New Year's Eve and I'm going to a potluck. I need to bring an appetizer type dish so of course I'm going to make something from Nigella Express. After careful consideration I decided to go with this recipe. However I also decided that I would not use the chicken so infact I was just making Caesar Cornets.
I'm sure you are all aware that when making a salad you have to add the dressing at the last minute or else your salad will become a soggy sodden piece of shite. I really didn't want this to be a piece of shite...so I waited until the VERY last minute to whip this together. - It's called Nigella Express I'm thinking so 20 minutes should be tons of time. Well 20 minutes was enough..but JUST enough time. I guess I was slowed down too by the fact that while cleaning my house that afternoon I thought I'd be crafty and carry my vacuum and my suitecase down the stairs at the same time - BIG mistake. I strained my back doing this. So I was tenderly walking around and bending over was just not happening. Due to this I opted not to get any measuring instuments that required me to bend low or reach high. Basically I was using my scale and just a regular old spoon. So as you can imagine nothing was done to perfection with this one. It was basically just a race against time before my DD picked me up.
Anyhow - I did get the dressing and salad made fairly quickly - it was the plating and the rolling into cornets that took me forever. For one thing I had to put tooth picks through all the corenets because they NEVER would have stayed shut. But I was making small appetizer size cornets and I think Nigella is intending theses to be made with a full size Tortilla. Also I think that a flour tortilla would have stayed shut better but the recipe called for CORN and I wanted to use the corn flour ones...but I'm just saying. I think I got about 16 small cornets made. Then I tried one. It did not taste good. I don't really think it was my hodge-podge way of throwing this together either. It tasted pretty bland. This recipe needed something more to give it a little umph. But I can't think what that would be...maybe heavier on the garlic? Maybe more black pepper? I'm not sure. I had replaced the chicken with crouton (still caesar-y but kept the dish veg) so I don't really know that the chicken would have made the difference. Either way this dish just did not do it for me. But if I could just figure out what would give it that umph I'd give it another go. Maybe anchovies to make it a true caesar???? I'm just not sure...any suggestions sis?
Others assured me the taste was good but they were just a bit awkward to eat because the corn flour tortilla would fall apart if you didn't hold it right...Anyhow turns out that despite my waiting to the last minute to avoid a shite dish - I still wound up with a shite dish.
And for anyone whose wondering about my back - I did some self-medicating for that. Being that it was New Years I took several doses of "Purple Jesus" martini (in addition to a muscle relaxer) and was dancing like a mad man all night with no pain at all! This morning (or should I say afternoon) when I had finally slept off my hangover my back is still a bit sore but feeling much better that yesterday. So it seems Jesus is still performing miracles.
Sorry I have been neglectful in following your blog over the holidays. It's hard when our parents don't have the internet. As for adding some pizzaz, I see what you mean. The recipe is very simple. Perhaps marinating the cold chicken overnight in a little caesar vinaigrette would have helped. Personally, I think that you should have omitted the mayo, garlic, and worchestershire. Used a good creamy dressing like Renee's, then added some sauteed spicy pancetta, halved cherry tomatoes and chick peas. Or at least a dash of Frank's Red Hot sauce and fresh parsley to the garlic mayo mixture. I know, I've completely changed the recipe. But you said you wanted "UMPH!"
ReplyDelete