I just celebrated my 27th birthday, I know I’m getting old. To celebrate we made some delicious fried fish sandwiches. Usually around my birthday I start dropping hints to my friends and family on what gift I would like. One of those gifts was Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook, Cravings. I woke up on the morning of my birthday only to be graced with Cravings from Brian. I flipped throw the cookbook that morning and must have flagged every page, I wanted to cook everything! Today kicks off a series on cooking through Cravings…
Lilies and Loafers has affiliate relationships, so we may get a small share of revenue from your purchases. Items are sold by the retailer, not by Lilies and Loafers.
Last summer a little show called Fab Life aired. One of the hosts was Chrissy. Although the show didn’t return this season, it’s what made me a bigger fan of Chrissy Teigen. Most people will know Chrissy as a model or John legend’s wife, but because of this show you got to know more about her as a person. On the show, she opened up about her struggles to get pregnant, her close relationship with her mom, Pepper, and her high tolerance for anything spicy. I pride myself on being a good judge of character and I really felt Chrissy’s genuine personality coming through on the show. She spent a lot of time on the set’s kitchen and every recipe made my mouth water. So you can imagine when I heard she had a cookbook, I had to have it.
The beginning of the book gave you great introduction to Chrissy’s love for food and how important it was in her life. “The kitchen is a place I know well. Its my favorite room wherever I live.” This statement is also true for me. Living in New York City most kitchens are small, old and or non-existent. While searching on Craigslist for my first apartment, the kitchen consisted of a skink, hot plate and a mini fridge. I was willing to live on the Upper Eastside and East Harlem just to get a somewhat spacious, functioning kitchen. For those of you who are not familiar with the city, just know these places are considered ‘the country’ in Manhattan. But my twenty-minute commute on the train is worth it because it allows me to do what I love, cook.
What’s also amazing and helpful was the “Before you start cooking” section. This section included cooking tips everyone needs, such as, the best salt to use, why you should invest in good parmesan and not the stuff you find in the canned food aisle. My favorite part was the basic measurement section because how many people stand in the produce section trying to decide the size of their onion. For example, Chrissy lets you know that if she says a small onion it means a 1-cup diced; mystery solved.
I have to give a shout out to the beautiful photos in this book. Even if you have no interest in cooking but love looking at pictures, this is also the book for you. Side note – all of these photos in this post are ours. Running a blog, I can appreciate the effort put into every staged photo and the right lighting/angle. And let me tell you, unlike Beyoncé who wakes up looking amazing, making food look good in a photo is hard work. The first thing you eat with is your eyes. Never underestimate the importance of presentation. The photos in the book weren’t just of food but of Chrissy and her family. So if ever wanted to know what Chrissy and John Legend looked like eating breakfast sandwiches in bed, turn to page 29.
That morning of my birthday, I was a girl on a mission and I started adding ingredients to my grocery list. This first thing I made was the mac and cheese but you will have to wait for that story a little later. The second recipe I tried was her Dad’s fried fish sandwiches with coleslaw and tartar sauce. My sister was visiting me that weekend and she is a pescatarian. So the only “meat” she eats is fish and this recipe was perfect. Fun fact – Chrissy says in the books she’s more like her dad then her mom and her dad used to own a tavern named Porky. I was pretty impressed on how ambitious I was to make both homemade coleslaw and tartar sauce but the recipes were actually simple and easy. I prepared both the coleslaw and tater sauce first and took me all of 15 minutes to complete. I set those aside, and moved on to frying my fish and toasting my Kings Hawaiian buns. Dinner was on the table 45 minutes later.
These fried fish sandwiches were a hit, Brian and my sister loved them. The next day, I had so much slaw and tartar sauce left, we decided to make the fried fish sandwiches again. But this time, I used my fried chicken breading on the fish. I love to add my own touch to a recipe and I wanted an extra crispy fried fish. These sandwiches are good for supper but also a great game day appetizer. I cannot wait to share more stories with all of you as I cook through Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook!
No Comments