Archive for the ‘Spring Onions’ Category

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

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

Greek Potato Salad

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Raw Potato
This filling salad is one of my favourites and comes from the Reader’s Digest ‘Complete Vegetarian Cookbook’.

500g waxy potatoes
4oz broad beans
3 spring onions, chopped
2 hard-boiled eggs, cut into 8ths
1 tin artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

Dressing
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp marjoram
1 tbsp plain yoghurt
pinch of sugar
salt & pepper to taste

Boil the potatoes until just tender, meanwhile make the dressing by whisking the lemon juice and oil, then working in the other ingredients. 

Drain the spuds, then roughly chop.  You can add the beans to the potatoes toward the end of their cooking time, or cook them separately in the boiling potato water for 5 minutes.  Drain and refresh in cold water. 

Mix all the ingredients together and toss well with the dressing.  Season to taste.

This salad is lovely and creamy, with the different flavours coming through distinctly, yet working well together.  It is very good with grilled meats.

Posted in Artichoke, Broad Beans, Eggs, Garlic, Lemon, Marjoram, Potato, Recipe, Salad, Spring Onions, Yoghurt | No Comments »

Glazed Salmon with egg noodles

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Savoy Cabbage in sunshine

This is my version of the classic from Nigella Express, teamed with a hearty noodle stir-fry.

For the salmon:
2 tbsp dark soy
1 tbsp muscovado sugar
1 tbsp sherry vinegar, mirrin or vermouth
400g salmon fillet
1 tbsp oil

For the noodles:
4 egg noodle nests (or a pack of fresh spaghetti)
1 ltr boiling water
1/2 Savoy cabbage or beansprouts
3 spring onions
1 fat garlic clove
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp dark soy
1 tbsp light soy
1 tbsp sesame seeds

Making this takes 2o mins in total, but it’s a fairly hectic 20 mins so it pays to be organised.  You’ll need a pan or skillet to fry the salmon, a frying pan or wok with a lid to fry the noodles, and a saucepan of boiling water to cook the noodles in.  Have individual serving bowls warming in the oven and chopsticks at the ready.  To minimise the frying salmon smell, keep the kitchen door shut, fan on, windows open, and have a sink of water ready to plunge the pan into once the salmon is out of it!  If the recipe seems complex: it’s not, you are doing marinated salmon in one pan, and noodles with cabbage in the other.  You could cook the noodle dish first, then reheat if necessary.

Boil the water.  Mix the salmon marinade together and place the salmon in it, skin up.  Cook the noodles in boiling water (4-6 mins), then drain when tender.  Turn the salmon over so the other side can marinate.  Finely chop the cabbage, spring onions and garlic.

Heat the oil in the salmon pan until sizzling and carefully place the salmon in the pan, skin down.  Heat the oil in the noodle frying pan and fry the garlic and onion for a minute.  Add the cabbage and stir, then turn the heat down and cover with a lid.  Turn over the salmon (it should have had 2 – 5 minutes, depending on thickness) and add the marinade.  Stir the cabbage mixture and add the soy sauces and the noodles, then put the lid back on.

Test the salmon.  At this point, I like to remove the skin and break the large fillet into 3 or four pieces (depending on how many people are eating; you can start with individual portions too).  Push on top of the pieces of salmon, they should be ever so slightly springy, but not spongey.  Give them a good coating of the marinade by turning them and swooshing them round the pan.

Add the sesame oil and seeds to the noodles and stir well.  Taste and add further light soy if in need of salt.

To serve, perch a piece of salmon on top of a nest of noodles in each of the warmed bowls.  This sweet, salty and satisfying feast was very, very popular with the whole family, and quickly devoured.

Posted in Beansprouts, Cabbage, Chinese, Egg noodles, Fish, Garlic, Muscovado, Organic Box, Recipe, Salmon, Savoy cabbage, Sesame oil, Sesame seeds, Sherry vinegar, Spring Onions, Toddler, Weaning | No Comments »