For many years, I had not considered cooking. It was not something that interested me. Enjoying food beyond its necessity for survival is fairly recent development for me. Ironically, I am fortunate enough to be able to eat, and eat, and eat without putting weight on. Yes- I am one of those people.
A few things have opened my eyes to the joys of food, the most prominent being the growing curiosity and adventurousness that comes with the independence of growing up, researching food and food culture, and my wife's enthusiasm for all things edible. In the early days of our relationship, she decided to introduce me to the wonder that is the American pancake. So what did she do? She made me a tall stack of dinner plate sized white chocolate and raspberry pancakes. I didn't eat for the rest of the day.
I've finally arrived at a point where I've been seduced enough by the creative potential of food that I'm starting to experiment in the kitchen. This brought me to my first big production meal. I decided to go for a healthy recipe that called for simple ingredients. The recipe was for soy-marinated chicken with orange slices and asparagus. Red on for the recipe!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Ingredients:
4 skinless chicken breast fillets
1 large orange
2 tbsp dark soy sauce (preferably low sodium)
14oz medium asparagus spears
Method:
1. Slash each chicken breast diagonally. Place them in a single layer in a shallow oven-safe dish (I used a Pyrex one.)
2. Slice the orange in half, and squeeze the juice from one of the halves into a small bowl.
3. Add the soy sauce to the orange juice, and mix. Pour the mixture over the chicken.
4. Cut the remaining half of the orange into wedges. Place the wedges on top of the chicken slices.
5. Cover the dish with plastic wrap, and leave to marinate for ate least 2 hours.
6. Toward the end of marination, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.
7. When the chicken is finished marinating, turn the slices over. Put the orange slices back on top. Bake for 20 minutes uncovered.
8. Turn the chicken over once more and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until each slice is cooked to your liking.
9. While the chicken and orange slices are baking, prepare the asparagus by cutting off the tough ends.
10. Place the prepared asparagus spears in a heated frying pan. Pour just enough boiling water into the pan to cover the spears. Simmer gently until they are tender.
11. Drain the asparagus and arrange them on warm plates. Top with the chicken and orange wedges.
12. Spoon the remaining cooking juices over the dish, and serve right away.
13. Optional: Prepare brown rice or to accompany. I also decided to add a mixture of other steamed veggies, just for fun.
Apologies about the blurry photo! It gets dark so early here in Scotland, and my hands just weren't quite steady enough in the low lighting.
The meal was so tasty! The soy and orange combination was delightful, and worked perfectly with the white meat. The only little downer was the asparagus. They're not in season now, so they weren't the tenderest. All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out, considering it was my first real go at preparing a proper meal!
Toodle-oo and don't spoil your appetites,
Philip
No comments:
Post a Comment