THANK YOU GOK FOR THE GARLIC CHICKEN

Yesterday was one of those days when dinnertime came around far too quickly. Busy beating deadlines and then my stomach started to grumble. I realised the cupboard has issues of an Old Mother Hubbard nature. In the freezer were some Quorn chicken pieces for my 17-year-old son, Tom who is vegetarian. The fridge offered up a packet of chicken thighs and a pack of ready prepared stir-fry vegetables.

Now I don’t make a habit of buying cookbooks written by celebrities but at Christmas my daughter Rosie asked me for Gok Wan’s Gok Cooks Chinese cookery book as a present. This made sense as she loves fashion and Chinese food but I have to be honest that I wasn’t that convinced by  it. I admit I was wrong- it’s full of tempting recipes. Rosie and I have both used it frequently.

Gok learnt to cook, as a youngster, while working with his father who ran a Chinese take away and his passion is apparent. The recipes are pretty easy and though a few ingredients require you to take a trip to a specialist Chinese food store, most can be found in supermarkets. Everything we have made from this has been really enjoyable. Even the recipes with tofu have been great and before Gok came along we had had some tofu disasters.

I wanted to make something I had made before so I opted for Gok’s Garlic Chicken. Deliciously moreish and helpfully enables me to simply grab a separate pan and follow exactly the same recipe for Tom’s veggie chicken pieces.  Hope Gok won’t mind but I have modified it a bit, mostly due to my lack of resources and also because of a desperate urge to add to their 5-a-day, I bunged in the ready prepared stir-fry vegetables. To recreate Gok’s original garlic chicken recipe and other delicious dishes, I wholeheartedly urge you to get your hands on his book.

What you need:

2 tbsp cornflour

4 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into small chunks

or Quorn chicken pieces

oil to shallow fry (Gok specifies groundnut, I only had rapeseed)

4 garlic cloves

3 spring onions cut into batons

2 tbsp dry sherry

2 tbsp soy sauce

packet of medium egg noodles or you could serve with rice

packet of prepared stir-fry vegetables (absolutely entirely optional)

pinch of sugar (Gok says caster, I only had granulated)

What you have to do:

1.   Put the flour into a shallow bowl, add seasoning and coat your chicken pieces in the flour mix before setting aside.

2.   Heat your wok or frying pan over a high heat and add oil. When it’s sizzling hot add your chicken pieces and fry for 4 -5 minutes. They should be golden and slightly crisp on the outside, cooked through in the middle. Obviously if you are cooking Quorn chicken this won’t be quite the same but it should have coloured evenly and I would fry this on a lower heat for around 10 minutes, making sure it doesn’t burn. Remove the pieces and put aside.

3.   Clean out the wok; add more oil and heat over medium heat. Add garlic and spring onions and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Take care not to burn garlic as it makes it taste very bitter. Splash in the sherry, soy sauce and sugar. Mix it well.

4.   Now this is where I added my pack of stir-fry veg and while they were cooking put on a saucepan of boiling water and dropped in the noodles. 

5.   Return the chicken to the frying pan and stir everything together.

I guarantee you won’t have to call your family for dinner. They will come out from wherever they are lurking once the aroma of this dish wafts their way.

AMARETTI STRAWBERRY TARTS

I am a sucker for packaging. Beautifully designed tins and boxes are irresistible to me. Unfortunately, I am the most disorganised person so I throw all manner of household debris into them and can’t remember what’s in each so they kind of lose their purpose. Anyway, I noticed I had a  lovely amaretti biscuit tin that I had bought at Christmas and the contents had miraculously not been eaten. My family probably thought it was full of anything other than the edible delights boasted on the exterior.  

I decided not to eat the amaretti biscuits with a black coffee, as is my wont but use them in a dessert. I knew I had some strawberries and found the following recipe, which is straightforward and makes 4 tarts. Three out of four of my family loved them. That’s a result in our house! The fussy one is my teenage daughter who doesn’t like strawberries. I know, imagine.

200g amaretti

100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

200g mascarpone

2 heaped tbsp icing sugar, plus extra to dust

½ tsp vanilla extract

150g diced strawberries

20ml balsamic vinegar

1.   Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3. Lightly grease 4 round tart tins (2cm deep, 8cm in diameter). Loose bottomed would be perfect but I don’t have any and the amaretti cases still came free very easily.

2.   Crush the biscuits in a food processor or put them in a strong freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin, as is my preferred, stress releasing, option. Mix with the melted butter.

3.   Press the mixture into the base and sides of the tins. Bake for 10 minutes then allow to cool slightly. Remove the tart cases from pans and leave to cool.

4.   Whip mascarpone with 1½ tbsps of icing sugar and vanilla extract. Put your chopped strawberries into a bowl and combine them with balsamic vinegar and the rest of the icing sugar.

5.   Fill the tart cases with the mascarpone and then cover with the diced strawberries.

Serve to your family and wait for them to enthusiastically compliment the combined flavours of strawberry and almond. Someone may comment on the smell of vinegar and then you explain how balsamic really works with strawberries. They will agree and ask if there are any more tarts. If you have one who decides they don’t like strawberries, even ones enhanced with balsamic vinegar, then you can share out their tart between the rest of the family. Waste not want not.