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.

Keith Floyd's garlic chicken

My sister-in-law showed me this recipe when I last saw her on New Year's Eve. I have to admit I didn't pay that much attention to it at the time (I was watching Julie and Julia), so when O suggested I make it, it took a bit of online searching to find it. Eventually I came across it on this cycling forum:

http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/pot-roast-chicken-with-100-cloves-of-garlic.86254/

It is an incredibly blokey recipe, I admit. I could not Cope with the amount of Capital Letters used in the Recipe and had to Correct them in my version below, which also includes little more detail than the bike shop boys give. The cycling forum version also suggests that wind (or, as they call it, Wind) might be a consequence of eating this recipe. I don't think you are actually supposed to eat all the garlic that you cook - in fact I think we stopped at 1 or 2 cloves. 

The cycling forum also suggests the chicken is served with tagliatelle and a balsamic-dressed salad. I served this with rice, and forgot to take a photo. Unfortunately, I don't think there will be a next time. 

Ingredients for Keith Floyd's garlic chicken

• 1 large chicken
• 12 bulbs* garlic
• 250 ml red wine vinegar
• I bunch fresh thyme

*Yes, bulbs.

How to make Keith Floyd's garlic chicken

Heat the oven to 180 degrees C
Break up the garlic bulbs into unpeeled cloves, keeping 2 bulb's worth of cloves separate from the rest.
Place these 2 bulb's worth of garlic inside the cavity of the chicken along with the thyme.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then rub all over with olive oil.
Place the remaining garlic in a large casserole dish for which you have a lid.
Put the chicken on top of the garlic.
Pour in the red wine vinegar.
Cover the pot with the lid and place in the oven for 60-75 mins.
Take the lid off and cook for another 30 to 40 mins - if it looks like it is drying out, add a little water.
 

Just back from holiday spaghetti

O is obsessed with spaghetti. On a recent trip to Bruges he claimed it was 'the Venice of the North', famous for its spaghetti. Sadly, he didn't manage to have any spaghetti while in Bruges, so I made some for him the day we got back from holiday.

Spaghetti with sundriend tomatoies

Since we'd only been away for a couple of days I had some parsley and an onion to hand. The beauty of this recipe, though, is that you can still make it using only store cupboard/freezer ingredients in a matter of about 20 minutes from start to finish. 

 Easy, speedy spaghetti ingedients

• 6 sundried tomatoes in oil
• A handful flatleaf parsley, finely chopped
• A handful toasted pine nuts
• 1/3 pack low fat feta cheese
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 rashers streaky smoked bacon 
• Enough spaghetti for 2 people

How to make easy, speedy spaghetti

1. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat.
2. Fill the kettle and switch it on to boil. 
3. Add the bacon to the frying pan and cook till crisp then remove from the pan.
4. Chop the onion in half, peel, then slice each half into thin slices.
5. Turn down the heat under the frying pan and add the onion. 
6. Fill a large pan with the boiled water from the kettle, add a little salt, then add the spaghetti.
7. Refill the kettle and put it on to boil. 
8. Cook the onion till slightly caramelised, ie do not move around too much. Add a little olive oil if there is insufficient fat from the bacon left in the pan.
9. Finely chop the garlic or crush using a garlic crusher and add to the pan.
10. Continue to cook for a few minutes taking care not to let the garlic burn. 
11. Using kitchen scissors cut the sundried tomatoes into small pieces then add to the frying pan.
12. Drain the pasta once it it al dente - this will probably be about 3 minutes before the cooking time specified on the packet.
13. Rinse the cooked pasta with just boiled water from the kettle and shake the colander to remove most of the water. 
14. Return the pasta to the pan you cooked it in and tip in the contents of the frying pan. 
15. Add the feta, crumbled, the chopped parsley and the pine nuts.
16. Toss together with the spaghetti and serve.

Barbeque lamb in buttermilk

I've never used buttermilk before; I bought it for a chocolate Guinness cake recipe I made for a bake-off. We came 4th out of 6.  :(

BBQ lamb in buttermilk ingredients

• 2 lamb steaks, cut into large chunks
• Zest 1 unwaxed lemon
• Juice 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• About 150ml buttermilk (1/2 tub)
• 3 tablespoons fresh thyme 
• Black pepper
• Very large pinch salt

How to make BBQ lamb in buttermilk

Mix together all the ingredients and leave to marinade for about 2 hours.

This will produce incredibly tender meat with a wonderful flavour.

Thread the lamb onto skewers and barbequeue, turning regularly till charred on all sides but still pink in the middle.


To go with this I made flatbreads cooked on the grill and a leaf salad dressed only with olive oil and lemon juice. 

I forgot to take a photo.

Dahl

Dahl

The only red dahl recipes I could find included ingredients I didn't have so I made this one up. A couple of tomatoes would have been a good addition.

Dahl ingredients

• 1 teaspoon whole cumin
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• red lentils, rinsed – somewhere between 100 and 150g. No need to be precise here, we’re not making a cake
• ½ thumb’s worth of ginger (mine not Jamie’s), finely chopped
• 3 small garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 large onion, half chopped finely and half sliced thinly

How to make dahl

1. Dry roast the cumin seeds for a few minutes till fragrant, then remove from the pan and crush is a pestle and mortar.
2. Add a little flavourless oil such as groundnut or vegetable and warm before adding the mustard seeds. Fry for about a minute or until they start to pop.
3. Add the chopped onion and fry for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add the spices (including the roast cumin seeds), garlic and ginger and fry for about a minute.
5. Add the lentils and stir to coat them, then add enough water to cover.
6. Bring to the boil then simmer until the lentils are cooked and the dahl is the consistency you like it, stirring occasionally. If it becomes too dry add more water.
7. While the lentils are cooking fry the sliced onion in a little oil till crispy.
8. Top the dahl with the crispy onion slices to serve. 

I like a little dahl as an accompaniment to another curry, but it makes a great lunch too and freezes well so its worth making in a large batch.  For lunch, you only need a toasted pitta bread and maybe a squeeze of lemon or lime juice to make a tasty, filling, healthy and incredibly cheap lunch. Lunch for free at its best. 

Spaghetti bolognese

For Kate and Nellie

I’ve been meaning to write up my spag bol recipe for my friend Kate for ages but it’s been a while since I made it and I had no idea what quantity of mince I use. I always buy meat from the butcher’s so I ask for the amount I want by eye rather than weight. Today, though, they had 500g packs of minced lamb already weighed out, so that’s what I’m using. You can of course use minced beef if you prefer.

I heard Antonio Carluccio on Woman’s Hour once saying how spag bol should take half an hour to make, not 3 hours. This version takes somewhere in between. He also insists that minced pork should be included – I have tried this and agree it does make for a tasty version but don’t think a porkless version is any the worse for the omission.

Others also insist on including pancetta or streaky bacon. I find this totally unnecessary – this dish already contains a large amount of meat, I don’t see that you need to introduce more, especially cured, given the other strong flavours in this dish. In fact, I often add some Quorn to my spag bol to make it ever so slightly healthier. Don’t be taken in by the adverts though, a Quorn-only spag bol would be insipid, but you can get away with adding a little.

Spaghetti bolognese ingredients

• 1 large or 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 2 fat cloves garlic
• 2 carrot, grated
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 500g minced lamb or beef
• 2 tins plum tomatoes
• Chestnut mushrooms, sliced or quartered, as you prefer. Oops – I forgot to weigh how much. Probably a supermarket punnet worth
• Dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf

Optional spag bol ingredients

• A splash of red wine – I say optional if Kate is making this for 3-year -old Nellie, though I wouldn't dream of omitting this in my version
• Fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped 
• Quorn – probably about 100g
• Red lentils – I sometimes add a handful to thicken the sauce

How to make spaghetti bolognese 

This really is one of the simplest meals to make.

1. Heat a little olive oil gently in a large casserole pan
2. Add the onion and fry till soft
3. Add the garlic, celery and carrot, and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently
4. Turn the heat up to high and add the meat
5. Cook, stirring, until the meat is browned
6. Add the wine, if using, and continue to cook on a high heat till it has almost all evaporated
7. Add both tins of tomatoes.
8. Rinse out the tomato tins with a little water to get any juice left on the side of the tin, and add this too
9. Season with salt and pepper and the oregano and rosemary if using, and bring to the boil.
10. Add the mushrooms then reduce the heat to a lively simmer.
11. Simmer for about an hour, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and you are left with a concentrated sauce.

This makes enough for 2 very large portions served with wholemeal spaghetti and freshly grated Parmesan, plus enough to make a lasagne for 4 people.