Apple Strudel!

I'm in cooking school and recently we had a "German Day" - of which I was ridiculously excited to learn how to make home-made sausages.
But seeing as I don't have a sausage-making machine or a meat grinder - this post isn't about that unfortunately!
What I do have - is things to make apple strudel!  And you probably do too.

What you need:

• 3-4 Large apples peeled/cored and chopped small (I used golden delicious since they were on sale)
• Cinnamon stick
• Cinnamon and nutmeg
• Brown sugar
• Filo pastry/puff pastry 4 sheets thawed
• Melted butter
• Optional:
• Slivered almonds or chopped peanuts
• Dark chocolate shaved
• Raisins

What to do:

1. Boil your apples with the cinnamon stick until tender - about 15 minutes.
2. Drain water, discard cinnamon stick and pre-heat oven to 200*C (400*F).
3. Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar to your taste.
4. Lie out 1 sheet of filo carefully (it tears easily) and keep the rest of the sheets covered so it doesn't dry out.  Brush with melted butter and add the next sheet - adding melted butter between each layer.

Lay apple filling a couple inches wide along the edge - but give yourself an inch or two from the actual edge (see first photo).

Add on top your chocolate/nuts and/or raisins.

Fold in sides carefully (all 4 layers).

Slowly roll it upwards - be careful of the center not ripping.
Brush butter while rolling because then it prevents it from drying out while baking.
Sprinkle extra nuts on top if you want!  

Bake in a 200*C/400*F oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Slice and serve warm with vanilla ice-cream and caramel sauce!

Next post will have the caramel sauce recipe! :)

Since my husband can't eat nuts - I made him a separate strudel and didn't top it with nuts so that way we could distinguish the two strudels.

This could be made with other fruits I'm sure - just make sure they're well drained so the pastry is easier to roll and less likely to break on you from being soggy!

Enjoy,

D.

Parma Chicken!

If you're looking for what appears to be a fairly classy-looking meal that won't break the bank - then I present to you "Parma Chicken"!
This is something I made at cooking school recently and decided I had to try it at home with my own twist on things.

What you need:

• Chicken breasts
• Prosciutto or any other kind of similar smoked ham strips (a nice smokey bacon could work too)
• Pesto (home-made or from a jar)
• Sun dried tomatoes sliced
• Caramelized onion chutney (or whatever flavour you fancy)
• salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 200*C (400*F).

Spray your deep baking dish with cooking spray.

If your chicken breasts are thick - then take a sharp knife and make a small but deep cut and go length-wise so you don't make a hole on both sides of the meat - this helps to create a pocket in the chicken breast.  Do this to all the breasts and then fill with pesto and sun dried tomato pieces.

If you can fit in chutney - great!  If not - spread some on top of the chicken breast and then wrap a slice of prosciutto or bacon around it.

I served it with potato pancakes - which were supposed to be croquettes originally but I lacked chilling time for the mashed potatoes - so I improvised! :)

Alternative - which is what I did because my breast meat wasn't thick enough - lie your chicken breast flat, spread pesto and sun dried tomato pieces and chutney, roll quickly and wrap with a slice of prosciutto.
Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top and bake for 20 minutes or so - until chicken breast is cooked through completely.

Enjoy!
D.