Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

SOOO! I'm back. I haven't posted since November for 2 reasons. 1) My sister sent me a virus and my laptop is all funny and I'm being cheap and lazy so I'm using Adam's computer till I fix it. 2) Adam and I didn't know how to upload pictures to his computer, but I have figured it out. So now I'm back with a ton of stuff to share. There is a lot of Christmas foods (plum pudding, fruit cake, cookies!), some more Nigella and some Julia Child. I'm very excited about the Julia Child ones. My sister got me Mastering the Art of French Cooking  for Christmas. I love it! for that matter I loved Christmas this year. I got soooo much cookery. Beside Julia I also got a cast iron pot ( very exciting!) and a blow torch. I think those are the three things that I was most excited about. Oh no I lie, my mom got me the 101 piece Wilton cake decorating set. I haven't made to many cakes yet, but I do have one in mind of Valentines day.

I decided that my first post back should be a Nigella recipe. More specifically a Nigella Kitchen recipe. Mostly because it is quickly becoming my favorite Nigella Lawson cookbook. I know may of you might be thinking " Dana I thought you where a vegetarian" but I am...really. It is just that recently with the addition of Kitchen and now Mastering the Art of French cooking there are so many recipes that I want to try that I may have eaten the odd chicken, duck or pork product. I admit it. I'm awful. I know.

K, so here we go. This is a super yummy recipe and it isn't hard to make. Honestly I think the hardest part is peeling all that garlic. The recipe call for 40 cloves but really if it's 39 or 41 it doesn't really matter, it will taste amazing either way.

You will need:
2 tablespoon olive oil
8 pieces of chicken ( Nigella calls for thighs but use whatever you like)
1 bunch of green onions
small bunch of thyme
40 cloves of garlic ( 3 or 4 bulbs)
2 tablespoon white wine or vermouth
salt and pepper to taste

1) Pre-heat the oven to 325 degrees. In a oven and stove proof pan heat the olive oil
2) When hot, add the chicken skin side down and sear ( about 3-4 minutes)
3) Remove chicken and place in a bowl. Add the spring onions to the pan on the stove and saute for 1 minute, add the thyme.
4) Spread 20 unpeeled cloves of garlic on the bottom of the pan. Place the chicken on top of the garlic. Then cover with the remaining garlic.
5) Add the wine/ vermouth to the chicken. Season with salt and pepper and place in the oven lid on ( or carefully cover with foil) for 1 1/2 hours.

Enjoy!

Tips
Nigella has a tip for using the leftover chicken juices and leftover chicken. She says to add water or stock to the juices and simmer until hot then add shredded chicken that it is nice to have the day after. Go ahead try it, I also don't see why you couldn't add some of the garlic. I would remove the paper and mash it then add it to the soup.

Crustless Pizza

This is the first recipe that I have tried from Kitchen. Nigella made it on her new show I think it was in the first or second episode. It is a cross between a Yorkshire pudding and a quiche. I really liked it, although I didn't follow the recipe exactly as written. Nigella's version uses pepperoni or chorizo, both of which I don't have. I'm a vegetarian and Adam is not, this can sometimes make meal time frustrating. So I made half meat and half not. We have bologna in the house so I cut up a piece of it and put on his half. I then added some parsley and changed slightly changed that cheese. The recipe calls for Cheddar cheese, which I have. But a couple days ago we had bought a dill Havarti, I used some of it as the finally topping of cheese. I really liked this recipe, I know I didn't stick to the original but it was pretty close. I know I'm going to make this again, often. However the next time I make this I am going to add just a pinch of nutmeg.

You will need for 2 people

1 egg
100g plain flour
250ml milk
100g Cheddar cheese ( or cheese of your choice)
50g Chorizo or Pepperoni ( or meat of your choice)
Butter to grease with
Salt to taste

1) Preheat the oven to 200c. Butter a pie dish.
2) Combine the flour and salt in a bowl. Beat the milk and egg together, add to flour mixture and mic until smooth.
3) Add half of the cheese, pour into pie dish. Sprinkle parsley and place meat on top.
4) Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Take out of the oven and sprinkle half of the cheese. Put back in the oven for 2 or 3 minutes, just until the cheese melts.

Tips
1) I don't see why you can't add left over meat to this or even some veggies.

I met Nigella Lawson!!!!!

Today Nigella had a book signing at an Indigo book store downtown Toronto. So I went and it was AMAZING!!! I was so excited!!!! When I got there I had to buy her new book then stand in line. I should of gotten there earlier, I ended up being near the end of the line. But that was ok. I waited in line for almost an hour. She signed my book and I got to take a picture with her. I also was a little creepy and took a few more of just her. But only a few!