Crazy in Alabama meal

I'm afraid I have no pictures as my camera is terrible at nighttime when I cooked this. To be honest I also changed so many ingredients that the meal probably wasn't very American either, but it sure was good!
I went about doing this recipe to the book with great intentions, but when it came down to it there were A) too many steps and B) the universe conspired against me.
The first drawback was not being able to get 4 chicken legs, my butcher had 3 in stock which he kindly divided into thighs and drumsticks for me. Then I ran out of ordinary breadcrumbs, so I used panko breadcrumbs instead. I've been addicted to these since Nigella Lawson recommended these for coating things as they don't get too greasy and they brown up wonderfully when cooked. I know they're Japanese in origin but hey, they taste damn good.
Due to this and my general gung ho nature in the kitchen I can't give you quantity's for what I cooked, but I can give you a kind of run through of what happened so that you can recreate a kinda Oven fried chicken dish at home. I will also point out that as this dish wasn't fried at all that it's a hell lot better for you than the original, the skins crispy and the chicken is kept juicy inside the crust.
cheaper, healthier and better tasting than a KFC any day and if this fool can wing it then so can you.

Oven fried chicken thing

• marinade 3 chicken legs that have been divided into thighs and drumsticks overnight in..
• 1 pot of buttermilk to which you have added, 1tblsp sweet paprika, 4 cloves of garlic and 1tblsp salt.
• pre heat oven to about 200'c
• put panko breadcrumbs in a shallow bowl
• let excess buttermilk mixture fall off chicken and then bung in the bowl 1 at a time with the breadcrumbs
• coat the chicken with as many breadcrumbs as is sanely possible and then remove to a oven friendly container (I used my lasagna dish)
• bung in oven and leave till golden on the outside, I think it was about 45min.

It really was that easy, and to serve make mashed potatoes. I added garlic and herb cream cheese to mine along with butter as I had some in the fridge that needed using up, which went really well with the sweetness of the chicken dish. I also made a tomato salad scattered with feta cheese and basil, which also needed using up, and I boiled some runner beans to go alongside.

This meal was a roaring success, and it got me thinking about how often you go to make one thing then have to make substitutions or just plain can't be arsed to do things in a certain way and it turns out great anyway.

I'd love to hear about everyone Else's dinners that just happened, so let me know if you have any story's to share.

vanilla (kinda) yin yang cupcakes

I had a good think about the type of cake I should make for this book. Angel's cakes in the book are all spectacular affairs, and I've never actually decorated a cake before so there was no way that mine would be that good.I did think that I should have some innate talent in the area as my mum used to make the most amazing birthday cakes when me and my brothers were little. Two of her crowning achievements were a cake in the shape of a horses head for one of my birthdays and a optimus prime cake that she once made for my brother. I've been asking for a remake of this cake for quite a few birthdays now but it hasn't materialised so far.My mum used to decorate these cakes with butter cream icing, she never piped them in one long line but she did individual tiny blobs on the cake in each colour as she thought it looked neater.This reminded me of the next problem, I don't own a piping bag. I can't even attempt such a feat without a piping bag. The final hurdle in my way was the fact that I haven't been able to cook a large cake in my oven as it's a fossil and brute of a oven.It doesn't hold a steady temperature but just seems to get really hot no matter how low you have it and burns the outside of things whilst the middles still raw. So it had to be cupcakes again, this still fits into the story as Angel always serves cupcakes to her customers whilst discussing what type of cake they want.So far so good, but I had to decorate them in some way. I hit my baking and cupcake books with a passion, but there were too many awesome looking cakes to pick one. All googly headed I sat down and thought about the book again, I then remembered that Angel made a cake in a red and green ying yang shape for one of her customers perfect.All I needed to do was make some plain buns and put some of that ready to use coloured icing cut into shape on top.Next problem, I couldn't find any in the right colours. I ended up buying some food colouring and adding it to normal icing, hence the atrocities in the above picture.The food colouring makes the icing runnier and impossible to control, hence the indistinct lines.My boyfriend saw these and laughed he's tits off, asking who's kids I'd been entertaining. He also said that I couldn't possibly put a photo of them on my blog but I've defied him thinking that it's good for a laugh. Besides they tasted good even if they do look incredibly amature. The recipe was a Rachel Allen one from her Rachel's food for living book and you make them like so.

vanilla cupcakes

pre heat the oven to 200'c and line a twelve hole bun tin with papers

ingredients

for the cupcake mixture

75ml milk

25g butter

75g flour

1\2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

2 medium eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g caster sugar

Heat the milk in a saucepan till it just comes to the boil. Then take it off the heat and add the butter. Leave it to the side for now.

Beat the eggs and the vanilla together until fluffy, gradually add the sugar until the mixture goes thick.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the mixture gradually, then add the milk.

Stop beating as soon as it,s incorporated. The mixture looked really sloppy at this point, but don't worry it still comes out as cakes.

spoon into the paper cases and bake in the oven for about 15 minuetsor until risen and golden on top.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

for the icing

100g icing sugar

1-2 tblsp single cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the ingredients together. If like me you add food colouring be very careful.

Ice the buns when cool and remember that even if people laugh at how they look that they're still going to eat them because they taste so good.

Bee charmer

It took me ages to decide what to cook for this post. Fried green tomatoes seemed the obvious choice but there was a problem. You can't buy green tomatoes in England. Hard flavourless red tomatoes yes, but green tomatoes no.
In fact the only way to get them is to grow them yourself, and not wanting to be an a##hole I thought better of going in someone Else's garden to help myself.
The next best choice seemed to be a barbecue as it was mentioned alot, but I'd already cooked one and I fancied something different.
The back of the book is sprinkled with recipes and whilst perusing these and drooling at the idea of dessert I had a brainwave. Idgie is called a bee charmer and when she shows her skill to Ruth it helps cement their relationship, so a cake with honey in it seemed perfect!
I found this recipe in Afternoon teas by Susannah Blake, these buns are incredibly sickly but good. Only have one at a time and they are one of the few cakes that I actually prefer cold as they mellow a bit.

Honey buns

pre heat oven to 170'c, 325'f, gas 3

put 60g butter, 50g caster sugar and 4tblsp honey together in a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.

remove the pan from the heat and add 80ml milk and one large bearen egg.

sift in 115g self raising flour and stir in.

spoon the mixture into a 12 hole cupcake tin and bake for 20min.

once the cakes are cool spread with icing made from

2oog icing sugar and 2 tblsp lemon juice. Add sprinkles for extra whimsy.

Picture yourself munching on these whilst going on some crazy adventure in 1930's Alabama. Flowery dress of dungarees are optional.

potato salad

this is the recipe in consuming passions scaled down a bit. From what i can gather this is a typical type salad from America and very different from the average potato salad in the UK. Our shop bought version is just potatoes, sour cream with spring onions and chives. I loved this type.

easy potato salad for exhausted cooks

ingredients

250g new potatoes

dressing

3 tblsp mayo

1tsp mustard

1tsp honey

juice of half a lemon

a jolt of white wine vinegar

1 red bell pepper sliced

paprika, salt and pepper to taste

boil the new potatoes to your liking, then sprinkle with salt.

then mix together the dressing ingredients and serve over the potatoes.

that easy and super scrummy.

a summer slaw

I'm still having trouble uploading certain images I'm afraid.

But anyway here are the last two things i made for my down to earth dinner. The potato salad was from consuming passions, and was devoured by my boyfriend even though he says he doesn't like mayonnaise. The coleslaw was from the river cottage every day cookbook and was very refreshing due to the fennel involved in the mix.

summer slaw

ingredients

• 
  
  3 radishes, thinly sliced
• 
  
  1 carrot grated
• 
  
  1 small fennel bulb, finely chopped
• 
  
  1\4 of a finely sliced red onion
• 
  
  1 little gem lettuce
• 
  
  chives to garnish
• 
  
  mix the above with the dressing made from the below ingredients
• 
  
  this served two of us
• 
  
  1 tsp English mustard
• 
  
  1 tblsp cider vinegar
• 
  
  3 tblsp olive oil
• 
  
  salt and pepper to taste

Barbecue sauce

So this one was in Consuming passions, yet I don't feel I can call it Uncle buns barbecue sauce as I had to leave some ingredients out! Over here in ole Blighty I have several times heard of liquid smoke but never seen it anywhere!

If anyone can give me more details on this stuff please let me know? Any how, I used smoked hot paprika hoping that it would give me that smokey taste and I also used passata instead of prepared tomato sauce.

T he story of Uncle Bun by the way is kinda tragic, he falls in love, marries a unfaithful woman, goes mad and he's barbecue place shuts down. He's recipe for barbecue sauce though is rescued from a toilet wall and here's my take on it...

Barbecue Sauce

• over a medium flame fry
• 1 onion until translucent, then add
• 2 cloves of garlic
• set aside
• now over a low flame stir together until the sugar dissolves
• 1 packet of passata
• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tblsp brown sugar
• now add
• 1 tblsp smokes paprika
• 1\4 tsp chili powder
• 1 1\2 tsp dry mustard
• 2 tblsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1\4 cup cider vinegar
• 1 1\2 tblsp lemon juice
• 1\2 cup beef stock
• salt\ pepper bring to the boil and simmer for an hour or so

this doesn't taste anything like commercial sauce, being more tomatoey. It's damn fine on the side though.

slow fried pork chops and boston baked beans

First things first, I'm going to apologise for the lack of pictures, I'm having trouble uploading anything right now. So here as promised is the first recipe I cooked, which was ever so easy to make If time consuming.
I've adapted this recipe from Richard Whittington's book Home Food, a book that sadly seems to be out of print. If you ever see it i highly recommend it, being full of interesting recipes.
The main changes I made was to Quantity's as there was only two of us and I couldn't get any salt pork so I used bacon instead. I started this recipe the night before.

slow fried pork with Boston baked beans

Ingredients

1. 
   
   200g dried haricot beans soaked overnight
2. 
   
   half tblsp paprika
3. 
   
   2 pork chump chops
4. 
   
   1 onion, chopped
5. 
   
   1 tin of tomatoes
6. 
   
   2 tblsp muscovado sugar
7. 
   
   2 tblsp black treacle
8. 
   
   1 tsp mustard powder
9. 
   
   3 rashes streaky bacon chopped into small pieces
10. 
    
    1 bay leaf

method

1. 
   
   the day before cooking make a paste with the paprika and olive oil. Rub this all over the pork chops and leave to marinade overnight in the fridge.
2. 
   
   the next day preheat the oven to a low temperature 150'c, 300'f or gas2.
3. 
   
   Bring the beans to a boil and then change the water. Then bring to the boil again turn off the heat and leave. Keep the water in the pan.
4. 
   
   Blend the onion, tomatoes and all the other seasonings except the bacon and bay leaf in a blender.
5. 
   
   Add this to the beans and bring to the boil on top of the stove, then transfer it all to an ovenproof dish.
6. 
   
   Add the bacon and bay leaf, and pop it all in the oven. If your a real cook you could have heated it on the stove in a casserole dish and then put it in the oven. Thus saving yourself some mess and some energy. Oh how i envy you cast iron casserole pan owners.
7. The recipe then says to bake for 4 hours, mine was done in about 2. Keep a eye on it though. Add water if it seems to be a bit dry and whatnot. This makes a really nice spicy dish of baked beans.
8. when the beans are done, turn the oven off and leave them in there whilst you cook the chops. I used my cast iron griddle pan as I love the lines you get along the food. But grill or fry however you normally do your chops.
9. Whilst the beans were cooking I had plenty of time to make the sauce and salads. Now eat with gusto and pretend that your an southern homemaker.

I hope you enjoyed, and I,ll give the recipe for the barbeque sauce next.

A delightful coincidence

I pretty much started Consuming Passions as soon as it hit the floor in my hallway after being delivered from Amazon, and to my delight I had most of the ingredients for the very first recipe in the book from the section 'a note to the reader.'
I hit the kitchen running, I have as always made substitutions etc. But to me this isn't so much a recipe as a way of serving. I've used parma ham instead of prosciutto and normal lettuce instead of endive as these are what I had in the house. I don't think Michael Lee would mind as she talks about herself needing to make substitutions.
So without further ado here is how I made my parma ham with red peppers....

Parma ham with red peppers

1. 
   
   chop 1 red bell pepper in half length ways and the into slices, and saute in some olive oil with 2 cloves chopped garlic and a heaped tsp of dried oregano.
2. 
   
   let the peppers get soft with slightly charred edges, about 15 to 20 min. Then let the peppers cool slightly.
3. 
   
   take a whole packet of parma ham {about 6 slices} and put about 4 pieces of pepper onto each slice.
4. 
   
   now roll the parma ham around the peppers and arrange on a bed of salad. Drizzle some balsamic vinegar over the top and eat with dips and gusto.

I,ll be giving my review of consuming passions in my next post for you all.

Age of innocence inspired wedding cupcakes

Here as promised is the recipe for my Age of innocence inspired cupcakes. I've adapted these from Cupcakes from the primrose bakery, from the wedding section.
I thought that wedding cupcakes would be perfect as most of the conflict in the book was caused by marriages! Archers wedding to May, Countess Olenskas to the count. Generally marriage caused a whole lot of problems in the book. So enough with the waffling and on with the cooking.

Age of Innocence inspired cupcakes

1. 11og unsalted butter
2. 180g caster sugar
3. 2 lrge eggs
4. 125g self raising flour
5. 120g plain flour
6. 125ml milk at room temp
7. half tsp almond essence

for the icing

1. 115g unsalted butter
2. 60ml milk
3. 1 tsp vanilla extract
4. 500g icing sugar {i used fondant }
5. quarter tsp almond essence
6. flaked almonds to decorate

method for the cakes

pre heat the oven to 160'c\ 350'f\ gas mark 4. Although to be honest i just bung mine on a medium temperature as my ovens a brute and i just watch things in it very carefully.

1. Cream together the butter and the sugar with a wooden spoon, an electric whisk would be better but i don't have one so I'm going with the spoon. If doing it by hand really put some welly in it as the smoother you get it the better the cake.
2. Break one of the eggs into a cup and break it up a bit with a fork. Now add this to the butter mixture and mix it in. Do the same with the other egg.
3. Sift the two flours together in a bowl. Now put the milk in a jug and add the almond essence to it.
4. Add one third of the flour to the mixture, mix it in a bit and then add a third of the milk. Continue until all the flour and milk is Incorporated in the batter.
5. Spoon the mixture a third of the up into muffin cases carefully for a great sized cupcake. You should get 12 cupcakes from the mixture.
6. Bake in the oven for about 20 min. Check regularly and take out when golden and risen. Let the cupcakes cool on a rack whilst you make the icing.
7. To make the icing soften the butter in a bowl with the vanilla extract and milk. Add half of the sugar and beat until smooth. Add the rest of the sugar and keep beating. Using the fondant icing sugar here gives the icing a really glossy finish.
8. Finally add the almond essence. Taste the icing to see if the flavour is strong enough.
9. To ice the cupcakes take a blob of icing on a palate knife. smooth this on the cupcake adding more icing as necessary. to finish, sprinkle almonds on top to decorate.

my review for the age of innocence is here