Soy chicken thighs and egg fried rice

Soy chicken and egg fried rice

Another recipe based on one from Nigel Slater, again from his book Eat.

I've yet to find the recipe online but when I do I'll include a link. In the meantime, here is my version.

Soy chicken thigh ingredients

• About 150ml oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed dried chillies
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar
• 4 chicken thighs

 

How to make soy chicken thighs

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C
2. Mix all the ingredients except the chicken together in a shallow, ovenproof dish.
3. Add the chicken thighs and toss to coat.
4. Put in the oven for about 40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes or so. 

In the meantime, make the egg fried rice.
You need to use rice that has already been cooked and then cooled for egg fried rice, otherwise it will be soggy. I normally make double the quantity of rice for dinner the day before, then immediately cool the rice I don't use by running under a cold tap and leaving to drain, before storing in a tupperware container in the fridge till the next day.

As a rule, measure out dry rice by volume, not weight - about 75g per person will give you a greedy person's amount. 

Egg fried rice ingredients (enough for 2)

• 2 portions long-grain or Basmati rice
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten in a jug.
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 rashers smoked back bacon, or 3 rashers smoked streaky bacon, cut into small pieces
• A large handful frozen peas
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped
• Soy sauce, to colour and taste

How to make egg fried rice

1. Heat some groundnut or other flavourless oil in a wok.
2. When it is very hot, add the chopped onion and cook till it starts to brown.
3. Add the chopped bacon and cook, tossing it around the wok.
4. Add the cooked rice and toss to coat with the oil and mix with the onion and bacon.
5. Once the rice has heated through, add the eggs to the pan with the spring onions.
6. Leave unstirred for about 10 seconds, then stir the eggs around with the other ingredients in the wok to coat.
7. Once the egg has cooked, remove from the heat.
8. Add a splash of soy sauce and stir again, so that all the rice turns brown.*

*For this recipe I didn't add any soy sauce as there was plenty of cooking sauce from the chicken which I used insterad.

Experimental baking

Bread, Yorkshire pudding, lemon and poppy seed cake

 Using some plain flour in bread doesn't stop it rising but using some self-raising flour in Yorkshire puddings does stop them rising - go figure.

I've successfully made sourdough bread from my own started a couple of times, but my last few attempts failed. I've no idea how old the rye flour was that I'd used but decided to get a fresh lot for my next attempt. 

Hence I had a little rye flour taking up space in the cupboard. I used it to make up the full amount of flour needed for the recipe below, but didn't have quite have enough, so had to add plain flour as well.

Sour cream bread ingredients

• 150ml sour cream*
• 250ml warm water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon fast action yeast
• 425g strong bread flour
• 75g rye flour
• 50g plain flour
• Groundnut oil for kneading

*I didn't actually measure the sour cream, but it was about half of a 300ml pot.

How to make sour cream bread

1. Mix the sour cream into the water with the salt, sugar and yeast.
2. Mix together into a soggy ball.
3. Cover with cling film and leave somewhere warm for 10 minutes (I put it in the bathroom).
4. Lightly oil a work surface and your hands.
5. Tip the dough out and knead gently for 30 seconds,
6. Return the dough to the bowl, cover, and leave for another 10 minutes.
7. Repeat the kneading, leave for another 10 minutes, then knead again.
8. Leave covered in the bowl for an hour.
9. Grease a loaf tin and line the base with silicone paper if you have it, or greaseproof paper if you don't.
10. Pat the dough out so it's about 2cm thick, then roll it up.
11. Squash the dough into the tin seam side down, pushing it so that it reaches the corners.
12. Leave to rise for 90 minutes to 2 hours.
13. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C and bake for 45 minutes.
14. Leave to cool in the tin for half an hour before tipping out and leaving to cool on a wire rack till cold.

I hate making a roast beef dinner - it's too stressful trying to get everything ready and keep it hot at the same time. I made it last Sunday - the day I also made the sour cream bread and a lemon and poppy seed cake. What was I thinking?

Since I'd used plain flour in the bread, I didn't have enough for the Yorkshire puds, so substituted about half with self-raising flour, thinking this would make them even bigger. I was wrong. 

Jamie Oliver says don't open the oven door while your Yorkshire puds are in. I fail to see how this is possible while cooking all the other bits and pieces that go with a full-on roast beef dinner such as roast parsnips and potatoes. Luckily, the roast beef sandwiches with homemade horseradish cream we had for lunch the next day were a lot better than the actual lukewam dinner. 

To assemble a roast beef sandwich

 

Roast beef sandwich

 

1. Cut 2 pieces of sour cream bread into thickinsh slices and butter liberally.
2. Spread one piece of bread with homemade creamed horseradish (below).
3. Cut thick slices of cold beef from the joint and place on top of the horseradish cream.
4. Scatter a little coarse salt over the beef. 
5. Slice 2 cornichon lengthways and lay on top of the beef.
6. Add some peppery leaves such as watercress or rocket, then top with the second slice of bread.

Ingredients for creamed horseradish 

• 65g fresh horseradish root, peeled and thinly sliced
• 100 ml creme fraiche
• 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (or other if you don't have sherry)
• 1 teaspoon English mustard
• Pinch caster sugar

How to make creamed horseradish 

1. Mix mustard into the vinegar then add the grated horseradish.
2. Mix together then leave to stand for 10 minutes.
3. Mix in the creme fraiche and season to taste.

Pea and ham soup

Pea and ham soup in a green bowl

I thought soup weather was over but I was wrong - yesterday was rainy, windy and cold. Good thing I bought a ham hock at the weekend to make soup.

Ham hock sounds a lot posher than pork knuckle, but it's the same thing. In Poland it's called 'golonka', which is what we used to call my (half Polish) nephew when he was a baby.

I searched for soup recipes online and found ones that cooked vegetables with the ham hock for an hour, then pulled the meat off the hock to serve. Yuk! Vegetables that have been cooked for an hour!

Instead, I made a stock by cooking the veg and the ham then strained it. Amazingly, I got exactly 2 litres, so for once I can be accurate about the recipe quantities. However I forget to weigh the split peas before I soaked them, but it doesn't really matter how much you use -- it will just affect how thick you soup is. If it turns out too runny, add some red lentils to thicken, as they don't need to be pre-soaked, and only take about 15 minutes to cook. (The grated carrot will also thicken the soup slightly)

Ham hock stock 

• 1 ham hock/pork knuckle
• 2 small or 1 large carro
• 2 medium onions
• 2 sticks celery
• 8 peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 large sprig thyme (optional)

1. Chop the vegetables roughly and add to a stock pot or large pan with the ham hock.
2. Cover with cold water.
3. Bring to the boil and simmer for about an hour.
4. Leave everything in the pan till cool, then remove the ham hock and set to one side.
5. Strain the liquor into a jug, and discard the soggy, overcooked vegetables.

Pea and ham soup ingredients

• 2 medium onions
• 2 sticks celery
• 1 small carrot
• Rapeseed or olive oil for frying
• 2 litres ham hock stock
• Meat pulled off 1 ham hock
• 300g yellow split peas
• 150g frozen peas

 How to make pea and ham soup

1. Soak the split peas in a large bowl of cold water overnight.
2. The next day, rinse well with cold water and leave to drain in a sieve over the bowl. 
3. Heat a little rapeseed oil in a large pan.
4. Finely chop 2 medium onions and 2 sticks celery.
5. Fry onions and celery in the oil until soft.
6. Grate the carrot and add to the pan.
7. Pour in the stock.
8. Add the split peas.
9. Season with pepper and bring to the boil.
10. Reduce to a simmer and continue cooking until the split peas are mushy.*
11. Check the seasoning.
12. Turn off the heat.
13. Add the frozen peas - they will cook in the residual heat from the soup.
14. Leave the soup to cool a little.
15. Liquidise in batches.
16. To serve, heat up only as much soup as you need, adding some of the ham pulled from the hock to warm through.

*The time taken for the split peas to become mushy will depend on how old they are -- if they have been sitting in the back of your cupboard for ages they could take a long time to go soft.