On a chilly night nothing warms you up like blisteringly hot Chinese-style chicken, served with a cooling side of herby salad, says Nigel Slater
There was a bit of a flurry of aniseed, soy and ginger-scented cooking in the kitchen last week, as there often is when I have had one of my irregular trips to Chinatown. These are the trips where I return home with armfuls of bottles and jars, mostly red.
I just needed, almost craved, the smell of oyster sauce to warm up a kitchen turned ice-cold by a dodgy thermostat. Leafy greens, bok choy and mustard greens are regularly steamed and tossed with thick, glossy oyster sauce at home, but meat and fish rather less so.
I tossed fat, free-range chicken thighs with crushed garlic, honey, chilli and oyster sauce and baked them on a freezing night when only something blisteringly, eye-wateringly hot would hit the spot. It wasnt something that could bask under the label of authenticity it was just what I needed at that moment. The chicken emerged shiny, lightly crisp and very hot. It sizzled as we ate, making our lips tingle. We put the fire out with a sour citrus salad.
There was a big pudding, too, the sort of baked butterscotch sponge affair, with cream, butter and sugar, that only ever comes out in the very depths of winter. Emergency cooking for the cold and hungry.
Oyster sauce chicken with citrus mint salad
Check the chicken regularly, covering it with foil if it is browning too much.
Serves 3
chicken thighs 6
For the marinade:
garlic 3 large cloves
onion 1, medium sized
oyster sauce 100ml
light soy sauce 4 tbsp
honey 3 tbsp
chilli sauce 3 tbsp
For the salad:
fish sauce 2 tsp
caster sugar 1 tbsp
lime juice 2 tbsp
mint leaves 10
coriander leaves a large handful
chilli 1, medium-sized
pink grapefruit 1
cashews 2 handfuls, roasted and salted
To make the marinade peel the garlic then crush the cloves to a paste using a pestle and mortar and a pinch of salt. Put the paste into a large mixing bowl. Peel the onion, cut it in half and chop it very finely. Combine with the garlic.
Put the oyster and soy sauces, the honey and the chilli sauce into the mixing bowl and stir thoroughly. Push the chicken pieces into the marinade, turn them over and leave in a cool place for an hour or two.
Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Place the chicken pieces into a nonstick roasting tin, spoon over half the marinade and place in the preheated oven. Roast for 45 minutes, basting once or twice with the remaining marinade, and regularly checking their progress. Cover the roasting tin with foil if necessary.
To make the salad, combine the fish sauce, caster sugar and lime juice in a small bowl. Roughly chop or tear the mint leaves and add to the bowl, together with the coriander leaves. Finely chop the chilli and add to the dressing.
Slice the ends from the grapefruit, place it flat on the chopping board then slice away the peel and white pith a sharp kitchen knife. Remove the segments of flesh from the skin. Put the grapefruit into the dressing and leave for 10 minutes before adding the cashew nuts and serving.
Cranberry pudding with butterscotch sauce
Once out of the oven, leave the pudding for a few minutes to settle. And, despite the butterscotch sauce, Id be tempted to offer cream, too.
You will also need a deep baking dish or pudding bowl measuring roughly 18cm x 15cm.
Serves 4-6
dried apricots 180g
cranberries 50g, fresh or frozen
boiling water 200ml
butter 100g
light muscovado sugar 100g
egg 1
plain flour 150g
baking powder 1.5 tsp
For the sauce:
light muscovado sugar 100g
double cream 125ml
butter 70g
maple syrup 1 tbsp
cranberries 100g, fresh or frozen
Cut the apricots into small pieces and put them in a heatproof mixing bowl. Add the 50g of cranberries and pour the boiling water over. Set aside while you make the pudding.
Butter the pudding bowl with a small knob of butter. Sieve together the flour and baking powder. Put the rest of the butter into the bowl of a food mixer fitted with a flat beater. Add the sugar and beat for 4-5 minutes till soft, pale and creamy, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Make the sauce by putting the sugar, cream, butter and maple syrup in a saucepan and bringing to the boil. Let it simmer for 2 minutes, roughly chop the 100g of cranberries (if using frozen fruit, this is easier in a food processor) then add to the sauce.
Break the egg into a bowl, beat lightly, just enough to mix white and yolk, then add, with the beater still turning, to the butter and sugar.
When the egg is fully incorporated, stir in the flour and baking powder mixture, turning slowly until there is no visible trace of flour left. Fold in the apricots and cranberries, and the water they are in. Transfer the mixture to the buttered bowl, smooth the surface lightly then bake for 30 minutes until pale gold and lightly firm. Remove from the oven, pour over half of the cranberry butterscotch sauce and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Serve hot together with the remaining sauce.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @NigelSlater
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