Roasted oregano chicken breasts

A tasty and reasomably simple chicken recipe from Martha, adapted for my taste and the chicken I had. I didn’t use the large, whole breasts she specifies (which seem scary big – are US chickens larger?) but the kind of ordinary single boneless chicken breasts you buy in the supermarket (four single breasts). This was a plentiful amount for two, which was served with roast potatoes and a salad.

2 heads garlic, cut in half along the middle with a sharp knife
8 sprigs fresh oregano
4 single boneless chicken breasts
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper

1) Preheat oven to 200C / 400F. Rub garlic half with oil. Place each garlic half, cut side up, in the centre of a roasting tin (I actually baked this on the rack above the roasting tin while the tin itself held the roasting potatoes, and it worked well). Place two sprigs of oregano over each half. Rub chicken breasts with oil and salt and pepper to taste. Place a chicken breast over each garlic half.

2) Roast for about 30 minutes (if you do roast potatoes with, let them roast for 20-30 minutes before adding the chicken so they crisp up), or until juices run clear and meat is cooked through.

3) Serve! The garlic should be soft enough to squeeze out of the peels and is really nice as a condiment here…

Aubergine/eggplant caviar

A nice simple roasted aubergine and red pepper spread. Next time I might add some chilli and raw garlic to sharpen up the flavours.

2 aubergines / eggplants
1 red capsicum / pepper
Half a head/bulb garlic, unpeeled
Squirt of lemon juice, to taste
Salt, to taste
Olive or vegetable oil, to grease

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (about 350F). Cut tops off aubergines, prick several times into the body with a sharp knife or fork (to let steam escape so they don’t explode, like when you bake potatoes!). Do not peel aubergines.

2) Grease a baking sheet. Lightly grease aubergines. Place onto baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes.

3) Cut capsicum in half and remove seedy core and stem. Rub oil over it lightly. Oil the unpeeled garlic bulb. Add to baking sheet; bake, along with aubergines, another 20 minutes or so. Aubergine should be soft, the capsicum should be collapsed with the skin lightly blackened and coming away, and garlic cloves should give way when pricked with a knife.

4) Peel capsicum. Cut aubergines in half and scoop out cooked flesh; discard skins. Peel softened garlic (this should be easy). Blend together in a blender or using a stick blender – or just chop very finely. Add splash of lemon juice, to taste. Season with salt. Make sure to taste and adjust the flavours, adding more lemon juice if you need to. Don’t skip it – it really lifts the flavour.

Banana cookies

In an attempt to use up two bunches of blackening bananas, I made a recipe I’d found on Simply Recipes, adapted for my starter (read: no spices) kitchen and my preferences. These come out as very soft, cakey cookies – almost spongey, in fact, even after cooling.

Ingredients

120g butter, room temperature (I used salted; if you use unsalted, add a pinch of salt when you add the flour)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup mashed bananas (I used three bananas, which was a heaping cup)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
Scant cup chopped white chocolate chunks

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius (or 350F)

2) Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add egg and keep beating until creamy.

3) Add baking soda to mashed bananas and let stand a minute or two (this apparently helps give the cookies their lightness)

4) Mix banana mixture into butter mixture. I did mix it pretty thoroughly using a mixture to get rid of any latent banana chunks and to beat in air.

5) Sift flour into banana-butter mixture and stir until just combined.

6) Fold in chocolate chunks.

7) Drop onto a greased baking sheet. I used a tablespoon measure. They do spread a fair bit so take that into account. Bake for 11 – 14 minutes until ligtly golden brown. Let sit for a minute or so to firm up, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.