The Start of 2025. What can I say?
To say that the year started the same way as 2024 would be a complete lie.
It’s not for lack of meat, I have quite a bit in the freezer but there’s been a few things that have happened that have meant that less time or inspiration are available to me.
First thing, I’ve been playing games on Twitch and on 28th December I became an affiliate, so I now earn money (really not much, but anything is good) but also it means that I stream every other Saturday so less time for cooking. I could quite happily cook but I’ve generally just not been inspired to on the same day as streaming.
Second thing, I’ve been battling with my weight for over 20 years now, I’ve tried diets, I was even put in for a Gastric Bypass (which I didn’t take in the end). I was diagnosed with diabetes over a year ago now and so finally I’ve been given weight loss injections. And they have been working!
They’s also meant that I don’t think about food anywhere near as much as I used to, sometime to the point of I can’t even decide what to eat. My appetite is far less and the thought of BBQ, as much as I love it, also kinda gets me down as I don’t know what to cook and knowing that I won’t eat much of it.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad thing as it’s for my own good and saves me a ton of cash, just means far less BBQ’ing, That said, I am cooking twice this coming weekend (easter).
And because of the above, we’ve not invited people round as much.
So, what how many cooks have I done so far? 3. And I think I’d done about 7 or 8 by this time last year.
What have we cooked?
1st cook of the year was a rack of beef ribs.
It’s been some time since we had a Jacob’s Ladder (at least 2 years) so felt it was about time to do a rack.
I’m not sure how I get these damn bloody spot on every single time but they are always a never fail cook.
I cannot remember what I rubbed them with but I do remember wrapping with a good glug of beef stock and beef dripping.
They came off the bone clean and just melted in the mouth.
We used the juices from the wrap in the gravy too which gave a lovely, rich flavoured, silky gravy.
2nd cook was a Tandoori chicken kebab, rubbed with Angus & Oink’s Tikka Gold as always (I now keep this as a 1KG tub as we use it for curries at home too).
I may need to look at bringing the cooking temp down and cooking for longer as although I do like crispy bits, some were very, very close to the burnt side.
Served with wraps and salad.
And finally, the 3rd cook of the year was for Mother’s Day.
We spoke to family about what they wanted to do. We had left things very late and going for a meal out was difficult as nowhere had times available when we could do. This led back to a conversation about burgers, which was accepted but I just didn’t think it was right. Over the next couple of hours (the Thursday before Mother’s Day) after agreeing on burgers, I really had a think. What else could we do that would make it a more special day.
I know that both my mum and my mother-in-law like chicken. I decided I was going to do something simple but something I had not tried before (in terms of how the chicken is cooked) and this really is the case, I had not tried to cook chicken or anything in this way.
Everyone loved the idea.
What was it I hear you say?
Well, the day before the cook, I woke up with an epiphany.
I knew that I was cooking a brand of chicken, but it was not going to be Nan’s Day it was Mum’s Day and so Nando’s became Mumdo’s!
I needed some more silicon brushes and as I was going to a butcher’s at a garden centre to get the chicken and this garden centre just happens to have a good BBQ section so was pretty sure I would get silicon brushes, but also bagged some small bowls that work great for putting sauce into.
I got 4 different Nando’s sauces so that everyone could chose their own level of spice and really make the experience just like the restaurant.
We even got garlic ciabatta rolls and halloumi for grilling.
I wanted to try and get a crispy skin so before I actually cooked the chicken, I put it into bags with the same mix of seasoning I use for chicken wings, just a quick coating but it did help.
And once the chicken was almost cooked, I put them all onto the lower grate and basted them with the sauces that had been requested.
Once the chicken was cooked, I put it on the top shelf to keep warm and put the flat top onto the grill to do the garlic bread and halloumi.
Yes, ok, we cheated on the fries and did them in the air fryer.
It has been requested but all that not only do we have this again but can we make it a regular Mother’s Day occurrence!
I personally could not tell the difference between what I cooked and Nando’s. Others said it was noticeably better and juicier.
What’s coming up then?
Pork Belly on Good Friday and Brisketta on Easter Monday
