Hello, I'm pg and I'm a...

phaffer.

I come from a long line of phaffers. My Mum's a phaffer, my father was a world-class phaffer, and I fear my children have inherited the phaff gene.

So, I'm home from work, I've completed my nighly phaff (clean the kitchen in prep for starting dinner, put on load of washing, answer personal emails), I've got me a brandy and dry, to ease me into the weekend, and as one does, a goddess' thoughts turn to dinner.

Here's what's happening on the stove right now:

 

Not a bad action shot, hey? Further to my impening move to Saudi Arabia, I've sprinkled them with a mix of Rasa al'Hanout. I'm thinking of mandhi smoking them, once they've melted a bit.

And in true phaffer style, I'm not too sure where I am going with this, but I'll let you know.

Addendum:

In true phaffer style, I took inspiraion from last weeks broad bean bruscetta, and created this:

See, that's what phaffing is all about. It's opening the 'fridge half a dozen times and weighing up how well saganaki would fo with broadbeans. It'd about starting off with a Middle Easten profile and the realising that the last of the shredded smoked chicken would  totally work with that! It's about World's Best Son, the Lima Bean sniffing and tasting and choosing to add some smoked sea salt and fennel.

And while phaff-style cooking doesn't always work, and is NOT for the faint-hearted, when it comes together, as last nights "smoked chicken, broadbean, saganaki and slow roasted tomato bruscetta" did, it's worth it!

Mandhi cooking

Further to our Saudi odyssey, I am exploring Saudi food right now. When some people move to foreign climes, they learn rthe language. Me? I learn the food. I have got Khabsa coming along, so it was time for me to turn my hand to Mandhi. Mandi is usually cooked in a pit in the ground, but that's a wee bit difficult in the 'burbs.

Noor, over at Ya Salam (which means "Oh, WOW!" in Arabic)) has an awesome smoking technique that adds the most amazing depth to the dish.

1 chicken cut into 4 pieces or 1 lamb fillet/backstrap
2 tablespoons Manhdi spice mix (2 tablespoons cardamon pods, 2 tablespoons cloves, 1 whole nutmeg, 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, 4 bay leaves, processed to a fine crumb in a coffee grinder)
1 teaspoon salt

1. Rub spice and salt all over meat. Allow to sit for 30 mins and then bake in a hot oven until chicken is cooked or lamb done to medium rare.

1-1/2 cups basmati rice
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small tomato, finely chopped and removes all the seed
1 cinnamon quill
4 whole cloves
6 black peppercorns
3 cups chicken stock (or just enough that about an inch is above the rice)

2. Next, Saute onion with butter until tender and brown, add whole spices, salt, rice, water, stir, boil then add chopped tomato, simmer cover, cook on a very low heat for 20 minutes.

3. After the meat and rice is cooked, arrange meat on top of rice and smoke.




You need to watch Noor's video to get the smoking technique! It's awesome!

Chicken Kabsa

For various reasons that may become apparent later this week, I am on a middle Eastern cooking kick at the moment.

Perhaps it's a reaction to my recent American Odyssey, who knows but I am exploring food beyond the usual baba ghanoush, falafels and borghul. I am attempting to cook for my family for a whole week without using bacon or any pork products. Unfortunately, World's Best Son, the Lima Bean has also developed my hideous reaction to pork and pork products, and we're trying to cut down on our reliance of bacon and its fatty goodness.

Enter, Kabsa.

Wiki says:

Kabsa (Arabic: كبسة‎) is a family of rice dishes that are served mostly in Saudi Arabia — where it is commonly regarded as a national dish — and the other Arab states of the Persian Gulf. Kabsa, though, is believed to be indigenous to Yemen. In places like Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait the dish is popularly known as Majboos (Arabic: مجبوس‎) or Machboos (Arabic: مكبوس‎), but is served mostly in the same way.

These dishes are mainly made from a mixture of spices, rice (usually long-grain basmati), meat and vegetables. There are many kinds of Kabsa and each kind has a uniqueness about it. Pre-mixed Kabsa spices are now available under several brand names. These reduce preparation time but may have a flavour distinct from traditional Kabsa. The spices used in Kabsa are largely responsible for its taste; these are generally black pepper, cloves, cardamom, saffron, cinnamon, black lime, bay leaves and nutmeg. The main ingredient that accompanies the spices is the meat, such as chicken, goat, lamb, camel, or sometimes beef, fish, and shrimp. In chicken machboos, a whole chicken is used. The spices, rice and meat may be augmented with almonds, pine nuts, onions and raisins. The dish can be garnished with hashu (Arabic: حشو‎) and served hot with dakkous (Arabic: دقوس‎) — home-made tomato sauce.

Meat for Kabsa can be cooked in various ways. A popular way of preparing meat is called Mandi. This is an ancient technique, whereby meat is barbecued in a deep hole in the ground that is covered while the meat cooks. Another way of preparing and serving meat for Kabsa is Mathbi, where seasoned meat is grilled on flat stones that are placed on top of burning embers. A third technique, Madghoot, involves cooking the meat in a Pressure cooker.

Alas, I don't have access to Mandi cooking holes, so I followed the recipe (see below) and when I removed the chicken from the sauce, before I added the rice, I threw it in a blazingly hot oven for about 10 mins to crisp it up. I omitted the raisins, added a splash of rose water and used slivered almonds.

Good tucker!

Chicken Kabsa

Chicken kabsa is one of the most popular dishes in Saudi Arabia. It is considered a staple.

• 1 2/12 - 3 pound chicken, cut into eight pieces
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 1 (12 ounce) can tomato puree
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 medium carrots, grated
• Grated rind of one orange
• 4 cloves
• 4 cardamom pods
• 3 sticks cinnamon
• Sale and pepper to taste
• 1 pound long grain rice
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

METHOD

Sautee onion in oil until it begins to brown. Add chicken pieces, tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and garlic and stir for about five minutes over low heat. Stir in three cups hot water, grated carrot, orange rind, spices, salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat, covered, about 20-25 minutes, until chicken is done.

Remove chicken. Set aside to keep warm. Stir rice into the liquid inthe pan, and cook, covered over low heat for about 35 - 40 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed.

Put rice on a serving platter with chicken pieces arranged around the circumfrence. Toss raisins and almonds over all.

Serves: 6

recipe from www.inmamaskitchen.com

Pesky real life.

I am no longer going to apologise for my lack of blog posts, or my dearth of Tweets or my general lack of presence on the Interwebs. Life at The House of Purple Love has been beyond hectic these past four weeks. There have been kids to deal with ("NO Lima Bean, you may NOT drop out of school to become a barista. I was a Jewish Mother in a previous life and I didn't go through 58 DAYS of labour for you to pour coffee. You will go to Uni and become a barrister"). I have, however, acceeded to him getting dreads after school is finished.

The hardest thing to deal with over the past few weeks are the dogs, Stella Bella Bottom Smeller and Mrs Peaches.

SBBS has returned to her previous neurotic behaviour, of cowering whenever someone's voice is raised and gulping madly at her food and then muscling the smaller Mrs Peaches out of the way and gobbling down hers. And when you yell at her, she cowers, drops to the ground and wets herself.

Last week, I headed of for a girls weekend, leaving the pups and Mme Mouse home alone for 2 nights.

My fabulously gorgeous and relaxing weekend feeling lasted exactly 4 seconds after I walked through the door at THOPL, to find the pups had muscled their way into my bedroom, urinated all over my bed, shat in the washing pile, torn up their bedding and shat in the lounge room and the corridor....

So much for that loving holiday getaway feeling.

So blogging, and Interwebbing in general, has taken a back seat to life, neurotic dogs, brainiac sons wanting to make stupid life choices, the vagaries of SKYPE and remembering which night is rubbish night.

I am also getting better at cooking for one. Cous Cous has become my new best friend. Some chicken stock (or some Vegeta and water), some sliced chorizo, a handful of sundried tommies, a wodge of mozz or fetta and voila! super quick and easy dinner.

So I put out a call on Twitter the other week, for a Middle Eastern recipe for chicken and cous cous. And the divine Zoe, from Progressive Dinner Party, came to the... err... party with a recipe that she assured me, I would fall in love with. She was right.

It's from Ottolenghi the cookbook 2008 and I adapted it slightly, as I already had some macadamias in the house.


Ingredients

For the marinade

2.5kg organic chicken breasts, skin on

4 onions, roughly chopped

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

150ml extra virgin olive oil

150ml water

Zest and juice of a lemon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Pinch of saffron threads

Murray salt

freshly ground pepper


For the hazelnut paste

200g unskinned hazelnuts, lightly roasted and chopped roughly (I used macadamias with awesome results)

1/2 cup of honey

2 teaspoons rosewater


Method

1. In a large dish mix the chicken with the onion, garlic, olive oil, water, lemon zest and juice, ginger, cinnamon, saffron threads and salt and pepper. Leave to marinate minimum 1 hour. .

2. Preheat the oven to 200C. Transfer the chicken and the marinade to a roasting pan. With the chicken skin side up, cook for 30-35 minutes.

3. Meanwhile mix the hazelnuts/macadamias, honey and rosewater together to make a paste.

I did this in my mortar and pestle and the results were brilliant. You want to grind a few of the nuts to a paste, but leave most of them whole (ish) for texture.

Remove the chicken from the oven and spoon the nut paste onto it, heaping it up quite high. Return to the oven for a further 10-12 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the nuts are golden brown in colour.

4. Serve with cous cous.

Butter Chicken

It's that time of year again... the two weeks when Furry and I have most of the kids for our annual holiday at the beach. This year we have all 5 visiting sporadically and a few extra hangers on, given that they girls are now old enough to have "boyfriends".

I have been thwarting all of Furry's attempts to buy a pickled penis. He wants to display one prominently.. on a wall.. or the mantelpiece... and nonchalantly refer to it as "What was left over after the last boy broke my daughter's heart"

What this all means is that I have no idea who and what will be available for dinner.

And the weather here in Melbourne is crap. Seriously. Crap. It's the middle of Summer and we've barely seen a day over 23C, and it's as overcast as all get out.

So we've been eating a lot of curries and stir fries. Things that can get frozen, or eaten then next day for lunch, if any of the kids get a better offer..... or can be eeked out with rice, if assorted, random friends-of-friends drop in.

In Melbourne, I have an extensive range of herbs and spices. I can whip up almost anything from a Makhani to a Vindaloo, from scratch.

At Dromana, not so much. We're only there a couple of day's a fortnight and we usually eat out, or light the pizza oven, if we're having friends, so my range of herbs and spices is pretty limited by what can be garnered at the Dromana IGA.. which is to say, not much.

For so many, being on holidays means eating out or "dumbing down" your food. Who's going to buy a block of belachan or a bottle of fish sauce just for one night's dinner? So people often resort to either a) the bare basics of mince and a bottled pasta sauce, or b) buying flavour sachet mixes to tart things up. And even food obsessives like myself sometimes would rather spend our holidays reading a dodgy novel than hand grinding curry spices.

Enter the Saucy Spice Company. I have written about them before, when I found them up at Merimbula, and while my hatred of pre-fab foods is legendary, these guys, and their products are VASTLY different from a Maggi cook-in-the-pot mix.



Butter Chicken is a staple in our house. It's quick and easy and everyone in our house likes it. And when you consider we've got 5 kids.. that in itself is a rarity.

My normal recipe is a cinch when you've got a well-stocked pantry. But here's when The Saucy Spice mixes come into their own. They are all pre-mixed and weighed, in a convenient sealed sachet. I took a bout of about 10 of them away to Chez Fur, which means we can have dishes as varied as Butter Chicken to Seafood Laksa without buying 37 different sachets of herbs. SS co don't add any nasty anti-clumping agents, or fillers, so what you are getting is the real McCoy. For their Butter chicken mix, you even get a separate sachet of fenugreek leaves!!!

The end result is as complex and rich as a Mahkani cooked "from scratch". I used yoghurt instead of cream, as I am currently competing for the "Fatest middle aged woman in Australia" title, having put on nearly 9kgs since giving up the fags.

I am too scared to go to the beach in togs this year, in case someone mistakenly calls Green Peace, or wants to wrap me in hessian and tries to keep my blowhole clear. I am reduced to furtively sneaking around the back yard in my sarong and bra, pretending to garden, in the hope of tanning, all the while listening for cries of "Mein EYES!!! Mein EYES!!!" from over the neighbours' fence. And while it's not trendy to tan, I am working on the premise that black is a slimming colour, so the darker my thighs are, the smaller they will look.

But I digress.... Get yourself online and grab a few of the Saucy Spice Company's fetching little sachets, support a wonderful Aussie business and dispel the myth that being on holiday means you have to dumb your food down, or rely on nasty Maggi cheesey potato bake sachets. And while ANY flavour sachet will never match fresh herbs, the Saucy Spice guys come pretty bloody close. 'Cause on my holidays, sometimes it IS all about convenience.

Noodle-y goodness

It's weird, the weather in Melbourne, at this time of year. Last Friday started out with torrential thunderstorms... poor Stella Bella Bottom Smeller and Mrs Peaches did their best jelly-dog routine. There's nothing like being woken by a clap of thunder AND a quivering dog's snout in your ear, both within milliseconds of each other, to REALLY start the day with a smile.

By the end of the day, we'd cycled through having the heater running, to nearly passing out with humidity, all the way across the spectrum into having the cooler on.

I mean, just what do you cook in weather like that??

I opted for noodles. Quick, easy... not too much time at the stove, easy to eat.. not to heavy in the stomach. Perfect on all counts.

I had a packet of rice sticks left over from last night's Yakatori Beef Salad, and a random bag of cooked and peeled prawns, so here's what I did.:

400g lean chicken mince
400g cooked and peeled prawns
2 green onions, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2cm piece fresh ginger (10g), grated
¼ teaspoon five-spice powder (or a mix of ground Szechuan pepper and star anise)
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh coriander
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh Thai basil
1 tablespoon sesame oil


Heat the sesame oil till smoking, add the onions, garlic and ginger. Cook until softened, Add the mince and spices, and cook off until the mince is cooked thru. Add yourHoisin and fish sauces, and the prawns . Cook for 2 mins or until the prawns are heated through and add your herbs.

Cook rice sticks as per the instructions (takes about 4 mins). Drain thoroughly and add to pan. Toss a few times to combine, adding a slurp of soy if it starts to stick. (This is not a slurpy noodle dish, the end result should be quite dry)


Plate up and top with crushed peanuts or sesame seeds, and some spring onion greenery.

Chicken Thingamy Whatsit

Yup. Yest another "recipe" that I'll never be able to create again. **sigh** We had some wonderful Toolangi Chats from our delivery last week, so I cut 'em up and gave them a goodly slurp of Nabali Olive Oil and sea salt and McCormick Middle Eastern Spice Mix. Let them sit for about 30 mins, Placed them cut side down in a non-stick pan and left them to brown.. about 30 mins on med low heat.

In the pan went some sliced chicken, some red capsicum, a handful of baby spinach (also from our AFD order) and then things got weird.

I had started off with a Middle Eastern flavour profile, but I had used the last of the home-made sugo, and didn't even have a bottle of the dodgy stuff on stand-by.

So here's kinda how my thinking went... Middle Eastern, Hmmm.. that's Morrocco, right? Which has a French Influence, yes?

So to the 'fridge, and in went some dijon mustard, the juice of a whole lemon, some creme fraiche!

Voila! More Funky Fusion Food from PG!

The House of the Lurgy.

Yup. The kids have it. That's the beauty of having kids.. when you get sick, they become the gift that keeps on giving. And as I get over the lurgy from Hell, Furry's kids have come down with it. Well, actually Ya-Ya Superstar has glandular fever.. it's Els who has the lurgy. And Madame Mouse. Without putting too fine a point on it, we're the House of Snot. Of discarded tissues and Dimetapp. Of middle-of-the-night coughing fits and knocks at the bedroom door asking for Codral. No-one has slept much, and everyone is a leeetle cranky.

So I pulled out another old stand by. I am a huge fan of congee when I am sick, but the kids don't like the porridge consistency, so my other old stand by is chicken and sweetcorn soup. It goes down a sore throat nice and easy, and contains enough nourishment to sustain the sickest of kids. And it just tastes bloody good, too!

(I know this looks a little like something you'd find INSIDE a used tissue, but a close-up of the end texture is important!)

pg's Asian Penicillin.

soak 3 ears of corn (leaving on the husks) in cold water for 30 minutes. Remove a couple of the outer husks and set aside. Peel the rest of the husks back and remove the silks. Re-wrap the corn in the husks and use the discarded ones to tie a knot in the top of the husks. Roast, steam or grill for 30 mins until cooked.

Remove the corn kernels.

Roast a whole chook. Don't get too fancy.. it's ending up in soup. I just stuff the cavity with a couple of orange halves to impart a flavour and keep it moist. Set aside until cool enough to touch. Remove all the meat and skin from the carcass. Roughly chop meat and skin.

Into a large pot place 2-3 litres of water. Dice an onion or leek and place into the water, along with a good knob of ginger, a star anise some Chinese cooking wine (or dry sherry), a couple of Schezhuan peppercorns, the chicken and the sweetcorn. Add a goodly slurp of light soy.

Simmer for about 2 hours, or until the chicken flesh breaks down into individual fibres.

Remove the knob of ginger and the star anise.

Make an egg flower by mixing 3 eggs in a bowl with a splash of light soy and a couple of drops of sesame oil. Turn the soup off the heat, give it a swirl and slowly dribble the egg mix in.

(another trick is to add a can of creamed sweet corn at this point, which further thickens the soup)

Serve with soft bread sticks, or slurpy noodles, and you've got the cure-all for the lurgy.

Nam Jim Chicken

My Furry, bless his hairy little toes, is a WHIZZ in the kitchen. After the Double Heart Attack of 2005, he bought hisself a couple of low-fat cook books, and went from making bachelor food (wraps, nachos, etc.) to experimenting with other cooking methods and flavour combos. His Furry Balls (Pork Gow Gees) are a staple in our house.

He's recently re-discovered his cooking jones, and is now producing some SERIOUSLY good and interesting food.

Furry is an interesting case study in food and food habits. When I met him he "hated" sushi, didn't eat Thai and thought "Chinese" food consisted of Sweet and Sour Pork or Lemon Chicken. It's less a testament to his love for me, and more his inherent inquisitiveness, that he now produces some wonderful dishes. It's even more interesting to watch him change and modify recipes as his palate and his skills grow.

He's still a bit scared of high heat, of strange ingredients and of buggering things up, but I tell him no TRUE cook doesn't have a story which goes "so I thought I'd swap the (A) for some (B) and cook it a bit less than the recipe said, and it turned out crap!"

So last night, I was presented with this.. Nam Jim Chicken.. Here's Furry's take on it....

Take a packet of Hokkien noodles, loosen in hot water, drain well and set aside.

Slice 2 chicken breasts into strips and coat with a mix of grated palm sugar, a pinch of cumin and some salt. . Allow to sit for 1/2 hour.

Make the Nam Jim Sauce.

2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 large green chillies, chopped
2 coriander roots
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons grated palm sugar
3 shallots (75g), chopped
¼ cup (60ml) lime juice

Combine all above ingredients and set aside

(adapted from the Women's Weekly Low Fat Cook Book)

Fry off the coated chicken fillets in a heavy pan until cooked. Set aside. Add a splash of sesame oil to the pan, and fry off well-drained noodles for about a minute.

Plate up noodles, top with fresh bean sprouts, chicken and torn up Thai basil and coriander leaves. (Because we'd had a discussion about Thai food and flavours and textures being such an intrinsic part of what Thai food is!)

Spoon Nam Jim sauce over the whole shebang and scoff.

Chicken with Hokkien Noodles.

What to cook when you've had a squiffy stomach and you're a food obsessive?? None of that plain rice or toast and Vegie... Here's a quick, easy and tasty meal that will fill you up, give you lots of goodies to settle the tum and still have flavour!!! Marinade some chicken tenders (the real thing, not that crap that is crumbed and frozen and made from ground up chicken carcasses). I used a tablespoon of oyster sauce, a tablespoon of Hoisin and a goodly whack of soy. Let it sit for about 1/2 an hour. Pour marinade and chicken into a hot wok with just a splash of sesame oil. If your wok is well seasoned, you shouldn't need more oil than just a splash. shale around until chicken is coloured and marinade begins to caramelize. Add more soy sauce if it starts to catch. While this is going on, rinse some Hokkien noodles under hot water and let them separate. Once your chicken is cooked, add the noodles, toss about and serve.

Good fer wot ails ya.

Dinner tonight!!! 2 for the price of 1!!!!!

Hmmmm.. winter curries!!! And what better than:

2 chicken breasts
a red onion
a head of cauli
A head of broc
2 tomatoes
(all veggies courtesy of Aussie Farmers Direct)
Sharwoods Bundhi Paste (click here for some interesting Pujabi trivia *ahem*)
2 carrots diced.
1/2 zuch, diced
a handful baby spinach, added at the last moment

Rice cooked by absorption method






Method:

Fry off chicken, add veggies (except for spinach), stir until veggies are wilted. Add curry paste. Cook for 15-20 mins.






While chicken is cooking, prepare rice.

Just before serving, add baby spinach and heat until wilted. Serve over rice!!

OR:

Chicken Curry in Home Made Turkish Bread...

Prepare rice:

Using the absorption method. Rinse rice thoroughly and add enough water to cover plus 1cm more. Seal tightly with lid and set over lowest gas flame. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until all the water has been absorbed.

Allow to cool slightly and add to curry.



PLEASE NOTE THAT THE QUALITY OF THE PHOTOS FROM HERE ON IN GET A BIT DODGY. PUT OT DOWN TO LOW BLOOD SUGAR AND A COUPLE OF GLASSES OF CHARDY!!



Bread:



Mix 250g of Self Raising flour and 200g of natural yoghurt. knead until elastic. Place in a bowl, cover and allow to sit for 30 mins.

Divide dough in 2, roll into plate-sized circles.

Add a goodly dollop of curry and rice and fold over. Seal the edges with a fork.

Place "pastie" in a cast iron pan and brown off both sides.



Finish in the oven for 5-7 mins, if sides are still uncooked.



Serve with a dollop of tzatziki!!

Szechuan Chicken stir-fry with vegies and noodles:

Dice or pre-buy chicken into strips... I used about 500gm, and this recipe fed 3 adults with plenty left over or lunch today.

Place chicken in a bowl and add approx 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, a slash of sweet chilli sauce. a splash of spicy tomato sauce and a sprinkle of Five Spice Powder and sprinkle with cornflour (probably about 2 teaspoons)

Mix together and allow to marinate for an hour.

(this is a vital step.. this process will render the chicken unbelievably tender!)

While this is marinating away, prep your veggies.

This week, courtesy of Aussie Farmers Direct I used a zucchini, some baby carrots, a head of broccoli, a red capsicum, 2 diced tomatoes and 1/2 a leek..

Cut these all up and put aside.

In another bowl, place 2 packets of Hokkien noodles. Cover with hot tap water and leave for 2-3 minutes.

Stir noodles to separate and drain.

Heat a goodly splash of sesame oil in your wok, and add marinated chicken in batches, frying off until just cooked. The marinade will stick to your wok, but don't worry.. that's what's going to make the yummy sauce.

Set chicken aside ( I just plunk it on top of the noodles, stirring between batches... the oil from the chicken will help the noodles not to re-clump)

Once all the chicken is browned add another splash of oil and fry off vegies until barely done. The should be nicely covered in oil, but still crisp. A good indicator of when they are ready, is to watch the broccoli... When it becomes REALLY green, it's time to:

Add the chicken and noodles, stirring to combine. Add a cup of hot water to deglaze the pan and stir until sauce thickens and the dish is warmed through.

Serve and scoff!!!

Furry Balls

Furry Balls:

(adapted from the Woman's Weekly Low Fat cookbook)

INGREDIENTS

400g lean chicken or pork mince
2 green onions, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2cm piece fresh ginger (10g), grated
¼ teaspoon five-spice powder (or a mix of ground Szeuan pepper and star anise)
(½ cup (50g) packaged breadcrumbs)**
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh coriander
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh thai basil
1 egg
24 gow gee wrappers


Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce
1/3 cup (80ml) sweet chilli sauce
¼ cup (60ml) red wine vinegar
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh coriander

METHOD

Using hands, combine chicken or pork, onion, garlic, ginger, five-spice, breadcrumbs, sauce, herbs and egg in large bowl. Roll level tablespoons of the mixture into balls; place balls on tray. Cover;
refrigerate 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make sweet chilli dipping sauce.

Brush one wrapper with water; place one chicken ball in centre of wrapper. Fold wrapper over to completely enclose chicken ball. Pleat edge of wrapper along join; repeat process with remaining wrappers and chicken balls.

Place gow gees, in single layer, about 1cm apart in baking-paper-lined steamer fitted over large saucepan of boiling water; steam, covered, about 8 minutes or until gow gees are cooked through.

Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce
Place ingredients in screw-top jar; shake well.

** Furry finds that if you work the chicken with your hands, you don't need quite this much breadcrumbs. Giving the chicken a good knead releases the proteins, making the raw mince "sticky", and so binds the filling together and creates a nicer, less bready end-product