Welcome back to How I Cook,
This week, we’re back on the midweek meal train. As a man who cooks for a living, I sometimes find it tricky to place myself in the shoes of someone who doesn’t. How does this person think? How do they feel about picking up a knife, a spatula, a pan at the end of a long day of work?
My guess is 9 times out of 10, they can’t really be bothered, unless, like me, you find the process wholly calming and meditative (sometimes),
There’s no hard and fast rule for everyone, but there are times when we all want something on the table in 30 minutes flat. This, is that.
Happy cooking,
B x
On Cooking Midweek
There is an unstoppable tidal wave of cookbooks that attempt answer the age old question; “I’m tired and can’t be bothered to start julienning a carrot, or making chicken stock, what the f**k should I cook?” Stuff over rice is almost always my answer (alongside pasta, obviously). The secret to any good plate of food is balance, especially when we’re cooking in a hurry and in the middle of the working week. There’s a few essential boxes that need ticking.
Box number one: “What’s the main attraction here?” What’s centre stage? The star of the show? For us today, it’s a beautifully glazed, crispy, juicy chicken thigh. Cor.
Number two: “What’s going to give the plate some heft?” We’ll be looking to squat, chewy sushi rice, perfumed and enriched with chicken fat and egg yolk to bring the carb and comfort to the plate.
Number three: “Where’s the fresh?” I find that most plates demand something raw, pickled or crunchy to seal the deal. Especially when your meal is rice and a protein. We’re going for some sesame and vinegar dressed veggies for max crunch and acidity.
Number four: “I can’t multi-task?!” YES YOU CAN. And you will… It’s the key to efficient cooking and you are absolutely capable. Have faith and trust the process. I believe in you!
Hot Honey
If you didn’t know already, I make a very delicious hot honey myself, so naturally I’m a big fan…
I do have to concede that all 32k of you (annoyingly) can’t and won’t purchase a bottle of Dr. Sting’s finest, so I’m going to show you how you can whip up a simple hot honey glaze in about 2 minutes. This one is a little more complex than the one we sell. It uses fresh chillies, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar and soy sauce to create an aromatic, balanced glaze for the chicken. Hot honey is so bloody good. Do consider scooping up a bottle of ours!
Chillies!
It’s absolutely up to you what chillies you want to use for your hot honey. I like to use a mixture of jalapeño, thai birdseye and scotch bonnet. The unmistakable mellow pepperiness of a jalapeño is to die for, but it doesn’t have the punch I’m after. I look to birdeye for the harsher, fierce heat, and the scotch bonnet for its heady, fruity aroma. It’s really a case of DIY with the amount of chillies and type. If you’ve just got jalapeños in the fridge, use those, just got red chillies? Chop ‘em up and lob ‘em in. Just taste as you go and adjust the levels of heat with more chillies if you want to. Run out of fresh? Use dried chilli flakes!
“Pickled” Veg
Back to those pickle-esque veggies. To make “quick pickles is a quick job”, but not quick enough for us today. Today we’re going to dress cucumber and celery with all the ingredients that make up a classic pickle brine; sugar, salt and vinegar. We are missing a few steps like removing excess moisture from the vegetables before pickling or infusing the liquor with spices. This method won’t yield you perfectly pickled celery and cukes but what it will give you is an approximation of a pickle that absolutely ticks the box we need to tick. I’ve added sesame seeds for a rich, nutty note.
Sushi Rice
I am fully, head over heels in love with short grain rice, and in particular, this way of cooking it. A few years ago, cooking delicious steamed rice was something aspirational, ethereal, out of my reach… I really didn’t know how to do it properly at all. I have since learnt that it is as simple as washing the grains, adding the correct ratio of water, seasoning, covering and cooking. Allow the grains to steam and set and then you’re all done. Follow these steps and it really is so simple, so delicious and you can take care of it whilst your chicken does it’s thing in the oven.
I finish this rice with the rendered chicken fat, an egg yolk, shichimi togarashi and some slivered spring onion. All are optional.
STICKY HOT HONEY SOY CHICKEN WITH SCHMALTZY SUSHI RICE
This will feed two people and take you about 30 minutes to put together.
INGREDIENTS
For the Chicken
4 Bone-In Chicken Thighs
4 Tbsp Honey
1 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Scotch Bonnet
2 Thai Birdseye Chillies
1 Fresh Jalapeño
A Thumb of Ginger
1 Garlic Clove
Olive Oil, Salt
For the Rice
250g Sushi Rice
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Sugar
1 Tsp Rice Vinegar
Shichimi Togarashi, optional
1 Egg Yolk, optional
Sliced Spring onion, to serve
For the Salad
1/3 Cucumber
2 Celery Sticks
2 Tsp Rice Vinegar
1 Tsp Sugar
1 Tsp Toasted Sesame Seeds
Salt
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Set a large frying pan (ideally one that can slide into the oven) over a medium-high heat. Season the skin side of the chicken thighs liberally with salt. Add a shot of olive oil to the pan and add the thighs, skin-side down. Cook for 5-10 minutes, or until the skin is super crispy and the pan has filled with rendered chicken fat. Pour off some of the rendered chicken fat (save that for later!) and then slide the whole lot into the oven for 10 minutes, the chicken still skin-side down.
While the chicken does it’s thing, make the glaze. Add the honey, vinegar and soy to a saucepan. Thinly slice the chillies, crush the ginger and garlic and add everything to the pot. Set over a high heat and bring to a boil. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
Once the chicken has had 10 minutes, slide out of the oven, flip the chicken over and pour in the glaze. Roll the thighs around in the glaze then slide back into the oven for another 15 minutes or so, spooning the glaze over the chook every 5 minutes.
Wash the rice with cool water two or three times, or until the water runs clear. Add the washed rice to a lidded saucepan with 300g of fresh cold water plus the salt, sugar and vinegar. Set over a high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the lid and reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Cook for 9-10 minutes before removing from the heat, leaving the lid on. Allow to rest.
Slice up the cucumbers and celery and throw into bowl. Add the vinegar, sugar and sesame seeds. Season with salt and toss to combine.
Remove the lid from the rice and add a couple of spoons of the reserved chicken fat before fluffing the rice with a spoon or fork. Top with togarashi, sliced spring onions and an egg yolk. When nearly ready to eat, stir everything through the rice.
Pull the chicken out of the oven and allow to rest for a minute or two. Divide the rice between warm plates and add a couple of thighs. Drizzle with plenty of the hot honey glaze and finish the plates with a handful of cucumber salad.
Turn The Page by Overmono, The Streets
What a delicious slice of early 2000s nostalgia. I was just eight years old when 45th generation Roman, Mike Skinner put out Original Pirate Material. Too young to pick out and listen to the record myself, it would be years before I torrented the album to stick on my ipod shuffle.
Music listened to on the school bus is valuable. OPM had a profound effect on the way that I figured out what music was, what it could be and what I really liked beyond the tepid rinse-repeat hooks of Top of the Pops and the manicured waveform of mid-afternoon Radio 2 in the car with my folks.
This isn’t my usual easy listen, but there’s just something about it, something infectious, something in the shared experience of growing up in the UK, listening to OPM for the first time that I just can’t shake. It’s a cool reimagining of the album’s opener and I can’t wait to hear it out and about all Summer long.
Album Highlights: There’s one song, figure it out
Max’s World of Sandwiches by Max Halley & BJ Benton
Max Halley is the mastermind behind cult hit Max’s Sandwich shop. It’s really more of a restaurant than a shop, and if you must call it a shop, Max calls it “a sandwich shop you can get pissed in”. Sounds pretty good to me.
Max has written a number of books on sarnies, and he’s very very good at it. This one is his most comprehensive yet, packed to gills with useful recipes, sandwich staples and hilariously funny writing. Check it out!
I also had the pleasure of meeting, and chatting with, Ben Benton on his lovely podcast, you can listen to the episode here.
Thanks for reading everyone,
Love ya,
B x
Can’t wait to try this one, would it also work with jasmine rice?
Love your posts - this recipe looks amazing! 😋