Mother’s Day Recipes

Mother’s Day is the perfect time to spoil the mother figure in your life. Not sure what to gift that special someone? Why not make them breakfast in bed or whip them up a delicious meal?

For some food-spiration, here are some mouth-watering recipes by Executive Chef of The Prince Hotel and Mitchelton Wines, Dan Hawkins.

So, grab your pots, pans and kitchen utensils, and create something amazing to spoil your mum, aunty, grandma or friend!

 Croissant French toast, butterscotch apples, whipped cinnamon cream

Serves 4

This dish may be a little indulgent, however it is a great sweet treat dish for breakfast or brunch.

You can add some crispy bacon to really pump it up. Salty bacon, sweet apples, crisp croissant toast, Delicious!

Ingredients – Prepare the dish in the following order. That way, by the time the French toast is cooked you are ready to serve.

Cinnamon cream

150 ml cream

¼ tsp cinnamon powder

¼ tsp vanilla essence

Method

• Add all ingredients to a bowl and whisk either by hand or with an electric mixer until a nice whipped cream has formed. Set aside until needed.

Tip – When whipping cream you want all of the ingredients and utensils as cold as possible. If you can, refrigerate your bowl before use, this will help with the aeration and whipping process.

Butterscotch apples

3 ea apples, peeled and cut into ⅛ wedges

50 g butter

100 ml cream

100 g sugar

Method

• Heat a small saucepan until hot to touch. Add the sugar and start to caramelize
• Keep moving the sugar around the pan until it turns golden brown
• Add the butter, apples and cream and cook until the apples are soft. Keep warm

French toast

4 ea croissants, cut the croissants into chunky pieces

3 ea eggs

½ tsp cinnamon

Spray oil

Method

• Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the cinnamon. Whip until well combined
• Heat a non-stick fry pan. Dip the croissants pieces into the egg mixture
• Spray the pan with cooking spray and place the croissant pieces into the pan. Cook each piece until golden brown and the egg mixture has set. Repeat with the remaining croissants

Plating up

Place the croissant pieces onto a plate. Place apple wedges on, over and around the croissants. Drizzle with the butterscotch sauce. Add a good dollop cinnamon cream and serve!

Quick harissa spiced chicken, vegetables en papillote

Serves 4

Cooking “en papillote” is French for cooking in paper. It is a great cooking technique that cooks food through steam and acts as a flavour locker because the food will cook in their own juices. You can cook almost anything en papillote. For this dish we will cook a medley of vegetables and herbs to be served with roast chicken. The beauty of this dish is you can really save yourself time by preparing the vegetables well in advance, using a pre-made spice paste and grabbing a ready to go hot chook from the supermarket.

Vegetables en papillote – Below is a guide. You can really swap out any vegetable for your favourites. Just make sure they are all cut to a similar size to ensure they all cook evenly.

Ingredients

1 head fennel

1 ea carrots

1 ea zucchini

1 ea red pepper

½ ea eggplant

½ ea red onion

Herbs, any of your favourite herbs. Fennel tops, dill, basil, parsley all work fantastically in this recipe

Salt and pepper

Extra virgin olive oil

Method

• Cut all vegetables into similar size pieces
• Using baking paper, cut a large rectangle piece around 40cm long
• Place the vegetables in one half of the paper, placing the harder vegetables on the bottom and the herbs on top
• Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper
• Fold the paper into a parcel, crimping and folding the edges to seal the vegetables in and set aside

When you are ready to cook, either heat your oven or hooded barbeque to 160’c or medium heat, place the vegetables on a cooking rack away from the direct heat and cook for 15-20 mins

Harissa chicken

The simplicity of this dish comes from just grabbing a hot chook from the supermarket brushing it with harissa paste and warming it up with the vegetables.

Ingredients

1 ea whole hot chicken

Qty spice paste, enough to brush the chook with

Method

• Break down the chicken by removing the leg, thigh and breast from the bone. Cut the breast in half
• Brush the spice paste all over the chicken and place on a baking or barbeque tray
• Heat the chicken with the vegetables for 6-8 mins until hot

Tips

Don’t like or can’t get harissa? No worries! Simply replace the harissa with any spice rub or pre-made paste. You can try Tandoori paste, annatto paste, dry herbs and spices or even BBQ sauce

Can’t get a hot chook or want to roast your own in your oven, hooded barbeque or camp oven?

Below is a guide to follow for cooking your own.

Using a paper towel, pat the chook dry. Brush the chook with the spice paste

Oven – Heat your oven to 180’c – Cook for 60 – 70 mins until golden brown

Hooded BBQ – Set the dial to 200’c or medium high for indirect cooking. Cook for 75 – 85 mins

Camp oven – Probably the hardest of the three options. Prepare your fire for camp oven cooking, creating a generous coal base. Add your chook to a camp oven and add around 100 ml of water. This will help create some steam and essentially steam roast the chook. Place the camp oven on a thick layer of coals and add the same amount of hot coals to the lid. Every 30 mins replace the coals on the top and move the oven on to fresh base coals. You should do this 3 times and cook for around an hour and a half.

Chocolate chip cookie ripple cake / Cookies and cream cake

Serves 4

To be honest, I don’t even know the true name of this dessert, but do I know I love it! If Mum was around in the 70’s and 80’s then this dessert should bring back some nostalgic moments of her childhood. For some reason it dropped off and practically disappeared from family homes around the country. Who knows why? I think it’s a winner! I love it for its simplicity and it can be made anywhere, anytime with just a few ingredients. And it’s a great dessert to get the kids involved with. For its most basic version you only need three ingredients!

Ingredients

1 x Packet of your favorite chocolate chip cookies

1 x Can Lemonade

250 ml Whipping or Thick cream

Method

• Using an electric mixer or whisk, whip the cream until it becomes soft like a fluffy pillow
• Pour the can of lemonade into a bowl. Grab a deep dish or cake tin. Very quickly, dip the cookies into the lemonade and place them into the dish forming a base layer
• Spoon a layer of cream over the cookies and repeat the process. Cookie, cream, cookie, cream until all the cookies are finished
• Place the dessert into the fridge for 1 hour before serving

In its most simple 3 ingredient (child friendly) version that is it! If you want to take it up another level add your (or mums) favorite liqueur to the lemonade. Irish cream is my favorite, coffee liqueur, grand marnier and coconut liqueur all work superbly well. Replacing lemonade with moscato works great too!

You can also layer this dessert in a short glass making individual serves.

For the top, add anything you like.

Chopped fresh berries and fruit – Dust with cocoa powder – Grate more chocolate – Sliced bananas and caramel sauce – Coco Pops – Pretty much anything you like.