No. 9: I am, you are, we are Australian

I'm sure I'm far from unique in having attended an Australia Day barbie. But how many others of you can claim to have cooked a heart healthy recipe on Australia Day?

The barbie I attended was hosted by Melinda, who's next to me in the photo, holding a pre-cooked version of my dish. (Note to self: Must stop posing for photos next to outrageously good looking people...)

Lots of Melinda's family and friends turned up for her BBQ, and given the delicacy of my dish (see below) and the competition to get food onto the actual BBQ, I decided to cook the dish - chicken breasts stuffed with goat's cheese and sundried tomatoes (page 60) - in Mel's oven. Once again proving that one does not need to be a dinkum Aussie bloke with a dinkum Aussie BBQ to be able to successfully cook from this book.

I pretty much followed the recipe on this occasion, and it was pretty simple. Mix up some ingredients (goat's cheese, garlic, sundried tomatoes, shallots, basil, etc), cut pockets in the chicken breasts, stuff the ingredients into the pockets, apply heat, and voila! Not sure whether any of you have ever tried to create pockets in chicken breasts. It's certainly possible, and my pockets were neat and attractive, but not deep, as the chicken breast was relatively shallow, and hence it was hard to stuff all the stuffing into the pockets. My pockets were in fact overflowing. So I ended up with chicken breasts with stuffing in and on top of them, which I thought may not hold together on the barbie, so I quickly stuffed into the oven without further ado, and cooked them for about 25 minutes.

When they were cooked I let them rest gently for a short period, before slicing and serving . They were very tasty and well received. People commented on the complexity of the flavours and the piquancy of the mix. Mind you, there were also many other dishes prepared by others, that were also getting good reviews (I recall partaking of grilled eggplant, couscous salad, chicken kebabs, meat kebabs, etc - all in moderation, of course), so I didn't let it go to my head...

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this one. Simple, quick, and tasty, and no fancy ingredients. Could be a good mid-week family meal, cooked on the barbie, under the grill, or in the oven.