How To Velvet Chicken

Tired of dry and chewy chicken breast in your stir fries, Chinese dishes and Thai or Indian curries etc.?

This technique is just the most amazing way of keeping chicken breast pieces moist and tender (even though it's hard to make lightly poached chicken pieces look appetising in a photo!).

You can either poach in water or shallow fry, depending on your preference. Personally, I like to lightly poach as a healthier option. You could use this technique for almost any chicken dish as the flavour is so neutral.

How to butterfly a chicken breast...

"It's only easy when you know how"...

'Butterflying' chicken breasts is basically opening them out, so that they're as flat and even as they can be, in order that they cook evenly. It only takes a minute or less, once you know how to do it, and saves on cooking time, giving you juicy, tender chicken which is evenly cooked through in minutes, without burning or drying out the outside layers, making it really easy and quick to grill, griddle or barbecue chicken breasts.

Above are two chicken breasts, both the same size and weight, the only difference being that the one on the left has been 'butterflied' by opening it out so that it's approximately the same thickness all over.

At just over a tenner, why aren't they a kitchen staple? Meat probes / digital thermometers...

Perfectly-cooked joints of meat every time?

Or at least, perfectly cooked to your desired temperature, with a handy alarm that goes off to warn you to take it out of the oven at the right time (just before it reaches the 'perfect' temperature) to avoid residual heat over-cooking it (as it carries on cooking after you take it out of the oven, while it rests)?

Even works on something as small as a chicken breast?

I have to hold my hand up, and say that despite having used thermometers and temperature probes for years to check the done-ness of food (and the rest), I'd never 'invested' in a food probe that you stick in the food while you're cooking it, and leave the unit outside the cooker.

Why not? Well, to be honest, I'd never seen one in the shops in passing, never seen an article recommending them, never had one recommended by a friend, and don't really cook large joints of meat in the oven very often (er... because of the risk of over/under-cooking them!). And in the back of my mind, which never really thought about them, I assumed they were quite expensive.

But when I cooked pulled pork again last week, and was trying to perfect it, one of these would have been so handy during all those hours of cooking at a low temperature, taking the pork out to check how hot it was internally, and letting all of the heat out of the relatively-cool oven each time - I swear it took longer because of this! So I looked them up online, and discovered to my great surprise, that I could get one for a mere £12.99!

Sous Vide Chicken (with Thermomix method)

If you've never eaten chicken breast cooked sous vide, then this will be a complete revelation.

This may even 'spoil' you for eating chicken breasts cooked by other people, or at restaurants and pubs (unless they've cooked them perfectly, of course!), so be warned, you can't un-taste this! It is quite simply the most perfectly moist and tender chicken breast you will ever eat.

And there are really only four things you need to do, to get perfectly cooked chicken (oh, there's an optional extra too, but I'll leave that one until the end!).

Sous Vide Salmon (also Quick-brined and Cold-smoked, with a few 'hacks' so everyone can have a go! Includes Thermomix instructions))

Simply the most delicious salmon I can remember eating... you don't need the fancy equipment to enjoy this (or something very similar) either, as I have included alternative methods.

I came home last night with a dozen fresh salmon fillets, and just couldn't decide which way to cook them - I had been really fancying a nice fillet of salmon for days, and I couldn't decide between pan-frying, poaching, barbecuing, grilling, steaming, cooking sous-vide (in a vacuum-sealed bag in a water bath at a specific temperature) then searing...

...and I'd had the barbecue out the previous day to cold-smoke a shoulder of pork (more on that elsewhere!). So in the end, I did a few of the above and it turned out one of the tastiest, moistest salmon steaks I'd ever had (despite needing a very slight rescue with a splash of extra oil, because it stuck slightly to the pan when I seared it! My fault for being lazy and using the small pan!)... lightly smoked, with a tasty seared outside and delicately flavoured flesh which cut like a hot knife through butter. I served it with a warm new potato, green bean, caper and lemon salad with flat leaf parsley, and it was just perfect... you can pick and mix your methods from below, e.g. skip brining and smoking, and just cook your salmon sous vide, for perfectly cooked salmon and sear afterwards.

Browning Minced (Ground) Meat - how to get maximum flavour

I thought this would be a valuable mini-post, for those who like to pack in as much flavour as possible to their dishes!

See below for how to get the most out of your mince, when browning it.

Unusual Ingredients - Chayote / Mirliton / Choko

Ever seen a strange-looking vegetable for sale, and wondered what it tastes like and what you do with it?

For example, one of these funny-looking fellows?

It's known by many different names, probably chayote if you find one in the UK, chayote squash, mirliton or vegetable pear in the USA, and christophene in France... as well as various other names throughout the world, including cho-cho, choku, labu siam. It's probably a bit of a mystery to a lot of people in the UK, which is the best reason for providing a recipe to use it in!

Octopus - preparation and slow-cooking for use in salads, sautées, on the barbecue and other dishes

Some tips on preparing and cooking octopus:

Firstly, you can use the old fashioned / traditional method of flinging it against a rock to tenderise it, or beating it lightly with a meat mallet (remove insides first!), or (if you've bought it fresh, rather than pre-frozen) you can just clean it up, preferably remove the insides first, then freeze for at least 48 hours up to a week (obviously it will keep in the freezer for much longer than this, until you wish to use it) to tenderise it.

Tea-Smoked Teriyaki Trout (or Salmon)

Smoking, Brining and Photo-Editing

No, I'm not talking 20 Marlboro...

I'm itching to get my smoker fired up (it's an eco smoker, which is essentially a cardboard box with metal shelves in it, and a fantastic little smoker in the bottom that burns for up to 10 hours and cold-smokes your food). I love that thing - it paid for itself on the first use, by smoking a side of salmon that I got half price (£10), with a variety of cheeses, sea salt and garlic bulbs using up the spare space.And then there was the home-made pastrami, marinated in spiced brine, cold smoked, then cooked sous vide... but more on all that another time. As a distraction from trying to make some kind of cool title photo involving forks and food, I was thinking about smoking in the house, in a wok (or possibly even large pan), something easy to do at home, where you don't really need special equipment. I've tea-smoked fresh-caught mackerel and teriyaki-marinaded trout on a barbeque before (recipe below), with a mix of tea, sugar and raw rice on some foil on top of the glowing coals, lid down once the smoke is going, then within a short time, luscious, smoky fish...

I was thinking of tea-smoking some duck breasts I bought last week, but didn't get around to it. And I was still thinking about smoking something indoors (rather than outside) yesterday. And the day before. And today. So, I'm going to do it...

Salt Cod - how to quickly make your own 'Bacalao' (Spanish salt cod)

Although you can buy (dried) salted fish in the UK it's more likely to be the kind you'd use in Jamaican cooking. A lot of people can find salted fish of this variety a little, well... too salty, and not be overly fond of the texture.

It's certainly not the kind of salted fish you'd want to use in Spanish cooking.

This however, is a fantastic substitute for 'Bacalao', tender and moist with just the right levels of salt - and you don't have to 'de-salt' it overnight to use it, and can prepare it from fresh to finished in under two hours, cooked and ready to eat or use in recipes. Delicious in my Chickpea, White Bean, Salt Cod and Spinach Stew.

Just two ingredients are needed - cod fillets (preferably with skin on) and enough coarse sea salt to evenly cover the flesh. 500g of fresh cod will give you the equivalent of 250-285g de-salted, soaked Bacalao (salt cod).

Method
Place the cod fillets in a single layer, skin side down, on a plate or dish which will catch liquids that are released from the cod when it is salted. Sprinkle reasonably generously (as in photo) with coarse sea salt (don’t use fine salt, or it will be too salty) and leave for an hour (no longer). By this time, the cod will have released some liquid and absorbed some of the salt flavour. Rinse off all of the salt, then place in a large container with plenty of cold water for 30 to 45 minutes, changing the water twice (after 10-15 minutes, then again). Remove, pat dry and it is ready to cook.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil, turn the heat right down to low, and add the salted cod to the water for 5 or 6 minutes, until only just cooked, then remove and put on a plate for a couple of minutes, until cool enough to handle. Use your hands to gently break the cod into large flakes, discarding the skin (and any bones you find), then gently stir into your dish, trying not to break up the flakes too much if for example, it's a stew, or incorporate more firmly into Spanish style fish cakes, before cooking.

Alternatively, you could cook for a few seconds longer, and serve whole with something like my Chilindron sauce (a spanish garnish of onions, peppers and tomatoes, popular served with chicken and fish dishes).

Salted Chillies

This has to be one of the simplest preserves imaginable.
Just two ingredients - salt and chopped up chillies. Mix them together and sprinkle a little more salt on top, that's IT!

They need to sit in a cool place for a couple of weeks, and then they're ready. Just keep them in the fridge once you've opened them and they'll last for months. They're incredibly versatile, and traditional in (Hunanese) Chinese cooking (so there will be some recipes here which call for them). You can use them as a seasoning, to just stir into something when you fancy a kick, or if you're cooking something which calls for fresh red chillies and you haven't got any in, they're a great standby. They're also a traditional condiment for certain oriental dishes. So, what are you waiting for?