French Oven Roasted Chicken with Flavoured Rice

This roast chicken dish is very simple to make but is sooo delicious. Rub chicken with spices. Put into preheated French Oven (sometimes called Dutch oven, too but since I'm using my Le Crueset, it's called a French oven). Cover and bake. Uncover and bake some more. Take it out to rest. Put cooked rice into drippings. Eat and enjoy!

The beauty of using the Le Crueset French oven (or any hardy, oven proof Dutch oven with a good seal) is that the chicken tenderises naturally inside the casserole while it is baking, and the juices produced by this process will be used to flavour the rice.

Poached Pear on Pavlova

Happy Valentine's Day! I thought it would be a fitting time to share a sweet, romantic dessert, Poached Pear on Pavlova, which is actually a combination of two desserts: the Pavlova and Poached Pears. It's a very unusual combination, because it was born out of a failed batch of Pavlovas which I made for a party at my home last Christmas. But I managed to salvage the situation and turn it into a fantastic and delicious, impressive finale for an otherwise great dinner. After serving this, there were audible Ooohs! Aaahs! and a lot of WOWs around the table. Of course, the inevitable happened; the meal was suspended as people whipped their phones out to take a picture of the beautiful dessert before them. :)

Who would believe this dessert was born out of failure?

Barley and Mushroom Cream Soup with Truffle Oil

This is a healthy, vegetarian soup, very rich in protein. It can, in fact, be a meal in itself when served with bread. It looks really fancy and smells fragrant, with that truffle oil drizzled on top.

See the health benefits of barley here.