Cheesy Stuffed Chicken Breasts wrapped In Ham

These tasted great served with a fresh garden salad

We have satellite TV here on the farm – and it’s a God send ! It helps to keep us sane, and in touch with what’s going on in the outside world. Along with the internet, of course (which is as frustratingly slow as dial-up and is also via satellite – we have a large dish strategically placed in our garden).

Anyway, we love watching the “BBC Food” channel, and one of our all time favourite programmes is “MasterChef”. (The series shown here is usually a little behind the UK “live” series, but still …. ) Well …. I pretend that I actually love watching the programme, when in fact what I really watch it for is John Torode (one of the presenters) who’s quite a tasty looking dish himself ;)

We were watching it earlier this week, and one of the contestants made a really simple dish of chicken breasts stuffed with cheese, and wrapped in ham. (“Do you think this is good enough to get you through to the next round ?” John asked the nervous contestant as she presented the dish for him to sample “This is Masterchef, you know”.)

Well, the contestant never made it to the next round, but I thought I’d give the dish a try yesterday, as I just happened to have all the ingredients on hand. I used those boxed cheese triangles (mashed up) for the filling – which I smuggled back in my suitcase when we returned from our UK holiday in January … he he … the lengths I’ll go to, to bring “exotic” ingredients home ………

Cheesy Stuffed Chicken Breasts wrapped in Ham

2 Chicken Breasts
5 Cheese Triangles (let’s be honest here, they taste awful eaten on their own !)
1 tbsp Fresh Basil, chopped
2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
Salt
4 slices Ham (Parma ham would work well – so would bacon)
Olive oil

Cut slits in the chicken breasts to make pockets. Mash the cheese triangles together with the basil, garlic & salt. Spoon the mixture in to the pockets and cover each breast with 2 slices of overlapping ham. Secure in place with toothpicks. Place in a lightly oiled casserole dish, and brush some oil on the top of each breast. Bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for +- 30 minutes, or until cooked through.

I’m pleased to announce that my husband put me through to the second round, and that this dish will be appearing on our dinner table again. (Smuggled cheese stocks permitting, of course !)

Battery Bank

A bank of ten truck batteries powers the electricity in our house

I thought I’d include a photo of our bank of batteries – these are, literally, the heart of our home because without them, we would have no electricity. This battery bank (they are truck batteries) sits in a cage attached to the outside wall of our house, between the pantry and our home office.

We have a large 30 KVA diesel generator in the main workshop area. This is switched on during certain times of the day, and it charges up this bank of batteries. The battery power is then converted via an Inverter/Charger (fixed to the inner wall of our office) into electricity for use in the house.

The battery power is not strong enough to run fridges and freezers for long periods (I have a gas stove but refuse - REFUSE - to have gas fridges or freezers as in my experience they are absolutely useless, and more trouble than they're worth !) so once the generator is switched off at 10 pm each night and the battery power kicks in, we have to remember to switch both fridges off, else we will wake up in the morning with flat batteries and no lights ! The fridges run just fine on generator power at sporadic intervals during the day, and if we are careful not to open and close them too much they manage to retain their coolness for long periods without power.

We are lucky to be able to generate our own electricity, as in a lot of the main town and cities, electricity supply is erratic and when we used to live in one of the large towns years ago, we would sometimes go for periods of up to 4 days without electricity.

A litter of kittens once crawled in to the battery "cage" but were rescued after the dogs alerted me ... I suppose they thought that it would be a nice place to have a little afternoon snooze !

Fat Free Spicy Hummus

I've served it here with toast "soldiers" & batons of cucumber

I know that traditionally, Hummus (or "Hummous") has olive oil added to it. I have tasted Hummus made both with and without the addition of oil and I have to admit that the oil free version does not have as much flavour as the ‘oily’ version. But I promise you, this recipe below is a great, healthy substitute … and you won’t even notice the missing oil as it has so much flavour.

This recipe originated from my sister in South Africa. I know that it has also been used extensively in West Africa by my dear friend Jo, and of course I make it here often in East Africa. (If anyone from North Africa would like to make it, then we’ll have the whole Continent covered ?!)

This is a great “dip” to take to a party and also makes a nice afternoon snack. My toddler has enjoyed dipping carrot sticks, cucumber batons and dried toast fingers in to this dip for as long as I can remember. It’s also delicious spread onto piping hot toast, or even baked potatoes !

My husband refuses to eat what he calls “rabbit food” or “diet food” but I’ve managed to fool him with this one … heee heeee …..

Fat Free Hummus

1 Tin of Chickpeas (drained – reserve some of the juice though)
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
2 – 3 Garlic Cloves (to taste !), finely chopped
½ tsp Mixed Spice (or ground Cummin)
Tiny amount of Cayenne Pepper
Pinch of Tartaric Acid (found in the baking powder etc aisle, but not essential)

Place all ingredients in a blender, and pulse to a fine paste. If it seems a little too thick, add a couple of tablespoons of the reserved Chickpea juice. This stores, covered, in the fridge quite well too.