Chicken Gumbo with Green Beans and Red Pepper

Not an authentic Louisiana dish, but inspired by Cajun gumbo recipes. Chicken goujons from the fridge refried until slightly browned in olive oil. I added julienned onion (two small ones), half a diced red pepper, and about 75g of diced green beans.

I made the sauce with a teaspoonful of arrowroot powder in water (normally cornflour or flour), half a 400g can of chopped tomatoes, a teaspoonful of Cajun seasoning, a teaspoonful of paprika, and half a teaspoonful of red chilli powder. Then I added some chicken stock. Cooked for fifteen minutes. 

The sauce was added to the chicken and vegetables, along with about 100g of boiling water. Cooked slowly half under glass until the sauce thickened again. 

Served with some steamed basmati rice, originally cooked with diced root ginger. 

Sweet and Sour pan-fried Chicken

Basmati rice cooked with finely diced root ginger. Pan-fried chicken goujons, cooked slowly (mostly under glass). Plus a sweet and sour sauce which had been in the fridge for a few days, which I made for a previous dish (essentially two teaspoonfuls of tomato puree, a dash of fish sauce, a little sugar, and diced pineapple I added arrowroot as a thickener). I added diced spring onion. Served with a little white pepper and a dusting of coriander leaf. Delicious!

Curried Singapore Fried Noodle with King Prawns

A favourite dish from student days, when we used to hop on a bus to Chinatown in London, to have Singapore fried noodles at Wong Ki's restaurant (Gerrard Street). 

This variant of the dish uses curried noodles from Sainsbury's. The Vietnamese king prawns (also from Sainsbury's) were cooked for a couple of minutes in a little sunflower oil. The vegetables were cooked first for about four minutes at a high heat - diced red pepper (one third of one pepper), one diced spring onion, some chopped root ginger, and two cloves of garlic. No chilli this time. 

I added the noodles to a wok containing the stirfried vegetables, and mixed them together. Cooked in two and a half minutes, stirring often. I then added the king prawns. Decanted to a serving plate, and dressed in a medium dark soy sauce. 

 

Madras Chicken Curry with Rice

The peas, leek and carrot essentially forms the underlying dahl (blended) for this dish.

After making that (if you don't already have some in your fridge), add the chicken stock, the diced chicken pieces, to a pan with a little hot sunflower oil, and stir-fry for ten to fifteen minutes at a medium heat.

Add a cup of boiling water to the dahl, and decant the chicken pieces to the pot containing the dahl, and add the Madras curry powder and turmeric, the garlic, and the finely diced root ginger. Cook at a low heat for about an hour.

Served with some dessicated coconut, sprinkled on top, finely diced strips of (deseeded) raw red chilli, and long-grain rice with a little wild black rice. Delicious!

Balti Style Chicken Curry

Dish prompted by some cheap vegetables from the local Co-op. Washed and diced leek and carrot, cooked with yellow split peas, which formed the basis of the curry sauce.

Mashed and blended, I added the curry powder (Madras), plus some turmeric, and tomato passata. Then I added a handful of raisins, a red and green chilli (deseeded), diced root ginger, chicken and vegetable stock, some fish sauce (Nam Pla). And finally the chicken slices from two chicken thighs.

Allowed to simmer for an hour. Served with long grain rice (or basmati, if you prefer), cooked for two minutes in boiling water before being shocked by cold water, and then another eight minutes of cooking. Served with lime pickle. Drizzle some lime juice on the rice before serving. Excellent!

Singapore Noodle with Chicken and Peppers

Fabulous dish made with fresh and soft Singapore Noodles from Sainsbury's. First I julienned one white and one red onion, cut the peppers into strips, diced the two chillies, diced the root ginger, and crushed some garlic.

The chicken meat came from a steamed chicken thigh (deskinned), which spent the day before the preparation of this dish in the fridge. The groundnut oil (peanut oil) was heated to a high temperature in the wok, and the both the onion and the chicken meat were added.After which the heat was turned way down (I've mentioned before that my electric hob has a high degree of heat latency, meaning it takes a while to heat up and to cool down). Stirred continuously for about three minutes, and then the other vegetables and the cashew nuts were added.

The mixture of chicken and vegetables was cooked for another four minutes, stirring frequently.

The heat was turned up high before I added the noodles, and then turned down again immediately afterwards. Stir together continuously for another three or four minutes, until they are thoroughly heated.

Serve on a spiral of dark soy sauce. Delicious, and a trip down memory lane.

Sweet and Sour Egg Noodles

A simple Chinese style dish made with mixed vegetables. I used diced carrot, courgette,  a third of a yellow pepper, plus a dessert spoonful of diced ginger root. A wide range of other vegetables can be used, including cabbage, sweetcorn, bamboo shoots, etc.

The vegetables (plus the ginger) were cooked in a little boiling water for twenty minutes until they were soft. Then left to cool under glass.

I used a shop-bought sweet and sour sauce (Aldi own brand), but it is easy to make one with some tomato puree, sugar, salt, and white spirit vinegar. It can be thickened with a teaspoonful of cornflour. It is best to make it separately. Stir in the sauce, and heat until the vegetables and sauce come to the boil.

Serve in a bowl with egg noodles, which cook in less than ten minutes. Stir the sauce and vegetables through the noodles. Add some Szechuan pepper, or black pepper. Delicious and easy to make!

Pork and Potato Curry

Pork strips from a leg joint, cooked with onion, spring onion, diced mushroom, and peas. With chilli (deseeded) two garlic cloves, and the spices garam masala, cumin, coriander powder, coriander leaf, sliced root ginger, and some ground black pepper.

Easy to prepare. Place all of the ingredients in a pan containing boiling water and cook for half an hour under glass at a medium heat, then reduce to a low heat for another half an hour. Stir occasionally, and check the consistency of the curry. 

During which preparation time you can peel some potatoes, cut them into wedges, and cook them in a steamer for thirty minutes or so at a low heat (put the potatoes into the steamer when the water has come to the boil).

Decant the potatoes on to the serving plate, and add the pork curry. May be served with garlic nan bread.

Pork and Pepper Stir-Fry

A pork stir fry with two different kinds of cabbage, bean sprouts, red and
yellow peppers, chestnut mushrooms, red onion, carrot, bamboo shoots, finger chillies, garlic, root ginger.

The whole dish was cooked in the same wok, so I started with the pork. I cut into strips two raw pork loin steaks, after removing the surrounding fat. The strips were put into the wok when the sunflower oil was hot, and stir fried for ten minutes, with the heat turned right down to the lowest. After that I turned up the heat again, and added chopped peppers, 3 chopped finger chillies, bamboo shoots, chopped mushroom, garlic, and root ginger strips. Cooked for three minutes stirring almost constantly.

Finally I added the cabbage, bean sprouts, red onion, and some carrot pieces, and stir-fried for a further 3 minutes at a medium heat.

Served on a spiral of dark soy sauce.

Chicken in a Tomato and Ginger Sauce

Made with pieces of pre-cooked stir-fried chicken breast, a tin of chopped tomatoes, chopped green beans, a quarter each of red and green pepper, sliced, chopped spring onion, thin slices of ginger, a topped and tailed whole green chilli, with some basil, oregano, bacon fat, and chicken stock. Served with boiled potato. 

Since the chicken breast pieces were already cooked, this was a fairly quick meal to prepare. The chicken, tomato and chopped vegetables were added to a saute pan, along with the bacon fat (just a scraping - this ingredient can be skipped) and the chicken stock, along with a little water. Bring to the boil and then simmer for twenty to twenty five minutes under glass at a low heat. Stir occasionally.  Add the herb pinches five minutes before serving. The potatoes can be cooked during the same time. So, five or six minutes to prepare the vegetables, and twenty to twenty five minutes before serving!

Chicken in a Tomato and Ginger Sauce

Oyster Sauce Chicken with Baby Pak Choi

Chicken breast was cut into medallions and then into strips, and stir-fried in sunflower oil until very slightly browned. The vegetables were pre-prepared, which took about fifteen minutes. The ingredients were: four baby pak choi, three mushrooms, one onion, half a yellow pepper, two medallions of root ginger, cut into thin strips, chopped garlic, and a handful of whole cashews. 

The pak choi leaves were separated from the white stems, the yellow pepper was cut into strips, as was the onion. The mushrooms were sliced. All the vegetable ingredients were decanted into a glass bowl and soused in a little rice wine, and a couple of tablespoonsful of oyster sauce. The ingredients were stirred occasionally during the half hour before the vegetables were added to the wok.

I tend not to cook at the really high heat found in chinese kitchens, so the stir-fry took about nine minutes altogether, At a really high heat, five minutes would be enough.  

A spiral of dark soy sauce was written on the plate before the contents of the wok were served. 

Oyster Sauce Chicken with Baby Pak Choi

Oyster Sauce Chicken with Baby Pak Choi (minus the ginger and mushrooms, plus thinly sliced white cabbage)

Lamb with Cashews and Ginger

Some bargain sell-by date lamb mince prompted this excursion into north african style cooking. I browned the mince for about half an hour with a little sunflower oil. after fifteen minutes I began to add rough-cut chunks of carrot, spring onion, tomato, chopped root ginger, three chillies, stoned and chopped dates, and some garlic. The whole dish was then allowed to slow cook in a saute pan for another ninety minutes. Then some chopped tinned tomato was added, along with two handfuls of unsalted cashew nuts, paprika, and lamb stock. The pan was left to simmer for another thirty to forty minutes. 

Ground almonds could be used in place of the cashews, along with a little cinnamon, and chickpeas. 

Lamb with Cashews and Ginger

Chinese Style Beef Strips with Vegetable Stir-Fry

Roasted beef strips stir-fried first in the wok in sunflower oil, along with spring onion, garlic and a little soy sauce. The vegetables are added when the beef is thoroughly heated and has absorbed the soy sauce. The vegetables are: carrot, courgette, yellow pepper, mushroom, onion, chilli, and chopped root ginger. Plus a handful of cashew nuts. 

Chinese Style Beef Strips with Vegetable Stir-Fry