Food & Drink

Food & Drink Me Come Dine With

Crispy sesame lemon chicken

Prep: 10 mins Cook: 15 mins Serves: 6

Make our crispy sesame lemon chicken for a quick, easy and avour-packed family dinner. Scatter with spring onions and serve with your favourite sides.

Ingredients

• 600g chicken breast llets, cut into 2cm pieces • 5 tbsp plain our • 2 tbsp corn our • large pinch of white pepper • 1 egg, beaten • 2 tbsp sun ower or vegetable oil, for frying • 2 spring onions, nely sliced, to serve • cooked noodles, to serve (optional)

For the sauce

• 2 tsp corn our • 2 unwaxed lemons, zested and juiced • 2 tbsp honey • 2 tbsp soy sauce • 2 tsp sesame seeds • 2 tsp sesame oil

Method

STEP 1

To make the sauce, tip the cornflour into a bowl and whisk in the lemon zest and juice until any lumps disappear. Add the honey, soy and sesame seeds and mix again. Set aside.

STEP 2

Combine the cornflour, flour, baking powder, ¼ tsp salt, the pepper, beaten egg and 4 tbsp water in a large bowl. Tip in the chicken pieces, gently tossing to coat.

STEP 3

Heat the vegetable oil over a high heat and fry the battered chicken pieces in batches for 6 mins per batch until golden and cooked through. Remove the cooked chicken to a plate or tray lined with kitchen paper.

STEP 4

When all the chicken has been cooked, return all of it to the pan, still over a high heat, drizzle in the sauce and toss to coat – the sauce will thicken and cling to the chicken. Scatter with the spring onions and serve with noodles, if you like.

Gluten-free cupcakes

Prep: 30 mins Cook: 20 mins plus cooling Makes: 12

Treat family and friends to these simple vanilla- avoured cupcakes, baked with gluten-free our and baking powder.

Ingredients

• 175g unsalted butter, softened • 175g caster sugar • 3 eggs, beaten • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste • 175g gluten-free self-raising our • ½ tsp gluten-free baking powder

Method STEP 1

microwave oven and cook on High for 1½ Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 12-hole cupcake tin with paper or silicone cases. Put the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until light and creamy. Pour in the egg, a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Next, beat in the vanilla paste, then fold in the our, baking powder and a pinch of salt until well combined. Spoon the mixture evenly between the cases. Bake for 15-20 mins until the tops are golden and rm to the touch at the edges. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

STEP 2

For the buttercream, beat the butter with an electric whisk until pale and u y in a clean, large bowl. Add the icing sugar, one spoonful at a time, mixing as you do. Beat in the vanilla. To decorate, transfer the buttercream to a piping bag tted with a round or star nozzle. Pipe generous swirls on top of each cupcake. Will keep in an airtight container for up to three days.

Classic French aperitifs: Part 3

St Germain Spritz

e apple brandy calvados might be Normandy’s best-known boozy export, but it is strictly considered a digestif, to be drunk after a meal rather than before. By law, it must also be bottled with a strength of at least 40 percent alcohol by volume (abv): a punchy choice pre-dinner.

Lillet

Lillet (lee-ley) is currently undergoing a resurgence in popularity. A crisp and oral aromatised white wine infused with fruits, herbs, and botanicals, it’s a uniquely French aperitif made just outside Bordeaux. ere are three versions: red, white, and rosé. Lillet Blanc is the original and the best. Look for it on a café menu and you’ll most likely see it served as a Lillet and tonic. You might be surprised to nd it’s a star ingredient in well-known cocktails such as the corpse reviver and vesper martini.

Dolin

If you’re looking to add one French bottle to your home bar, make it Dolin (doe-lain) sweet red vermouth. Much like its Italian cousins Antica Formula and Cinzano Rosso, this is one of the most versatile cocktail ingredients, as at home in a negroni or manhattan as when poured over ice.

It’s been made at Dolin’s distillery in the town of Chambery in Savoie since 1821. We have Marie Dolin to thank for its early popularity in the United States; she traveled solo to the 1876 Philadelphia World’s Fair to present the family’s creations, picking up a gold medal in the process.

Rosé

e French often serve red and white wines as an aperitif, but rosé gets a special mention for two reasons. Firstly, rosés are much less frequently served with food. Many Provencal rosés in particular are blended to achieve delicate oral and fruity notes that are lost at the rst hint of a cream sauce.

Secondly, and most importantly on sweltering summer days, a bone-dry rosé is the only wine into which it’s acceptable to drop glaçons (ice cubes). Choose a fancy spot, such as an umbrellashaded lounger at one of Nice’s beach clubs, and you’ll even get a miniature ice bucket and silver tongs to dose your verre (glass) cube by cube.

Suze

If you like the bitter, almost medicinal taste of gentian, Suze is for you. Almost radioactive yellow in color, this French bitter is really in a category of its own. It’s not quite citrusy, not quite sour, at once as refreshing as it is powerful.