AN UNUSUAL pairing in this week’s recipes – Thai roast chicken and, in honour of National Doughnut Week which, believe it or not, starts today, doughnuts. The chicken is just a normal roast chicken dish, but we have enhanced it with Thai spices. It is relatively easy to spice up any normal dishes if you have some great store cupboard ingredients and can turn an otherwise plain and simple meal into something elevated and delicious.
For the doughnuts, any household that has baked in the past couple of months should have all the ingredients needed for this recipe. As a chef, I have some gadgets at home and one which gets used now and again is a tiny fryer. It comes in very handy for things like this and once you taste fresh homemade doughnuts, it’s hard to go back.
THAI CHICKEN
(Serves 4)
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 lemongrass stalks, chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded
5cm piece of ginger, grated
2 limes, juiced
1 tablesp fish sauce
1 tablesp brown sugar
1.8kg chicken
1 handful coriander
Place the onion, garlic, lemon grass, chilli, ginger, lime juice and the sugar and sauce into a blender. Add in the coriander at the end and blend one last time.
Rub the marinade all over the chicken, cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours.
To cook, preheat the oven to 180C. Remove the cling film and cook the chicken for one hour and 40 minutes, basting occasionally. Remove from the oven once golden and leave to let the bird rest. Serve with steamed rice and vegetables.
DOUGHNUTS
(Makes around 30)
225g flour
4g salt
22g sugar
15g yeast
100ml water
15g eggs
23g butter
Method:
This recipe requires a food mixer and a small fryer, with fresh oil in it. It’s best to use vegetable or rapeseed oil.
Start by mixing the flour, salt and sugar together in the food-mixer bowl. Dissolve the yeast in tepid water and gradually add to the flour mix. Add in the eggs and beat on slow, mixing until totally combined. Add in the butter and slowly beat until the mix has come together and is sticking together in one piece, then turn the speed up and beat for four minutes.
Clingfilm the mixture and leave out at room temperature – it should double in size. Knock back, which means deflate, the mix. Clingfilm the mix again and place in the fridge overnight.
Remove from the fridge and bring back to room temperature. Take out 10g per ball and place on a clingfilmed tray, greased with oil. Leave out to prove for one hour.
Heat the oil in the fryer up to 180C and place a couple in at time and gently stir them round, using a wooden spoon. When browned all over, remove from the fryer and place on a kitchen roll and then roll in a tray of caster sugar. You can leave them here and serve out of the tray.
