Asian-style chicken salad

I may have eaten one too many barbecued sausage over the Christmas break because since coming home I've been felt like cooking anything but barbecued food. I've been making lots of curries, with loads of fresh garlic, ginger and whole spices and tonight, for a change from barbecued food and curries, I made this chilli-spiked, salty-sweet Asian-style chicken salad. It's inspired by this recipe here from Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty and a recipe from Oamaru's Riverstone Kitchen that was in this week's Sunday Star Times.

I know the ingredient list below is a reasonably long one but you're missing something just swap it for something else or leave it out. It's more a list of suggestions than a recipe. I used iceberg lettuce because I love its refreshing crispness but finely sliced cabbage, baby spinach or any other salad green will work just as well as iceberg. The pineapple could be swapped for mango or left out altogether if you don't like the meat-with-fruit combo. Similarly, cashews or plain peanuts would also be delicious instead of honey roasted ones. Or if you're feeling extravagant make the caramelised macadamia nuts in the Ottolenghi recipe linked above. They are truly delicious so make enough to nibble a few while you cook.

Asian-style chicken salad

2 chicken breasts

400ml can coconut milk

dressing

2 pinches chilli flakes

1 large clove garlic, crushed

1tsp flaky sea salt

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tsp fish sauce

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 iceberg lettuce, shredded

1 capsicum, deseeded and thinly sliced

1/2 pineapple sliced into thin batons (or a finely sliced mango if available/affordable)

1 cup bean sprouts

1 cup fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh mint, roughly chopped

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

to finish

1/2 cup honey roasted peanuts, finely chopped

4 tablespoons crispy shallots

Place the coconut milk and chicken breasts in a saucepan, bring to a simmer and simmer for 8-12 minutes - until chicken is cooked all the way through (if your chicken breasts are fat ones allow more time). Leave the chicken to cool in the coconut milk. Once cool, shred and place in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to assemble.

Bring the coconut milk to the boil and add the salt, chilli flakes, garlic and sugar. Simmer for a minute or so to dissolve the sugar then remove from heat and add the lemon juice and fish sauce. Pour a few tablespoons of the dressing over the chicken and set the rest aside to cool.

While the dressing is cooling prepare the salad ingredients and place in a large bowl. When ready to serve, add the chicken and an extra 1/2 cup of the coconut milk dressing and mix. Serve topped with the fried shallots and peanuts.

Serve with rice noodles or plain steamed rice and extra dressing on the side.

This recipe makes enough for four people. Adjust the quantities as required.

pork lettuce cups

Libby made these for our dinner on Sunday night. This is a nice 'throw-together' kind of recipe, that can easily be adapted depending on the contents of your fridge. It's carb-free if that's your thing - it's not ours but we had been pre-dinner snacking on a bowl of homemade refried beans and corn chips so weren't overly hungry. However you can add some rice noodles to the pork mix to bulk it up a bit.

Pork Lettuce Cups - based on an Annabel Langbein recipe

500g pork mince
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp kecap manis
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 cm fresh ginger, grated
1 red pepper, finely diced

2 c mung bean sprouts
1/2 c fresh coriander or mint, roughly chopped

1 iceberg lettuce, washed and separated into individual leaves
1/2 pineapple, finely diced
1/2 c cashews or peanuts, roughly chopped

Cook mince in a frying pan with the sesame oil, sauces and ginger. Once cooked add the pepper and beansprouts. Sprinkle with herbs and serve at the table, spooning the pork mixture into the lettuce cups and topping it with the pineapple and nuts. Enjoy.

dinner date - star anise chicken and noodle salad

This summery dinner was inspired by a couple of new cookbooks - the noodle salad is from Ripe Recipes, and the chicken is from Belinda Jefferey's 100 favourite recipes. The braised star anise chicken is apparently her most requested recipe. It is a similar recipe to a chicken nibble marinade, but the star anise makes the flavour more complex. It was a fairly easy dinner, the chicken takes a while to cook but there's no major prep involved. Perfect for hot weather!

This meal would make great picnic fare too, if you shredded the cooled chicken through the salad for easy eating, or cooked drumsticks or nibbles in the marinade. Reducing some of the marinade at the end to make a sticky glaze to brush over the chicken skin is an optional step but one that is well worth it in my opinion; the finished chicken with its high-gloss skin looks rather impressive, a bit like peking duck. (The photo above didn't exactly capture the chicken's best side...) It would actually be pretty good served Peking duck style, rolled up in pancakes with spring onions and hoisin.

The salad would be delicious with some toasted peanuts or cashews tossed through it, or crispy fried shallots. It would also be a great base for some stirfried chicken, beef or asian style marinated salmon. If you don't have the ingredients below it is an easy one to freestyle - just be sure to include something crunchy like the bean sprouts, or some shredded cabbage.

Belinda Jeffery's Star Anise Braised Chicken

1 c kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

1 c soy sauce

1 c water

1/3 c brown sugar

2 whole star anise

2 tbsp sherry

2 cloves garlic, lightly crushed

2 chucks of ginger (the size of a 20c piece)

1 x 2kg chicken

Preheat oven to 180c. Put all ingredients except the chicken in a large flameproof dish (I used a scanpan wok) and bring to the boil. Place chicken breast side down into the liquid, cover with lid or foil, and bake in the oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven, turn over (Belinda suggests using a wooden spoon handle shoved into the chicken...which worked well) and bake a further 45 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the poaching liquid for at least half an hour. Boil some of the liquid in a small saucepan until it forms a thick syrupy glaze and brush over the chicken. The cooking liquid can be recycled next time - keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks or freeze.

Rice Noodle Salad - adapted from Ripe Recipes

250g pkt rice noodles, cooked in boiling water for 3-5 minutes, and refreshed in cold water

200g green beans, blanched and refreshed

1 head broccoli, cut into small florets, blanched and refreshed

1 red pepper, cut into fine strips

1 c fresh mung bean sprouts

1 c podded edamame beans (Asian stores often sell frozen packs of these), blanched etc

1 c fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

1 c fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped

Combine all ingredients and toss with the dressing.

Dressing

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 tsp sesame seeds, dry toasted

1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

juice and zest of 2 lemons

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp brown sugar

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Place all ingredients in a jar and shake until well combined.

Dinner date - Asian broth

Last week, I had dinner at my friend Lucy’s house. She’d just come back from holiday and after overindulging, decided to start a ‘HER’(Healthy Eating Regime). So, in keeping with her HER, Lucy rustled up a delicious Asian Broth. There wasn’t a recipe as such, but the basic components were; Campbell’s chicken stock, garlic, ginger, chilli, lemon and oyster sauce all boiled together. Throw in some veges; like bok choy, red peppers, and snow peas. Lucy then added some prawns and Leanne's Kitchen chicken and prawn dumplings , which were great (I guess you could alternatively make this with any meat and noodles). Toss some bean sprouts in at the end and dish into bowls, garnish with coriander and a wedge of lime or lemon. A healthy, nutritious and delicious dinner date!