tangy bbq marinade and coleslaw

For a tasty tang on your chicken wings – enough for about 12 whole wings or a butterflied chicken. Gives a lovely colour as well. Would also work on ribs or pork belly strips, or on a butterflied chicken. Marinade for an hour.

I know, it looks like a lot of ingredients, but it's worth it. Works well with a potato salad and some asian slaw.

3 cloves of garlic

Two tablespoons of garam masala

Two teaspoons of ground cinnamon

Heaped teaspoon of Chinese chilli oil

1 onion, peeled and chopped into four

1” fresh ginger root

Two teaspoons brown sugar

Large pinch of salt

Two tablespoons of corn oil

Three tablespoons of tomato puree

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 lemon, flesh and juice

Heaped teaspoon of meaux mustard (Dijon mustard with wholegrains)

Put all ingredients except the mustard into a blender, whizz it all together, when smooth add the mustard.

Use as marinade on chicken wings, cook on bbq at medium heat. Brush on any marinade left over during cooking.

Asian Coleslaw

·                                             small white cabbage or 1/4 large white cabbage

·                                             1/2 bunch of fresh coriander

·                                             1 capsicum pepper or 1 carrot

·                                             small onion

 dressing

·                                             1 lime

·                                             1 tbsp soy sauce

·                                             1 large tbsp sweet chilli sauce

·                                             1 clove garlic

prepare dressing:

·                     finely chop garlic

·                     squeeze lime

·                     mix lime juice with all other ingredients in a bowl and set aside

 preparing coleslaw:

·                     finely slice the onion, cabbage, carrot (you can use a peeler to make peelings of carrot to put into the salad)

·                     rinse bunch of coriander and mint and chop roughly

·                     put all ingredients in a large bowl and add the dressing

·                     mix thoroughly 

·                     set aside for 15m

Red-cooked lamb

My father used to say that the test of a good restaurant was in tasting a pre-prepared dish. Short-order cooking is one thing, but taking time to cook a dish in advance requires other skills. Red-cooked food is in this category, however it is wonderfully simple to make, whether it is meat, fish or veg.

This way of cooking results in meat that is sweet, pungent in the best way and tender enough to be eaten with chopsticks. There isn't a lot of sauce, but what there is pumps out flavour. It makes me think of that Greek dish, kleftiko.

Lamb is treated the same as beef or pork. The meat is sealed, then braised on a very low heat, and is basted every 20 minutes while cooking.

Recipe

ingredients
4-5 tbsp veg oil
1.35kg meat with some fat on, such as shank, belly, blade or rib
4-5 tbsp soya sauce
6-7 tbsp red wine or sherry
6-7 tbsp water
2 tsp sugar
large slice of ginger
two star anise
strip of orange peel (without pith) or a bouquet garni

set oven to 140 C/275 F/ Gas Mark 1

method
Don't trim the meat, leave on fat and skin.
Heat the oil in a casserole on medium heat, and add the meat, sealing it on all sides.
Turn heat down to very low and add half the soya sauce, half the wine, half the water and half the sugar. Stir the meat in the mixture a few times, put the lid on and transfer to the preheated oven.
Cook for 1 hour, basting every 20 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for another hour, basting every 20 minutes.

Serve with rice.

I like to eat it with stir-fried curried cabbage with coconut and lime.

reviving simple soup

I like soup and when I'm a bit limp, especially when cold stricken, I like it to have a lot of ginger in it. I chuck things together with gay abandon and it usually turns out pretty well. Since I'm bedridden, with lungs giving a pale imitation of the usually gusty bellows (more like a flooded and elderly church organ), I forced the kindly husband to magic some up for me. Straightforward info: chop one of each veg, cook with water and add the vital sauce. Steve has proved the value of gunpowder sauce, creating a delightful, warming and simple soup. This week's gunpowder included a black pepper kick, with a ginger bite backing it up, it was just the soup to revive a wheezing, sick woman.

Veg soup with gunpowder sauce


Ingredients

1 potato
1 carrot
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 slice ginger
3 tbsp gunpowder sauce

Method

Peel and slice all veg, and put into pan with two mugfuls of water.
Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, or until all the veg is cooked.
Add the gunpowder sauce and cook for 1 minute

Eat

I like a garnish of a finely chopped spring onion and a couple of pinches of gomasio.

Gunpowder sauce

Ken Lo says this sauce is the difference between Western and Chinese cooking. It’s a different combination of flavours, rather than flavours that aren’t Western. Soy sauce is quintessentially oriental, of course. I use tamari, since I cater to the gluten intolerant.

Ingredients

½ pint soy sauce
5 tbsp sherry
6 tbsp good stock or 1 chicken stock cube
1 tbsp sugar
3 slices fresh ginger
½ onion

Method
Simmer everything together in a pan for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Store in the fridge for about a week.

I sometimes like to add a handful of peppercorns and a star anise and other times some coriander seeds.

If I don’t have fresh ginger I use lemon zest, not powdered ginger, which can give a slightly soapy flavour.

warming and cleansing soup

Feeling a bit leaden, cold ridden and not really hungry, with a stonking headache only receding when plied with paracetomol, I am avoiding milk. And eating when not hungry. So I reached midday today on mint tea alone, and as my appetite returned my thoughts turned to ginger. Fresh ginger. Very cleansing, very warming and very refreshing. I have to buy some more, as I used mine making this soup. I've just eaten it and my mouth is tingling happily.

Cooks in one pan.

Recipe

Ingredients
1 large carrot
1/2 onion
1 leek
1" ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 egg
soy sauce
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp powdered vegetable stock
three mugs of water
1 nest of fine rice noodles


Method
Put the water in a pan and bring to the boil.
Peel the carrot and slice thinly. I like to slice mine at an angle.
Slice the onion and leek.
Peel the ginger and garlic, and chop finely.
Add Veg stock to boiling water, followed by 1/2 carrot, onion and leek and 1/2 chopped ginger and garlic, cook for a minute.
Add everything else and cook for two minutes while you beat the egg together with a slosh of soy sauce and the chilli powder.
Pour egg mixture into boiling water with other ingredients, leave for a moment, then stir.

Eat. Mind your mouths it is hot.