Lemon Grass Chicken & Creamy Passionfruit Hearts

Main: Lemon Grass Chicken with Herb Noodles
Women’s Weekly Cooking for Friends

Dessert: Creamy Passionfruit Hearts
Women’s Weekly Cooking for Friends

Hi everyone,

Hope you have had a fabulous week. Given all the strife happening around the country at the moment, it sort of felt a little indulgent to be going for anything other than simple this week. All I could think about was how lucky my family is not to be caught up in those terrible fires and weather events. So that being said, once again Women’s Weekly came up trumps with two beautiful, tasty and simple recipes.

The Lemon Grass Chicken only takes 30 minutes to prepare which makes it absolutely ideal for a work night feast with the family. Kids big and small love noodles and the fabulous asian flavour keeps them coming back for seconds. The chicken tenderloins are coated in the fish sauce, lemon grass and chillies and then cooked. I actually marinated them for half an hour and you could easily do this in the morning then they are good to go as soon as you get home from work. If, when cooking the chicken you feel it is a little too dry, add a dash of white wine or rice wine vinegar (only a dash though). This will give it a little moistness. I was unable to get Vietnamese mint and just used regular mint which served this dish very well. Bok choy is always a winner for an accompaniment but you could also use snow peas, beans, wilted spinach – whatever is your family favourite. This received a resounding 9/10

Dessert was unusual and I don’t know if I would do it again even though it was delicious – here’s why. It was super easy to do being basically a crustless, no bake individual cheesecake with passionfruit and chocolate sauce. In the recipe it suggests using a heart shaped cookie cutter to sit the mixture in to chill it and then remove thus keeping the heart shape, however, I didn’t have them so used little ramekins and put baking paper in the bottom. They came out just fine but certainly didn’t maintain their shape.

Cheesecake style desserts are going to be a winner for many people, however, it was just a little bit of overkill for me. The first mouthful was to die for with it’s smooth, rich flavour but honestly by the third mouthful I had had enough because it was TOO rich for my taste and in fact the rest of the family’s. So the scores here were divided. For flavour it got 9/10 for the category of “oh please can we have that again next week” it got 4/10.

I don’t mind getting fancy from time to time but this week really was a no stress, no fuss menu and it certainly seemed fitting.

Until next week,

From my table to yours with love. x

Lemon Grass Chicken with Herb Noodles

500 g chicken tenderloins (halved lengthways)
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lemon grass (finely chopped)
2 fresh red chillies (de-seeded, finely chopped)
¼ c peanut oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
½ c fresh coriander (coarsely chopped)
¼ c Vietnamese mint (loosely packed)
270 g buckwheat soba noodles
200 g red onion (sliced finely)

Combine chicken, fish sauce, lemon grass and chillies in a medium bowl; toss to coat.
Combine 2 tbsp oil, lemon juice, coriander and mint in a large bowl.
Cook the noodles in boiling water until just tender. Drain and add to the bowl with the herb mixture.
Add the remaining tbsp of oil to a large frying pan; cook the onion over a medium heat for 5 minutes or until it is slightly charred. Add the chicken pieces; cook until golden brown all over and cooked through.
Divide the noodle mixture between four bowls; top with the chicken. Serve with steamed bok choy, if desired.

Creamy Hearts with Passionfruit & Chocolate Sauce

Creamy Hearts

250 g cream cheese (softened)
250 g fresh ricotta
½ c pure icing sugar (sifted)
250 ml double thick cream
6 passionfruit

Chocolate Sauce

¾ c brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa (sifted)
¼ c water

Creamy Hearts

Put a cooking rack onto a tray and line the rack with paper towel. Place six heart-shaped cookie cutters (or moulds) onto the paper towel. Line each with 12cm square piece of muslin cloth (I used baking paper).
Beat the cream cheese, ricotta and icing sugar until smooth and creamy, then fold through the cream. Divide the cream mixture between the moulds. Smooth the top, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.

Chocolate Sauce

Whisk the brown sugar, cocoa and water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 minute or until the sauce has thickened slightly. Chill until ready to serve.
To serve, un-mould cream hearts and place on serving plates. Spoon over fresh passionfruit; drizzle with chocolate sauce

Lemon Grass Chicken & Creamy Passionfruit Hearts