Tony's Famous Brown Braised Chicken

The recipe that Stephanie has been waiting for! The braised goodies that awaited Nickie on her fateful train strike day from Edinburgh! Ta-Dah!!

Ingredients A:
1 Chicken (or duck or whatever equivilent of other meats that you may like)
5 whole eggs (more, if you have more guests, basically we like to have 1 egg per person)
5 to 8 dried Black Chinese Mushrooms

Ingredients B:

1 piece of root ginger

1 whole garlic (or about 8 segments, more if you like pungency), smashed with skin intact

1 bunch spring onions (green parts for garnishing, white part for cooking)
1 stick Cinnamon
2 or 3 Star Anise
1 cube Chicken stock
1/2 Bottle Superior Top Grade Dark Soy Sauce
Water
Oil
Some black peppercorns (can be replaced with dried chillis depending on your taste of spiciness)

Directions:
Rinse your chicken and divide into smaller portions
Hard boil your eggs and soak the dried mushrooms in water until soft
Put all of Ingredients B into a big stewing pot and boil until aromatic
Put in the chicken portions and stew.
Ensure that all of the chicken parts are submerged in the stewing gravy for even colouring
When the chicken is partly done, the eggs and mushrooms can be added
Stir slowly and carefully to prevent breaking up the eggs.
Continue stewing for about 1.5 hours until the chicken or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked

A Word From Stephanie

Hi everyone,

So it is almost one year and 50 dinners further that we first met. We had so many nice dishes during the time and I think most of the girls agree that we still notice this judging the love handles we grew in this year!

I am very curious to all your great dishes. I enjoyed Asian food really a lot….I think I ate more noodles and chicken than I did ever before! Oh and then off course the chilli that you all used….that I survived is a miracle!

Anyway, there has been some request for the recipe of the deserts I made during our time together. Therefore hereby the most enjoyed ones J:

Stephanie’s Apple-pie
For the crust
150 gr. Real butter
125 gr. Light brown sugar
250 gr. Flower
1 rasp skin of an citron
1 egg yolk
1 egg
salt

For the filling
750 gr. Sweet-sour peeled apples
50 gr. Normal sugar
100 gr. Raisins or sultanas
Cinnamon
Walnuts/hazelnuts or any nuts available

Mix the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolk, little bit of salt, flower and citron. Put the dough in the refrigerator. For the filling, peel the apples and cut them in cubes. Mix these with sugar, raisins and cinnamon. You can add some citron juice to make it a little bit more fresh and maintain the colour of the apples. Add in the end the nuts. Let the mixture stand for an hour so all the juices will be absorbed well. Cover the bottom and edges of the baking tin with 2/3 of the dough. Put in the apple mixture and cover this with the remaining dough. To make the pie more appealing, you can put the dough in diagonals! In the end, spread a beaten egg over the dough to make the pie more pretty. Bake the pie in +/- 60 minutes on 180°.

Nut pie
For the crust
100 gr. Real Butter
125 gr. Caster sugar
200 gr. Flower

For the filling
25 gr. Real butter
100 gr. Walnuts (chopped)
3 tablespoons Honey
2 tablespoons Jam

Heat up the oven on 200°. Mix the butter and sugar till until made till a smooth substance and add the flower till it is all mixed together well. Knead fast until it is a smooth substance and divide it in two equal parts. Lay in plastic foil in the fridge. Melt for the filling the butter in a small pan, and stir in the walnuts and honey. Let it cool down a little bit. Use one part of the dough to cover the bottom of the baking tin. Smear the jam over it and put the nut mixture on top. Divide well. Roll out the dough that is left to the size of the baking tin to cover the filling. Use some water for smoothing cracks of the dough. Bake in 30-40 min brown.

Chocolate and walnuts brownies
200 gr. Walnuts or hazelnuts
300 gr. Pure chocolate, of good quality in cubes
175 gr. Real butter, in cubes
220 gr. Caster sugar
150 gr. Flower
½ teaspoon Bakingpowder
½ teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
3 eggs

Heat up the oven on 160°. Grease in a baking tin of around 20x30 cm and cover up with greased paper. When using hazelnuts, put these on a baking tin and roasted them into the oven for 5 minutes. Try to rub off the brown covers of the hazelnuts as much as possible. Melt the butter and chocolate together au bain marie (in a bowl, floating in a pan with bowling water). Put the mixture aside. Beat the eggs and caster sugar till a creamy mixture is created and add the chocolate mixture and vanilla essence. Mix well. Sift the flower and baking powder and salt in a bowl. Use a big metal spoon to mix the flower mixture and hazelnuts into the chocolate mixture. Put this in the baking tin and bake this in 35-40 minutes. You don’t want it to be to dry, so keep track of the baking process! You want that the crumbles stick on the knife, when you put this in the middle of the cake.

Carrot Cake
150 gr. Flower
120 gr. Whole meal flower
2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
250 gr. Brown sugar
400 gr. Carrots (scraped and cut into small pieces)
100 gr. Walnuts (chopped)
3 eggs
250 ml. Sunflower oil/olive oil

Icing
160 gr. Cream Cheese
75 gr. Sift powder sugar
1 orange (very fine rasped)

Heat up the oven on 180°. Grease in a baking tin of around 20cm with oil and cover it up with baking paper. Sift the flower, whole meal flower, salt, baking powder and nutmeg in a big bowl. Add the brown sugar, rasped carrot and walnuts and mix well. Beat the eggs and oil in a middle sized bowl until you have created a white mixture. Add the dry flower/carrot mixture and stir with a metal spoon. Put the mixture in the baking tin and bake in 35 minutes until your knife gets out dry and clean (to measure if the cake is well baked or not). Leave the cake for 10 minutes to cool down slightly. Make the icing by mixing the cream cheese, powder sugar and orange rasp (preferably in a kitchen machine) until you have a creamy smooth mixture. Put the icing on the cooled down cake.

Off course I would recommend to finish the dishes as soon as possible, but especially the apple could be very much enjoyed also after a few days; just pop it back into the oven for 5-10 minutes…..maybe add some whipped cream! Jammie!!!

I hope everyone will enjoy the deserts. It was an honour to get to know you all better and hope we can stay in touch. Whenever you think of visiting The Netherlands and you need a guide or place to stay, my contact details are:

Stephanie Verwijs
P.A. de Genestetstraat 146
3362 TH Sliedrecht
The Netherlands
+31 (0)648789907
+31 (0)184411349

Testing

Test Test

Tony's Favourite Nappa Cabbage Salad

If you don't have Nappa Cabbage, you can always use Chinese Cabbage or something that has a slight peppery taste and would taste good raw..

Dressing: 1 cup oil
6 tbsp vinegar
4 tsp white sugar
salt to taste
2 flavour packets from instant noodle packets (chicken or beef) & the noodles
- mix together flavour packets only and let stand for several hours

Salad: 1 large napa cabbage
8 green onions
1/2 cup of fresh parsley ( can use flakes)
- chop and mix together (be sure to remove the veins from the cabbage)

Toast: 1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cups of sliced almonds
- toast for 3 - 6 minutes in 375 oven, stir often

Just before serving add sesame seeds and almonds and 2 pkg of instant noodles slightly crushed.
You could use even more cabbage if you want as there is a large amount of dressing created.

Melissa's Hot Fudge Pudding

Hot Fudge Pudding - A great pudding if you find you've got undrinkable cocoa powder:

In a bowl sift together the following:
1 cup of flour
2 tsp of baking powder
¾ cup of sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa powder

Stir in the following:
½ cup of milk
2 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine
*you could blend in some nuts if you want

Spread this in a 8 x 8 or a 9 x 9 pan that has been greased.

On top of this sprinkle the following mixture:
1 cup of brown sugar
¼ cup of cocoa powder

Just before you put it in the oven pour on top of it 1 ¾ cups of
hot water (just from the tap).

Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Melissa's Cold Rice Salad

Cold Rice Salad

- 2 ½ cups of cooked rice
- 2 cups of shrimp (canned or frozen)
- 10 ounces of frozen peas (about a cup and a half)
- 1 ½ cups of chopped celery
- ½ cup of green onions chopped

Mix and place all of these in a bowl.

Dressing: 1 tsp celery seed
1 tbsp soya sauce
Sprinkle of salt to taste
1 tsp curry powder
2 tbsp vinegar
½ cup of oil

- you may want to double this if you see that you have
a lot of rice mixture.
- blend all these dressings in a jar or container and
blend well
- pour over rice mixture and stir refrigerate until
ready to eat

Melissa's Best Bruschetta Ever

This is a great garlicky bruschetta recipe.

Serve it on slices of French bread. It's a wonderful accompaniment to tomato pastas.

Prep Time: approx. 20 Minutes.
Ready in: approx. 8 Hours 20 Minutes.
Makes 2 cups (8 servings).

Ingredients:
2 tomatoes, cubed
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
seasoning salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste

Directions:
In a medium bowl, mix tomatoes, dried basil, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, garlic, seasoning salt and ground black pepper.
Cover and chill in the refrigerator 8 hours, or overnight, before serving.