Uncle Ted's Recipes #14: Hearty but light chicken breasts

 Usually this is a type of cooking I reserve for fish and seafood (mainly salmon, prawns or cod) but I tried it tonight with chicken and it works pretty well for that too. This is a hearty dish good enough for any night of the week that can be served with a wide variety of additions and side dishes/foods but first things first, let's get to the point of cooking the chicken first.

Utensils/tools:

1 small meat-cutting knife

1 medium baking tray & 1 oven

greaseproof paper or high-quality tin foil

Plate (you can choose to eat straight from the oven with your hands but I would not recommend it)

Ingredients:

2 medium skinless chicken breast pieces

20-30ml soya sauce

4 garlic cloves

2 teaspoons pickled ginger

1/4 chilli flakes (optional)

2 bay leaves (optional)

Cooking steps/method of preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 220C double-sided setting.
2. Lay some greaseproof paper or tin foil over the baking tray and place the chicken breasts onto said prepared tray. Use the knife to slice the chicken breasts down lengthways once halfway through and then four times sideways across the original cut a quarter through the chicken meat.
3. Pour the soya sauce all into the cuts made into the chicken but do not worry if it spills over the sides of the chicken pieces and into the parcel of paper/foil you've made on the baking tray.
4. Peel the garlic cloves then use a garlic crusher to crush the garlic over the chicken and then extract all the bits of the crushed garlic and spread over the breast pieces along with the pickled ginger. Alternatively, if you do not have a garlic crusher, get the cloves on a cutting board, crush them with the flat of the blade of a knife (with your hand on the opposite side to stabilize it) and then roughly dice the crushed garlic up.
5. Wrap up the parcel by folding it over the top and twisting either end shut and twisting them upwards.
6. Place the tray into the oven and cook for 25 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and place onto a plate that has been pre-heated for 3-4 minutes and serve

Uncle Ted's Serving recommendations

• Mash potato, ratatouille and roasted kale (this is my favourite way of serving this kind of chicken as it's probably the easiest to do considering roasted kale is easy to make and most supermarkets sell ready-to-microwave mash and tinned ratatouille).
• Brown rice cooked in vegetable stock, chilli flakes and red kidney beans with a side of wilted spinach and kale.
• Served on top of a udon noodle, vegetable broth and pak choi Chinese-style broth soup.
• Slice the chicken up and then serve it on top of a salad of avocado, petite pois, mint, bulgur wheat, cucumber, bean shoots and chives.
• Serve as part of a South-East-Asian mixed grill including kung-pow pork loin, Vietnamese pork belly bibimbap, chicken teriyaki and tempura beef.

Uncle Ted's recipes #4: Hangover supremor sandwich

Ok look, as I'm writing this I'm hungover and tired and forgot to take a picture of the sandwich I made after I woke up and I'm sorry but I also don't really give a shit about that.  What I care about here is making sure that I don't completely conk out before going to bed today and imparting my recipe for this marvellous hangover-curing sandwich to all you peeps out there.  Keep in mind that this isn't a particularly healthy recipe but once you've gone through a whole night without sleep because of one too many jagerbombs keeping you awake along with several pints you probably, like myself, won't really care.  You could make it anyway if you don't drink alcohol but trust me, you do so at your cholesterols' own risk.

Ingredients:
3 x slices tiger loaf or wholemeal bread
4 x rashers Danish smoke-back bacon
2 x free range eggs
1 x knob of butter
10-12g chopped up chives
Ketchup & brown sauce (preferably Heinz ketchup and HP brown sauce)
50-100g shredded pre-cooked chicken

Utensils:
1 x medium frying pan
1 x sandwich toaster
1 x heat-resistant spatula
1 x plate
1 x roll tin foil
1 x medium baking tray
1 x greasing brush or if you don't have one then just have some greaseproof baking paper handy
1 x teaspoon
1 x toaster

Method:

Step 1: turn the oven onto 200-225C grill mode and line the baking tray with tin foil before turning the sandwich toaster on to get it warmed up.

Step 2: place the bacon onto the tray and grill until cooked well enough but not so much so that the fat draining off evaporates because we need the drained off fat for later.  Therefore, grill the bacon for perhaps 7.5 mins.

Step 3: turn on the frying pan with the knob of butter in and fry up both of the eggs while sprinkling the chives onto the eggs when you place them into the pan.  Just before the eggs start to brown on the bottom side, flip them over and cook for about 30-60 seconds on the topside.

Step 4: toast the slices of bread in the toaster for a very short about of time say 30 seconds for each slice before placing half of the bacon and one of the eggs on top of one of the slices with some brown sauce then put another slice on top then place the rest of the bacon and egg on top of that one with some ketchup.

Step 5: drizzle the bacon grease from the tin foil over the sandwich and press the shredded chicken into the topside and bottom-side of the sandwich as much as possible.  If this is too fiddly then just place proportionally within the sandwich itself before placing in the sandwich toaster to cook for 5 minutes.

Step 6: serve up with either a cup of Yorkshire tea or harsh black coffee with a couple of sugars in and some orange juice with a brunch bar and bunch of grapes for afterwards.

Now fuck off, I have to go nurse this hangover a bit more, I'm having potato waffles with sausage and peas for dinner so I should be alright.

Part of this recipe was influenced by ideas given to me by my good friend Chris (aka Ginge) and I must give him massive thanks for influencing this recipe.

Uncle Ted's recipes #3: Chinese-style noodle soup with baked salmon or chicken

This was one if my favourite recipes to do when I first started really getting into cooking as both a way of life and hobby around the time I turned 12.  I really more so got into cooking when I was 16 but for years now this has been one of my favourite recipes to make and whenever I go back home from university to my mum's place its always a dish she asks me to cook.  This'll be a good one to cook for the family as you can easily do it in bulk as well as a smaller amount and it'll last for a fair while.  Not only that but this recipe has a notably smaller amount of salt and fat than the other two recipes I've done so far have.  Either way, this is great for summer as its reasonably light but also good for winter as it warms the cockles of one's heart.  So grab some prawn crackers and green tea and lets get on into this one!

Ingredients (serves 2-4 people)

500 g boneless salmon or chicken

3 x large pak choi

5 x stems of spring onion

6 x cloves of garlic

350-500g egg or udon noodles

20-30 g fresh ginger

1.5-1.75 litres vegetarian stock

Soya sauce

Mirin rice wine

Fish sauce

salt

pepper

1 x lemon (preferably unwaxed)

honey

50-75g fresh corriander

Utensils/tools:

1 x medium vegetable cutting knife

1 x small herbs/vegetable cutting knife

1 x garlic crusher

1 x tablespoon

1 x ladle

1 x large saucepan with a lid

1 x cutting board

1 x plate

a roll of kitchen paper

a roll of tin foil

1 x baking tray

1 x medium saucepan with a lid (but only if you're using egg noodles)

Method:

Step 1 - place the stock, and two tablespoons each of rice wine, soya and fish sauce and half the juice of the lemon into the large saucepan and turn onto a mid-low heat. Then peel and dice up the ginger and peel and crush the garlic before putting both seasoning ingredients into the soup mix.  Put the oven onto preheat at 200 C fan-forced.

Step 2 - wash the meat/fish with cold water and place onto a plate with a few layers of kitchen roll on it and place another few layers on top to dry out the fish/meat.  wash and then cut up the vegetables and leave on the cutting board.

Step 3 - place the salmon or chicken out of the kitchen roll onto a bed of foil in the baking tray and season each piece of fish/meat with half a tablespoon each of fish sauce, soya sauce, rice wine, some lemon juice, a pinch of salt and pepper and a tiny drizzle of honey then wrap the foil over the meat or fish and place in the oven.  If you're doing salmon then cook for 15-17 minutes but if its chicken then do it for 25-30.

Step 4 - if you're doing egg noodles then now would be a good time to place the medium saucepan filled 2/3 the way with warm or boiled water onto boil and cook them for about 3-5 mins before draining and then rinsing briefly with cold water.  If you're working with udon noodles though then just put them straight into the soup mix.

Step 5 -  5 minutes before the fish or meat is due to come out of the oven, put in the washed and cut up spring onions, pak choi and coriander into the soup mix.  When the fish or meat has finished cooking, turn the heat off and remove the lid.

Step 6 - use the ladle to dish up the noodle soup and place at least one piece of fish or chicken on top of each bowl of soup and lay on the table with a fork, spoon and pair of chopsticks for each person eating.

Serving recommendations: Serve with prawn toast and/or vegetable spring rolls and wash down with cold water and either green tea or Asahi beer.  Also, if you're lacking salmon or chicken or are a vegetarian then crack eggs into the soup and let them poach in there to get some protein and if you're a vegan then do the same method with the salmon or chicken but with some tofu and only cook it for 5 mins.

Like I said, this is a really nice one to make in bulk and particularly for the family as despite the long prep times, the actual length of time for cooking the meal is reasonably short.  Therefore, if you're also doing dinner parties then this would be a good one to set as the main meal.  Try this out with some variations if you like and until next time, have fun ,stay safe and take care!