Hello. Sorry, I've been a bit remiss about this blogging business recently. It's been one of those months where we had a tonne of distracting stuff going on - people visiting, people working late, people in hospital and some minor DIY. So I left the blog alone for a while and then left it a bit longer and left it a bit longer still .... and in the end got a bit panicky that my next post would have to be so groundbreaking that I left it a little bit longer still!
Anyway, having realised that I am being ridiculous, I'm just going to dive right in with some things I've been cooking - nothing groundbreaking but a couple of yummy things that we liked.
Poached Chicken with a Chilli Sauce
I made this for dinner tonight and it was honestly delicious. The recipe was 100% inspired by something ate at a brilliant (but weird!) little Szechuan restaurant near Liverpool Street called My Old Place. It's a canteen-y style, no-frills sort of place but it was full of chinese people when we went which seemed to bode well. The menu is amazing - loads of interesting-sounding dishes and a few "OMG ingredients" like Sea Whelks and Pigs Ears - anyway we ordered 2 starters and 2 main courses between 2 of us which was WAY too much food! So you have been warned, the portions are enormous so you really don't need many at all. It was all really tasty but one of the starters really stood out - a cold dish of poached chicken on the bone with a super-hot, spicy chilli sauce. It was really remarkable - you know when you have really "chicken-y" tasting chicken? Well it was like that. And with the fiesty but flavoursome sauce, it was genuinely brilliant. Anyway tonight I had a crack at a sort of homage to it - not exactly the same but lovely, very quick - and pretty healthy too.
2 chicken breasts
Some chicken stock for poaching
A good glug of sesame oil
Teaspoon of chilli paste
A slosh of red wine vinegar
A slosh of dark soy sauce
A couple of tablespoons of the liquid from a jar of stem ginger
Bunch of spring onions, finely chopped
Handful of finely chopped coriander (probably not as much as I used - you can see from the photo that I got a bit carried away...)
I brought the chicken stock to the boil (and threw in some ginger and lemongrass but I'd say that this was unnecessary with hindsight), then I turned the heat right down and added the chicken breasts. I poached the chicken on this super-low heat for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile I made the sauce by combining all the remaining ingredients in a saucepan and heating gently. I served the chicken sliced, on top of some plain boiled rice and with the sauce heaped over the top.
It was really spicy in a good way - giving you a proper Ready Brek sort of glow!
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