Catch Ya Later Donna Hay {Top Five Round-up}

I Heart Cooking Clubs wraps up with Donna Hay this week.
Donna Hay is another chef IHCC introduced me to.  I found her recipes to be easy, simple, and straightforward.  No special techniques or equipment needed.  This doesn't mean that her recipes lacked inspiration.  She creates exciting dishes out of simplicity.

Our next chef will be Nigel Slater, starting March 31st.
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I would liked to have made more Donna Hay recipes, but Mardi Gras and other things got in the way.  So to make up for lost time, I have two Donna Hay recipes this week.  I served them together for dinner with a salad.

Zucchini and Chickpea Fritters

My son loves chickpeas.  I love crispy on the outside/soft on the inside food.  I really thought these would be a hit, but they weren't.  They were bland and the texture was very dry.  The recipe can be found on Donna Hay's website.

Flat-roasted Chicken with Almond and Mint

This recipe can be found in Donna Hay's Seasons and also on her website.  I need to confess a couple of things.  First, I don't like handling raw chicken so flattened (or spatchcock) chicken never appealed to me since it means extra time touching raw chicken.  Second, even though my mom roasted chickens often, I am not a chicken roaster.  I can't do it.  It never turns out right...raw in places yet overdone in others.  A hot mess.  Grocery store rotisseries for me.

After making this recipe, I will gladly flatten any and all chickens, throw them in the oven, and roast away.

Yep.  That good.  We were amazed by the even cooking, by how tender and juicy the meat was, and how perfectly crispy the skin was.  My son said that the chicken was "as juicy as Popeye's."
(Which is a compliment.)

Then there's this concoction of almonds, lemon juice, garlic, sugar, and mint that is drizzled on the chicken, taking it over the top.

Try it and see.

My Top Five Donna Hay Recipes

#5: Pine Nut Brown Butter Pasta

#4: Apple and Dark Chocolate Wonton Parcels

#3: Chilli Cashew Chicken Noodles

#2: Flat-Roasted Chicken w/ Almond & Mint

#1: Beef & Chorizo Burgers

More good-byes to Donna Hay:

March Potluck at I Heart Cooking Clubs {Chicken with Mustard and Brandy Gravy}

So, I love gravy.  And sauce.  I'll selflessly serve others the bulk of the meat and hoard suffer through the gravy myself.

How could I pass up something called Mustard and Brandy Gravy?

The gravy recipe is from Donna Hay's website (link above).  She suggests serving it with chicken, turkey, or pork.  I sauteed some chicken breasts, placed them over spinach, and poured on the mustardy, boozy gravy.

After thinking about grainy mustard, bay leaf, and brandy, my expectations were way too high.  While this was good, it wasn't as fantastic as I thought it would be.

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Potluck week at I Heart Cooking Clubs means recipes from any of nine chefs can make an appearance.  It's always fun to see what gets cooked up.

Crab Bruschetta and Gulf Coast Seafood: Top Seafood Blog

How many of you check your stats?  Number of pageviews?  Top viewed pages?  Traffic sources?
It all makes my head spin and I try not to get caught up in it since this is a hobby for me and not a source of income.

But, honestly, it is way too easy to get sucked in.

Sometimes it can be discouraging.
Sometimes it can be surprising.

Recently, I noticed a lot of visits to my list of seafood recipes.
I figured Lent was the reason.  Until I looked into where the the views were coming from.

It turns out that last April, Gulf Coast Seafood listed me as a Top 100 Seafood Blogger.  Number 18 on the list.

Even though it happened almost a year ago and I'm only realizing it now, I am beyond excited and honored.  (The night I discovered this, I couldn't go to sleep afterwards!)

Sure, it's a big deal for me as a blogger.  But if you read any (or all!) of my series on Louisiana's Disappearing Coast, you can probably imagine that this honor is a bigger deal to me for other reasons.  I am passionate about my state's culture, food, and especially it's waterways.

Thank you Gulf Coast Seafood for this privilege!

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It's been a while since I've cooked with my pals at I Heart Cooking Clubs.  This week, it's "The Eating of the Green" in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

I really wanted something with seafood.  Of course, green seafood is probably not the best idea.

But seafood garnished with green and bathed in lime was pretty darn good!

Donna Hay's Crab Bruschetta is an easy, light crab salad on toasted sourdough bread with a little bit of bite from the jalapeno and green onion on top.  I've never had crab with lime before (it's always lemon for me).  I'd do it again.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe, adding chopped cherry tomatoes for another layer of color and some parsley for even more green.

Visit my friends at I Heart Cooking Clubs for more recipes.


Print It!

Crab Bruschetta
adapted from Donna Hay

6 thinly sliced pieces of sourdough bread
olive oil
1 heaping TBSP Blue Plate Mayo
3 tsp lime juice
2 tsp grated lime zest
salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper, to taste
2 cups cooked crab
handful cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 medium fresh jalapeno, sliced in rings
2-3 TBSP chopped green onion
1-2 TBSP chopped parsley
additional lime, cut in wedges (optional)

Heat oven to 350 F.  Place bread on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Bake until golden.

Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine the mayo, lime juice, lime zest, salt, black pepper, and cayenne.  Gently fold in the crab and tomato.

Top the bread with the crab salad.  Garnish with sliced jalapeno, green onion, and parsley.  Serve with lime wedges (optional).

Need more CRAB?

Linking with:

Passport to Asia w/ I Heart Cooking Clubs {Chilli Cashew Chicken Noodles}

So it's that time of year.
The time when try as I might, I often miss that coveted natural light for photographs.

And by often, I mean always.
Or at least almost so.

These pictures don't come close to showcasing what a good dish Donna Hay's Chilli Cashew Chicken Noodles was.  Lots of flavors.  Layers of flavors since you cook the chilli and onion in sugar, then cook the salty/savory components, then add them together.  Red bell pepper, soy sauce, lemon juice, and cilantro (I used parsley) are also involved.

Oh yeah.  And fish sauce.  The rankest smelling stuff ever.  It gags me when I open the bottle.  But it makes things taste so good, I hold my breath and use it anyway.

We all liked this dish and I hoarded the leftovers for lunch.  (So there!)
I don't often cook Asian inspired dishes.
And by often, I mean almost never.

I'm glad this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs theme gave me that push to cook something Asian.  It was my first time cooking/eating rice noodles.

We'll make this again.  Next week, in fact.

For the recipe, see Donna Hay's website.

A couple of my IHCC partners in crime have made this dish in the past for another project, Donna Hay Wednesday.
See it @ Bizzy Bakes
See it @ Tea & Scones




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Time for Tea {Blueberry and Yogurt Loaf}

It's Time for Tea @ I Heart Cooking Clubs.

 

This week we're cooking up Donna Hay recipes that go great with tea, are made with tea, or just make you think about tea.

But when I think about tea, thoughts of coffee immediately pop into my head.
Coffee or tea?
Tea is always the outcast in that match-up.

Coffee makes me so much more pleasant.
My co-workers never, ever begrudge me my morning cup.  (They don't dare.)

So I enjoyed Donna Hay's Blueberry and Yogurt Loaf with a cup of coffee rather than tea.  And thought about how maybe my co-workers deserve some of this bread for putting up with my pre-coffee non-verbal mutterings and thousand yard stares.

Review:
I don't think I've ever used yogurt in baking.  There's no question that the yogurt made the bread moist.  The loaf was also dense, buttery, and lemony.  More lemony than I thought it would be.  The texture was almost like pound cake.  I figured it would be good, but I wasn't prepared for how good.

Blueberries are my favorite fruit and I felt that the recipe could have used more of them.  Although I didn't top the loaf with additional berries (mine were frozen).  Even if I had, I still think I'd want more in the bread itself.

Truthfully, I dislike baking.  Really dislike baking.  I especially dislike making bread in loaf pans.  The loaves seem to brown too quickly--well before the middle bakes through.  A reader once gave me a tip that takes advantage of this browning, creating an awesome sweet, crunchy crust.  After greasing your pan, dust with cinnamon sugar instead of flour.
(Thank you Mom Chef!)

Donna Hay's recipe can be found on her website.

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December Potluck {Apple and Dark Chocolate Wonton Parcels}

So...plans...right?

How often do you make plans to do these amazing, awesome, fantastic things and then totally drop the ball for whatever reason?

Yeah.  Me too.

I made these Apple and Dark Chocolate Wonton Parcels from Donna Hay's website back in early November.  They look like a special dessert but are pretty simple to make.

While we were eating them, we brainstormed all kinds of super ideas for other types of fillings.
Peanut butter and chocolate.  Chocolate and pecan.  Pecan and apple.  Apple and caramel.  Caramel and chocolate.  Chocolate and banana.  Banana and nutella.

And I was definitely, for sure going to try a bunch of them.

And how many have I tried?

Yep.

Maybe you'll give some of them a shot?

Want the recipe?

Notes:
I used dark chocolate chips instead of chocolate squares and sprinkled some cinnamon over the top along with the powdered sugar.  My one complaint is that they didn't get as crispy as I would have liked.  However, they are baked rather than fried.

Linking with I Heart Cooking Clubs.  It's POTLUCK week...check out all the dishes!



and Food on Friday: Apples @ Carole's Chatter

Fill the Tins {Brownie Cookies w/ Peanut Butter Frosting}

All over Blogland, garlands and lights and sweets rule.

 

I'm always behind.  There are still things I've been trying to blog about since July.

Guess I'd better get one those ideas tout suite.

Before Christmas comes, I hope to bring you The Husband's favorite fudge (if the weather cooperates) and maybe a family recipe.

Will you settle for Brownie Cookies w/ Peanut Butter Frosting for now?

Review:
These cookies, from Donna Hay, remind me of and look like something I've made before: Chocolate Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies (a Joy the Baker recipe).

In case you are wondering, I prefered Joy the Baker's Whoopie Pies.

Donna Hay's cookies drew me in because of the pb/chocolate combination and because the picture on DH's website shows gooey chocolate oozing from the brownie cookies.  Sadly, my reality was that these cookies were only oozy with gooey chocolate minutes out of the oven.  After that, well, not so much.  However this didn't stop me from eating them anyway.  I just popped them in the microwave for a few seconds to make them oozy gooey chocolatey again.

Donna Hay's Brownie Cookies w/ Peanut Butter Frosting recipe can be found on her website.

Linking with I Heart Cooking Clubs 

for this week's "Fill the Tin" theme 

and 

with Bizzy Bakes 

for "My Meatless Monday."