Koriander-seared chicken with hot-and-cold cucumber relish
I cannot resist the combination of cold ingredients with hot, both in temperature and in spiciness. In my previous book, A Change of Appetite, there was a dish of chilled cucumber with chilli and pickled ginger that everyone loved, so I’m revisiting the idea. The salad here is adapted from a recipe in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid; they came across the dish in Yunnan. You can serve a chilli sauce on the side as well, but there is something pure and simple about just having chicken and cucumber.
Ingrediënten
FOR THE CHICKEN
- 6 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 tsp black peppercorns
- about 6 tbsp coarsely chopped coriander leaves
- 1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
- juice of 1½ limes
- 8 skinless boneless chicken thighs
- 1½ tbsp groundnut oil
FOR THE CUCUMBER
- 1 large cucumber
- 3 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp caster sugar
- 3 tbsp groundnut oil
- 1 red chilli halved, deseeded and finely sliced
- 1 green chilli halved, deseeded and finely sliced
- 4 small very hot dried chillies, crumbled
- 8 Sichuan peppercorns
- small handful of coriander leaves
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructies
- Start with the chicken.
- Put the garlic and peppercorns into a mortar and crush them, then add the coriander and continue until you have a rough paste.
- Add the fish sauce and lime juice.
- Put the chicken thighs in a dish and pour over the paste.
- Turn the chicken over with your hands, to coat.
- Cover loosely with cling film and put in the fridge for about four hours.
- Bring to room temperature before cooking.
- Now for the cucumber.
- Peel it and halve lengthways.
- Cut into four lengths and scoop out the seeds using a teaspoon (discard them).
- Bash the cucumber with a rolling pin, then break it into pieces with your hands.
- This might seem odd, but it helps the flesh to absorb other flavours.
- Put the rice vinegar and sugar into a bowl and stir to dissolve the sugar.
- Add the cucumber and put in the coldest bit of the fridge (you can even stick it in the freezer for the time it takes you to griddle the chicken).
- Heat the griddle pan, brush some oil over the chicken pieces and throw them on the griddle.
- Cook over a high heat to get a good colour on both sides, then reduce the heat until cooked right through (it will take seven or eight minutes in all, though thighs vary greatly in size, even when from the same packet; very annoying).
- The coriander and garlic from the marinade that sticks to the chicken will turn dark and charred, but it’s delicious so don’t panic about that (but don’t burn the garlic!
- ).
- Heat the oil for the cucumber in a frying pan or wok until it is really hot and stir-fry the fresh chillies, dried chillies and peppercorns for about 30 seconds.
- Pour this over the cucumber, sprinkle on the coriander and salt and serve with the chicken.
- Brown rice is good on the side, if you want something starchy.
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