Easy

Green chicken and coconut soup

Serves 2 as a main-course soup

garlic - 2 cloves

hot green chillies - 2

mint - a small bunch

coriander - a small bunch

basil - a small bunch

chicken breasts - 2 large

lime - 1

ground nut oil

coconut cream

stock (chicken or vegetable) - 600ml

Thai fish sauce - 2 tbs

Peel the garlic, halve, seed and roughly chop the chillies. Remove the stems from the herbs.

Warm the grill or a cast-iron griddle pan. Rub the chicken breasts with a little oil (groundnut or light olive oil), season with salt and grill on both sides until thoroughly cooked. You can test for doneness by cutting into one of the breasts. Set them aside to rest.

Meanwhile, blitz the garlic, chillies and herbs in a food processor. You can add a little water if they stick. Finely grate the lime and add to the spice paste, reserving the juice.

Put half the paste into a medium-sized saucepan with a tablespoon of oil and fry for a minute or two, stirring to stop it sticking. Pour in the coconut cream, stock and the fish sauce. Bring to the boil, then stir until the fish sauce has dissolved. Simmer for five minutes. Stir in the remaining paste, and the reserved lime juice and check for seasoning.

Slice the chicken into thick strips and divide between two warm soup bowls. Pour in the stock, scattering over a few fresh herb leaves.

Foolproof

Choy sum with oyster sauce

Any Chinese greens will do for this, or indeed purple sprouting, spring greens or European broccoli. What really matters is the freshness and vitality of the greens.

Timewise, everything happens at once in this recipe. I get round this by getting the rice ready first, keeping it hot over boiling water, then preparing the garlic and ginger.

It is better to let the hot oyster sauce mixture wait off the heat for a second or two than risk overcooking the greens. They are what it is all about.

Serves 2

steamed rice - enough for 2

coriander - a small bunch

garlic - 2 large, juicy cloves

ginger - a piece as big as your thumb

groundnut oil - 1 tbs

choy sum, Chinese broccoli (gai lan) or other Chinese greens - 12 stems

oyster sauce - 6 tbs

When the rice is cooked, keep it warm in a covered colander over a pan of simmering water. Chop the coriander and fold it into the rice with a few grinds of black pepper.

Put a pan of water on to boil for the greens.

Peel the garlic and slice the cloves thinly. Pare the ginger, then cut the flesh into matchstick-thick shreds. Warm the oil in a medium-sized saucepan, tip in the sliced garlic and shredded ginger and fry until soft and nut brown.

Cook the greens in plenty of furiously boiling, lightly salted water (the oyster sauce is quite salty so I tend to go easy on the salt). They will need about three to five minutes, depending on the thickness of their stalks.

Stir the oyster sauce into the browned ginger and garlic and leave to bubble briefly. Drain the greens and tip them immediately into the oyster sauce. Toss the vegetables around gently in the sauce and aromatics, then serve with the coriander rice.

Easy

Pork ribs with honey and anise

Here's a truly sticky ribs recipe but without the ubiquitous black treacle and tomato purée. Sweet, slightly hot and absurdly sticky, they will fill the kitchen with that warm, aniseed smell you often encounter in good Chinese restaurants.

Serves 4

1.5kg meaty pork ribs

thickish honey - 6 tbs

oyster sauce - 3 heaped tbs

garlic - 4 cloves

dried chilli flakes - 1 tsp

whole star anise - 4

salt flakes - ¼ tsp

black peppercorns - ¼ tsp

To make the marinade, spoon the honey and oyster sauce into a roasting tin or baking dish. Peel and chop the garlic and add it with the chilli flakes, star anise and salt. Grind the peppercorns roughly and add them to the marinade. Toss the ribs in the marinade then set aside for an hour or so - even overnight.

Roast the ribs at 175°C/gas 4 for an hour and 15 minutes, turning them in their sauce from time to time. Keep an eye on them - they tend to burn easily because of the honey.

They are ready when the meat is tender, though not falling off the bone, and the ribs are glossy with sauce.

Serve with rice, spooning over sauce from the pan.

Easy

Chicken with spices and cream

Nothing raises purist eyebrows quite like the mention of curry powder. I will say in its defence that I have eaten some delicious meals where the main dish was spiced with a commercially blended powder. I prefer to toast and grind my own spices but when short of time I use a 'proprietary' powder, then add a few spices of my own.

Serves 4

chicken - 4 pieces, breasts or thighs

salt

freshly ground black pepper

butter - 25g

groundnut oil - 1 tbs

medium onions - 2, roughly chopped

garlic - 3 plump cloves, crushed

curry powder - 2 tbs, from a recently opened tin

ground cinnamon - ½ tsp

tomatoes - 4 medium, seeded and chopped

chicken stock - 250ml

double cream - 100ml

juice of ½ lemon

Rub salt and pepper into the chicken. Heat the butter and oil in a shallow pan, add the chicken and cook till the skin is golden.

Add the onions and garlic and cook over a medium heat until soft, about seven or eight minutes.

Stir in the curry powder and cinnamon. Cook for four minutes until the spices are cooked. Add the tomatoes and the stock, then simmer until the chicken pieces are tender and cooked right through, about 15 minutes.

Stir in the cream. Taste the sauce. Add salt and pepper and the lemon juice, a little at a time, tasting as you go. Simmer for one minute, then serve hot, with basmati rice.