Tag Archives: Simple

Simple BBQ Marinade

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It’s almost summer time here in Australia, and that means its well and truly time to fire up the BBQ, cook some meat, drink some beers, and hang out with friends. So for the next couple of months I’m going to be trying out as many different BBQ techniques, recipes, marinades, etc. as possible. And of course I’ll be trying to blog as many as I can.

Let’s kick this summer BBQing bonanza with a marinade recipe that my Mum gave me.

This marinade is awesome on some pork loin chops grilled up on the BBQ, it’s so simple and delicious. You could also try it on chicken breast fillets, or maybe even lamb chops, and I reckon it would be pretty much be a winner still.

Anyway, here’s what you’ll need

  • 1 tbs of Brown Sugar
  • 1 tbs of Honey
  • 1 tbs of Soy Sauce
  • 1 tbs of Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1 tbs of Wholegrain Mustard
  • 1 tbs of Garlic (fresh and crushed)
  • 2 tbs of Tomato Paste

Mix it all up in a bowl and pour it over the meat to marinate for 4-6 hours in the fridge. Then just fire up your BBQ and cook it how you like it. Simple as that!

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

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Sticky Chili Chicken Wings

This is a really simple, quick and easy to prepare Sticky Chilli Chicken Wing’s recipe that’s really great to eat while say watching the football on the weekend, or maybe having a few beers with some friends. Nom Nom!

Right oh, let’s get started.

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Here’s all the ingredients you’ll need;

  • 12 Chicken Wings
  • 1/2 cup Tomato Sauce
  • 1/4 cup BBQ Sauce
  • 1/4 cup Dry Sherry
  • 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
  • 2–4 Tablespoons Sweet Chili Sauce (depending on how spicy you like it)

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First up we need to get the Chicken Wings ready. Wash them down with some cold water and pat them dry with some paper towel. Now it’s time to chop them up a bit. The easiest way I found to do this was to bend the wing backward over itself till you hear the joint snap, now grab a nice and separate the three parts of the wing, ie. the wing tip, the drum stick, and the middle bit…

Either throw the wing tips out, or bag them up and freeze them for use in a chicken stock.

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Grab a big bowl and combine all the different sauces, give them all a good mix up so that they’re well combined. Toss the chicken pieces in and give a big mix around so that all the pieces are really coated with the sauce.

Now this bit is entirely optional. If you want to you can leave the chicken to marinate in the sauce for a few hours. Me, I’m not so patient with dishes like this so I tend to want to cook them straight away!

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On to the cooking!

Get yourself a big baking dish or shallow pan and spread the chicken pieces all over it, reserve a bit of the sauce so that you can baste them every 15 minutes or so while they’re cooking.

Heat your oven up to about 180 degrees, the chicken pieces will take about 40 minutes at this temp. I normally cook them a little longer almost to the point that the chicken is falling off the bone.

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Serving wise I keep this one nice and simple. Put all the wings in a big dish, grab a roll of paper towel, and another bowl for the bones, and a couple of cold beers!

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Thai Pork and Coriander Balls

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This is a recipe I was playing around with one Saturday afternoon, I had a craving for something snacky, but also something ‘Asian’ in influence. I raided the fridge and pantry, but didn’t have much in the way of ingredients to choose from….so I came up with these, Thai Pork and Coriander Balls.

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Ingredient wise it’s a bit of a throw it together;

- 500gm Pork Mince
- Handful of Fresh Coriander Leaves
- 2 small Red Chillies
- 1 Egg (medium to large)
- 1 medium White Onion
- 2 Tablespoons of Fish Sauce
- Peanut Oil (for shallow frying)

Give it all a good slice, dice, and mix…and don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty!

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To make the balls I find the easiest thing to do to keep them all roughly the same size, also so they cook in the same amount of time, is to use a tablespoon measure. Simple, but it totally works.

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Time fries when you’re having fun!

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Once you’ve finished cooking all the balls, and they’ve had some time to drain on some kitchen towel, serve them up on your platter of choice with some dipping sauce. Dipping sauce wise I normally do;

- 2 parts Sweet Chilli Sauce
- 1 part Light Soy Sauce
- 1 part Fish Sauce

Mix it all up and serve it in a little dipping bowl.

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Chicken, Rocket & Pasta Bake recipe

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Chicken & Rocket Pasta Bake

You know those days when you get home from work late, you’ve had an ordinary day, and the last thing in the world you want to do is muck around in the kitchen for an hour or so slaving over a hot oven? Yeah, I hate those days too. Instead of ducking out and getting some junk food or some other type of take away I like to run through my list of 15 minutes or less recipes.

This Chicken, Rocket & Pasta Bake recipe is a relatively new one in my arsenal, in fact I’ve only made it once! But, it was pretty damn good so I figured I would share it with you anyway.

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Ok your ingredients for this Chicken, Rocket & Pasta Bake recipe are;

  • 250gm Angel Hair Spaghetti (half pack)
  • 500gm Chicken Mince (you could also use beef)
  • 1 Brown Onion (medium sized), finely sliced
  • 2 Tbs Tomato Paste
  • 500gm Pasta Sauce
  • Hand full of fresh Rocket (you could also use Baby Spinach)
  • 4 or 5 fresh Basil leaves, finely chopped
  • 1 cup of Mozzarella Cheese, grated
  • Parmesan Cheese, shaved or finely grated
  • Splash of Olive Oil

First up get a big pot of water on the boil to cook the pasta. Angel Hair Spaghetti is really thin and will only take about 2 minutes to cook. Once it’s cooked, drain it and set aside.

Put a splash of Olive Oil in a frying pan, I used a wok, and fry off the onions till they are translucent. Once the onions are clear add in the Chicken Mince and cook till it’s lightly browned.

Chicken & Rocket Pasta Bake

Now that the mince is browned add in the Tomato Paste, give it a good mix around and let it cook for about a minute, then add in the jar of Pasta Sauce.

Chicken & Rocket Pasta Bake

Add in the basil now, cook for another minute and then the first stage is done.

Chicken & Rocket Pasta Bake

Back to the already cooked Angel Hair Pasta. Put the drained pasta into a baking dish, splash a small amount of Olive Oil over it so that it doesn’t stick together too much, now add the handful of Rocket (or Spinach).

Chicken & Rocket Pasta Bake Chicken & Rocket Pasta Bake

Pour over the cooked Chicken Mince and spread it out so that it covers the Angel Hair Spaghetti and Rocket, once that’s done spread the grated Mozzarella Cheese, and then the Parmesan Cheese all over the top of the mince mixture.

Chicken & Rocket Pasta Bake

Put the Chicken, Rocket & Pasta Bake into the oven for about 15 minutes, at 200 degree’s C, or until the top starts to brown.

Serve it up with some Garlic Bread, a green salad, and a nice Cabernet Sauvignon. Lovely!

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Garlic King Prawn Recipe

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Garlic Prawns

Here’s a really quick and simple, and amazingly tasty recipe for Garlic King Prawns. It’s almost so simple that I don’t even need to give you instructions, but I will anyway coz I’m nice like that.

Garlic Prawns

Ok, the ingredients for this Garlic King Prawn recipe are;

  • Fresh King Prawns, raw (1/2 kg serves 2 people)
  • 5 cloves of Garlic
  • 3 small Chillies
  • Olive Oil (try for virgin, or extra virgin)

First thing you’ll need to do is shell and devein the prawns, try and leave the tails on as well as they present better on the plate. Make sure you give them a good wash afterward, and pat them dry with some kitchen towel.

Thinly slice your garlic and chillies, once completed you’ll need a big, heavy based, pan or wok. Put some oil in the pan / wok about 1 cm deep, or enough to cover most of a prawns width.

Garlic Prawns

Put the sliced garlic and chillies into the oil and heat it up slowly. The idea here is that you’re not trying to cook the garlic and chilies, you’re trying to infuse their flavour into the oil. If the oil starts to bubble away like it’s frying then the heat is up too high, lower it just a bit.

Give the garlic and chilli about 7–10 minutes in the oil before adding the King Prawns.

Garlic Prawns

Place them in the oil, careful not to splash the oil on yourself!

Once all the Prawns are in you can turn the heat up a bit, we want to get some colour on the King Prawns.

The King Prawns should only take a couple of minutes to cook all the way through, you’ll know when they are cooked because they go a nice pink colour.

Garlic Prawns

Now that your King Prawns are finished cooking it’s time to plate up. I like to keep this one really simple so that the Garlic King Prawns are the star of the show, a handful of mixed lettuce lightly dressed, and some nice crusty bread.

Serve it with a crisp white wine and that’s about it. Enjoy!

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Teriyaki Chicken Recipe

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Terriyaki Chicken

Another really quick and simple dish for tonight, and it will totally ‘wow’ anyone you cook it for as it’s so flavourful! It’s not a proper Japanese, just a Mat version that is quite similar to the Teriyaki Chicken at Melbourne’s Edoya Japanese Restaurant on Russell Street, Melbourne.

Terriyaki Chicken

So here’s you ingredients list, most of which you should be able to pick up in your local grocery store and bottle shop. Oh and this will serve 2 people by itself, or 4 if you make another dish as well.

  • 4 Chicken thigh fillets
  • 3 teaspoons of sugar
  • 1/4 cup (2fl oz) Sake
  • 1/4 cup (2fl oz) Mirin
  • 1/3 cup Light Soy Sauce
  • Sesame Seeds
  • Spring Onions
  • Sesame Oil (for frying)

Terriyaki Chicken

Pat the fillets dry on some absorbent kitchen paper, trim off the excess fat if you’re worried about it, then season it well with some salt and pepper. Put a little splash in a griddle or frying pan and let it heat right up, we want it close to smoking when we put the chicken in!

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Fry the chicken till it’s really sealed and brown. It needs to be nice and crisp on the outside, but tender in the middle. So be sure not to overcook it!

Terriyaki Chicken

While the chicken is finishing up cooking it’s time to organise the sauce. Mix in the Sugar with the Sake, Mirin and Light Soy Sauce. Give it a really good stir so that you dissolve the sugar.

By about now the chicken should be finished up, if it is then take it off of the heat and put the fillets on some absorbent kitchen paper to drain off the excess oil. Don’t get rid of the pan as we’re going to deglaze it with the sauce and there’s plenty of flavour there that we don’t want to waste!

Terriyaki Chicken

While the chicken thighs are resting, put the sauce in the pan you used for cooking the chicken and get it back on the heat. Don’t let it boil over, and make sure you give it a bit of a stir so that you get all that flavour from the chicken into the sauce. Once it starts to boil, drop the heat right down low and let it simmer for a minute or two.

Terriyaki Chicken

While the sauce is finishing up, chop up the spring onions for the garnish.

Terriyaki Chicken

The chicken should’ve had enough time to relax, slice it up into bite-size strips and place it on a nice serving plate. Once it’s all on the plate take the sauce off of the heat and spoon, not pour, it over the chicken making. Sprinkle some shallots and sesame seeds on top and voila, Chicken Teriyaki is done!

Serve with some Jasmine rice, I like the microwave packs from Sun Rice because they taste great, they’re ready in 90 seconds, there’s no mess to clean up, and it’s pretty damn hard to wreck it.

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