Mustard-Maple Chicken, Honey Ginger Carrots & Caramelized Onion-stuffed baked potato

hiya! (: i finally got around to cooking since i got back from europe, and i've really missed cooking in my own kitchen! it's something else all together when you're cooking in the cold, with a complete lack of equipment and freezing tap water to top it off. haha okay, enough about the awful kitchen in castellanza. i shudder at the memory :P

happy that i managed to cook three dishes this time! (: and i did it in about 3 hours? haha because of the long waiting times with the food in the oven. i actually slightly modified some of the recipes (so happy to be cooking new things again!!! :D), like the chicken was supposed to be pork, but well glad that it turned out yummy anyway! ^^

Mustard-Maple Chicken

Ingredients:

4 pieces of chicken fillet/leg

2 tbsp wholegrain mustard 

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tsp rosemary

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 160 deg C. Trim fat off the meat. Combine mustard, maple syrup, rosemary, salt and black pepper and spoon onto meat. 

2. Marinate the meat for a couple of minutes.

3. Place in the oven, uncovered for 45min.

Honey Ginger Carrots

Ingredients:

4 large carrots, sliced

2 1/2 tbsp honey

a small piece of ginger (depending on your preference), ground

1 lime

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook carrots till they are tender but not soft, ~5min.

2. In a pan, add some oil, the honey and ginger. Mix well, and add the carrots. Stir the carrots, making sure they are well coated and heated through. Squeeze the lime in.

Caramelized Onion-stuffed baked potato

Ingredients:

4 russet potatoes, scrubbed

1/2 tsp salt

1 onion, vertically sliced

2 tsp sugar

2 tbsp red wine

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 garlic clove, minced

1. Prick holes in the potatoes with a fork and place them in the oven at 220 deg C for 50min. Rearrange the potatoes every 20min.

2. Remove potatoes from the oven and allow them to cool.

3. When cooled, slice off 1/4 of the potato, lengthwise, and scoop out the pulp from the whole potato, leaving a 0.5cm thick shell.

4. Add oil to a pan, sugar and onion and sauté till browned (~8min). Stir in red wine, Worcestershire sauce, thyme and garlic. Add the potato pulp and salt. Fry for about 1 min.

5. Return the pulp back into the shells.