Pecan Crusted Chicken

Everyone loves a chicken schnitzel - Phillip's neieces and nephews eat nothing but chicken schnitzel (oh and roast chicken drumsticks). The other extremely popular ingredient in Phillip's mum's pantry is walnuts. Phillip's dad picks up a 2kg bag of walnuts from Cosco almost every second week (don't ask me how the two of them get through them all).

The other day I was craving a chicken schnitzel - but needed an alternative to breadcrumbs. I thought about doing a walnut crumb and then after arriving home from the shops realised I'd picked up pecans ... you can tell I have about a million things running through my head at the moment. I think at the time I was more focused on picking up ingredients in glass jars to use for my wedding. (HELP ... I need more glass jars). So here is a recipe for my FODMAP baked chicken schnitzel.

Pecan Crusted Chicken
2 skinless chicken breasts
1 cup cornflakes
2 cups chopped pecan pieces
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 large egg
1/2 cup corn flour
1/4 cup melted clarified butter
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Combine the cornflakes and nuts in a food processor and pulse until the nuts are chopped very fine. Dump the nut mixture into a pie dish and combine with the zest of the lemon and add a significant amount of freshly ground black pepper.

In a separate pie dish, beat the egg together with the lemon juice. Put the flour onto a plate and combine with about a teaspoon of salt. Take a strip of chicken and dredge it through the flour, shaking off the excess. Then coat it with the egg mixture, letting the excess drip back into the pie dish.

Finally, roll it in the pecan mixture and place it in a glass baking dish. Coat all of the chicken pieces in this manner. Let them sit for about 15 minutes before proceeding. When ready to put them in the oven, drizzle a little melted butter over each piece of chicken. Bake in the hot oven for 15 – 20 minutes, until done.

White Chili

It's been cold and wet in Canberra lately. It's weird, in my first year at Uni it never rained once. I'm glad - at it made me stick it out down here. I thought to myself - if I'd been at Uni, living on campus, without a car and it had rained for two weeks straight in my first semester, I would have given up!

It would have changed my life completely! I would have never met Phillip (my finance), I would have never finished my degree in PR (I would have gone to Sydney Uni and studied Speech Pathology, my second choice), I would never had met some of my best friends ... life would be so, so different.

But here I am living in Canberra, preparing for my wedding and living on the FODMAP diet (which I would be on no matter where I was living or what I was doing).

You know when it's cold and wet outside you want to come home to something warm and tasty - comfort food. I'm thinking a big bowl of Chili Con Carne ... except that contains a lot of ingredients that I can't eat under the FODMAP diet. So I need to think outside the square ....

White Chili
1 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
1/4 cup green tops of the spring onion*
1/4 cup green capsicum
2 jalapeno peppers
4 cups water
2 skinless chicken breasts
2 cans white kidney beans**
1 cup corn***
1 1/2 tbsp corn meal
1/2 cup fresh coriander
salt and pepper

In a large soup pot, heat the oil, onion, capsicum, and jalapeno. Stir often and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the water and chicken and bring to a boil. Keep the soup cooking at a low rolling boil for 20-25 minutes. This will develop a wonderful chicken broth. Remove the chicken and let cool.

Add the salt, pepper, beans and corn to the soup. Let it cook at a low boil for 45 minutes.Once the chicken is cool, shred the meat off the bone and toss back into the soup.

In a separate bowl scoop about 1/2 cup of the broth. Stir in the corn meal until it dissolves. Stir the mixture into the soup along with the coriander and cook for another 10 minutes.

Serve hot with grated cheese**** (if you're not on the FODMAP diet) and tostada shells or tortilla chips (corn based & gluten free).
NOTES
*Avoid adding the white under the FODMAP diet.
** Can't find white kidney beans? you can substitute with cannellini beans or fazolia bean.
*** I'd use super sweet corn if I was on the FODMAP diet.
****Individuals should avoid lactose-rich foods such as ice cream, milk, condensed milk, and most soft cheeses (eg, cottage cheese), as they are not FODMAP friendly for those with lactose intolerance.Some hard cheeses may be alright depending on your lactose intolerance.

Millet - a cous cous substitute

So another ingredient which is super quick and easy that I had to cut out of my diet was cous cous ... boo FODMAP! But I googled and googled and googled some more until I came across millet ... yay FODMAP!

The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They have been in cultivation in East Asia for the last 10,000 years. They grow in harsh environments where other crops do not grow well. Improvements in production, availability, nutritional content, storage and utilization technology for millets may significantly contribute to the household food security and nutrition of the inhabitants of these areas.

Millets, like sorghum, are predominantly starchy. The protein content is comparable to that of wheat and maize. Pearl and little millet are higher in fat, while finger millet contains the lowest fat. Barnyard millet has the lowest carbohydrate content and energy value. Millets are also relatively rich in iron and phosphorus. The bran layers of millets are good sources of B-complex vitamins. However, millets also feature high fiber content and poor digestibility of nutrients, which severely limit their value in nutrition and influence their consumer acceptability.

The protein content in millet is very close to that of wheat; both provide about 11% protein by weight, on a dry matter basis. Millets are rich in B vitamins (especially niacin, B6 and folic acid), calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. Millets contain no gluten.As none of the millets are closely related to wheat, they are appropriate foods for those with celiac disease or other forms of allergies/intolerance of wheat. (thanks Wiki)

Millet and Flathead
1 cup whole grain millet
Olive oil, as needed
1/4 cup white wine
1 and 3/4 cups hot water
1 jar of artichoke hearts
1 small red capsicum
2 tomatoes
1 medium cucumber
1/2 a lemon
4 flathead fillets
salt and pepper

In a saucepan or pot with a cover, pour a little olive oil into the bottom and set it over medium heat. Add the millet grains and using a wooden spoon stir the millet to toast a bit. After a couple of minutes add in the wine. Stir. Add in the hot water, stir and cover. Lower the heat to a low simmer. Cook the millet for about 25 minutes, till all the liquid is evaporated.

While the millet is cooking, diced the artichoke hearts, capsicum, tomatoes and cucumber. Season with salt and pepper and then set aside - ready to mix into the millet when it has finished cooking.

 Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a non stick pan, and then add the flat head fillets, seasoning with salt and pepper whilst they cook. Once you have turned the flathead squeeze some lemon juice over (to your own taste) - keep the remaining lemon juice to add to the millet.

Mix the veggies through the millet, season with salt and pepper, and then add the lemon juice. You may want to add a little extra olive oil to the millet - but there may be enough liquid from the tomatoes and lemon juice.

Get some pork on your fork

Came across this great recipe online at the Sydney Morning Herald site and wanted to share it with you. Looks okay by FODMAP standards - love to hear from anyone who can point out any issues that I might have?

Roast Pork Rack with Figs
4-bone rack of pork, skin on and chine bone removed
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
4 fresh figs
500ml vegetable oil
good-quality aged balsamic vinegar
extra virgin olive oil

The night before cooking, use a very sharp knife or one-sided razor blade to make cuts in the pork skin from top to bottom, running in the same direction as the bones, about 3mm apart (don't go too deep into the flesh). Rub sea salt into the skin. Place the rack in the fridge overnight, uncovered, to dry the skin and promote crunchy crackling.

The next day, preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the pork on a wire rack in a roasting tin and roast, undisturbed, for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 160°C, add the figs and cook for 30 minutes or until the meat's core temperature reaches about 71°C. When done, turn the oven temperature down to about 60°C. (Leave the door ajar to hasten cooling, if you like.)

Rest the meat in the cool oven for about 30 minutes. Check the meat's core temperature again; it should be about 75°C.

Just before serving, heat the vegetable oil in a small saucepan until just smoking. Remove the roasting tin from the oven and, using a spoon, pour the hot oil gently over the pork skin to complete the crackling.

Place the meat on a chopping board and cut it into 4 cutlets. Place each cutlet on a serving plate with a fig. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and serve immediately.

Hot tips: Peaches are also fantastic with the pork if you aren't a fig fan. I also like it with mustard fruits. Peas and spinach are great with the pork. Or a pumpkin, sweet potato or potato purée would be, in the words of cricket commentator Mark Nicholas, "smashing, baby".

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/cuisine/meat/recipe/roast-rack-of-pork-with-fresh-figs-20120305-1ubyt.html#ixzz1oOpCvBve

Mediterranean Roast Chicken

This FODMAP diet is driving me crazy - it's so difficult to come home and think of a quick meal to make, as all of my usual 'go-to' recipes all contain garlic or onion (and the majority of the time they contain both). I keep thinking of all my one pot wonders and they just can't be eaten.

I need garlic - but I just can't have it. I have researched garlic substitutes and they too seem to be on the 'no-go' list. And then I read what I can consume, however, is oil infused with garlic (because the part that I malabsorb is not the actual garlic flavor, it's the garlic itself).

I'm thinking of making something like a Chicken Cacciatore - but obviously I can't flour the chicken and I won't be adding onion, garlic or mushrooms. And if you are following the true FODMAP diet you are allowed red capsicum, but not the green or the yellow ones (don't know about orange ... it wasn't in my book). Oh and make sure that it is a DRY white wine ... as it won't contain as much fuctose as a standard or sweet white wine.

1 tbs garlic infused olive oil
6 small chicken drumsticks
6 chicken wings
1kg baby potatoes, halved
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes, cut in halve
1 red capsicum, diced
95g (1/2 cup) kalamata olives
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked
125ml (1/2 cup) dry white wine
Sea salt flakes
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 200°C. Heat the oil in a 3L (12-cup capacity) flameproof, ovenproof baking dish over medium heat. Add the chicken drumsticks and cook, turning occasionally, for 5 minutes or until browned all over. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with the chicken thigh cutlets.

Add the potato to the dish and cook, turning occasionally, for 5 minutes or until golden. Remove from heat. Add the chicken to the potato in the dish and top with tomato, capsicum, zucchini and olives. Sprinkle with rosemary. Pour over the wine. Season with salt and pepper.

Bake in oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and potato is tender. Serve immediately.

RECIPE SWAP: Pizza - what Pizza?

It's that time of the month again ... recipe swap time ... so get ready for some really creative posts below, and mine (sad face). This month's swap is a pizza recipe - what makes a great pizza? The dough? The rich tomato base flavoured with garlic? The yummy toppings including onion? The cheese? All of the above?

Well, my challenge begins because I can't eat any of the aforementioned things that make a great pizza. How can I do this swap when I need to change EVERYTHING? (Picture me at the computer with a thousand scrunched up pieces of paper with the beginnings of recipes that I start and then scrap.)

Okay, let's start from the very beginning - the ingredients that I have to work with are ... bread dough, not going to happen, tomatoes, ok, salt and pepper, sure, Italian sausage ... I read a few blogs and they will most likely contain onion or garlic and that makes them out, anchovies, good, oil, ok, and cheese - nope!

Tomatoes, anchovies, oil, salt and pepper?

Stuffed Tomatoes ... it's all I've got

8 medium vine-ripened tomatoes (from my garden, last of the season)
1½ tablespoon olive oil
2⁄3 cup brown rice, cooked
½ cup vegetable stock
½ cup grated zucchini
½ cup roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
2 tablespoons chopped basil
2 tablespoons pinenuts
2 anchovy fillets
salt and pepper


Preheat oven to 160ºC.

Cut a 1-cm thick slice off the stem-side of each tomato. Set tops aside. Using a teaspoon, scoop out tomato pulp including seeds (without damaging skin) into a bowl. Roughly chop pulp. Pat dry tomato cavities with paper towel.

To make stuffing, heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add anchovy fillets and cook until dissolved, stirring occasionally, for a minute or so. Add rice. Stir to coat in oil and cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Stir in tomato pulp, zucchini and stock. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, over low heat for 25 minutes or until rice is almost tender.

Remove from heat. Stir in parsley, basil and pinenuts. Season with salt and pepper. Evenly spoon rice mixture into tomatoes. Top with tomato tops. Arrange tomatoes into a greased large baking dish. Bake for 25-30 minutes until tomatoes are tender.

Ok, so they don't look so bad and they were actually really yummy - but I am still sad that I couldn't eat pizza.

March - the Month of FODMAP

Well February was, to say the least ... EVENTFUL - and led to a great lack of posting. Firstly, my father passed out at my engagement dinner and was taken to hospital and is currently still under-going tests on his heart. The following weekend, I was in the emergency department with a cyst that had burst on my ovary. And on top of all of that is the wedding planning (under 100 days to go!).

After my hospital stay we also discovered some other underlying problems which has led me to the FODMAP diet - what's FODMAP ... well I am glad you asked! FODMAP stands for Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides And Polyols. These are a group of short-chain carbohydrates that are poorly absorbed. In people with gastrointestinal symptoms, a diet high in FODMAPs can induce diarrhoea and/or constipation, bloating, wind and abdominal pain.

The major FODMAPs are fructose (honey, apples, pears...), fructans (wheat, rye, onions...), galactans (legumes, cabbage...), polyols (stone fruits, mushrooms...) and lactose (milk, ice cream...)

I already knew that I was lactose intolerant and I rarely eat products containing gluten - so I was thinking this would be simple ... and then I read that I had to stop eating garlic and onion - I think these veggies are key ingredients in nearly every meal I make :(

So this month, my aim is to try and post more regularly and give you some tasty FODMAP appropriate meals.