Chinese Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup

This is the boy’s favourite Chinese soup (mine is Wonton soup). It is really easy to make – the only hard part is sourcing the creamed sweetcorn. It almost certainly has to come from a Chinese grocer. Regular frozen or canned sweetcorn just don’t do it. This is perfect for finishing off the remains of a roast chicken.

800ml chicken stock

1 400g can creamed sweetcorn

1 free range egg

75g cooked chicken meat, shredded

1/2  tsp white pepper

Salt to taste

1 spring onion finely chopped to garnish

A few drops sesame oil

Warm up the stock. Ours is shop bought. Add the salt and pepper and drop in the chicken. Shredding it is the boy’s job so he is the one who has greasy hands. Pour in the creamed sweetcorn and give it a good stir.

Bring it to the boil. Meanwhile beat an egg. You’re only using one so let it be a good one. Give the soup a vigorous stir so you get a whirlpool effect and tip the egg in. Keep stirring. You will end up with tiny threads of cooked egg through the soup. It’s ready as the chicken is already cooked.

If it isn’t thick enough, add some thickening granules or some cornflour slaked in water. I love the word slaked.

Snip the spring onions – scissors is quickest. Pour into bowls, garnish with the spring onions and add a few drops of sesame oil. It took us 10 minutes.

Lunu Miris Sambal

I quite like a recipe that is so simple, it’s barely a recipe. We got some pot sticker dim sum dumplings and I came across a version of this recipe a while ago in The Guardian and wanted to try it out. It’s good. The boy likes it too but only dips the tiniest corner in. It is hot!

1 red onion

2tbsp dried chili flakes

2 fresh red chillies

2tbsp lime juice

½ tsp salt

The onion and fresh chilli need to be finely chopped. I’m using the food processor for this as it can get it much finer than I can. I’m putting the chilli flakes in at this point too. We’re listening to a Brazilian Lounge CD which is entirely inappropriate.

Scoop it out into a bowl. Rub a lime over the worktop with the palm of your hand, quite hard, so it will release more juice. Squeeze the juice in to the onion and chilli and add the salt. See if it needs more lime juice.

Let it sit for 20 minutes and give it a stir. Happy dipping! The boy adds that this would be brilliant with grilled chicken wings.

American Bread & Butter Pickles

The boy and I have been pickling this year’s shallots so they will be ready in time for Christmas. He keeps telling me not to cry as we will grow more next year. Har Har!

We had some spiced vinegar left over and rather than chuck it away we made bread and butter pickles with regular onions and cucumber. The boy will polish these off with corned beef sandwiches in no time.

4 cups thinly sliced small cucumbers

2 cups sliced onions

¼ cup flaky salt

A handful of ice cubes

2 cups white vinegar

1 ½ cups sugar

2tsp celery seeds

2tsp mustard seeds

1 ½ tsp turmeric

Mix the cucumber, onion and salt in a bowl. This does two things – it draws out the water and means that the mix will just suck in the vinegar. Cover with ice. I have no idea what this brings to the party but I have looked up three recipes for this and they all use it.

After 4-8 hours, drain and rinse in a colander.

Combine the vinegar, sugar, celery seeds, mustard seeds and turmeric in a pan and get it to the boil.

Sterilise the jars and pack the onion and cucumber in. Pour the hot vinegar over to cover. The turmeric makes it go a very special golden colour.

Leave it for at least two weeks for the pickling gods to do their magic.

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By the way our pickled shallots were even easier. Once peeled, we salted them overnight. Then boiled up malt vinegar with dried chillies and bay leaves – roughly 3 chillies and 2 bay leaves per jar (our bay tree died so the boy pinched them from the potted ones outside our local pub). Packed the shallots into the jar, burned our fingers fishing out the bay leaves and chillies and stuffed them in. Poured over the vinegar and sealed. They need 6 weeks, so just in time for Christmas. No matter how many times we wash our hands they still smell of shallots and the kitchen smells of boiling vinegar. It will be worth it when the Christmas cheese board comes out.