Finger Lickin' Good

19^th September 2011 – Ann’s Sticky Chicken, Arvid’s Ribs, Ann’s Curry Puffs, Bruschetta, Vegetarian Spring Rolls.

It was time for another showcase and this time I was cooking for Ange who was potentially my most excited reviewer of all time! I decided to make her a meal out of appetisers... a Finger Food Feast! Ange was really excited as she’s been asking to be my reviewer for months and the time was finally here. The menu was planned and I was going to tackle five new recipes at once (Sticky Chicken, Curry Puffs, Ribs, Vegetarian Spring Rolls and Bruschetta). Ambitious to say the least!

I started by preparing Ann’s Sticky Chicken on Saturday afternoon before I headed out to a hens night. It was really simple and I pretty much followed the recipe (except instead of buying sherry I just used some apple juice we already had in the fridge). I had Yves Klein Blue pumping and was loving life (particularly snapping the chicken in half and getting to cut the wings into two pieces – it was lucky Sian wasn’t there as I was displaying some very questionable/dangerous knife skills). It was totally easy, marinated over night, chucked them in the oven for 45 minutes and it was all done. So easy and so delicious – and the whole thing only cost $4!

The next day I had allowed a whole day for cooking and getting everything ready. It was the nicest weather ever so I really wanted to be outside, but I sacrificed that wish and stayed in the kitchen. Another Holen recipe, Arvid’s Ribs, was next and was also really easy. I put oil, vinegar, salt and pepper on the ribs and cooked them for 45 minutes at 190 then 45 minutes at 160. I then added the sauce (I used seeded mustard instead of buying American) and cooked them for another 20 minutes on 205. It was totally easy. 

The third and final Holen dish was Ann’s Curry Puffs. I’ve eaten these on a number of occasions so I was pretty keen to give them a go and see if I could do them justice. The mixture asks for the potatoes and carrots to be finely chopped, combined with the mince (I used chicken) and ‘cook’. This sounds simple, but this caused me probably 20 or more minutes of confusion! I wasn’t sure how much to cook it. I didn’t want to have crunchy potato in the Curry Puffs, but I also was trying to be careful about overcooking the mince. In the end I faffed around with it for ages and then just decided I’d leave it and hope the potato would cook in the oven. The assembling of the actual puffs was also quite confusing to me and I cut the pastry the wrong shape so couldn’t wrap them properly (even though my recipe includes pictures of how to do it)! Not the sharpest tool in the shed. By the second sheet I had it all sorted out and they were all wrapped and ready to chuck in the oven for 20 minutes. They came out golden and brown and I was quite impressed with myself!

The Spring Rolls weren’t so easy. Firstly, I couldn’t find any Chinese Cabbage so I substituted that with Bean Sprouts in a bold and quite stupid move. Secondly, I couldn’t find any Frozen Spring Roll wrappers like the recipe requested so I used rice paper rolls instead. The recipe seemed relatively easy, chop everything up and then wrap it, but I tend to make things complicated. I had intended to oven bake them but I ended up having to deep fry them because they were rice paper rolls. The smell and sight of the oil made me feel truly ill but I’m that good a host I just pushed through! It was all going fine, Sian was helping me (and I was making sure I blotted them with paper towel like mad) while Bald and Ange were talking shit and waiting for everything to get ready. In a way that only I can muster, I then put a spring roll in the oil, stopped paying attention to what I was doing, and put two of my fingers in the ridiculously hot oil. I cannot believe that this shit happens to me (or that I do that to myself). Idiot. Bald – being the sensitive person that he is – said “oh no, you didn’t spoil the oil did you?” Oh, the wit. At the time it felt like the nail might burst off my finger, but it doesn’t seem to have even left a mark or anything. Weird.

The final dish was Bruschetta. I wanted to try Gianna’s Broad Bean Bruschetta, but I couldn’t find Broad Beans (and don’t know what they are) so decided I’d just make a tomato one instead. I used garlic, tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper, parmesan cheese and dressed it with red wine vinegar and a bit of honey. I toasted some French Stick and that was it. It was totally easy, but my favourite dish (potentially because I knew it didn’t have 75 million litres of oil in it like everything else).

 After preparing, cooking and cleaning for probably 6 hours of the day, I was pretty happy that it was all ready on time and we sat down to eat. Everyone oohed and aahed and said all the right things (except me, I was negative, but I was allowed to be because I cooked it).

I thought the Sticky Chicken was amazing and I don’t know why we don’t make it all the time. I’ll be making that from now on for every BBQ I attend. I don’t think I really like Ribs as I didn’t enjoy them last time either, but everyone else seemed to scoff them so they can’t be too bad. The curry puffs were yum but I would maybe make them smaller next time. I didn’t really think the spring rolls had any flavour but I guess they were ok if you covered them in sauce. I was super impressed with my Bruschetta. Mainly I just sat back and watched the food disappear as everyone else enjoyed the feast – that was by far the best bit.

Bald was lucky enough to get the biggest lunch in the history of the world (sticky chicken about 12 ribs and 4 curry puffs) and the rest of the curry puffs were gobbled up by my colleagues so at least all that food isn’t hanging around at our house.

What is hanging around is the most revolting oily smell I’ve ever wiffed. It’s disgusting and our house now smells like the cooking rooms at high school. (Also my hand smells like oil which isn’t nice, but can probably be attributed to the fact that I tried to deep fry my fingers!)

Ange seemed thoroughly impressed and told me I should start a catering business. I would consider it but the world’s best phone number has already been taken. 

I wish this was a joke but it’s not. I drive past it at least once a week and can’t help but laugh out loud every single time!

Anyway, longest blog ever, most food cooked in one evening and hopefully a raving review to come!

Tips: Don’t put fingers in hot oil.

Music: Playlist of music Ange made (about 7 hours of various music on my computer).

 Vegetarian Spring Rolls