25.11.08: Fusion broth with grilled chicken

She whipped up this fragrant winter warmer of a dish: Jamie Oliver's fusion broth with dry-grilled chicken plus ginger, Chinese greens (pak choi), and rice noodles. A spinach salad of pear, radish and chopped beetroot waited in the wings.

HE SAYS: This dish was lovely and warm in my tummy on this cold night. You can't go wrong with juicy grilled chicken swimming in a nice and savoury, salty broth. Add in some red pepper for some heated distraction and lime for a zesty, piquant overtone and I'm a happy camper. The pear and radish in the salad did their usual magic too.

SHE SAYS: Def. one of the most delicious healthy dishes we do - can't believe it's been hiding away in the Naked Chef book all these years (about 8?). Brothy and tangy and everything He said. The main risk is adding too much soy sauce at the end, and I was afraid I did, as the soup turned an ominous shade of brown, but the first tentative taste reassured me it was just shy of overload. (Note to self - less than 1/4 cup, more like a Tbsp.) Salad was sweet and crunchy as par, but not attracting me whole lot tonite.

02.09.08: Asian fusion broth with rice noodles and grilled chicken

She is really patting herself on the back for finding this one: Jamie Oliver's fusion broth with dry-grilled chicken plus ginger, Chinese greens (bok choi), and rice noodles. Salad of pear, radish, and spinach, watercress etc. welcomed a celebrity cheese tonite: herbed feta from Spitalfields on Sunday, seasoned with a brined chili.

And check out those grill marks!

SHE SAYS: I knew we'd be having a few decadent meals this week and chose this as a lighter in-between. But the virtuous brothy bowl turned out to be a full-bodied flavour attraction that I would gladly make regularly in the colder months. (Serendipitously, it's quite cold out there tonite.) simply boiling ginger and garlic with top-notch boullion, and drizzling just a little light soy sauce over, made this so slurpworthy, and dry-frying the chicken added big, outdoorsy grilled taste - not easy to achieve on a tiny, indoor stove. The market feta lived up to expectations as salad star, more creamy than crumbly, with subtle, pleasingly metallic chili notes.

HE SAYS: Like a Thai noodle soup, this bowl of wonderfulness hit the spots that needed it most: rich savoury broth, generous chunks of grilled smokey meatness, unfussy plain noodles to surround the flavas and a chili, ginger and garlic kick to grab your attention. This was another summer winter warmer and I savoured every last bit, going back for seconds and thirds. The feta couldn't be better(ed) in the salad and we ate every last delish little bit of it.