Moist-baked roast chicken with sweet and sour Chinese vegetables, fried rice with hidden treasures, and snow peas flashed in garlic and oyster sauce.
Introduction: Years ago I tried Jamie Oliver's sweet and sour pot roast chicken. It inspired this Chinese dinner party offering. I've focused on a low-fat version where the bird is baked away from the vegetables. I've retained verbatim Jamie's sweet and sour sauce and I've included my famous stuffing to guarantee a moist result in the roast chicken. This is served with Western fried rice and all accompanied by delicious snow peas flash fried in Asian sauce.
Quantities are for four -- one bird -- although I usually double everything if there are e.g. 6-8 people
Roast Chicken
Stuffing Ingredients per 1.8 Kg chicken
1 brown or white onion quartered
1 granny smith apple seeded and quartered
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
2 rashers shortcut bacon, trimmed and diced
20 fresh basil leaves
8 fresh sage leaves
4 cloves garlic, diced finely
Leaves stripped from 1 spear of fresh rosemary
Leaves stripped from 1 small sprig thyme
1 good grind of black pepper
1 good grind of ocean salt
1 small pinch of chilli flakes
To make stuffing, prepare ingredients as indicated above and blend together in an electric blender. It will be very moist on purpose to maintain moistness in the cooked bird.
Chicken: Wash and pat dry one x 1.8 Kg free range chicken and fill the cavity with stuffing mixture. Use soaked bamboo skewers, two per bird, to close and fasten the cavity. This prevents the stuffing from running out during baking. Put chicken in a baking dish and rub with olive oil. Treat the oily surface with freshly ground pepper and salt. Bake in an oven preheated to 180C for 1.5 hours. At that time check to see if it is cooked: a skewer in the inside of the thigh should run clear and you should be almost able to dislocate the leg by pulling on it. Anything up to another half hour might be needed. When cooked, remove from oven and rest 5 minutes. Carve into about six portions. Pour sweet and sour sauce over the portions and serve with fried rice, flash fried snow peas & sweet and sour vegetables.
Fried Rice with Hidden Treasures
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
3 eggs, mixed with a fork in a bowl with 3 tbsp milk
3 rashers shortcut bacon, trimmed and diced
8 king prawns, deveined, cut to 1.5 cm pieces
2 white onions, diced
6 cloves garlic, finely diced and chopped
bunch spring onions sliced to 1/2 cm
4 tbsp peanut oil
3+ splodges light soy sauce
1/3 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tbsp medium sherry
20 small, firm mushroom caps, cut to small bites
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
Prepare rice early: Boil in copious water to al dente stage. Strain and wash in a colander and place in the fridge in a colander to cool, drain and dry for several hours.
Braise mushroom pieces briefly until they sweat. Set aside.
Heat 2 tbsp peanut oil in wok and add egg/milk mixture. Leave for 20 seconds. Fold over. Lightly scramble. Remove and drain on absorbent paper. Cut to 2 cm squares. Reserve.
Heat wok to searing temperature. Add bacon, onions, ginger, garlic, and stir fry. Lower the heat to medium. Pause. Add sugar and stir fry 1 minute. Add sherry and stir fry 1 minute. Remove and reserve.
Heat 2 tbsp peanut oil and 1/3 teaspoon sesame oil in wok to searing temperature. Add rice and stir fry. After a while add reserved eggs, mushrooms, bacon, onions, ginger and garlic mixture. Reduce heat and heat all through thoroughly. This can be left on low heat to keep warm while the rest of the meal is served.
Prior to serving, add the spring onions and fold through. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top as a garnish.
Sweet and Sour Sauce -- Sweet and Sour Vegetables. Adapted from Jamie Oliver
Ingredients
1 ripe pineapple, peeled, cored, quartered and quarters sliced to 1.5 cm pieces
4 tbsp grated ginger
4 capsicum, deseeded and quartered, various colours
4 red salad onions, peeled and quartered
1/2 teaspoonful chilli flakes, not more
20 leaves of Thai basil, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely diced
1/4 cup olive oil
6 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp raw sugar
Place the capsicum, onion and pinapple in a baking pan. Sprinkle the garlic, ginger, basil and chilli and season with freshly ground pepper and salt. Drizzle with olive oil and toss well together. Bake in a preheated oven, 180C for 1.5 hours (concurrent with baking chickens in a separate baking pan).
Reserve half the vegetable for serving with the chicken and fried rice. Place the other half in a food processor with sugar and vinegar. Vitamise. Taste. Correct seasoning. Pour 1/3 over chicken pieces in their serving dish, 1/3 over vegetable tureen and place 1/3 in a pouring jug on the table.