I don't spend all my free time glued to the TV watching the Food Network, honestly. But one of the programmes I seem to catch with some frequency is Michael Smith's Chef At Home series. I think this is the only place he does cook any more, but even so it is an interesting programme. His "thing" is cooking without a recipe - not mentioning that he can only do this after years of cooking with recipes. And he has a really, really well-stocked pantry. But still, the concept is a good one.
Today was one of those days. The finished meal was Fried Cornmeal Chicken with Spicy Chickpea Stew and Fresh Baked Cornbread with Honey Butter. And here's how it all came about ....
I started by defrosting freezer four chicken thighs I had bought the other day from Costco and used my Food Saver to vacuum seal them. Once that was done, I marinated them in a cup of buttermilk I had left over, plus black pepper and cayenne pepper.
Next up, I grabbed a jar of the tomato sauce I made last summer, added it to some leftover chickpeas, plus some tomato paste and red pepper flakes. I also stirred in a small tub of ricotta cheese.
The cornbread was fairly simple and the whole thing was done in my skillet. You melt 1/2 cup of butter in the skillet, add 1/2 cup of sugar and two beaten eggs. Next, whisk in a cup of buttermilk plus 1/2 tsp of baking soda, followed by 1 cup each of cornmeal and flour and 1/2 tsp of salt. Once it is smooth, pop it in a 375F oven and wait around 30 minutes until a toothpick (or thin chopstick) comes out dry. Serena helped me whisk honey and butter to make the Honey Butter.
As the cornbread baked, I dredged the chicken thighs in seasoned flour-egg-seasoned cornmeal, shallow fried them till crispy then finished them in the oven.
The colours are a bit bleached in this photo, but you get the general idea.
The colours are a bit bleached in this photo, but you get the general idea.
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I watch Michael Smith sometimes. Something about his voice gets me, not in a good way, but I enjoy his attitude and wish I had a home like his.
ReplyDeleteWe watch dozens of cooking shows every week. We never write down a recipe. We watch to learn techniques and combinations and then we come up with our own stuff. Also using a recipe leaves you kind of stuck - no recipe means each time we try something out, we try to improve upon it from the previous time. And sometimes succeed. But even when we fail, it's a lot more fun that simply following someone else's recipes!