Recipe Road Test: Ching-He Huang's Nutty Chicken Cool Noodle Salad

In previous 'Recipe Road Test' articles, I have tried to recreate dishes based on the written instructions of those more experienced at recipe writing than I. I've been trying to learn what makes a good recipe. Obviously, taste is the most important criterion; if it don't taste good, it's never going to be eaten the first time, let alone be cooked the second! However, other important factors are how easy the dish is to make overall and how much time it takes. Another consideration is how enticing and attractive the dish looks, because after all, we eat with our eyes first.

This dish makes salad seem like a treasure hunt, with its varied vibrant colours. Although the dressing is quite calorific, it is indecently tasty, and given the rest of the dish's low fat count, can be forgiven.

We made this dish having had roast chicken the day before. It is a completely excellent way of using up leftover cooked chicken. Chicken sandwiches are all well and good, but to essentially get a 'free dinner' out of your Sunday roast seems like getting a wonderful present.

Ching-He Huang's recipe comes from her first book, China Modern. Her concept for the book is to concentrate on the different influences shaping contemporary Chinese food; ethnically Chinese living in Europe or America are influenced by Western flavours and techniques, hence broadening the cuisine. China's neighbours add their own special touches such as different and diverse spices or more tropical ingredients. Her recipe is set out verbatim below, with the road test to follow.

Nutty Chicken Noodle Salad

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a starter

Ingredients:

400g dried whole-wheat flour noodles

toasted sesame oil for dressing

½ cucumber, cored and cut into long strips

1 large carrots, cut into long strips

1 yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into long strips

1 mango, stoned and cut into long strips

1 spring onion, cut into long strips

350g cooked skinless chicken breast, shredded

For the peanut dressing:

6 tbsp olive

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 garlic clove, crushed and finely chopped

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar

3 tbsp crunchy peanut butter

1 tsp brown sugar

juice of 1 lemon

Handful of chopped roasted peanuts (optional)

Preparation time: 10 mins plus refridgerating

Cooking time: 30 mins

Method:

1. Cook the noodles according to the pack instructions, then drain and rinse in cold water. Drizzle with a few dashes of sesame oil to keep them from sticking together. Place on a plate and cover with clingfilm and chill in the fridge whilst you slice and prepare the rest.
2. In serving bowls, place equal amounts of cooked noodles. Then add layers of cucumber strips, carrot strips, yellow pepper, mango slices, spring onion strips and shredded chicken. Cover with clingfilm and refridgerate for 30 minutes. This salad tastes refreshing when cold so refridgeration is a must.
3. When ready to serve, whizz all the dressing ingredients in a blender and pour a generous amount over the salad. For an even nuttier flavour and added crunch, sprinkle some chopped roasted peanuts over the top. Enjoy with chilled Chinese beer.

I started off by cooking my noodles. Having not had the opportunity to visit my local Chinese supermarket, I had to use Waitrose's own brand noodles.

They took 4 minutes to cook, and I admit I was initially sceptical, but they had enough springiness to work in this dish.

Then it was on to stripping the chicken. I should have done this the night before, and it would have saved me a lot of time. It would also have saved me a lot of space in my fridge. Still, after cooking the Sunday lunch with Him Indoors (he is a whizz at roast dinners) and clearing up the kitchen afterwards, I had had enough, and just wrapped the remaining whole chicken with foil and slung it in the fridge.

The most time consuming part of this dish is cutting all the juliennes of vegetables and fruit. Ching is a dab hand with a cleaver, having seen her on TV, and perhaps she is able to get everything prepped in 10 minutes, but I would say that it is going to take us average joes a lot longer. But looking at the colours in the bowl together, I had the feeling that this was going to be a dish where the effort would be well worth it.

The dressing involves a lot of ingredients, and seems intimidating. However, if you have Chinese or Thai food at home, the chances are you have most of these ingredients knocking around at home. The rice vinegar was something I had in for making potsticker dipping sauce, but it may be something you need to buy in especially. I used to hate the hassle of preparing ginger; peeling with a knife, grating and hoping not to lose my fingertips, but it really adds something to Indian and Chinese food, so I have gotten over my animosity. Sadly, Him Indoors ate the pack of salted peanuts I'd bought for the topping on the Saturday night, so I couldn't top the dish as Ching suggested. However I did have a jar of Chinese fried onions bought on my last trip to See Woo, so they had to do. And there you have the dish:

The verdict: this dish took much longer to prepare that I expected. If you are using leftover cooked chicken, however, you could still manage to have this as a midweek supper, because you would not need 30 minutes cooking time. This is a good 'in at 7, dinner at 8' sort of evening meal. I thought it looked very appetising in the dish. As I said from the outset, the real yardstick of a good recipe is taste, and this has it in bucketloads! The dressing seems overly thick and cloying when you mix it up, but it really works over the light cucumber, peppers and mango. It coats the chicken and noodles, transforming them from bland to flavourful. My only regret is that there wasn't any left over for taking into work the following day! This will be made again, the next time we plan to have roast chicken on a Sunday. Score!

Ching herself has an alternative version to this recipe, her own version of 'Bang Bang Chicken' which she cooked on Market Kitchen and is a little simpler than this recipe: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/611266

Another possible alternative to this recipe, the dressing for which would certainly be lower in calorific value, might be Allegra McEvedy's Bang Bang Chicken, to be found at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/03/allegra-mcevedy-recipe-chicken

My first recipe suggestion from a friend!

Obviously, I am new to blogging, and also a cook of limited skill and experience.

How exciting, then, to get my first suggestion from old school pal Raymond, who trained and worked in catering!

Please - anyone who reads this blog, please either post your comments or suggestions or EMAIL me, so I can include your input into 'Snig's Kitchen'!

Back to Chef Ray, who says:

"After a roast chicken, I throw all the bones into a pot of water with bay leaves, peppercorns and cayenne pepper (Cayenne speeds your metabolism up) and boil it till all the spare meat falls off into the water, take out all bones and crappy bits, strain liquid, add sweet corn and some noodles of choice and there you go, chicken noodle soup, Raymond style!"

Chicken noodle soup is a classic - and you could use Chinese noodles or corte Cappelli D'Angelli (fine short cut pasta, Italian style).

If anyone gives this a go, I'd love to see some pictures!

Waste not, want not: Taking stock

We waste a terrible amount of the food we buy in the Western world. But rather than feel guilty, let's take control of the problem. Sure, you may think you can afford to throw some of that manky food lurking in the fridge because you shouldn't have to eat stuff that's past it's best – but have you thought about how you might use what you buy or even save some money by buying a little less?

To give you an example, I used to be a 'lady who lunched'. No, I didn't necessarily go out to eat each day, but whilst at work, I used to do a mix of sandwiches and salads from nice posh shops and the odd weekly sit down lunch somewhere. I found my bank balance was telling me I was spending around £100 per month just on lunch alone. That's £1200 per year; enough for a holiday. Once I started thinking about having a free holiday each year or continuing my lunching, the decision was easy: start bringing lunch in and enjoy a well-earned “free” holiday.

The fact is we often buy more than we need. And if we aren't buying more than we need, we are throwing away stuff we could use. Take the humble cauliflower; I generally trim off the lovely florets and throw away the rest. I reckon most people do the same. However, my mum uses the leaves to add veggie content to her dhal (and very tasty it is too!), Delia suggests grating the stalk to add to salads and a mate of the Hairy Bikers suggests using the stalk for soup.

I believe that although none of us want to look like we grub around for the last penny, we do like the idea of getting something out of nothing. This is where my idea of using all your old veg lurking in your fridge to make some stock comes in.

What?! I hear you say. I can just use cubes. Yes, you can. But generally the cubes are overly salty and interfere with the taste of whatever dish you are making. Most of us already get more salt in our diet than we need, so cutting extra out would be a good idea. Besides, what I am suggesting you do involves 5-10 mins prep time, 1 hour cooking time and then you have the wonderful reward of tasty homemade stock. Use it to make what you like; soup, sauces, risotto, casseroles and stews.... What's more, it's yours; your own creation. A little piece of kitchen art that is all your own.

So this is what you need:

Bare minimum ingredients (base):

1-2 sticks celery

1 onion (I used red, but often use the regular white ones)

1 tsp whole peppercorns (optional)

2-3 dried bay leaves

Parsley stalks (you will have used the leaves already for other things)

1 tomato

1 carrot

You can then add any old veg hanging around: as long as it's not rotting, it can be past its best:

Leftover thyme

Leftover sage (be sparing – it's a strong flavour)

Cauliflower stalks and/or leaves

Broccoli florets and/or stalks

Spring onions

Cabbage stalks/core/outer leaves

Leftover leeks/onions etc etc

I will just say that you don't want to add something starchy because it will make your stock cloudy and starchy with a foam on the top. Not really what you want for, say, a broth or risotto.

Method:

Cut things like the onion, carrot and tomato or anything large in half to allow the water to leach out all the goodness.

Put all the ingredients into a big saucepan and just cover with cold water.

Put on a high heat and bring to the boil.

Once boiling, stir thoroughly, put on a low simmer, add a lid and cook for 45mins to 1 hour.

Allow to cool. Strain into another container. Refridgerate.

If you are really green, put the used veg in your composter.

The stock will keep in the fridge for at least a week.

Enjoy the thrifty fruits of your labour!