Nigella's Chicken and Peas Pan bake

 

I love this recipe because you get both veggies and protein in one absolutely unctuous plate. It takes longer to make than you think though, mostly time in the oven.

Ingredients

• 1, 1kg pack frozen peas or 2, 600g packs
  
• 2 leeks chopped into 1-2 inch long peices
• 6-8 garlic cloves minced
  
• 2-3 big splashes of dry white vermouth or sherry
• Olive oil
  
• Fresh dill (we've used frozen in a pinch, fresh is obs better)
  
• 1-2 kg chicken thighs, Bone-in, skin-on
  

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 C, we use 180 C since we have a forced air oven
2. Line a deep baking tray with foil/silicone then empty the frozen peas into it
3. Add in the chopped leeks, minced garlic, dill, vermouth, and salt and stir around a bit so it is all mixed. Then put the chicken thighs on top, skin-side up, and drizzle olive oil and a bit of salt over the tops.
4. Bake in the middle or lower part of the oven for 45 minutes, then remove and stir the peas around a bit so they don't dry out.
5. Bake again for 30 minutes.
6. Serve with boiled potatoes or just by themselves!
   

Char Siu - 叉烧

This is from the Made with Lau channel on Youtube. The video is here. It is delicious, in buns, with noodles, however you want it. Cold on sandwich. Yum.

Ingredients

Meat and basting

• 2 kg pork butte (fläskkarré).
• 4 tbsp honey
• 4 tsp water

Marinade

• 2 tbsp garlic salt
• 8 tbsp brown sugar
• 4 tbsp oyster sauce
• 4 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 4 tbsp red wine
• 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine
• 2 cubes red fermented bean curd (optional)
  
• 2 tsp five spice powder
• 0.5 tsp red food coloring (if you want to)

Method

Meat

Cut it with the grain into one inch thick strips, or slabs. You should end up with three or four strips. Stab the slabs vigorously with a fork.

Rub a dub dub

Mix all of the marinade until it is even. Put it with the meat in a big zip lock and let it marinate over night, not more than 24 hours.

Oven business

Set the oven to 220 °C (i.e. 425 °F). Line a baking pan with foil and place the baking rack on top of the foil. Lay out the pork on the rack. Add a few tbsp of water to the bottom of the pan to add some steam and make cleaning easier. Place in oven. Baste regularly with either left over marinade or honey water mix.

• Cook for 15 minutes. Take out to baste with marinade.
• Cook for 15 minutes. Take out to baste with marinade.
• Cook for 10 minutes. Take out to baste with honey water.
• Crank up the heat to 240 °C (i.e. 450 °F) and cook another five minutes, lather with honey and take out.
  

Let it cool a little before cutting it.

Brazilian Collard Greens

Brazilian collard greens are really good with feijoada. We got this recipe from here.

 Ingredients

• 1 large bunch fresh collard greens
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt, to taste

Method

1. Rinse the collard greens under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Remove the center stem of each leaf and stack the leaves together, one on top of the other.
2. Fold the leaves in half, then roll them tightly, into a cigar-shaped cylinder. Use a sharp chef’s knife to cut very thin ribbons. Reserve.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Add the collard greens and sauté, tossing with the garlicky oil. Cover and cook until they are wilted and crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt to taste.
5. Serve immediately.

Mom's Sweet corn Chicken soup

 This stuff is like crack. I love to eat it with garlic bread and I can eat bowls and bowls of it.

Ingredients

• 1 kg whole chicken, skin-on, bone-in 
• Enough water to cover chicken
• Salt
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• soy sauce
• vinegar
• 1 can sweet corn

Method

1. Wash the chicken and then put it in a pressure cooker and cover with water. Add about 3 tsp of salt. I have a 5 L cooker and I add as much water as allowed.
2. Heat on high and cook for 3-4 whistles and then take off the heat and let the pressure drop naturally.
3. Once the pressure has released, remove the chicken and keep aside to remove the meat. Bring the stock back to a boil and add the two cans of sweet corn to it.
4. In a bowl, mix the flour and two cups of water until smooth and then add it to the stock.
5. Add in about 2 Tbsp of soy sauce and a few dashes of vinegar, but careful with the vinegar. 
6. The soup should be at a roiling boil. Break and beat two eggs in a bowl and then stir the soup and dribble a thin line into the boiling soup while continuing to stir and then let boil for a few minutes. 
7. Taste salt and pepper and serve hot over shredded chicken.

Moms daal and carrot soup

 Ingredients

• 3 large or 4 medium/small carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup of pink masoor daal
• 12 flakes of garlic, peeled
• 4 cups of water
• salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• Italian herbs

Method

1. Add the lentils, carrots, garlic, water and salt to a pressure cooker and cook for 2 whistles (about 5 minutes after it reaches pressure)
2. Blend using an immersion blender adding in the milk and italian herb seasoning
3. Add salt to taste and serve

Khow suey

 I've grown up being told that this was a burmese dish that somehow got wildly popular in India in the 70s/80s. I'm not sure there is anyone in Burma that would recognize this dish but I love it. I recently came across another recipe called Khow soi that purports to being a coconut curry/noodle soup from Burma by way of Thailand, so the truth, as they say, is out there.

Ingredients

Soup: 

• 1 kg chicken (I used chicken thighs, bone-in or boneless, cut into smaller pieces)
• 2 chopped onions
• 2 Tbsp Ginger-Garlic paste
• 6 Tbsp Chickpea flour/ besan
• 5 bowls water
• 1/2 - 1 cup desiccated or fresh/ frozen shredded coconut

Toppings:

• 6 eggs
• Limes
• Fried onions
• Fried Garlic
• Cashewnuts
• Salli/ Laccha

Carbs:

• Egg noodles
• Rice Noodles
• Rice

Method

1. Boil Eggs to hard, cool peel. Slice and fry onions and garlic separately to brown. Drain on paper towels. Quarter limes. 
2. Heat a table spoon of oil until shimmering hot, then add the onions and fry for about 5 minutes
3. Lower the heat to medium-low, add ginger-garlic paste and fry until fragrant.
4. Throw in salt, red chilli powder and saute for maybe 10 seconds, then add in the chicken and fry until the chicken has a bit of surface.
5. Add in the besan and then fry until fragrant (the smell changes, thats what you're looking for)
6. Add in the water and then boil until the chicken is cooked
7. Add in the coconut and boil for another 5 minutes. At this point, when we've used frozen fresh coconut before, we noticed the shreds were really long and would have been hard to eat, so we pulled out the chicken and used an immersion blender to make the soup smooth.
8. Boil the noodles/cook rice etc as needed
9. Assemble bowls: put noodles/rice in the bottom of a bowl and ladle on lots and lots of soup. Add on toppings, halved boiled egg and lots of lime (this is v. important, v. v. It really needs lime)

Notes

1. This recipe scales really well. Mum's rule of thumb is that you add a Tbsp of besan for every bowl of khow suey you want and about a bowl of water. At this volume as written, since the chicken and other ingredients increase the volume by around a bowl, I only used 5 bowls of water.

Koottu

I've made this with raw papaya, chow chow (choyote squash) and a couple of other veggies and it turns out amazing. The first two are my absolute favourites, but I'll happily take any koottu I can get. This recipe is adapted from a bunch of different recipes. This one uses toor dal, since it is my current fave, but I've also made it with chana dal and simple pink masoor.

Ingredients

• Tur daal 1 cup
• Choyote squash 2 medium to big
• Water 2.5 cups
• Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp

For the coconut paste

• Dessicated coconut or fresh/frozen grated coconut 1/2 cup
• Green chillies 2
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp

For the tadka / tempering

• Oil 2 -4 Tbsp  
• Mustard seeds, black 1 tsp
• White urad dal 1tsp
• curry leaves 10-15 
• Dried red chillies (optional)

Method

1. Wash and soak the daal for either 30 minutes at room temp or 15 minutes with hot water
2. Add water, chopped veggies and turmeric powder to a pressure cooker and cook for about 5 whistles
3. Grind the ingredients for the paste into a smooth paste.
4. After the pressure releases, add the paste to the cooked daal+veggie
5. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and the urad daal. When the daal turns light golden and the mustard begins to sputter, add the curry leaves and then turn off the heat and add the red chillies. 
6. Add to the daal+ veggies while still hot. Let the daal boil for a few minutes for the flavours to incorporate.
7. Eat with hot rice or chapati if you're a weirdo like martin.