Week 43 (Oct. 22-28): Homemade - #52Ancestors

One of the more fun jobs while we were cleaning out the family home was emptying out Mum's recipe drawer.  While the drawer contained a few proper cooking books, and some complete magazines, it was primarily a combination of loose snippets torn or photocopied from old magazines and books, and hand-written recipes from who-knows-where.  Many had notes written on them - things like substitutions of ingredients and notes on who particularly liked the dish.  There were also a number of recipes written out by others and given to Mum - by several different friends and relatives, judging by the assorted handwriting.  She even had a little A5 folder with hand-written favourites stored inside.

Included in that recipe drawer were the details of so many dishes we remembered from our childhoods - some with fondness and some with a shudder!  My sister and I spent an entire afternoon sorting through these scraps of paper, reading them out to each other and sharing our memories.  Do you remember Mum's spaghetti and mince casserole?  There's Mum's curried sausage recipe!  Do you remember pineapple chicken casserole?

We also covered a few memorable kitchen disasters, like the time I set fire to the kitchen cooking toast - the pop-up toaster didn't pop and I had stuck my nose in a book, and didn't notice the flames climbing up the kitchen wall.  I have since been forbidden to touch printed material while cooking.  Then there was the time Dad put some eggs on to boil and got distracted by an unfinished project in the garden.  By the time he came inside the pot had long boiled dry and almost burned through the bottom - who knew exploding eggs could travel so far?

Dixon Street Chicken was a favourite creation of my mother's during my childhood - various incarnations of this recipe appeared regularly on our plates at least every week or two.  My sister and I used to refer to it as 'Chicken a la Cupboard and Freezer' as the contents of the dish depended on what was left at the end of the week.  The recipe was never the same twice.  Then in amongst Mum's recipes, torn from a magazine, we found the original recipe for Dixon Street Chicken.

 

We were amazed!  We didn't know there actually was an original recipe for Dixon Street Chicken at all.  Mum always made it up as she went along - we never saw her refer to a recipe - and we just assumed the name was used to give an answer to the regular "What's for dinner" question.

 

Below is the recipe in full

The original Dixon Street chicken

3-4 chicken thigh fillets, skin off, chopped
1 packet chicken noodle soup mix
1 tbs oil
1 onion, diced
1-2 cups chopped vegetables (eg carrots, broccoli, zucchini)
1 tsp cornflour with 2 tbs water, if needed
1 tbs soy sauce
1tbs sugar (optional, to taste)
Boiled noodles or rice, to serve

Simmer chicken pieces in chicken noodle soup mix and water to cover until cooked (10-15 minutes). Drain and reserve juices.

Heat oil in large pan, add onion and vegetables and stir fry until almost cooked. Add chicken juices and thicken with cornflour and water if needed. Add soy sauce and sugar to taste. Add chicken pieces. Serve with boiled noodles or rice. Serves 3-4.

A homemade classic!