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!

Tuna Lemon Ricotta Pasta

I found this recipe in the Albert Heijn Allerhande magazine a couple of months ago. Although it is essentially marketing the supermarket, they have quite a few good recipes in there which I think are well worth trying.

This recipe for a pasta with tuna, lemon and ricotta cheese was very easy and quite tasty.
But.
Don't you just hate it when there is a but?
Well, for me there was definitely a 'but'.
My finished dish did not quite look like their photo of the finished dish.
I don't know... might be that I am not a food stylist and probably did not try very hard to make it look pretty. Might be that they tried too hard to make it look pretty.

Either way, I liked it and will most definitely make it again.

Here is a link to the original recipe.

Here is a copy, translated into English:


Ingredients
300 g farfalle (pasta)
1 lemon, wiped clean
2 cans tuna pieces in sunflower oil (a 185 g)
2 courgettes, peeled into thin ribbons
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tub ricotta (250 g)
some flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Method:
1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente. Grate the lemon peel and squeeze out the juice. Drain the tuna into a bowl and save about 3 tablespoons of the oil.
2. Heat the tuna oil in a pan and add the garlic. Cook for about 1 minute. Now add the courgette and cook for 3 minutes more. Add the lemon rind, juice, tuna, ricotta and season with salt and pepper. Turn down the heat. Let it simmer away for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the pasta to the sauce, add the parsley and serve immediately.

Credit and thanks to Maybemej Photography for the frame template and all the other cool freebies she makes.

Eating Outside

As soon as the weather is nice I have this urge to eat outside.

I want to sit on our roof terrace and enjoy the fact that the sun is setting later.

We had a chance to do just that when the weather was surprisingly good in March.

I grilled courgette and mushrooms, made lovely cod fillets in the oven and served it all with crispy potatoes. 

Squeeze fresh lemon on top and dinner is sure to be fabulous.

Anything is great when you're sitting outside for dinner!

Happiness Soup

Now this is one of my all time favourite recipes - happiness soup from Nigella Lawson.

It really makes me happy.

Courgette, lemon, basmati rice. Need I say more?

The recipe is very simple, the most difficult thing was to get hold of the turmeric. Not that it isn't readily available, its just that I didn't know the right word in Dutch (duh!).

Here it's called kurkuma so now you know if ever you went looking for it in the Super de Boer.

Follow the link to the original recipe, or here is a copy if you are too lazy to go to her page:

• 500g yellow courgettes (2 large)
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
• 100g basmati rice
• Maldon salt and pepper

Serves: 4-6.

1. Cut the courgettes - wash them by all means if you want, but don't bother to peel them - into 5mm rings, and then finely dice them. Put them into a pan with the lemon zest and oil, stir to coat, then cook on a gentle heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they've slightly softened.
2. Stir in the turmeric and pour in the stock and lemon juice and then drop in the rice. And for the stock here, as usual I make up some bouillon concentrate with water; you could use vegetable stock if you prefer, but I love the mellow goldenness you get from chicken.
3.  Cook, uncovered, for 10-20 minutes, or just until the courgettes and rice are tender. Taste for seasoning.
4. Leave to cool slightly before serving so that you eat the soup warm rather than hot.

As always I modified the recipe slightly, I added onions and used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. I grated the courgette instead of dicing them. Also, watch out that you don't add too much rice... it will then become more of a rice dish than a soup but still delicious.

Easy peasy and yummy!