Recipes for lockdown: Nasi Goreng

Early in lockdown I went to the mahussive Asian supermarket near me, Wing Yip, and was surprised to find everything fully stocked and no one in there. This was when chicken breasts and thighs were hard to come by. You could get enough chicken to feed all of Joe Exotic's big cats at Wing Yip, and then some.

I wondered whether this was a sign of COVID-induced racism. I heard horrible stories about Chinese restaurants closing down in Sydney because people were afraid to eat there. I mean, really? How stupid are the general public? A Chinese Australian is just as likely to spread the virus as any other Australian, no more, no less. It’s about contact. But you know all that...

Anyway, I didn’t buy any chicken, cause I didn’t need 10 kilos, but I did stock up on all sorts of delicious condiments and sauces to get my Asian cook on. 

One thing I had been wanting to make for ages was nasi goreng, but the two key ingredients aren’t always easy to come by in London: ketjap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) and properly stinky shrimp paste. Yes, really. The version you can get in Tesco or Sainsbury's isn’t quite right. It's been dulled down for Western palates. I don't understand this – if you are buying shrimp paste it is surely because you have eaten good Asian food and want to make something similar. When I found properly stinky shrimp paste it transformed my dishes. They tasted like the real deal. If you don't have an Asian store near you, then you can order a decent one online; this is the one that I found at Wing Yip and I'd recommend it.  

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Mum's Vietnamese Chicken Salad

To call this ‘Mum’s Vietnamese salad’ is slightly misleading because (a) she isn’t Vietnamese and (b) she acquired the recipe from a friend called Jane many years ago. However, it has become a family favourite, which has morphed and evolved over the years, each of us adding our own details. And what makes a recipe your own, if not refining an old favourite to suit your tastes? Surely this is how all the best home recipes have been developed.

When I asked Mum to remind me of the recipe a few years back, I was surprised that she said she puts coriander in it. I once did that many years ago much to the distaste of my younger sister. She’d said she preferred it without and, being an annoying older sister, I decided to put it in anyway to see if she could tell. Of course she could, it's such a distinctive flavour. Now that I am much older, I can admit that she was right. It is more subtle and refined with just mint and that has become my preference.

My main addition to Mum’s recipe is that I have started pickling the onions rather than adding them fresh. I got the idea from Uyen Luu, who has a similar recipe in her cookbook, My Vietnamese Kitchen. I think it lifts the dish and makes it something really special.

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Buffalo wings with blue cheese sauce

Sometime, about a year ago, I discovered quite how easy my favourite chicken wings are to make. 3 litres of Frank’s Hot Sauce and an artery busting amount of butter later and I'm not sure if that's a blessing or a curse. Yep, that’s right. Buffalo sauce contains just two simple ingredients: Frank’s Hot Sauce and melted butter.

The blue cheese dip that inevitably accompanies them is another fantastically simple and calorific concoction – shop-bought mayonnaise and creamy blue cheese. No wonder America is the world’s most obese nation. This discovery has certainly added a few inches to my waistline.

I'm going to go with blessing in any case because sitting down to a plate of buffalo chicken, inhaling the saucy meat then sucking each bone dry before proceeding to run my finger (and sometimes tongue) around the plate to lick up every last speck of sauce is the true definition of finger lickin’ good.

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Babatunde's jollof rice with chicken

I have an affinity for West African people. Whenever I find myself attracted to a person of African descent, they inevitably turn out to be (a) Nigerian or (b) Ghanaian. At the risk of making a sweeping generalisation based on the behaviour of 3 ex-partners, the downside of this is that they are near impossible to pin down for any kind of social arrangement. The upside is that when they finally do commit, there is bound to be jollof rice on the table. I can live with that.

Jollof rice is perhaps the most popular dish in West Africa. You will find it at every large social gathering and small ones too. In Nigeria, you can even get it as a side dish at KFC.

It is said to have originated in Senegambia and to be named after the Wolof tribe, but like any such claims when it comes to food, this is fiercely debated by other West African nations. I have heard a Ghanaian and a Nigerian argue for almost an hour about where jollof rice is really from and who makes it best (their mums, of course).

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Gilpin's Chicken Tagine Thing

A few weeks ago some very dear family friends of mine all congregated at the Commonwork Farm in Kent to cook for the open day there. They have been doing this annually for many years now but in 2013 it gained particular significance. Our friend Gilpin, who used to be the head chef there, passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly of cancer. We were all left with a little less laughter in our lives. Gilpin was larger than life. We still have a lot of fun together, but we miss his presence keenly. 

A few months after his death the open day gave us all the opportunity to come together and say our goodbyes in an informal way in a place that Gilpin loved and where he was loved. Against the backdrop of bucolic English countryside – rolling hills, wild flowers and the smell of cut grass – we looked on as his wife, Gayle, trudged up and down over a neatly ploughed field scattering his ashes with the help of a ladle she had borrowed from the Commonwork kitchen (unbeknown to the new head chef). She read a goodbye poem to Gilpin and we all laughed and cried and sang and laughed some more. It was sad, it was funny, it was moving and it felt utterly appropriate.

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