Carrot soup...

When you end up with too many carrots, in this house you make soup! I added a recipe for this soup a while ago which you can find here but it is such a delicious favorite that I had to post a photo of the finished product in it's delicious orangeness!

I also recently bought a new blender, chopper thing and used the slicing function on it to quickly chop up all of the ingredients for the soup.  It's amazing how quick it made it all and I think the soup was prepared, cooked and served within 30 minutes.  Wowsers!  I don't think that there is anything wrong with chopping things in a food processor, especially if they are going to be blended at the end.  Maybe give it a go when you are a little time poor for this soup.

Breakfast in a pan...

I've become a fan of baked eggs. I'm not really sure when this started but there is something very comforting about a bunch of delicious ingredients sizzling away in a cast iron pan and breaking into the egg sitting in the middle!

While I was in Boston, I came across these fantastic cast iron pans that just screamed "baked eggs" to me. I had been looking around for pans just like this in Melbourne but hadn't found any that were they right size or depth. I bit the bullet and bought these incredibly heavy cast iron pans and carted them around the USA and eventually back to Australia. From the picture above, you can see that it was well worth the carting!

I made the dish above this morning for breakfast. It doesn't have a particular recipe and if you try it at home, you can add what ever you want but here is kind of how I did it and what I learnt!

1. Make sure all our ingredients are prepped and ready to go. This baby cooks quickly!
2. I chopped and par cooked 2 potatoes.
3. in the cast iron pans add a little oil and start to fry off some red onion rings. Add the potatoes until they get a little colour.
4. add some fresh roughly chopped tomatoes, quickly stir then add some good quality passata di pomodora (Italian style pureed tomato sauce) and leave to bubble away. It will reduce quite quickly.
5. I added 2 tablespoons of Mexican style beans (yep, the kind from a can). These are great for this dish as they are flavoured and have chopped peppers in there as well. You could make your own beans to add. Slightly mix in beans.
6. When the sauce is looking like it's cooked around the edges, crack a fresh organic egg into the middle of the sauce. Season dish with salt and pepper.
7. I added a little grated cheese and put the pans under the grill for a couple of minutes to brown.
8. Serve with Tabasco or hot sauce, avocado and fresh chopped coriander and tortilla chips!

Be careful when eating out of the pans! I served my pans on some nice wooden chopping boards but the dish still cooks away so don't burn yourself! This is an excellent brunch dish... maybe try with the Bloody Mary Martini!

Mexican inspired corn salsa

Ok so this is a super easy recipe but really really delicious. I use it on tacos instead of having lettuce, but it also works great with burritos and also sprinkled on top of nachos too. It's very fresh tasting but has some kick, thanks to the hot sauce! It's also a recipe that you can make to taste, especially if you are making larger quantities, so have some fun with it!

Ingredients:
2 fresh corn on the cob - uncooked (you can use a tin of corn kernels also)
1/2 large red onion, finely diced
1 red capsicum, finely diced
good hand full of coriander (cilantro) including stems, finely chopped.
your favourite brand of Mexican hot sauce - you can use Tabasco if you wish.

How to!

1. strip the corn of all out leaves, then using a knife, carefully slice the corn kernels off the cob and place into a mixing bowl.
2. throw in the red capsicum, coriander and red onion.
3. mix ingredients together.
4. Add hot sauce to taste.

This recipe will last a day or two in the fridge. You can add salt, pepper and garlic to taste also if you wish!

Butterfly Chicken with chilli & Garlic

Thanks to Women's Weekly magazine for this recipe. I don't really roast chickens so I was inspired by this butterflied version and it looked so crispy and tasty in their photos!

You will need:

A whole chicken, I used a 1.7 kg free range chicken
2 cloves of garlic crushed
juice of a lemon
3 teaspoons of mild paprika
1/4 cup of fresh chopped coriander
1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder or chilli flakes
2 tablespoons of olive oil

To butterfly the chicken, wash the chicken in cold water, inside and out and pat dry with paper towel. Place chicken, breast side down on a chopping board. With poultry scissors, cut down both sides of the back bone and discard bone. Open out chicken, turn over and press on the breast bone with heel of hand to flatten.

Combine marinade ingredients and cover chicken with marinade in a large shallow dish. Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours to overnight.

To cook, place chicken in a large backing dish, skin side up and wing tips tucked under. Use any reserve marinade to baste chicken with. Cook for approximately 1 hour in an oven set to 249 degrees Celsius. Remove and cover with foil and allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

I served mine with couscous and eggplant and coriander. Alternatively you could serve with roasted veggies.