I have to confess. I’m a hoarder. It’s not intentional but every once in a while I look around at the things I own and I have duplicates, unused, stashed and hidden items. I recently used the Marie Kondo method to completely transform my bedroom – you can check out my new YouTube channel with the video of this!
One area I didn’t KonMari cleanse was my section of the communal house bookshelf. I wish it still looked like the picture below, but over the last few years I’ve collected so many cooking and baking books! The KonMari method asks you to identify the things in your life that spark joy, and get rid of everything that doesn’t. What about books I’ve never used? There could be joy in there? HOW WILL I KNOW?!
Easy Harleigh, use them.
I thought I should start with my most recent acquisition. Chrissy Teigen’s second cookbook, ‘Cravings Hungry For More’. I had really wanted ‘Cravings’ but it wasn’t released in UK measurements and I don’t believe in cooking and baking from cups and sticks. Hungry For More, however, was released in the UK and converted accordingly – hallelujah for grams.
I like to try and make a whole meal from one cook book, so chose to make the Fried Thai-Glazed Chicken Wings and Salt & Vinegar Baked Chips. Chicken and chips, can’t go wrong really.
Fried Thai-Glazed Chicken Wings
400ml full fat coconut milk, shaken
6 tbsp fish sauce
6 tbsp light brown sugar
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp chopped lemongrass – it’s easier to use paste
grated zest and juice of 2 limes
10 small fresh Thai bird’s eyes chillies or 1 large jalapeño, chopped
2 tsp kosher salt
1.35kg chicken wings
chopped fresh coriander, for garnish
In a large bowl, combine the coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, lemongrass, lime zest, lime juice, chillies and salt. Add the wings, toss to coat, cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours.
Preheat a frying pan over medium-high heat. Remove the wings from the marinade and fry until the skin is crisp and golden, flipping once, 12 to 14 minutes total. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with coriander.
Salt & Vinegar Baked Chips
500ml distilled white vinegar
50g kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
8 large King Edward potatoes skin on, scrubbed
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
finely chopped chives, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 450’F/230’C.
In a large pot, combine 1.5 litres water, the vinegar and kosher salt and bring to a boil over high heat.
Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into chunky chip shapes.
Line a baking sheet with kitchen towel. Put the potatoes into the water (it’s OK if it’s not boiling yet), bring to a boil, and boil 8 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon (be careful not to break them; they should still be sort of firm but bendy) to the lined baking sheet to soak up all the additional liquid. Spread the potatoes out in one layer and blow them dry with paper towels. Let cool.
Transfer the potatoes to a large bowl and toss with 2 tbsp of the oil and 1 tsp salt. Divide the remaining 4 tbsp oil between two large rimmed baking sheets (2 tbsp per sheet).
Heat the oiled sheets in the oven until very hot but not smoking, 5 to 6 minutes. Using an oven mitt, remove the sheets from oven and quickly divide the potatoes between them, making sure they all actually sit on the surface of the pan. Return to the oven and bake until the underside are brown and crisp all around, another 10 minutes. Drain on paper towel and season with more salt. Garnish with chives.
The chips are SENSATIONAL!
I’m someone who can never have too much vinegar on their chips, but this method gives the amazing flavour of vinegar without the harsh tang.
I have only one note on the chicken recipe and method. That frying is a pain, especially as this is such a liquid based marinade there is a lot of oil spitting as the liquid and hot oil meet, leaving a lot of cleaning up. The flavour is amazing and I think could be made bake-friendly using less coconut milk, and added a thicker coconut cream to create a rub marinade rather than a soak.
A very motivating start to get me cooking through all these books!
