Mud & Mischief

Sweet and sour chicken with rice (from scratch)

Take one free range chicken from fridge. Realise that there’s no way that’s going to cook in time to feed the four starving children that are climbing the walls after swimming lessons.

Cast around for inspiration, and then get told by Myf that she wants sweet and sour chicken with pineapple.

Roughly butcher chicken into bite sized pieces. Whip up impromptu batter of flour, egg and a splash of soy milk. Add a touch of salt and a sprinkle of garlic powder. Dump chicken into batter. Find frying pan. Swear when recalling yesterday’s forgotten shopping list and today’s subsequent lack of sunflower oil. Retrieve olive oil and peanut oil from condiments cupboard and pour half an inch into frying pan. Plop chunks of battery chicken into oil to start frying.

Put large pan of water onto boil to cook rice.

Remove chicken from frypan, put on baking sheet in low oven, add more chicken to pan. Try not to splash oil over ones hand - it hurts.

Google for sweet and sour chicken with pineapple and feel momentarily panicky at the sheer quantities of recipes available. Jot down approximate measures from three different recipes and assemble ingredients.

Repeat chicken removal and addition.

In a small pan, combine the juice and about half the chunks from a large (400+g) tin of pineapple. Add a liberal glug of soy sauce (1.5 tbsp). Add 1/3 c. ketchup, 1/3c. brown sugar and 1/3 vinegar. (decide to add sugar first next time as that doesn’t make the cup or sugar so messy - then ketchup then rinse with vinegar). Stir over med heat until simmering, then thicken with a heaped spoon of cornflour mixed to a thin paste with water. Simmer whilst draining rice.

Assemble large platefuls of rice, add chicken, pour over generous dollop of sauce. Instruct offspring not to flick pineapple at each other if it displeases them, but to pass it to Myf who would eat the entire tin given half a chance.

Watch in amazement as plates are cleared in record time, followed by seconds. Even RJ approved.