Rotisserie Chicken with a Twist

Isabella's Post...

It's yum, it's moist and it's filled with bacon!
The chicken and bacon are a get combination with each other.
This dish takes a while but is worth it. The bonus is that your vegetables cook at the same time.

Ingredients

Marinade approximate measurements
2-3 tbsp sesame sauce
1/3 cup soy sauce
2-3 tbsp fruit chutney of some kind
1 tbsp smoked garlic salt

4 free range boneless, skinless chicken thighs

free range bacon

12 small potatoes chopped in halves or quarters
1 red onion
4-6 cloves garlic


Method
1. Marinate the chicken for a few hours, ideally overnight. We use a snap lock plastic bag.

2. Heat BBQ to about 200 degrees

3. Thread chicken, then bacon, then chicken, then bacon... onto the rotisserie spear. Use the prongs to catch the bits of meat.

4. Chop potatoes, peel garlic and chop onion and put the in a foil dish which will sit under the meat and collect all the juices.

5. Cook for 1 hour 45 mins, basting with the marinade.

6. For the last 15 minutes cook without the foil tray under it to crisp up the meat.

Cooking for 'Mum's Mince'

Isabella's Post ...

'Mum's Mince' is an organisation on Facebook helping people in Auckland who are not able to have enough food at the moment, who go to the Auckland City Mission.
Mum and I volunteer to make food for the people who go to the City Mission every month.

We usually make lots of great big foil dishes of mince, pasta, veges and chopped tomatoes. It's a bit different each time. We sometimes do chicken drumsticks - 10-15kgs!

When the food is made we pack it up with foil over it and write what each dish is.
We then take it to the Auckland City Mission.
Most people say thank you and are really grateful when we drop the food off.

It makes me feel sad for the people there and grateful for the life I live.
I feel happy when I drop it off with my mum or dad.

Caramel Oat Slice

Isabella's post...
This is a yummy option for lunch boxes. I made it totally on my own.
The second time I doubled the caramel layer because I felt it needed more. I might just love caramel...and I might have added a bit of salt.


Base
200 g Butter
1 tsp Vanilla essence/extract
½ cup Brown sugar
2 tsp Baking powder
1½ cups Flour

Filling
125 g Butter
½ cup Golden syrup
1¼ cups Sweetened condensed milk

Topping
1½ cups Rolled oats
¾ cup Shredded coconut
¾ cup Brown sugar
100 g Butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Beat together first measure of butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add vanilla, flour and baking powder and mix well.
2. Press the mixture into a baking paper lined 24cm x 30cm slice pan and bake for 20 minutes or until golden
3. To make caramel filling, place second measure of butter, golden syrup and condensed milk into a saucepan and cook, stirring, until thick and golden brown.
4. In a separate bowl, melt the butter and mix together with the remaining topping ingredients.
5. Spread caramel over cooked base and sprinkle crumble on top. Bake for 25 minutes until golden.
6. Chill this slice for a few hours before you cut it into squares.

Upside-down tomato tart with olive oil pastry

At this time of year my tomatoes always come on think and fast. After a week (probably more) or neglecting my garden due to work being really busy, it was time to use some of the produce this weekend.
I found this recipe on 'Bite' and gave it a try.
I was really really easy and quick. The pastry was crunchy and crumbly and the garlic and olive flavour came through strongly.
Yes, the olive are all in one section due to non olive eaters in the household!
We thought serving it with goats cheese might be a good addition next time.

Ingredients

12	Vine-ripened tomatoes
¾ cup	Flour, plus extra for dusting
½ cup	Wholemeal flour
¼ tsp	Salt
2 cloves	Garlic, crushed
¼ cup	Olive oil
¼ cup	Water, boiling, filtered
1 to grease	Olive oil
½ cup	Black olives, cut in half and pitted
1 Tbsp	Fresh oregano

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Cut tomatoes in half and place, cut-side down, on several layers of paper towels. Leave to drain for 10 minutes. 
2. To make the pastry, place the flours and salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the garlic to the well.
3. Pour the oil and hot water into the well. Mix together with a wooden spoon just until the mixture forms a ball of dough. 
4. Turn dough out on to a work surface dusted with flour and knead briefly until smooth.
5. As this is a hot-water pastry it does not need to rest. Roll out pastry so it's 3mm thick and 26cm round. Prick the base all over with a fork. 
6. Lightly oil the base of a 24cm frying pan with an ovenproof handle and scatter with olives.
7. Arrange tomatoes on top, cut-side down, packing them in firmly to fill the pan.
8. Place pastry on top of tomatoes, tucking in the edges to fit neatly. The slight excess of pastry allows for shrinkage during cooking. 
9. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until pastry is crisp and golden brown.
10. Remove from oven and stand for 5 minutes, then invert the tart on to a serving board or plate.
11. Season with salt and pepper and scatter with fresh oregano.

Middle Eastern Orange Cake

We love this recipe because the cake is really orangey, not too sweet and a really great texture...and it gluten free. Its been a regular whenever we have lots of oranges. Today's oranges came from my mum and while not so good looking from the outside, they are delicious inside...so perfect for this recipe. The cake is especially yellow because their eggs are from our chickens who lay eggs with incredibly yellow yolks.
The recipe is super simple, you just have to be organised and have the 2 oranges boiling away for a couple of hours before you are ready to bake it.

Middle Eastern Orange Cake

Ingredients

Serves: 10

• 5 large oranges
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 2¼ cups ground almonds
• 1¼ cups caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup plain low-fat yoghurt

Preparation method

Prep: 30 minutes | Cook: 3 hours

1.

Wash 2 of the oranges and place in a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 2 hours. Allow the oranges to cool, then cut open, remove the pips and roughly chop the flesh.

2.

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Grease and flour a 22-cm springform tin. Process the cooked oranges, eggs, ground almonds, sugar and baking powder in a food processor.

3.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 1 hour or until the centre is firm (note that this is a very moist cake). Cool in the tin before gently turning out.

4.

Peel the remaining oranges with a small paring knife. Separate the orange segments from the membranes. Serve the cake with the fresh orange segments and some yoghurt on the side.

KOI

Isabella's post...

Recently we travelled to Sydney Australia for our Christmas holiday.

For my present I was gifted a 6 people reservation for KOI a Masterchef contestant (Reynold's) Dessert bar. As a 9 year old school girl this a odd present but for me is was jaw dropping.

There was a cafe downstairs - see in the pictures here and a restaurant upstairs which we ate in.

These are the 4 dishes we were served.

There were also drink which were ok for me to drink because there was no alcohol in them.

We apologise for not getting the elements on two dishes spot on because the are no longer on the

menu.

Isabella

SET DESSERT

(4 course dessert only menu)

"Watermelon"

Watermelon granita, curd and freeze dried fruit

"This was light and refreshing and a a good way to start the meal."

“Moss”

Pistachio mousse, caramel gel, white chocolate matcha dulce cremeux, pistachio sponge, matcha moss, apple blossom jelly, nitro lime and yogurt and green apple

"This was the one I had been looking forward to. It had lots of different textures and flavours."

“PB&J”

Caramelised brioche with peanut creme, cassis jubes, strawberry and almond gelato

"This one was interesting. The components on their own were ok, but all together it was fantastic."

''It's to hot!''

Mango panna cotta, passionfruit curd, lemon sorbet with sesame

and kaffir lime shards

"This was my favourite!"