Achiote chicken

It’s been a whole year since we tried this dish for the first and second time and I’ve been thinking about it ever since but somehow never prepared it again. Why on earth did it take us so long?!

My husband made it this time and it really is so, so good with the Annatto aroma and copious amounts of lime juice 🤤 It looks spicy because of the vibrant red colour but that is misleading, any heat comes from black pepper (or any other hot spice you would add to your taste).

We used a ready made Achiote paste (contains Annatto seeds) but it’s probably worth it to go the extra mile of making your own Achiote paste as suggested on the recipe website.

If you can’t find Annatto seeds or ready made achiote paste in your local shops, try an international supermarket or look online for Mexican food items to order.

Recipes for reference:
https://thenovicechefblog.com/achiote-chicken-recipe-mexican-marinade/
https://thenovicechefblog.com/achiote-paste/

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Japanese style food Friday

The challenge with Japanese food for me is not really the cooking of each dish but to get everything to be ready around the same time without any of the warm items going too cold.
Nevertheless, this collection worked out very well even though one of the two sets of gyoza was a bit tardy:

🥢 Quick pickled daikon slices
🥢 Crispy fried lotus root
🥢 Enoki Mushrooms with Garlic & Spring Onion Sauce
🥢 Crunchy gyoza from frozen (with dipping sauce)
🥢 Japanese rice
🥢 Miso soup

https://www.copymethat.com/r/celxlydq0v/quick-pickled-daikon-slices/
https://www.copymethat.com/r/kBMO4nxqO/fried-lotus-root/
https://thewoksoflife.com/enoki-mushrooms-garlic-scallion-sauce/
https://www.copymethat.com/r/sezh1TxSY/crunchy-gyoza-from-frozen/

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Salmon with pasta in a cream sauce

Pasta and salmon are such a perfect combination and we’ve gone through a number of different iterations during the last 25 years or so.

We started with a simple cream sauce with smoked salmon, then I added a courgette cut into matchsticks so my small child would eat some vegetable. This became version 1 and my small child’s absolute favourite dinner and at some point I had to stop cooking this for myself as I simply had enough of it 😅
Since said small child has become a hungry teenager and now a hungry young adult, I’ve gone back and played with this meal. There is version 1.5 with a lemon sauce and cold hot smoked salmon. And then I replaced the smoked salmon with oven baked honey mustard salmon (version 2), then back to hot smoked salmon which I now warm up in the oven, definitely recommended. And the courgette is cut into thick slices, no more hiding! The pasta twirls have been replaced by linguine or tagliatelle, sometimes spinach pasta. That is version 3.

Version 1:
https://www.copymethat.com/r/AmIWh0q48/pasta-with-smoked-salmon-in-a-creme-frai/

Version 1.5 with lemon:
https://www.copymethat.com/r/gDdxFxiRT/fresh-pasta-with-hot-smoked-salmon-in-a-/

Version 2 with honey mustard salmon:
https://www.copymethat.com/r/v6BoAvjT4/honey-mustard-salmon-oven-dish/

Version 3 with hot smoked salmon:
https://www.copymethat.com/r/V11FBpOJS/salmon-with-pasta-in-a-cream-sauce/

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Chicken with Spinach (Saag Murgh)

More spinach! 😇 This weekend‘s main meal was a very down to earth Indian (Punjabi) curry from Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible. We had this some years back and I think I wasn’t that impressed, so I wanted to try it again. My husband did a good job and I liked it better this time.

I’m too lazy to create a version of this recipe that I can share; here’s one I found that describes the process using a whole chicken (we used chicken fillets):
https://www.them-apples.co.uk/2010/02/saag-murgh-or-chicken-and-spinach-curry/

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Gyoza with homemade stuffing

I’ve had two packs of gyoza skins in my freezer for far too long, finally it was their time to shine. I started early but it took two hours to deal with everything despite of having conscripted my guys for help. We followed the gyoza recipe from Just One Cookbook.

As we wanted a full meal I started with the rice so it could sit and wait in the rice cooker for when we were done and also got out a tin of kimchi, various furikake mixtures and miso soup to have them in place when needed. The child made the dipping sauce for the gyoza.

I had defrosted the 70+ skins and separated them carefully onto a plate while father and son were doing the chopping and mixing of the gyoza stuffing. I made sure to add some extra garlic paste (as we don’t have Nira, Japanese garlic chives) together with the other seasonings to the stuffing.

The fiddly work of folding the gyoza was done by my child and me. It took us a few attempts to get it right - but you can tell by the photos that we wouldn’t get a prize for the most accomplished gyoza 😅

While I was frying the table was laid and by the time I had used up about half of the gyoza I decided we had enough and the rest would go into the freezer.

What can I say, the taste of the gyoza was just right! So much better than most that you can buy ready made in this country (Germany) and all of that preparation work was definitely worth it 😋

Recipe followed:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/gyoza/

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Ponzu chicken with various Japanese style side dishes

Ponzu is a mix of soy sauce and Yuzu juice that you can buy ready made; if you like citrus tastes it’s delicious! My Japanese teacher friend had suggested to me to also make grated daikon with Ponzu which I never made myself before. That was a nice refreshing addition! To make it you need a proper Japanese style grater that’s like a plate with teeth and it creates a mush rather than pieces.

Today was actually a bit stressful as I had to have lunch ready by a certain time - but I had put the chicken and the roasted squash into my meal plan which both require a bit of time and dedication. At 30 minutes left, I conscripted my child for help. He had to look after the squash that was already in the oven, lay the table, prepare the miso soup bowls, and fry the green beans while I was still busy frying the chicken pieces. The work we put in was well worth it, we all loved the meal, especially the juicy chicken.

We had:
🥢 Ponzu chicken with spring onions
🥢 Roasted kabocha squash with soy sauce
🥢 Green Beans with garlic, ginger and sake
🥢 Grated daikon with a splash of Ponzu
🥢 Japanese rice (with roasted sesame seeds)
🥢 Miso soup

Recipes used:
https://www.copymethat.com/r/R3nqAgfyc/ponzu-chicken/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-roasted-kabocha-squash/
https://www.copymethat.com/r/78kyyjwjqb/green-beans-with-garlic-ginger-and-sake/

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Japanese style food Friday with Shio Koji chicken

In the depth of my fridge I found half a pack of still fine Shio Koji. This is a mix of water, salt and Aspergillus oryzae, a safe to eat fungus (or mould). If you ever come across this in an Asian supermarket (rare in Germany) buy it and try it out with chicken fillets as it does magic with them. Follow the instructions and don’t marinate overnight as that is too long (as I have found out previously) and you’ll need an oven thermometer to not overcook the chicken. It takes a while but in that time you can make the rest of your meal, especially if you pick simple sides.

We had:
🥢 Shio Koji chicken fillets
🥢 Namasu (daikon and carrot salad)
🥢 Chanterelles from a glas, simmered in Mentsuyu (a Japanese soup base)🥢 Kimchi (from a tin)
🥢 Rice with mizegohan (a mix-in rice spice blend) and blanched kohlrabi leaves
🥢 Miso soup

The recipes I used can be found on the Just One Cookbook website:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/shio-koji-chicken/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/namasu-daikon-and-carrot-salad/

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🥗 Salade de Crevettes et Avocat Crémeuse. 😋
🌎 https://recettefamille.uplodati.com/salade-de-crevettes-et-avocat-cremeuse/
#recette #cuisine #salade #salad #CuisineSaine #flexitarian

No fuss meal: potato salad with hot smoked salmon and green beans

Today’s lunch was kind of a very cut back Salade Niçoise, just the marinated potatoes, green beans, and a piece of smoked fish - and therefore it was quite a bit less work than the full French salad. Or was that because my husband cut all of the potatoes? 😅

Also since I have learnt the trick how to make raw onions palatable for me (marinating them for 15 minutes) I’m a happy bunny anyway. All of this was very yummy and serving the hot smoked salmon heated up in the oven made it even better!

https://www.copymethat.com/r/83BIh41o7/marinated-potato-salad/
https://www.copymethat.com/r/ylr7TYpxY/boiled-green-beans/

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