Vietnamese Minced Chicken and water chestnuts in baby gem cups

Looking for the perfect snack that's simple and quick to make, healthy and yet still tastes special and full of flavour. It's also a great pre dinner canapé that will have your friends and family "ooing and ahhing" in appreciation

Ingredients

1 Tbsp Rapeseed Oil
3 Garlic cloves minced
3 Red Chillies ( deseeded and finely chopped)
500 g Minced chicken thighs (or pork or turkey)
80 g Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
Zest and Juice of 1 Lime
2 Lime leaves ( finely chopped)
2 Little gem heads
Handful of mint and coriander
Handful of toasted peanuts ( roughly chopped)
5 cms of Ginger root ( grated )
1 Tblsp Light Soy Sauce
1 Can Water Chestuts ( chopped)

Method

Heat oil in a pan and fry garlic chillies and ginger for about a minute. Add minced meat breaking it up with a wooden spoon as you go. Then add fish sauce, soy, lime juice and zest and brown sugar and chopped lime leaves. Cook for approximately 5 minutes until ingredients are well combined and you are satisfied that the chicken is well cooked through. Finally add the water chestnut and cook for a further two minutes. ( See photo ). Allow to cool to room temperature. Prepare lettuce by carefully separating leaves. Place a dessert spoon of the mixture into each leave cup and garnish with chilli strips, crushed peanuts and coriander.

Posted by incredibly fed

Salt and Pepper Squid

From the Mediterranean to the South China Sea squid is a popular seafood eaten almost daily. In Spain no self respecting seaside eatery would dare to omit deep fried calamari served with a tomato dip or garlic aioli, whilst further east they like to add a pinch of pepper and spice to heat things up. Our favourite is the definitely piquant "Salt and pepper squid" the pepper referred to of course is the hot Szechuan variety. Here's how it goes...

Ingredients
Serves 4
800g Squid cleaned
2 Tbsp Szechuan Pepper Corns
2 Tsp Chilli flakes
2 Tbsp Sea salt
8 Tbsp plain flour
8 Tbsp Cornflour
Half Tsp Turmeric powder
Vegetable oil for deep frying
Lemon wedges Garnish

Method

Crush together pepper corns, chilli flakes and salt in a pestal and mortar and mix into the flour Slice the squid down one side so that it lies flat and score on the inside into diamond pattern. Cut into bite sized pieces and coat in flour and turmeric. (The turmeric will help turn the deep fried squid into a beautiful golden colour) Heat the oil (To test a pice of bread should go golden brown in 30 seconds) Shake off excess flour and deep fry until golden - about 1 - 2 minutes. Serve with a wedge of lemon and your favourite dip.

Posted by incredibly fed

Miso Salmon

Some time ago we had lunch at a Japanese restaurant off Leicester Square and enjoyed Nasu Dengaku, a simple dish made with aubergine halved and baked with miso paste and always one of our favourite sides. Not impressed with the price though we discovered how easy it was to make at home for a fraction of the cost. ( See the post dated 15th July 2013 ).

Fast forward to last week when we were searching about for some new ideas for a birthday buffet we were cooking for a very good client in Wimbledon.  We decided to transfer the idea to salmon fillets with great effect. It went down so well at that event we decided to share it with you. The photo we show is the party version - four kilos of salmon made 25 portions. We have adapted the recipe for the more usual dinner party.

Ingredients
( Serves 4)

4 Salmon fillets (about 150g each)
1 Tbls Red miso paste
1 Tbls Muscovado sugar
1 Tbls Light soy
1 Tbls Grated ginger
1 Clove crushed garlic
1 Tbls Sweet chilli sauce
1 Tbls Sesame oil

Method

Mix all the above ( except salmon) and pour over the salmon for approximately half an hour before cooking. Cover and leave in the fridge. Bake in a pre-heated oven (180 C) for about 15 minutes then caramelise under the grill for a further 2 to 3 minutes. Ideally garnish it with chilli and spring onion and serve with rice or noodles and cucumber salad.





Posted by incredibly fed