This is another of Dad’s recipes. It was one of his favourites as a child, it was (still is) one of mine and is now the most requested dish by Alex. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, huh?

The aroma is almost intoxicating to me – reminding me of cold, pitch black, Winter evenings full of barely restrained excitement. That would be because when I was a kid, Dad used to do a Chinese banquet for my friends as my birthday party.

Even now, I only have to smell this cooking on the stove and I’m flung back to that great memory. Chopsticks poked into the sides of glasses, rice and noodles everywhere, fighting for the sweet and sour and the danger of the toffee apple and bananas being plunged into iced water.  The sheer exhilaration of unidentifiable wrapped presents.

All that comes back with one sniff of this.

How does it taste? Well, it’s a bit sweet and a bit sour.  Put to one side the thought of the average restaurant orange gloop – unspeakable stuff.  This is the real thing.

First, grate your ginger; you will need around 1 tsp. I have a revelation though. I read somewhere that you could freeze your root ginger and that it is easier to grate it still frozen.

Easier?  Easier?!  Easier doesn’t come close! It is like a miracle! My life has been changed beyond all recognition! That stuff gliiiiiiiiiiides across the grater. It’s like grating mountain air!

…

… So, yes, erm, you might like to freeze your root ginger.

Then get a green chilli. I am sporting gloves in this picture because I prepared the sauce shortly before giving Alex his bath.
” My Mother always prepared chillis with her bare hands before she bathed me”. There’s the title for your autobiography right there. Hence the gloves.

Slice it in half, remove most of the seeds and membrane, unless you like it very hot, and very finely dice one half. Put the other half in the freezer if you like. Not sure what would happen, but I daresay it would be fine.  Disappointingly, this chilli turned out not to be that hot and I could have added the whole thing;  but isn’t that the thing with these milder chillis? You have no idea until you cook the thing. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you.

So, into your jug (I use a jug because Dad always uses a jug – you could start a new ‘bowl’ trend if you like) put:
1 tsp grated root ginger
1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped into chunks
1 yellow (or green or orange, whatever) pepper, deseeded and chunked
1 small tin of pineapple, drained and chopped into chunks
your half of a green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2 heaped tsp cornflour, 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp salt, 4 tbsp cold water, 4 rounded tbsp ketchup, 3 mean tbsp vinegar, 3 tbsp sugar

Stir it around with a chopstick  (it’ll combine – be persistent),

Clingfilm the top and leave it overnight for the flavours to come together. You do have to leave it to sit – sniff it now and you will think ‘huh?! What kind of a recipe is this?!’. Wait.

Sniff it in the morning and you’ll be counting the hours until lunchtime.

To prepare the pork. Dice some pork – leg, shoulder, rib steaks, whatever you fancy – into bite-sized pieces.

Into a bowl, put one egg, 2 tbsp soy sauce, mix that together and turn the pork in it. Sprinkle over enough cornflour to achieve a kind of light coating – in the region of 3+ tbsp

This kind of sticky light coating

Heat oil in a large saucepan or a deep fryer, should you possess such a thing, and fry in batches until lightly browned. Drain on kitchen towels. See how it’s coloured, but still undercooked in the middle.

Fry it all again until it’s deep, deep brown. That way it’s nearer to being crunchy and cooked through.

At that point, you can cool and freeze the meat if you like – it’s handy to have a batch in the freezer and also makes sense to cook a large batch in one go.

If you’re cooking it straight away, keep the pork to one side whilst you heat the sauce. If you’re using your frozen pork, you’ll obviously have to defrost it, then heat it in the oven until it’s hot all the way through.

Pour your sauce into a large saucepan and heat, stirring, until it thickens and the colour clears.

It glistens when it’s there

Tip the hot pork into the sauce and stir to combine. That’s it! Serve with rice. My mouth is watering at the memory of it.

Enjoy.

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Dad’s Sweet and Sour Pork

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Sauce:
1 tsp grated root ginger
1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped into chunks
1 yellow (or green or orange, whatever) pepper, deseeded and chunked
1 small tin of pineapple, drained and chopped into chunks
1/2 a green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
2 heaped tsp cornflour
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp salt
4 tbsp cold water
4 rounded tbsp tomato ketchup
3 mean tbsp vinegar
3 tbsp sugar

500g pork cut into chunks (or as much as you like if you want to cook and freeze some for another time)
1 egg
2 tbsp soy
cornflour

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce in a jug or bowl. Stir thoroughly to combine, cover and leave to sit overnight to allow the flavours to develop.

Cut the pork into chunks.

In a bowl, mix the egg and soy sauce. Stir in the meat and sprinkle with enough cornflour to achieve a light, sticky coating – start with around 3 tbsp.

Heat oil in a large saucepan or deep fat fryer.

Fry the pork in batches until it is brown, but not too dark because we’re going to fry it again in a minute. Rest each cooked batch on kitchen towels.

Once you have fried it all, return – in batches – to the oil until it is the deepest brown.
Now you can either keep the pork warm whilst you heat the sauce, or cool and freeze the pork for later.

(When you want to use the pork you had frozen; defrost it and re-heat it in an oven until piping hot, then combine with the sauce as normal.)

Pour the sauce into a large frying pan and heat, stirring, until the sauce thickens and the cloudiness clears.
Stir in the hot pork to coat and serve with rice.

Leftovers will heat well in the microwave the next day!

Chinese chicken and chestnuts is one of our favourites of my Dad’s dishes. It’s sweet, but savoury, fragrant with ginger and sherry but dark with soy, unctuous and delicious. I am talking about the meal, you understand – not my Dad, because frankly, that would be a bizarre description of someone.

He was born in Shanghai and is part Chinese, so has a wide range of dishes in his repertoire – do feel free to request recipes for any of your favourites. If he has a recipe for it, he will have to cook it for us in order that I can blog it. This means we will get to eat it, so please… request away!

As he was the star chef at Chez Jones last Sunday, I am immortalising him and his unctuous chicken on this blog. So here is the Fred Jones guide to this beautiful Chinese dish.

First the chicken. You need 11 thighs (I know, it does seem specific doesn’t it?). Remove the skin and cut the meat off the bones. Keep the skin and bones because you’ll make stock with them. Halve the meat so that you have 22 pieces.

Preparing the marinade, this is a large amount of meat to marinade (22 pieces, in fact), so get out 2 9×13″ glass dishes, or one enormous one. You want it to sit in one layer.

Combine the 5 tbsp light and 5 tbsp dark soy, the 5 slices (coin thickness) ginger and 3 of the whole spring onions and split them between the two dishes. Yes, you will have 1 spring onion in one dish and 2 in the other one. Don’t worry, it’s fine. Dad said it’s fine. I did ask.
Add the chicken to the marinade and leave for 1.5 hours – turning occasionally.

Meanwhile, make the stock. It’s easy!
Put the chicken skin and bones in a saucepan. Break the remaining spring onion up and add that.
Add 500ml (2 cups) water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 mins.
Remove the skin, bones and spring onion. (Give the skin to the local fox – this, I assume, is optional)
Strain the stock into a jug and leave to cool.
Once cooled, skim the floating fat off with a spoon.

Heat about 3 inches of oil in a wok, or whatever you use to deep-fry.
Deep fry the chicken in batches just for a few minutes to colour the outside.

Put the cooked chicken in a big pan/pot as you’ve fried it off.

Add the cream Sherry ( I think he was going for wistful, yet pious in this pic – can’t be sure)

(Dad told me it was 2 tbsp, but watching his generous over-spilling, it was most definitely 3 tbsp – look at that smirk)

also add the 3 tbsp  sugar, then the remaining marinade, including the spring onions and ginger.

Add the stock – use it to swill out the marinading dishes so that no flavour is left behind.

Cover and bring to the boil then simmer for 20 mins.

Now add 500g defrosted Chestnuts.

Dad uses these:

So, clatter those in and remove the collapsed spring onions and slices of ginger

Cover and simmer again for another 20 minutes. Remove the lid for the last 10 mins so that it can begin to reduce a little.
Taste it to check that the soy and sugar balance is good.

In a small dish, mix the cornflour and water together.
Add to the pot and stir well.

When thickened, it is ready to serve.

Serve with boiled rice and a green veg or noodles. Hey, serve it on a piece of bread if you must – just make it!

Incidently, that is an oxygen supply on Dad’s face and yes, we do take adequate precautions around the kitchen, including complete avoidance of activities that involve dangling over a gas hob. He has not yet exploded, thank goodness. Can you imagine the mess?

Just wanted to put that out there in case anyone from any kind of health and/or safety field was looking at this and panicking.

Fred’s Chicken and Chestnuts

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11 Chicken thighs, skinned, boned and halved (keep the skin and bones to make stock)

marinade:
5 tbsp light soy sauce
5 tbsp  dark soy sauce
5 slices ginger (coin thickness)
4 spring onions (scallions), trimmed but left whole

add:
3 tbsp cream Sherry
3 tbsp sugar

500g frozen sweet chestnuts, defrosted

at the end:
3 tsp cornflour
3 tsp cold water

This is a large amount of meat to marinade (22 pieces, in fact), so get out 2 9×13″ glass dishes, or one enormous one. You want it to sit in one layer.

Combine the light and dark soy, the ginger and 3 of the spring onions and split between the two dishes. Yes, you will have 1 spring onion in one dish and 2 in the other one. Don’t worry, it’s fine.
Add the chicken to the marinade and leave for 1.5 hours – turning occasionally.

Meanwhile, make the stock. It’s easy!
Put the chicken skin and bones in a saucepan. Break the remaining spring onion up and add that.
Add 500ml (2 cups) water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 mins.
Remove the skin, bones and spring onion.
Strain the stock into a jug and leave to cool.
Once cooled, skim the floating fat off with a spoon.

Heat about 3 inches of oil in a wok, or whatever you use to deep-fry.
Deep fry the chicken in batches just for a few minutes to colour the outside. Put the cooked chicken in a big pan/pot as you’ve fried it off.
Add the cream Sherry and sugar then the remaining marinade, including the spring onions and ginger.
Add the stock – use it to swill out the marinading dishes so that no flavour is left behind.

Cover and bring to the boil then simmer for 20 mins.

Remove the now floppy spring onion and slices of ginger; add the Chestnuts.
Cover and simmer again for another 20 minutes. Remove the lid for the last 10 mins so that it can begin to reduce a little.
Taste it to check that the soy and sugar balance is good.

In a small dish, mix the cornflour and water together.
Add to the pot and stir well. When thickened, it is ready to serve.

Serve with boiled rice and a green veg.