Katletki - Mums Chicken Patties

This is mums recipe for Russian chicken patties called Katletki.  Smelling katletki cooking, reminds me of home and takes me back to the days I would come home from school and be so excited for mums dinner. This is my ultimate comfort food!!

Katletki


Ingredients
 - 500 grams good quality chicken mince
 - 4 eggs
 - 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs
 - 1 onion
 - 2 cloves of garlic
 - salt
 - pepper
 - paprika
 - olive oil for frying




Method
1.  Grate the onion into a large bowl.  Mince the garlic and add to the bowl.
2.  Add the chicken mince, eggs, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper and paprika to the bowl and mix well.
3.  Heat a large frying pan on medium-high heat and add enough olive oil to evenly cover the pan.  Once the frying pan is hot, add tablespoons of the mixture to the pan.  Let the patties brown then flip them over.  Bring the heat down to low and once the patties are brown on both sides add 1-2 tablespoons of water and cover.  Let them cook for about 5 minutes.  Take off the lid and allow them to fry for another few minutes on either side.  Remove from pan.
4.  Repeat this process until all the mixture is used.
5.  Serve with pasta, rice, potato, salad or bread.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

The other day Nick was commenting on how much he misses The Little Cupcakes shop in Melbourne.  Since it's holiday time and I have plenty of time to spend on cooking, I decided to surprise him with some of his favourite flavoured cupcakes- Red Velvet. 

 Fun fact:  red velvet cupcakes originally were not coloured with food dye but were red due to the unprocessed cocoa reacting with the buttermilk making a rich deep browny red colour.  Nowadays it is increasingly difficult to find unprocessed cocoa so food dye is the way to go.  

Tip:  use a hand electric beater for majority of the method - this helps make the cupcakes fluffier.

This recipe makes about 30 cupcakes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients

Cupcake

 - 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)

- 1 bottle of red food dye (approx. 3 teaspoons)

 - 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

 - 1 1/2 cup sugar

 - 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder, sifted

 - 2 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted

 - 1 teaspoon salt

 - 2 eggs, at room temperature

 - 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

 - 1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

 - 1 teaspoon baking soda, sifted

 - 1 teaspoon white vinegar

Icing

 - 120 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature

 - 180 grams light cream cheese (preferably block rather than spreadable), at room temperature

 - 2 cups icing sugar (do not use icing mixture - it is not the same thing!)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees.  Place cupcake liners into the muffin tins
2. In a small bowl mix together the cocoa and red food dye - ensure there are no lumps
3. In a large bowl beat butter and sugar until creamy and light.
4. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
5. Add cocoa paste and vanilla essence, beat well.
6. Add baking powder, salt and 1/3 of the flour.  Beat well
7. Add half of the buttermilk.  Beat
8. Add 1/3 of flour.  Beat
9. Add the rest of the buttermilk.  Beat
10. Add the rest of the flour.  Beat
11. In a separate bowl add vinegar and baking soda (don't worry if it fizzes - this is normal).  Mix this into the cupcakes batter.
12. Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full.  Place in oven for around 20 minutes.  Check them by placing a skewer into one of the centre muffins and checking if it comes out clean.    Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack
13. For the icing - beat together the butter until creamy and light.  Add the cream cheese and continue beating until fluffy.
14. Add the icing sugar a cup at a time and beat until the icing mixture if very fluffy.  
15. Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe the icing onto them.  Enjoy :D

Note that this icing must be refrigerated.