Tag: gordon ramsay rice

Homemade Sazon Seasoning Mix

Making your own Sazon spice blend is EASY to do – and the best part, no MSG!

Sazon is like the magic spice blend in many of my Latin dishes. It’s commonly found in the supermarket in small envelopes that you add to stews, beans, rice, etc. It gives yellow rice that yellow color and basically makes anything taste good! Goya is the most popular brand, but I stopped buying it years ago when I realized it had MSG, and started using Badia Sazon, but it’s not easy to find so now I make my own which I keep stored in a small spice jar, so instead of using a packet of sazon, I use one and a half teaspoons of this in it’s place.

The key ingredient in this spice mix is ground annatto (achiote)[1], the spice that gives yellow rice that yellow color. Annatto is derived from the seeds of achiote tree. In India it’s referred to as sindoor, and in the Philippines, it is called atsuete. I can find it in hispanic markets, but you can also find it on Amazon[2]. If you can’t find this, turmeric would be a good substitute.

What do I make with Sazon? I always season my wings with it, I use it on my grilled chicken wings, in Mom’s Chicken and Rice[3], Sofrito Chicken Stew[4], Chicken and Lentil Soup[5], Arroz con Gandules[6], and many more dishes! Tomorrow I will share one of my daughter’s favorite dishes with this spice.

Homemade Sazon Seasoning Mix
gordon-ramsay-recipe.com
Servings: 12 • Size: 1 1/2 teaspoons • Old Points:  0 pts • Points+: 0 pts
Calories: 7 • Fat: 0 g • Protein: 0 g • Carb: 1 g • Fiber: 1 g • Sugar: 0 g
Sodium: 281 mg

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon ground coriander
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon ground annatto[7] seeds (achiote) or turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Store in an airtight container. 1 1/2 teaspoons of this mix equals one packet of commercial sazon.

References

  1. ^ ground annatto (achiote) (www.amazon.com)
  2. ^ Amazon (www.amazon.com)
  3. ^ Mom’s Chicken and Rice (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
  4. ^ Sofrito Chicken Stew (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
  5. ^ Chicken and Lentil Soup (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
  6. ^ Arroz con Gandules (www.gordon-ramsay-recipe.com)
  7. ^ ground annatto (www.amazon.com)

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Sushi for obsessives

This is why you need to wipe your knife between roll cuts. Notice how I have focused on the only clean one

Up until very recently I laughed at people who made their own sushi. There are some things that are best left to the experts, is my view – and sushi is one of them.

Then my raging pregnancy craving for sushi got quite out of control. It’s all I want to eat, ever. It’s all I can really stomach eating. I don’t really mean actual raw fish, although that will do, I really mean cut rolls, maki rolls – California rolls, spicy tuna rolls – even vegetarian rolls. I don’t care. I’m not fussy. I just want fucking sushi. I am an addict.

Even my Japanophile husband is getting a bit alarmed by it all, especially when we went out to a robata (a Japanese grill, where they cook tiny things on skewers – really delicious) and refused to eat anything except sushi.

But I can only squeeze a trip out for sushi out of him about once a fortnight or he starts getting bored with it, so I’ve had to come up with ways of filling in the gaps between my professional sushi hits. I stopped short at the Japanese sundries section of Waitrose the other day, dithered for a moment, then held out my arms, and swept the whole lot off the shelves and into my trolley: sushi mat, nori paper, wasabi, sushi rice, sushi rice seasoning. Then I wheeled back to the vegetable aisle and bought a cucumber, then I wheeled over to the fish section and bought some cooked, peeled prawns.

And I will say this: homemade sushi is actually pretty good. It’s not that hard to do and doesn’t make much of a mess – all you need to cook is the rice and everything else is just an assembly job – I can see if you did it reasonably often you’d get very good at all that rolling.

My problem is with the rice – although I’ve never been good at cooking rice, I’m hoping that results will come with practice. The two times I’ve cooked it now it comes out a bit overcooked and means a slight mushiness in the resultant roll. I now wonder if this might not be because of actual overcooking but allowing the rice to soak for more than the advised 30 minutes prior to boiling.

If you are going to make homemade sushi, then obviously the thing to do is look up a tutorial on YouTube, that is the only way to see properly how to do it, but I also offer the following additional notes:

1 When you cover your sushi mat with cling film, tuck the ends of the film in under the mat, to stop the film ending up getting rolled up inside the sushi, which is not the idea at all.

2 Sushi rice is like fucking concrete. Do not allow it, as I did, to sit in sieves, pots, on knives or sushi mats for more than a few minutes because it wil lliterally superglue itself to any unguarded thing – it’s mental.

3 Do wipe your knife on a wet cloth inbetween cuts of your sushi roll as it will make it all look so nice; if you don’t, little bastard grains of rice will stick to the knife and then stick to the next roll of sushi and look all messy (see photo above).

4 Be generous with your sushi rice seasoning. Plain old rice is awfully boring and I have found that the directions on the back of the seasoning bottle don’t allow for enough.

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Crock Pot Sesame Honey Chicken

Sweet, savory and a little spicy, this simple Asian inspired chicken dish has a balance of flavor combinations – serve this over your favorite rice and dinner is ready!

I’m not a fan of sweet foods as a main dish, unless it’s balanced with savory and spicy flavors. In this dish the honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sriracha compliment each other and balance out the sweetness. 

I’ve tried a few versions floating around the web, but they were much too sweet for my taste. After a few attempts, I finally found the perfect balance of sweet-savory without adding too much sugar. Rice wine is naturally sweet, and adds a bit of acid which rounds out the flavors. I served this with more sriracha sauce on the side for extra heat and served it over brown rice.

I usually set some chicken aside for my toddler when I shred it, before adding it back to the sauce, since her palate is pickier than the rest of ours, and it works out fine. I never cook a separate meal for her, she eats what we eat, just modified at times if I cook something spicy.

For lunch the next day, I made some lettuce wraps with some leftover forbidden rice I had and thoroughly enjoyed eating them with my hands.

Crock Pot Sesame Honey Chicken
gordon-ramsay-recipe.com
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: over 2/3 cup Old Pts: 4 Weight Watchers Points+: 4
Calories: 185.5 • Fat: 2 g • Protein: 27 g • Carbs: 13.5 g • Fiber: 0.7 g • Sugar: 10 g
Sodium: 504 mg
Ingredients

  • 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast
  • black pepper, to taste
  • 1/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce (tamari for gluten-free)
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp sriracha hot chili sauce[1], or more to taste
  • 1 heaping tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 2 medium scallions, chopped for garnish

Directions:

Place the chicken in the slow cooker and season with black pepper. In a medium bowl, combine soy sauce, honey, tomato paste, vinegar, garlic, 1 tbsp water, sesame oil, onion powder and sriracha hot chili sauce[2]. Pour over chicken and cook on LOW 3-4 hours.

Remove chicken, leaving the sauce in the slow cooker. Shred chicken with two forks; set aside.

In a small bowl, dissolve cornstarch in remaining 1/4 cup water; add to the slow cooker and stir to combine. Cover and cook on HIGH until slightly thickened, about 15 to 20 minutes; return chicken to the slow cooker and mix well.

Serve chicken and sauce over rice and top with sesame seeds and chopped scallions for garnish.

Enjoy!

References

  1. ^ sriracha hot chili sauce (www.amazon.com)
  2. ^ sriracha hot chili sauce (www.amazon.com)

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