Little Bird

WTF Nicole Richie?!? I love you, but Sparrow? And not just Sparrow, but Sparrow James Midnight Madden? The James in his name is the only masculine part of the whole mess. Are you in a competition with Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz for most douchey baby name (Bronx Moglee Wentz "BMW" by the way if you didn't know) or something? You may have just succeeded! Maybe one day I'll teach in Hollywood and I can have Bronx, Sparrow, Apple, Coco, Pilot Inspektor, and Audio Science all in my class at the same time. I'll have my own (future potential) kids in my class, too, and they'll probably be teased for having normal names like Ryan and Bri.

In honor of Nicole and the new baby, I'm making a recipe she posted on her site and that was also featured on Gywneth Paltrow's blog (I'm totally kidding about making a recipe to honor a star giving birth, but it is a weird coincidence that I was going to make this recipe last night and we got pizza instead so I just happen to be making it tonight):

Image from GOOP.com

Carmelized Black Pepper Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

1. 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2. About 1/4 cup fish sauce (nam pla)
3. 1/4 cup water
4. 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
5. 1 teaspoon minced garlic
6. 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
7. 1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
8. 2 fresh Thai chiles, halved, or dried red chiles
9. 1 tablespoon canola oil
10. 1 shallot, thinly sliced
11. 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
12. 4 cilantro sprigs

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, fish sauce, water, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, pepper and chiles.
2. Heat the oil in a large deep skillet. Add the shallot and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the fish sauce mixture and the chicken and simmer over high heat until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl, garnish with the cilantro and serve.

It looks damn good and I'm hoping it tastes the same!

Edit: Made the chicken and it was delicious!