Slava Ukraini! Слава Україні!

Dantranet logo and logotype with subtle drop shadow

Category: Life

Personal reflections, recipes, and happy hour

  • Chilli Chicken Ramen

    Chilli Chicken Ramen

    The Wagamama favourite, interpreted and improved by me.

    Ingredients

    • A flavourless oil like groundnut
    • Loads of fresh coriander – leaves removed from stalks and set aside, stalks chopped up finely
    • 2 Chicken breasts – preferably with skin on!
    • 1 red onion, one half finely diced, one half sliced
    • 1 or 2 red chillies, half diced, the other half sliced – discard seeds unless you want it very hot
    • 2 packs of Instant noodles with a chicken flavour pack
    • Chicken stock cube, homemade chicken stock, or your favourite ramen broth (chicken and pork are great together!)
    • 2 limes, one for juice for the marinade, the other cut into 4 wedges
    • 2 spring onions, chunky slices on the diagonal

    Method

    1. Score the skin of the chicken breast and some of the flesh. Brush with some oil, shake a bit of salt over it and squeeze the juice of 1 lime all over it. Cover and let marinate for at least 1 hour in the fridge. Let it out of the fridge and come back to room temperature ~20 minutes before cooking.
    2. Grill the chicken under high heat, turning once. Slice it without separating the slices so it “fans”, set aside.
    3. In a big pot, sauté the diced onion in a little oil over a medium heat. Put a lid on to keep the onions firm while they brown. After 5 min, add the chopped coriander stalks, the diced chilli. Keep sautéing for 2 more mins. This smells fucking amazing.
    4. Now pour in about 500-600ml of freshly boiled water with the stock cubes and the contents of the flavour packets dissolved, or your own prepared broth.
    5. Cook the noodles in the soup as per packet instructions, usually they only need 2-3 mins. Don’t break up the noodles from their dry “shape”
    6. To serve, first remove the cooked noodles from the soup and put in a bowl. Then put the fanned chicken breast on top of the “bed” of noodles. Divide the remaining soup and cooked onions between the 2 bowls.
    7. Top each dish with the chunks of spring onion, the remaining red chill, chopped coriander leaves (don’t go too fine or it turns to mulch!); Squeeze the juice of 1 lime wedge in each bowl. Put the other lime wedge on top of each bowl.
    8. Eat that shit like a ninja.

    The story

    At uni I lived with a guy who loved his Naruto, and I don’t mind admitting I was into it for a bit. The character eats a lot of ramen, and they love emphasising that it nourishes him well to be an effective ninja.

    Around the same time Wagamama launched in the UK and we had a lovely branch right in Canterbury town centre so for a treat we all went there as housemates.

    My eyes were drawn straight to the ingredients listed in their chilli chicken ramen – chili, lime, coriander – 3 of my favourite things!

    Being myself I naturally needed to know how to make it at home, and already being a lover of instant noodles late at night, it wasn’t hard to “pimp” the standard preparation method into what you see above.

    It became a staple in our house given the relatively cheap ingredients and is a good way to get your vitamins as a student. It also became a firm favourite in my family – they’ve got a set of the Wagamama ramen bowls and ladles just for occasions where we have this dish.

    My dad’s interpretation made from roast pork on a Monday – he adds a bit of ginger to the sofrito as well as ginger matchsticks to serve, to make it even taste more legit East Asian

    My actually Japanese friend loved to tell me that such a recipe is not at all traditional or customary in Japan. Their ramen dishes typically include seafood or pork, a hard boiled egg (a hard no from me), bak choi, beansprouts and other ingredients typical of the cuisine.

    I might have posted different attempts at this up to 10 times on my Instagram so you can see how often I make it. My partner loves it in winter, it’s especially good made from leftover roast chicken – simmer the carcass in a big pot of water with some celery stalks and leaves, bay leaves and some peppercorns to make an amazing meaty broth.

  • Mexican ’75

    Mexican ’75

    This is a Mexican take on the French ’75, if that wasn’t completely obvious.

    Let’s assume you’ve frosted your favourite glasswear and waste no time…

    Ingredientes

    • 150 ml / 4 oz. Tequila – a Reposado is best, blanco is OK but perhaps not sweet enough, anejo too strong here but suit yourself
    • 2 oz. Lime Juice – trust me you want fresh lime juice here – you’ll probably need a lime per glass
    • 1-2 tbsp Agave nectar – this natural sweetener complements the above two ingredients; you can also see it called agave syrup
    • 10 oz. Champagne – although these days that gives me such bad heartburn, I go with a nice dry Prosecco; if you are using Champagne, I recommend a blanc de blanc!

    Metódo

    1. Fill a shaker all the way up with ice and add the Tequila, lime juice and agave nectar. Shake until the shaker is totally frosted.
    2. Pour into your frosted flutes, coupes or other preferred glasswear.
    3. Top with the Champagne or your prefrerred sparkling white wine.
    4. Garnish with a twist of lime.

    The story

    Having spent a nice autumnal Saturday afternoon doing some walking through historic London with my partner and work friends, in the evening it suddenly became “weather for a barstool”.

    My walk ended exactly on one, in a very cool place called Pinxito’s (this was near Old Street and sadly this branch is no longer operational, but I think they still have one in Soho).

    Initially the other lads in the group and I were drinking draught beers while we decided what we wanted to eat, but then I spotted by colleague’s partner drinking something a lovely shade of bright green with a twist of lime.

    She quickly indicated it on the menu and giggled as my face visibly lit up. This was my cup of tea, minus the tea and adding tequila and lime.

    I switched to the Mexican ’75, told the barman keep ’em coming and spent a long night in there. We had quite a hoot with the barstaff who were somewhat gobsmacked how many of these we could pound.

    For me this has become a New Year’s staple, as sparkling wine is usually abundant during the season but the novelty of which might have worn off come 31st December.