December 4, 2020 / Lyn Jones / 0 Comments
Just like a cup a noodle soup, but delicious and wholesome and not full of nasty things. This is loaded with flavour and light on the dishes you’ll be eating this one on the reg. Actual cook time is 7 minutes so I’m allowing you 8 minutes to get everything else sorted. To make the most of this time, do as the recipe suggests and prep the chicken first and while that sits in its marinade, chop all the veg up. Everything doesn’t need to be perfect – just all about bite sized so that you don’t need to get super awkward when eating it and it will cook at the same rate. Serves 2
Ingredients1 chicken breast (approx 200g) or try 2 thighs
1 tsp ginger (ground?)
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine (optional)
a few drops sesame oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 Tbs coriander stalks, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped spring onion
1 carrot, finely sliced
1 bunch broccolini, chopped into 1-2inch pieces
2/3 cup mushrooms, finely sliced
1 cup cauliflower florets, bite sized pieces
200g fresh noodles of choice or rice noodles (must be something that takes 3 mins or less to cook)
Approx 400ml boiling water
Toasted sesame seeds to serve
Chop the chicken breast into bite sized pieces and place in a bowl along with ginger, chilli, soy, wine, sesame oil, garlic and coriander stalks. Toss to coat and let it sit for a few minutes while you prepare all your vegetables.
Put a medium pot on medium high heat, lightly spray with oil (if pot is non stick you can skip this) and add chicken pieces along with their marinade. Cook, moving around the pot regularly, until the chicken breast pieces have got some colour. This should only take a few minutes.
Add the mushrooms, carrots, cauliflower and broccolini along with 1/2 the spring onion. Toss to mix well with the chicken and cook for 1 minute. Add the noodles and fill with the pot with enough boiling water to just cover the noodles with the tops of the vegetables sticking out. Simmer 3 mins.
To serve: place noodles, chicken and vegetables into bowls and top with the stock.
Sprinkle with remaining spring onion, coriander and toasted sesame seeds.
Have some extra chilli flakes on hand if you like things hot.
July 5, 2017 / Lyn Jones / 0 Comments
“Grilled things you like”, these Japanese pancakes are a fantastic way to use up left over vegetables and make a super quick dinner. They’re also ridiculously tasty.
Lunch tip: These reheat brilliantly on a sandwich press. Just cook the full batch at home, wrap any extras in foil to keep together and then reheat/crisp up when you get to work using that trusty sandwich press.
Makes 4 small or 2 large
Ingredients
1 cup flour – usually spelt or buckwheat
1 cup dashi/water/stock (if using water add a tsp each of soy and sake)
1 egg
1/4 cabbage
1 small carrot, grated
1/4 cup spring onions finely sliced
1 tsp finely chopped chilli
1 Tbs finely chopped coriander stalks
1/2 tsp ginger, freshly grated
1 Tbs oil (rice bran works well)
ACCOMPANIMENT:
Kewpie mayo
okonomiyaki sauce/ kecap manis/ mushroom soy
4 Tbs coriander leaves
4 tsp spring onion finely sliced
1/2 red chilli, finely sliced
pickled ginger or finely sliced radish (12 small slices of either)
1. Mix flour and liquid together until smooth. Finely slice/ shred your cabbage and add this to the batter along with the carrot, spring onion, coriander stalks, ginger, egg and chilli. Mix well to combine.
1.Using a small frypan, ideally 15cm, pour in half the oil and put on a high to medium heat. Once the oil is hot and has spread evenly around the pan, add 1/4 (if you’re making bigger ones add 1/2!) of the vegetable mixture or enough to cover the base of the fry pan. You only want the pancake to be about 1-1.5cm thick so spread the mixture out until the base is covered. Press down using a spatula to make sure everything sticks together. Cook on this side for 3-4 minutes and then flip with the help of the spatula. NOTE: It should stay together. If it isn’t, press down firmly again and cook for another minute. It should be golden when you flip it. Cook for a further 3-4 minutes on this side and then slide on to a plate. Repeat with the remaining mixture until you have 4 pancakes. Add the rest of the oil before the 3rd pancake if you think you need it.
To serve:
Drizzle the okonomiyaki sauce(thick sweet soy – try miso? in a a zigzag across the pancake. Follow with the kewpie mayo (try sauerkraat?) trying to get in the spaces left from the sauce zig zag. Top with spring onion, coriander, chilli and the pickled ginger or radish. Dig in.