Well, it's Olympic time in Canada and there's a hockey game tonight. I told my husband that I would make him and his friend chicken and ribs for the hockey game. I thought this would be a selfless act - selfish in the fact that it would prove once and for allt hat I am the perfect wife - otherwise a selfless act. Mainly because I have recently stopped eating meat. The only meat I'm eating currently is fish. So me making chicken and ribs is of no culinary benefit to myself. See...perfect wife.
Well truth be told Husband said he was going to invite his friend over for the Canada V. Slovakia game and I saw an opportunity to cross a meat dish off the list while not having a bunch of uneaten meat in in the fridge.
So I read this recipe a few days ago and found the meat is marinated overnight. So I had to pick up everything yesterday. I made my grocery list and headed to metro after work. I needed to buy some Star Anaise. I had to google what this spice was and found it's a spice used in Asian cooking, which I was suspicious of but I had to make sure given my history. Here's the big surprise, I couldn't find star anaise. I looked in the spice section, I looked in the Asian foods section. No dice. So I have a brilliant brain-wave and think to myself " I bet Chinese Five Spice has Star Anaise in it.". So I head back to the spice section get a bottle of Chinese Five spice and read the label. Listed I find "Anaise". And I think to myself maybe I should check for "anaise" which I find. Now Nigella wants me to use whole star anaise and all I can find is anaise seeds. "It's as good as it's going to get in a Metro" I tell myself so I make do and pray that anaise seeds and Star Anaise are the same spice.
Back at home I put the chicken in one bag and the ribs in another and set them overnight. Tonight I came home from work and set to claim gold as wife of the century. Again I kept the meats apart and cooked the chicken in one dish and the ribs in another. Nigella says bake at 200C for 75 minutes. When I read this I thought "hmmm that seems a long time." But I bowed to Nigella's know-how and did as I was told.
Husband's friend arrived just as the food was coming out of the oven. But I have to tell you I was slightly dismayed by what I saw. My dishes were BLACK and the meat looked like it was in stage one of burning. "Yikes." I've got Husband's friend here and a near to burnt dinner. But I did what I do best and I pressed on.
I cut up the ribs and plated my dish and I also decided maybe I need to serve this with a sauce. Nothing covers the flavour of burnt like a good BBQ sauce. So I headed to the living room with my plate o' meat and a side of BBQ. Husband's friend is single so I'm sure he was just happy to eat someone's else's cooking. He said it looked and tasted delicious...I wasn't buying it. I told them both I need HONEST opinions for the blog.
Husband says "Do you really want my honest opinion?"
"Yes" says I.
"ummmmmm it's not so good." Says husband.
"What's wrong with it?" Says I.
"It's a little dry..."
"I thought so.....that's why I brought you the sauce. Just put on some sauce."
In the end the chicken was good and the ribs had good flavour but were a bit too dry. Or so I'm told. If you want to make this I suggest you cook this at 375 as opposed to 400. Of maybe cook for a little less time. But 75 minutes at 200C is a bit too long. One thing I can tell you about this is the cinnamon smells delicious when it's cooking...and I'll be scrubbing my dishes for the next 6 months.
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