Chicken rice

Hello everyone, I was in Melbourne for a few days this week and had the enormous joy of visiting the Queen Victoria Markets early one morning. They are amazing! (Of course I am talking about the food part of the markets). As well as a number of different fishmongers and butchers with so much amazing seafood and meat, to say nothing of the gorgeous fruit and vegies on display (just the colours were amazing), there were so many specialty food stores as well! I don't think I have ever seen so much cheese for sale under one roof! The deli items were many and varied, and even for someone like me who prefers to make everything from scratch, I did think that if I lived there I would probably buy a lot of ready made food for entertaining. It was all truly spectacular and made me wonder why we don't have food markets like that in Sydney. It would be great to be able to shop for such fresh food nearly every day of the week!

Anyway, back to normal life very quickly. Now the recipe I have for you this week was another one I dredged up out of the memory bank recently. I had someone coming for dinner the day after Chinese new year, so in a salute to that calendar event, I put together what must be one of the easiest meals there is. It is another one I found in Simply Lite magazine, the Winter 1999 version, and once I had done it the first time it featured on my menu quite frequently for a while. You will find cooking the rice in the stock gives it a luscious flavour. You will find this one is equally good for cooking just for yourself for a quiet night in, or for feeding the hordes.

Have a happy week.

Love from Jane xx

Chicken rice

What you need:

• One half breast of chicken per person
• Whole garlic cloves
• Piece of fresh ginger
• A quarter cup of rice per person
• Sauces for serving - whatever you have in your cupboard: soy sauce (mixed with mirin if you have it); sweet and sour sauce, hoi sin, sweet chilli sauce

What you do:

1. Place the chicken breasts in a saucepan and cover with water.
2. Add a couple of peeled whole garlic cloves and a lump of fresh ginger.
3. Simmer the lot on a medium heat for about twelve minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove the chicken and keep in a warm oven.
5. Bring the water in which you have cooked the chicken to the boil, retaining the garlic and ginger if you wish. You may need to top up the water. Add the rice and cook as usual, then remove the garlic and ginger before serving.
6. While the rice is cooking prepare your sauces in little bowls.
7. To serve, put the rice in a big bowl, cut up the chicken pieces and place on top of the rice.
8. Everyone can serve themselves and dip the chicken in their favourite sauces.