Friday, September 25, 2009

The Nigella Theme is Family Favorites

The I heart cooking club is helping me knock off two more from my Nigella Express book. Yippee! If you are reading this and you love Nigella, or you just want to participate in cooking cameraderie, surf on over to I Heart Cooking and join in the fun!

Buttermilk Roasted Chicken

You'll need the following ingredients........

12 chicken drumsticks (approximately 3 pounds total weight)
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, bruised and skins removed
1 tablespoon crushed peppercorns
1 tablespoon sea salt or 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon maple syrup



Directions.............

Place the chicken drumsticks in a large freezer bag, and add the buttermilk and 1/4 cup of oil.

Add the bruised garlic cloves to the bag with the crushed peppercorns and salt.



Sprinkle in the ground cumin and finally add the maple syrup, and then squish everything in the freezer bag around to mix the marinade and coat the chicken.

Leave the buttermilk marinated chicken in the fridge ideally overnight or out of the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. I choose to let it marinade overnight.



Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Take the chicken pieces out of the bag shaking off the excess marinade, and then arrange them in a roasting tin lined with foil.

Drizzle over the 2 remaining tablespoons of oil, and then roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until brown, even scorched in parts, and juicily cooked through.



From Nigella Express, On the Run section, page 274


Now, pair this with New Orleans Style Cole Slaw

You'll need these ingredients.......

1 head white or savoy cabbage, weighing about 2 pounds before trimming
2 carrots
2 sticks celery
4 scallions
1 cup best quality, preferably organic, store-bought mayonnaise
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) buttermilk
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup pecans, fairly finely chopped

Directions..........

Trim and shred the cabbage; you can do this either by hand or with a food processor.




Peel and grate
the carrots, and finely slice the celery and scallions.
I have a mini processor so it took several rounds of grating, dumping the veggies into a bowl, back to grating, etc...



Whisk
together the mayonnaise, buttermilk, maple syrup and vinegar and coat the shredded vegetables with this dressing. Behold, the Nigella whisk!



Season with salt and pepper and toss with the chopped nuts.



From Nigella Express, On the Run section, page 277

These definitely work for the category Family Favorites! Some other family favorites, which I have prepared before, can be found on the posts for Brandy Bacony Chicken, Maple Chicken and Ribs and Chicken Schnitzel. Enjoy!

19 comments:

  1. HI, you linked up perfectly!
    A wonderful family favourite, I love that maple syrup is in both elements - perfect fall flavour addition!

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  2. mmmmm...I've been wanting to try this coleslaw...what a delicious meal :D

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  3. Buttermilk marinated chicken is always great! I love the addition of maple syrup. Sounds great!! I think I'd go with boneless thighs for my family, though.

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  4. Awesome choices! I love both these recipes and thought about choosing them. I love maple syrup and think it's great in both recipes. I'm glad to hear you liked them both, sounds delicious!

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  5. Wow a Nigella double-header ... chicken and cole slaw! Both look sooooo good.

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  6. I was just happy to find two recipes in which I could use buttermilk. There was so much leftover and I can't drink it. It was good and my hubby said he liked the slaw very much. So I can vouch for that one!

    Glad to hear it linked up properly. I couldn't find it on the sideline for awhile.

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  7. I'll have to give that buttermilk roasted chicken a try - it looks delicious!

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  8. Oh that coleslaw sounds good. Buttermilk is hard to find here, got to go to a speciality dairy store - probably London ... but I might just have to do that!

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  9. I saw these recipes in the book and was intrigued by the maple syrup. They both look delicious!

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  10. This chicken looks and sounds delicious. I have some drumsticks in the freezer, so I think I will give this a try this weekend. Thanks for visiting and commenting on my blog. I love visitors! Congratulations on your survival - double time! I would love to see you at Crock Pot Wednesday this week.

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  11. These recipes are awesome Tina! I too love the idea of the maple syrup, so "fall-ee." I don't have any of Nigella books in my collection. If this is a tasting, I sure better remedy that soon. I'm always looking for a good old fashioned cole slaw recipe. A perfect "marriage" of dishes. Thanks for sharing...

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  12. Ciao ! How lovely I'm heading to my freezer to get the drumsticks out !!

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  13. What a great meal! It sounds delicious:)

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  14. Hi everyone - thanks fopr the great comments. I would say this is one of the best cole slaws I have made so far. Maybe it's the maple syrup...or the buttermilk, but it turned out well.

    Nigella will have me gaining weight again but I love her Express cookbook.

    Deb - thank you for your good wishes... I'm going to try and make it to crock pot Wednesday :)

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  15. I almost made this chicken this weekend for IHCC! I'll have to definitely do it soon. The coleslaw looks great, too.

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  16. Shelly - if you like finely diced slaw - this was great. It's a keeper.

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  17. I must try this recipe, I've been experimenting with buttermilk lately and I wanted to venture out and use it in cooking as well. I'm very excited to see this wonderful dish

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  18. The Chicken looks awesome. I love buttermilk and maple syrup. Great combo.

    The slaw looks fantastic too.

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  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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