I am not a rice person. I love noodle instead. However, I do love “flavoured” rice, fried rice, baked rice, risotto…and paella is one of my favourites.
This traditional Spanish dish carries bright and colourful presentation, thanks to the fresh seafood and meat. Plus it’s actually not as much work as the lengthy ingredient list tells, and really well worth the effort. An easy task to make a big pot for a big party too. I also found it a bit tastier the next day, maybe the seafood juice continues to infuse the dish.
When I was wondering what to do with that box of sour strawberries which had been sitting in my fridge for days, I came across with this wonderful recipe. These muffins are simply PERFECT.
I totally support Jamie Oliver’s “Ministry of Food”. In case you haven’t heard about this campaign, this is basically about inspiring people who used to cook or have never cooked before to get into their kitchens and make simple and delicious food from scratch. Once you’ve mastered a recipe, you’d teach it to two more people and then ask them to teach it to someone else, he called it “Pass it On”.
So, my friend, if your family dinner has been cursed by those fast-food chains for ages just because you barely cook, I’m now passing it on this super easy recipe hoping that you could give your family a break for just one day a week.
Ingredients (serves 4):
1 whole chicken (about 3 pounds)
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 lemon, cut into 8 wedges
4 springs rosemary
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, soften
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved with 2 tablespoons warm water
Directions:
Heat oven to 450F. Remove giblets and liver from cavity, discard. Let chicken rest at room temperature for an hour.
Trim excess fat from cavity. Rinse chicken thoroughly under cold water, inside and out, then pat as dry as possible all over the cavity and the skin.
Season cavity with salt and pepper, then stuff with lemon, rosemary and garlic.
Rub skin with 2 tablespoons soften butter. Season all over generously with salt and pepper.
Place chicken in a large ovenproof skillet. Roast until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 165F, about an hour. Transfer chicken to a platter, let rest for 15 minutes before carving.
To prepare gravy, discard fat from juice in the skillet. Place pan over medium high heat. Pour in wine and broth to deglaze pan, scraping up browned bits with a wooden spoon.
Cook until reduced by half, add cornstarch mixture to thicken. Pour through a fine sieve into a serve bowl.
Serve chicken with gravy.
You can definitely do these ribs with your BBQ grill. I’ve tried that before. Not that it didn’t work, it worked perfectly. But it took 2 hours when people kept asking me “is it done?”, “can we eat it now?”, “how much longer it’s gonna take?” When it’s finally done, everybody was full with other food.
This rib involves slow cooking. You could either cook it way before your BBQ starts, or just like me, use the oven.
The good thing about using an oven is that you don’t necessary have to keep an eye on it. While doing it on a grill involves constant caring, like flipping, peeping… I don’t know. I guess I am just lazy…
