Chicken Prosciutto Rolls

Delicious moist chicken with a fragrant nutty, spinach filling – all rolled in crispy prosciutto. 

Another perfect Belinda Jeffery recipe.  I love serving it warm with lots of luscious vegies covering the plate.  Also a few months ago, I included this dish in my Diner en Blanc menu because of the lovely flavours and it could be eaten cold and was so easy to transport.  Definitely one to remember and include in an alfresco picnic or a hot summer’s day luncheon – and could work with so many salad combinations.

Serves  4.    Makes 2 chicken rolls - half per person.

Times   Times are approx. for a first attempt.  If familiar with techniques, prep times will be much faster.

Preparation 20 minutes plus 20 minutes    Chill 30 minutes   Cook 30 minutes   Cool down 15 minutes

Ingredients

2 large skinless chicken breast fillets. 

80 gram of herb and garlic cream cheese. (Boursin brand if available).

Option:  Make your own using some spreadable cream cheese, mixed with some very finely chopped garlic and herbs – add slowly for your taste preference -  and dash of salt.

2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves – stems removed

Pinenuts – toasted.  Cool before adding.   Not many – just to give some crunch, maybe 1/8 cup.

Some of the toasted pinenuts can be reserved for final garnish if desired

Salt and Pepper – to your taste.

10 - 12 large slices of prosciutto.  I trim a little of the fat off  - although Belinda Jeffery does not.

Method

Chicken: Place the 2 chicken fillets – boned side up facing you (and spaced apart  - because later the lower paper will assist you in rolling) -  between 2 pieces of baking paper and gently pound with a rolling pin until about 4 mm thick. 

Remove the upper paper from the top of the chicken, i.e. the boned side.

Spread the top of the chicken with the herb cheese.

Top with half of spinach leaves and a sprinkle of pine nuts. Reserve some nuts for garnish if desired.

Using the bottom paper as an aid (cut paper in half if necessary to do the 2 rolls separately), roll the chicken up like a jam roll – that means the longer edge of the rectangle is rolling over with the filling creating a spiral shape as it is being rolled up.  Keep rolling process as firm as you can.  The paper helps you keep it rolling firm – but not necessary to squeeze hard. Tuck any bits back in as you go.

Keep the formed chicken rolls in their baking paper to help maintain the rolled shape. Refrigerate whilst you get to work on the next step.  The chicken is raw.

For the Prosciutto wrapping layer:

On a large cutting board – put a piece of foil  large enough to later completely enclose one chicken roll onto the board and then cover the foil with same sized piece of baking paper. 

This step will be repeated for the second chicken roll .

From left to right, layer 4 – 6 slices of prosciutto with the long sides slightly overlapping on top (check against the length of your chicken roll to see how many slices you will need)

Halve the remaining spinach leaves because you will be repeating these processes for the second chicken roll. Set one half aside for the second chicken rolling process.

Using one of these halved spinach amounts - Place most of the spinach leaves in a row across prosciutto – top to bottom.

Unwrap one chicken roll and place on top of the spinach leaves so it sits across all prosciutto layers.

Cover with a few more spinach leaves.

Using the baking paper underneath the prosciutto layer as a guide, roll up the chicken in the prosciutto to make a neat parcel.  You need to roll it so you can see the slices of overlapped prosciutto covering the chicken. Then roll it so it is all encased in the baking paper.

Now roll the filled baking paper roll up in the foil to fully enclose it for the baking stage.  Twist the foil ends tightly to resemble a bon-bon. 

Repeat process for the second chicken roll.

Chill both rolls immediately upon wrapping with foil as chicken is still raw.  Chill min. 30 minutes.

Baking:

Preheat oven to 180 o C.

Using a baking tray with a narrow lip, sit the foil wrapped rolls apart and bake 30 minutes.

Although Belinda Jeffery does not say to do this – I unwrap the cooked rolls and return to the oven for 5 mins just to crisp up the prosciutto a little bit – up to you – unwrap the rolls and see what you prefer to do. 

You will need to re-wrap the baked rolls.

Remove from oven, still in the foil, and allow to rest and firm up for 10 – 15 minutes.

Unwrap the rolls, and with a sharp knife cut into rounds for serving. If you are transporting them or planning on serving cold later, an option could be to leave them wrapped until needed and slice later.

You can cut them into thin slices as I did for Diner en Blanc, but be careful not to go too thin or they will collapse and break apart.

Garnish with remaining toasted pine nuts if desired.

Serving Options

Delicious with salads. 

I have also served it warm with a serving of mixed warm grilled asparagus tossed with crisp green beans, charred slices of red capsicum, roasted pumpkin pieces, baby spinach leaves, herbs, toasted pine nuts and a teaspoon of remaining Boursin cheese melted through.

Belinda Jeffery suggests serving it with her sautéed yellow capsicums and basil.

                                           Enjoy!                                                     Colleen

Davidson Plum Jam

Davidson Plums are bush tucker that grow in the subtrobical rainforests of  Northern NSW and Far North Queensland.  It took me a little while to know how to make this extremely sour fruit palatable.  This gorgeous purple spread is tart and a perfect accompaniment with cheese, spread on toasted sourdough or poured over ice cream.  A friend recently used it to baste her Christmas ham.

 

 

Ingredients

1 kg Davidson Plums (yielded 885g pulp – pureed)
885g sugar
Several lemon myrtle leaves (optional)
1 tablespoon lemon juice

 

Method

 

Cut plums and remove the stones there are two per plum. Puree with a stick blender to break down the skin. Place plums in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Stir in the sugar, add the lemon myrtle and the lemon juice and cook at a high temperature for about 20 minutes.

Test as you would for jam by placing a small amount on a saucer in the freezer for a couple of minutes, remove and run a finger through the jam, if it separates and wrinkles it is ready.

Don't worry if it turns out too thin, you have just made Davidson Plum sauce instead.

Place into sterilised bottles and label.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Country goodness

 

Mama Marmalade

Salted Caramel Chocolate Tarts

Salted Caramel Chocolate Tart

Donna Hay is to blame for this recipe and the calories ingested.  I made these tarts as an alternative Christmas Day dessert for those family members not fussed on the traditional Pudding.  I know!! Such people exist - in my family!! So, after months of preparation and love using my witch's cauldron to produce Christmas Puddings to yearn for - I then turn around and create extra little some-things to tempt the darlings' tastebuds. (Cue violin music)

The original recipe states it serves 6 - but these tarts are SO rich and caramelly sweet - I cut them into quarters to serve and I think that next time I would bake them instead  in much smaller tartlet tins.

The tarts have a baked chocolate pastry shell filled with a very, very rich caramel centre, then topped with a thick Chocolate layer that is sprinkled with sea salt flakes (I decorated mine with edible rose petals for a festive touch and added the salt after I took the photo).  They disappeared too quickly for a second photo - sorry!

The selection of this recipe was due to specific challenges about my dessert options:
- special, festive occasion dessert, and wanted it to be served as an option to Christmas Pudding
- needed to be made the day before (or not at all!)
- was being transported in a cold esky for 2 hours so needed to withstand travelling bumps and heat - so creamy, eggy desserts would not be suitable. Packing the tartlets, still protected inside their tins, into individual lidded plastic boxes kept them intact and they survived the journey perfectly.

So although my pastry making resembled a playdough activity, the filling covered the untidy tartshells and was a great success!   

Serves 6   -   but I think 8 - 10 smaller tartlet tins would be better 

Time:               5  1/2  - 6 hours including minimum 4 hours pastry resting and cooling times.
          Pastry:  15 min prep, 1 hour rest, 15 min covering tins, 30 min rest, 20 min bake, 30min cool.
          Filling:   10 min prep, 10 min cooling.
          Choc:    10 min melting.   2 hours setting - minimum.    Then 5 mins for final presentation.

Additional Equipment:  
                   6 x 8 cm loose base tart shells      OR    8 - 10 smaller loose base tartlet tins 
                   food processor
                   Non-stick baking paper
                   Rolling pin
                   Blind baking weights      SEE: Notes below
Ingredients

      Pastry shells
1 cup (150g) plain flour - sifted.  PLUS   Extra flour for dusting surface to roll pastry later.
1/2 cup (50g) cocoa - sifted
1/2 cup (80g) icing sugar - sifted
125 gram butter - chopped  (I would reduce this to 120g as my baked shells were a little oily)
3 egg yolks  (Large but not XL size eggs)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon iced water

     Caramel filling
Original recipe stated -  1 cup (250 ml) Dulce de Leche  - thick caramel cooked milk   
- but I needed  2  cups  to fill the 6 tart shells    - SEE: Notes below

     Chocolate Layer
1/2 cup (125ml) pure cream
200 g good quality chocolate - chopped.  Original recipe stated dark but I used quality Milk chocolate
Tiniest, tiniest pinch of sea salt to mix into the chocolate mixture

     Decoration
Pinch of Sea Salt flakes for sprinkling.      Option:  Edible rose petals 

Method

     Pastry

Place the sifted flour, icing sugar and butter in food processor with dough blade and process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. While motor is still running add the egg yolk, vanilla and chilled water.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gently bring together.
  
Donna Hay says to flatten into one disk.    SEE:  Notes Below
Wrap the flattened pastry portions in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Lightly grease your tartlet tins.
Remove pastry portions one at a time from fridge and roll each pastry out between 2 sheets of nonstick baking paper to 4mm thick.  Cut 6 x 12 cm rounds (or equivalent for smaller tins).  This is where mine resembled a kindy playdough project but I managed to make a pastry jigsaw to cover the tin.  (Was still good to eat!)

Trim the edges, prick base with a fork.  Place prepared tins onto an oven tray and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat oven 180 o C.
Blindbake the pastry shells by lining cases with baking paper and filling with baking weights. SEE Note above.
Keeping tins on an oven tray,  Bake 10 mins, remove weights and paper then bake for a further 8 - 10 mins until cooked through.
Remove from oven and cool completely.

Donna Hay says to remove pastry carefully from tins.  I checked they could be loosened, then returned to tin for ease of handling.

     Filling
       
Divide the Dulce de Leche between the pastry tartlets to fill 3/4 full. Smooth.
Refrigerate 10 minutes.

    Chocolate Layer

Heat cream and melt chocolate and cream over a double boiler.  
(never let water or steam get into the chocolate mix - it will then go grainy and awful)
Option:  microwave in a clean pyrex bowl on ''Low"  for 10 seconds at a time until melted.  
Never microwave chocolate on a high temperature or for more than 10 seconds at a time. Burns easily.
Stir together well, add salt and remove from heat.
Spread mixture over top of each of the caramel filled tarts.  Smooth and refrigerate minimum of 2 hours.

    Decoration

Prior to serving, remove from tartlet tins.  Sprinkle tartlets with dash of salt and /or rose petals.

TIPS AND HINTS

Dulce de Leche.  

Essentially this is what Nanna made when she boiled tins of condensed milk to turn them into thick caramel milky goo.  Many a kitchen had an exploding tin redecorate the walls with caramel blobs.
You can buy the bottles of Dulce de Leche from delis and some cookbooks prefer the brands made from goat's milk, but that is up to your preference.
I used one bottle (1 think it was about 350 ml) of Deli bought Dulce de Leche for half the tartlets and 1 tin of caramelised condensed milk (approx 350 ml) for the remainder to test the difference.  
These was some left over, but still, I needed much more than the 1 cup described in the original recipe.
The condensed milk filling was probably a little paler and marginally less thick and perhaps slightly sweeter when you tasted it on it's own.  However, once added to the tart shell and smothered with the chocolate and sprinkled with the sea salt - the flavour difference, for me anyway, would be minimal, and a quarter of a tartlet was more than enough for me.  The key difference was the minor variation of colour and thickness. 
Obviously, there will be taste and texture variations between brands of bottled Dulce de Leche too. 
So, use the Deli bottled Dulce de Leche if it is a special occasion - but the tin is a reasonable option.

Pastry preparation

Due to the heat where I live, I divided the mix and then flattened into 3 separate disks (ie 1 small pastry portion for each of the 2 tartlet tins - if you are using the smaller tins option, then divide pastry accordingly.  I took this step to try and avoid the pastry overheating.  
The first time I attempted this recipe, I (being slow and clumsy) prepared all the tins at the same time and therefore struggled with melting gooey pastry. 
The smaller portions definitely make for easier pastry handling if you are not a pastry whizz.

My cooked pastry oozed a little bit too much oil from the butter, so I lightly dabbed with kitchen paper.

Blind Baking


Blind baking weights  - ceramic blind-baking beads or uncooked rice or dried beans - you can save                              this rice/beans to re-use for many future blind-baking procedures. 
Because the raw rice, uncooked beans will have dried out during the blind-bake, it cannot be later cooked as regular rice or beans - so needs to be stored and labelled separately ready for next time. 

Carrying and moving the tarlet tins

Placing tins on an oven tray makes moving them into refrigerator and also in and out of the oven easier. 


Hope you enjoy these indulgent chocolate tartlets (once a year!) and be sure to share with your friends

                                                                   Enjoy!     Colleen