44 Turn up the heat with a spicy menu by Bake Off’s Nadiya Hussain Food
TV chef and Great British Bake Off star Nadiya Hussain serves up three family favourites
Honey mustard chow mein
Serves: 4
Total time: 40 minutes
Chow mein is the easiest thing to order – but it’s even easier to make. I whip up a double batch and skewer half of the chicken for the freezer, so if I have to make a quick lunch or need something to whack on a grill, I have the same honey mustard chicken, minus the chow mein. If you don’t want extra for the freezer simply halve the amount you make.
10 chicken thighs, thinly sliced 4 tbsps runny honey
4 tbsps wholegrain mustard 4 cloves garlic, minced
2½cm (1in) piece of ginger,
peeled and grated
4 tbsps soy sauce
1 tsp salt
3 tbsps sriracha sauce
Oil, for frying
2 medium onions, thinly sliced 450g (1lb) stir-fry vegetables
275g (10oz) ready-made noodles A large handful of fresh coriander 50g (2oz) salted peanuts,
roughly chopped
Wedges of lime
● Put the chicken thighs in a large bowl with the honey, mustard, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, salt and sriracha, and leave to marinate.
● Place a large non-stick frying pan or wok on the hob on a high heat. Add the oil and when it’s really hot, add the onions. When they are very brown, add half the marinated chicken, putting the other half into the fridge for later. ● Continue cooking the chicken on a high heat. When it is cooked through, add the stir-fry veg and the noodles and mix before lowering to a medium heat for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are a little bit soft but still crisp.
● Take off the heat, sprinkle with coriander and peanuts, and serve with a wedge of lime. I’m always tempted to add another dash of sriracha at this stage.
For the chicken skewers:
● If you have made a double batch of chicken, put half the marinated meat on to skewers and pop on a tray to freeze. When frozen, take the skewers off the tray and put them in a freezer bag to store.
● Defrost the skewers fully when needed, then cook in an oven preheated to 220°C fan/200°c/ gas mark 6 for 30 minutes, turning halfway through.
Tandoori oven chicken with burnt butter rice
Serves: 8
Total time: 45 minutes
I never understood what was meant by tandoori chicken until I realised it was the type of oven – a tandoor – they were talking about. So I have made the same dish my dad used to serve up in his restaurant, but using our oven at home. It has a similar red hue – but not so red you’ll question whether you will ever sleep again! It is served with an onion salad and burnt butter rice.
For the chicken:
4 skinless chicken thighs,
flesh slashed
4 skinless chicken breasts,
flesh slashed
2 tbsps ghee, melted
4 tbsps tandoori spice mix
For the sauce:
400g (14oz) yoghurt
5 tbsps chickpea flour
35g (1¼oz) melted ghee
4 tbsps tomato purée
3 tbsps tandoori spice For the rice:
200g (7oz) butter
500g (17½oz) basmati rice,
washed and drained
1 tsp salt
1 litre (1¾ pints) boiling water
For the red onion apple salad:
2 red onions, thinly sliced
2 green apples, cut into thin sticks A squeeze of lemon juice
1 tsp salt A small handful of fresh mint
To serve:
Sliced red chillies, to taste
Fresh coriander, chopped
● Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas mark 7 and have ready a roasting dish you can fit all the chicken in.
● Put the chicken into the tray. Massage the ghee into the skin and sprinkle over the tandoori spice mix. Bake for 15 minutes.
● To make the sauce, put the yoghurt, chickpea flour, ghee, tomato purée and tandoori spice mix into a bowl and combine.
● Reduce the oven temperature to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 4. Take the chicken out of the oven and pour the yoghurt mix all over the top, then put back into the oven for 30 minutes.
● To cook the rice, put the butter in a large pan on a high heat until it is a golden-brown colour. As soon as it does, add the rice and salt and stir. Add the hot water and keep stirring until it comes to the boil. When it does, keep stirring until all the liquid has evaporated. Pop the lid on the pan and leave the rice to steam on a low heat for 10 minutes. ● To make the salad, mix together the onions, apples, lemon juice, salt and mint.
● When the chicken is ready, sprinkle with red chillies and coriander and serve with the burnt butter rice.
Ras malai cake
Total time: 2 hours
(Active time: 1 hour)
Ras malai is Bengali for “juice creams” – little bits of cake that bob around in gently spiced milk like a floating cheesecake thing. This is my version without the floating. Same delicious flavours – rich, creamy and lightly spiced and fragrant.
For the cake:
10 strands of saffron, dropped into
4 tbsps of warm milk
250g (9oz) unsalted butter
250g (9oz) caster sugar
5 medium eggs, beaten
250g (9oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
For the milk drizzle:
100g (3½oz) milk powder
150ml (5fl oz) boiling water Cardamom seeds, removed from
the pods and ground
For the buttercream:
2 cardamom pods, crushed
3 tbsps whole milk
300g (10½oz) unsalted butter,
softened
600g (1lb 5oz) icing sugar, sifted
To decorate:
Edible rose petals, mixed with 100g (3½oz) roughly chopped pistachios
● Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan 150°C/gas mark 3. Grease and line two 20cm (8in) sandwich tins. ● Make the saffron milk.
● Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and whisk until light and fluffy and almost white. Add the eggs a little at a time, making sure to keep whisking. Then add the flour, baking powder and saffron milk, and fold the mixture until you have a smooth, shiny batter.
● divide the mixture between the two tins and level the tops. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
● Meanwhile, make the milk drizzle by mixing the milk powder with the boiling water in a bowl.
● Add the ground cardamom seeds and mix. As soon as the cakes are out of the oven, drizzle some of the milk all over the top of both cakes and leave in the tin for at least 10 minutes before turning them out and removing them to cool on a rack. ● To make the buttercream, put the crushed cardamom pods in a small bowl of the milk and leave to infuse.
● Meanwhile, put the butter in a mixing bowl and whisk until very soft and light in colour. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, whisking after each addition, until all combined. Then pour the cardamom milk through a sieve into the buttercream and whisk until really light and fluffy.
● once totally cool, place one cake on a serving dish and spread an even layer of buttercream over it. Put the other cake on top. flip the cake over so the milk drizzle top becomes the bottom and sandwiches the buttercream. Spread some buttercream evenly across the top and the sides and use a ruler to level off the edges. ● If you have any cream left over you can pipe little kisses on top. Then gently take the rose petals and pistachios and press them into the bottom edge of the cake.