(Viennese) Chicken in Apricot Sauce

So, you'll all be glad to hear I got Vienna safely this Thursday, and now that I've had a chance to buy some supplies, back to a more regular service of recipes. This first one is basically a variation on beef in plum sauce, but was so tasty, I thought it too needed its own post.
For 4:
6 Chicken Breasts (sechs Hühnerbrusten)
6 Apricots (sechs Aprikosen)
5 Small Onions (fünf Zweibeln)
2 Peppers (zwei Paprikas)
4 Garlic Cloves (vier Knoblauchzehen)
1 Saucepan (kochtopf)
1 Frying Pan (Bratpfanne)
Olive Oil (Oliveöl)

1. Chop onions finely. Fry in saucepan with olive oil on a low heat.
2. Chop garlic finely. Add to the onions.
3. Remove the stone from the apricots and chop into sixths or eighths, depending on size. Add to onions and garlic.

4. Almost cover these in hot water, and bring to the boil.

5. Chop chicken breasts and fry on high heat in frying pan.
6. Once lightly browned, add chicken to saucepan.
7. Mix chicken into sauce, and simmer/boil liquid until thickened.
7. Chop peppers into strips and fry in frying pan used for chicken.

8. Once peppers are cooked, add to saucepan for a minute or two, then serve.

Volumise: Mix some spinach into the sauce. Serve with cauliflower mash.
Add carbs: Use more peppers, use more apricots.
Add fat: Mix in some more olive oil or some coconut oil. Serve with roasted avocados.
Add protein: Mix some pieces of bacon in with the chicken.

P.S. If anyone wants to correct my German, leave a comment.

Vinegar-Poached Salmon Stir Fry

Given a choice between revision and cooking, it's pretty clear which one I pick!

For 3:
6 Salmon Steaks
100 g Spinach
2 Red Peppers
1 Chilli
1 Garlic Clove
Vinegar
Coconut Oil
1 Wok
1 Saucepan
1 Baking Tray
Slotted Spoon
Paper Towels

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Chop peppers into 4 pieces. Put peppers and some coconut oil in baking tray and baking tray in oven.
2. Fill saucepan with vinegar to height of thickest piece of salmon, heat to simmering.
3. Submerge three salmon steaks in vinegar and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove salmon steaks with slotted spoon and place on paper towels to dry. Repeat with other three salmon steaks.

4. Chop chilli and garlic clove into small pieces. Melt some coconut oil in the wok. Sweat the chilli and garlic in the wok.
5. Add the salmon to the wok and stir fry. While frying, break the salmon into small flakes.

6. Once salmon is cooked, quickly wilt spinach in wok.

7. Take wok off heat. Remove peppers from oven and place in plastic container with the lid on. Shake vigorously. The heat and shaking will loosen the skin from the peppers, allowing the burnt skin to be peeled off.

8. Serve.

Volumise: More spinach in the stir-fry.
Add carbs: Use more peppers.
Add fat: Roast some avocado with the peppers.
Add protein: Mix some bacon into the stir-fry.

Stuffed Peppers

I made these ages ago. They worked quite well.
I just had another go at them, they were delicious and very easy to eat.
I imagine that, with some dressing (like replacing the lids) they could be used as a (relatively) fancy starter.
On the other hand, you can eat them like a (rather messy) apple once they've cooled down a bit:
For 3:
800g Beef mince
6 Peppers
Chilli Powder
Roasting Tray

1. Cut the centre out of the peppers.
2. Mix the beef mince with as much chilli powder as you want.
3. Stuff the peppers with the mince.
4. Roast the peppers at 200 degrees C for 30 minutes.

Volumise: Add shredded spinach to the beef mince.
Add fat: Use fattier mince.

Meatza

Sounds crazy; tastes amazing.
For 4:
800g beef mince
1 Carton Tomato Passatta
1 Onion
1 Pepper (Red)
4 Mushrooms
Oregano
1 Saucepan
1 Baking Tray

1. Press the beef mince into an even layer in the baking tray.
2. Mix the passatta and some oregano in the saucepan, boiling down to make a thick sauce.
3. While this is boiling, put the baking tray in the oven at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes.
4. Chop the onions, pepper and mushrooms into thin slices.
5. Once the mince is cooked, pour the tomato sauce onto the base, and place the onion, pepper and mushroom on top.
6. Return this to the oven until the vegetables are slightly crisped.

Volumise: Add some spinach with the veg in step 5.
Add carbs: Use more peppers.
Add fat: Place a layer of cheese on top of the vegetables.
Add protein: Use more beef mince. Use some usual pizza toppings such as pepperoni.

Salmon with roast peppers and avocado

More on the salmon theme. I bought a few bags a while back, and now I need to empty out my freezer before the end of term, so here goes.
For 3:
6 Salmon Fillets
1 Avocado
3 Red Peppers
Olive Oil
Roasting Dish
Plastic tub

1. Heat oven to 200C.
2. Quarter avocado and slice peppers into large pieces (roughly four slices per bell pepper).
3. Place salmon fillets in roasting dish, cover in olive oil.
4. Place avocado and peppers on top of salmon, and add more oil.
5. Roast for roughly 30 minutes.
6. Take dish out of oven, put peppers in plastic tub then put the lid on. Serve avocados. Drain off oil from dish. Return dish to oven.
7. Shake peppers in tub, open tub and shred off skin - which should be blackened - with a fork. Serve peppers.
8. Serve salmon.

Volumise: Serve with some steamed broccolli or cauliflower.
Add carbs: Use more peppers (two or three peppers per person is not excessive), coat salmon in a honey glaze.
Add fat: Use more avocado, pour some of the oil from the dish over the finished meal.
Add protein: Again, wrap the salmon in bacon.

Chicken in "Oriental" Marinade (Overnight)

Another in the procession of "Chinese" meals.
For 3:
3 Chicken Breasts
4 Small Onions
3 Peppers
2 Spring Onions
6 Tablespoons Coconut (or Olive) Oil
4 Tablespoons Apple Juice
2 Garlic Cloves
Ginger
Wok
Food container (for marinating)
Mug
Bowl


The night or morning before:
1. Put the coconut oil in a mug, then put the mug in a bowl that is shallower than the mug, then fill the bowl with boiling water to melt the coconut oil. No need to do this with olive oil.
2. Chop the spring onions. Chop the chicken into bite-size chunks.
3. Mix the spring onions, coconut oil, apple juice, garlic cloves and ginger in the mug.
4. Put the chicken in the container and pour the marinade over the chicken. Put the container in the fridge overnight.
The night of eating:
5. Chop the onions and peppers.
6. Heat the wok, throw in the onions and peppers and the chicken in the marinade and stir fry the lot.

Volumise: "I'm not gonna be very inventive here - spinach, pak choi, cabbage, bean sprouts; like last time." - Me, previous recipe.
Add carbs: Mix sugar into the sauce, add more apple juice or apple sauce to the marinade, or perhaps some apple to the stir-fry at the end.
Add fat: Add more coconut oil to the marinade.
Add protein: Mix an egg into the sauce, serve on/with an omelette, mix some peanut butter into the marinade to make a satay-style marinade.

Bonus Fun Fact: The difference between fats and oils is simply whether they are solid or liquid at room temperature. The coconut OIL sat in my room is a solid. Where coconuts are grown, coconut oil is an oil, but in England it's a fat due to the cold temperature here (similar to what happens when olive oil goes cloudy in shops in Winter because it is stored at outdoors temperature). A friend of mine who recently got back from Spain tells me that she had a problem figuring out the difference between the Spanish words for fat, grease and oil, as the examples they gave were in different states in England and Spain.

Beef in Chilli Sauce

Getting a bit of a "Chinese" theme for a little while. This is going to sound pretentious as hell, but the one person I know who's been to China says Chinese restaurants are propagating a lie; I don't care, they still make great food.
For 3:
300 g "Sirloin steak" (it was in the 3 for £10 in Tesco, so we're not talking quality here, any sort of frying steak).
4 Small Onions
2 (Red) Peppers
2 Spring Onions
1 Tablespoon Ground Ginger (or fresh, whichever)
1 Chilli (or 1 Tablespoon Hot Chilli Powder)
50 ml Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Almond Flour (AKA Ground Almonds)
3-4 Tablespoons Apple Juice
Wok

1. Peel and chop the onions. Chop the spring onions, chilli and peppers. Chop the chicken into bite-size pieces.
2. Mix the ground ginger, chilli, vinegar, almond flour and apple juice. Again, I mixed it with a fork in a mug, because I'm very well equipped.
3. Throw the veg into the pan, followed by the beef, then the sauce (obviously, the chilli is chopped, so make sure you throw the sauce into the pan so the chilli gets into the pan).
4. Stir-fry the lot.

Volumise: I'm not gonna be very inventive here - spinach, pak choi, lettuce, bean sprouts; like last time.
Add carbs: Again, add some sugar to the sauce. Use less vinegar and more apple juice or some kind of apple sauce into the sauce.
Add fat: I added some coconut oil to the sauce, but as it's solid it wasn't easy to mix in.
Add protein: Again, add some egg to the sauce. Perhaps serve on an omelette base.
Add pretentiousness: Point out that I went to a local "foreign" (of the "Indian" variety) to get the chillis for this and the okra for the updated Texan Chicken. I also went to an independent supermarket to get the almond flour and coconut oil.

Sweet and Sour-ish Chicken

It was tasty and kept well; it was not very sweet or sour.
For 3:
3 Chicken Breasts
4 Small Onions
3 Peppers
1 Garlic Clove
2 Tablespoon Tomato Puree
4 Tablespoons Apple Juice (or Apple and Blackcurrant Squash)
2 Tablespoons Almond Flour
1 Lemon, Juice of
4 Tablespoons Vinegar
Wok

1. Peel and chop the onions. Chop the peppers. Chop the chicken into bite-size pieces.
2. Crush or finely slice the garlic.
3. Mix the garlic, tomato puree, apple juice, lemon juice, vinegar and almond flour (with a fork in a mug, if you're me).
4. Throw the onions and peppers into the pan, followed by the chicken then the sauce. Stir-fry the lot.

Volumise: Add some spinach, pak choi, lettuce and/or bean sprouts.
Add carbs: Mix some sugar into the sauce (this was in the original recipe). Add more peppers.
Add fat: Add more almond flour to the sauce. Add more oil to the stir-fry.
Add protein: Add more chicken. I have not tried this, but add some egg to the sauce. This should also help to thicken the sauce.
Bore anyone reading this blog: Add an inane story at the end of every single post.

"Texan" chicken

Very nice chicken stew. Instead of chicken stock cube, I used home-made chicken stock. This lead to a very nice taste, but it was very gloopy and nasty after keeping it in a tub ad re-heating it.
For 3:
3 chicken breasts
3 small onions
3 yellow bell peppers
1 cube chicken stock (OXO)
Ground ginger
Chilli powder
Turmeric
Tomato puree
Peanut butter
1 Saucepan
1 grill/ 1 frying pan
1 jug

1. Chop onions and soften in saucepan over a low heat.
2. Start grilling chicken breasts or butterfly chicken breasts then start frying (singly).
3. Add a big squirt of tomato puree to onions and mix in.
4. Add about 1/2 pint of chicken stock (OXO cube in boiling water) to the onions.
5. Mix about a forkful of peanut butter into the onions+stock (sauce).
6. Mix some ginger, some chilli powder and some turmeric into the sauce.
7. Chop and mix in the yellow peppers.
8. Gently reduce the sauce while the chicken cooks.
9. Once the chicken is cooked:
If it's fried, throw it into the saucepan whole.
If it's grilled, roughly chop or tear it into whatever you consider bitesize
chunks, and mix it into the sauce.
10. Keep the whole thing on a low heat until you think it's thick enough.

Volumise: Add more onions.
Add carbs: Add more peppers. Add some sugar to the sauce.
Add fat: Use almond flour instead of heat to thicken the sauce. Fry the chicken in excess olive oil.
Add protein: Fry up some bacon until it's very crispy and add to the meal just before serving (again, pig bacon for more fat, turkey bacon for less fat).
Add a severely burnt pan: Leave the sauce for too long without stirring. The peanut butter can really mess up a pan.

P.S. I just made it without tomato puree and with okra. I added the okra once the food was nearly done and mixed it in. It worked really well.