Over the past year I've been turning to food blogs for for both resturant recommendations and inspiration for my own cooking. I've been intending to start writing my own blog about what I'm cooking and what I'm eating for quite a while now.
At the beginning of October I decided that this was the month to put those intentions into action. Initial progress was quite good, I set up the template and jotted down some ideas for posts, had a lovely week away in Sicily and returned refreshed and motivated to get started - then came the dilema, what should I choose to write about for my very first post?
I've been deliberating between our most memorable Sicilian meal, a pasta sauce inspired by Terry's vodka cherry tomatoes, themselves inspired by a bloody mary and a few of my favourite recipes for this time of year.
All these are to come later but my first post quandry was resolved when I saw that eatlikeagirl has set a competition to come up with a recepie that will match well with a glass of prosecco.
All these are to come later but my first post quandry was resolved when I saw that eatlikeagirl has set a competition to come up with a recepie that will match well with a glass of prosecco.
Problem solved, a dish to go with Prosecco will be my first post, now to come up with a dish that's a good match. My first thoughts were either something involving fruit, maybe using figs or incorporating the membrello I have left over from last years quince season or where the main component has a salty flavour, seafood or pork perhaps. And then I thought about a soy dressing, giving the salty element and a definite attempt at a non-italian match.
This fitted well with an idea I've been thinking aboout for a while using sake to steam, in this case chicken. I steamed chicken breasts over sake to which I added chilli and ginger and served with bok choi and jasmine rice, all dressed with a soy, sesame, ginger and chill dressing.
I'm very happy with the resulting dish, steaming the chicken made it very moist, I think the sake flavour came through and the dressing, poured over the whole dish and filtering through to the rice underneath brought the whole dish together.
Is it a good match for the Prosecco? I'm not so sure but I'll leave that for Nimah to judge.
Chicken steamed over Sake with soy & ginger bok choi (Serves 2)
For the chicken
This fitted well with an idea I've been thinking aboout for a while using sake to steam, in this case chicken. I steamed chicken breasts over sake to which I added chilli and ginger and served with bok choi and jasmine rice, all dressed with a soy, sesame, ginger and chill dressing.
I'm very happy with the resulting dish, steaming the chicken made it very moist, I think the sake flavour came through and the dressing, poured over the whole dish and filtering through to the rice underneath brought the whole dish together.
Is it a good match for the Prosecco? I'm not so sure but I'll leave that for Nimah to judge.
Chicken steamed over Sake with soy & ginger bok choi (Serves 2)
For the chicken
2 chicken breast fillets
Sake (~ 1 inch in the bottom of the pan under your steamer)
2 tsp root ginger chopped or grated
1 tsp chopped red chilli
For the bok choi
1 tsp chopped red chilli
For the bok choi
2 large or 3 small bok choi
Sesame oil
For the dressing30ml light soy sauce
2 tsp chopped red chilli
1 tsp finely grated/chopped root ginger
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
To serve
100g jasmine rice
- Put the sake, chilli and ginger in a pan with a steamer on top and bring to a simmer.
- Take the outside leaves off of each bok choi and use to line the bottom of the steamer so that the chicken is not in contact with the surface.
- Cut through the chicken breasts to halve the thickness.
- Place the chicken on the bok choi leaves in the steamer and put a lid on.
- While the chicken is steaming, slice the white steams of the bok choi, keeping the green leaves whole.
- Heat a splash of sesame oil to a medium heat in a wok, add the bok choi stems and cook until beginning to soften.
- Add the bok choi leaves and continue cooking until wilted.
- Once the chicken is cooked through, remove from the steamer and tear into bite sized pieces.
- Serve the chicken and bok choi on jasmine rice (cooked per pack instructions), combine the dressing ingredients and mix well before pouring over the chicken and bok choi.
2 tsp chopped red chilli
1 tsp finely grated/chopped root ginger
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
To serve
100g jasmine rice
- Put the sake, chilli and ginger in a pan with a steamer on top and bring to a simmer.
- Take the outside leaves off of each bok choi and use to line the bottom of the steamer so that the chicken is not in contact with the surface.
- Cut through the chicken breasts to halve the thickness.
- Place the chicken on the bok choi leaves in the steamer and put a lid on.
- While the chicken is steaming, slice the white steams of the bok choi, keeping the green leaves whole.
- Heat a splash of sesame oil to a medium heat in a wok, add the bok choi stems and cook until beginning to soften.
- Add the bok choi leaves and continue cooking until wilted.
- Once the chicken is cooked through, remove from the steamer and tear into bite sized pieces.
- Serve the chicken and bok choi on jasmine rice (cooked per pack instructions), combine the dressing ingredients and mix well before pouring over the chicken and bok choi.
