Skip to main content

Chicken & Bok Choy

Julie challenged me to make a soufflé in my coal range today, pffffh easy I thought. I used to make the a lot about 20 years ago but no so much anymore. So I sat round thinking about my soufflé flavour and it suddenly dawned on me that soufflé for one was not that practicable so made the call to defer that project until level three when I can get a bit of an audience here and make it worthwhile. I decided on chicken breast and bok choy for dinner, at one point I was trying to make that stack up with the soufflé, the cookbook collection got a workover, trawling through about 10 trying to get an idea that would work. (Thank fuck, refer to previous consumerism observation). It was  only when I ditched the soufflé idea that I got some clarity. Inspired by Charles Phan, Vietnamese Home Cooking, he has an uber flash restaurant in the USA, but I am a bit ambivalent about the book, but he does good sauces, the mango salad recipe came from the book. I wanted Chinese 5 spice and didn’t have any, I am eternally pissed when I don’t have an ingredient. I just had a count up and there is 48 jars in my spice rack, there are a few herbs in there but not many as I normally use fresh……..no 5 spice grrrrrr, how could that be. Fortunately I had all 5 ingredients, star anise, fennel, clove, szechuan peppercorns and cinnamon, so I got the spice grinder out and whipped up a batch.

Vietnamese inspired Chicken with Bok Choy and Hot Mango

 For the chicken

½ t Chinese 5 spice

1 t fish sauce

1 t soy sauce

1 t sugar

1 t sesame oil

1 t tamarind paste

1 chicken breast, no skin

1 bok choy plant

Mix the marinate ingredients together, cut slices into the chicken breast but no all the way through and rub all over the marinate, refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Slice the bok choy and put in a compact oven proof dish, put the chicken on top, cover with foil and put in the oven 180 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.

 

For the mango

1 T sugar

A small clove of garlic

1/2 a hot chilli

1/4 t salt

1/4 cup + a T of fresh lime juice

¼ C fish sauce

1/3 of a mango, slices

Vietnamese mint leaves to serve

Pound the chilli, garlic salt and sugar in a mortar & pestle mix with the lime, soy and fish sauce. Use 2 teaspoons to mix with the mango slices and save the rest for tomorrow night. When the chicken is ready take the foil off add the mango, sprinkle with the mint leaves and eat.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The official blog launch, or is it lunch of entertaining!

Ok here is the thing, my key performance indicator, to use corporate wank language is how much fun I am having. I have had three rules for many years. 1. Don't hang out with shit people.  2. Avoid all things boring unless absolutely necessary.  3. Always have something to look forward too. (I stole this one off a friend)  in recent years I have added  4. Only stay in Hawera 1 weekend a month.  Oh how the mighty have fallen! (I ripped that line from Tom Waits) if you don't know who he is I am not surprised.   1. I now have a dog to hang out with for a month, His name is Murphy, and he is only borrowed.  2. All those jobs here in my house, like cleaning it, tedious shit like painting that window, weeding the garden properly, sorting the shed out, renovating my desk (an old table from Butcharts Bakery), even mowing the lawn, there it all is right there in front of me with all the time in the world to get on with it having ignored i...
22 comments
Read more

A quick soup, best I can do in a short timeframe

  Hot & Sour Soup 500g shark 1 packet mild Singapore laksa paste (I know I know I know, but sometimes needs must) 1 t salted shrimp 1 t tamarind 2 T of the oil leftover from spicy smoked mussels ½ an onion peeled and finely diced 4 cloves garlic peeled and finely diced 1 thumb ginger peeled and finely diced 2 silverbeet leaves or other leafy green 1 tin coconut cream 500 g fish stock 2 serves noodles I used ramen 1/4 cup fresh lime juice Fry the onion, garlic and ginger in the oil, add the spice paste, salted shrimp and tamarind stir it all around until it is cooked a bit then add the fish and cook for 5 minutes then add the stock and simmer for 10 minutes. When you are ready to serve it add the coconut cream, bring to boil again then add the noodles,  when boiling yet again add the silverbeet or greens. Once wilted turn off and add the lime juice.
Post a Comment
Read more

Give a cake a go day.

I received a delivery of jam, the fruit was left in the bowl at Kidsbarn for lockdown so Emma knocked up a batch of jam with it, I scored a bottle on the proviso it appeared on the blog so this is what I did.  I based in on a recipe from a book called Harbour Kitchens which was a fundraiser many years ago for the schools in Lyttleton. There is a classic recipe from the witt of Joe Bennett for fish and chips if you can get your hands on a copy.  This is an adaptation of the Lemon Yoghurt Cake by Jane Simmons. False Pretences Cake  Zest of 2 lemons 1 ¾ C sugar 2 eggs Juice of half a lemon 4/5 C of greek yoghurt Half a jar of orange, pineapple and kiwifruit or other jam ¾ C oil 2 1.2 C flour 2 large t baking powder  Line a largish tin with baking paper, I lined a smallish tin, then had too much mixture, so I lined another tin spooned the rest of the mix into that and it was too big! So I lifted it out and transferred to a loaf tin, what a palave...
Post a Comment
Read more