I want some too!

Unfortunately, I haven't been in the kitchen this week so I have nothing exciting to post - The HG has been taking care of all the cooking which has been very nice!  As much as I love being in the kitchen, it's good to have a break occasionally to renew the enthusiasm!

No food pics, but here is our dog, sulking in the door-way because I sent him outside while we were eating dinner!

Tamarind Chicken Drumsticks

The HG bought some chicken drumsticks at the supermarket and instead of doing my usual honey/soy/sweet chilli style marinade, I decided to have a go at something new with my new favourite flavour, tamarind.

These drumsticks were delicious for dinner but even better cold the next day for lunch - great picnic food!

Tamarind Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
8-10 chicken drumsticks
4-5 T tamarind paste
Juice of 1 large lemon
1/2 t ground star anise
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1.  Mix all ingredients together and then rub over the chicken and leave to marinade for a minimum of 2 hours.

2.  Bake in the oven for around 45 minutes until chicken is thoroughly cooked and juices run clear.

I served the chicken with a rustic, chunky guacamole, which worked nicely with the tartness of the chicken.  It is also worth noting that the tamarind paste I used, was bought made up in a jar - possibly the 'bricks' of tamarind that you rehydrate to make your own paste are stronger in flavour?  As I'm new to using tamarind I'm not sure if there is a difference in flavour or not.

Sumptuous Scallops!

An amazing thing has happened this week... the sun has been out three days in a row!  The, previously unheard of, warm weather made my husband desperate for a dive and we dashed out of our respective offices at 5pm on the dot last evening and made for... an undisclosed location.  While I sat basking in the sun, book in hand, my 'hunter/gatherer' husband (hereby known as "The HG") went in search of Kiamoana.

Jackpot!

The HG got the legal limit of some of the biggest, juciest scallops I have ever seen!  Not bad for 45mins in the water.

The last lot of scallops The HG brought home, we cooked in their shells (after they had been cleaned and gutted) with garlic and butter on the BBQ.  This time we decided to wrap the muscle (white part) in streaky bacon and cook on the BBQ and just do the roe (orange part) in the shells with garlic and butter.  I cannot tell you how delicious this was!  Very rich though.  We served the scallops with potatoes mashed with creamcheese (my favourite mash!).

To cook the roe (and some of the smaller whole scallops) in the shells, The HG first melted the butter and garlic in the shells on the BBQ and then added the meat to it.  The scallops cook in only a few minutes.  The bacon-wrapped meat went straight onto the hotplate, the bacon protects the scallops from becoming tough and overcooked, and took slightly longer to cook.

Wags got very excited about licking the shells clean after dinner!

Look at my beans!

Monsterous!

These beans are quite tough and need to be well cooked.  I steamed them for 6-7 minutes (much longer than I would ever steam other fresh veg!) and then when cooled, made a simple bean salad with them.  In the salad I used some canned butter beans and chickpeas, finely chopped red onion, red pepper and flat leaf parsley, and dressed it with a basic lemon juice/olive oil dressing.  Delicious and refreshing!