Foodie talk

I served up a storm for dinner last night, as my son no.2 is back home for a two week break. Of course we have been missing him like crazy and being me, I just like to cater to all the kiddie's requests for whatever they want to eat.... So for his welcome home dinner I made everyone something special-Grilled Ribs!

But as I was serving up dinner, everyone inquired, even dear ole hubs on why wasn't I taking pics of my food this time around, which is what I normally do - all for the love of my blog. Well, the happenings in the past couple of days killed my mood that's what!! Thank goodness, still can cook!! Haha. Anyways to make some of you who love food to salivate over, here's what I served-all made from scratch ok!

1. Grilled beef ribs that was rubbed all over with a mixture of brown sugar and paprika and refrigerated overnight. Later, it was basted over with homemade tomato/bbq sauce, while baking in a slow oven.
2. Oatmeal buns, which of course I made with the help of the bread machine but my little miss was only to happy to help me roll the dough into little balls!
3. Coleslaw. I love making the shredded variant rather than the grated. So that's the kind we had.
4. Tomato sauce made from chopped up tomatoes, onions, paprika, salt, black pepper, a can of tomato puree,brown sugar and lashings of butter at the end.

Tonight, I'm making them a very american dinner of southern-style fried chicken with gravy. Maybe some biscuits on the side to mop up all that gravy & juices! Mash too if they want that again or something else....

Here's the recipe that I'm going to use; from a foodie blogger whose work I enjoy reading. Errr, replacing the lard with oil, that's all. Haha.





Great-Grandma Gibson’s Fried Chicken
Ingredients:
One fresh whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces
8 cups of water
1/2 cup of salt
1 1/2-2 cups of lard (can use shortening or oil) depending on size of your skillet. Fat should rise up the sides about 1 inch.
1 cup of flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Heat up 8 cups of water, and then add 1/2 cup of salt. Either add ice cubes or chill water until cool.
When water is cool, add chicken pieces and submerge. Keep covered in the refrigerator overnight or at least 8 hours.
Mix flour, salt and pepper and place in a paper bag.
Place each piece of chicken in paper bag and shake until evenly coated with flour. Lay coated piece of chicken on a plate. Repeat until all pieces are coated.
Heat lard on high heat in a large cast-iron skillet (though if you don’t have one you can use any other kind of skillet as well) until temperature is 350 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer, it should take about five minutes to reach that temperature. You can test the heat by throwing in a dollop of flour—if it floats and starts frying, the temperature is perfect; if the flour sinks to the bottom, the lard needs to heat up a few more minutes.
Place chicken pieces in skillet skin-side down (they can be near each other, but shouldn’t overlap) and turn heat down to medium. Fry on one side until golden brown (10-15 minutes), then turn with tongs and fry other side until golden brown.
Remove fried chicken from skillet with tongs, and drain for 10 minutes on a rack over a sheet pan or on paper towels or a paper bag. Serve immediately.

Note: This method produces a very thin but crispy crust. If you want a super-thick crust, you can do a flour dredge, then dip it into buttermilk and then dredge in flour again. And go easy on the salt since the chicken will already be salty from the brine. If you desire, you can add herbs to your brine. If you want to do a buttermilk soak, place the pieces in a bowl and then submerge in buttermilk for at least eight hours. If you have the time and want to do both the salt-water and the buttermilk soak, do the salt-water first and then the buttermilk soak. If you need to fry in batches, you can keep the fried chicken warm in an oven set at 150 degrees. Just don't leave it in the oven longer than 30 minutes or it will get too dry.

Maybe I'll make her biscuits too!



Biscuits
Ingredients:
Two cups of flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of sugar (can add more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of butter, cold (8 tablespoons)
3/4 cup of buttermilk, cream or half-and-half

Method:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
Mix all the dry ingredients together.
Cut the stick of butter into pieces, and work into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry blender until it resembles pea-sized crumbs.
Add the liquid, mixing until a bit loose and sticky.
Pour dough out on a floured surface, and knead for a minute. Dough should be smooth and no longer wet. You can sprinkle more flour on the surface if you find it’s sticking.
Take dough into a ball, and hit it with a rolling pin, turning it and folding it in half every few whacks. Do this for a couple of minutes.
Roll out dough until it’s 1/4 of an inch thick, and then fold it in half.
Using a round cutter (can use a glass or a cup if don’t have a biscuit cutter) cut out your biscuits from folded dough.
Place on a greased baking sheet close together (so they rise up not out), and bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Makes 10-12 biscuits.