Whipping Up a Storm

Currently listening to:  Gonna Get Along Without You Now/ Thieves (She & Him)
Currently pondering: I don't want to give up home cooking for revision...

Last week I said that the diet would start, and over-consumption and mid-week drinking would be banned. But I know now that was never meant to happen, universal signs have shown me that that is not the way; 'Tis not the season to be fretting about Christmas weight. Next week, back at Uni, back to bellydance, and I'll get my butt in gear. Yus. In the spirit of not worrying about caloric castigation, I've been revelling in the freedom of a well-stocked kitchen and the shiny newness of my Christmas goodies! I got A LOT of baking-related gifts, retro measuring cup, colourful silicone cases, cook books- the works. And in a happy twist of fate, the boy also got a lot of groovy cooking related gifts! It only made sense that we spent a couple of evenings cooking and playing house (I love playing house, I loved play-pretend as a child and I still do now). I also love seemingly unnecessary kitchen gadgets, like a simultaneous apple corer AND slicer. Apples taste so much tastier when cored and cut into slices. True. Story.

The recipes we tried were SO good, that not only did they make my skirt fly up (I've been waiting to say that for ages) but I'd also recommend them to others. Do it. Find new depths of happiness with relatively little fat-laden guilt. 

First things first however: excuse the shoddy photography, it's hard to cook and photograph with only one  pair of hands. My second pair was preoccupied with Assassin's Creed. Men. Pssshh.

1. Chicken Mojo (Levi Roots: "Food for Friends")

Alex's recipe. He has an inclination towards spicy and slightly exotic food, so this present should encourage him to be more adventurous in the kitchen. Should. But men are men, ultimately this genetic subscript dictates that the easiest/quickest solution will be taken when the hunger pangs kick in.

 First plus point: Simple store cupboard

ingredients. The ginger beer isn't
needed though, that was for my own refreshment...

Before

Gift 2: Awesome Kenwood mixer/blender/chopper/blitzer. I don't ever want to fine chop vegetables ever again. Mr. Ken Wood is now chief veggie chopper, thank you.

2 Button presses later..

 Look. Look at how colourful and beautiful that looks. It
smelt even better.

Then came the difficult task of leaving it to marinade for 1-5 hours. We lasted 1hr 18mins. Pitiful, but you don't know how good this 

marinade smelled! You can't judge us!

Ready for roasting. Here's a tip, maybe an obvious one, but for those who like a crispy skin on your chicken, when roasting, place the meat skin side down, so when you turn it mid-way through cooking, the skin isn't covered by cooking juices which make it go all soggy. Maybe that's obvious, maybe it isn't, either way, gives you a crispy skin.

Serve with awesomely awesome vegetables and sourcream.

Review: Knee slappingly good food, and not too unhealthy right? Minimal cooking fat, sizeable protein portion, vit C from the orange juice and lime juice, chilli pepper boosts your metabolism and fat-busting abilities while you're eating, and then urr, you know, has an aphrodisiac quality to it too, for later..you know. Ye-ah.

This chicken was such a hit, Alex didn't even add Nando's sauce. Oh no. And I went on to look through the book and found an alcoholic watermelon recipe. I LOVE WATERMELON. I LOVE ALCOHOL. I have found my summer eats. And when I hve a summer barbecue housewarming, I'm making both the wings and the watermelon thing and everyone will love me forever.

2. Winey Mushrooms.

We needed some sort of veggie goodness for a side plate, but unfortunately couldn't find a simple-ish one in the book leaving us with no other option other than to "wing it". So what do you do with a pepper, red onion, and 2 large mushrooms? 

Slice 'em, fry 'em with butter, salt and pepper and then decide to throw in your glass of wine.

Realise that mushrooms are terrible alcoholics and your half glass of wine is not enough, and you should just go ahead and pour from the bottle. Classy. Wish you'd doubled the mushroom content. Forget about it. Finish the wine. Remember you're cooking. Save the pan before you burn through it.

Find sourcream. Throw it on the side of your plate and throw out your healthy eating resolutions. You won't regret it. Or at least not until you break into your second-stone weight gain.

-Break (We were I was too full and tired to bake further)-

3. Strawberry and Polenta cupcakes.
Elisa, staunch Italian-cooking-principles defender almost kicked me for saying you could bake with polenta. She nearly disowned me for adding marmite to my spaghetti. She was disgusted with me for eating ridiculous amounts of pancetta in a given 24hour period. Here, I show her the versatility of polenta.
(What is Polenta? Polenta is a very finely ground cornmeal used for cooking in a variety of dishes. Akin to extremely fine and less disgusting form of semolina.)

This is my recipe, from my wee little cupcake cookbook (courtesy of BBC GoodFood).

 From this heathen mess, came these little tasty beauties...

Damn I make a lot of mess when cooking

 Whilst K.Wood was an awesome veggie chopper, the mixing of sugar, flour and butter was less successful. Things quickly descended into a sugar-flying, butter-flinging pandemonium. Order was restored with the traditional "Metal Spoon and Elbow Grease" method.

 How I love my coat silicone baking cups of many colours, they were red and yellow and green and blue and purple and pink and fuschia and orange...

So perfect

 

And then they did that. WHY do cupcakes go lopsided!? Luckily the book portrayed them a little shabby-chic, otherwise, I would not have been happy. No siree bob. Anyway, ever onwards.

 I don't/can't cook without tasting. Momma usually tries to slap the back of my hand when I aim for the Sunday roast etc, but I've gotten so fast she can see but a blur when I've started picking. Cheetah's ain't got a thang on me.

Mmmmm. You're feeling hungry now aren't you? I bet you are. I even made peanut butter cups with the mini baking cups I had. But there was no chance photos were being taken while I made them/before I ate them. That and like an idiot I spilled a litre of water and it went EVERYWHAR. So instead of taking photos I was attempting to tidy, make sweeties and dry out my camera. Curse you round-bottom bowls. Curse you.

In further cursing, my blackberry now dictates when it goes on and off, regardless of battery status. 11days till I join the iPhone army.

Go, find a recipe, follow it, disregard it, come up with something highly satisfying or get a pizza. Go.

Love xx