I could eat my own body weight in pasta, but when I want to dial up the comfort in my cooking, I usually turn to rice. The grain’s ability to absorb and soak up whatever it’s cooked with, plumping up and softening in the process, makes it hit the spot so reliably. All the different types of rice, all the various cooking options, sweet or savoury … the sheer versatility of this everyday grain never fails to reassure and nourish.
Soy chicken and mushroom biryani (pictured top)
This is where Hainanese chicken rice and Cantonese soy chicken meet south-Asian baked rice dishes. The idea came about when I was reading about Persian biryanis while craving the comfort of soy chicken. I also had an excess of ginger and, a couple of hours later, the soy chicken and mushroom biryani was born. The flavours are mostly from southern China, but they’re cooked together in the style of a biryani. Serve this with any or all of the following: thinly sliced cucumbers tossed in vinegar and sugar, plenty of chilli oil, pickled ginger, lots of chopped coriander.
Prep 30 min
Cook 1 hr 30 min
Serve 4-6
2 tbsp vegetable oil
30g ginger, unpeeled and cut into ½cm-thick slices
2 leeks, green parts washed and roughly chopped, white parts reserved (300g)
Salt
1 star anise
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
50g dark brown sugar
150ml soy sauce
2 tbsp Shaoxing wine, or cooking sake
30g dried shiitake mushrooms
1kg bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
500g basmati rice, soaked for at least 30 minutes in cold water, then drained
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cornflour, to finish
For the crispy leeks
150ml vegetable oil
30g ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
First poach the chicken. Put the oil, ginger, green leek tops, star anise, fennel seeds, cinnamon and bay leaf in a large, 26cm-round pot and put it on a medium-high heat. Fry for three minutes, stirring, until fragrant, then add the sugar, soy sauce and Shaoxing wine.
Cook for two minutes, then add the mushrooms, chicken and a litre of water. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat to medium, then simmer gently for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and leave the chicken to sit for 30 minutes.
Scoop out the chicken and mushrooms and, once it’s cool enough to handle, shred the chicken into bite-size pieces; discard the bones. Set aside the mushrooms for later. Strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl – you should have about 1.2 litres. Wipe out the pot and line the base with a circle of greaseproof paper.
Now for the crispy leeks. Cut the reserved leek whites into 5cm pieces, then cut each piece in half lengthways and press both halves flat. Cut the leeks into very thin matchsticks. Put the sliced leeks in a medium frying pan with the vegetable oil and a half-teaspoon of salt, then set the pan on a medium-high heat and fry, stirring often, for about 10 minutes, until the leeks are just starting to brown. Add the ginger and garlic, fry, stirring, for a further two minutes, then tip on to a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain.
To assemble the biryani, cut the reserved poached mushrooms into strips and mix with the drained rice and sesame oil. Spread a third of the rice over the base of the pot, then evenly spoon a third of the chicken and a third of the crispy leeks on top. Repeat the layers twice more, then pour over 800ml of the stock, or enough just to cover the rice. Put the pot on a high heat and bring to a boil. Cover the pot first with a clean tea towel and then with a lid, and bunch the towel over the top of the lid so it doesn’t catch and burn. Turn down the heat to low, cook for 35 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave to sit, still covered, for at least five minutes.
While the rice is cooking, pour the remaining 400ml stock into the empty leek frying pan and put it on a high heat. In a small bowl, whisk the cornflour with a tablespoon of cold water, then whisk this into the stock. When the stock begins to boil, cook for 30 seconds, or until it has thickened to a gravy consistency, then pour into a small jug.
To serve, invert the pot of rice on to a large platter – put the platter on top of the pot, as if were a lid, then flip with conviction. Peel off and discard the paper, then gently break up the rice. Drizzle over some of the gravy and serve with your favourite chilli oil, a coriander and cucumber salad, and the rest of the gravy on the side.
Cinnamon and lemon rice pudding with blackberries
I love a crisp, almost brulee-like crust on my rice pudding, and I could eat it for breakfast, lunch or supper. Arborio or pudding rice work best here, but basmati would also be fine, if that’s all you have to hand.
Prep 10 min
Cook 2 hr
Serves 6
50g unsalted butter, melted
150g arborio rice, or pudding rice
125g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 lemon, zest peeled off in strips
⅛ tsp flaked salt
1.1 litre whole milk
400ml double cream
200g blackberries
Heat the oven to 160C (140C fan)/325F/gas 3. Put the butter, rice, 100g of the sugar, three-quarters of a teaspoon of the cinnamon, the lemon zest, salt, milk and cream in a baking dish or 26cm-round cast-iron pot, and stir to combine.
Bake uncovered for an hour and 50 minutes, until the rice is tender and slightly saucy. Take out of the oven, give the rice mix a good stir, then scatter the blackberries over the top. Using the back of a spoon, push the berries into the rice pudding so they are mostly submerged.
Turn on the oven grill to its highest setting (240C, if possible). Once hot, mix the remaining 25g sugar with the remaining quarter-teaspoon of cinnamon, then scatter this mix evenly over the top of the rice.
Put the dish on the shelf directly under the grill and cook for three to four minutes, until the crust is deeply golden with a few darker patches, and the blackberries have slightly burst. Leave to rest for five minutes, then serve.
