Barbecued Chicken Drumsticks in Soy and Honey Marinade (豉油蜜糖雞腿)

This marinade is a kind of "chuck it all together and hope for the best" concoction. I've been making it, or variations of it since 2000, when myself and my fellow committee members at ABACUS Cambridge, hosted a garden party catering for over 100 people. I remember being literally up to my elbows in chicken, soy sauce and garlic, whilst our secretary and treasurer washed 100 punnets of freshly picked strawberries in the sink in my room. Happy memories!

Although we did these drumsticks on the barbecue, I tend to be quite careful and pre-cook most meat in the oven before finishing them on the barbecue. There are a few remaining, and they will do nicely for dinner - pop them in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

Be generous with the marinade, and leave it to steep for as long as you can - overnight would be perfect.

Ingredients

• 8 chicken drumsticks (or wings)
• 3-4 tbsp runny honey
• Thumb-sized piece of raw ginger, peeled and grated finely
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced finely
• 4-5 big sploshes of Lea and Perrins Worcester Sauce
• 4-5 big sploshes of light soy sauce
• 2-3 good shakes of sesame oil
• A large pinch of ground white pepper

Serves 4

Instructions

• Wash the chicken drumsticks and pluck away any stray feathers
• Place the drumsticks in a large bowl and add the honey, grated ginger, garlic, Lea and Perrins, light soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper. Stir well to combine.
• Cover with clingfilm, refrigerate and marinade for as long as possible, but at least 1-2 hours. Turn every so often to ensure even coverage
• Roast in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes. If you are finishing on a barbecue, then cook at 160 degrees for 25 minutes and blacken the skin on the barbecue. Make sure everything is cooked throughout before serving

Brabecued Chicken Drumsticks in Soy and Honey Marinade (豉油蜜糖雞腿)

Cantonese Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Spring Onion (清蒸鱸魚)

Saturday is fish-buying day. The fishmonger in Chester market has a decent range of seafood for the UK, and is always cheerful and friendly - even today, when the 4 year old stated loudly and baldly "I don't want to buy your smelly fish!". He took my order, vac-packed my salmon as I requested, kept it refrigerated whilst I took the 4 year old for an ice-cream, and assembled a little ice pack to put in my bag, so the fish didn't go off on this glorious day. The clams on the stall brought about a craving for spaghetti alla vongole, but I procrastinated for so long that they had all gone by the time I decided to buy them. Oh well, maybe next week.

Ingredients

• 1 sea bass, scaled and gutted
• 2 slices of raw ginger, peeled and cut into fine matchsticks
• 2-3 spring onions, cut into 6cm lengths and sliced into fine slivers
• 1-2 tsp Shaoxing rice wine (or sherry as a subsitute)
• 3-4 shakes of seasoned soy sauce for sea food (use light soy as a substitute)
• A pinch of ground white pepper
• 2 tbsp sunflower or corn oil

Serves 2-4, depending on size

Instructions

• Rinse the sea bass inside and out and remove any remaining scales by running a knife in the opposite direction to the lie of the scales. Pat dry with kitchen paper, and place in a heat-proof steaming dish
• Add a pinch of white pepper to the fish, then scatter the ginger over the fish and pour over the Shaoxing rice wine and seasoned soy sauce

• Place the dish on a rack over water in a wok, cover, and steam for 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of the fish
• When the fish is cooked, remove it from the heat and scatter the spring onion slivers on top of the fish
• Heat 2 tbsp sunflower or corn oil in a pan until very hot (just at smoking point). Pour the oil over the spring onions
• Serve immediately with boiled rice

Cantonese Steamed Sea Bass with Ginger and Spring Onion (清蒸鱸魚)

Stir-Fried Egg and Tomato (番茄炒蛋)

This is an incredibly easy dish to make, and I suspect a weapon in many a harassed Chinese parent's armoury. Its sweet flavour and soft texture goes down well with children, takes literally about 10 minutes to cook and maybe 5 to prepare. When the toddler has decided that he will complete a couple of laps of the kitchen between every mouthful of food, this is the sort of dish to be cooking. At least when you have both given up after 5 mouthfuls, you won't be weeping at the wasted expense and effort.

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 3 large tomatoes, washed and diced
• 2 spring onions, white and green parts cut into 5mm lengths
• (Optional) 1/2 tsp chicken powder
• 2-3 large squirts of tomato ketchup
• Sunflower oil for frying
• Salt and pepper to season
• Few drops sesame oil

Serves 3-4

Instructions

• Break the eggs into a bowl and beat lightly with 1/2 tsp chicken powder and 1 tsp sunflower oil. If not using chicken powder, sprinkle some ground white pepper into the egg mixture
• Heat the wok until very hot and add 2 tbsp sunflower oil. Swirl the oil around the wok and add the chopped spring onions. Stir-fry quickly for 10 seconds - don't let the spring onions burn
• Pour the beaten egg into the wok and lift and fold with a spatula, allowing the uncooked egg to drain to the bottom of the wok
• When the egg has solidified, add the chopped tomatoes and 2-3 large squirts of tomato ketchup to the wok. Mix well to combine, turn the heat down to moderate, cover and leave for roughly 5-10 minutes, until the tomato has softened and released its water to form a sauce. If necessary, add 10-20ml water to the wok to loosen the sauce. Lift the mixture from the bottom every few minutes with a spatula, to ensure that the egg does not stick to the bottom of the wok
• Remove from the heat, add a few drops of sesame oil, and season with salt and pepper if required. Serve immediately with boiled rice

Stir-Fried Egg and Tomato (番茄炒蛋)

Tomato, Mozzarella and Aubergine Pasta Bake

Pasta bakes are for those afternoons when there are swimming lessons after school, everyone gets home late and tired, and dinner needs to be on the table pretty quickly. The oven has an automatic timer, so it's just a case of popping the bake into the oven, setting the duration and end time, and being greeted by the gorgeous smell of melting cheese as you walk through the door. No photo unfortunately, as this was one I prepared the evening before and left in the fridge for our nanny to put on the next day.

Ingredients

• 200g dried casarecce pasta (penne, fusilli or other such pasta shapes are a good alternative)
• 125g mozzarella cheese, cut into small cubes
• 200g aubergine, cut into 1.5cm cubes
• 2 dessert spoons of pancetta cubes or sliced streaky bacon
• 400g Jamie Oliver's simple tomato sauce - see recipe here - or use a ready made tomato pasta sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• A handful of grated parmesan
• Olive oil for frying
• Ground black pepper

Serves 3-4

Instructions

• Cook the casarecce pasta in a large pan of salted, boiling water. Remove from the heat and drain when the pasta is 3-4 minutes short of the cooking time on the instructions
• Heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in a heavy based pan. When the oil is hot, add the pancetta cubes and fry until browned 
• Add the aubergine cubes to the pan and fry on a moderate heat for 5 minutes, until the aubergine begins to colour and shrink. Add the crushed garlic and fry gently for 1 minute
• Add the tomato sauce to the pan and heat until simmering gently. Add the drained pasta, season with ground black pepper to taste, and stir to combine the ingredients throroughly
• Place the pasta mixture into a baking dish and dot the cubes of mozzarella evenly around the top of the pasta
• Sprinkle over the parmesan cheese and place in the oven at 185 degrees for 30 minutes
• Serve with a simple green salad

Oxtail and Black Bean Soup (牛尾黑豆湯)

I've been feeling utterly utterly rotten over the past couple of weeks. After a week of soldiering on (taking telephone calls from my bed when I couldn't even walk!), and just not being able to shake it, I consulted Dr Google, who told me I had a terminal illness.

It turned out to be a nasty attack of tonsillitis, but it's been a sobering couple of days. You just expect to pick yourself up and get on with it, but everytime I exerted myself even a little, my recovery backtracked a few paces. Coupled with that, the toddler came down with a nasty case of chicken pox, meaning he couldn't leave the house - and he was so unsettled with a sick mum at home, I ended up hiding at my mum and dad's empty house, snatching a couple of hours' sleep when I could.

With my parents abroad on holiday, I've had to DIY it with the Chinese tonic soup. Their answer to everything lies in soup and I'm inclined to agree with them as the years go by. I searched high and low for a guinea fowl (found one in Sainsbury's Christleton), in the absence of a black-skinned chicken (烏雞) for improvising a soup, and I lived on it for a couple of days.

Tonight I'm making oxtail and black bean soup in the slow cooker. This is a lovely, hearty soup. The taste is fresh and savoury, with only a few simple ingredients. The oxtail and beans can be drained and served as a separate dish with rice - sprinkle over some light soy sauce, some ground white pepper and a few drops of sesame oil.

 

Ingredients

• 750g oxtail
• 150g dried black beans, soaked overnight
• 2 thick slices ginger, peeled and bashed with the flat of a cleaver
• 1/4 dried tangerine peel
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted in hot water (keep the water)
• 2 dried jujubes, reconsitituted in water, or alternatively 1 tsp sugar
• Salt to taste

Serves 4-6

 

Instructions

• If you have time, soak the oxtail for a couple of hours. Trim off as much excess fat as you can, place in a pan and pour over boiled water. Boil gently for about 5 minutes to remove the scum and impurities. Drain and rinse with cold water
• Drain the black beans and rinse with water. Place in a pan with fresh water and boil vigorously for 10 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water
• Soak the tangerine peel in hot water until soft. Using a sharp knife, scrape any pith from the peel - this will make the soup bitter. Discard the pith
• Place the black beans, oxtail, tangerine peel, ginger, jujubes and shiitake mushrooms into a slow cooker. Add the mushroom-soaking water, then add 6 bowls of water until all of the ingredients are covered
• Switch on the slow cooker and cook on low for 8-10 hours
• After cooking, skim any oil from the surface, taste the soup and add salt to taste. If you have not used jujubes, then add a teaspoon of sugar
• Serve with rice and vegetables - the oxtail and black beans can be served separately from the soup, with a little light soy sauce, white pepper and sesame oil to dress

Meat and beans served separately from the soup

Hearty dinner with some steamed rice and boiled broccoli