Ingredient 21 - Cumquats

Cumquats or ‘yellow orange’ in Cantonese, are small ovular shaped orange fruits with characteristics resembling a cross-match between an orange and olive. The fruit tree is native to south Asia and Asia-Pacific region.

The fruit can be eaten raw, with its outer edible rind sweet and inner flesh sour and tangy. However the fruit are most popular for their use in marmalades and jams. Another recently found benefit is that 100g of cumquat fruit only yields 71 calories, equating to at least 20 little fruit.

A roast for a lazy Sunday lunch. In memory of my old house. (Fran – I tried!)

Roasted chicken with cumquats and winter vegetables

4 thigh fillets

1 tsp minced garlic

4tbsp olive oil

½ tsp sweet paprika

2 medium onions

3 white potatoes

250g pumpkin

12 cumquats

1 orange

2 tbsp orange rind

1 ½ cup couscous

1 ½ cup hot water

½ cup almonds

2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

• Preheat oven to 180°.
• Heat garlic, sweet paprika and 2tbsp olive oil over large frypan over medium-high heat. Seal the chicken each side for 4min or until light golden in colour.
• Remove skins from onions and cut into quarters. Chop potatoes into quarters or sixths, and chop pumpkin into chunks similar in size. Basically you want large chunks of vegetables, approximately the same size.
• Place chicken fillets with thigh sides up in the dish and scatter around the vegetables. Drizzle generously with olive oil.
• Slice the cumquats into halves, remove the seeds, and mix amongst the vegetables.
• Juice the orange and pour the juice over the ingredients.
• Roast in the oven for 1hr in duration or until roasted, basting the dish in the juices every 20min.
• Chop almonds into halves and place in oven on baking tray for 4min or until hot. These cook very quickly so be careful not to burn!
• Mix the orange rind in with the water. Place couscous in a heatproof bowl and pour over the water rind mixture. Let it stand for 10min and then separate or ‘fluff’ the couscous with a fork.
• To serve mix the almonds, flat leaf parsley and couscous together before spreading out across a large serving plate. Spoon the roasted chicken and vegetables over the top and drizzle with juices from the pan.
• Serve with yoghurt and rocket. 

Ingredient 20 - Jalapeno Chillis

Jalapeno chillis are in fact a fruit, originating from the Capsicum annuum family in Mexico. They are shiny dark green, of about 4cm in length and range in flavour from medium to extremely hot.

Chillis can be purchased fresh, or sourced as the ‘pickled bottled version’ as used in this recipe. They are very popular in this preserved form as it retains their crunchy crisp texture.

Yum!

Roasted tomato, capsicum and jalapeno relish with lime chicken burritos

Relish makes 1 large bowl

Relish

2 red capsicums

½ cup jalapeno chillis (Ol El Paso bottle brand)

1 punnet grape tomatoes

1 red onion

3 tbsp olive oil

• Preheat fan forced grill. Slice the capsicums in half and remove the stem and seeds. Place on a baking tray and grill until the skin is charred and blistered.
• Place capsicums in a plastic bag, seal, and leave to cool for 15 minutes. The skins now should literally fall off as you peel them. Discard skins and slice capsicum into long skinny pieces.
• Preheat oven to 150°. Halve the grape tomatoes and place on baking tray. Drain and rinse the jalapeno chillis and add them to then tray. Sprinkle with 1tbsp olive oil and roast for 20min.
• Thinly slice the red onion. Heat 2tbsp olive oil in medium saucepan over low heat. Sweat the onions for 20min until pale and soft. Add the tomatoes, jalapeno chillis and capsicum and gently mush down the ingredients. Add 2 tbsp hot water and let ingredients simmer gently for 10min. The relish should have a lumpy consistency that isn’t too moist.
• Remove from heat and serve the relish either hot or cold with the burritos. 

Wraps

2 large chicken breasts

1 tbsp olive oil

juice of 1 lime

1 tbsp minced garlic

small container natural yoghurt

burrito wraps

1 avocado

• Slice the chicken breasts into thin strips. Heat olive oil in a frypan over medium heat. Add the garlic, lime juice and sliced chicken breast. Fry until cooked.
• Half the avocado, remove skin and slice thinly.
• Create the Mexican feast by layering the warmed tortilla with spinach leaves, jalapeno relish, lime chicken pieces, sliced avocado and a dollop of yoghurt.

Ingredient 19 - Ginger biscuits

Dessert has never been my forte, so the following is definitely an edible recipe however may not be up to scratch of your previous cheesecakes!

The ginger biscuits give the base a nice flavour and complement the banana well.

These will soften quite quickly at room temperature, north Queensland ‘winter’ room temperature mind you, so eat almost immediately!

Banana and Ginger based cheesecakes

Makes 10 mini cheesecakes

12 ginger biscuits

50g butter

1 egg yolk

2 over-ripe bananas

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp gelatin dissolved in 2tbsp hot water

50g caster sugar

250g light cream cheese

1/3 cup light sour cream

• Preheat oven to 160. Grease muffin tray (recipe makes 10muffin sized cakes).
• In a blender crush the ginger biscuits, or alternatively seal the biscuits in a double layered plastic bag and repetitively crush against the bench.
• Melt 50g butter in microwave.  Stir the butter and egg yolk into the crushed biscuits until the mixture comes together nicely.
• Place a good spoonful of mixture into each of the bases and press down firmly. Cook the bases in oven for 8-10min, or until the butter is bubbly. These will cool firm so please do not overcook!
• Roughly chop the banana into a bowl. Heat the remaining butter and brown sugar gently over low heat in a saucepan. Add the banana and stir for 5-10min until banana is well coated in sugar and caramelized in colour.
• Remove the banana mixture from heat and let it cool completely.
• Place the sugar, cream cheese and sour cream in a large mixing bowl. Stir through the banana mixture and gelatin. Spoon into the muffin moulds, smooth the tops and place in refrigerator overnight to set.