Easy Favourites

Getting home after a long day, and feeling rather exhausted, all I want is a yummy dinner that is quick to prepare but definately not lacking flavour.

Two recipes that we have been consuming a lot of lately are:

- Chicken and mushroom risotto, and

- Stirfry - adding and subtracting different vegetables and either using beef (recipe below) or chicken (marinating the chicken in honey, soy sauce and crushed garlic). One thing that I have discovered about stirfrys lately, is that minimal vegetables work better than overloading.

Garlic peper beef stir-fry with snow or sugar snap peas.

Donna Hay's Garlic Pepper Beef Stir-Fry

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
750g rump steak, trimmed and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
1 long red chilli, sliced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
250g green beans, trimmed and halved
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons beef or chicken stock
steamed jasmine rice, to serve

Method
1. Heat half the oil in a non-stick frying pan or wok over high heat.
2. Add the beef and cook in batches for 4-5 minutes or until browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. Heat the remaining oil over high heat, add the pepper, chilli and garlic and cook for one minute or until fragrant.
4. Return the beef to the pan with the green beans, oyster sauce and stock and cook, stirring, for 4 minutes or until warmed through.
5. Serve with steamed rice.
Serves 4.

Source: Hay, D 2011 Simple Dinners, Harper Collins, Australia.

Donna Hay's baked chicken risotto could not be easier! And for someone who doesnt particularly like mushrooms, this is pretty great. I added peas for a bit of green too.

Throw it all into a baking dish and the oven does the rest!

Amazing!

Donna Hay's Baked Chicken and Porcini Risotto

Ingredients

25g dried porcini mushrooms

3/4 cup boiling water

4x 125g chicken thigh fillets, trimmed and chopped

2 cups aborio rice

1 litre (4 cups) chicken stock

2 teaspoons thyme leaves

1 clove garlic, crushed

50g butter, chopped

1 cup finely grated parmesan

sea salt and cracked pepper

finely grated parmesan, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Place the mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to stand for 5 minutes. Drain the mushrooms, reserving the soaking liquid.

3. Chop the mushrooms and place in a 3-litre capacity ovenproof dish with the mushroom soaking water, chicken, rice, stock, thyme and garlic.

5. Stir to combine, cover tightly with aluminium foil and bake for 35-40 minutes.

6. Remove from the oven and add butter, parmesan, salt and pepper and stir for 3-4 minutes or until risotto thickens.

7. Divide and top with parmesan to serve.

Serves 4.

Source: Hay, D 2011 Simple Dinners, Harper Collins, Australia.