Super Quick Roast Chicken Fried Rice

The arrival of my baby daughter two weeks ago, means that the blog hasn't been updated in a while, and posts will probably be less frequent in the immediate future as me and my little angel find our feet. She fell into a deep sleep this evening, so I grabbed the opportunity to pull together a quick dinner and photograph it also for the blog. Result! She's such a good little girl!
This recipe is a simple throw-together quick supper for leftover chicken, packed full of spice and flavour! I'm  forever trying to come up with new ways with my leftover roast chicken; and this simple chicken fried rice ticks all the boxes. It's easy, quick, and satisfying. The perfect supper to eat in a bowl curled up on the sofa watching TV after work.

By using the egg as a basket or base to the the dish is a nice twist, instead of breaking the eggs directly into the fried rice dish, sometimes I find that method a results in a 'mushy' rice.

Serves 2 (and allows for seconds)

Ingredients

• Leftover roast chicken pieces
• 2 Carrots, peeled and diced
• 100g of frozen peas
• 8 mushrooms diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 garlic clove, diced
• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and diced
• 1 cup of basmati rice
• 2 cups of tap water
• 4 eggs (2 per person)
• 3 tbsp Stir fry oil
• 1 tbsp Sesame oil
• Soy sauce, as preferred, (I like a lot)
• 1/4 tsp Chilli Paste
• Sweet chilli sauce to serve

Method

1. Cook the rice in a pan with the water over a medium heat for 10 minutes. (Its best to cook the rice a little while before the rest of the dish to allow the rice to cool)
2. Add 1 tbsp of stir fry oil to a hot wok. Add the garlic, chilli paste, and ginger and stir.
3. Add in the peas, carrots, mushrooms and pepper and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
4. Add the chicken to warm through. Stir through the sesame oil and season with the soy sauce.
5. Add the rice and thoroughly combine.
6. In a frying pan, add another tbsp of stir fry oil.
7. Break 2 eggs into a cup and whisk quickly with a fork.
8. Add the eggs to the hot pan and swirl around so the base of the pan is evenly coated with the eggs.
9. Allow to cook for a couple of minutes and turn over for a final 30 seconds. (should resemble a pancake)
10. Remove from the pan and keep warm, and repeat the process with the remaining 2 eggs, for the second portion.
11. To serve, place the warm fried egg into a bowl, and top with the fried rice.
12. Serve with extra soy and sweet chilli sauce.

Quick Apple, Blueberry & Almond Cake

Following watching an episode of Donna Hay's Fast Fresh & Simple cookery programme, I couldn't wait to try out her recipe for what seems to me to be the easiest cake you'll ever make. The only tweak to the recipe is that I've added some flaked almonds for some crunch to the topping, the rest is Donna Hay's.

I'm calling this my Waiting for Baby cake!!! Tomorrow is my baby due date so I wanted to keep myself busy in the kitchen without over exerting myself at this point; so I thought this recipe would be perfect, quick and easy and not too much waddling involved, plus there's the tasty treat at the end! You gotta keep the energy levels up you know!!

Ingredients

Cake Mix

• 225g self raising flour
• 165g caster sugar
• 125ml milk
• 125g soft butter
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs

Topping

• 1 apple, sliced thinly
• 100g of blueberries
• 25g of flaked almonds
• Demerara sugar for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line a spring form tin
2. In a food mixer, add all the cake mix ingredients and mix on low until combined
3. Scrape it into the cake tin and level it out evenly
4. Top with the apple slices evenly and scatter over the almonds and blueberries
5. Finally sprinkle with the demerara sugar and bake in the oven for 45 mins.
6. Check that the cake is fully baked with a skewer before removing from the oven (Insert skewer to centre of cake if it comes out clean it's done, if not bake for a further 5 mins and try again)
7. Leave to cool on a wire rack before gobbling the whole thing up.

This is either perfect for afternoon tea or served warm with ice-cream as a great dessert for a dinner party.

Delicious - Donna Hay....I salute you!