Writer's block and caramel chicken

There's not much to this post, unfortunately, because I have a painful case of writer's block.

It's the weather, I think, that's got me a bit bleah, and it's affecting everything I do. For example, it's taking me ages in the morning to decide what to wear, and as a result, I'm always late for work (hmmm, this could, however, be due to my very extensive, online-bought clothing options - too much choice, too little time).

Never mind, sunny days will soon be here and bloggy things will hopefully be back to their bright and breezy self. There, I'm feeling better already! Hope you are, too...!

Caramel chicken

Serves 2

Ingredients

½ tblsp vegetable oil

½ tsp sesame oil

1 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1 small red chilli, seeded and finely sliced

2 large or 3 medium chicken thigh fillets, sliced, seasoned with salt and pepper

¼ cup Japanese rice wine vinegar

¼ cup mirin

1 ½ tblsp caster sugar

1/8 tsp dashi granules

1 tsp soy sauce

Method

1. Heat the vegetable and sesame oils in a large frying pan over low heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook for 5 minutes, then turn and cook for another 5 minutes on the other side, or until just cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.

2. Combine the vinegar, mirin, sugar, dashi and soy sauce with ¼ cup water and slowly add to the pan. Stir to dissolve the sugar, then scrape up any cooked bits on the bottom of the pan. Bring to the boil and cook for 3-5 minutes or until slightly glazey.

3. Return chicken to the pan and turn the chicken to coat in the sauce. Remove from the heat.

4. Serve with rice or noodles and steamed vegetables.

Recipe adapted from yoshoku by Jane Lawson

Do you know this cool way of deseeding a capsicum?

1. Push in the stem  2. Pull out the stem  3.  Seeds are removed!

This caramel chicken was served with the cleverly deseeded capsicum, some snow pea shoots and vermicelli

The dish has a caramelly, sour and hot taste that is brilliant with the chicken

Phew! I'm exhausted. Hope writer's block is curable...