These baked chicken wings are delicious. They are tasty, crunchy and so easy to make.

What made me try these, well, over the Christmas period I had loads of bread left over from several parties that I held, and so I don't through food away I decided to make breadcrumbs out of them. And now I have loads of homemade breadcrumbs, so now I need to cook with them, which is not a problem as home made breadcrumbs are absolutely delicious and they taste better than store bought crumbs.

Why bake, not fry them. I have no problem with frying chicken schnitzels, it's fast, it's easy. But when you include chicken with bones into the mix, I prefer baking over frying, it is easier to cook and there's no guessing if they are cooked properly. And when you are making a lot of them, baking is easier, quicker and more practical.

The spice combination here is delicious, don't forget to season with salt and pepper also, very important.

If you don't have home made breadcrumbs, use panko breadcrumbs. 

If you want to make breadcrumbs here's how 

​Place slices (or soft rolls, roughly chopped) on a baking sheet and dry out slightly in a 150C/130C fan forced oven for 15 minutes. Allow to cool.
To make the breadcrumbs in the food processor, place chunks of the dried bread into the processor. Pulse to desired crumb size, approximately the size of grains of rice. For the best results, add the bread chunks in small batches.
If you prefer to make them by hand, place dry bread in a sealed bag. Smash with a rolling pin to break into crumbs.

You can serve it with fries, a sauce of your choice and a salad of your choice for a complete meal.

Next time you feel like a schnitzel, give these a try. ​

​Recipe adapted from www.taste.com.au

Serves 4

1 1/2 cups homemade breadcrumbs, you can use panko crumbs
1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder, to taste
1-1½ teaspoon smoked paprika, to taste
1 teaspoon vegeta
​salt and pepper, to taste
1/3 cup finely grated parmesan
2/3 cup plain flour
2 eggs
​2 tablespoons milk
1kg chicken wings
Olive oil cooking spray
​
Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan-forced. Line a large baking tray with baking paper.

Combine breadcrumbs, garlic powder, paprika, vegeta and parmesan in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

​Place flour in a large bowl. Whisk eggs and milk in a separate bowl.

Cut the wings into two pieces, at the joint.

Working 1 at a time, toss chicken wing pieces in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in egg, then toss in breadcrumb mixture to coat. Place in a single layer on prepared tray.

Spray both sides of the crumbed chicken liberally with oil.

Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and chicken is cooked through.

Serve with fries, your favourite dipping sauce and a salad.

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​Recipe adapted from www.foodnetwork.com

Makes 1 drink

4 raspberries
4 ice cubes
30-60ml gin
30ml freshly squeezed lime juice
120ml tonic water

Lime wedge and a few extra raspberries, to decorate
​
Place the raspberries, ice cubes, gin and lime juice in to a cocktail shaker and shake to blend.

Pour into a 260ml glass of your choice, you can strain it in, but I don't mind the raspberries pieces, so I don't. Add the tonic. Stir.

Garnish with a lime wedge and a few extra raspberries. Serve immediately.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/raspberry-and-lime-gin-and-tonic.html 
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​My daughter hates sandwiches for school lunches, really hates them, she much prefers leftovers or fresh salads like this one. So quite often I will make her a salad, pack the dressing on the side and them she just adds the dressing at lunchtime and enjoys a fresh salad for lunch.

This is one of her favourite salads, she absolutely loves it. It is tasty, fresh, crunchy, it's delicious.

Now I love this to and will quite often will make this with grilled or barbecued chicken for lunch, dinner, for a party, a picnic. It's so simple and the recipe can be doubled, tripled.

To cook the 8 chicken thighs (skin on) to serve with the salad simply preheat a greased barbecue or char-grill pan over medium heat. Spray chicken with oil and season with salt and pepper. Barbecue or char-grill chicken for 4-5 minutes on each side until golden and just cooked through.

This is so easy to make and is so full of flavour. Give this a try soon.

​Recipe adapted from www.sydneymarkets.com.au

Serves 4

175g green beans, trimmed 
1⁄2 small Chinese cabbage, trimmed and shredded (about 3 cups)
1 orange carrot, shredded 
1 purple carrot, shredded 
3 green onions (shallots), trimmed and thinly sliced 
1-2 (to taste) small red bird’s eye chillies, deseeded and chopped 
1 cup coriander leaves, roughly chopped 
1⁄3 cup roasted peanuts, roughly chopped 
Lime wedges, to serve


LIME & PEANUT DRESSING: 
1 tbs peanut or rice bran oil 
2 tbs lime juice 
1 tbs salt reduced soy sauce 
2 tsp brown sugar

This salad goes well with grilled or barbecued chicken see notes above


Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil over high heat. Add beans and cook for 2-3 minutes until just tender. Drain, refresh in cold water and place into a large bowl.

Add cabbage, carrots, green onions, chillies and coriander. Gently toss and set aside.

To make lime & peanut dressing: combine all ingredients in a screw-top jar. Shake until well combined. Set aside until ready to serve.

Just before serving, shake dressing and drizzle over the salad. Add peanuts and gently toss to combine. Serve with grilled chicken and lime wedges.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/asian-cabbage-bean-and-carrot-salad.html 
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​My family love crepes, they love them filled with nutella or lemon and sugar or jam or nutella and strawberries, the list is endless.

So for Valentine's day this year I found a recipe for red velvet crepes, tried them, and hated them. They were tough and quite ordinary. So a few days later I decided to make my crepe recipe but tint them red with a little food colouring, just for fun.

​​I also came up with this idea of making a crepe stack filled with Nutella mixed with cream and adding sliced strawberries. I had no idea if it would be good, but I figure it was worth trying.

Once set in the refrigerator this is so good, absolutely delicious. I made this for my family first, they loved it, then I made normal crepes (not red ones) for guests, and they all loved them to.

Once you get the hang of making crepes, you will never use a recipe again. As you can see my stacks are quite high, the recipe will not give you that many, but as my family love them so much, I always make extra.

You will find a link to my crepe recipe below, you will need around 10 crepes. If you are new to crepe making, and some don't work, just make an extra batch. If some have a few holes in them, it doesn't matter. When you have made the crepes, you come back here and continue with the recipe.

If you prefer you can use bananas instead of strawberries.

​​Find how I make crepes at www.whatscookingella.com/crepes.html

300ml thickened cream, whipped
1/2 cup nutella
250g strawberries, 

Make the crepes following my recipe or use your own recipe, allow to cool completely.

​​Halve 4-5 strawberries to decorate the top of the cake, leave stalks attached. Thinly slice the rest for the filling​, removing stalks.

Beat whipped cream, until light and fluffy, be careful not to overbeat it. Place the nutella in a large bowl, add 1/3 of the whipped cream, gently fold the cream through the nutella to lighten it, as nutella is quite dense. Add the remaining whipped cream, and fold it all through gently.

To assemble the stack: Place a crepe on a serving plate, spread with a thin coating of the nutella cream, top with another crepe, spread with another thin layer of nutella cream, this time place some sliced strawberry on top of the cream, not to completely cover the crepe, scattered the strawberry about.

Repeat this process of crepe, nutella cream, crepe, nutella cream, then strawberry slices, until all your crepes are used up. Strawberries get added to every second crepe layer, and as you scatter the strawberry each time, make sure you add strawberries to hollow bits so the crepe stack stays level.

Cover with cling film, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, overnight is good also.

Thirty minutes before serving take it out of the refrigerator to allow the crepes to soften a little. Just before serving,  decorate with some halved strawberries if you like, and a dusting of icing sugar.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to ​www.whatscookingella.com/strawberry-and-hazelnut-cream-crepes.html 
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​Here is a recipe I have been making for over 20 years. It was in my late teens that my mother started to encourage me to cook, she worked shift work and I started showing an interest in cooking. So while she was at work, I made dinner. My mother would allow me to pick recipes I wanted to try and then leave me in the kitchen and my parents would eat whatever I served up, I really could cook whatever I wanted, I loved cooking new things and they loved trying new things. Fast forward a few years to my early 20's and this recipe made an appearance. 

This became a family favourite and I made it for years. 

But as I keep trying new things, moving forward, this recipe got left behind, I didn't make it for a long time. But recently my mum asked me to make it again, she never forgot it. So I started making this again for my family now, well it won't be forgotten here, my family loves it.

This is a really easy recipe and the flavours are so good. The rice is delicious, and the seafood needs to be just cooked and it is perfect. Just have everything ready before you start cooking, and you will have dinner on the table in under 30 minutes. Once you've done the prep work, the cooking part is easy.

Now this to me is a Croatian version of a paella. As my husband hates chorizo or any sausage with seafood, I never add it. We also don't like chicken with seafood. So for me it's more paella meets risotto, than a traditional paella.​

If you don't have a paella pan, they are readily available these days in good kitchen shops, you can use a very wide frying pan. 

With the seafood I like to use scallops, prawns, calamari or baby squid and mussels. Buy whatever seafood you like, and how I truly measure how much I buy is by the handful, a handful of this, a handful of that. I did give a measurement below, but you can add more if needed, you just want the seafood in one layer over the rice, not piled high.

A crust is supposed to form at the base of the paella. It is delicious, just watch it doesn't burn, so a low heat simmer is best. You want it to simmer not boil hard.

This is a quick and easy dinner idea, great to serve at parties, this is just great and needs to be made.

​Recipe adapted from New Idea Magazine, July 1997, a Margaret Fulton recipe.

Serves 6-8

1/2 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 red capsicum, halved, seeded and cut into strips
5 cups chicken stock
2 1/2 cups short grain rice, washed
3 roma tomatoes, halved, seeded (quartered if large)
1 small can anchovy fillets (optional)
12 green prawns, peeled, tails left on
12 scallops
2 medium sized squid, cleaned and sliced
12 mussels, scrub the shells if needed


Prepare all your ingredients before you start, so that once you start cooking you are ready to go. Here is how I prep the seafood.

Scallops: remove brown bits from the main scallop mussel. The corals, (orange-pink flesh) may be used. 

​Green Prawns: you can use the whole prawn-with heads, shells and tails still on, however I like to shell, behead and remove the intestinal tract from the prawns, I do leave the tail on, just because it is easier to eat when cleaned. I do freeze the shells for when I make prawn bisque. It is up to you whether you shell or don't shell. I even for my dad, leave the heads and tails on, but remove shell and intestinal tract, and serve it that way also.

Calamari or baby squid: Gently pull the tentacles from the hood of the squid, rinse off ink under cold water. Pull out the hard clear material that forms the skeleton. I don't peel the skin, as I like it, it adds colour, I don't know why chefs remove it, but you can peel it if you want to, slice the squid hood into rings. Cut away and discard the 'beak' mouth from the tentacles. Chop the tentacles, which are delicious, and add with the squid rings.

Mussels: Scrub the mussels well using a good, stiff brush. Pull off the beard that clings around the edges, discard any that are not shut tightly.

Chop the garlic and onion. Slice up the capsicum.

Wash the rice in a colander until the water runs clear.

​Bring the stock to a boil in a small saucepan.

Now we are ready to cook.
​
Heat the oil in a large paella pan, add garlic and onion and cook until is soft. Add the capsicum strips and continue frying for a further minute.

​Add the well washed rice to the paella pan and fry for 3-4 minutes. Now add the boiling stock and stir gently. When the rice is bubbling, reduce the heat and then cook gently for 12 minutes, the rice will absorb the stock.
​
Start the decoration of the paella. Put on the tomatoes, anchovies (if using) and seafood in a pattern. Push the seafood into the rice gently, I do it by adding mussels first, then prawns, squid and scallops . Cover with a lid or with a sheet of foil and cook a further 10 minutes or until the rice is cooked and the seafood is tender.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/seafood-paella.html 
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​I love a margarita, it is truly one of the easiest cocktails to make and it's so refreshing to drink in summer. 

This recipe easily doubles if needed and the reason I say it serves 1-2 is it will depend on the size of your glasses. For me it serves 1.

Feel free to use lemon instead of lime, they both taste great, but I prefer lime.

I like it with salt on the rim, you may prefer it with sugar for a sweeter option, or you don't need to add anything.

Although not classical, for those that like a lighter cocktail, you can add lemonade, if you find it too strong, I do it sometimes and it tastes great.

A simple and refreshing cocktail to make for yourself, your family or friends.

​Recipe adapted from www.taste.com.au 

Makes 1-2 margaritas

60ml tequila
30ml Cointreau
30ml freshly squeezed lime juice
1 cup ice
Sea salt, to serve
​
Place your cocktail glass in the fridge to chill.

​Combine the tequila, cointreau, lime juice and ice in a food processor. Pulse on and off until ice is crushed.

Spread salt onto a sheet of baking paper or on a plate. Using the lemons that you squeezed rub a little lemon onto the rim of your glass, dip the rim of the glass into the salt .

Fill glass with your margarita mix.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/margarita.html 
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​I love zucchini flowers, they are one of my favourite things to eat. When they are in season this is one thing we love to indulge in, it truly is a seasonal treat. 

We love it with a cheese filling, and this one is delicious.

Simple, elegant, delicious.

​Recipe adapted from www.taste.com.au 

Serves 4

100g goat's cheese
100g fresh ricotta
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind
1/4 cup finely chopped chives
12 zucchini flowers
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
2 tablespoons cornflour
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
1 small egg, lightly whisked
3/4 cup (185ml) chilled soda water
Vegetable oil, for deep frying
Plain flour, to dust

​Green salad, to serve


Combine the goat's cheese, ricotta, lemon rind and chives in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Place the mixture in to a piping bag or a snap lock bag. Cut a 1.5cm hole in the tip or one corner of the bag.

Gently open the petals of the flowers and remove the stamens. Pipe the goat's cheese mixture evenly among the flowers. Gently twist to enclose filling.

Sift the flour, cornflour and bicarbonate of soda in a medium bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the egg and soda water and use a fork to gently whisk until just combined (do not overmix; the batter should be lumpy).

Add enough oil to a large saucepan to reach a depth of 6cm. Place over high heat. (To test when oil is ready, a cube of bread turns golden brown in 10 seconds.)

Place extra flour on a plate. Dip zucchini flowers in the flour to lightly coat. Dip one-quarter of the zucchini flowers, one at a time, into the batter. Shake off any excess. Deep-fry for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate lined with paper towel. Repeat in 3 more batches with remaining zucchini flowers.

​Arrange zucchini flowers on a serving plate. Serve immediately with a green salad of your choice.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/goats-cheese-stuffed-zucchini-flowers.html 
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​This is the final recipe I had to try for our Eating Around the World Adventure-Guatemala. I found this recipe, but in all honesty, I wasn't sure I was going to love it, but I just felt I had to try it.

Well, I was wrong, I loved it. It is a flavour bomb in your mouth. You get sweet, spicy, salty and tangy citrus flavours with every bite, you taste all of it. It is really messy to eat, but that makes it even more fun to eat.​

So Crazy Corn or Elotes Locos is Guatemalan street food. It is corn that is roasted (which is my new favourite way to cook corn) then smeared with mayonnaise, then sprinkled with chilli powder, coriander and queso Fresco (cheese). Then finally you squeeze over some lime and you get delicious crazy corn.

​If you can't find Queso Fresco, you can use Cotija or Parmesan Cheese.

You could grill or barbecue the corn, which is probably the more traditional cooking method, but I roasted it in the oven, which I found worked out just fine. You can use frozen corn, if you prefer, according to the original recipe or even 'loose' corn, where you just mix it all in like a salad.

This is something you need to try. So good.

​Recipe adapted from recetasguatemaltecas.wordpress.com

​Serves 4

4 large ears corn
50g butter
Sea or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups Queso Fresco
4 tablespoons fresh coriander, minced
4 teaspoons chilli powder
1 lime, cut into four wedges
​
 Preheat oven to 205C/185C fan forced. Brush corn lightly with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast 20-25 minutes.
Working with one ear of corn at time brush with mayonnaise, sprinkle with cheese, coriander and chilli powder, pressing it onto the corn to help it stick. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve with lime wedges.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/crazy-corn.html 
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​Our Eating Around the World Adventure took us to Guatemala. I always ensure I make sweet dishes on our 'visits' not just savoury. This recipe is supposedly from a family recipe from a local Guatemalan cook.

I came across this Guatemalan version of Tres Leches cake and as I already had a Mexican version that I loved, I thought why not try this version.

Tres Leches Cake translates to Three Milks Cake. It is a super moist cake as after you bake the cake you soak it with a combination of three milks, full cream milk, evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. It is slightly sweeter than the normal cakes I make, but it does taste rather nice. 

This cake was lovely, it is more like a pudding after you drench it in the three milks, than a cake, but each slice you can cut perfectly, it doesn't fall apart, that amazes me every time. This makes a large cake, and is great for parties, as easy to slice and serve.

Now with regards to presentation, I generally don't need super fancy plating, I am happy to soak it in the baking tin, then just slice and serve from there. But if you prefer to make it look fancier, you will need to place the cake on a high rimmed plate (so the milks don't run over the edge) before you soak it, as I don't think it is possible to move this cake once soaked. I placed it on a plate here, so it looks nicer in the photos, but normally I wouldn't. If you use a glass baking dish, you don't need to move the cake, as it looks great in a glass dish. 

If using a normal baking tin, and you want to present the cake on a plate, I like to line the tin with baking paper. 

I love the addition of cinnamon on the top, it adds such a nice flavour to it. So make sure you add it. But that is optional.

One of the best things I did was start this eating around the world adventure, you discover new foods and it's fun.

Give this cake a try, hope you love it as much as we do.

Recipe adapted from El Frijol Feliz

​Serves 12-15

6 eggs, separated
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rum

Milk Mixture:
1 x 375ml can evaporated milk
1 x 395g can sweetened condensed milk
3 cups full cream milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon rum

Cream Topping:
300ml thickened cream
1 tablespoon rum (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons caster sugar

Sprinkle cinnamon on top, optional
​
Preheat oven to 175C/155C fan forced. 
Firstly make the cake: Put the egg whites in a bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

In a clean mixing bowl, add the egg yolks. With the beaters on medium speed, slowly add the caster sugar, beat until combined. Reduce the speed on the mixer, add the vanilla and rum. Slowly add the plain flour and baking powder. Once combined, fold in the beaten egg whites using a wooden spoon, until combined.
​ 
Pour the cake mixture into an ungreased, glass 33cm x 22cm baking dish. Bake in your preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
​
Meanwhile make the milk mixture: In a blender add the evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, full cream milk, vanilla extract and rum. Blitz until combined about 30-40 seconds. You could just do this in a bowl with a whisk.
​
Once the cake is baked, using a fork or skewer, poke several holes all over the top of the cake, including edges. Pour the milk mixture slowly and evenly all over the cake. The holes allow the liquid to be absorbed by the cake.

​Allow the cake to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
​
Just before serving, make the cream topping: Using a mixing bowl with a whisk attachment, add thickened cream, rum, vanilla and sugar, beat until you get soft peaks, do not overbeat, you just want it thick enough to hold it's shape once spread. 

Top cold cake with cream mixture and serve chilled.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to ​www.whatscookingella.com/tres-leches-cake-2.html
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​My daughter loves doughnuts, really loves doughnuts. It was school holidays and I was flicking through my magazines, tearing out recipes when I came across this one. I had to make them.

These take about 5 minutes to make in a food processor, they couldn't be any easier. You could do it with a hand mixer if you don't have a food processor.

They looked perfect and they tasted great. Do they taste like doughnuts, no, they are more like a cupcake, the batter is a cake batter. But we loved them.

There was leftover glaze, but don't fret it is perfect over vanilla ice cream, so no waste. Or serve vanilla ice cream with your doughnuts topped with glaze as a dessert. YUM! Chocolate heaven. 

These would be great for parties, really fast to make and they do look great.

Now if you don't have a piping bag or nozzles, just fill a snap lock bag with the mixture and make a 1.2 cm opening and pipe it out that way.

I'll be making these for years to come, hope you do to.

​Recipe adapted from Taste magazine April 2015 edition

Makes 12

125g self raising flour
125g brown sugar
30g (1/4 cup) cocoa powder, sifted
2 eggs
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons milk

Chocolate Glaze:
80g dark chocolate, chopped
80ml (1/3 cup) thickened cream
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
​
Chocolate Sprinkles, to decorate
​​
Preheat oven to 200C/180C fan forced. Grease 12 mini doughnut pans lightly with oil (I used the spray).

Process the flour, sugar, cocoa, eggs and butter in a food processor until well combined. Add milk and process until smooth. Transfer mixture to a piping bag fitted with a 1.2cm plain nozzle. Pipe the chocolate mixture into the prepared pans, taking care not to overfill. Bake for 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of doughnuts comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

​Make the chocolate glaze: Combine the dark chocolate, cream and butter in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 6-8 minutes or until melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

Dip doughnuts in glaze. Place glaze side up, on a wire rack (or over a sheet of baking paper, so no mess). Decorate with sprinkles. Set aside to set.

To save the recipe to your favourites go to www.whatscookingella.com/mini-baked-chocolate-doughnuts.html 
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