Signature chicken olive and fennel with preserved lemon

The cool change into winter hasn't done any wonders for my health of late. Hit with the flu at the start of the month to the point of being bed ridden for a few days, then a double whammy of mastitis and laryngitis at the end of the month, things can only look up from here, right?

I've only started feeling like myself after finishing a course of antibiotics and been craving some hearty meals. This tagine recipe has been in my repertoire for a few years and too good not to share.

I love that it's a one pot dish with not very much to prep as I always have one of the kids hanging off me. I love to serve this with wholemeal couscous soaking up the delicious sauce. If you end up with any leftovers, I find that this dish tastes better the next day. Don't take my word for it and see for yourself.

Feeds 4 - 6 people

20 mins preparation
60 mins cooking time

Ingredients

10-12 skinless chicken thigh cutlets

1/2 cup (75g) plain flour

1 tsp paprika

100mL olive oil

2 onions finely chopped

4 garlic cloves finely chopped

2 fennel bulbs thinly sliced

400g can cherry tomato

3cups (750mL) chicken stock

1 tbs honey

1 strip of peel from a lemon and zest from 1/2 an orange

1/4 cup (35g) currants

1 cinnamon quill

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground ginger

16 saffron threads (optional)

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1-2 green chillies roughly chopped

1/2 cup (60g) green Sicilian olives

1/2 preserved lemon (optional)

Cous cous

200g wholemeal couscous

sprig of mint

1 tbs parsley

1cm of preserved lemon chopped finely

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 Celcius.

2. Place chicken in a bag with flour and paprika. Season and shake until chicken is well covered.

3. Heat 1 tbs oil in a cast iron over med-high heat and in batches, brown chicken turning for 3 - 4 minutes adding more oil as needed.

4. Transfer browned chicken to a bowl to add later.

5. Reduce heat to medium. Heat 2 tbs oil in cast iron then add onion and cook stirring for 5 minutes or until softened.

6. Add garlic and fennel and cook for 2 minutes to lightly soften.

7. Add tomatoes, preserved lemon, olives, stock, zest, currants, spices, fresh chilli and honey.

8. Place browned chicken on top of vegetables and just submerged in stock. 

9. Bake for 1 hour in the oven (or simmer on stove top for 45mins over medium low heat).

10. Remove cinnamon quill and strip of lemon peel.

11. Season with salt.

Making couscous

12. Add 200mL boiling water to the couscous into a bowl and place a plate on top and let it stand for 6 minutes.

13. Fluff with fork and add the parsley, mint and preserved lemon.

14. Serve chicken tagine on a bed of couscous.

Notes:

*This tagine can be refrigerated for up to 48 hours or frozen. To serve, bring to room temperature then reheat in a 180C oven for 20-30 minutes until heated through.

*If feeding for 2 people, I use 2 chicken Marylands with skin and halve the vegetables (1 fennel, 1 onion) and 500mL chicken stock.

*Use a tagine baking dish with lid or if you don't have this a cast iron with lid will do.

*You can substitute the cherry tomatoes with any canned tomatoes tin but I love the pops of flavour with the cherry tomatoes.

*I usually add parsley and mint with a little preserved lemon to toss through the couscous.

General Tso's chicken

Flicking through the pile of Delicious magazines that I've been meaning to go through, I was drawn to Cantonese style dishes. Spicy, Chinese flavours and of course fried goodness.

With the forecast of lashing rain for the entire weekend, I couldn't think of a better way to enjoy the indoors with an American Chinese dish of General Tso's chicken.

I found this recipe rather therapeutic to make. I think it was focussing on grating the garlic and ginger and having all the ingredients in the pantry is always handy. The marinade was relatively easy to make and timing it to make an hour before lunch was perfect.

The batter mix was light and perfect for coating the chicken before frying. General Tso sauce was easy to make and makes extra for another dish. I made up a cabbage slaw instead of serving with rice.

Using 8 chicken thigh fillets makes a lot perhaps too much for 4 people as we had a fair bit left over. The crispness of the chicken does disappear but I found refreshing the chicken in the oven worked well.

I loved this dish, it was so good that we had to this again for dinner.

Recipe by Patrick Friesen, Eric Koh and Christopher Hogarth from Queen Chow, Queen Victoria Hotel Enmore.

Serves 6

Ingredients

Chicken marinade
250mL Chinese rice wine
1 tbs caster sugar
2cm piece ginger, finely grated
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
2 tsp chicken stock powder
1 tsp freshly ground white pepper
8 chicken thigh fillets, cut into 6 pieces each

Batter mix
1 tbs sunflower oil, plus extra to deep fry
2/3 cup (100g) plain flour
2/3 cup (100g) cornflour
1 cup (250mL) water

To serve
Steamed jasmine rice to serve

My cabbage slaw
1/4 white cabbage thinly sliced
1/2 cup of mint leaves
1/2 red capsicum thinly sliced
handful of pickled red onion or fresh red onion

General Tso's sauce
1/2 cup (125mL) chicken stock
1 tsp cornflour
1 tbs peanut oil
1 garlic clove, finely grated
2cm piece ginger, finely grated
2 spring onions, white part finely chopped, green part cut into 2cm batons
12 died long red chillies
1/4 cup (60mL) dark soy sauce
2 tbs Chinese rice wine (shaohsing)
2 tbs Chinese black rice vinegar
2 tbs caster sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp kombu tsuyu (kombu extract - optional)

Method

To make the marinade
1. Combine the rice wine, sugar, ginger, garlic, stock powder, pepper and 1 tsp salt in a bowl.

2. Add the chicken, cover and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight to marinate.

To make General Tso's sauce
3. Whisk stock and cornflour in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Heat peanut oil in a wok over high heat.

5. Add garlic, ginger, white spring onion and chillies and cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes until fragrant and softened.

6. Add soy sauce, rice wine, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, kombu extract and cornflour mixture and stir to combine.

7. Bring to boil then remove from heat and set aside.

To make batter
8. Place sunflower oil, flours and 1 tsp salt in a bowl.

9. Slowly whisk in 1 cup (250mL) water until smooth.

To make chicken
10. Half fill a large pan with sunflower oil and heat to 180 degrees Celcius.

11. Remove chicken from marinade and drain in a colander.

12. Coat chicken in batter allowing excess to drip off.

13. In batches, deep fry chicken for 5 minutes until crisp, golden and cooked.

14. Drain on paper towel.

15. Add fried chicken to General Tso's sauce and toss to coat.

16. Repeat with remaining chicken.

17. Deep fry dark green onion for 2 minutes or until crispy.

18 Top chicken with crispy spring onion and serve with steamed rice or cabbage slaw.

Fiery chicken, dakgalbi

This dish, dakgalbi, has always been something I wanted to make but my recent memories of this dish is a sweet potato, cabbage stew that my mother makes. This chicken dish is marinated then cooked with plenty of vegetables and was once a favourite of mine.

It was time to face my fears and see if it was a good dish to keep in my cooking repertoire. Traditionally the dish is made with sweet potato but I replaced this with white radish as it soaks up the delicious sauce. As I didn't have any cabbage in the fridge, I opted with moon buk, a dwarfed variety of buk choy instead. I can happily say that this is one fiery dish that tastes even better the next day. With the cold winter upon us, this dish will hit the spot.

Ingredients

1kg of chicken wings
1 carrot thinly sliced
1 onion thinly sliced
100g long white radish thinly sliced
2 leaves of cabbage* roughly chopped

Marinade
200mL water
3 tbs Korean chilli paste (gochujung)
2 tbs of rice malt syrup
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs crushed garlic
2 tbs cooking wine
1 tbs grated ginger
1 tbs curry powder (optional)**
2 tsp Korean chilli powder
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seed
pinch black pepper

Method 

1. Place all the marinade ingredients together.

2. Place chicken into the marinade mix for 1 hour.

3. Thinly slice carrots, onions, radish and cabbage

4. Place the marinated chicken mix into a heavy cast iron pot and bring to boil. Bring to simmer for an hour.

5. With a half hour to go on the cooking, throw in the cut up vegetables.

6. Serve with steamed greens and rice.


Handy hints
*Bunch of moon buk roughly chopped
**I've used a mild korma curry mix or you can make up a curry mix using
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground black pepper

Chicken with Ponzu dressing

I was feeling like I needed to make something Japanese probably due to the fact my other half is in Nozawa Onsen, Japan. The lucky duck is enjoying a skiing trip with the lads but not to worry I'm planning a shopping and eating trip to even the score.

With chicken thighs in the fridge, I thought this would be a quick and easy meal to make. Plus there's the added bonus that the kids love it too. The ponzu dressing is so easy and I love the citrus notes especially as limes are in season at the moment.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4-5 chicken thigh fillets (it's up to you whether you select with skin or without, I like it as either version)
salt
pepper
2 tbs of olive oil (or whatever cooking oil you have)

Ponzu dressing
Juice of 1 lime
Juice of 1/2 lemon
100mL mirin
60mL light soy sauce

To serve
Finely sliced spring onions
Finely sliced red chilli
Rice

Method

1. Make the ponzu dressing first, add the lime, lemon juice, mirin, soy and stir well.
2. Season chicken thighs well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan over high heat.
4. Add chicken (if you use with skin, then skin side first) and cook for 3-4 minutes (or until skin is golden and crispy).
5. Turn chicken over, and cook for another 3-5 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
6. Slice the chicken and arrange on serving plate.
7. Drizzle ponzu dressing, sprinkle the sliced chicken with spring onion and chilli.
8. Serve with rice.

Handy hints

If you like crispy skin then I recommend that you put a smaller pan on top of the chicken to weigh it down which will help with that.