Day 144: chicken for magda

Short and sweet today. My sister-in-law Magda and her friend Irena arrived from Poland last night, so I’m taking a long weekend - from about lunchtime today - to spend some quality time with them. Starting with a long walk to our local pub for food and drink. Standard. Of course, the quality time really started from the moment they walked in the door. It’s so good to see them!

In the lead up to their trip, I asked Magda which Nigella recipes she’d like me to cook for the cookalong whilst they were staying here. She responded with a lot of chicken suggestions! On further discussion, this wasn’t so much just because of a huge love for chicken, it was because in the 10 years I’ve known her apparently I’ve never once cooked chicken for her, and she obviously felt like that was a box that needed ticking.

We ticked that box, and Day 144, with Nigella’s Indian-Spiced Chicken and Potato Traybake.

Nigella’s Indian-Spiced Chicken and Potato Traybake

I really need to adopt the traybake way of living; they’re a joy to prepare, cook and eat, and give you very little washing up at the end. You also get all that flavour seeping into every item in the tray, gleaming with juices steeped in a wonderful array of spices.

On the note of spices: the thinking behind this particular chicken choice - from the many Magda sent through - was to cook something offering flavours they hadn’t tasted before. And they loved it. I loved it. We all loved it. I need to cook with these spices more often and make a greater effort to educate myself on the huge variety available. I have a cupboard and spice rack full of herbs, seasonings and spices, and I owe to them and the cultures from which they hail to use and know them better.

Flavour musings

Gorgeous to look at and gorgeous to eat. Those lime and spice soused potatoes, plumped with the juices from the roasting chicken, are next level heaven.