Cluck's Corner of the Internet
Home late after a client meeting (a.k.a. my big Sis). Tired and hungry.
Open fridge:
Job done – now time for bed 🙂
Keeping up with this week’s plan, last night’s dinner was chicken livers.
Sadly no piccies during prep as my camera conked out so only managed a phone pic of the finished dish – probably for the best.
Have to say that this was one of the tastiest chicken liver dishes I’ve had, with punchy spices and paprika (but no chilli), but it’s no Nandos Piri Piri 🙂
It’s past Easter, the end of April, so I was really hoping to be sipping a glass of something chilled and eating this:
Instead it’s this, with a cup of tea while wrapped in a Slanket:
Booooo!
Having shirked the BBQ and beer event at a nearby pub (even though it would have been amazing and their beer is good, it’s expensive and it’s waaaay too easy to spend a long time there) I made it up to my long suffering Hubby by recreating the evening at home. I stuck with the meat and salad, with matching beers, but omitted the Boston beans (legumes) and corn on the cob (corn, nuff said).
Menu:
I normally pressure cook pork as spare ribs but they always seem to taste a bit Chinese-takeaway, so this time I used a spicy chipotle dry rub (Williams-Sonoma) and baked a whole rack in the oven, wrapped in foil. 1½hrs @ 160°c did the trick, followed by baking unwrapped for 25 mins, oven turned up to 180°c, with a glaze made of:
Ribs got basted again at half-time. The wings got a chilli-lime sea salt rub (also c/o Williams-Sonoma). 180°c as the oven was already on, and I only have one oven … oh, the hardship…. and 25 mins later – taa daa!
SOUNDTRACK:
Updated 27/04/2014 – just spotted that I uploaded the pics here but didn’t get round to adding the text. Oops.
So, what we have here is a tasty little number made of chicken thighs dusted with homemade jerk seasoning, char-grilled until nicely blackened. The plantains were sliced about half-inch thick before being fried in a little coconut oil. The salsa was a mixture of fresh mango, orange pepper, spring onions and green chillies.
A spritz of fresh lime juice on the chicken just before serving – deeelish 🙂
So, it looked like Spring had come last week. Nice and sunny, warm enough for flip-flops. You know the routine. This week – WTF? what happened. Down to nearly zero at night and the wind is so beyond ‘nippy’ it’s not funny. I’d planned to start a regime of getting out in to nature and enjoying the fresh air – sod that.
Feeling cold makes me what to eat stodge (preferably of the pizza variety, failing that something with custard) so I adapted my stir-fry dinner plans to make a huge pot of steaming gumbo. Hot, garlicky, spicy, soupy – what more could you want?
I had to make a few adjustments to the authentic recipe, as the base requires a roux. This not only thickens the finished stew, but gives it a rich flavour. There are Paleo variations for the flour but instead I omitted the roux altogether and relied on okra to thicken the soup. I’m sure I’d be shot by anyone from Louisiana for even entitling this ‘Gumbo’ but you gotta call it something!
Fry the sausage in a smidge of oil until golden. Remove from pan, but keep the garlicky oil in there. Sauté the onion, pepper and celery until just translucent then add the garlic. Stir until the raw garlic smell is gone. Now add the seasonings and tomato paste, stir for 30secs before adding chopped toms and chicken stock. Bring to a boil then turn down to simmer. I let this simmer and reduce for about 15mins before adding the okra and sliced chicken, then simmer until chicken is cooked. Add the prawns and the reserved sausage and heat thru. The okra should have thickened the soup nicely. Serve in a bowl with a spoon and expect seconds 🙂
I really wanted to try this as it’s got a bit of spice and a little nut butter, so made me think of satay 🙂
Sadly my pictures do not look as pretty as this actually tastes, but I promise you it tastes amazing!
After my amuse-bouche of pork scratchings, thought I’d better make sure I had some proper dinner. Fortunately I’d planned ahead and thawed some chicken overnight, so ready to roll. I prefer to use chicken thigh for my cooking as it’s tastier and more forgiving than breast meat if you slightly overcook, plus it’s cheaper especially if you dismantle a whole chicken yourself.(bones go into a big, zip-lock bag in the freezer until there’s enough to do a batch of stock)
Preheat oven to 220°c (adjust if you have fan assist or know your oven temp is dodgy). Put 1 tblsp cooking fat of choice (I use coconut oil but duck fat is even better) onto a baking sheet – don’t use a high-sided roasting tin here or it will just steam – and pop in the oven to melt. Finely chop 3 cloves garlic and add to the fat, along with the grated zest of ½ lemon,1 tsp dried rosemary and some S+P. Toss in 500g diced thigh meat (about 4 large skinless, boned thighs) and combine well with the liquid. Roast in oven 20mins. After 20mins take it out of the oven – it should be quite golden and sticky now – and pour over the juice of ½ lemon (see, it didn’t go to waste) and 50ml chicken stock. Stir well. TURN OFF THE OVEN. Put the tray back in and leave it alone for 5mins. In this time the juice and stock will combine with the sticky bit on the tray and make the most delicious gravy 🙂
Serve with steamed green – I had pak choi so used that. Make sure you work the gravy around the tray to pick up all the marmitey goodness, before pouring over the green. Yum 😛
Well, after being struck down with the lurgy since Xmas (everyone’s doing it Daaarling) it’s time i got back to this blogging thing. The road to recovery has of course been assisted by lots of healing food, and a few OTC meds. With limited taste buds, there was a lot of garlic and chilli going into my dishes but it seemed to do the trick.
Thai prawn laksa – not 100% accurate rendition but basically thinly sliced thumb sized piece of ginger, a fat clove of garlic, 1 chilli (inc. seeds if you like it hot) and coriander stalks from a small bunch sweated in a pan with a little oil to just take the sting out of the garlic. Add the solids from a can of coconut milk (should be about half the can – if not, top up with some of the ‘water’) and bring up to a simmer. Add raw prawns (thawed if frozen) and a handful of frozen peas or other green bean-like legume. Sir and bring back to a simmer. When the prawns turn opaque they’ll be done. Taste seasoning – add a good pinch of salt and sugar. If it’s got a bit too thick you can add more of the coconut milk. Squeeze the juice of half a lime into the pan.
To serve, pour over cooked egg or rice noodles and pop a wedge of lime on top to add as desired. Sprinkle over some chopped coriander leaves if you got them for that ‘I-care’ effect. You should have a steaming bowl of noodle and prawn with a bit of broth left at the bottom to shlurp up at the end.
Can use chicken instead if you prefer, very thinly sliced. It’ll take a bit longer to cook through than the prawns but if you cut it nice and thin you’ll be able to see when it’s changed colour (about 10 minutes). Or used cooked chicken and heat thoroughly in the coconut soup. In either case, let it come up to a simmer BEFORE adding the peas to the pan. The quantity of ginger, garlic and chilli and be adjusted to your preference so the about amounts are just a guideline to get started.