Cooking Jamie’s 30 minute meal options lately has got me in the mood for quick, decent food, and after recently writing about Delia’s Pad Thai I noticed the Stir-Fried Chicken recipe from the same book, with hardly any text instructions, and the blurb “its hard to credit that a recipe as simple and as quick as this could taste so good, but I can assure you it’s an absolute winner”. The recipe can be found here, at Delia Online, and as I've decided to single-handedly prove that Delia Smith is cool and her recipes kick arse, it was a simple choice! When I casually asked a friend round for dinner, I knew this would be a good option. Its fresh and simple, but I hoped the lime and chilli would give a tangy, exciting taste. I had been pleasantly surprised by the modified pilau rice I served up with the weekends lamb kebabs, and decided that the two would marry well. The rice is also simple to present well, which I hoped would impress. The stir-fry looked kind of white so I hoped the rice would give some colour.
To serve with, I decided on Gordon Ramsay’s Griddled Pineapple with Mint and Coconut.Gordon has something to prove in our house. He fell out of favour when the other half was making his White Chocolate Mousse, and it split on her. She was quite heavily pregnant and the time, and it led to... not exactly a breakdown but certainly an episode (luckily Nigella came to the recipe with her Mousse recipe using Marshmallows). The pineapple looked vibrant, with charred stripes across the bright yellow flesh, and I hoped the fresh flavours would fit in well with the main course. I also served the dessert with Häagen Dazs Pralines and Cream Ice Cream, which is unarguably the greatest ice cream of all time. The pineapple could be prepared in advance and left in the fridge which was extremely convenient. So, slice the pineapple into wedges, char, remove the skin, pour mint infused syrup over the pineapple, and leave in the fridge. When ready to serve, sprinkle with toasted desiccated coconut.
So, how did it go? Well, the first job was to marinate the chicken in lime zest and juice, which was easy enough. After an hour, the chicken is added to a hot wok, and stir-fried. In my typical gung-ho fashion I chucked the contents of the bowl in the wok, juice included. Unfortunately, after a short while I realised the chicken was more poaching in lime juice and its own liquid. I strained and added back to the wok, but I fear the damage was done as when I served the meat it was overcooked. Anyhow, after the meat is golden, add finely chopped green chilli, stir fry again, then add Nam Pla, chopped coriander and shredded spring onions.
In the meantime, I did the rice. I’ve decided that the onion pilau rice recipe is now mine! I have used the M&S as a guide. And unfortunately, I overcooked this as well, after worrying about the chicken! Aaaargh!
The main course was tasty enough, quite light and not too filling (no one wants to feel stuffed on a school night). Our guests were too polite to say, but both the rice and the chicken were definitely overcooked. Need to be a bit more confident next time. I think the frozen food issue has knocked my confidence slightly.
The dessert went well too, but was maybe a bit too simple. It was again fresh, although I don’t think there was enough of it (although to be fair, I had made smaller pieces and gave some pineapple slices to the boy-let. I can’t tell if he was impressed or not!). I was sceptical of how the mint syrup would work, but it was brilliant, a real gentle flavour of mint that did not overpower the pineapple. Sadly, I am an idiot, and for my final act, I forgot to sprinkle the coconut over.
Conclusion – I’ll cook both of these again, but probably just for the Mrs and I. It just wasn’t exciting enough.
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