Roast Chicken – with a difference

I love making Roast Chicken – it’s simple, delicious and the entire family loves it. I love that any leftovers can be used the next day for yummy chicken mayo sarmies. I remember waiting for Sunday roasts when I was a child – they seemed to take forever…. I could smell the delicious flavours cooking in the kitchen and it felt like hours before we could eat. I always thought that roast chicken took lots of preparation and hours to cook. I couldn’t be more wrong! It’s one of the quickest meals to prepare and once it is in the oven, you don’t have to do much else. I love adding root vegetables to roast along side the chicken with peas on the side to serve with the meal.

It has been raining for days in Johannesburg and on this overcast and wet day, I felt like making…. Roast Chicken. I usually lay the chicken on a bed of olive oil and fresh rosemary, stuff it with half a lemon, place garlic pieces under the skin and drizzle olive oil all over the chicken. And I encrust it with salt and black pepper. While I was looking for lemons in the veggie rack, I found 2 oranges that had been long forgotten, not fresh enough to eat, and I thought…. why waste them? I looked for a recipe which included orange juice as a glaze for roast chicken…. and I found a recipe on http://www.sweetpaulmag.com/food/soy-orange-glazed-chicken

What is great about this recipe is that many of the ingredients are included in our Pauli’s Tasty Tomali Relish – so I substituted the ginger, garlic and star aniseed by adding 4 tablespoons of our delicious Tomali Relish. This is how I changed the recipe up:

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons Pauli’s Tasty Tomali Relish

1/2 cup of soy sauce

1/2 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice

1/4 cup of water

1 large chicken

Fresh rosemary

Olive oil

Method:

Add the soy sauce, Pauli’s Tomali, orange juice and water to a saucepan; stir and bring to the boil. Let it simmer together for about 10 minutes. Place your chicken on a bed of fresh rosemary and olive oil in a roasting dish. Baste the chicken with the soy and Tomali glaze, using about 1/3 of the sauce. Keep the remaining glaze to baste the chicken later. Place in a pre-heated oven on 220° C. After 45 minutes, take the chicken out of the oven and baste it again with the glaze. Place it back in the oven for another 30 minutes. Use the remaining glaze one last time to baste the chicken, let it cook for another 10 minutes. Take the chicken out of the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes.

We served this dish with roasted butternut and sweet potato and a brown lentil and Swiss chard side dish. There were no leftovers for chicken mayo sandwiches…. everything was finished! The kids even had seconds of the delicious veggie dish. Enjoy!

Yours in Good Food,

Dianne @ Pauli’s Food Co

A different kind of Easter

This Easter, we are in LockDown in South Africa, like so many others in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed so many aspects of our lives and we are all navigating a new kind of normal. Instead of spending Easter with family and friends as we normally do (and I suppose we took this for granted), this Easter will be a quiet one. However, I feel blessed to be able to spend it with our beautiful children, Max and Lua, and my husband Paul. This is probably the most amount of time we have all been together in one place, and we are all finding new ways of keeping busy.

We are cooking 3 meals a day, eating healthily and trying new recipes. We are very lucky to have our Pauli’s Sauces on hand to add robust and rich flavours to our dishes. Visit http://www.paulisfood.com if you would like to place an order.

Our supper for Good Friday was a beautiful fish and prawn dish that was so good – we all licked our bowls clean and there was nothing left over.

Ingredients:

700 g de-shelled prawn tails

200 g hake (filleted and cut into thick cubes)

4 large size baby marrow (julienned)

1 stick of lemon grass

1 can of coconut milk or cream

4 small baby leeks

150 g thinly sliced butternut or pumpkin

Splash of soya and fish sauce

2 forkfuls of Pauli’s Something Hotter

10 ml Thai Lime Juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Stir-fried cauliflower and cabbage (in place of rice)

Method:

Heat some olive oil in a heavy based wok; fry the leeks, butternut/pumpkin and add the lemon grass on a medium heat for about 3 minutes. Add the baby marrow and prawns. In a separate pan; fry the hake in butter, skin side down on a medium heat (we added some chilli flakes) until the fish is nearly cooked through and the skin is crisp and then turn to get colour on the other side.

In a blender or NutriBullet – blend the coconut milk/cream, Pauli’s Something Hotter, Lime Juice, Soya and Fish sauce together.

Add this liquid to the prawn dish; stir together and then add the cooked hake on the side of the wok. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer together for about 5 minutes on a low heat with the lid on the wok.

Cook the diced cauliflower and sliced cabbage in butter in a separate pan for about 5 minutes. We served this with our homemade French Bread – the best way to soak up all the juices and flavours.

Your meal is ready to serve! Simple, delicious and healthy. And also very low in carbs.

To those celebrating Easter – we wish you a blessed and safe one!

Yours in Good Food, Dianne – please share any ideas to dianne@paulisfood.com

Immune boosting meals during #lockdown

We stand together with the rest of the world during this unprecedented time we are all facing – fighting COVID-19 as a global pandemic. We pray that all countries can flatten the curve of the spread of the virus – and our thoughts are with those in need, those that have been infected by the virus – and also all health workers and leaders. This is such a difficult time for everyone.

During this time, it is important to remain positive, connect with loved ones and of course, eat healthy food. A healthy immune system is important to combat illness and fight the virus. Something as simple as drinking warm water with lemon every day can help strengthen our bodies.

We will be sharing some simple and healthy home cooked meals, using our delicious Pauli’s Sauces – you can cook these meals using alternatives to our sauces, if you don’t have stock. And you can order our sauces online at http://www.paulisfood.com.

Our first recipe is a Pauli’s Brinjali Rump/Sirloin Steak with roasted vegetables. You can use any veggies that you have available in the fridge and of course, seasonal veg is always better for you. If you don’t eat red meat, you can replace the steak with a chicken breast – and if you follow a vegetarian diet – replace the meat with mushrooms or butternut.

We wish you all a safe and healthy lockdown – please send us a mail to connect at dianne@paulisfood.com – we would love to chat and share more recipes.

Ingredients:

2 beef rump steaks (250 – 300 g each)

100 g melted butter

4 tablespoons of Pauli’s Brinjali Relish

125 ml cream

Salt and pepper

Serve with roasted vegetables of carrots, spinach, baby marrow, mushrooms, butternut – or add any veggies that you have in your fridge.

Method:

Mix the melted butter and salt and pepper in a small bowl and generously brush the steaks with the softened butter mix on each side.  Heat a heavy based grill pan and when the pan is hot – add the steaks.  Cook to your liking – for med-rare, cook on each side for about 3 minutes.  Turning to make sure each side is cooked.   

When the steaks are cooked to your liking, remove the steaks from the pan and wrap in tinfoil to rest.  Turn the heat down to low-med and add the Pauli’s Brinjali Relish and cream to the grill pan and heat together for about 1 minute.  If you cook the steaks on the braai or on coals – make the sauce in a small saucepan.  Serve on top of the steaks.  Eat while still hot and enjoy!  Serves 2.

Anytime Roast Chicken

Today I needed to prepare dinner in a hurry but I had about 2 hours for the meal to cook. So I decided to roast a chicken on a low heat during the 2 hours. This recipe literally took me less than 15 min to prepare and when it was dinner time … our meal was succulent, tasty and tender.

How did I do it?

Throw some chopped butternut, cherry tomatoes and sweet potatoes (skin on) into the roasting dish; place the chicken in the middle of the dish; pour olive oil over all ingredients and generously sprinkle with rosemary, thyme and oregano. Add about 4 forkfuls of Pauli’s Anytime Brinjal & Peppers into the dish (and stuff the chicken with another 2 forkfuls of Brinjal & Peppers). Cover with foil and roast at 140degrees for about 2 hours. Don’t forget to add salt and pepper to taste before roasting.

I quickly made some peas to go with the dish (to make sure we also get some greens in the mix) and used Pauli’s Tomali and a bit of red wine to make a gravy with the peas.

The results…. the kids asked for more and ate all their veggies and protein.

This recipe brings together robust, roasted flavours and cooks the chicken to tender perfection 👌🏽

Yours in good food,

Dianne @ Pauli’s Food Co

Pauli’s Food Co

Easy and delicious Prawn Curry with Pauli’s Saffron Chilli Chutney

I never knew how simple it was to make a Prawn Curry until I tried this recipe with our Pauli’s Saffron Chilli Chutney…

Ingredients:

300 g of shelled and peeled prawns (med – large)

300 g of hake / kingklip

1/2 a red onion, chopped

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1/2 a cup of white wine (optional)

4 tablespoons of Pauli’s Saffron Chilli Chutney (for a child friendly version, use Pauli’s Tomali in place of the Saffron Chilli Chutney)

2 tablespoons of Lime Juice (or juice of fresh limes)

Sprinkle of Paprika

1 tablespoon of Garam Masala (curry powder)

1 tablespoon of white vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)

1/2  a cup of cream

Coconut oil  and butter (for cooking)

Fresh coriander

Serve with Cauli rice / Basmati Rice / Sweet Potato Mash

Method:

Place the prawns in a bowl and pour the lime juice and paprika over the prawns.  Leave in the fridge while you are prepping the rest of the dish.   Heat the coconut oil in a heavy based pan / wok and fry the onion and carrot until slightly softened.  Mix the garam masala and vinegar together to make a paste.  Pour the paste into the pan and stir together.  Add the can of chopped tomatoes, the white wine and the Pauli’s Saffron Chilli Chutney and leave to simmer on a low heat for about 15 minutes.

In a pre-heated oven, grill the fish for about 10 minutes (baste the fish with melted butter, salt and pepper before placing under the grill).

Add the prawns into the sauce mix and cook with the lid on for about 5 minutes.  Then gently break up the hake / kingklip and add to the dish.  Pour the cream into the pan and cook together on a low heat for another 5 minutes.

Serve with either Cauliflower rice, Basmati Rice or Sweet Potato Mash.  Sprinkle the coriander over each serving and enjoy!  Simply delicious.

Yours in good food, Dianne

Pauli’s Food Company recipes

 

 

How to get the kids to eat their greens… and enjoy them

I have a very simple go-to recipe for a Monday night meal… Sausage Italian casserole made with our Pauli’s Tomali (tomato relish) and Pauli’s Anytime Zucchini & Peppers. 

Ingredients:

10 free range bangers (pork, beef or lamb sausage)

5 Tablespoons of Pauli’s Tomali 

5 forkfuls of Pauli’s Anytime Zucchini & Peppers 

6 heads of broccoli 

6 heads of cauliflower

Any other veggies you want to use up (a handful of peas, mushrooms, or chopped pumpkin) 

Sweet potato mash

Method:

In a casserole dish (I love to use my Le Creuset casserole dish), pour some olive oil or butter on the base of the dish.  Add the sausages and baste the Tomali and Anytime Zucchini & Peppers over the sausages. 

Throw over all the other vegggies and mix well together.  Cover with tinfoil and cook in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees) for about 25 min.  Take off the tinfoil and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the sausages are cooked to your liking.  

Serve on a bed of sweet potato mash. The Tomali and Zucchini & Peppers make a beautiful, robust and tasty gravy.  Pour the gravy over the sausages and mash and serve with a side salad.  This recipe never fails me. And what makes my heart so happy is that the kids clean their plate and always thank me for this yummy meal… Bon apetit! 

Yours in good food,
Dianne

dianne@paulisfood.com

Pauli’s Something Hotter Thai Curry

I love the story of how we named our third delicious sauce – a flavoursome combination of chilli, carrot, olive oil and ginger…  When we started Pauli’s Food Co, we started selling our Brinjali and Tomali sauces at food markets. People loved the flavours bursting from our colourfully labelled jars – and they would ask us “Don’t you have something hotter?” (well, those who loved chilli would ask that).  So Pauli developed our Something Hotter product – cooking together carrots, red chillies, fresh ginger and garlic, oregano and filling the bottle with cold pressed extra virgin olive oil.  It was a hit!  And heat seekers were happy to be able to add to their collection of Pauli’s sauces.   This product is sugar and sweetener free – so it is super healthy and can be eaten with everything, with no worry of eating a chilli product with harmful preservatives, hidden sugars or colourants.  Completely natural and oh so good!

This is a simple recipe using Pauli’s Something Hotter:

Thai Beef Curry

Ingredients:

1 medium red onion, finely chopped

400 g of beef strips (you can substitute with chicken / vegetables)

300 g baby marrow, julienned

150 g chopped butternut

100 g red pepper, julienned

1 tablespoon of coconut oil

30 g of finely chopped ginger

1 tablespoon of Pauli’s Something Hotter (add more if you like heat)

30 g fresh basil, chopped

2 tablespoons of honey

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 can of coconut milk

Method:

Heat the coconut oil, add the red onion and sauté until the onion softens.  Add the Pauli’s Something Hotter and ginger, sauté for another minute.  Add the beef strips and brown all the ingredients together (cooking on a medium heat for about another 2 minutes).

Add the baby marrow, butternut and red pepper and cook together for another minute.  Add the coconut milk and bring the heat down to low.  Add the honey and soy sauce (these ingredients will ensure the right balance between sweet and savoury).  Cook until the butternut is soft (about another 12-15 min on low heat). Serve with Jasmine or Cauli Rice.  Garnish with the chopped basil.

Yours in Good Food, Dianne.

Eat.  Cook.  Love.  Pauli’s Sauces.

http://www.paulisfood.com

 

Simple breakfast of Camberbet and Saffron

This morning I made a simple, scrumptious breakfast using our royal Chutney, Pauli’s Saffron Chilli Chutney and a camberbet cheese wheel.  It took less than 5 minutes to prepare and cook and was so yummy!

Ingredients:

1 small Camberbet cheese wheel (sliced into two – one wheel can make two portions)

1 tablespoon of Pauli’s Saffron Chilli Chutney

Serve with scrambled eggs or eat as a starter

Method:

Slice the cheese wheel into two separate pieces and then slice the one portion into two (through the middle)

Spread the Pauli’s Saffron Chilli Chutney on top of the cheese wheel

Close the cheese wheel and fry on a low heat in a small frying pan – about 1 minute a side and then flip over and fry the other side

Season with salt and black pepper and serve with scrambled egg.  Or serve as a starter to a gourmet meal. 

Simply scrumptious!

Yours in Good Food

Dianne 

Sweet potato wedges with Pauli’s Anytime Brinjal & Peppers

I LOVE making these sweet potato wedges with Pauli’s Anytime Brinjal & Peppers… they are loaded with vegetables and everyone loves them 😋

Ingredients:

1kg sweet potato, peeled and cut into wedges

4 tablespoons of olive oil

4 forkfuls of Pauli’s Anytime Brinjal & Peppers

Salt and pepper to taste 

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees. If you are in a hurry, steam the peeled sweet potato wedges for 5 min.  Throw the wedges into a bowl, pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil over and then add the Anytime Brinjal & Peppers.  Use a fork to gently mix all the ingredients together.  Pour the remaining olive oil into a baking tray and place in the oven to heat the oil for 1 min.  Take the tray out of the oven and place the potato mix onto the baking tray… evenly and in one layer.  Bake for about 30 min.  Check every 10 min to turn and make sure the wedges are not burning.  This recipe is great as a side dish to any meal… Anytime!

Yours in good food,

Dianne @ Pauli’s Food Co

Family favourite… Spaghetti bolognese

We are so lucky to have The Farm Table grocery store in our suburb of Linden, Johannesburg.  They sell organic vegetables, free range lamb and beef, chicken and other groceries and they also stock our sugar free Pauli’s sauce range.  I bought free range beef mince, farm fresh butternut and organic, locally grown baby tomatoes and made a delicious family favourite… Spaghetti bolognese – also using our Pauli’s Tomali and Pauli’s Anytime Zucchini  & Peppers.  

How to:

Fry 1/2 an onion and 1/2 yellow pepper in coconut oil until soft; add 500 g beef mince and brown together for about 5 minutes.  Add salt and pepper and Italian herbs; throw in 4 tablespoons of Pauli’s Tomali; add a can of Italian plum tomatoes. Stir together.  Cook for another 5 min on med-high heat.  I added 2 forkfuls of Pauli’s Zucchini & Peppers.  This product adds amazing flavour. 

I then throw in any other veggies that I have left over in my fridge.  Today I added a handful of cabbage and some chopped butternut (adds beautiful sweetness and the cabbage tenderizes the mince).  Cook for another 25 min on a low heat.  Serve with spaghetti or Zucchini ‘pasta’ for a low-carb option. 

Look how much it was enjoyed  
Yours in good food,

Dianne @ Pauli’s Food Co

http://www.paulisfood.com