Midnight Chicken
This is the recipe that the book is named after and the one I was the most dubious about. I don’t hate roast chicken, I just find it to be the most boring dinner option, growing up it was the type of thing my mum would make when she couldn’t be bothered or if it was the week before pay day. As a family we were all equally unimpressed with roast poultry, if it was Sunday and my mum said she was roasting a chicken, everyone would groan in unison, not chicken. The only thing met with more indifference than roast chicken was the Christmas turkey but luckily that was only to be endured once a year whereas chicken was near enough a fortnightly occurrence, it was a dinner that could be tolerated but never truly loved. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my comfort food and given the choice I think Lidl lasagne would be my last meal on earth but I’ve never found roast chicken particularly comforting or delicious. To me it’s just always been very meh. So reading the introduction to the book, I thought really? chicken? a recipe worth LIVING for? I HAVE TO TRY IT…
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“There are lots of ways to start a story, but this one begins with a chicken. It was the first story I ever wrote about food, and it begins with a chicken in a cloth bag hanging on the back of a kitchen chair. It was dark outside, and I was lying on the hall floor, looking at the chicken through the door, and looking at the rust in the door hinges, and wondering if I was ever going to get up […] So this story begins with a chicken. This is the best roast chicken you’ll ever have, and I think it might just be perfect”
Ella Risbridger Midnight Chicken
And honestly? I did really want to love this chicken. I wanted to run through the streets proclaiming to anyone who would listen that I was newly converted and chicken would henceforth be my go to dinner but unfortunately that was not to be. Whilst, I do think I followed the recipe exactly (sometimes Ella’s recipes are a little confusing because she does increasingly infuriating things such as, have you frantically rooting through your cupboards looking for a jar of honey because it’s on the list of ingredients and in the process of searching cause a glass jar of gherkins to fall and smash, only to find later that the honey in question is not even for the chicken but rather to put in a mug with some lemon and ginger, “Add hot water from the kettle. Stir. Drink. Steady yourself” I nearly threw the book across the kitchen) but I also refuse to believe that the Midnight Chicken that I made is the same as the Midnight Chicken that Ella is describing in the book because mine was very mediocre in the flavour department and her one changed her life! However, credit where credits due, the chicken was cooked to perfection, it wasn’t dry AT ALL and I usually find it’s so easy to overcook poultry. Whilst this might sound like a not so humble brag about my chicken cooking ability, it was Ella who shared a great tip, if you use the BBC website meat calculator, it will tell you exactly how long you need to cook your meat for depending on its weight.
(Not Quite) Chao Xa Ga
a quick and easy dinner
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What I ended up with was not quite (not quite) chao xa ga, in the book Ella describes the end result as “A mound of tender rice, studded with pink prawns and flecks of vivid green, with a moat of richly scented broth” I was left with bowl of sticky rice that did feel reminiscent of porridge but with no broth! That being said I did halve the ingredients used because the recipe serves two but I was cooking for one. Surprisingly, even after having made half the amount, I still had enough rice for three portions. I found the rice porridge really filling and warming but there was also a freshness to it that made me feel like I was making healthy choices. The recipe is also really inexpensive to make, the majority of the ingredients are things you have anyway or even if there’s something you don’t have in, like fresh lemongrass or kale (this was my first time using either in a recipe), it’s nothing hard or expensive to find, I found both in the local supermarket for a couple of pounds. Cooking time was quick and mess was minimal which is always appreciated. Overall, I think this recipe was a success and something I will absolutely make again.
I actually found the recipe has been published online too so please do check it out!!!
ghttps://wiselivingmagazine.co.uk/food-and-drink/recipes/how-to-make-ella-risbridger-chao-xa-ga/a/
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When me and Ella disagreed
In many ways I felt this recipe book was more about the story than the actual recipes, whilst I did find a couple of things that I liked and will make it again (like the not quite xa chao ga), many of the recipes were a little basic, of course by basic I don’t mean simple to make, I love recipes that are easy to follow. However, cookbooks do tend to be more on the expensive side and when I’m paying £25 for a book, I’d prefer not to see recipes on how to make pancakes or scrambled eggs (should I need to know how to boil an egg for example I can very easily consult google.) There is a recipe for an extremely simple strawberry jam and a recipe named “In Defence of Avocado Toast” that basically reads, get a ripe avocado and put it on toast. Furthermore in the aforementioned scrambled egg recipe, Ella says not to add cream or milk to your eggs as it makes them “pallid” taking her advice I omitted the splash of milk I usually add to my whisked egg before scrambling. Perhaps this is the worst advice in the entire book, because instead of the light fluffy scrambled eggs that I can generally make in my sleep, I was met with what I can only describe as a plate of disappointment, a place where dreams come to die, a greying mess.
Some things I liked too
I wanted to love this cookbook but what didn’t help was the variety of ways that my taste differed from Ella’s. That being said there were some elements of the book that I really liked, the illustrations are absolutely lovely and really add to the charm of the book. I loved the names of the recipes,
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