Soul Food September!

Soo, back to uni, moved in to the new house with my friends and I'm all settled in with my very own double bed! We decided to have a monthly house meal, themed with various cuisines and our first one was Soul Food September!

It was a really nice way to bond as a house and we cooked some really great food, everyone was in charge of their own section of the meal and we had a great evening!

Buttermilk was our core ingredient for this meal, we used it in the chicken marinade and in our biscuits! And then we used the leftover buttermilk to make pancakes! I did a lot of reading before cooking, because it was important to me to use as many authentic techniques in the meal as possible.

Here was our meal:

Southern Fried chicken

With the chicken I read a few articles on the best ways to cook and marinade it and the buttermilk seemed to be a great way to get succulent chicken. We used The Guardian's recipe as a basis, but as always we added extra seasonings from the ole store cupboard including garlic, chilli, paprika (both normal and hot), ginger, thyme, chilli flakes, salt and a magi cube and a chicken stock cube, soaked it in buttermilk and left in the fridge for about 6 hours. We also seasoned the flour with garlic, chilli, paprika, thyme and chilli flakes.

We followed the recipe with the shallow fry and cover technique and then put on a plate with kitchen towel to drain some of the oil, while we cooked the rest of the meat.We found that it was really important to ensure that the oil was piping hot, but on a low heat before and during cooking, otherwise the chicken would burn on the outside before cooking all the way through. The chicken was soft and juicy and crispy on the outside and all together yummy!

Hoppin' Johns with Rice (or our take on it anyways)

This was so yum, mix of beef and beans in a stir fry - like sauce, on rice, my housemate makes this just from knowledge, so I'll have to learn how to make this myself before being able to report back!

Mac n cheese with Bacon

I made a simple white sauce, infusing the milk by bringing it to scalding point with a slice of onion, peppercorns and a bay leaf, covering and leaving to stand for 20 minutes before straining into a jug. Then I made a roux with melted butter and flour and slowly whisked the infused milk in bit by bit. I then added the cheese to how cheesy I wanted it - we used cheddar.

In another pan I fried bacon lardons and a sliced onion and put into an oven dish. Boiled the macaroni for 11 minutes, strained and mixed in the cheese sauce, mixed it all with the bacon and onion mix and poured into the oven dish, topped with cheese and put it in the oven on 200 degrees C for about 10 mins or until the topping is as crispy as you want it. A lovely variation is to add breadcrumbs for extra flavour and crunch!

Biscuits with gravy
This was a total experiment as it was something I kept seeing in breakfast restaurants in America but never actually ordered it and had major regrets so decided that although it was a breakfast dish, we'd include it in our soul food feast. Again, did lots of research reading everyone's 101 tips on how to make the tastiest, lightest biscuits and finally settled on this recipe for the biscuits, with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda for that extra rise (with it's reaction with the buttermilk) and it actually turned out really yum! They were slightly crumbly and light, with a sort of scone like consistency.

Also made the sausage gravy, which was the perfect complement to the biscuits, using this recipe as a guide, but not really following measurements - which led to a really thick sauce, so maybe I'll follow the recipe a bit closer next time, to gain a better consistency. I also added some paprika for flavour which added a nice note.

Side note: I did have the BEST biscuits in a restaurant called Masa in Boston which was one of my best meals, had eggs benedict on biscuits and it was simply wonderful!

And we followed it all up with a lovely warming Apple crumble with custard.

I make my apple crumble by eye, as taught by my mother - who makes it amazingly, using about half the amount of fat as dry ingredients and rubbing together into a light breadcrumb mixture. We used flour, oats and caster sugar for our crumble topping. The apples are peeled and chopped and mixed with caster sugar and cinnamon and then placed in the oven dish with the crumble mixture layered on top and put in the oven for about 45 mins.