Thursday, May 28, 2009

Wednesday - Crispy chicken with soba noodle salad


I felt I had been cooking heavy meals so wanted to try something lighter. I had some Dukkha sitting in the cupboard that I had bought on a recent trip to Kangaroo Valley that I wanted to use as it is so delicious (the photo in my profile was taken at the cellar door where I bought it. If you are heading to Kangaroo Valley you MUST visit Yarwawa Estate. Well worth the bumpy and long drive). I had a look around my fridge and found some parmesan and soon realised that I had the makings of a coating for crispy chicken. Some julienne carrot and snow peas along with some soba noodles make for a fresh salad topped of with a dressing made with the juice of a fresh lime ( another side note, we can’t wait until our lime tree is fruiting as Luke paid $1.10 for one lime!!! ).

Maybe not the best winter warmer but tasty for a lunch time picnic or summer dinner.

Ingredients:
1 glass of good quality white wine
Small dish of very good quality extra virgin olive oil
Small dish of dukkha
Small pieces of good quality bread

Crispy Chicken
300g chicken breast cut into thin strips or pieces
½ Cup plain flour
4-5 good sized teaspoons of Dukkha. If you don’t have Dukkha you can use finely crushed nuts such as walnuts and almonds and add a little bit of seasoning.
¼ cup finely shredded parmesan
1 egg whisked

Salad
1 bundle of thick soba noodles. The brand I use comes in a pack of three bundles.
½ cut into thin batons
Handful of snow peas cut into thin strips
1 tsp sesame seeds

Dressing
Juice of 1 lime
½ teaspoon seaseme oil
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated ginger

With glass of wine in hand dip bread in EVOO then into the dukkha. Drink, eat and enjoy. Now start dinner.

In a medium sized bowl combine flour, dukkha and parmesan
Set up a production line close ( to eliminate mess ) in the following order:
Chopping board with chicken, bowl with whisked egg, bowl of flour mix clean plate for coated chicken.
Coat a piece of chicken well in egg then in flour mix. Ensure the chicken is covered well.
Repeat for the rest of the chicken.
Place coated chicken in a lightly oiled hot pan ensuring no pieces are overlapping. If you don’t have a large enough pan you may need to do this in a couple of batches.

Cook until the pieces are golden brown. This should not take long if your pieces are nice and thin. Watch the chicken so the coating does not burn. You don’t want to over cook the chicken either as it will dry out and become chewy with the coating.
Once all pieces are cooked place on a plate with some baking paper.

In a pot of boiling water cook soba noodles until tender ( much faster than regular pasta ).

While waiting for the soba to cook you can make the dressing.

Add the dressing ingredients into a bowl and whisk well. Done! Be sure to taste it as you may wish to add other flavours such as chilli sauce or even a drop of Tabasco for a kick.

30 seconds before they are ready add in snow peas and carrot to blanch.
Drain pasta and veggies and put it back in the pot.
Pour on dressing ( leave about 1 tbsp ) and toss gently ( anything too vigourous will make the snow peas fall apart )

To serve put salad on a plate and top with chicken. Drizzle the remaining dressing on the chicken.
Finally sprinkle sesame seeds over plate.

Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. hi Rosie,
    I am going to try and make the banger or stek and mash thing....will have to print it out first though....nice idea of you doing a cooking thing. see this summer. We are arriving on the 1st July for 3 months - am staying with Betty for a few days sometime then.
    bye, greetings,
    susan & dick mirande
    amsterdam

    ReplyDelete