Month: November 2015

Chicken and prawn stir fry

You know the chicken and cashew you get from your local chinese? In that thick comforting sauce of non-description? This is as close to it as I’ve been able to make.

It is based on Adam Liaw’s recipe in his Asian Cookery School book. It must be the fifth recipe I’ve made from it and it delivers time and time again.

The flavours are very gentle in this, there’s no soy, no oyster sauce, no garlic, just a few fine shreds of ginger, stock and shaoxing wine. It’s almost a convalescence food, wonderfully mild and nutritious. Get onto it.

Possibly the latest #everyfuckingnight made but cooked all the same. It's @liawadam 's dragon and phoenix, aka prawn and chicken stir-fry.
Possibly the latest #everyfuckingnight made but cooked all the same. It’s @liawadam ‘s dragon and phoenix, aka prawn and chicken stir-fry.

Chicken and prawn stir fry
 
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Just like your local Chinese restaurant.
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Ingredients
  • 12 prawns
  • 2 chicken thigh fillets, cut into small pieces
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 4 spring onions, trimmed and cut into 5cm lengths
  • 1 carrot, peeled, cut in halve lengthways then sliced on the diagonal
  • 1 cup snow peas, trimmed
  • 3 slices of ginger, bruised using the side of your knife
For the marinade
  • 1 egg white
  • 1 tsp cornflour
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tsp Shaoxing wine
For the sauce
  • 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
  • ½ cup chicken stock
  • pinch of salt
  • pinch of sugar
  • 1 tsp cornflour
Instructions
  1. Peel, devein and buttefly the prawns - so cut almost the whole way through them then press down flat using the flat side of your knife
  2. Mix the chicken and prawn with the marinade and let sit for at least 15 minutes
  3. Now turn your attention to the vegetables, you're going to blanch them before combining with the meat
  4. Bring some water to the boil in your wok with a dash of the oil
  5. Blanch the carrots and white stems of the shallots for two minutes
  6. In the last minute add the snow peas and the green shallot ends
  7. Drain and set aside
  8. Wipe out the wok and then dry it over the heat
  9. Add the rest of the oil, add the ginger and then cook the chicken and prawns in batches - this splatters everywhere. I'm tempted next time to almost dry-fry it in the wok with just a smidge of oil
  10. Discard the oil
  11. Add the sauce to the wok and bring to the boil
  12. Add the meat and vegetables and keep tossing until the sauce thickens.

 

Spring Rolls

So I made these a year ago and then promptly forgot I had ever done such a thing. Bizarrely last week Felix said, remember when you made spring rolls, and I was all, NEVER! Then, serendipitously I fell upon the very post where I talked about them.

Start of spring rolls for #everyfuckingnight
Start of spring rolls for #everyfuckingnight

These are easily vegetarian – just omit the chicken mince (derr) – or turned into a pork version by using pork instead of chicken mince (double derr).

Yes, rolling 40 spring rolls is painful but this is where having 100 kids becomes useful. Sure they might not look perfect (there are spring roll perfectionists who insist they must be tighly and very evenly rolled – no hanging over the edges – so they don’t absorb too much oil) but I only shallow fry them and they sure turned out a treat.

Chicken spring rolls for #everyfuckingnight!
Chicken spring rolls for #everyfuckingnight!
Spring Rolls with cucumber dipping sauce
 
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Sensational spring rolls you can have with meat or vego
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Ingredients
For the spring rolls
  • 10-15 shitake mushrooms, stems removed, thinly sliced
  • 100g rice vermicelli noodles
  • 500g chicken or pork mince (optional)
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 2 carrots, peeled and julienned
  • 4-5 Chinese wombok cabbage leaves, finely shredded
  • 2 tsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
For the cucumber dipping sauce
  • 160 ml water
  • 120 ml white vinegar
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 1 to 1½ large telegraph cucumber
  • 1 red chilli (optional)
Instructions
  1. Cover the noodles with boiling water and sit for 6 minutes or until soft
  2. Drain really really well - you want to try and avoid a soggy filling
  3. Combine all the vegetable ingredients in a large bowl - mix it all together, have a taste, add some more mushrooms or carrot or cabbage if needed/desired
  4. Heat a wok, add a dash of oil and then fry the mince until browned and any liquid that cooks out of it has evaporated
  5. Add all the vegetables and sauces and stir until well combined and cooked through
  6. Let it cool a bit until it's easy to handle
  7. Take a spring roll sheet and then follow the instructions on the packet! (how's that for methodology!) There are also great you tube clips off it if needed.
  8. Heat about 1cm of oil in a frypan then cook in batches over a mod-high heat - they will only take about 3-4 mins
For the cucumber dipping sauce
  1. Bring the water, vinegar and sugar to the boil and the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat
  2. Cut the cucumber lengthways and scrape out the flesh the cut up into small dice
  3. Combine and leave to cool.

Honey Pecan Cake

A wonderful light cake fragrant and sticky with honey and pecans

Possibly one of the best cakes I've ever made. Quite something.
Possibly one of the best cakes I’ve ever made. Quite something.

Possibly the best cake I have ever made and I think my dedication to cake is well established.

For a few weeks I’ve had a hankering for a honey-scented cake, similar to my quest for a decent honey ice-cream, even though ice-cream and my stomach don’t see eye-to-eye.

Honey pecan cake.
Honey pecan cake.

Food52’s Baking book delivered. Honey AND pecans, we were onto a winner.

There are steps, there are bowls, just work with it.

The caramel pecan base
The caramel pecan base

Food52 uses a 23cm round springform pan with baking paper that comes up above the join but this sounded like a doomed plan to me so I used a 20cm square tin, which I lined with one piece of baking paper with no joins in it whatsoever (so the caramel can’t escape)

Honey Pecan Cake
 
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A stunning combination of honey and pecans in a delicate cake
Author:
Ingredients
For the topping
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • ¼ cup honey
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup pecan halves
For the cake
  • ½ cup pecans
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 110g butter
  • ½ cup caster sugar
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ cup buttermilk
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 175C and line your prefered pan
For the topping
  1. Melt the butter with the honey then pour over the bottom of the pan
  2. Evenly spread the pecans over it
For the cake
  1. Blitz the pecans into a flour, add to the plain flour and set aside
  2. Whisk the eggwhites to stiff peaks and set aside
  3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale
  4. Then add the egg yolks, then the honey, vanilla and buttermilk
  5. Gently stir in the flours
  6. Gently fold through the egg whites and then spoon into the pan over the pecans
  7. Bake for 35-40mins
  8. Let it cool a little then flip onto a serving platter
  9. It'd be divine with ice-cream or cream. Or both.

 

Onward!