Saturday 22 November 2008

Street Art

Wondering the streets of Melbourne you sometimes come across something curious, that grabs your imagination and makes you appreciate peoples creativity.......


Sunday 9 November 2008

Paper Chef - November




Welcome to my new blog, and what better way to start than with a Paper Chef challenge.
This month the event was hosted by last months winner Magnus .
As winner he has the honour of posting this months four key ingredients and posting the round up. So this month we had Turkey, Anaheim peppers, Winter Squash, & Lentils.
A quick Google & worked out Winter Squash = Butternut Pumpkin, then off to the markets I went, where I discovered that there were no Anaheim peppers to be found. The closest I could find in shape & size were European Sweet Peppers, so that is what I used.
Next stop, my favourite poultry & game shop for turkey some turkey breast, which they had sold out of. Not good. I could have bought a whole turkey but that would have been overkill for just 2 of us, and i wasn't going anywhere near supermarket bought turkey! So another substitution happened - Chicken Breast.
And what combination was I going to do?
Poached Turkey (chicken) breast with marinated peppers on a bed of Bondi (french) Lentils and roasted caramelised butternut pumpkin.

Ingredients:
1 Turkey breast (or 2 chicken breasts)
100g French or Bondi lentils, cooked until al dente
100g butternut pumpkin (winter squash) cut into 1cm cubes
2tbls golden syrup
Anaheim or sweet peppers
Chicken stock
Handful rocket
Finely diced red pepper for garnish

Method:
Roast the peppers in a hot oven or over an open flame until the skin blisters. place in a bowl & cover with cling film & allow to cool before peeling & de-seeding. I then marinated the peppers in herbs, chilli & olive oil.
Toss the cubed winter squash in the golden syrup & roast in a hot oven until the start to caramelise.
bring the chicken stock to a simmer then poach the meat until its firm to the touch.
Remove from the stock & allow to dry on kitchen paper.
When dry pan fry the breast to colour the meat.
Toss the warm lentils with some rocket and arrange on the plate.
Slice the meat & arrange on top of the lentils.
arrange some of the marinated peppers on the meat and garnish with some of the finely diced red pepper.
Sprinkle some of the roasted winter squash around the plate.
If you wish you can drizzle some of your favourite dressing over the dish.

As with all my Paper Chef recipes all quantities are very approximate as I never know what amounts will work....