Hi kids!
I’m so sorry it’s been so long, I’ve had such a hectic past couple of weeks! Let me fill you in: Red Hot Chili Peppers was AMAZEBALLS! So great. My mom and her (new) hubby bought a house. We had a lovely girls night out, my sisters, my mom and I. The three sisters..we had a huge fight over pianos. Still haven’t quite sorted that one out yet. I am knee deep in Maid of Honor duties and organizing the bachelorette party. AND we’re starting to plan our Christmas in Europe! Lah-di-dah! The list goes on and on…But let’s move on to the real reason we’re here. Our second Try It Tuesday experiment. This time, it was the man’s turn to decide on a recipe, but to my shock and horror, he decided he would cook it himself.
Now here’s the thing. I love the man. Truly. Madly. Deeply. (Savage Garden, much?) But he’s not exactly known for his culinary skills. He can do a mean breakfast, and he can do pre-made frozen burgers and fries, or fish fingers and peas…But a full proper meal? Haven’t seen it. So I was nervous.
Turns out I’m a controlling, mean, psycho bitch when someone else is in my kitchen. With zero patience. I mean, I barely gave him chance to start, and I was already yelling at him for not preheating the oven, and taking too long with the onions. Gosh, that was a side of me I did not want to see.
Anyway, he decided he would try a recipe from my new Jamie Oliver 15 minute Meals recipe book (which he gave me for Christmas along with my kick ass food processor). The recipe is Golden Chicken.
You can find it here: http://www.redonline.co.uk/food/recipes/jamie-oliver-s-golden-chicken
We left some ingredients out, like the spinach and leeks. We also used a gelatinous stock pot, instead of a stock cube, since that’s what we have. I also couldn’t find fresh sage at the supermarket, so we used dried.
He started by slicing the potatoes and chopping the onions in the food processor.
He then browned the chicken, got the onions in the oven, and boiled the potatoes.
Everything happened so fast, but in all that chaos (and my shouting), bacon was fried and chopped, the potatoes added to the onions, with cream (we used 250 ml instead of 100 ml…oops) and parmesan, and back in the oven AND the peas were cooked!
When it all came together, it ended up being a very satisfying dish, and the man did well. The chicken was just slightly over-cooked, because we don’t have a mallet and had to pound it with a can of mushrooms. He had to cook it for much longer than was intended just to get the middle part cooked. But the flavors were very good. But the highlight for the dish, hands-down, is the potato gratin. Oh Em Gee. It was so good, I stood over the baking dish, long after supper, with my fork and ate right out of it. I just couldn’t stop. I have a love affair with potato. In any form. It is a very gratifying relationship. Look how gorgeous they came out:
And the dish comes together like this:
It was lovely. And we agreed that the next time he cooks, I will be half-way done with a bottle of red wine before he starts! He really did a good job though.
I will be trying my hand at shortbread this evening. I have an urge to bake!
Stay tuned for more kitchen (and life) adventures!
Much Love
WaywardChild's Blog 