Fried chicken!

I'm sure all of you have moments where you fancy something really specific.

Today, I really, really fancied fried chicken.

It was actually because Greg had been here a few days before, and so he and my grandparents kept talking about maybe going to KFC for lunch...

No KFC was had. So I made my own!

I've never actually made fried chicken before. I actually have a bit of a phobia of deep-frying things; something about a pan full of hot oil is enough to send me running.

Today, I faced my fear! And took my oil and eggs to arms.

Ingredients:

• Chicken pieces - on the bone is best, so drumsticks, thighs and legs are good. I used 6 pieces
• One or two eggs
• Seasoning - see below
• 1.5 cups vegetable oil (or any oil with a high smoke point)

I'm afraid I didn't take any in-progress pictures, so I'll do my best to explain everything here.

First, get your hob hot - medium high heat is good. Let your oil heat up. You're supposed to use a thermometer to get a certain temperature, but when it's bubbling a little bit, you're good.

In the mean time, set up two plates; one with some beaten egg, and the other with your seasoning.

For your seasoning, you can use pretty much anything. You'll want a base of flour and salt, but you can add whatever flavours you fancy; parsley, cumin, paprika; if it sounds like it'd go together, throw it in! 

I actually used a 'Maggie' packet sauce for a chicken and potato casserole as I'm at home and don't have any herbs or spices to hand. It turned out pretty well, so if you're really stuck a powdered sauce will work, too.

Dredge your chicken first in your seasoning, then in your egg and then back in your seasoning. Make sure to turn it over and coat well during each step.

Pre-heat your oven to 220C/200C fan, and get a baking tray with a wire rack set up on a work surface. Time to fry!

Drop in your chicken one at a time (or two if you've got room). The oil will bubble and foam. Count to like... 10-15 seconds, then turn. Then count again.

SAFETY WARNING: HOT OIL IS EVIL AND SPITS AT YOU AND BURNS. So, please be safety conscious! Don't have pan handles stuck out and always keep an eye on the pan. 

Take out your chicken with tongs and set to rest on your wire rack. Rinse and repeat until all your chicken has been fried.

You should now have a rack full of delicious fried chicken and a hot oven! Pop your chicken in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the juices run clear when you poke it. Done!

Serve with whatever you fancy. I went for a side salad and jacket potato. This isn't mine, though - as you can probably tell by the inclusion of tomatoes. :(

Much better! KFC, eat your heart out!

Tuna sliders

 

Everyone keeps cans of tuna in their cupboards.They're a kitchen staple; the 'empty cupboard standby' food.

Sadly, canned tuna isn't the most appetising thing to look at. Especially not when it's all brine-y or oily, stuck together in clumps peering out at you like a soggy towel.

But! With a few household ingredients (which, if you were raiding the cupboards and could only find tuna you may not have), you can turn your soggy towel tuna into something delicious.

Kitchen mess is the best type of mess, especially when you don't have to clean up afterwards.

Ingredients:

Makes 5 mini burgers

1 spring onion

1 rib of celery

1 can tinned tuna

2 cloves garlic

1/4 carrot, peeled

1/2 red pepper

Salt and pepper, parsley, crushed chillies and paprika

2 tbsp cream

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1 egg

All purpose flour

Olive oil

Start by finely chopping all of your vegetables. Don't go crazy with this. If you have a food processor, feel free to throw them all in there and let it do it's thing.

Throw all your veggies except the celery and garlic into a medium bowl.

Fry the celery and garlic in a little olive oil for a few minutes, until it's heated through but still crunchy. 

This is where it gets messy.

The best way I can describe this is just - throw everything else into the bowl (except the flour and no more oil), and just have a party.

Disco balls and everything. Don't hold back.

Mix until everything is combined, and chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes to let it firm up.

During that time, you might want to start making your sides to serve your sliders with.

After 10 minutes is up, take the bowl out of the fridge. Dust a surface with flour, and set a pan to heat to medium-high with some olive oil. 

Grab small handfuls of the mixture, then form them into balls. Don't worry if it feels like it's falling apart; it might. If it does, cry onto your dusted surface and give in cooking forever.

As long as you give it a good coating and slop it straight into the pan, you shouldn't have to worry too much about it falling apart. When you've got all of your balls in the pan, flatten them down with a spatula so they look vaguely burger-shaped.

You can see mine were cracking a little. That there in the pan? That's not oil. That's tears.

Just kidding! After 4-5 minutes, give them a flip.

They should be nice and golden brown. If not... flip em back over! A few minutes on this side should be enough, and then you can serve with your sides!

Whipped cream sadly didn't go with this, but a nice squirt of BBQ sauce did me just fine ♥

Key Lime Pie

Here in the UK, avocados are pretty expensive. We're talking about £1 for a medium-large sized one.

Lucky little me found some for 39p (!) in Lidl, along with some cheap juicy limes. This pie was pretty much a no-brainer.

Armed with this baby, I set off into the wonderful world of experimentation!

Weirdly enough, I've never actually eaten avocados before. They taste kinda funky on their own, but when you pour copious amounts of sugar in it - winner winner, chicken dinner!

I kid; this post is under the 'healthy' tag after all.

Limes are actually a really pretty fruit, too. Not so pretty when you squeeze the juice into your eye.

You can tell I was tired when I made this, because after I took this photo I put the lid on and turned the blender on without taking the spoon out.

This delicious green mess is:

2 medium-large avocaods

2 limes, juice and zest

2 tbsp single cream

1 tbsp stevia

4 tbsp flour

I got to this by trial and error... I knew I wanted creamy, limey and a little sweet (is limey a word?), but I'm trying to keep it low on the sugar and saturated fat. Healthy is good ♥

In the mean time, I mixed oats, melted butter, cinnamon, chopped nuts and a few assorted raisins together. Just do whatever looks good, in a quantity big enough to cover your dish about half an inch thick.

Due to the obscenely large pie dish I have (it's bigger than my head) mine is a little thinner than I would've liked, but I made do.

Bake it in a 190C oven for about 10 minutes, then let it cool.

Schoooooop in your filling, chill and serve!

 ...Whipped cream? Whipped cream.

Gnocci and turkey and vegetable stew

Wham! Blam! Five of your five a day in one delicious stew. 

Turkey is one of my five a day... right?

This was actually really simple. I won't give you the full recipe, because I think this is the kind of soup where you can just use whatever vegetables you have to hand and it'll probably taste good.

I went for celery, carrot, red onion, spinach and green beans. I also used store-bought gnocci, because what do you think I am?! A cooking blog writer?!

Start off by dicing your meat of choice, then marinate for a few hours with whatever sounds good. I went for salt, black pepper, cumin, coriander and mustard. 

In the mean time, roughly chop your veggies. Heat some olive oil and fry your meat until golden brown.

While your meat is browning, heat a pot on medium high and add a tablespoon of olive oil, a few tablespoons of butter and a little flour. Stir to make your roux, then stir in your veggies. Add in as much boiling water as you want, then as many stock cubes as you need for that much water. Guesstimate!

Add your browned meat into your stew, then add flour to thicken to a desired consistency. Let it simmer for a while to reduce, then add your gnocci and cook until they've risen to the occasion.

And serve! If you make this gnocchi vegetable turkey stew, you could even find...

an extremely happy guest! ♥

Though if she's breaking and entering and you don't know who she is, you may want to phone the police.

And for dessert -

Pear pastries and cream~! And they say I don't spoil them...