Strange Taste Chicken

It was warm enough to have lunch outside today so a Sichuan dish known sometimes as Strange Taste Chicken, or Bon Bon chicken because of the pounding sound when you bash the spices. It’s served cold – well room temperature not fridge cold. The spinach is Korean but I think it works with the chicken, at room temperature. I’m not telling the boy his lunch is called Strange Taste Chicken. He’s very quick to conceive a prejudice against anything he hasn’t had before.

400g skinless chicken breasts

3 cm cube of ginger

1 clove garlic

2 tbsp sesame paste (Tahini)

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp sesame oil

4 tsp light soy

2 ½ tsp chilli oil

½ tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns

Salt

1 spring onion

1 rib of celery

A handful of chopped coriander (Leaves and stems)

Start with the sauce. Put aside ½ a cm of the ginger and grate the rest. Crush the garlic and then combine it with the ginger, sesame paste, chilli oil, sesame oil, sugar and Sichuan peppercorns. Mix it really well.

Pop the chicken breasts (Sliced into strips) in a pan and just cover it with water. Add the salt, the spring onion and the ½ cm of ginger that you (hopefully set aside). Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat until it’s cooked through. It won’t take long so test regularly.

Fish out the chicken but don’t throw the poaching liquid away. Cool the chicken under cold water and then tear it into long, fairly thick shreds. Take 3 tbsp of the cooking water and add it to your sauce.

Chop the celery into very fine dice and then combine the chicken, celery and sauce. Leave it to settle for an hour or so and garnish with the coriander.

Seasoned Spinach

275g spinach leaves

1 ½ tbsp. sesame seeds

1 ½ tbsp. Japanese soy sauce

Salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp sesame oil

The cross over of some of these ingredients should make this work together. Wilt the spinach in whatever way suits you. I like just a sprinkle of water in a covered pan. When done, plunge into cold water which will set the colour. Drain as well as you can.

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan and then give them a bash with a pestle & mortar. They should be coarsely broken, not a fine powder. Mix with the other ingredients and pour over the spinach and mix well. Check to see if it needs any more soy.

Serve both dishes at room temperature and with a big bowl of hot rice.

The boy did like both of these – we ate with chopsticks just to add a little flair to the occasion. He is surprisingly deft with them, though he is wearing a very old t-shirt which is full of holes, as insurance. We had a bottle of Gewürztraminer to go with it. We had it on the patio. After two thirds of the bottle the boy starts suggesting work he’d like to do to the garden. We shall see.