28/03/2010 by D.

The traditional way to make this involves poaching the chicken, which is delicious.  I never get round to it, so tend to make it with leftovers from a chicken roast:

cold chicken
3 spring onions
white pepper

Soup
chicken carcass
1 onion
1 carrot
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp light soy sauce

Rice
1 mug rice
2 mugs cold water
1/2 tsp salt

Cucumber pickle
1 cucumber
1 cup vinegar
1 small chilli
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Once you’ve stripped all the chicken off the carcass, put the chicken in the fridge.  Put the carcass in a big pot with a peeled chopped carrot and onion and two bay leaves.  Cover with water and bring to boil.  Simmer for an hour or two, then strain and throw away the bits, leaving the liquid to cool.

Meanwhile wash the cucumber and cut into batons or thin slices.  Chop the chilli finely.  Mix the chilli, cucumber, vinegar, salt and sugar in a bowl and leave to macerate.

When you are ready to eat, cook the rice.  Bring the rice, 2 mugs water and 1/2 tsp salt to boil.  Simmer for around 10 mins until water has evaporated.  Taste the rice.  If it is ready and the water is nearly gone, put a lid on the pot and turn up the heat for 30 seconds to generate steam, then turn off the heat.  If not yet done, add a little more water then retest a couple of minutes later.

While the rice is cooking, bring the chicken stock to boil.  Season with a dash or two of light soy sauce.  Finely chop the spring onion.

To serve, pack the cooked rice into a small bowl, then turn one out onto each plate.  Arrange the cold chicken next to the rice.  Pour some chicken soup into a small bowl for each person, sprinkle in some spring onions and season with a shake or two of white pepper.  Serve with the bowl of cucumber pickle on the side.

I absolutely love the clean, fresh tastes of this dish.  To eat it you can take a spoonful of rice and dip it into your chicken soup.  You then have the succulent pieces of chicken (more so if you make this by the poaching method), and some fresh and spicy cucumber to give it all a lift.  We are having this tomorrow night and I can’t wait!

Posted in Chicken, Bayleaf, Cucumber, Spring Onions, White pepper, Vinegar, Soy sauce, Carrot, Onion, Chilli, Rice, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

28/03/2010 by D.

fruit: kiwi, blood oranges, bananas, Gala apples, avocado
veg: mushrooms, leeks, courgettes, onions, lettuce, carrots, Sarpo mira potatoes, Chioggia beetroot

I’m finally on the road to recovery from a batch of pretty nasty bugs, so my interest in food is slowly recovering too.  On the upside I’ve lost around 3 kgs so not all bad.

We have already kicked off this week with a very tasty roasted chicken, which we had with mash, watercress and German buttered carrots.  I have just stripped off the rest of the chicken and am boiling up the bones with bayleaves, onion and a carrot to make a chicken stock.  The cold chicken has been sorted into plateworthy and sauceworthy pieces.  We will have Hainan Chicken rice with the plateworthy chicken bits, the rest will become a chicken, leek and mushroom pie.

The courgettes are going to be made into courgette risotto as I want to have a go at making arancini.  The beetroot are really beautiful, so I am going to slice them very thinly and have them raw in a salad with the lettuce, grated carrot, and a simple dressing.

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