Croutons!

Let's start the week by talking about how fabulous croutons are.

Home made croutons, of course.

I recently discovered the pleasure of making your own croutons and now that I've started I don't ever want to stop making them. Left over stale french loaf turns into a heavenly accompaniment to any soup or salad. 

Here's what you need to do.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Slice the bread into even bite sized pieces. 

Cover with crushed garlic, olive oil, herbs (fresh or dried) and a bit of salt. Use as much or as little as you like. Use your hands and mix it all up. 

Cover a baking tray with with baking paper and spread the bread out on it. Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes until nice and golden. This might take a little more or less time depending on your oven so keep an eye on the croutons so they don't burn!

Let them cool and then you can use them all week long... they should keep at least 5 days in the fridge. I used mine with a gorgeous broccoli soup and then later in the week twice in salads. 

Buttermilk Marinated Chicken

You can always count on Martha Stewart.
For recipes, of course.
I had buttermilk to use up l and vaguely remembered that it could be used as a marinade.
So after a quick google I found this recipe on Martha Stewart's website. It is actually a 'how to marinades' article with a list of recipes.

Here is a copy of the one I used, quite conveniently I had everything I needed in the house:

1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons chopped garlic (3 cloves)
Use with chicken, fish, or other seafood.

I simply placed it all with three skinned chicken breasts in a plastic ziplock bag and left it there overnight.

Cook it on a hot grill pan and you will be rewarded for your patience with the most tender delicious chicken!

Glorious Garlic

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had a lot of garlic and was contemplating roasting them.

Mission accomplished!

It took a while but I finally got around to roasting the garlic bulbs this week, they were patiently waiting for me to return from my holiday.

Every single recipe that I looked at followed the same basic procedure:
- Slice the top off the garlic bulb.
- Place in an oven proof dish (I used my muffin tin).
- Drizzle olive oil on top and sprinkle with sea salt.
- Cover with tin foil.
- Roast in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 40 minutes to one hour.

Before long my house was filled with the lovely sweet smell of garlic happily roasting away.
I waited a little bit too long before checking on the garlic, I should have taken a peek at 40 minutes but I got distracted and only looked at it when the timer went off after 55 minutes. Oops.

The garlic was definitely done. A little too done around the edges but still tasty.
I immediately spread a clove or 5 on a slice of buttered toast and it was well worth the effort. Glorious roasted garlic indeed.

After letting it cool, I saved it in a container in my fridge.

It has been there for 3 days and so far I have used it in mashed potatoes, a pasta dish and of course spread on toast and sprinkled with sea salt.

Do I have garlic breath? Most definitely!