Author: Sophie

Vietnamese chicken noodle salad

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

It’s bun ga nuong! Fresh, crunchy, tangy, spicy and delicious

  • 6 chicken thigh fillets
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  • 200g vermicelli rice noodles
  • 1 baby gem lettuce, chopped
  • ⅓ cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced
  • ½ carrot, grated/julienned
  • 8 radishes, sliced
  • Bean sprouts
  • Fresh mint leaves
  • Fresh coriander leaves
  • Nuoc cham dipping sauce
  1. In a medium bowl, mix together the garlic, lime, fish sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar
  2. Put in the chicken thighs, stir to coat in the marinade, cover and leave for an hour
  3. Cook rice vermicelli noodles according to the package instructions
  4. Drain and rinse under cold running water and then leave in cold water until ready to use
  5. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium high heat
  6. Drain the marinade off the chicken and fry for about 4 mins per side or until cooked through.
  7. To assemble the salad, drain the rice noodles and place on a plate. Top with the salad vegetables, herbs and sliced chicken. Drizzle with nuoc cham sauce and serve

Nuoc cham

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

Fragrant, pungent and tasty. Use as a dressing for Vietnamese chicken salad, dip spring rolls in it, drizzle over beef lettuce wraps. Yum.

  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
  • 4 tbsp water
  1. Combine all the nuoc cham ingredients
  2. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved

Crepes

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Thin and delicate and eminently foldable around delicious things. Like lemon and sugar, nutella and banana or cheese and spinach. But not all at once. Works with buckwheat flour too! Makes 6 pancakes.

  • 100g flour
  • Big pinch salt
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 60ml water
  • 200ml milk
  • Veg oil
  1. Put flour and salt into a big bowl
  2. Make a dip in the middle and add the water, milk and eggs
  3. Beat together briefly with a whisk or just a spoon until just combined
  4. Put a few drops of oil into your big frying pan over a medium-high heat and use a paper towel to smear the oil over the whole surface
  5. Pour a ladleful of batter into the centre of the hot pan and immediately pick the pan up to swirl the mixture out as thin as possible to cover the whole pan
  6. Cook until it starts to go golden around the edges (just a minute or so) and then flip and cook the other side for a moment
  7. If you want melted cheese (and why wouldn’t you?), put the grated cheese onto the crepe as soon as you flip it, and then fold it over to enclose the filling

Meatballs and noodles

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Meatballs, vegetables, sauce, noodles. Everything delicious, a brilliant quick weeknight dinner.

  • 400g pork mince
  • 4 tbsp dried breadcrumbs
  • 1 egg
  • 1 green chilli, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, grated
  • 5 spring onions, finely chopped
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  • 1 inch piece fresh ginger, grated
  • 200ml chicken stock
  • 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp soft light brown sugar
  • 400g fresh noodles, such as udon or flat rice noodles
  • 100g mange tout, sliced in half lengthways
  • 100g baby corns, quartered lengthways
  • Fresh coriander, chopped
  1. In a bowl, mix together the minced pork, breadcrumbs, about half the spring onions, the egg, garlic, 1 tsp sesame oil, chilli and salt
  2. Using your hands, roll into around 16 meatballs
  3. Heat the veg oil in a large, deep, lidded frying pan over medium-high heat
  4. Add meatballs and use tongs to brown them all over
  5. Remove the meatballs, turn the heat down and add the remaining 1 tsp sesame oil
  6. Add the ginger and cook for around 30 secs before adding the chicken stock, soy sauce, brown sugar and hoisin
  7. Stir to combine and bring to a bubbly simmer
  8. Return meatballs to the pan and put the lid on
  9. Cook for 6 mins then scatter the baby corn over the top and put the lid back on for 2 mins
  10. Then add the mange tout to the pan and cook with the lid on for a further 2 mins
  11. Add the noodles to the pan and use the tongs to fold everything together until completely coated in sauce
  12. Serve garnished with the remaining spring onion and fresh coriander

Squash with tamarind, cashew nuts and coconut

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Sweet and sour, spiced and fragrant. Beautiful shades of orange and red, you can use any variety of squash for this dry curry. Scoop it up with delicious dosa, naan or chapati. Feeds 4

  • 1 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 15 fresh curry leaves
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 star anise
  • ½ fenugreek seeds
  • ½ tsp kashmiri chilli powder
  • 30g fresh ginger, grated
  • 1 big red chilli, finely chopped
  • 200g tinned chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tbsp tamarind concentrate
  • 1 tbsp soft light brown sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 kg squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into roughly 2cm cubes
  • 1 generous handful cashew nuts, toasted
  • 1 handful desiccated coconut, toasted
  1. Heat the oil in a large pan. When it’s hot, add the mustard seeds which will sputter and pop
  2. Add the curry leaves and fenugreek
  3. Stir into the oil, turn the heat down and add the cinnamon, star anise and chilli powder
  4. Stir in, frying for 30 secs or so then add the ginger and chilli
  5. Stir and fry until fragrant, then add the tomatoes, tamarind, sugar, salt and 100ml water
  6. Cook over a medium heat for 5 mins until it forms a velvety sauce
  7. Tumble in the squash cubes and stir them gently until they are coated in sauce
  8. Cover the pan, lower the heat and cook for about 40 mins, stirring occasionally until the pumpkin is soft but not collapsed
  9. Add the cashews, cover and cook for a further 5 mins
  10. Stir in the toasted coconut and serve

Delicious with this split pea daal, and you’ll use up a whole tin of tomatoes if you make them both!

Dim sum dipping sauce

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

Make your dim sum happy.

  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp black vinegar
  • 2 tbsp Szechuan chilli oil (including some of the flakes from the bottom)
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and squashed lightly-but-not-disintegrated
  • 1 minced spring onion
  1. Mix all of the ingredients together about 15 mins before you want to use it. Then discard the garlic clove
  2. Drizzle, dunk and douse your dim sum in it

Mulled wine

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A spicy-sweet alcoholic treat to warm the cockles of your heart on a chilly day. And doing it this way stops you from boiling all the alcohol away!

  • 1 bottle fruity red wine
  • 1 large orange
  • 1 satsuma, cut into thick slices
  • 4 heaped tbsp sugar
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 6 allspice berries
  • 3 cloves
  • 6 gratings of nutmeg
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 inch piece fresh ginger, sliced into 3
  1. Pare long strips of zest off the orange, dropping the fragrant curls into a large saucepan
  2. Halve the orange and squeeze the juice into the pan
  3. Add the sugar, satsuma slices and spices to the pan
  4. Pour over roughly a glassful of wine and turn the heat on to medium-high
  5. Stir gently while the syrup bubbles, the sugar dissolves and it starts to smell of Christmas
  6. Boil and bubble for 4-5 min before pouring in the remainder of the bottle of wine
  7. Turn the heat down and warm the wine through without boiling it
  8. Sieve out the spices etc and serve piping hot
  9. Then get another bottle out, squeeze a new orange, grab the sugar jar and re-use the spices because everyone is going to want more!

Extra lovely served with cheese straws, smoked paprika and almond biscuits or caramelised chilli nuts.

Confit garlic

~ Sophie ~ 2 Comments

The perfect purpose for a surfeit of garlic, the result is sweet, savoury and mellow. A brilliant jar to have in the fridge for all occasions – use the cloves to make garlic bread, add to mashed potato, smear under the skin of a roast chicken, jazz up pasta sauce, use in hummous etc. And of course use the oil to cook with, dress salads, make bruscetta.

  • Loads of garlic cloves, peeled
  • Enough neutral oil to cover (3 bulbs of garlic will need around 300ml oil)
  • Pinch of chilli flakes or stalk of rosemary for additional flavour (optional)
  1. Place the garlic (and flavourings if using) into a small saucepan
  2. Pour in oil until the cloves are submerged
  3. Heat over the very lowest heat for 30-40 mins, until the cloves are just starting to turn golden
  4. Decant into a sterilised jar and keep in the fridge

Apple and spice cookies

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Like gingerbread and apple crumble had a baby. Exactly that delicious – but in cookie form.

  • 150g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 120g soft light brown sugar
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1½ tsp ginger
  • ½ tsp allspice
  • Grate of nutmeg
  • Pinch of ground cloves
  • 1 egg, fridge cold
  • 1 egg yolk, fridge cold
  • 250g plain flour
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 100g ground almonds
  • 200g dried apple, snipped into pieces
  1. Preheat oven to 170C fan/190F and line baking trays with paper
  2. Pour the melted butter and both sugars into a large bowl and beat together
  3. Beat in the whole egg, then the egg yolk and vanilla until the mixture is light and creamy
  4. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, bicarb, salt, ground almonds, spices and apple pieces until combined
  5. Then tip the dry ingredients into the egg/butter/sugar and stir in with a spoon until just combined
  6. Scoop up the mixture and, with damp hands, gently form into roughly walnut-sized balls 
  7. Place on the baking tray (spaced out to allow for spreading) and bake for 15-17 mins until golden
  8. Cool on a wire rack 

Courgette herb muffins

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Perfect savoury lunch/brunch/soup dunker/snack/on-the-go breakfast. Adapt as you like, it’s very forgiving! Makes 12

  • 1 large courgette or 2 small ones
  • 2 spring onions, finely chopped
  • 25g fresh herbs, finely chopped (parsley and dill are a lovely combination, but you could go with some oregano, marjoram, mint – whatever soft herbs you have in the fridge. Or just 1 tsp of dried herbs of your choice)
  • 225g plain flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 100g cheddar cheese
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 eggs
  • 125ml milk
  • 50ml olive oil
  1. Pre-heat oven to 180C fan (200C) and fill a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases
  2. Grate the courgette and then dump the pile of gratings into the centre of a clean tea towel
  3. Gather the tea towel into a pouch surrounding the courgette, then (over the sink) twist and squeeze out as much liquid as you can
  4. Dump the now-much-drier courgette into a large bowl and add the spring onion, herbs, flour, baking powder, cheese, salt and pepper
  5. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and olive oil
  6. Pour the wet into the dry and use a spoon to combine all the ingredients until just mixed
  7. Spoon into the muffin cases, splitting the thick batter evenly between the 12
  8. Bake for 20 mins until the tops are golden and they’re cooked through
  9. Cool in the tin and them tumble out into a basket to serve or into an airtight container to keep for later. They also freeze really well