Hot and Sour Chicken

It's hot because of the Sichuan pepper corns. Except I didn't have any, so used normal pepper and added a pinch of chilli towards the end. Nice!

It's sour because of the rice vinegar. Except I'd forgotten to buy some so used malt vinegar instead. It was fine, but I think rice vinegar slightly has the edge.

So, in spite of my slightly challenged ingredient list, I went ahead with my take on a Chinese classic: hot and sour chicken!

The whole cooking is over in less than 10 minutes. Those minutes are pretty intense so it's important to prep the stuff in advance and have everything to hand.

Serves: 4
Cost per person: 2.85 zl (89 US cents)

You'll need:

- around 400g of chicken breast cut up into thin strips
- around the quantity of one whole bell pepper (I used bits of red, yellow and green peppers)
- a nice handful of spring onion (green part)
- 1 inch ginger finely chopped
- 1 large clove of garlic finely chopped
- some flour
- 2 glugs of light soy sauce
- 1 glug of dark soy sauce
- 1 glug of vinegar
- a few drops of sesame oil (optional)
- a glass of chicken stock
- 1 tsp ground sichaun pepper 
- a pinch of chilli (optional)

Let's get woking!

1. Prep the veg.

2. Prep the sauce ingredients

3. Prep the garlic and ginger

4. Prep the chicken. Dust in flour - this helps thicken the sauce and the end and protects the chicken at the beginning, ensuring you end up with really tender, melt-in-your mouth meat.

5. Wok on. Heat high. Splash in a little vegetable oil. Heat up. Chicken in. 5 minutes till sealed. Chicken out. Set aside

6. Wok back on. Add a little more oil. Heat up. Veg in. Stir fry for 1 minute.

7. Ginger and garlic in. 20 seconds

8. Soy sauce in

9. Vinegar in. Sesame oil too, if using.

10. Put the chicken back in. Chicken stock in

11. Pepper in

12. The sauce will now start to thicken. Add a pinch of chilli if you like

13. You're done! That whole process from starting the vegetables to the end point should be no longer than 5 minutes - you want a nice crunch from the peppers and a beautiful soft texture from the chicken. Serve with rice.

Cost?

- chicken: 7.4 zl

- peppers: 1.5 zl

- rice: 1.5 zl

- other stuff: 1 zl

Total: 11.4 zl

Serves: 4

Per person: 2.85 zl

Chicken Pasanda

There's 2 things I need to say about this before we kick off with the recipe...

1. Chicken Pasanda is a wonderfully creamy, spicy, yet subtle dish from what is now Pakistan (it was all India once...). 

2. I cheated. You know, if you go to an Asian store in the UK, you'll be dazzled by the fantastic array of ready-made spice mixes. Now, normally I'd make the mix myself and do it the slow and hard way. But I thought I'd make it easy and just show how simple and enjoyable it can be to cook a dish like this from (almost) scratch (with a little help from our spice-blending friends). And blend they can!

It's good served alongside a vegetarian curry. I combined it with an aubergine curry (baingan bharta - more of that later!)

Serves: 4

Cost per person: 3.50 zl (70 UK pence, 84 Euro cents)

What we need:

- 500g chicken breast cut into small pieces

- 2-3 tbsp yoghurt

- 1/2 tsp turmeric

- salt and pepper

- 5-6 more good heaped tablespoons of yoghurt

- 2-3 good heaped tsp of Chicken Pasanda spice mix
- 2 onions finely sliced

- 2 tsp ginger-garlic paste

- 1-2 slit green chillies

Let's get on it!

1. The first part of this mimics the initial stages of the previous post (Mughlai Chicken - kid friendly) in its entirety. So, marinade the chicken in 2-3 tbsp yoghurt, 1/2 tsp turmeric, a good milling of black pepper and a little salt. Leave in the fridge overnight.

2. Get woking! 

3. 5 minutes later the chicken should be sealed. Remove from the wok. Set aside

4. Let's prep the stuff. Onions - sliced. Ginger and garlic minced into a paste with a fine grater. Chillies slit.

5. Prep the yoghurt and spice mix. 

6. Heat some oil in the wok. Get the sliced onions in there! Sprinkle over a little salt to speed up the cooking process.

7. Take your time! 10 minutes and they should be browned off a treat.

8. Grind up in a blender

9. Get that wok nice and hot. Glug in some veg oil. Get it hot. Ginger-garlic paste and green chillies in. Give them a minute to cook out.

10. Get the yoghurt and spice mix in there! Give it a couple of minutes for the spices to cook out and release their flavour.

11. Introduce the chicken you cooked earlier.

12. Not long after, get the onion paste in there

13. Simmer for around 1 minute. Add a little water if it's too thick. Ready to serve. Rice goes well. Or naan.

Cost:

- Chicken: 9 zl

- Yoghurt: 2 zl

- Rice: 1.60 zl

- Spices: 1 zl

- The rest: 0.40 zl

Total: 14 zl

Serves: 4

Cost per person: 3.50 zl

Mughlai Chicken (Kid friendly)

A Mughlai dish of Muslim North Indian origin, this will be a sure-fire hit with your family. The almonds and thick yoghurt combined with the aromatic spices make this a truly irresistible meal. I replaced the red chilli powder you'd normally use with a mild paprika which gives it a nice orangey red hue without any of the mouth-burn which tends to put kids off. 

Although this is inspired by Mughlai recipes, my two boys came up the the ingredients themselves (with a little help from me!). They also took most of the photos. So, cheers, lads!

Serves: 4
Cost per person: 3.90 zl (93 Euro cents, 78 British pence)

What you need:

- 500g chicken breast cut up fine
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp of turmeric
- 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt
- 2 green cardamon pods
- 1 clove
- 1 inch cinnamon stick
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 small blade of mace
- 1 tsp black cumin seeds
- 2 onions (finely chopped)
- 1 tbsp almond flakes
- 1 inch ginger (minced)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 tin tomatoes
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp paprika powder
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp cream
- handful of kasouri methi (dried fenugreek leaves - optional)

It's not as complicated as it looks so stay with me!

1. Marinade the chicken with yoghurt, turmeric, salt and pepper overnight. This makes the chicken nice and tender - it's going to melt in your mouth later!

2. Cook the chicken on a high heat in a little oil to seal. In a wok works well. Give it some wrist!

Should take around 5 minutes max for it to get to this stage:

3. Chicken out and leave to one side. Prep the onions. Slice finely then dice across.

4. Prep the ginger - slice off the skin

5. Prep the garlic - bash under your knife and remove the skin

6. Make a ginger-garlic paste by mincing both on a fine grater.

Onions and ginger-garlic paste prepped!

7. Prep the whole spices

8. Prep the powdered spices. Now it's all prepped, we're ready to rock!

9. Oil in the wok. Heat medium high. Whole spices in. 1-2 minutes till they start to brown.

10. Onions in. Sprinkle in a little salt to cook down the onions quicker.

11. After around 5 minutes, almonds in

12. Another 5 minutes and the onions are almost there (golden brown). Ginger-garlic paste in.

13. Turmeric in

14. Tomatoes. Give it 5 minutes

15. Now it looks like this. Blend up nice and fine in a blender (what else?)

16. Transfer back to the wok. Wash out the rest of the mix from the blender with some water - we don't want to waste anything! Add the rest of the powdered spices.

17. Get the brown sugar in. Cook down for around 5 minutes - this allows the spices to develop properly.

18. Add the chicken back in along with the cream. Cook for another minute. 

19. Add some kasouri methi if you fancy

20. Serve with rice!

Just to prove the kids liked it:

What this cost (serves 4):

- chicken: 9 zl

- tomatoes: 2 zl

- rice 1.60 zl

- the rest: 3 zl

Total: 15.60 zl

Per person: 3.90 zl