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!

camemburger & chocolate cupcakes

The boyfriend came over for dinner last night so I made some delicious stuffed burgers from scratch. They were really, really, really good and in retrospect the only thing I would change is to put a bit more salt in the burger patty mixture. I got the idea from Pinterest, but made it entirely from my own thought-out recipe.

Also, the picture does not exactly do the burger justice, but I was so anxious to taste it that I just did a quick point and shoot picture.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium high heat. Add 1 onion, very finely chopped, and fry until soft (5-6 minutes). If it looks like the onions are cooking dry, add some more olive oil. I added approximately another tablespoon of olive oil while the onions were frying. Sprinkle the onions with a pinch of salt while they are frying. Add 1.5 tablespoons of caramel/brown sugar (normal sugar would probably also do the trick if you don't have fancy sugar at home). Reduce the heat and simmer the onions with the sugar for a few minutes until caramelized. Stir it regularly to make sure the sugar doesn't get burnt. Set aside to cool.

In a food processor, add a handful of fresh Italian/flat leaf parsley (I used the stems as well) and one egg. Process until the parsley is very fine. Add 3 crackers (I used Pro-Vitas which are quite fiber-ey), 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon mustard and a pinch of both paprika and pepper. Process until the crackers are crumbly. The mixture will be pretty thick.

Combine the mixture with 400 grams of mince meat and the onions (once cooled). Mix with your hands. If the mixture seems to moist, add some more crushed up crackers (I added 5 more). Form balls with the mince meat mixture and wrap in cling film. Press down to form a burger patty, about 1 centimeter in thickness. I got 5 patties from my 400g of mince. I suppose it all depends on the size of your burger. Refrigerate or freeze the patties until they are cold and firm (not frozen).

Take the patties out of the freezer (I used only four of the patties and left the other one in the freezer for a quick lunch in the future). Unwrap them. To make one stuffed burger, layer one patty with torn basil leaves, some camembert cheese slices and thinly sliced cherry tomatoes. Cover with another patty and "mend" on the sides.

To cook the burgers, heat some vegetable oil to medium high heat. Fry both sides of the burgers off and then bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius  Toast burger buns, spread with butter. Once burger patties are cooked (no more visible pink), put them on top of the buns. Top with rocket leaves (or any other desired burger topping). I suppose you could add mayo or ketchup, but the camembert from my burgers made the meat quite saucy.

I served the burgers with microwave potato chips (no oil and SUPER crispy!)

For dessert I made chocolate cupcakes with a twist: after the cupcakes came out of the oven I cut out a piece of the center and then put a Lindt Lindor dark chocolate ball in the hole. Let it cool and cover with tinned caramel. I was so excited to try one that I forgot to take a picture...they pretty much look like average chocolate cupcakes though, but taste like THE BEST CUPCAKES EVER. Also, the recipe only makes two cupcakes so there will be no temptation to eat leftover cupcakes for the rest of the week :)

Time to fry a left over burger patty for lunch!

tortilla lasagne

It has been quite a while since my last post, but I had a Canadian intern staying with me and things have been hectic on the study and work front to say the least!

On Tuesday morning I discovered Pinterest. What an awesome place for food (and other) inspiration! I probably shouldn't have downloaded the app to my ipad though, since I'm now "pinning" and "following" while I should be listening to my lecturers. Amongst hundreds of other awesome recipes, I saw one for "Enchilada lasagne" and decided that it sounds like something I must try. I did not really look at the recipe, so the one that follows here (which I made yesterday afternoon) is what I interpreted from the title "Enchilada lasagne".

With these quantities the recipe will most likely feed two people (so much for "cooking for one", hey?). I saved some in the fridge and had it for lunch today, but I'm pretty sure it would be easy to just halve all of the ingredients.

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

Heat 20ml olive oil on medium high heat in a medium sized pot. Add one finely chopped shallot or pickling onion to the heated oil. Stir in half a teaspoon of chilli powder and fry until softened (3-4 minutes).

Add 300 grams of extra lean ground beef/beef mince. If the meat sticks to the bottom of the pot, add a few drops of oil extra. Add half a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of pepper and brown meat.

Add half a can of tomato puree (approximately three quarters of a cup). Add 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stir and taste for salt content. Depending on your taste, add some more salt. I added another half a teaspoon. Stir in 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce.

Reduce the heat and simmer with the lid half on, half off, for 5-10 minutes. Stir thoroughly 2 or 3 times while simmering. 

Butter or spray a small pie or pasta bake dish. Cut tortillas so that they cover as much as possible of the bottom of the dish. The amount of tortillas you will use depends on the size of the tortillas and of the dish you are using. I used 2 medium tortillas. You can always use the leftover bits to make tortilla chips by deep frying them in some vegetable oil.

Spread the top of the tortilla pieces with cream cheese (I would have preferred to use plain cream cheese, but the shop was out of stock. I ended up using onion and chives flavour, it worked quite well). Layer the tortillas and meat sauce, starting and ending with tortilla. Mine had four layers of tortilla and three layers of meat. Make sure to spread the top tortilla with a thicker layer of cream cheese. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese and paprika.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes.

Serve with some chopped tomatoes and a nice, big dollop of sour cream. Yum!

In other news...happy Valentine's day! I'm off on some surprise date with the boyfriend now :)

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!

blogpost numero uno

So, welcome to my blog and my first blogpost (ever)!

The past few weeks I've been contemplating about starting this blog, but somehow never got round to actually doing it (a very common phenomenon in the world of Marike). It is now almost 4am on Saturday morning, I should be sleeping, but in my world great ideas and productivity only strike together in the wee hours of the morning.

I'm a 20 year old Actuarial Science student at the University of Stellenbosch. The past year and a bit I've been living in an apartment by myself and before that I shared a town house with two friends, so I've been having to look after myself food-wise for quite a while now. Initially I was very excited about moving out and finally being able to do/eat what I want, when I want (Coco Pops for dinner, anyone?), but after a few months inspiration deserted me and I decided to resort to a life of grilled cheese sandwiches.

About six months ago I started dating someone new (Chris) and he makes the best food. He is extremely inventive, original and just has a natural flare when it comes to cooking (and even baking). Suddenly inspiration struck again. I slowly started putting some thought into the meals I prepare and I'm not entirely horrible at cooking either, even if I have to say so myself.

I find cooking for one person to be quite a challenge. I've tried to cook "in bulk" and freezing the leftovers in portions, but I find the food loses some cardinal quality when it's spent a fortnight or two in the freezer. I've searched endlessly for (relatively) simple cooking-for-one recipes, but have to date not found what I am looking for and that is basically where the idea for this blog came from: I am writing the blog that I would have liked to find.

My sister (who has her own blog, threadpiece) suggested themes for my blog, something which I will explore as I get more comfortable with this whole blogging experience. I might do some "reviews" of restaurants and new food related products on the market in my area, who knows?

For now, I will leave you with a "teaser". This is a butter chicken type of dish (I love Indian food) with a summer side salad. Step-by-step recipe to follow soon :)