Nigella Rules

Nigella Lawson is one of my favorite food personalities because she seems so relaxed in the kitchen and she doesn't mind if you alter her recipes.
On her website she has a monthly cookalong and I finally decided to try one.  The recipe for August was Maple Chicken and Ribs.  It doesn't require many ingredients or techniques.

It starts with 12 chicken thighs and 12 spare ribs. As a single person, I thought that was a bit much so I only got 6 of each.  Spare ribs are pork and short ribs are beef. This is was I learned at the meat counter of my local Fresh Market. As a bonus, the thighs were on sale for 99 cents a pound so thank you Nigella. Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky with the spare ribs.

 

 

 

You then need 1 cup of apple juice and 4 tablespoons of maple syrup.  I already had apple cider and thought that would so well with the maple so I used that.  I didn't realize it but maple syrup is graded differently than most other things.  Grade B is actually better than Grade A. Oops

 

I added the remaining ingredients- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and soy sauce, as well, as the star anise. There was no cinnamon stick in the house so I just used a pinch of ground cinnamon. My market offers garlic in containers already peeled so I just used those instead of the 6 unpeeled cloves.

In separate ziplock bags i put the ribs and chicken and added the dark brown marinade.

 

They were then put in the refrigerated overnight and I took the chicken and ribs out and cooked them for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

 

 

I plated it with watercress for greenery and some butternut squash. Yum. The taste from the star anise gives the meat a somewhat haunting flavor. The ribs were moist but completely white on the inside. Thighs gave a luxurious feel and the skin was a lovely dark brown.

 





 

 

 

The saga continues...

I have made the first recipe out of Gwyneth Paltrow's It's All Good cookbook this evening. The recipe was "Brown Rice Pasta with Fried Capers and Tuna."Overall, it was a pretty good meal. It didn't seem like something "healthy" or "good for you".

My kitchen, I must admit is not gourmet by any stretch of the imagination. The hardest part of the recipe was finding where my can opener was :-) However, it was easy to make and didn't take long at all. The total time seemed to be about 20 minutes. In fact, I was debating about making something to take to school because it was the end of an enjoyable day and I was tired.

It tasted really good and in my mind if you add parsley to anything, it will be scrumptious.  The pasta was light and the "topping" was satisfying and comforting. The fried capers were a new taste sensation and added a little crunch to keep in from being too mushy.

Does my food look anything like the anything like the food in the book? Nope. Absolutely not. Mine looks like brown sludge with green leaves. As with anything though, I have learned from my mistakes (when they say a large skillet, use a large skillet) and it will be better next time.

The book has been criticized for being too expensive for the average family. As for Ms. Paltrow mu thoughts are: as one person on tv said " They ain't never bought me lunch, so I don't really care." I will just tell you what the ingredients were and how much they cost me.

Olive oil-- had at home
cloves of garlic-- had at home
brown rice pasta-- 3.79 (used 1/2 bag)
1 lemon-- 4.49 for a bag of about 6
parsley-- 1.99 (used 1/2)
anchovies-- had at home
tuna-- had at home
capers-- had at home
red chili flakes-- had at home

Since I am trying to eat better and summer is coming up, I want to keep using these recipes.
**as a side note. I never imagined how much this blog would help me keep up with things that I want to do and goals to attain.  It has been pretty cool :-)