Chicken Teriyaki - sticky fried chicken with stickier sauce

I lifted this recipe from Chow, a brilliant website that has all sorts of useful videos and tips. It seems a little obsessed with cocktails, which in my book pander to a fantasy drink cabinet, because reading the list of ingredient makes me bemused. Who has all that stuff to hand? I don’t even keep tonic water. In a moment of enthusiasm three years ago I went out and bought angostura bitters, only to realise that it was just one component part of the cocktail I wanted to make. I never got around to buying what I needed to put the thing together. I fully expect that bottle to last me my whole life, I am sure I will move house several times with it, fondly imagining the times when I will have all the ingredients I need to make the perfect cocktail such as the Boothby, in the house at the same time. Meanwhile, I find myself occasionally unscrewing the lid and taking a little sniff, to remind me what the hell is in that bottle. In saner moments I recognise that this is what might be called a companion ingredient – I keep it for company, rather than for use. No doubt my kidneys are grateful to my maintenance of an aspirational but incomplete cocktail cabinet, and I can still dream. 

Back to food – my pantry ingredients are more regularly replenished – this is pseudo teriyaki but it is not ersatz teriyaki, as it delivers on flavour. The endorsement of the lovely Kitty, daughter who shuns the home-cooked anything, gives it the flavourful thumbs-up. This is a finger-licking dish, as somehow the sauce gets everywhere. The chicken is pan-fried before the sauce is added, it has a gentle heat from the pepper and the sticky sauce is wonderful with plain rice. 

A quick review of teriyaki recipes that might be thought of as more authentic, finds mirin, sake and sugar putting in an appearance, alongside fresh ginger. Some include different kinds of oil and marinading as part of the process. Some like to cook the chicken with skin on, making it nice and crisply, but I use skinless chickens. Simpler and less fat. This recipe substitutes a bit of bashing about for marinading, and uses honey and soy sauce for the teriyaki. I dilute the soy sauce so that it isn't too salty. In total it takes about 15 minutes. I like it with rice, some green salad and sliced cucumber.

Ingredients

½ cup soy sauce with ¼ cup water

¼ cup honey

1 ¼ tsp peeled, grated fresh ginger (from about a thumb length piece), grated very fine

500g (about four large boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs) the breasts will need pounding…

Freshly ground black pepper

4 teaspoons vegetable oil

If you like, serve with two spring onions (scallions to some), thinly sliced

Method

• Make the sauce first: Heat through the soy sauce, water and honey, bringing it to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often until the honey has completely dissolved, about 5 minutes (alternatively use the microwave, for one minute, stirring after 30 seconds)
• Remove from heat and add the ginger, stirring to combine and set aside
• If using chicken breasts, place them on a cutting board and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap. Use a meat mallet, frying pan or rolling pin. Gently pound them to a 1/2-inch thickness. Cut each in half so you have pieces roughly the same size. (If using chicken thighs, no need to pound or cut.)
• Season both sides of the chicken with pepper.
• Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat until shimmering and add the chicken in a single layer, and cook without poking for around 3 minutes. Then flip and cook the second side until equally browned, about 3 minutes more.
• Reduce the heat to medium, slowly pour in the reserved sauce, and cook, turning the chicken occasionally to coat in the sauce, cooking through for around another 3 minutes.
• Take the chicken out, shaking any sauce back into the pan, and put it onto a cutting board. I like to cover the chicken with a bowl to keep the juices in.
• Keep cooking the sauce until it has thickened slightly, about 3 minutes more, then turn off the heat.
• Slice the rested chicken crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces and put it on a serving dish. Drizzle over the sauce and sprinkle the sliced spring onions over the lot.

Ricotta citrus tart, crostata to some

I have just made this tart twice, adapting Carluccio’s recipe a bit. It is really easy, and the result is a very light cheesecake, with a flavour reminiscent of pannetone. The difference between this recipe and a more usual cheesecake is that the eggs are separated and the beaten egg whites give it a lift. I’ve seen it made with short crust elsewhere too, which would make it richer. Also, Carluccio adds the lemon zest after cooking, which gives an extra tang.

I used half a packet of puff pastry and rolled it very thin, and leaving about a one inch overlap, which gets folded over the mixture. Then I put little straps of pastry across, which I think looks good, but a rather acerbic relative (while eating it) said makes it looks like a hot cross bun, clearly meaning not in a good way. Sob.

In the mixture I added a spoonful of marmalade, reducing the sugar a little.

Carluccio says this tart is delicious served on its own or with roasted pears, which I haven’t tried yet.

Ingredients

For the pastry

·         1 x 400g/14oz ready-made puff pastry

·         Plain flour for dusting

·         1 lemon finely grated zest only

For the filling

·         300g/10½oz ricotta cheese

·         200g/7oz mascarpone cheese

·         200g/7oz candied peel roughly chopped

·         125g/4½oz caster sugar

·         6 free-range eggs, separated

Preparation method

1.     Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2.     Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface to a 3mm/⅛in thickness. Use the pastry to line a 25cm/10in pastry case. Cover with a damp cloth while you make the filling.

3.     In a bowl, mix the ricotta, mascarpone and candied peel with 100g/3½oz of the sugar and five of the egg yolks until smooth and well combined.

4.     Whisk the egg whites in another large, clean bowl until fluffy. Whisk in the remaining sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed.

5.     Using a large metal spoon, fold the whites into the ricotta mixture, then pour into the pastry-lined tart tin.

6.     Beat the reserved egg yolk in a bowl. Fold in the overhanging pastry and brush with the egg yolk. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, until the pastry is cooked through and the filling has a slight wobble in the centre.

7.     Set aside to cool for two hours, then sprinkle with lemon zest.

Cake for an occasion

I'm revisiting Burnt Sugar Cake, which is a cake for sharing. It's not just that it is large, it's also a cake that tempts you to have another slice, and the second slice somehow always disappoints. This is a cake that really impresses, it's a surprise, it's flavour reminds the adult eater of a childish love of sweetness, and panders to to skewed taste of the young, so it ticks lots of boxes.

butterbean houmous

couldn't wait to eat it

Quickly made, butterbeans mixed some of the cooking liquid, together with a tablespoon of tamari, garlic, parsley, olive oil and lemon juice. Yum

RECIPE

half a tin of butterbeans (around 200g)
1 tbsp tamari
1 clove garlic
handful of parsley (leaves only)
olive oil
lemon juice (from half lemon/1 tbsp)
pinch of salt

Method

I use a stick blender, but you could mash the beans with a fork, or use a liquidiser instead. If you are using a fork, remember to chop the pasley and garlic really fine, otherwise you'll end up with parsley in your teeth and surprising lumps of garlic every few mouthfuls. DON'T go mad with the blender, the beans may become a bit chewy.

• drain the butterbeans, keeping back a little liquid
• put butterbeans, garlic, tahini, roughly chopped parsley, a couple of slugs of olive oil and blend until smooth, no longer
• add some liquid if it becomes a bit dry
• taste, and adjust salt if you like

amazing olive oil made by friends

you are unlikely to find a better olive oil than the one we received from Paula, Kevin and Alice

Hot chocolate pudding with a fondant centre

This is a rewrite of Gordon Ramsey’s recipe for Chocolate Fondant Pudding, from the Channel 4 programme The F word. I followed this recipe and they were perfect. The chocolate flavour was seriously intense, the gooey centre was seriously gooey and the only problem was that they were a bit too big! Perhaps it would have been better to have just one course before. Hey ho. It took dedication, and a fair bit of greed to finish off those puds.

I’ve done a rewrite, making it slightly less bossy, and, I hope, easier to follow.

Gordon says this amount is enough for 9 puddings, either ramekins or foil cases, but I think the size that would suit the eater best is somewhere a little bigger than a small coffee cup, which would make more. Otherwise the puddings are more suitable for sharing, which is nice. They are delicious with ice cream or crème fraiche, and a short strong coffee.

Preparing the moulds is the fussiest bit of this recipe, but don’t stint on it, otherwise your puddings probably won’t turn out.

A rough calculation, per two pots is 50g each of dark chocolate, butter, sugar and flour, one egg and one egg yolk plus butter and cocoa to line the pots.

To make Hot Chocolate Fondant Puddings

Ingredients

·          50g melted butter, for brushing

·          cocoa powder , for dusting

·          200g good-quality dark chocolate , chopped into small pieces

·          200g butter , in small pieces

·          200g golden caster sugar

·          4 eggs and 4 yolks

·          200g plain flour

Method

o    Prepare the moulds, brushing them with melted butter and chilling them, once cold do it again,  shaking off excess and rolling cocoa powder around to coat them

o    Melt the butter and broken up chocolate together over a pan of barely simmering water – the bowl must not touch the water, stir the melted chocolate and butter together until it is well mixed, then set it aside

o    Whisk the eggs and egg yolks briskly (I use an electric whisk) adding the sugar in a slow stream. The mixture will thicken, turn pale and bulk up with bubbles, and you’ll see a trail left as you drag the whisk through the mixture

o    Sift the flour onto the eggs and stir it into the mixture quickly

o    Pour the melted chocolate mix into the eggy mixture a little at a time, beating well as you go, until you have a dark chocolatey batter

o    Transfer into a big jug and pour into the pots, almost to the top and chill or freeze the pots

To cook, preheat the oven to 160C – remember cooking times vary according to the size and shape of the container you are using. The puddings are ready when they have a crust that bounces back when you give it a gentle nudge

From frozen – cook for 17 minutes

From chilled – cook for 12 minutes

carrot quantities corrected for carrot cake... eek!

Thank you very much to Jenny, who spotted I'd over carrotted the cake in the recipe! the correct quantity of carrots is 3 cups when coarsely grated, or 220g. That is 3 mugfuls, using an average mug.

dutch apple tart

Lovely biscuity pastry, and luscious cinnamon flavoured apples give your mouth and nose a treat - this tart also looks fantastic, and is pretty easy to make.

Ingredients

Pastry

1 egg

2 cups/250g self-rising flour

2/3 cup/150g butter chopped up small

½ cup/90g brown sugar

A pinch of salt

Zest of 1/2 lemon

Filling

Two handfuls/150g of sultanas

1 tbsp brandy or other alcohol (use juice or water if you prefer)

2 lb/850g tart apples

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Heaped tablespoon brown sugar (50 g)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tbsp corn flour

Equipment

Loose based or springform tin, 20cm/8”

Two good sized bowls

Method

• Soak the sultanas in the liquid of your choice for at least an hour – or heat in pan or microwave to speed things up, set aside.
• Set oven to 180C/350F
• Butter sides of the tin generously, and line the base with baking parchment. If you don’t have baking parchment butter the base and flour it, shaking out the excess
• Put the flour into a large bowl, with the chopped butter, lemon zest and brown sugar
• Whisk the egg, hold back about a tablespoon, and add the rest to the flour and butter
• Knead dough, using a stand mixer with a dough attachment, or use your hands, until the dough comes together into a ball. Set aside for 20 minutes, while you peel and prepare the apples.
• Peel and core the apples, cut them into pieces (about 1.5cm square, no need for precision)
• In another bowl mix with the sultanas, lemon juice, the remaining 1/3 cup brown sugar, and spices
• Sprinkle the corn flour over and stir to cover the apples with spices and sugar and mix in the sultanas
• Use 3/4 of the dough to cover the bottom and sides of the dish, you can roll it out on a well floured board, or flatten it out and press the dough into place, nudging it along
• Add the apple mixture to the pie dish and firmly press down
• Use the rest of the dough to make the lattice topping, dividing it into five bits, rolling each one into a ‘snake’ and flattening it. Three strips one way and two the other, pressing them into the sides and trimming them so nothing hangs over the edge
• Brush the lattice pastry with the egg and bake for around an hour, until the apples are tender

Serves 8

I use Bramleys if possible, and serve the pie cold. Eat with cream or ice cream, or on its own.

                                     

more pictures - dutch apple tart

Better pictures of the delicious dutch applie pie, buttery and biscuity crust with cinnamon apple. Yum.

rouille for soup

It's a grey day, welcome rain with a nippy wind. I'm cooking a few puy lentils, and looking forward to a light soup with spring greens, and other veg. I will add a bit of tang with a tomato, and some fresh herbs. It will be a light stock, with powdered bouillon, the veg will all be finely cut, and the lentils will give a slightly earthy note. I will toast some bread and rub it with garlic, and may add a bit of rouille.

Sauce Rouille: small amount

• 1 Tsp hot stock
• 1 clove peeled garlic
• ½ small red chilli pepper
• pinch salt
• 2 tbsp roughly shredded white bread (without crust)
• 4 tbsp olive oil

If you have a stick blender, use the narrow beaker, adding the hot stock, garlic and hot pepper, salt and bread. Blend until very smooth. Slowly add olive oil with the blender running slowly, checking to see when the oil disappears, then stop.

I’ll be using the trusy pestle and mortar

I'd better go to get those greens. Pix will follow.

Kitty's brownies

She reckons hers are the best, and rations who gets some.

Test it out: make your own. Here is the recipe. The beauty is you just use pure cocoa.