Flavour of the month

Poor Salt. Not too long ago, all she had to do was sit unassumingly in a jar, and be white, and you know, salty. Now, she has to compete with that floozy Fleur, and those fashionable young things from the Himalayas and Brittany.

I guess bringing home a jar of Szechuan Pepper Salt didn't help any.
But isn't my new salt pretty? Go ahead, take a sniff. No one's looking.



Tea-smoked Szechuan Chicken, method adapted from Cooking with Amy.

Wash two skinless, boneless chicken thighs, dry with a paper towel, and rub both with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon of Szechuan Pepper Salt. You can either cut the chicken into pieces, or leave them whole.


Line a wok or cast iron pot (not nonstick) with aluminium foil. Make sure there's extra foil, so it drapes over the edge. Combine and spread equal amounts of Oolong tea, jasmine rice and brown sugar in the middle of the foil covered pan. I used about 5 tbsp of each. Place a metal rack over the mixture - I used a metal steamer.

Heat the pan until it begins to steam, then place the chicken on the rack. Cover the pan with a lid and fold the extra foil up over the lid to seal it - you'll want to keep the smoke in. Smoke for 15 minutes if your chicken is in pieces, and about 25 minutes if you've left the chicken whole. When done, the chicken should be beautifully browned.

Note: Although an extractor fan is helpful, this didn't yield as much smoke as I expected.



The chicken is moist and really, really good. I'd imagine it would be wonderful in a salad, but since I don't do salads, I made soba instead. This is quick enough for a weekday meal, especially if you prepare the chicken the night before.

Soba with Julienned Vegetables and Tea-smoked Szechuan Chicken


A handful of soba (about 200g)
A splash of mild vegetable cooking oil
3 spring onions, finely sliced
Thumbnail-size piece of ginger, smashed (you can remove this before eating)
1 medium carrot, julienned
100g bamboo shoots, julienned
1.5-2 tbsp shoyu (soy sauce, Kikoman is fine)
1 tbsp mirin
A splash of sesame oil
Togarashi to taste
2 tbsp white sesame seeds, lightly toasted


Cook the noodles until al dente.
Saute the spring onions and ginger in a little oil until softened. Toss in the carrots and bamboo shoots, and cook only until wilted. You'll want the vegetables to retain some crunch. Add the mirin briefly, then mix in the drained soba. Season with the shoyu and Togarashi. Splash on some sesame oil.

To serve, top the noodles with smoked chicken and sprinkle over the toasted sesame seeds.

I'm sending a plate to Ruth of Once Upon a Feast for this week's Presto Pasta Night because I've been dying to play for the longest time.

Individual portions can also be arranged into Chinese spoons and served as hors d'oeuvres. I think they'd be pretty cool for Dhanggit's Perfect Party Dishes event.