Watch me cook live on ITV’s This Morning with Poppa Wan!
See the video and get the recipe here:
itv.com/thismorning/food/sea-bass-with-ginger-and-spring-onion-gok-wan-poppa-wan-recipe
I consider my culinary tastes to be quite honest and rustic, however there is a side of my personality that plays to the flamboyant. I love fine dining, but it’s not just about ironed tablecloths and hot waiters. It’s also about carefully choreographed dishes served with precision.
But who has the time or patience? This dish screams fine dining but without the hassle or expense. It is hugely dependent on the natural colours of the ingredients: the deepest of greens juxtaposed with the dark speckles of sesame seeds, contrasted with the poached egg. It is worthy of any cover of Vogue – fashion week in a bowl!
SERVES 4
4 eggs
1 large head of broccoli, florets and stalk separated
1 tbsp rice bran oil or vegetable oil
4 spring onions, trimmed and roughly chopped into 2cm pieces
a 2cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1L hot, light, low-salt vegetable stock
75g le!over cooked rice (or a packet of instant rice)
a pinch of sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil, plus a little extra to serve
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tsp black sesame seeds
optional: salt and white pepper
Poach the eggs for 3–4 minutes in gently simmering water, until the white is opaque and the yolk is just firm to the touch. Place in a bowl of cold water until needed.
Chop the stalks of the broccoli into rough 1cm pieces. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Once hot, add the spring onions, the chopped broccoli stalk and the ginger. Sweat in the hot oil for 1 minute before adding the hot stock, cooked rice and the broccoli florets.
Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Add the sugar and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until everything is very tender and !lls apart when pushed lightly with a spoon.
Stir in the soy sauce and sesame oil, and then, using a jug or stick blender, blitz until you have a smooth soup.
Taste and season with a little salt and pepper if you think it needs it.
Place a poached egg in the bottom of each soup bowl and pour the soup around the egg. Scatter over the chopped chilli and sesame seeds and drizzle with a little extra sesame oil.
Amidst our hectic modern lives, it is easy to put a dinner date in the diary and then completely forget about it until an hour before your guests are due to arrive.
With nothing in the fridge apart from half a bottle of wine, you begin wondering how you can dress up a takeaway as a home-cooked meal.
Well, fear not, as here is a recipe that delivers maximum flavour using only long-lasting store-cupboard basics and which will be ready in under half an hour.
SERVES 4
2 tbsp rice bran oil or vegetable oil
300g frozen prawns
1 red onion, peeled and roughly sliced into thin wedges
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
a 3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely diced
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and
finely sliced (leave in the seeds if you prefer it hotter)
80g frozen broad beans
80g frozen peas
80g drained water chestnuts, roughly chopped
350g straight-to-wok thick udon noodles
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp fish sauce
lime juice, to serve
optional: sweet chilli sauce, to serve
Heat half of the oil in a wok over a medium to high heat. When hot, add the prawns and fry for 2–3 minutes, stirring every now and then, until they have defrosted and turned a delicious coral colour (they won’t be fully cooked at this point).
Tip the prawns on to a plate and wipe your wok clean with kitchen roll.
Heat the remaining oil in the wok over a medium to high heat. Once hot, fry the onion for 1 minute before adding the garlic, ginger and chillies.
Stir-fry for a further minute and then return the half-cooked prawns to the wok. Heat through for 1–2 minutes and then add the beans and peas.
Stir-fry the whole lot for a further 2–3 minutes until everything is heated through.
Add the remaining ingredients apart from the lime juice and sweet chilli sauce and toss together until well combined.
Don’t even mess around plating up this dish, just place the wok in the middle of the table with the lime wedges and chilli sauce, if using, alongside and revel in the eating-induced silence that is sure to fall over your friends.