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.

 





 

 

 

Emergency Chocolate

A friend recently came to stay with me when she was feeling a little off-kilter. I asked if there was anything I could do to make her feel better. She responded that the only thing she wanted was these chocolate peppermint candies* that I bought at our local natural grocery store.
It is has become her favorite thing to eat when she comes over and needs dessert.  I had a bunch in the refrigerator because I bought them when they were on sale.  Unfortunately, there were no more left.  I ran to the store to get some more. The clerked helped to look but finally determined that those candies were only sold at Christmastime.
Upon returning home I told my friend and she was very saddened but took it like a trooper. Next christmas, I vowed to purchase even more so as not to run out. They were never mentioned again and we didn't give them another thought.
Until, watching these Everyday Food videos by Sarah Carey.  She recently did a video on Simple Rocky Road Fudge. Huzzah! I thought with a little tweeking, this could turn into the Chocolate Peppermint Candies.



Here is how I altered her recipe.

Instead of almonds I used peppermint candy canes crushed up.

The marshmellow fluff was changed into mini-marshmellows.  Also, because she likes dark chocolate, those were the chocolate chips that were used.

She gave the fudge for taste an 8 (on a scale of 1-10) It received a 6 on presentation because she would have preferred the peppermint on top of the chocolate. The candy sometimes got in the way of the chocolate sticking to the graham crackers.

 



* I would tell you the name of them but I forgot it. I have googled but can't find the name.