When I make chicken stock I do it army style, en mass, I use a large 16L pot.  My stock recipe is a very simple one.  One whole chicken, quartered, 8 chicken legs, 8 chicken wings, 3 carrots and stalks of celery (chunkily chopped) and one onion peeled and cut in halves.  I then add around 10L of water, the elephant sized pot left to simmer, simmer and simmer some more.

I end up with about 9L of stock.  Which is then frozen in 1L and 1cup (250ml) portions .  The chicken gets divided two ways.  Prime bits for us for sandwiches, frozen to be added to soup at a later date or turned in to all sorts of goodies.  The rest of the chicken is shredded up with the veggies and becomes meals for Sally.  Sally loves stock making days.  She doesn’t leave my side in the kitchen while I divvy up the chicken.  Eagerly awaiting a tasty morsel to be gently tossed for her to delicately catch in that soft labrador mouth.  She knows that dinner that night will be one of her favourites.  Sally also has a penchant for Peking duck and BBQ chicken.

It was this very large batch of chicken stock that enticed me to making these pies.  I had never made individual pies before, even though they have been on my ‘to do’ list for quite a while.  I admit, I wanted to have a go at making chunky beef pies, but with all my excess chicken meat from stock making, it seemed the perfect time to whip up some chicken pies.  It was also a miserable cold day in Sydney, perfect pie weather. Read more →

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When you think of pear recipes, does your mind tend to wander towards, cakes, muffins, crumbles, poached pears?  I know mine does.  When I was contacted by Kellie from Impact Communications in regard to a competition they were holding during National Pear Month, I originally hummed and hawed about participating.  The reason for taking my time to say yes was basically due to being flat out.  I decided to participate, but I made the decision to push myself and come up with a savoury recipe using pears.

I do have one staple savoury pear recipe I whip up on the odd occasion.  Is perfect for lazy Sunday nights.   A thick slice of pane di casa toasted, topped with thinly sliced prosciutto, pan seared pears, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and them finished off with shaved parmesan cheese.  Sounds good, doesn’t it?  It is, regard that as your bonus recipe of the day.

Deciding I wasn’t going to use my good old staple recipe, I searched my brain to come up with something a little different.  Marry some flavours together that I thought would work well.  Guess what?  The recipe I developed rocks!  The filling works so well with the chicken, not over powering, and the flavours meld well together.  The addition of lemon in the butter and sage sauce adds the perfect amount of acidity to cut through the rich butter and lift the dish. Read more →

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The boys are in love with the hot dogs that you can get at El Loco.  Actually most people I know that have tried their hot dogs love them.  I decided to re-create them at home.  Not completely the same but they are really tasty and extremely easy to make. Read more →

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