Dinner – Munchos at Sebbo’s: Culinary Adventures

Italian chicken in red wine sauce — Italian Chicken in Red Wine Sauce

I had fun with this one – it’s not always I get to cook with as much wine as I like. My mum really liked it; I thought it was pretty nice, maybe 8/10 good.

The recipe is based on Gennaro’s “chicken supreme”, but I’ve made a few modifications based on what I felt like doing and what we had. The richness and saltiness of the sauce from the oliveoil, olives and anchovies really make this dish. People are often unsure about using anchovies because of their strong smell, but give it a go and you’ll see it adds incredible flavour without a fishy scent. Overall a pretty straightforward recipe, no reason why anyone couldn’t make this.

I suggest butterflying the chicken breast, as this will help it to cook a bit more evenly – unfortunately I had two medium breasts and one large one and even each one on the thinner aspect was slightly overdone.

Shall we?

Italian chicken in red wine sauce
Serves:3-4
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
3 medium chicken breasts, butterflied if you wish
10 olives
2 tsp capers
4 cloves garlic
1 chilli
5 anchovies
Half a can of tomatoes, crushed
6 medium portobello mushrooms
~1/2 cup of your choice of red wine
~4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Small amount of flour (to coat chicken)
Parsley (to serve)

Instructions:

Pit and halve the olives. Slice the garlic, chilli, anchovies, mushrooms and parsley while you’re at it.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Coat sides with a dusting of flour. The flour not only helps the browning/crust of the chicken but will add a bit of thickness to the sauce.
In a large pan over medium-high heat, fry the chicken in two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil until lightly golden-brow on both sides, about 2-3 minutes per side. Deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup of red wine (half of what you have). Let the alcohol cook off, then remove the chicken.
Add another tablespoon of the olive oil and lightly fry the garlic, chilli and anchovies for a minute. Add the mushrooms, stir, then add the rest of the wine and the tomatoes. Add olives and capers as well. I don’t think there’s any particular order once the garlic, chilli and anchovies are fried. You could save a bit of wine to go in the pan just before you finish the cooking.
Once the sauce is simmering, return the chicken to the pan and cover with a lid for around 5-10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
Taste the sauce now – it will likely already be salty enough from the anchovies and olives, but add salt if required. Stir through the chopped parsley and one more tablespoon of olive oil.
Serve with anything you like! I made roast potatoes and sauteed some cabbage (only veg we had).

Concluding remarks: The leftover sauce can be used for a super quick and easy pasta for the next day! Hope your mum like this as much as mine did.

Ginger and spring onion fish — Ginger and Spring Onion Fish

Growing up, our dinners consisted of one meat dish and a veg dish served with rice and soup. The mains are put in the middle of the table and you help yourself as you go. I think it’s a nice thing to do every once in a while to have a shared dinner like this in a flatting situation, as opposed to having everything put on individual plates – there’s perhaps a greater sense of sharing and connection.

This one was inspired by what my mum would cook when I was younger, combined with things we’ve had at restaurants here and in Malaysia. I’m super happy with how it’s turned out. It’s essentially fish half-steamed, half-boiled in a small amount of liquid for a short time. I like how slight variations in the broth can change the flavour profile significantly, such as the addition of salted vegetables, or adding a teaspoon of vinegar.

I had a bit of trouble with this one as I was using a stove that couldn’t get to as hot a temperature as I would have liked. It’s also worth trying to pick fish fillets that are all about the same size so the cooking is even. On that note, I used monkfish today, and perch has worked well before, but I imagine any fish that isn’t very soft (e.g. red cod) would go pretty well.

I used prawns today but that’s only because I wasn’t convinced I had enough fish to feed three. They were surprisingly good, but not necessary.

Don’t think I have anything else at this stage, so here we go.

Ginger and spring onion fish
Serves: 3
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
400-500g of your choice of fish (3 medium fillets of monkfish)
Bunch of spring onions (at least 3 and up to 5 stalk things)
Chunk of ginger
1 chilli
Quarter of a brown onion
1 tomato
Handful of spinach
Salt
Pepper
1-2 tsp sesame oil (to serve)

For the broth:
50mL of Shaoxing wine (available at any Chinese supermarket and~$2 per bottle)
50mL water
1 tsp light soy sauce
1-2 tsp fish sauce

Instructions:

Thinly slice the spring onion, brown onion and chilli. Reserve the tops of the spring onion for the garnish. Chop the tomato into chunks. Julienne the ginger, which can be done easily by slicing it thinly then stacking the slices and slicing thinly again. Here’s a video showing that by Nadia Lim:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lD6QDMEP6E
Mix the 50mL Shaoxing wine, 50mL water (use stock if you have it), one teaspoon of light soy sauce and one to two teaspoons of fish sauce in a cup. Variation: add one teaspoon of white vinegar.
Over high heat, heat a large flat pan that you have a lid for. When the pan is hot, put cold oil in, give it a good swish around, then put the aromatics in (ginger, spring onion, brown onion, chilli). When they start to brown, add the tomato and spinach. Fry for maybe 30 seconds longer then add the liquid mixture from the cup. Your pan should be hot enough that the liquid boils immediately and the alcohol cooks off. The liquid should cover the base of the pan but not come up more than one or two centimetres.
Lightly season the fish with salt and pepper. Place into the boiling liquid. Cover and let cook until you see the sides of the fish start to turn white (1-2 minutes). Then flip the fish, cover and continue to cook for another three to five minutes to finish the cooking process. Ultimately you can check that the fish is done by cutting through the thickest part – it should not be difficult to cut through, so if it is continue to cook with the lid on.
Remove from the heat, garnish generously with the tops of the spring onion you reserved earlier. Drizzle with one or two teaspoons of sesame oil to finish. Cooking the sesame oil removes some of the flavour; putting it on after the cooking process is complete allows the fragrance to stand out a bit more.
Serve with rice and vegetables.

Concluding remarks: If it’s any measure of quality, my white friend who doesn’t really eat fish rates this, so give it a go even if you’re not big on fish!