, I bought a pack of frozen pastry at the grocery store. I suppose if you want you can make it from scratch, but I don't think the type of cook who makes puff pastry from scratch would be reading an amateur cooking-for-one blog :) The pastry needs to be cut as a "lid" for the rammiken. As today was my first time working with puff pastry, I did not prepare for the fact that puff pastry puffs and therefore shrinks so be sure to cut the "lid" sizeably larger than the actual top of the rammiken. The puff pastry needs to be baked according to package instructions. It takes quite a while to cook through, so I would advise you to do this first. Cook at 200 degrees celcius for 15-30 minutes (until light, golden brown).

Heat half a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. To give you an indication, my little two plate stove has settings 1 to 3 and I used setting 2 for the oil.

Add a quarter of an onion (finely chopped) to the heated oil and fry for 3-4 minutes, stirring regularly. I probably would have used one shallot or pickling onion instead, but they did not have any at the shop.

 Add half a clove of finely chopped or grated garlic (about a quarter of a teaspoon). At this stage I probably would have also added a quarter or a half of a small, finely chopped leek, but the store also did not have any leeks. Fry for another 3-4 minutes, stirring regularly.

Add  3-5 mushrooms, halved and sliced. I used button mushrooms but I suppose it does not matter which kind you use. The amount also depends on the size of your rammiken, mine is quite small so I ended up only using 3 mushrooms. Fry for 2 minutes, stirring regularly. At this point you might also want to reduce the heat. I put my stove on setting one.

Chop one deboned, skinless chicken breast (about 90-100 grams) into very small pieces. Mix the chicken pieces with half a tablespoon of olive oil, some salt and a pinch of pepper. Add the chicken pieces to the mixture on the stove. Stir constantly. Add a splash of Worcestershire sauce, a splash of olive oil (if the mixture seems too dry) and a few drops of Tobasco. The Tobasco is optional, I used the green pepper flavoured one. Cook the mixture until the chicken is no longer visibly pink (1-2 minutes). The chicken should be chopped in such small pieces that it browns almost instantly. Remove from heat.

Put a small pot on the same stove (which should be on low heat now). Melt a heaped teaspoon of butter/margarine. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, a teaspoon of flour and the leaves from two small branches of fresh thyme. Whisk together.

Strain the chicken mixture through a sieve, allowing the liquid to pour into the pot with the flour mixture. Whisk.

Add 60 ml of milk and whisk to form a smooth, creamy consistency.

Add the chicken and onion mixture to the sauce, mix in and add salt and pepper according to taste (if necessary).

Bake in rammiken for 5-10 minutes in the same oven used for the puff pastry.

Remove and serve with puff pastry lid.


I served my chicken pie with a very simple rocket salad (rocket leaves, cucumber, halved cherry tomatoes, feta cheese and croutons). The balsamic glaze dressing (store bought) that I used on the salad really worked well with the chicken pie. I think in the future I will try to incorporate balsamic in the chicken pie mixture somehow!

Bon appetit!