25/01/2011 by D.

8 large cabbage leaves
4 oz minced chicken, pork or beef (or cooked puy lentils)
2 finely chopped spring onions
1 chilli (optional)
3 tbsp cooked rice
1 minced clove garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp soy sauce (dark)
4 cocktail sticks

Veg or chicken stock to simmer

Bring a pan of salted water to boil and cook the cabbage leaves for 3 minutes.  Drain and flatten on a board and cut out the stem in a triangle shape.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together.  You can now either make eight small rolls, or 4 big ones.  For the big ones, simply overlap two leaves, place a quarter of the filling in the centre, then rollup and fasten with a stick.

Simmer the parcels in chicken or veg stock for 40 minutes until cooked through.  To serve, remove the sticks and  place the parcels in a bowl with a ladle of the cooking stock.

Posted in Cabbage, Puy lentils, Chicken, Pork, Ginger, Soy sauce, Chilli, Beef, Garlic, Rice, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

20/09/2010 by D.

This is another one from my World Food Cafe 2 book.  Still quite a favourite!  Serve this with grilled fish or cherry tomato and aubergine kebabs.

2 tbsp butter
zest of 2 lemons
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 lb basmati rice, washed til water is clear
juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt

Melt the butter and add lemon, thyme and pepper, and fry for a minute.  Add rice and stir well.

Add salt, lemon juice and enough cold water to cover the rice by 1cm.

Cover and bring to boil.  Simmer until the water is absorbed.  Fluff up the rice and season to taste.

Posted in Butter, Thyme, Rice, Lemon, Vegetarian, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

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 »

03/12/2009 by D.

1 mug basmati rice
2 mixed peppers (red/green/orange or yellow)
2 tomatoes
8 mushrooms
1 onion
1 german smoked sausage (like the matteson’s ones) *
1 stock cube (beef or veg)
1 cup water (or white wine)
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp dark soy

Cook the rice by adding two mugs of cold water, bring to boil, then leave to simmer until the water is evaporated.  Turn off the heat (drain any remaining water), give it a good stir  and put a lid on the pot to let it fluff up.  Meanwhile chop all the veg. 

Cut the sausage in half lengthwise, then chop from the end, creating semi-circles.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the sausage (or tofu) on high in a single layer until it well browned on both sides.  Place on kitchen paper to absorb the grease and allow them to cool a little and go a bit crunchy.

Pour out any extra oil, then add the veg and fry until it begins to soften.  Crumble in the stock cube and stir well.  Add a little water or white wine if it is too dry (depends on how juicy the veg is).  Stir in the rice and season with soy sauce to taste.

To serve, spoon the rice mix onto plates and top with the sausage.

This is a really hearty supper with a deep savoury flavour and a lovely crunchy topping.  You just need to hide the sausage once fried, else it gets eaten before the rest of the dish is cooked.

*For a veggie version of this you can use smoked tofu, though it doesn’t go quite as crunchy, or you can do soy sunflower and pumpkin seeds.  To make them dry-fry the seeds in a hot pan until they start to brown.  Then add dark soy sauce and stir like crazy until you end up with a marmity mass of seeds.  Tip them onto a cold plate to cool, then serve in a bowl to sprinkle over the rice mix.  They make a great snack too.

Posted in Rice, German, Pork Sausage, Soy sauce, Sunflower seeds, Pepper, Onion, Tomato, Mushroom, Recipe | Print | No Comments »