Kildare's What's Cooking: Two new recipes from TV chef Donal Skehan
Delicious home cooked food
Three recipes from food writer and presenter Donal Skehan's latest cookbook Everyday Cook are sure to get itching to get into the kitchen.
Korean fried chicken bowls
A speedy, crunchy, satisfying supper.
Ingredients:
(Serves 4)
For the chicken:
l 250ml (1 cup) buttermilk
l 8 free-range chicken thighs (bone in and skin on), cut into bite-sized pieces
l 100g (3½oz) cornflakes
l 85g (3oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
l 2tsp chilli powder
l 2tsp garlic powder
l Sunflower oil spray
For the sauce:
l 8 cloves of garlic, finely grated
l 1 large thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely grated
l 6tbsp light soy sauce
l 70g (2 ½oz) gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
l 4tbsp rice wine vinegar
l 1tbsp sesame oil
l 2tbsp dark brown sugar
For the bowls:
l 250g (9oz) sticky rice, cooked
l ½ head red cabbage, thinly sliced
l 6 spring onions (scallions), thinly sliced
l Handful of radishes, finely sliced
l 1tbsp toasted sesame seeds
l A good handful of coriander leaves
l Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C/180˚C fan/400˚F/Gas 6.
2. In a large bowl, mix the buttermilk with a generous season of sea salt and ground black pepper. Add the chicken to the bowl and marinate for at least 30 minutes. Set aside.
3. Pour the cornflakes in a large freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin to a coarse powder. Add the flour, chilli and garlic powders to the bag along with salt and pepper. Seal the bag and shake the mix until combined.
4. Pour the dry mix into a large wide shallow bowl. One by one using tongs, dip each marinated chicken piece (shaking off any excess) in the dry mix until coated on all sides.
5. Arrange the chicken on a baking sheet with parchment paper and lightly spritz with sunflower oil spray. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked and crispy, turning halfway through to make sure they’re golden on all sides.
6. While the chicken cooks, prepare the sauce. In a small saucepan whisk together the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, gochujang, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and brown sugar.
7. Place the saucepan over a medium heat and bring to a low simmer, cooking until the sugar is just dissolved – about three minutes. Set aside.
8. Once the chicken has cooked, brush with the sauce.
9. Assemble serving bowls with the sticky rice, cabbage, spring onions, radishes, chicken pieces, sesame seeds and plenty of coriander. Drizzle with more of the spicy sauce as needed.
Perfect fudgy dark and white ripple brownies with raspberries
These brownies will be eaten in a flash.
(Makes 16 squares)
l 100g (3½oz) dark chocolate, broken into pieces
l 100g (3½oz) white chocolate, broken into pieces
l 150g (5oz) unsalted butter, softened
l 200g (7oz) caster (superfine) sugar
l 75g (3oz) soft light brown sugar
l 3 large free-range eggs
l 1tsp vanilla bean paste
l 150g (5oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
l 150g (5oz) raspberries
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas 4 and grease and line a 20cm (8in) square cake tin with baking parchment.
2. Melt the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of just simmering water. Set aside to cool a little bit. Do the same with the white chocolate in a separate bowl.
3. With a hand-held electric whisk, beat the butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs together in a small jug then gradually pour them into the butter and sugar mixture, whisking the whole time until you have a fluffy smooth mix. Beat in the vanilla bean paste and then the flour. Divide the mixture in half.
4. Gently fold the melted dark chocolate into one half of the mixture and the white chocolate into the other half.
5. Roughly dollop the mixture like a checkerboard into the prepared tin and push the raspberries into the mixture. Us the end of a teaspoon to swirl the two colours together.
6. Bake the brownies for 35–40 minutes so that a skewer comes out almost clean but still a little bit sticky. Leave to cool completely in the tin before cutting into squares. These taste even better the next day so try not to eat them all straight away!