Spicy chinese chicken drumsticks and wings

As part of my 'three meals from one chicken' approach this is a way of using the legs and wings for a side dish or a snack perhaps. The recipe contains the usual chinese flavours with lots of ginger and chili, but it is also very sweet, so probably consider this dish to be a treat. The secret is to marinade the chicken for roughly 24 hours before cooking the chicken and then to cook it in the marinade.

Ingredients

2 chicken legs
2 chicken wings
an inch of grated root ginger
1 medium red chili
1 heaped tbsp of honey (chinese if available)
3 tsp of chinese five spice
2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tbsp of muscavado sugar

Method

1. It is essential to marinade the chicken at least overnight. Cut off the chicken legs and wings and lacerate them with a knife.
2. In a bowl mix all the other ingredients. Make sure the ginger is finely grated and the chili is chopped finely. Deseed the chili, or leave it out, if you do not like the spice, but it adds a cracking contrast to the sweetness of the honey and sugar.
3. Marinade the chicken and when possible spoon the marinade over the chicken again.
4. In a dish create a bowl out of tin foil and place the chicken and marinade in the middle.
5. Place in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for an hour. This should create a crispy and dark skin, which while being unhealthy is delicious. Go on, treat yourself!

Serve with the sauce drizzled over the chicken and what else you are eating, such as rice and corn on the cob.

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Salmon Fillet with Honey, Orange and Ginger

This quick and easy salmon recipe is sweet with the honey, while the orange and ginger accompanies the fish delightfully.

Serve this dish with a plateful of salad, or some new baby potatoes and steam vegetables for a meal that takes 30 minutes to complete from start to finish.

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 fresh salmon fillets
1 tbsp of honey
juice of 1 orange
2 tsp of grated ginger
a handful of chopped fresh coriander
sprinkle of salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Method

1. Turn on the oven and heat at 200 degrees.
   
2. Place tin foil on a baking tray and lay on the two salmon fillets. Turn up the foil so that it can hold a small amount of liquid.
   
3. Now grate the ginger root and squeeze the juice from the orange.
   
4. Mix together with the honey to form a paste and pour over the salmon fillets.
   
5. The paste will fall off, so wrap up the tin foil around the sides of the fillets.
   
6. Sprinkle on the chopped coriander and place in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes depending on how well done you like your salmon.
   

To improve the above recipe you should marinate the salmon fixture in the mixture for at least a few hours.

Yeah this blog needed some pictures - so here is a salmon fillet :)

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Chicken and Almond creamy curry - A korma style curry children can enjoy

I am not sure what actually defines a dish as being a curry, but this one resembles that of what is considered a korma. However, this dish is not spicy, oily and is certainly suitable for children. My two-year-old loves it!

This serves three and takes less than 90 minutes from start to finish to reproduced.

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breasts (or 300g of boneless chicken)
2 large onions
5 cloves of garlic
25g of root ginger
2cm stick of cinnamon
5 green cardamon pods
15 coriander seeds (roughly)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp tumeric
100g of low fat yoghurt
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of caster sugar
25g desiccated coconut (dry fried and soaked in water)
50g ground almonds
25g flaked almonds
knob of butter
75ml of double cream (replace with single if you wish)

There are a lot of ingredients listed above - do not fear if you are missing one or two, the basis of this dish will carry it through regardless.

Method:

Firstly in a dry saucepan heat the stick of cinnamon until it starts to let off a smell. Now add the cardamon pods and coriander seeds and heat until they begin to darken in colour.
Remove the spices from the heat and using a spice grinder reduced to a fine powder. Use a sieve to check the powder is fine.
Blitz the garlic and ginger with a slash of water to form a paste
Mix together the spices, garlic/ginger paste, yoghurt and salt and marinate the chopped chicken (use bite-sized pieces).
Return to the fridge for as long as it takes to prepare the rest of the meal.
Chop the onions and using a hand blender reduce to a puree.
Heat the butter in a saucepan and then cook the pureed onion for five minutes.
Now add the marinated chicken, nutmeg and tumeric and simmer in the pan with the lid on for 20 minutes.
Add the almond powder, flaked almonds and desiccated coconut to the mix and cook for five more minutes.
Now add the double cream and cook for a further two minutes.

Serve with rice and/or peshwari naan bread

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Lemon ginger crunch cheesecake

This lemon cheesecake has a strong and smooth lemon flavour, which is supported perfectly by the ginger base.

Serves 6
Preperation: 30 minutes plus time for freezing.

Ingredients:

300g of ginger crunch biscuits
75g of butter
300g of philadelphia cream cheese
200g of icing sugar
100g of mascarpone
100ml of double cream
3 lemons (jest and juice required)
1tbsp on caster sugar

Method:

Crush the biscuits with a rolling pin, or your method of choice, until they resemble crumbs with the occasional bigger piece perfectly fine.
Melt the butter and mix together with the crushed biscuits.
Place in a round cake tin and push down to form a smooth base.
Put the tin in the fridge while you make the cream.
Add the icing sugar, philadelphia and mascarpone and whisk until it becomes a smooth cream - this is hard work at first but persist and whisking will become easier.
Seperately whisk the double cream and once thick add the jest and juices of two lemons.
Now fold this in to the cream cheese mixture until well combined.
Take the cake tin from the fridge and add the lemon cheesecake mixture - smooth the top and place in the freezer.
Finally, over a heat use a small amount of water to melt the caster sugar. Add the juice from the remaining lemon and heat until the mixture begins to caramalise. Take off the heat and allow the mixture to call.
Briefly take the cheesecake out of the freezer and using a teaspoon drizzle the cooled lemon mixture over the surface.

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Honey and orange marinated gammon

Honey and orange marinated gammon recipe - perfect for a sumptuous roast or to serve cold, as our house love to do for tea on Christmas Day.

Ingredients 

1kg piece of unsmoked gammon joint

4 cloves

10 peppercorns

10 coriander seeds

1 tbsp orange marmalade

1 tbsp of honey 

1 tsp of grated orange rind

1 tsp of grated ginger

juice of half an orange

one slice of orange for garnish

Method

This is simple. Combine all the ingredients together (apart from the orange slice), mix well and then smear all over the gammon. It is quite runny so there will be plenty of juice in the pan. Place the orange slice on top before covering loosely with tin foil and place in a preheated oven (190 degrees) for 140 minutes. Take the foil off for the last hour to allow the top of the meat form a lovely crust. Also baste throughout with the juices. 

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