Happy and healthy in a random way! One Pot Chinese Chicken

 

 

There are several ways in which this recipe makes me happy. Firstly, it's quick and to be honest the way things are going with what I seem to have to achieve from the point of falling in through the door of an evening and flopping into bed, something that can be cooked and dished up in double fast time makes me very happy. Secondly, 'one pot' - a phrase I am also happy to hear, although it's a little disingenuous here as if you want anything else with this lovely chicken then you are likely to need at least another pot, but the phrase 'one pot' suggests something with a low level of faff which is bound to make this occasionally lazy chef very happy indeed. Thirdly, and most importantly considering the premise of this month's Random Recipe Challenge, hosted by Belleau Kitchen, this meal is fresh, light and healthy but certainly not lacking in taste. Happy. Happy. Happy.

 

 

 

Recipes that make you healthy and happy was this month's random recipe challenge. My randomness happened by way of collecting together the cookery books that suggested healthiness, vitality, the horrible 'd' word and books that are meant to feed kids healthily and happily. I'll be honest, that amounted to about eight books altogether and the resulting random choice could have turned into some kind of salad nightmare but luckily a blind shuffle and a bit of 'dip dip do' resulted in the winner being 'Fat Girl Slim', a book by Ruth Watson, a book full of interesting recipes and the 'Sod It' chapter at the back where you can eradicate all your good work by making and then eating an amazing chocolate mousse recipe. Sometimes a 'sod it' moment is a good thing.

 

 

 

But the winner of the random recipe in this book was 'One Pot Chinese Chicken' which luckily I had the ingredients for, save the additional steamed vegetables which are an addition of mine. My only adaptation was that I only had 400g of chicken thighs and I kept the sauce quantity the same as for the 600g as stipulated in the original recipe, for around here we like our meals just a bit saucy. I also marinated the chicken for a little longer than suggested as I got busy making packed lunches and so on and therefore I got distracted. But it was okay.

 

Oh. one more thing to be happy about. Lola and Finn loved this, and that makes this recipe a keeper!

 

One Pot Chinese Chicken, adapted from 'Fat Girl Slim' by Ruth Watson

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad.

 

Ingredients:

 

600g boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used 400g - see above)

1 level tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp soy sauce, divided

1 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp hoisin sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp caster sugar

a handful of fresh basil (I decided on coriander instead)

 

Method:

 

 

 

Cut the chicken into bitesize chunks and place in a non reactive bowl. Toss with the cornflour, the sesame oil and one tablespoon of the soy sauce. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes.

 

 

 

Heat up a wok or large frying pan over a medium high flame and add the groundnut or vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, put in the chicken and stir fry for about 3 - 4 minutes, or until just cooked. Scoop out the chicken and discard most of the oil left before placing the pan back on the heat and returning the chicken to the pan.

 

At this point, add the rest of the ingredients, including the one remaining tablespoon of soy sauce, but don't add the basil (coriander) until the last minute.

 

Cook for a further five minutes or so, stirring the chicken around in the thickening sauce. Once ready, sprinkle with coriander.

 

The original recipe gives a 'more' and 'less' option, for those who are strictly dieting and those who are not. You can serve this with steamed rice to bulk the meal out, as I did, or you can just serve with steamed vegetables, which I nearly did, but I kept the rice too, for life would be dull without carbs!

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Giving a meal from the distant past a 'Little Thumbs Up': Chicken Pineapple

 

 

I can't really say that I led a particularly adventurous culinary childhood as my dad was, shall we say, conservative in the food he liked to eat. He still is, though now, in his mid sixties, he is getting a little more adventurous and in recent years has tried both garlic bread AND pizza and thought they were okay. So, I was brought up on good, solid, traditional British food and that was fine. British food is really nice. I defy anyone not to be gratified by eating fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding. Yum, frankly.

However, the meeting of my first boyfriend at 17 meant that a different set of tastes opened up to me, in the shape of actually buying Chinese food from the chippy! Who knew?! Anytime we went to the chippy it was for chips and all those numbers and exotic sounding dishes on the board behind the counter were for other people. In the spirit of impressing me, maybe, and me impressing him by acting like I knew anything about it, my boyfriend bought chicken pineapple and fried rice to take home to eat and we shared it in his parents' front room, watching 'Lethal Weapon'. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Romantic.

Anyway, that boyfriend has long gone but my love for chicken pineapple still remains. So much so that when I was musing about cooking chicken pineapple for the family and in so doing, this blog post, Phill reminded me that this was the dish I ordered from the chippy the evening of our first date. And to be honest it was the first thing I thought about when I read that Zoe at Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen at My Little favourite DIY were starting the Little Thumbs Up blog hop and that the first ingredient was pineapple. Any excuse to recreate the dish for my children.

 

 

 

The recipe I am using is one that I found on Food.com which I have altered a little to suit my tastes and store cupboard. And as well as being healthy, it is lightening quick to make and I have to wonder to myself why I don't stir fry more often, especially on work nights where I crash through the door at 5pm with a mind and body lacking interest and two kids who are ravenous. Get the wok out, Stella!

 

Anyway, here we are - the recipe, with my adaptions in red:

 

Chicken Pineapple, adapted from the recipe on Food.com

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad generously!

 

Ingredients:

 

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon cider vinegar (I use rice wine vinegar) 

1 tablespoon ketchup

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 2 inch strips

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

A handful each of baby corn and mange tout (or whatever stir fry veg you like)

1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained, reserve 1/4 cup juice (If you are in a world of metric, or British, I use a 227g tin of pineapple chunks)

Method:

 

 

 

Mix first 7 ingredients with reserved 1/4 cup pineapple juice in small bowl to create a sauce that you will add towards the end of cooking.

 

 

 

In large frying pan or wok, stir-fry chicken in hot oil 5 minutes. (I like mine to colour quite a lot to create a bit of chicken-y crust but each to their own)

 

 

 

Add your vegetables and then stir-fry 4 more minutes.

 

 

 

Stir in the pineapple and sauce and heat through. I also have a bit of a taste of the sauce to see if it requires any more seasoning.

 

 

 

Serve over rice with a sprinkling of coriander, if you like.

 

 

Kinda healthy. Well, healthier than usual. Chicken and Cashew Nuts

 

 

...although I think it's fair to say that nuts, whilst high in fat, do offer more nutritional value than, say, lard, so perhaps I was right with my first assumption.

 

Ah yes, January. The month of good intentions. Unfortunately I still have a fridge full of cream, cheese and eggs, which I will have to use up before any good intentions that I may have regarding what we eat begin to take shape, so just to be contrary, expect a few deeply unhealthy but frankly glorious recipes to come to a blog near you sometime soon. By mid January, the fridge will be reasonably empty of food likely to lead me astray, and I'll be cooking meals more akin to what I have decided to blog about today.

 

I have returned to work today after two and a half weeks of late nights, late mornings and a general sense of happiness and well being. Then, the new year arrives and you realise that the lottery numbers haven't come up and you are back working for a living. Because I am, frankly, useless and not able to compete with those supermums who have it all done and dusted and get their children in bed by seven, I find myself crashing through the door about 4.30pm with two hungry kids, an armful of marking, book bags, lunch boxes and other assorted school paraphernalia and a cold realisation that you have to put a meal on the table as well as do all the other 'mum' stuff. If you can get yourself together, this meal is quick and it's like take away without the take away. Bask in your all round virtuousness!

 

I do try to get Lola and Finn to eat a variety of foods, and Chinese food is something that they feel more confident about eating. Lola was enthusiastic about it and Finn, being Finn, picked his way through it, leaving an assortment of nuts and cucumber. However, it wasn't a total refusal and this can only really be seen as a bonus. I do find it really strange though how a child who has been brought up with a variety of food experiences can be so sniffy when it comes to food.

 

So, in trying to be a good mum, we have...

 

Chicken and Cashew Nuts, adapted from Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad plus 2

 

Ingredients:

 

For the marinade:

 

2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry (I used dry sherry)

2 tablespoons cornflour

1 tablespoon cold water

1 teaspoon sea salt

 

For the chicken:

 

1 pound 10 ounces boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch slices

1 medium cucumber (unpeeled)

3 tablespoons peanut oil

1 cup (about 5 ounces) roasted unsalted cashews (I didn't have enough so added some peanuts instead)

6 medium cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry (I used dry sherry)

1 to 2 teaspoons sea salt (in my opinion, 1 teaspoon is enough!)

3/4 cup finely sliced (crosswise) spring onions, white and tender green parts, for garnish

 

Method:

 

 

 

Combine the marinade ingredients with the chicken in a resealable plastic food storage bag. Seal and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 1 day, or put in a bowl, cover with cling film and refrigerate.

 

Collect together and prepare all the ingredients you need before you start to cook as the cooking process is very quick.

 

When ready to cook, cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Place the cucumber cut side down on a cutting board; trim off the ends and discard. Slice the remaining cucumber thinly on the diagonal and set aside.

 

 

 

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a hot wok or large non stick frying pan over medium heat until it shimmers. Add half of the marinated chicken and stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining chicken.

 

 

 

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the wok, then add the nuts and garlic. Stir-fry for 30 seconds, stirring constantly, making sure the garlic does not burn. Very important. Be vigilant.

 

 

 

Return all the chicken to the wok and increase the heat to high. Add the wine or sherry and stir-fry for 30 seconds to 1 minute.

 

 

 

Add the salt and stir-fry for about 1 minute, until the chicken is lightly browned and just cooked through. Add the cucumber and stir-fry for 10 seconds.

 

 

 

Divide the chicken and sauce among individual plates and sprinkle scallions over the top. Serve immediately. I served mine with some medium egg noodles.

 

 

Taking on the Take Away! Stir fried Pork with Chilli, Honey and Ginger

 

I had forgotten how quick and easy stir fires can be, quite honestly, and I admonish myself for not doing more of them. We have take away Chinese from time to time when I really cannot be bothered with this cooking malarkey and Lola and Finn quite like what we have. I am quite surprised by Lola's penchant for chicken and sweetcorn soup (not my most favourite Chinese food it has to be said) and both children have a propensity to 'post' spring rolls and prawn toast like they are going out of fashion. And then there's vermicelli. Lola and Finn are fans of noodles. And why not? So am I.

 

So, I wanted to have an evening meal which was going to take minimum effort when I walked through the door, after running Lola and Finn around here, there and everywhere as part of their hectic social lives (I need to get myself one...) and whilst this meal only took as much effort as chopping a few spring onions, rooting out the vinegar and the soy sauce from the cupboard and opening a pack of noodles, and so fitted in to the 'minimum effort' meal that I wanted, I did need to spend 15 or so minutes earlier in the day massaging a marinade into some pork fillet. But that was okay, and quite therapeutic actually.

 

This recipe is from my long neglected (in terms of this blog at least) Kylie Kwong book 'Simple Chinese Cooking' which is a lovely, big, bold and colourful book, and it also contains some lovely recipes that now I have reacquainted myself with them, am longing to cook, not least because when I first bought this book, pre children, I enjoyed each recipe I made. It weirdly reminds me of when I was pregnant with Lola and this was one of the very few types of food I was able to eat. Being pregnant with Lola was the best diet I ever went on.

 

Anyway, try this. It's easy and tasty. My adaptions to the recipe were that I added a little chopped red chilli to the marinade because I wanted a semblance of heat. I added half a finely diced red chilli. I also tasted the marinade and even though there was a lot of soy in there, I didn't feel there was enough salt to bring out the flavour of a potentially bland pork fillet, so I added about 1/2 a teaspoon. Finally, I also upped the quantity of spring onions as in Phill I have someone for whom two spring onions is frankly not enough. Chopped coriander is my own addition, because I like it - big lumps of it.

 

Kylie Kwong recommends an overnight marinade for optimum flavour. I marinated for about 8 hours, turning the meat over periodically and the meat was tasty and tender.

 

 

 

 

Pork with Chilli, Honey and Ginger, adapted from 'Simple Chinese Cooking' by Kylie Kwong.

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad and probably one other (but we were hungry!)

Ingredients

600 g (1 lb. 4 oz.) pork fillets, cut into 5 mm (1/4 in) slices

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 spring onions (scallions), trimmed and cut into 10 cm (4 in) lengths

1 tablespoon malt vinegar

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon water

2 limes, halved

 

Marinade

 

2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons light soy sauce

2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry

2 tablespoons finely diced ginger

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 teaspoons dark soy sauce

2 teaspoons five-spice powder

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Method

 

Combine pork with marinade ingredients in a large bowl, cover, and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or overnight.

 

 

 

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add half the marinated pork and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

 

Remove from wok with a slotted spoon and set aside. Heat remaining oil in the wok, add remaining pork and stir-fry for another 30 seconds.

 

 

 

Return reserved pork to the wok with spring onions, vinegar, soy sauce and water. Stir-fry for a further minute or until pork is just cooked through and lightly browned.

 

 

 

Arrange pork on a platter and serve with lime halves (or serve with some noodles and a scattering of coriander)