I’m fairly notorious for doing quirky, crazy things. Think balancing a bone china teacup and saucer on my head, applying red lipstick with precision, write a cheque without mistakes whilst picking up some rubbish off my bedroom carpet with my toes, that sorta thing. I mean I quite like multi-tasking.

Sadly, the Advocator of Multi-Tasking admits failure. And the end result is? —- Burnt chicken!

As you can see, the chicken pieces seem darker than they should be. Also, I covered them in too much flour before frying and they went a little strange and soggy. But I suppose, nothing should get you down near Chinese New Year and the marinade and sauce didn’t disappoint me one tiny bit despite my little hiccups. The lemon chicken was fantastic. Tasted so citrusy, sweet and yet savoury. Very very lovely. I would definitely make this again, and not balance too many tasks whilst making this now that I have lived and learnt.

Happy Chinese New Year to all!

恭喜发财，万事如意!

Gong xi fa cai, wan shi ru yi!

As I was starting to feel a little moody about not celebrating CNY with my family and missing out on a whole month’s worth of reunion dinners, light banter and drinking, I decided to whip up my own eve of the eve dish. Nothing exciting of course but enough to perk me up and chase away those damn blues. Also, to anyone mildly interested, Diva’s hair is getting much much longer! I’m absolutely thrilled. After chopping away my long black locks 3 years ago to get it more in sync with my jet black rock-chic style and I-don’t-give-a-damn attitude, the inner female was getting way too wistful. The chocolate brown & blonde to ginger-caramel highlights I started sporting a year ago is thankfully paying off as well.

Life is pretty smooth-sailing. Work-wise, it ain’t fantastic but I can honestly say I’m feeling all jittery about getting started on the first chapter of my dissertation. Apart from that, I’ve sent off applications to Royal Holloway and Birkbeck universities for 2 different MA courses – Postmodernism and Modernity, and Gender, Sexuality and Culture respectively. Thinking of the future is shit scary but I’m thrilled about being able to further my studies beyond the undergraduate level. All this, I’m praying will happen. Everything is balanced on funding right now from my sponsor. You can see how I might be bogged down with this massive burden on me back.

How have I solved this problem temporarily? EAT!

If you’re feeling moo-moo like I am, a little worried about the near future, stressed out? Go make yourself some food, buddy. CNY is all about feasting. Even if you’re not Chinese, pick up those chopsticks. Who says you only get to feast at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s? I’m keeping the ball rolling.

If anyone’s wondering how my Miso Yaki Udon is any different from Mum’s Yaki Udon with Shimeji & Shrimp, this is egg-free, chili-free and uses miso rather than soy sauce to flavour it. It is a slightly lighter version and the miso gives it a more interesting flavour I’d say, than using plain soy.

This recipe is good for 1.

Lemon Chicken
Ingredients

1 chicken breast
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tsp hot water
2 tsp clover honey
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 small garlic clove, chopped
a little flour to toss chicken in
salt and pepper, for seasoning
olive oil, for frying

Miso Yaki Udon
Ingredients

1 serving udon
1 tbs sake
1/2 tbs mirin
1 1/2 tsp fresh miso
1 tbs hot water
1/4 cup carrots, thinly sliced into strips
2 large shitakee mushrooms, sliced with stalks removed
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped or minced
1 heaped tbs onion, finely chopped
1 spring onion, sliced
sprinkle of black sesame seeds
olive oil, for frying

To make the lemon chicken:
To prepare the marinade for the chicken, combine lemon juice, soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil in a deep bowl. Dissolve the honey in the hot water then mix into the bowl of sauce. Cut the chicken breast into cubes and then leave to soak in the marinade for at least an hour. In a deep dish, pour a little flour and season it with some salt and pepper. Remove the chicken from the fridge, drain off the marinade but keep it to make the rest of the sauce for later.
Heat some oil in a frying pan. Toss chicken lightly in the seasoned flour. Don’t over do it. I did that and ended up having a really weird crispy outer layer. A little will be fine just to give the chicken a little crunch.
Once the oil in the pan is hot enough, fry the chopped garlic to flavour the oil. I usually fry it til golden brown then remove so it doesn’t turn black later. Add the chicken pieces and fry til golden brown. Remove and let sit on a paper towel.

In a saucepan over low heat, stir in the cornstarch into the remaining marinade until this thickens and attains a gooey sticky consistency. Set aside to cool for 1-2 minutes, then pour over the fried chicken pieces.

To make the miso yaki udon:
If you’re using dried udon, cook this first and set aside whilst you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Heat some oil in a wok. Sauté the garlic and onions. Add the half the spring onions, mushrooms and carrots and sauté in the sake. Now add the cooked udon and the rest of the spring onions. Lower heat. Dissolve the miso in hot water then add, along with the mirin, to wok. You don’t want to burn the miso as miso should not be exposed to high heat.

Sprinkle some black sesame seeds and mix through. Serve.

Ever since I was able to begin helping my mother in the kitchen, rather than simply prancing around in a frilly apron and getting to lick the spoon, I was taught that the preparation of a dish was more about what it did for the person eating it than the effort and thought that went into preparing it. Of course dishes have their own significance, whether it is for festive reasons or for chasing away bad luck for the new year. But, with my Chinese background, it has come to my understanding that every dish is created for the person eating it for a particular reason – to bring happiness, to clear excess air, to cleanse the system after festive eating, to improve blood circulation, to bring radiance to the skin and brightness to the eye, etc. Eating isn’t great because it’s necessary for survival. It isn’t amazing because it’s just scrumptious. It’s marvellous because it’s so clever.

Nothing goes into a dish for no reason. And so, with this mentality in mind, I whipped this up for lunch. After weeks of poor nutrition and sloppy eating, I wanted to make something that would fill me up, be healthy enough, have sufficient amount of protein and vitamins in it, cleanse and cut through all that grease in my system and have a comforting warm broth to chase away the wintry cold. Ochazuke is usually made with leftover rice, just like chahan or egg fried rice. Nothing goes to waste in winter! Get a bowl of rice, top it with whatever you fancy and pour hot green tea over it. Delicious and ready in a flash. Not to forget, it’s good for you. Genius, isn’t it?

Although this dish is very simple, I hear what makes it so good is using good quality ingredients for toppings. I think my efforts came to a B+, good enough for me really! What would make it so much better would be a couple more exciting toppings like umeboshi and some furikake. Despite that, my ochazuke was still utterly comforting and healing. Delicately flavoured and very visually appealing in my opinion. When I make this again, I hope to use grilled eel for the topping as I bet that would make the broth taste insanely good! If you’re wondering what sort of green tea I’ve used, it’s a 旨み濃いめ緑茶: a blend of sencha (煎茶), karigane (かりがね) and matcha (抹茶).

This recipe is good for 1. I highly recommend not being lazy and warming your bowl in the oven before serving, as this makes eating it twice as good!

Ochazuke (お茶漬け)
Ingredients

75g Japanese rice
about 150ml water, for cooking
1/2 tbs black sesame seeds
1/2 tbs white sesame seeds
4-5 sheets of nori seaweed
pinch of salt/ajinomoto (optional)
1 cup prepared green tea

Wash rice. Soak the rice in water for 20 minutes. Wash and drain. Rinse well. Add rice to the prepared water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Then cover and let simmer for 10 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed. Remove from heat and let sit covered for 25 minutes.

Once ready to serve, prepare the green tea of choice. Remember not to use boiling water. Follow the instructions on the packet. Transfer rice to a deep bowl. Top the rice with sesame seeds and seaweed. You can vary your toppings. I’ve kept it simple, clean and easy. Place prepared meat on top and sprinkle with salt. Pour the hot tea over the meat, until it just covers the rice. Serve.

Yakitori (焼き鳥 やきとり)
Ingredients

1 chicken thigh/breast
1-3 spring onions
2 tbs sake
3 tbs dark soy sauce (I’ve used normal soy)
1 tbs mirin
1/2 tbs sugar
about 3-4 short wooden skewers

Some recipes have you mix the ingredients together to form a sauce and then boil it so it thickens. You can get yakitori sauce in a bottle as well. But I’ve decided to go for just basting the chicken as it is with a thin sauce since this will go with the ochazuke rather than plain white rice. I didn’t want it to get really saucy and messy since the whole point of the dish is something tasty but clean. I didn’t want the sauce to affect the broth of the ochazuke.

Chop up the spring onions into 1.5 inches long, keeping the white bit from above the roots to about halfway up the green leaves. I find this bit to be the most flavourful. Chop up the chicken into nice bite sizes. Alternating chicken meat with spring onion, skewer them.

Set the grill to about 190d Celsius. Brush and drizzle the prepared yakitori sauce over the skewers and place under the grill. Brush on the sauce every 3 minutes or so. Once the top side is nicely brown, flip over the skewers and baste with the sauce. Repeat the basting process until the skewered meat is cooked through and the chicken is nicely brown. This should take about 20-25 minutes to cook. If you prefer not to cook them under a grill, cooking them over a bbq should be pretty good too.

I watch cooking shows as I plough through lunch. That’s quite intense. Eating as I watch others cook and eat. I suppose it’s equivalent to having a meal with others but you know, it does seem a little odd considering that’s become a daily habit. One cannot live without Channel 260 – UKTV food.

I thought I could pull a Ready Steady Cook. Got really panicky about trying to get the chicken to cook through so I suppose I failed in handling kitchen pressure. This recipe has been adapted from one I got off the popular cooking TV show and I really like it. Very yummy and filling. Looks good too. Although I’ll need to work on timing it better as I was really confused as to how long I’d been cooking each side of the chicken for.

Well then, for the first time really I’m not gonna chat on more than 3 paragraphs as I’m in the middle of a banging party to celebrate Anna’s end of exams. I’m outta here.

Enjoy, my friends.

Stuffed Prosciutto-Wrapped Chicken Breast & Tomato Sauce
Ingredients

1 chicken breast, butterflied
4 strips prosciutto
1 vine tomato, deseeded and chopped
1 medium-sized mushroom, sliced and sautéed
1 tbs chopped chives
1/4 tsp garlic flakes
salt and pepper, for seasoning
olive oil, for frying

For the tomato sauce:
2 tbs tomato purée
2 tbs hot water
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
a few shakes of dried basil

Lay the prosciutto slices side-by-side, slightly overlapping, on a chopping board and place the butterflied chicken breast on top. Pile your stuffing into the middle of the chicken breast and pressing it down together, fold the chicken breast over and then tightly wrap it by rolling it in the prosciutto away from you until you the chicken ends up sitting surface facing up and the ends of the prosciutto all neatly folded up at the bottom.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Cook the chicken breast 5 minutes each side on medium heat. Be really careful here as you want to make sure it goes a lovely golden brown and cooks through completely. Remove from heat once cooked through.

For the tomato sauce, heat the ingredients together in a saucepan. Ladle onto a plate. Slice chicken breast in half and serve on tomato sauce.