A quick single to reach post number 1000… Roasted soya marinated chicken with broccoli & stuff

Ever since I saw this little statistic on blogger a couple of days back I knew I had to change it fast.

Yes, I was at 999 published posts.

The next would be post number 1000. Even if it meant with a streaky single. A quick post.

Even if it was a post centred around a vegetable that I had just bought possibly for the second time in my life. Broccoli. (The first time was when I had made a quasi Thai green curry for a vegetarian guest at a dinner.)

Even if it was a short and simple recipe post.

Which in a way is symbolic. A recipe post that is.

I was recently perplexed when a guy wished me a ‘happy mother’s day’. Then it made sense as I came across a few guys who said they use recipes from the blog to cook for their girlfriends. In one case an ex. Though the young man in this case did clarify that his ex didn’t become an ‘ex’ because of the cooking. He gamely assured me that their relation lasted two years more because of his cooking. And then I met this couple the other day where the girl told me that her boyfriend reads up recipes from the blog and cooks for her…a change apparently from his earlier repertoire of coffee…and that’s about it.

Well this recipe is as simple as it gets and my mom would be mighty pleased to know its absolutely oil free.

A bit of chicken bulked up with mushrooms, broccoli and baby corn. That’s about it. All done in the oven.

I had no idea how to cut or cook broccoli. A discussion on my facebook page alerted me to the fact that one should not overcook it. The rest fell in to place.

So here goes, my recipe for Roasted soya chicken with broccoli & other vegetables (for 1)

Ingredients:

• 100 g chicken – boneless, ideally leg cuts, cut in to cubes
• 50 g chopped button mushrooms
• 3,4 florets of broccoli
• 3,4 baby corn stalks slashed into two
• 1 tablespoon ginger juliennes (strips)
• Marinade: 1 tablespoon soya sauce, 1 tablespoon chilli sauce (I used Thai sriracha), 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon each crushed black pepper & salt

Cook:

• Marinate (mix everything in the sauces) for at least half an hour in the fridge

Roast:

• Preheat oven for 10 min at 200 C
• Take out the broccoli and corn from the dish and keep aside…you don’t want to overcook them as you want the broccoli and corn to be crisp and firm at the end
• Put in the baking dish with the chicken, mushroom and sauces in to the oven for 20 min at 200 C
• Take the dish out and guys do use baking gloves or kitchen pads or towels for this…I’ve often singed my palms because I’ve forgotten to do so

• Add the broccoli and corn on top of the chicken. You don’t want to plunge them in as you don’t them to mix in the sauce and get all mushy. Add some chopped chillies if you would like
• Put the dish back in the oven and keep it in for 5 minutes at 200 C
• That’s it. Keep the dish in for another 5 minutes once done so that the juices settle.
• The dish is ready

Eat this with steamed rice and you’ve got a fairly non controversial dish from the health point of view.

What you get is a balance of colours in the dish – brown, green, yellow, red – and a balance of tastes too. The bounce of chicken and the mushrooms, the inherent heat of the pepper and chilli, the fresh bite of ginger, the salt of soya, tang of vinegar…and the crunch of the corn and broccoli.

Spoon some of the sauce on to the rice and you are ready to eat.

And this folks, is the one thousandth post to be published on Finely Chopped!

Thank you for being a part of the ride.

PS: The following are the comments on the Finely Chopped facebook page on broccoli which helped me modify my initial plans:

Finely Chopped

24 May Bought broccoli for the second time in my life and for the first time for personal consumption. A culinary midlife crisis I guess

• 13 people like this.

• •  Kathakali Jana all the talk about health being wealth has finally caught up with you 😉

• 24 May at 21:32 · Like

•  Rini Simon Khanna I love Broccoli with the garlic yogurt dip I make…just steam the broccoli and dip and eat

  24 May at 21:33 · Like

•  Poli Gupta Love Broccoli 🙂 Just the way Rini said, steamed and with some dip. Or even simple steamed, as a side.

  24 May at 21:36 · Like

•  Subhasree Basu It’s a tricky vegetable.. U must never overlook it! U can steam, chill and make a lovely cold salad. Use prawns or crabmeat and boiled eggs. Yummy

  24 May at 21:37 · Like

•  Finely Chopped This is meant for a Chinese roast. Guess I’ll take the broccoli and baby corn out and bung them in the end. Tks for the tip

  24 May at 21:41 · Like

•  Anjali Koli But Kalyan I can count the number of broccoli florets there 😉

  24 May at 21:41 · Unlike · 2

•  Finely Chopped ‎@kathakali a moment of weakness

  24 May at 21:42 · Like

•  Subhasree Basu Sorry typo.. Overcook

  24 May at 21:43 · Like

•  Sanchita Banerjee Rodrigues Ewww. Never liked that thingy. One day may be…

  24 May at 22:26 · Unlike · 1

•  Finely Chopped ‎Sanchita Banerjee Rodrigues finally a woman after my heart…we aquarians must stick together…loads of broccoli fans on twitter too 🙁

  24 May at 22:51 · Like

•  Finely Chopped ‎Anjali Koli i told the shop guys ‘sab sai chhota wala dena’

  24 May at 22:52 · Like

•  Anjali Koli LOL!

  24 May at 22:53 · Like

•  BongMom CookBook But why ? I  mean is it really necessary ? That is the question. BTW do they grow broccoli locally ?

  24 May at 23:34 · Like

•  Rita Roy Massey Love broccoli

  25 May at 01:07 · Like

•  Finely Chopped ‎BongMom CookBook they grow everything here

  25 May at 01:14 · Like

•  Finely Chopped btw put brocolli and corn in the last min after the discussion here. perfect…tks

  25 May at 01:15 · Like

•  Ushnish Ghosh I also had bought once for personal consumption..because a friend told " Eating broccoli is a status symbol"

  25 May at 07:54 · Unlike · 1

•  Preetañjali Paül Bäsu Try raw broccoli with a dip of your choice. That also qualifies to be healthy. 🙂 I eat it on its own…when my guilt from eating all that red meat overpowers me.

  25 May at 07:57 · Like

•  Finely Chopped ‎Ushnish Ghosh so Ghosh Kaku did people go green?

  25 May at 13:10 · Like · 1

• 

  Finely Chopped ‎Preetañjali Paül Bäsu dunno if raw vegetables in india can be considered healthy

  25 May at 13:12 · Like

•  Ushnish Ghosh I only like Broccoli tempura ! As such I as a human being and dont have any enzyme to digest cellulose and most vegetables. i just eat vege for kicks . The animals eat vegetables and supply me with meat. By the awesome dish , must try it !

  25 May at 15:08 · Unlike · 1