Chicken, Halloumi and Green Chilli Spring Roll

I always try my best to serve a proper dinner for me and my husband every day, how hard though it could be. Being a baker most of the time I went home exhausted, but still it is very important for me to have a nice decent dinner with my husband. I don't mind to eat a simple dinner like a bowl of meal salad or just pasta with tomato sauce. Bust my husband is quite a big eater, so if I just cook pasta or salad two hours later he'll be hungry again...my poor baby=).So when I found handy recipes that I can made in advance and freeze it definitely made me happy...and my hubby's belly happy, which is very very important=D.

I saw this recipe at the BBC show Saturday Live Kitchen from chef Silvena Rowe. It was first just curiosity because this recipe contains dried mint and pieces of halloumi cheese which I had never eat or cooked with.

So I tried it, and it was soo yummy. The dried mint and the other herbs just create a direct yummy middle east aroma in my kitchen when I cook it with the chicken legs. And that halloumi added a nice creaminess to this spicy dish. Combined with the crispy filo pastry and the cumin coleslaw....delish. And even better I can freeze this big spring rolls and it still tastes as good. I just wrapped it in plastic foils individually so it won't dried out or stick to each other.

I did served this with the coleslaw in the recipe, but instead of raisins/ sultana I used red grapes because I find it more tasty. I served this for dinner so I made big spring rolls and served two pieces for each of us. But it should be good too as a party snack or appetizer just make a smaller spring rolls. So...do try this recipe!!definitely a keeper.

Chicken, Halloumi, and Green Chilli Spring Roll with cumin Cole Slaw

Ingredients For the spring rolls

1 tbsp olive oil
2 chicken legs, skin removed
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp dried mint
1 bay leaf
4 shallots, peeled and sliced
110ml/4fl oz chicken stock
3 tbsp roughly chopped flatleaf parsley
200g/7oz halloumi cheese, small diced
3 small chillies, seeds removed
and sliced finely
16
sheets of filo pastry, each 10cm/4in x 10cm/4in
5-6tbsp melted butter, for brushing
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds, for sprinkling

For the coleslaw

200 grcarrots, peeled, grated medium coarse

100 gr white cabbage, thinly sliced
150 gr thick, strained yoghurt

150 gr tbsp good quality mayonnaise
grapes
½ tsp ground cumin
salt
and freshly ground black
pepper
2 tbspfresh chives, finely chopped

Preparation
method
1. For the spring rolls, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Heat an ovenproof frying pan
until hot, add the olive oil and chicken and lightly brown the chicken.
2. Add the cumin, mint, bay leaf and shallots and fry for for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the stock, bring to a simmer, then cover with a lid and place in the oven to cook
for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove the chicken and place to one side until it is cool enough to handle. Set aside
the stock, then pull the meat off the chicken and shred it into a bowl,
discarding the skin and bones.
5. Add the shallots and stock from the chicken, along with the parsley, the crumbled
cheese and green chillies to the chicken, and give it a good mix.
6. Heat the oven on 200 C/ 400 C or heat a deep fryer on 180 C/ 350 C.
7. Place a filo sheet on a clean work surface.
8. Spoonsome chicken filling onto one end of the filo sheet, pull the bottom over and
roll up. Close in the sides, brush with melted butter and seal. Sprinkle with
the sesame or hemp seeds. Repeat to use up all the filling and filo.
9. Arrangethe rolls onto a tray and bake for 5-6 minutes, or until golden (or place in a
deep fat fryer and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until golden-brown and hot
through).
10. For the coleslaw, add all the ingredients together except grapes and chives, mix it all together and at last sprinkle the grapes and chives.
11. To serve, pile the spring rolls onto a plate and spoon the salad alongside.

Thick-moist and fluffy American Pancakes

I remember the first time I saw american pancakes was from the old series The Brady Bunch
family when I was about eight. I remember I was droooling over those tall
stacks of thick fluffy pancakes with melting butter on top and lots of brown caramel-y
syrup. And since then I have this picture in my mind of how it would taste. I
was imagining it should be moist, soft and fluffy....absorbing those sweet
syrup (which I thought was caramel back then instead of maple syrup) and creamy
salty butter. Well....we didn't grew up eating pancakes for breakfast in
Indonesia, so, that stacks of pancakes stayed as just a dream for a while.

A couple of years later I suddenly found this imported pancake mix at the supermarket...an
american brand...with exactly the same pancake stacks picture on the package,
just as I remembered it from the TV. I was so excited and begging and begging
my mom to buy it for us (it was quite expensive since at that time we didn't
have that much imported stuffs). So we bought it....I made
it.....AND!!!!well.....it was okay, but it was not the moist and fluffy pancake
I had in my mind for years.

Growing up I kept on searching and searching for the perfect pancake recipe. I didn't give
up, until one day I found this recipe on a magazine my mom's bought back then.
I remember I had two big books filled with cut-off recipes from that
magazine...just like what my mom did when she was just got married. So I
tried....and it was really good, much better than the package. But I still
missed that fluffiness. So then I made my second batch, with egg whites and
yolks separated and beat the egg whites to stiff peak.

And there it was...my childhood dream american pancakes...exactly the way I've always imagined.

Fluffy American Pancakes

makes about 15 @12 cm diameter pancakes

225 gr self raising flour

2 eggs, separated

300 ml milk

pinch of salt

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp melted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Sieve self raising flour in a bowl, make a whole in the middle and throw in the egg yolks, salt, sugar, and vanilla exctract. Pour the milk in the middle while gently whisking until you got a smooth batter.

2. Mix in the melted butter.

3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff peak and mix it gently with the pancake batter, do not overmix!! because you want to keep those air bubbles in the pancakes.

4. Warm a pancake pan, or just normal flat pan. With medium heat on spoon the pancakes at the pan. Wait until you see small bubbles coming up on the batter. Flip it and cook the other side until both side has nice brown colour.

5. Serve warm with butter (I prefer salted) and your favorite syrup.

Desperately blogging...

I now this sounds soo stupid...but,..can anyone tell me how to post more than one picture in a post. Everytime i try to post more pictures i replace the first one instead.
I really appreciate if someone please kindly tell me how to do it(I've been googling it too but can't find any).
Thank You!!

-Yana-