I had to take some time out to post on fried chicken! It’s incredible, and you can make it healthy if you know how to cook it! So, here is the original, traditional recipe (how-to-cook-gourmet.com/) and here is a recipe that’s a little healthier (taken from womenshealth.about.com). I’m going to try them both and get back to you guys about how I did!!!

It’s mmmm mmm good!!!!

Naimah

Southern Fried Chicken

• 1 cup salt

• 1 quart water

• 1 chicken, 2 ½ to 3 pounds, cut into 8 pieces

• 3 eggs

• 1/3 cup water

• 1 cup hot red pepper sauce

• 2 cups self-rising flour

• 1 tsp. pepper

House seasoning (approx. 1-2 tsp.)

• 1 cup salt
• ¼ cup black pepper
• ¼ cup garlic powder

Dissolve salt in water in a large bowl; add the chicken. Cover; refrigerate 3 to 4 hours. Pour off the brine; rinse the chicken well under running water in the bowl. Drain. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the water. Add enough hot sauce so the egg mixture is bright orange. In another bowl, combine the flour and pepper. Season the chicken with the house seasoning. Dip the seasoned chicken in the egg, and then coat well in the flour mixture.

Heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil; stir in bacon drippings. Heat to 350 degrees, or until a drop of water spatters when it hits the hot oil. Add drumsticks, wings and thighs, skin side down (the oil should come about halfway up the sides of the pieces of chicken). Cover; cook until tiny bubbles begin to appear in the crust on the side facing up, about 10 minutes. Turn; cook 10 minutes. Uncover the skillet; reduce heat to medium-low. Cook until chicken is golden brown, 5-10 minutes. Remove to a rack placed over a cookie sheet.

Raise heat under skillet to medium-high. Heat oil to 350 degrees; add breasts, skin side down. Cook until tiny bubbles begin to appear in the crust, about 10 minutes. Turn; cover. Cook 10 minutes; uncover. Lower heat to medium-low; cook until golden brown, 5-10 minutes.

Healthy Oven-Fried Chicken

• 1/2 cup skim milk or buttermilk
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1 cup corn flakes, crushed
• 1 1/2 Tbsps onion powder
• 1 1/2 Tbsps garlic powder
• 2 tsps black pepper
• 2 tsps dried hot pepper, crushed
• 1 tsp ginger, ground
• 8 skinless pieces chicken (4 breasts, 4 drumsticks)
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• paprika to taste

Preheat oven to 350° F. Add 1/2 teaspoon of poultry seasoning to milk. Combine all other spices with cornflake crumbs and place in a plastic bag. Wash chicken and pat dry. Dip chicken into milk, shake to remove excess, then quickly shake in bag with seasoning and crumbs.  Refrigerate for 1 hour. Remove from refrigerator and sprinkle lightly with paprika for color.

Evenly space chicken on greased baking pan. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 40 minutes.

Remove foil and continue baking for an additional 30 to 40 minutes or until the meat can be easily pulled away from the bone with a fork. The drumsticks may require less baking time than the breasts. Crumbs will form a crispy “skin.” (Do not turn chicken during baking.)

I’ve wanted to go to Wahaca for a while and finally did the other day with my boyfriend and another couple of friends. Wahaca is the brain child of Thomasina Miers, winner of BBC’s Masterchef in 2005. It’s not described as a restaurant or fine dining, but as ‘mexican street food’, which gives the food, venue and whole meal an informal sense of fun. There are two Wahaca restaurants so far, both in London. The first opened in 2007 in Covent Garden and is hidden away downstairs, and always has a queue snaking down them. A second Wahaca was opened in 2008 in the brand spanking new Westfield shopping centre. Although not as busy, it is definitely just as good as the more central venue.

The menu is divided into different parts. Drinks and nibbles at the top, tapas style street food in the middle, soups and salads and then Platos Fuertes (or main courses) below and at the bottom, desserts! We wanted to try a bit of everything so went for the Wahaca Selection, a selection of their street food. It’s based on two people sharing (£20 each) but you each get something like 10 different dishes. We tried the pork pibil which was very nice. The Devon crab lacked crab but the broad bean, thyme and feta taquitos made up for it. The dishes come out quickly and it can be a bit overwhelming at first. However, you get into it and its fun figuring out which dish is which. For pudding avoid the churros con chocolate (ok but not that exciting). Instead, opt for the vanilla ice cream with caramel. Unctuous, full of flavour and lots of it!!! Perfect end to a gorgeous meal.

I would definitely highly recommend Wahaca to all my friends and family (and you guys!) as it’s so hard to find good authentic Mexican food. Not only is it all tasty but it’s also ethical, as produce is locally grown and even its décor was made from recycled fruit boxes!

The secret is out. Wahaca is the place to go. Just don’t go too often as I want to get in too! Hehe.

Naimah.

So my boyfriend and I went to Wahaca recently (amazing restaurant, I’ll blog about it in the next post) and got some free chilli seeds. So we planted them, all 30 of them. The thing you don’t realise with chillies is that they start off as cute little seedlings but that the end product is more of a bush than a tame house plant! And now we have about 6 of these bad boys left, having desperately found friends, relatives and strangers to accept some! I am now living in a jungle.

I think our chillies have grown to be so prosperous through careful watering (that was my boyfriend’s job) and light (the sun’s job). My job was to strategically position the plants on the ledge of our landing, on our desk and on bathroom shelves. They were quite happy as we were in the loft so it was warm and light, just what chillies need. It took about 6 months for them to grow fully and start flowering and even bearing fruit! Was very exciting until I realised that we had planted scotch bonnet chillies, which are one of the hottest varieties around. This was, and still is, disappointing. It’s nice to grow plants until they overtake your home; and it’s especially nice if they can bear fruit. But when it’s a ridiculously hot variety of fruit well, it is a bit of a shame. However, I recently found out that scotch bonnet can be used in lots of Caribbean recipes and will be trying some of them out. I’ll keep you posted!

Naimah.