FLOWER POT KITCHEN: HOT SWEET SOUR CHICKEN BONE BROTH

22 Jan 2019

HOT SWEET SOUR CHICKEN BONE BROTH

Zero Carbs with BareNaked Noodles

Gorgeous bowl of goodness, fragrant hot, sweet and sour this beautiful bowl of abundance delivers more than a meal. Loaded with lots of good for you ingredients that love you back, this is a winner dinner all round, even more so because you can tailor make it to what ever vegetables you have in the fridge or growing in the garden larder, the base broth can stay the same making this a quick and varied dish ready in minutes.

My fridge is never without a large kilner jar of homemade chicken stock with chunks of braised chicken sitting in the bottom of the jelly, this makes for speedy good for you suppers in minutes giving you more time to spend with the family or with yourself.

Ingredients

(Serves 2)

1ltr homemade chicken stock

1 chicken quartered

1 onion

1 bay leaf

1 carrot rough chopped

1 leek rough chopped

2 sticks celery rough chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 sprig of thyme

1.5ltr water

Sea salt and pepper

1 star anise

6 sichuan peppercorns crushed

1 lemongrass bashed

2" ginger grated

2" turmeric grated (1tsp ground)

2 green chillies finely sliced

1 tbsp palm sugar

1 lime juiced

1 tsp harrisa paste

1 tbsp tom yum paste

1 tsp tamarind pulp

200ml coconut milk

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp shaoxing wine

1 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp shrimp paste

2 ptn rice noodles

2 handfuls greens

1 carrot juillenned

1 leek finely sliced

1 handful watercress

1 boiled egg just set yolk

1 tsp sesame oil

2 glorious free range eggs

The Perfect Mollet Egg

Bring a pan of water to a rolling boil, add your room temperature eggs and set the timer for 6 minutes, 6.20 minutes for large eggs, this is important do not guess the time. As soon as the time is up drain the hot water away and fill the pan with cold water, drain again and re-fill with cold water again, leave for a minute then remove from the pan and leave on the side until needed, any extra cooked eggs can be stored in the fridge. These are great just set boiled eggs and can be used just the same as hard boiled eggs.

Homemade chicken stock

Place all the ingredients for the chicken stock in a deep pan and bring to a gently simmer for a couple of hours, strain, reserve some of the chicken meat for this meal or reserve for others, season the stock to taste.

Cook the noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes or according to cooking instructions on the packet, drain and run under cold water then toss in a dash of sesame oil, reserve to one side.

Bring the chicken stock to a gentle simmer, add the lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, chillies, star anise, sichuan peppercorns, palm sugar, lemon juice, coconut milk, shrimp paste, tom yum, harissa, tamarind pulp, soy, shaoxing and fish sauce. Adjust the taste using the lime juice and palm sugar.

In your serving bowls place the noodles, carrots, greens, watercress, leek and some of the chicken then ladle over the broth and you are good to go

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.