Spicy Garlic Marinaded Chicken Wings

Ok, I think I need to work on the name of this dish, but this is what I’m going with at the moment. I made it up last night, but it worked really well. Quantities are a little sketchy  but I will give you a rough estimate. Tasted really good and was really inexpensive. Also it’s a good one to make a lot of and then you have lunch the next day. I served it with a beetroot, red onion and pepper rice salad and sliced tomatoes.

Ingredients

• 1kg of chicken wings

for the marinade

• 4 tbsp of tomato ketchup
• 3 tbsp of  dark soy sauce
• 4 cloves of garlic (crushed with salt)
• 2 tbsp of brown sugar
• tabasco to taste

rice salad

• 1 cup of basmati rice
• 1 beetroot, cooked, diced
• 1/2 red onion diced
• 1/2 red pepper, diced
• simple olive oil, white wine vinegar and mustard vinagrette
• 1/2 tomato, diced

Method

for the chicken

Mix the marinade in a bowl, make it as spicy as you want… Then add the chicken, and stir with your hands. Leave the marinade for at least 30 mins in the fridge, but longer if you can. Cook them in the oven for about an hour at 200C or until they’re cooked.

for the rice salad

Prepare the rice as instructed on the packet. When it’s cooked drain and rinse with cold water until the rice is cold. Drain, then add the beetroot and other ingredients. Add vinagrette to taste.

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Casa Mingo

Went for lunch on Sunday at the Asturian restaurant “Casa Mingo” here in Madrid. Sat on the terraza in the sunshine. “Casa Mingo” is a old Madrid favourite, it opened it’s doors in 1888. It still attracts swarms of people to sample the succulent chicken, simple salads and loads of Asturian cider to wash it all down with. The salads arrive in metal trays that are freshly wrapped with the dressings attached. It’s kind of like how all fast food should be. Apparently the cider is also brewed and bottled in house. If you are not familiar with the art of cider pouring in Spain, below is a photo I took in Asturias to illustrate, the inane unfocussed gaze is all part of it. Thoroughly recommend a visit if you’re in town.

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Chicken Tama Rice

Spanish food overload lead me to a small Chinese grocery store near our house. I easily found all the ingredients listed in this recipe from a Wagamama cookbook. Wagamama is a chain of restaurants in England that serves Asian food. I ate there in February and enjoyed every bite. It makes just enough for 2 people. Can I just say that this isn’t an advertisement, we just borrowed the Wagamama cookbook.

Ingredients

• 200g (7oz) Japanese or short-grain rice
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• oil (vegetable or otherwise)
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp fresh ground ginger root
• 1 large courgette, sliced
• 2 tablespoons shaoshing rice wine
• 150ml (1/4 pint) water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon cornflour
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil

Method

Cook rice until tender then set aside. The recipe recommends grilling the chicken, but I don’t have a grill, so I sauteed it in oil for a few minutes on each side until cooked through. Set the chicken aside.

In a wok or large pan, heat a few tablespoons of oil. Add the garlic and ginger and stir fry for 10 seconds. Add the courgette, wait a minute, then add the wine and water. Bring all the ingredients to a boil and add 1/2 teaspoon salt, the sugar and the oyster sauce.

In order to thicken the sauce you need to mix the cornflour in a cup with a few drops of cold water. It should turn into a paste. Take 2 tablespoons of the liquid in the pan and incorporate it to the cornflour paste. Then put the cornflour paste in the pan with the vegetables. Bring mixture back to a boil. At this point you should stir in the sesame oil.

Serve the rice on two plates. Cut the chicken into strips and place the strips on top of the rice. Pour the sauce on top and enjoy! Below are some pictures from the restaurant taken on our recent trip to London…

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Chicken Satay Soup

The site has been kind of neglected recently… no excuses really, sometimes life just gets in the way and the “Pear Tree” has been eating quick fix non bloggable meals. BUT, we are back. This is a beauty. I got it from Marcus Wareing’s amazing book called  “Nutmeg and Custard” . This takes about 45 mins, but doesn’t need constant attention. It really utilizes the marvel that is peanut butter. Come on Spain, learn to love this culinary delight.

Ingredients

serves 4

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 medium red chilli, sliced
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 4 tbsp, peanut butter
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 litres of chicken stock
• large pinch of salt
• 1 tin of coconut milk
• 100g rice noodles (thick variety of possible
• 50g peanuts roasted and chopped
• generous amount of coriander

Method

Fry off the chicken in the oil for a few minutes and put to one side. Now fry the onions and garlic in the oil and brown for about 5 minutes or so. Then stir in the peanut butter and the soy sauce, then gradually add the chicken stock. Bring everything to a simmer and then add the chicken breasts.

Keep it simmering at and cook for half an hour. Marcus suggests using two forks to shred the chicken and this really worked for me, so I guess what I’m saying is… do it. Add the coconut sauce and the salt, keep on simmering. Cook the rice noodles according to the packet in a separate saucepan and drain. Toast the chopped peanuts. Then, in a bowl, pour the soup over the noodles and garnish with coriander and the peanuts and serve hot. We added a few drops of chilli sauce to the top to make it a little more spicy, but do this to your own taste, obviously. Good luck and enjoy.

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Chicken Bhuna

I decided to make a curry from scratch. It is so easy to open up a jar of paste or a pot of curry powder but it really is worth having a go with the real spices. This version serves 4-6 people and is really tasty.

Oh and there is loads of butter in it…

Ingredients

• 1kg of cooked chicken breast (you can cook this with fresh chicken breasts, just fry them in olive oil first and maybe cook them in the oven for a little longer at the end.
• 180g  butter
• 2 tablespoons garam masala
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 5cm peeled and chopped fresh ginger root
• 3 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 teaspoons turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander (cilantro)
• 3 teaspoons paprika (not smoked)
• 6 whole cardamom pods
• salt (about a teaspoon)
• 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped into a paste
• 3 green chillies, finely chopped
• 1 red pepper sliced

Method

Cut the chicken into bite size chunks and put them in a casserole dish. Melt 60g of the butter in a pan on a medium heat and add the garam masala and stir (pic 1), then add half a can of tomato and heat for a couple of minutes. Pour the mixture over the chicken and lightly mix (pic 2). This should marinade the chicken whilst you cook the rest. Now melt the rest of the butter in a pan and soften the onions and the ginger for about 10 minutes. Now add the turmeric, cumin, ground coriander, paprika and cardamom pods and fry them for a further couple of minutes. Oh and at this point you should heat the oven to 200C. Now add 250ml of cold water and bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes the add the other half of the can of tomatoes, the chillies, the sliced red pepper, the garlic and the salt and stir. Leave simmering  for a further 10 minutes, add more water if needed…

It’s now time to pour this mixture over the chicken and mix it all up well. Put a lid on the dish and and cook in the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes. Serve with pilau rice and garnish with fresh coriander (that is cilantro by the way). I hope you like it…

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Coq Au Vin

Made this for our friends who came over for dinner last night… Really good flavours from the wine which also makes the chicken really tender. Actually not that difficult to make, just a little time consuming…

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken cut into about 8 pieces. (we got the butcher to do this for us)
• 1 bottle of red wine
• 8 rashers of bacon (chopped)
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed
• 8 pearl onions
• 8 button mushrooms
• some fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• fresh parsley (for garnish)
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

In a large pan heat some olive oil and fry the chicken skin side down to sear the meat. Then remove and do the same with the bacon, then the onions and the garlic. Now put all the ingredients back in the pan and add a bottle of red wine, some thyme, a couple of bay leaves, salt and pepper. Simmer with a lid on for about an hour. Then remove all of the chunks of meat, bacon etc… oh and remove the bay leaves and thyme, just leaving the sauce. Turn the heat up to full and reduce the sauce by a third. Mix the softened butter and the flour together, and stir this into the reduced sauce and this will thicken it up. Now pour the sauce over the meat, garnish with fresh parsley and serve. We made baked potatoes and broccoli to go with it. That’s it.

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Paella (version2)

Paella is an on going  project for us… So last night we attempted our fourth Paella. I can confirm it was the best yet… We went to Jamie Oliver’s site for some inspiration. His recipe didn’t really feel authentically Spanish, but did have some really nice ideas, like using Chorizo, which we employed.

Good luck if you have a go. We’d love to hear how you get on…

Ingredients (for 2 people):

• 250g paella rice
• 500ml of chicken stock
• 4 chicken thighs
• 1/2 a finely chopped onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• a handful of chorizo
• a pinch of saffron
• 4 king prawns
• a handful of squid rings
• a small amount of red pepper
• frozen peas
• flat green beans
• pepper
• a lemon
• a glug of olive oil (that’s for you Maggie!)

Method:

Put some salt and pepper on the chicken thighs and fry in some olive oil with the chorizo. Then when they have browned, remove them and place in a dish. Fry the onions and garlic for a few minutes until they have softened. Now place the chicken and the chorizo back into the pan with the chopped flat beans and stir in the rice. Add all of the hot chicken stock (which should also contain the saffron), make sure the rice is evenly dispersed and put a lid on. Do not stir. Oh and it should be on a medium high heat. After about 20 minutes, remove the lid, and place the king prawns, the squid, the red pepper and the peas on top of the rice. I added a little more stock (about 100 ml), again, don’t stir… put the lid back on and cook for a further 10 minutes.

Serve hot with a lemon wedge, which really lifts the flavours of the fish. Traditional Paella is from Valencia and cooked with Chicken, rabbit and the flat green beans that are included here. I actually liked the addition of chorizo but that is optional. By not stirring the rice and using a pan with a large diameter you should get a nice crust forming on the bottom.

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Thai Chicken Curry

This one is a quick and simple fix, that tastes really good… promise. This version serves dos personas. Prep time is about 5 mins, cooking time is about 15-20…

Ingredients

for the curry sauce:

• 1 can of coconut milk
• thai yellow/green/red curry paste
• 1/2 courgette
• 1/2 red
• organic chicken thighs (optional)
• 1/2 onion
• thumb of ginger
• fresh corriander

for the rice

• guess what…. rice, jasmine to be specific

Method

Soften the onion in a large frying pan for  minutes.  In another pan, add a splash of olive oil and pan fry the chicken thighs, skin side down, over a medium-high heat.  When the chicken has browned, add it to the onions, and add the ginger, thai curry paste and the coconut milk, cover with a lid and bring to the boil. When that is boiling, add the sliced courgettes and pepper and stir.

Turn down the heat and let it simmer while you cook the rice… follow the instructions on the packet or if you don’t have a packet, there is always google.

At the last minute, take off the boil and a handful of fresh corriander. Serve on top of the rice and drink with a nice cold Thai beer. Sounds good, huh? Get on it.

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