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Low Fat – Spiced Roast Chicken Recipe

8/25/2011

Chicken is one of the meats that I am encouraged to eat as it it low fat, hopefully helping my liver on the road to recovery, but I am not meant to eat the skin as that is fatty. So often a recipe ends up putting all the flavours onto the skin, which is no good to me. Not to be undone I have come across this method of cutting the meat and getting the spices down into the bird. It works really well in the taste department, though does slightly spoil the look of the roast bird when it comes out, as the breast is not a beautiful smooth golden spherical shape but rather a series of parallel slits

Ingredients
1 large (or medium) sized chicken
1 lemon
1 onion
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
1 to 3 teaspoons of Spice mix depending on how spicy you want it. I made a Turkish spice mix for a
change, details given below, but any spice mix can be used

Turkish Spice mix -

To make this I used the following (It is given as a ratio so you can add as much spice mixture to the chicken as you want – I used the ratio 2 parts equals half a teaspoon and if dried/powdered spices are used any remaining can be stored for another time)

2 parts tarragon
2 parts oregano
2 parts chopped fresh chilli (or powder)
1 part coriander
1 part cumin
1 part cinnamon

Mix these together thoroughly in a bowl with a teaspoon

Method

Peal and thickly slice the onion
Place onion in centre of baking dish
Wash the chicken
Cut parallel cuts about 1 centimetre apart into the brest and leg meaty areas going almost down to the bone but not actually to it.
Cut lemon into quarters and stuff into chicken cavity
Rub the whole grain mustard into the upper side of the chicken, especially making sure going into the cuts you have made
Rub the spice mix into the mustard on the chicken again making sure gets right down the cuts
Place the chicken on the sliced onion on a baking tray
Loosely cover with foil and put in oven at 180 C/ Gas 4
Every 20-30 minutes take out of oven and baste top with the natural juices and lemon juice that has come out from the chicken and has collected in the dish. Recover with the foil and put back in the oven.
It will need to cook for between 2-3 hours depending on size of chicken. The skin will become golden and crispy and do not baste just before serving.

Serve with some combination of salad, pita bread, yoghurt or new potatoes (removing the chicken skin to minimise fat consumption if necessary) depending on what your diet will allow.

It tastes good both hot or cold. (if not on a low fat diet you can use the juices that come from it to fry some vegetables along with the onion rings that come from the backing tray as they hold a lot of spicy flavours)

Enjoy

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Shy or not so shy Peacock Butterfly

8/19/2011

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Peacock Butterfly

The other day I noticed this lovely peacock butterfly. When I came near it closed it's wings as can be seen here. As soon as I moved on it opened the wings back up again. Was it just being shy or recent research documented on he web seems to suggest that a butterfly closes it wings to signify “move off and leave me alone”. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13573037.

Peacock Butterfly

After a few minutes wait the butterfly opened it wings back up again as can be seen here.

Regardless butterflies make fantastic subjects for images and some more recent shots can be seen here

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Fruity Marmalade Recipe

8/16/2011

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To keep to my low fat diet I don't have any form of butter or spread on my toast in the morning, so what I do have has to taste that extra special. Well here is a recipe for a marmalade, that meets these requirements, making around 5-6 jars of marmalade.

Ingredients

1 Large or (two small) oranges, grapefruit and lemons, and 3Ils of sugar (1.3kg).

Method

Make sure you have enough clean sterilized jars (If you don't know how to do this do a search as lots of ways and choose the one you like best) to put the marmalade into.
Wash the fruit, cut in half and the squeeze straining the juice to a large heavy based pan.
Scrape out the soft flesh and add to the pan.
Remove the white pith from the skin and add to the pips, placing in a new clean kitchen cloth.
Tie the cloth making a bag and add to the pan
Cut the peel into thin slices, and then into shot lengths and add to the pan.
Add 3 pints around (1.75 litres) of water to the pan
Bring to boil, and then simmer for 90 minutes
By now the peel should be soft. Remove the cloth bag from the ban and squeeze against the side of the pan to remove as much liquid as possible. This is now no longer needed. The contents can go to the compost heap.
Add the sugar bring back to the boil and stir for another 15 minutes
Setting point should now be reached (This is tested by using pouring a little of the mixture on a cold saucer or plate and seeing if it sets) If it has not reached this point it can be boiled for a bit longer – roughly half the liquid should have evaporated by now or add a little more lemon juice. (Or both)
When this is reached turn off the heat and leave to stand for around 10-15 minutes.
Remove any scum that may have formed then give a good stir.
Then put into pre warmed (lowest setting in the oven with the lid off for 5-10 minutes) sterilized jars.
Seal and label (ideally put waxed paper discs on the top before sealing if you have the waxed paper)
Store in a cool dark place, and once open keep in the fridge – not that it will last long

Enjoy.

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When the obvious is not always right

8/16/2011

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In our latest study on David we looked at life for David now he is settled in as King of all Israel.

Firstly he felt that he should sort out the Ark and get it moved into his new capital city. This seemed a good idea at the time but all did not go well as we can see here in 2 Samuel 6

Because David does not do things correctly Uzzah dies. As we can see for the passage eventually David does do things correctly and the Ark is moved. We had a great debate about the required sacrifice every 6 steps, when it was finally moved correctly. Certainly everyone at the time would have known what was going on.

The second so called good idea that David has is to build a temple for the Ark as can be seen in 2 Samuel 7 This would have looked splendid in his new capital city and it would seem to be the obvious thing to do now the Ark is present in the city. But this was not the case. In fact God had much greater plans for David building a living everlasting “House” rather than a temple. Starting with David and ending with Jesus. This house is still around today as Jesus conquered death when he rose again.

As Paul says in the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians

Long before God laid down earth's foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.

What a fantastic thing to remember.

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Low Fat – Spiced Roast Chicken Recipe

Shy or not so shy Peacock Butterfly

Fruity Marmalade Recipe

When the obvious is not always right

Tim Fuller

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