Chicken Jalousie & Grilled Cherry Tomatoes

it's great when i still have time to cook sometimes during the school semester! :) i always spend the entire afternoon in the kitchen. i've been saying that i need to learn to cook faster, but oh well :P it's cos i always try new dishes everytime i cook. so far i've barely repeated any dishes haha.

Chicken Jalousie

this is something like a chicken pie! but slightly drier and less ingredients.

Ingredients:

25g butter

1 tsp chopped dried thyme

1 tsp plain flour

90ml chicken stock

1 tsp lemon juice

500g packet puff pastry (you can make your own! but i cheated this time and just got it from the store)

300g skinless boneless cooked chicken

100g cooked brown mushrooms

salt & freshly ground pepper

1 egg, beaten

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the thyme, then sprinkle over the flour and stir in. Gradually blend the stock and bring to the boil, stirring until thickened. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and leave to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. Roll out half the pastry on a lightly floured surface. Lay the pastry on a large dampened baking tray. Roll out the remaining pastry to a rectangle, lightly dust with flour.

3. Stir the chopped chicken and mushrooms into the stock mixture, and season with salt & pepper. Spoon evenly over the pastry base, leaving a 2.5cm border. Pour the beaten egg on top. Dampen the edges of the pastry with water. Place the second piece of pastry on top and press the edges together to seal.

4. Bake for 25min or until golden brown and crisp. Leave to cool for a few minutes before serving.

Grilled Cherry Tomatoes

2 pints of cherry tomatoes

4 tbsp of olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tbsp dried thyme

1 tbsp dried basil

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan and fry the garlic till it's fragrant.

2. Add the cherry tomatoes to the pan, and sprinkle the herbs on top.

3. Fry the cherry tomatoes till they lose their roundness and start turning soft. Serve with the garlic and olive oil in the pan.