Easy Maple Chicken and Ribs

This recipe says it all. You need no more than a few minutes to load up a couple of freezer bags with ribs and chicken, oils and unguents and then, after a day or so's untroublesome marinating in the fridge, you tip out the contents into a roasting tray and slot it in the oven. Your input is minimal, but what you get out is a big feast that feels homey and welcoming and makes everyone happy, you included.

Ingredients

• 12  pork spare ribs
• 12  chicken thighs with skin and bone still on
• 1 cup apple juice (as sharp as possible)
• 4 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick (halved)
• 6 cloves garlic (unpeeled)

Instructions

1. Put the ribs and chicken pieces in a couple of large freezer bags or into a dish.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, squelching everything together well, before sealing the bag or covering the dish.
3. Leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or up to two days.
4. When the marinating time is up, take the dish out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6/400ºF.
5. Pour the contents of the freezer bag into one or two large roasting tins (making sure the chicken is skin-side up), place in the oven and cook for about an hour and a quarter, by which time everything should be sticky and glossed conker-brown.

NIGELLA EXPRESS

The Perfect Cake for Summer

This is a wonderful cake: amusing but no joke; the velvety sponge is dark, moist and gently fragranced. Go easy on the essence in the icing, though, or it will be just too Hawaiian Tropic.

Ingredients

for the cake

• 8 oz canned pineapple in juice (approx. 4 rings)
• ⅓ cup cream cheese
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 10 tablespoons superfine sugar
• ⅓ cup soft light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ¾ sticks butter
• ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa (sieved)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons malibu (or the juice from can)

for the icing

• 2 large egg whites
• ⅔ cup superfine sugar
• ½ cup golden syrup or corn syrup
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 teaspoons coconut essence
• ½ cup desiccated coconut (or shredded coconut)

Method

1. Take whatever you need out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C/350ºF, and butter and line two loosebottomed, 20cm / 8 inch sandwich tins.
2. Process the drained pineapple (reserving the juice just in case) and cream cheese until smooth and amalgamated. Add all the other ingredients, and process again to make a smooth batter. Spoon the batter evenly into the two sandwich tins, and cook for 20-25 minutes.
3. Once they're done, they should be beginning to come away at the edges of the tin and spring back when gently pressed. Let them sit for 5 minutes in their tins on a wire rack, and then turn them out to cool. They will look disappointingly flat, but don't panic in the slightest: they will redeem themselves once they are iced. Once they're cold, you can get on with the gleaming white coconut icing.
4. Arrange a bowl that fits over a saucepan of barely simmering water to use as a double boiler, and put the whites, sugar, syrup, salt and cream of tartar into the bowl. Whisk with an electric whisk over the simmering saucepan until the icing goes thick, white and glossy and is stiff enough to form peaks. This will take about 5 or so minutes. I have never attempted this by hand, but obviously it would be possible with a balloon whisk, but it might also be agonising.
5. Take the bowl off the saucepan away from the heat and whisk in the coconut essence.
6. Sandwich the cakes with just over a third of the icing, and then ice the top and sides in a swirly, snowy fashion. Immediately throw over the desiccated coconut to coat the sides and top of the cake.
7. I don't bother with the paper square, though you could: I just brush off any stray bits of desiccated coconut from the edges of the plate, or just leave them where they've fallen.
8. This cake looks wonderful in its uncut fluffy bouffant whiteness, but I like it best once you've sliced in, so that the chocolate layers gleam out darkly, striped and edged in brilliant white.

NOTE: The icing can take up to 10 minutes of whisking to get right!

Recipe courtesy of Nigella "Feast"

Crispy Baked Potatoes; Easy, Delicious

Baked potatoes are amazing. This variation has vertical slices made before baking, making the top cook to a crunchy, thick-cut potato chip consistency, with a creamy baked potato centre. It's the best of both worlds!
This fun trick can be done on almost any tuber. I used white and Russet potatoes, and a sweet potato.
Preheat oven to 425°F

Using a sharp kitchen knife, carefully start making a series of vertical cuts width-wise through the potato, making sure not to cut all the way through - cuts should only be 3/4 of the way through the potato. 
Place sliced potatoes on an baking sheet slices up, then drizzle top with oil, salt and pepper.

Bake for 50 minutes. Time may vary depending on size of potato and oven.

After my potatoes were done I decided to add some shredded cheese, green onion and sausage bits. These tasty tubers are good as a side to any meal, or just on their own for a gameday snack! 
Add your favourite toppings and consume!

Chef's Best: Berry Season a Most Wonderful Time of the Year

When I was growing up, we didn’t have air conditioning.  Actually, to this very day, my parents refuse to put an air conditioner in their home for fear of the power bill going through the roof!  During this time of the year, we would rarely cook anything in the house.  Most days would be either something cooked on the grill or most regretfully… some kind of cold cut sandwich.

The sad part is this time of the year, in this part of the country, is when everything is in season.  This is the time of the year for berries!!  Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, you name it, it is in season.  

Anderson Chef Jason CobbAs a child we had blackberry bushes just down the street from my parents’ house, and near my grandparents’ home, there were wild blueberry bushes (some call them huckleberries), which we would go pick around the first of July.  These small bushes filled with delicious berries grow in the underbrush along the side of the road.  

To this day, I enjoy going to pick wild berries.  Even as a child, one of the few things I looked forward to was when mom would, even without air conditioning, wait until it had begun to cool off at night and she would make homemade blueberry muffins.  There is something quite different about using fresh picked berries to make muffins, especially those made with those minute berries grown in the wild.  If you can’t get your hands on wild berries for lack of availability, go to a local U-Pick berry farm and pick some berries of your own for this project.  Please don’t go to your local supermarket and get berries from some unknown location.  Trust me…. The difference is noticeable.

JayBob’s Blueberry Muffins

3 ½ cup Self Rising Flour

1 ½ cup Granulated Sugar

1 tsp Salt

Zest of 1 Lemon

2 cup Buttermilk

2 Lg Eggs

¼ cup Vegetable Oil

3 ½ cup blueberries

2 Tbsp Flour

1. Preheat oven to 325° F.
2. Prepare a set of 24 muffin tins with shortening and flour.
   
3. Sift the flour together with the sugar and salt.
4. Add the lemon zest and stir to combine.
5. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, buttermilk and oil together until well combined.
6. Gently mix the dry mixture in with the buttermilk mixture until almost combined.   Mix AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE!
7. Rinse the berries under running water and drain.  Add the flour and toss to combine.
8. Fold berries together with muffin mixture until just combined.
9. Divide batter between prepared muffin cups.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes until set.
11. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Anderson's own Chef Jason Cobb. Cobb is a graduate and Culinary Fellow of the prestigious Johnson & Wales University. Chef Cobb is also available for catering at 864.367.6047

USA Today: S.C. Shrimp & Grits Top Regional Food in U.S.

Born of necessity and convenience, shrimp and grits evolved from the simple breakfast fare favored by shrimpers along the South Carolina coast. This humble take on traditional shrimp and rice (rice was a cash crop in the South Carolina Lowcountry until after the Civil War) was altered in the late 1800s to substitute hominy, as ground-corn grits were called at the time, as the starch. In the 1990s, Chef Donald Barickman of Magnolia's restaurant in Charleston elevated the dish to the ranks of fine cuisine, and it quickly became synonymous with the city of Charleston.

This Lowcountry staple takes succulent white shrimp caught off the South Carolina coast and lays them atop creamy, often cheese-spiked, grits. There are as many iterations of shrimp and grits as there are chefs in the Carolinas; some are mild, while others raise the heat level with the likes of Creole-spiced tasso ham and jalapeño peppers.

Today, Charleston still reigns as the city for shrimp and grits. Hank's Seafood Restaurant on the corner of Hayne and Church streets, near the Old City Market, serves a wonderfully tasty and mild version made with smoked Andouille sausage, while James Beard Award-winner Chef Robert Stehling of Hominy Grill (outside the historic district on Rutledge Avenue) incorporates bacon, fresh mushrooms and hot sauce into his recipe.

At Slightly North of Broad on East Bay Street, acclaimed chef Frank Lee flavors his interpretation of shrimp and grits with tomatoes, shallots, garlic and basil, and -- dieters take note -- loads of butter and cream.

Are you a fan of shrimp and grits? Vote for it here, as your favorite iconic American food in the 10Best Readers' Choice Awards contest.