It's 4pm on Wednesday and I'm making Lemon Chicken for dinner, I found a recipe, shopped for the ingredients and then my husband calls and says "Last night I had a really bad stir fry at the restaurant I was at, can we have a beef stir fry for dinner tonight". I say "no problem, but it will need to be chicken, as I have chicken and luckily I bought some broccoli today, I'll come up with something".

Now I found a recipe, it looked good, I followed the recipe exactly, and added rice wine vinegar as per recipe, but I didn't like it. It had a tang to the dish from the vinegar, that I just didn't like. And on top of that I made the error or cooking the broccoli first, so it became a mushy mess of a dish, why I did that, I still do not know. But I knew the dish had potential. Now I rarely do this, but as I was so annoyed the dish did not meet my expectations, and now my husband has had two average stir frys, the very next day I made it again, my family were a little shocked, I never do that, but I just had to fix it. This time I made the adjustments that suited my family, and we loved it.

This is delicious. This is a saucy stir fry, the chicken is so soft, the broccoli has a bite to it (not a mushy mess), it's just so good, and so quick and easy to make.

I doubled the original recipe, feel free to halve it, if you are cooking for less people. I also added an extra 1/4 cup oyster sauce, and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, as we like it.

To toast the sesame seeds, simply dry fry them until they just start to brown.

So if you are looking for a quick, easy and delicious midweek meal, look no further. ​

​Recipe adapted from damndelicious.net/ 

Serves 6

1 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons Sriracha, optional
900g boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-size pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 tablespoons cornflour
​2 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
​6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 cups broccoli florets
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

​Serve with steamed rice


Make the chicken stock mixture: In a small bowl, whisk together chicken stock, oyster sauce, soy sauce and Sriracha, if using; set aside.

Toast the sesame seeds.

Season chicken with salt and pepper, to taste, remember the chicken stock mixture will add salt.

In a medium bowl, combine chicken and cornflour.

Working in batches, heat some of the sunflower oil and sesame oil in a large wok (or frying pan) over high heat.

Add chicken to the wok in a single layer and cook until golden brown, about  4-5 minutes. Remove and set aside, repeat until all the chicken is browned. Return all the chicken along with the garlic and ginger, stir fry for about 30 seconds to a minute, just to take out the rawness of the garlic.

Stir in broccoli and pour in your chicken stock mixture, cook until broccoli is just tender and the chicken is cooked through, about 3-4 minutes.

Serve immediately, with rice, garnished with sesame seeds.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/chicken-and-broccoli-stir-fry.html 
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​So how this dish came about is I had four chicken thigh fillets in the fridge that I needed to use up. My go to in situations like this is to make a creamy chicken mushroom sauce to go with it, but today I just didn't feel like that, I felt like a tomato based sauce. But I also needed it to be a pasta, as four chicken thigh fillets will not feed my family of five. So off I go looking for a recipe to try. I found this one, luckily I also just happened to have mascarpone in the fridge, bonus.

Now it's 4pm and my kids ask what's for dinner, although the recipe has been picked, I have absolutely no desire to cook, as I have had a crazy busy day and dinner is not something I feel like making. 5pm still nothing is happening in the kitchen. 6pm, I pour myself a glass of wine and I get cooking. This was so easy and quick to put together, then you pop it in the oven, make a quick salad and dinner was done.

I'm so glad I made it, we loved it. And it was so much cheaper than the alternative of getting take out. 

Now this sauce is delicious even before you add the mascarpone. So if you are looking for a quick midweek meal or you don't want to buy mascarpone, just cook the sauce and serve it over pasta without the baking part, it's delicious as is, and you could always grate some parmesan cheese on top instead. If you just don't want to buy mascarpone, just leave it out.

The 1/4 cup of water I add, but only after I use it to rinse the tomato tins with, to make sure I get all the tomato out of it. 

This is a quick and easy midweek meal that I'm sure you will love.

​Recipe adapted from www.bbcgoodfood.com/

Serves 6 

1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves , crushed
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon caster sugar
​1/2 teaspoon vegeta
6 tablespoons (84g) mascarpone
4 skinless chicken thigh fillets, sliced into strips
500g bowties or penne
70g tasty cheese, grated
50g grated mozzarella
½ small bunch of parsley, finely chopped, optional


Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick frying pan. Season the chicken, fry in batches, for 4-5 minutes, or until the chicken is nearly cooked through, set aside, until needed.

Heat the extra virgin olive oil in the same pan over a medium heat and fry the onion gently for 6-8 minutes. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for 2 minutes. Tip in the tomatoes, sugar, vegeta and 1/4 cup water, season with salt and pepper, to taste. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, then add in the chicken, and cook for a further 10 minutes or until thickened. Stir through the mascarpone.

Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan forced.

Cook the bowties or penne following packet instructions. Drain. Pour the sauce over the pasta, stir to combine. Transfer to your baking dish. Top with the cheddar, mozzarella and parsley, if using. Bake for 20 mins or until golden brown and bubbling.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/chicken-pasta-bake.html 
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​​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

​As many of you are aware, I love trying new things to cook, it's why I find cooking fun. This I saw in one of my cookbooks recently and I asked my husband if he'd like a ham and cheese croissant, he said yes. When I started pouring over the cream mixture, he asked what I was doing, he honestly thought I'd ruined the croissants. But I just told him to trust me, it will be great.

He loved it, as did my kids. These are delicious and so, so easy to make. 

This would be perfect to make for guests for a brunch, with very little effort you will seriously impress your guests.

If you use bigger croissants, you will make 9 of these, as I did. Use a dish that will fit all the croissants, or divide it into two dishes, but the croissants need to fit snuggly in the dishes, for there to be enough cream mixture.

The original recipe says to serve this with dijon mustard, do so if you like, we did not.

This recipe can be doubled or tripled, if you need to make larger quantities.

You can prepare a day ahead up to step 3, cover and refrigerate. Finish the recipe when you're ready to serve it.

You can change the cheeses to suit you, substitute gruyere with vintage cheddar, edam, mozzarella or brie.

This is one easy, yet crazy delicious dish that anyone you serve it to will love, it's hard not to.

​Recipe adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly Cookbook 'Eat Drink Share'

Serves 9

2 teaspoon olive oil
4 (250g) rindless bacon slices, cut into 7cm lengths
18 x 7cm mini croissants
2/3 cup (80g) smoked cheddar, coarsely grated
300ml pouring cream
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup (190g) gruyère cheese, coarsely grated
8 sprigs fresh thyme, optional


Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan forced.

Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, cook bacon 1½ minutes each side or until golden. Drain on paper towel.

Cut croissants horizontally three-quarters of the way through, keeping the two sides still attached. Fill croissant evenly with bacon and cheddar, press gently together to close. Place croissant sandwiches close together in a 23cm x 34cm x 6cm ovenproof dish.

Whisk cream, eggs and gruyère in a medium jug until combined, season. Pour cream mixture gently over croissants, stand 5 minutes or until cream has soaked into croissants slightly. Sprinkle with fresh thyme, if you like.

Bake croissants for 20 minutes or until golden and cheese melts. 

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/croissant-monsieur.html 
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​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

The 15th country in our Eating Around the World Adventure is Greenland.

Now Greenland has a population of only 56000 people and I can honestly say before this, I had no idea what food is eaten in Greenland. Actually overall I know very little about Greenland, well except that Greenland is a part of Kingdom of Denmark, Princess Mary is Australian, so we see her visits there, and I know it's really cold there. But other than that, I knew very little.

Most of Greenland's interior is uninhabitable glacier. But Greenland has a coast where seal, whale and seafood are plentiful and the country is rich in reindeer, musk ox and wild hare as well as a variety of birds. They have a largely meat based diet, however, southern Greenland is actually green and its agriculture thrives with many farms growing mostly root vegetables. So food is plentiful, it's just simple ingredients and some that we don't normally eat.

Now if I ever visited, I would try local dishes, even though many of the animals that they eat, I would never consider eating here in Australia. But the indiginous people of Greenland, have always hunted their food and they ate what they caught around them. There is Croatian food that we eat that I know my friends would not eat.

So although there are not many recipes available for me to try from Greenland, I have found a few that I thought we'd like. Overall the food was nice, it was definitely simple. For instance suaasat, is not too different from a soup I have been making for years at home. Now I didn't make it with seal obviously, but I did try and get as close as I could to the traditional recipe. Greenland was more about trying to get the flavours and knowing what they eat, than being able to replica a meal.

Here is the food I cooked from Greenland

Pan Fried White Fish with Roasted Vegetables
Suaasat
​Chef's Dream Cake
Greenlandic Coffee
​

​Pan Fried White Fish with Roasted Vegetables: This was delicious, I truly loved this, my family loved this. My family loved this flavour combination. This was easy to make and we really enjoyed this for dinner.

Suaasat: Suaasat is considered the national dish of Greenland. It is a meat and barley soup traditionally made from seal meat, but also from whale, reindeer, musk ox or sea-birds, if seal was unavailable. It is traditionally served at Christmas, though it can be eaten at any time of year. Now I couldn't buy seal or whale, so I made it with beef today, The cherries for me were unnecessary, they didn't work for me. Overall we loved the soup, my kids loved the chewiness of the barley and they said they would happily eat this again, minus the cherries. The recipe called for wild mushrooms, as I couldn't find any, I added the porcini to give the stronger mushroom flavour. I also added fregola, a type of small pasta or some call it Italian cous cous, just because I wanted to.

Here is how I made it:

Serves 6

1kg chuck steak, cubed
1 onion, diced
5 sprigs fresh thyme
2 fresh or 1 dried bay leaf
1 1/2 cups barley, rinsed
1 large carrot, chopped, chunky
1 large potato, diced, chunky
1 turnip or parsnip, diced, chunky
200g mushrooms, halved or sliced
20g porcini mushrooms
1/2 cup dried cherries, optional
1 teaspoon vegeta, optional
1/3 cup fregola, optional
​Salt and pepper, to taste


Place meat in a large saucepan with 2 litres water, bring to the boil. Remove any meat scum that has risen to the surface.

Add onion, thyme and bay leaf, simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

Place porcini mushrooms in a heatproof bowl, add boiling water to cover the mushrooms, soak for 30 minutes.

Add barley to the meat, add more water, if needed, simmer, cook for 20 minutes.

Add carrot, potato, turnip or parsnip, mushrooms, porcini and the soaking liquid, and the cherries, if using. Taste for seasoning, add vegeta, if using. Bring to the boil, simmer until the barley and vegetables are cooked, about 20 minutes, I taste the barley every now and then to see if it is cooked. If adding pasta, add it in the last 10 minutes of cooking time.
Enjoy!
​

Chef's Dream Cake: This recipe makes for a pretty delicious cake. The sponge is not dry, it's light and fluffy and the crunchy sweet topping is delicious. I really liked how the cake isn't too sweet. This is a simple cake, but I really liked it.

Here's how I made it:

For the sponge cake: 
1 1/2 cups sugar
    3 eggs
57g unsalted butter
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
 2 cups plain flour
    3 teaspoons baking powder

For the topping:
  115g butter
1/4 cup milk
    1 1/8 cup desiccated coconut
    1 1/8 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan forced. Grease and line with baking paper a 22cm x 30cm baking dish.

Cream the eggs and sugar together for about 5 minutes until thick and pale. 

Warm the butter and milk together in a small saucepan, just until the butter is melted. Add it to the batter with the vanilla essence. Beat until combined.

 Sift in the flour and baking powder. Beat until just combined.

Pour the batter into your cake tin. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the cake.

While the cake is baking make your topping: Warm up the butter and milk just until the butter is melted. Then add the brown sugar and coconut. Mix together well.

When the cake is done, take it out of the oven, increase the oven temperature to 220C/200C fan forced. Spread the coconut mixture gently on the top of the cake and put it back in the oven for about 10 minutes, until nicely browned and set.
Enjoy!
  

Greenlandic Coffee: Hot coffee is mixed with whiskey, Kahlua and Grand Marnier then covered with heap of whipped cream. The drink is usually served after dinner. Well my husband and I had no problem drinking this, loved it, will make it again and again.

Here is how I made it: 

Makes 1

10ml whiskey
10ml Kahlua
10ml Grand Marnier
100ml hot coffee, freshly brewed
2-3 tablespoons whipped cream, to taste

Pour a measure of whisky into a large glass with a stem (Bordeaux). Warm the whisky carefully over a candle or a spirit burner and set it alight.

Let it burn for a moment, after which the Kahlúa and hot coffee without sugar should be added.

Then carefully pour in a thick layer of gently whipped cream.
​
Finally, add burning Grand Marnier from a large sauce spoon lifted high above the glass – preferably in a dark room so that the blue Grand Marnier flame is clearly visible.

You can just add the three alcohols and coffee into a glass and top with whipped cream, still tastes good, just less dramatic.
Enjoy!
​

​Now to add another sticker to my world map.

Next Stop San Marino.

​My kids love chicken wings, it is one of their favourite things to eat. Here is a simple, yet delicious recipe that I recently made them and they loved.

You get to control the spice, add more or less chilli flakes, that's up to you. 

I don't bake the wing tips, I freeze them for when I'm making a soup, but you can bake them if you like.

​Serves 4-6

1/3 cup barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
1/2-1 teaspoon chilli flakes, to taste
1kg chicken wings
​
In a bowl combine barbecue and Worcestershire sauces with spring onion and chilli flakes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir to combine. Add chicken wings, toss to coat all over. Refrigerate for 2 hours, turning occasionally.
​
Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Place chicken in a single layer, presentation side down. Bake for 25 minutes, turn chicken over and bake a further 25-30 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/bbq-chicken-wings.html 
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​Recipe adapted from the Family Circle 'Cocktails and Party Drinks' Cookbook

Makes 1 drink

ice
30ml tequila
30ml Cointreau
20ml strawberry liqueur
45ml orange and mango juice
4 strawberries
​

Combine ice, tequila, Cointreau, strawberry liqueur, orange and mango juice and strawberries in a blender. Blend well. Pour into a margarita glass.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/sombrero-spinner.html 
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​​​​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella

​Recipe adapted from Clodagh McKenna's cookbook Clodagh's Kitchen Diaries

Serves 6

50g butter
100g smoked streaky bacon or pancetta, diced
240g potatoes, peeled and diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, chopped
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
300g tomatoes, chopped
400g cabbage, shredded
Salt and pepper, to taste
​

Put a heavy bottomed saucepan over a medium heat. Add the butter, and when it has melted, stir in the bacon, potatoes, garlic and onion. Cover and cook, stirring, occasionally, for 10 minutes.

Add the stock, thyme and tomatoes, bring to the boil. Add the cabbage, bring back to the boil, reduce heat and cook for about 20 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Serve hot with crusty bread.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/cabbage-and-bacon-soup.html 
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​Simple and delicious.

You can make a sparkling version by using sparkling apple juice.

If making it like a martini use the method below, but if you like it like a drink, pictured, just add all ingredients straight into a glass.

Recipe adapted from Clodagh McKenna's cookbook Clodagh's Kitchen Diaries

Makes 1

ice
30ml gin (or vodka)
​100ml good quality apple juice
thin slice of apple
​
Fill a cocktail shaker half full with ice and add gin and apple juice. Shake, pour and garnish with an apple slice.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/appletini.html 
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​​Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawsons cookbook Feast

Serves 14-16

250ml guinness
250g unsalted butter, cut up into slices
75g cocoa powder
400g caster sugar
140ml sour cream
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Frosting:
300g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double cream (or thickened cream)


Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan forced, and line a 23cm springform tin with baking paper.

Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar.

Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and then pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarb.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin and bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it is quite a damp cake.

​When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get make the icing.

Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat to combine.

If using double cream, add it and beat until you have a spreadable consistency. If using whipping cream, whisk first to soft peaks, add a couple of spoonfuls into the cream cheese mixture and once this is combined, fold in the rest.

Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/chocolate-guinness-cake.html 
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​​​​​Recipe adapted from the Family Circle 'Cocktails and Party Drinks' Cookbook

Makes 1 drink

ice
30ml Bacardi
15ml blue curacao
15ml lime juice
75ml pineapple juice
​

Place ice, Bacardi, blue curacao, lime juice and pineapple juice in a highball glass. Stir.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/envy.html 
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​​​If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #whatscookingella