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It just dawned on me that it’s been 1 year to the day since I won MasterChef. Exactly 365 days ago Callum and I were centre stage in the most watched non-sport TV event in Australian history. We came out of the MasterChef house into a whirlwind, and it’s been a manic 12 months since. To mark the occasion, I thought I’d just look back at the year that’s been:

     I’ve received tens of thousands messages of congratulations from within Australia and all over the world. England, India, the USA, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, the Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France… the list really does go on. In fact, it might even be easier to list the countries I haven’t received messages of thanks from. The sheer number of messages has been enormous, but please believe me when I say I’ve appreciated every single one.

     I’ve worked in some of Australia’s best restaurants, including Tetsuya’s in Sydney and The Flower Drum in Melbourne. I’ve cooked every day and developed my cooking skills more than I thought possible in just one year. I’ve written more than 300 recipes and spent countless hours in the kitchen, enjoying every minute.

   I’ve written a cookbook, and fulfilled a lifelong dream in doing so. It’s something that I’m extremely proud of and it’s received some fantastic reviews (like this one… and this one… and this one). It happens to be selling quite well too. I’ll even be attending my first Byron Bay Writers’ Festival just next week… as an author. It’s incredibly humbling when somebody tells you they’ve cooked one of your recipes and it’s changed the way their family cooks and eats. Never in my life would I have thought I could make a tangible difference, however small, to people’s lives through food.

     I’ve filmed for TV in Australia, New Zealand and soon Malaysia; done literally hundreds of interviews for TV, radio and print; and photo shoots galore. It’s all a bit much really, but it doesn’t get in the way of the food. One thing I am really happy about is that I am getting a chance to write a lot more for magazines and newspapers. I’ve even had the opportunity to take Australian journalists and bloggers around Malaysia to show them what I love about the food of the country of my birth.

     I’ve travelled on more than 120 flights, spent nearly 150 nights in hotel rooms, and travelled nearly 200,000 kilometres. That’s an average of new city every three days, and a total distance of nearly 5 times around the world! It’s exhausting, but post-MasterChef life is certainly good for the frequent flyer points.

I really think it would be easier if I just started flying myself.

     I’ve moved back to Australia from Japan. I spent a 6 wonderful years living in Japan and travelling around Asia – eating, learning and working – but it is so nice to be back home in Australia.

     I’ve won awards like FHM Australia’s “2011 Food Hero”, and been variously nominated for others as strange and diverse as “Favourite TV Star” at the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards. Walking red carpets and signing autographs for squealing fans is certainly not something I’m used to.

     I’ve met some amazing chefs from around the world including Rene Redzepi, Heston Blumenthal (again), Florence Tan – the Queen of Nyonya Cuisine, and especially Iron Chefs Hiroyuki Sakai and Chen Kenichi, who I had the pleasure of dining with in Melbourne recently and who I will be working with in the near future.

     I’ve cooked banquets at the World Expo in Shanghai, demonstrated at the Auckland Food Show and countless other shows around Australia such as Taste, Good Food Show, MasterChef Live and Fine Food Australia.  I’m soon to travel to South Africa to demonstrate at the Good Food Show over there and am cooking a series of degustation dinners in North Queensland. These are all extraordinary experiences that I am incredibly grateful for. In my wildest dreams I never would have imagined my life would involve travelling the world, cooking and eating. It’s amazing fun and it never feels like work to be talking to people about good food.

So, what’s next?

The biggest project I’m working on at the moment is a plan for a casual Japanese restaurant (izakaya) here in Sydney. There’s nothing concrete to announce at this stage but we’ve put hundreds of man-hours into it so far with the hope of opening very early next year. I know it’s been a long time coming, but for me and my partners in Japan it is more important to get it done right rather than fast. Stay tuned for more on this one.

I have a few trips coming up to Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Japan. I’m soon hosting a tour to Japan to assist (and cook for) victims of the tsunami and nuclear disaster along with the fantastic Iron Chefs, Hiroyuki Sakai and Chen Kenichi. I’m also planning a stage in one of my favourite restaurants in Japan.

I’m working on plans for my second book and hope to have that out within the next year. Writing my book last year was a wonderful experience, and it was so gratifying to see all the positive feedback. Still, I hope my next book can be even better!

While not the most exciting development, I know this blog is long overdue for an overhaul. I hope to start writing more regularly and especially posting more recipes and photos of what’s been happening. Stay tuned for a newer and more interesting site over the next few months.

They say that moving house, changing jobs and getting married are the three most stressful things you can do in life. In the past year I’ve done two of those things, but it’s been far more wonderful than stressful. I’m truly thankful to all of you for making this possible.

I came back from the gym and a long bike ride today and immediately made ice cream. I think there is something fundamentally wrong with my approach to exercise… Still, the results were delicious. This is actually one of the best ice cream’s I’ve ever made.

Smoked bananas are a snack food around Asia, and can be found in some Asian grocers. Small bananas are sliced, strongly smoked and partially dehydrated. The flavour may not be to everyone’s taste. A friend recently described the taste as ‘chewing on a wet cigar’, but don’t let that ringing endorsement put you off. The flavours and aromas are strong and complex with rich tobacco, vanilla and molasses notes, the sweetness of brown sugar and a mellow banana flavour. Those elements tempered and adjusted in ice cream form create a beautiful combination. I’ve used a heavy custard base here to stand up to the very strong flavours in the smoked banana.

This ice cream has a thick, creamy texture (it actually holds without melting for 5-10 minutes at room temperature) which matches extremely well with the smoky sweetness of the banana. The strength of it is that you probably couldn’t sit and eat a whole tub in a sitting – it’s more of a ‘one-scooper’ – but it would work well as an accompaniment in a multi-element dessert. In the future I might be tempted to serve this with a slice of toasted coconut cake, or even some croutons of banana bread for texture. Either way, I think I’m going to need to go to the gym again…

• 70g smoked banana
• 350ml full cream milk
• 125g caster sugar
• 6 egg yolks
• 400ml cream
• ½ tsp vanilla paste

Roughly chop the smoked bananas and place in a small saucepan with cold milk. Bring to the boil and then remove from the heat and leave to cool and infuse for 30 minutes. Puree the banana and milk in a blender until very smooth.

Beat the egg yolks and caster sugar together until foamy, pale and tripled in size. In a saucepan, bring the cream to the boil and then quickly whisk half of the hot cream into the egg mixture. Transfer the whisked egg mixture back into the remaining cream in the saucepan and whisk over low heat until it forms a loose custard that will coat the back of a spoon. Strain the custard into the banana mixture and fold together. Transfer to a metal bowl sitting inside another larger bowl of ice and water and cool the mixture quickly by continuing to stir it for 5-10 minutes. Freeze in an ice cream churn until set.

Those of you that watched MasterChef last night would have seen a letter I wrote to the new contestants welcoming them to the MasterChef house. I had a few people ask me what the letter said in full, so I thought I’d reproduce it in full here.

“Dear Contestants:

Welcome to MasterChef!

This is the part where I’m supposed to tell you to get ready for the ride of your life, but there is really nothing that you can do to prepare yourself for what lies ahead. You are about to embark on what will be one of the most wonderful experiences you will ever have. Over the next few months you will do things you never thought you could, see things you never thought you would and learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible, but best of all you will share those experiences with the people around you who will become close friends for life.

There will inevitably be difficult times, when you doubt yourself and your decisions, but be strong and stay faithful to the parts of yourself that have brought you to where you are standing right now. Be yourself, do your best and cook what you love. Rush headlong into the challenges you will face with joy, poise and passion, and I’ll see you on the other side of the whirlwind.

Best of luck,

Adam”

Ramen is a family of Japanese noodle dishes that takes its name from the Chinese noodle soups featuring the pulled ‘la mian’ noodles. Basic ramen usually features a shio (seasoned chicken stock), shoyu (stock with soy sauce) or miso soup base, with alkaline noodles, tender pork chashu (from the Chinese ‘char siew’), menma (simmered bamboo shoots), nori and seasoned eggs. It’s usually eaten in the late evenings either as an after-work dinner for neighbourhood salarymen or at the end of a night of drinking. Yes, ramen is the Japanese answer to a regrettable kebab on the way home from the pub.

More than just a dish, ramen is an icon of Japanese culture and lines for the more famous ramen stores can stretch for literally hours. Each store will add their tiny signature to a bowl of ramen – an infusion of yuzu, a specific seasoning on the chashu, or even preparing their broth with mountain water from a specific spring.

In this dish, the elements of ramen meet the traditional New Orleans po’boy. Sorry there are no step shots to accompany the recipe, but I wasn’t intending this as a blog post really. It was just Sunday lunch.

The Ramen Po’boy

(makes 1)

• 1 x 12-inch half baguette
• 4-5 slices chashu (recipe follows)
• 1 nitamago (recipe follows)
• 2 small sheets Korean toasted nori
• Kewpie mayonnaise
• 1 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
• 2 tbsp chopped chives
• unsalted butter
• dijon mustard (you can use seeded mustard or American mustard if preferred)
• 1/4 cup menma (to serve, commercially available from Japanese grocers)

1. Cut the baguette in half almost all the way through, butterfly and grill on both sides until toasted. Spread the base side with butter and the top side with dijon, seeded or American mustard (seeded and American are more traditional for a po’boy but I prefer dijon).
2. Scatter the base half with shredded lettuce, liberally top with the Kewpie mayonnaise and then crumble over the Korean nori.
3. Fry or grill the chashu slices until warmed and browned and layer onto the sandwich.
4. Slice the egg into half and then each half into thirds. Cover the chashu slices with egg and scatter with chives.
5. Serve the po’boy with the menma on the side.

Chashu

• 1.5kg pork belly

Stock A

• 1.5L strong chicken stock
• 1 sheet kombu
• 5 shiitake mushrooms

Stock B

• 500ml water
• 250ml light soy sauce
• 100ml sake
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp salt

1. Remove the skin from the chashu and roll it lengthways. Tie the roll with string at 1cm intervals and cover with cold water in a large stockpot. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Discard the water and with your hands wash the pork in warm water to remove any blood or scum. Chill the pork in the fridge for 1 hour.
2. Bring Stock A ingredients to a simmer and immediately remove the kombu. Add the pork and simmer for 1.5 hours. Remove the pork.
3. Bring Stock B ingredients to a simmer, add the pork and simmer for a further 30 minutes until the pork is quite tender and a skewer can be inserted through the centre easily. Remove the pork and chill in the fridge until ready.

Nitamago

• 5-10 free-range eggs (as many as you like)
• 500ml water
• 250ml light soy sauce
• 1 sheet kombu
• 5 dried anchovies
• 3 shiitake mushrooms
• 40g katsuboshi
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp five spice powder
• 1 extra star anise
• 1/2 small onion

1. Bring all ingredients except the eggs and katsuoboshi to a simmer and remove the kombu. Add in the katsuoboshi and allow to stand for 30 minutes. Strain the mixture and reserve the liquid.
2. Boil water and plunge in the eggs for 7-8 minutes. Remove and immediately shock in iced water. Peel the eggs and steep in the liquid for 1.5 hours. Remove from the liquid, cover and chill in the fridge.

This year has been a crazy one for me for a number of reasons – in the past few months I’ve been trying to adjust to (1) a new career, (2) some pretty serious public recognition, (3) moving countries, (4) a truly ridiculous travel schedule (averaging 1 flight every 2.5 days for the past 4 months) and on top of all that I’ve been trying to fit in writing a book  as well.

My friend Danny and his wife Mel have been lifesavers throughout all of this; helping me out and supporting me with every aspect of these numerous transitions. They even understood when I had to leave straight from giving a speech at their wedding (where I was Danny’s best man) to fly to Shanghai to cook some banquets there for the World Expo a couple of months ago. I wanted to give them each a bit of a special Christmas present this year so I decided to write a recipe specifically for Mel, cook it and give it to her together with a copy of the recipe.

I love banana cake but I sometimes find it too sweet and a bit boring. This is a super-moist ‘adult’ version of a banana cake made with less sugar and the addition of organic blackstrap molasses. The molasses gives the cake a real complexity and a slight sourness that I think is wonderful. This is Mel’s recipe now, but I thought I’d share it here with you all too (I’m sure she won’t mind).

Blackstrap Banana Cake

Ingredients

• 125g softened unsalted butter
• 90g caster sugar
• 100g beaten egg
• 8g bicarbonate of soda
• 280g plain flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 75ml full cream milk
• 75ml pouring cream
• 55g organic blackstrap molasses
• 3g vanilla paste
• 280g banana puree (about 2 large overripe bananas)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan forced). Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the beaten egg a little at a time until all the egg is incorporated.
2. Sieve together the salt, bicarbonate of soda and flour. Separately, mix together the milk, cream, molasses and vanilla paste. Add half of the dry mixture and half of the wet mixture to the egg mixture and fold until incorporated. Repeat with the remainder of the mixtures and then fold in the banana puree. Do not overbeat.
3. Pour the batter into a greased loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin, then turn out and wrap in plastic. Leave overnight before eating.

I also gave her a card I made with the recipe printed on it.

Adding a copy of one of her favourite books in the iconic Penguin Classic style makes it a more complete gift.

So that’s Mel’s present taken care of, but you’re probably wondering what Danny is getting. It’s this…

Hi all: It’s been an age since my last blog post, but I have been absolutely flat out on my book, work experience and about a billion other things. I do have some more substantial posts in the works, but I thought I’d just put this up quickly so that you all don’t think I’m dead. – Adam

My 10 Favourite Kitchen Tools: listed below clockwise from top right.

These days most of us just point our furniture at the TV and eat our meals off coffee tables, but it wasn’t so long ago that the kitchen was the heart of every household. I’ve always been a big believer in that, and having a personal connection with your kitchen is all important. Here at 10 things that make me love working in my kitchen. What are your favourite kitchen tools?

1. Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer

This is the most usable mixer I’ve ever owned. It’s tactile, simple and intuitive – the way all appliances should be. Fun fact: Marion uses hers to whip mashed potato, which is something I am definitely going to try.

2. 18cm Japanese Copper Pots

I don’t know the brand of these but the size, weight and feel of them is just about perfect. I bought a whole bunch of these when I moved back to Australia from Japan. Aside from being great to cook with, they also look ‘the business’.

3. Timers and Scales

I don’t tend to use many measurements when I cook (except desserts) but regardless, timers and scales are among the most used tools I have. Scales are great for portioning and timers take my sieve-like memory out of the equation.

4. Sugimoto Vegetable Cleaver

My grandma took a chunk out of this trying to chop up a frozen chicken once but my knifesmith managed to cut it down save the blade. After that it was about 2 cm thinner, and that actually made it even more usable.

5. Short-handled Wooden Spoon

This spoon used to belong to my ex-flatmate’s Italian grandmother who used to make the most amazing tomato sauces. The short handle is great for control, but I like to romanticise the fact that it’s probably been used to stir 1000 pasta sauces.

6. Stanley Fatmax Cutter

I use this more than any knife in my kitchen. Rather than opening a bag of spices with a $400 wa-bocho, having a purpose-made opening cutter in the kitchen is a much safer and easier option. I use it for opening boxes and bags, cutting the tops off bottles and basically for cutting anything that isn’t food. The extra fat handle fits really well in the hand.

7. ‘Pig Sticker’

I don’t know exactly what this is called but basically it’s for poking hundreds of holes in pork belly and suckling pig to give a perfect crackling. It’s great for shoulder roasts as well.

8. Le Creuset 20cm French Oven

This is a small casserole that is the perfect size for 2-4 people. I use this so often in winter that I just keep it on the stovetop and don’t even bother putting it away. There is something magical about a casserole simmering away in a cast iron pot on a cold and blustery winter day.

9. Chinese Ceramic Utensil Jug

I bought this pretty jug in Shanghai a few years ago and was intending to use it for summer cocktails, but then I thought it would be such a shame to hide it away in a cupboard for 364 days of the year. Now this sits next to my cooktop and holds all the utensils that I use regularly.

10. Basic 5L Stockpot

This is a very small stockpot that is perfect for weekly batches of stock for a small family. I usually buy and joint about a chicken a week and this fits the bones and carcasses perfectly. I make about 3L of light chicken stock every week in this, which is a perfect small volume of stock for regular home use.

Note: I paid for (almost) all of these products and I am not sponsored by any of the brands mentioned.

Here are some behind the scenes shots from my photo shoot with the brilliant Steve Greenaway from CI Studios for the Sydney Morning Herald/Sydney International Food Festival competition. It was honestly the most fun photo shoot I’ve done, and not just because I got to wear armour and play with swords.

Congratulations to all the entrants, finalists (including us – Yay!) and winners!

I'm really more of a 'jeans and t-shirt' kind of guy.

Since winning Masterchef, I have people that dress me. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I feel ridiculous.

This was seriously razor sharp. Wreaths and condolences can be sent directly to the wake.

The 'dirt' was actually a mixture of glycerin and cinnamon. I smelled like a doughnut.

But of course, at the end of all of that, the results speak for themselves. Many thanks and congratulations to Steve and the team for a great shoot with great results!

One of the best things about winning Masterchef is that I get invited to a lot of stuff now. Everything from primary school show and tell (seriously) and dinner parties held by complete strangers (seriously) to World Expos in China (seriously) and secret billionaire islands in the Caribbean (not seriously).

But by far the best thing I’ve been invited to so far was the Adelaide Crows Chairman’s Luncheon last Saturday before the Crows vs St Kilda game. This is a team I’ve supported since I was a kid, and last weekend I got to raise the 19th man flag on the ground, stand in the Guard of Honour and sit at the luncheon with His Excellency Rear Admiral Kevin Scarce, Governor of South Australia, Crows Chairman Rob Chapman, Crows CEO Steven Trigg and other dignitaries (oh, and Callum too).

To say thank you for the invitation, I had a woodworker in the Adelaide Hills make me these awesome cheese boards in the shape of South Australia. They were made from River Red Gum and turned out brilliantly, so I was very proud to present them to the Chairman and His Excellency the Governor at the luncheon.

Actual size.

Together with the boards were some of my favourite South Australian cheeses from cheesemakers such as:

• Woodside Cheese Wrights;
• Udder Delights;
• Barossa Valley Cheese Company;
• Alexandrina Cheese Company;
• La Vera; and
• La Casa del Formaggio.

All brilliant artisan cheesemakers that make some of the best cheeses in Australia. Many thanks to Kris Lloyd and Sue Rogers from Cheesefest for pulling these cheeses together at such short notice!

I’m getting a few more boards made so hopefully I will be eating some great SA cheeses off one of these very soon!

Donna Hay: Beautiful food tastes better.

Matt Moran: If he walks into a kitchen I am cooking in, I am probably going to win something.

Matt Moran: Luckier than a hatful of pixies.

Neil Perry: The business of food can be challenging and confusing, but at the end of the day it’s still all about food.

Luke Nguyen: Generosity is a wonderful trait with respect to both food and knowledge.

Luke Mangan: No-one is going to just give you an international restaurant empire, but you can probably build one yourself.

Peter Gilmore: The techniques of cooking are in themselves relatively simple, but applying them in combination to create a dish of brilliance is nearly impossible.

Philippa Sibley: Desserts aren’t as terrifying as I thought they were.

Nathan Darling: ‘Nice guy’ and ‘Chef’ are not mutually exclusive terms.

Shaun Presland: Your food is defined by your passion, not your ethnicity.

Justin North: If you french and crown a rack of rabbit, it looks absolutely sensational.

Michel Roux: Even after 60 years of cooking, a multiple Michelin-starred chef can still get excited by a really beautiful capsicum. A passion for food never leaves you.

"These two Michelin stars say that I could call a Meatball Sub 'classic French' if I wanted to."

Guillaume Brahimi: Smoked duck and stir-fried bok choi is, surprisingly, not a classic French dish.

Tetsuya Wakuda: A person’s food is the story of their life.

Kumar Mahadevan: If you temporarily abandon your wife on vacation in England to fly to Australia for 1 day to appear on Masterchef, you’d better have been a pretty good husband up to that point.

The Restaurant Arras Crew (Adam Humphrey, Lovaine Allen and Aaron Eady): Running a good restaurant is all about attention to detail. And sometimes that means getting up at 5am every day to bake your own bread.

Curtis Stone: I am much shorter than many people in this world, and have less impressive hair.

Jamie Oliver: Jamie Oliver is like a shark: if he stops moving, he dies.

Callum, back away and make no sudden movements.

Ty Bellingham: Well-balanced Thai food is a joy to behold. Witty puns about a guy named Ty that makes Thai food don’t get old for at least 40 to 50 seconds.

Peter Kuruvita: Getting up at 5am every morning of your life to go to the Sydney Fish Markets is not a chore if you love what you do.

Frank Camorra: Winning and losing are the smallest parts of any competition.

Glenn Thompson: Walking through a vineyard is pretty at the worst of times, but when you are walking through with an expert in oenology and viticulture it can be astounding.

Rick Stein: If you consider the flavour of a pot of langoustines simply boiled in sea water, there is a strong case for awarding oceans of the world a Michelin star all to themselves.

Maggie Beer: If Mary Poppins were a cook instead of a nanny, she would be Maggie Beer.

Mark Jensen: The food of all cultures owes a great debt to the history of the world.

Fergus Henderson: Being totally bonkers is fine, as long as you’re brilliant; and Fernet Branca is possibly not an appropriate drink for 10am, unless you’re sharing it with Michelin-starred chefs and internationally acclaimed food critics.

Ian Curley: If you don’t look like you’re enjoying yourself in the kitchen, you probably aren’t doing yourself justice.

Kylie Kwong: The food you grow up with is the food you will love forever.

Tony Bilson: Food is a beautiful confluence of technique and personality. Also, a not-insignificant resemblance to Albert Einstein can go a long way to supporting an air of genius.

NOT Albert Einstein. (Possibly Dr Emmett Brown.)

Ryan Squires: When plating food, if your brain is telling you that something needs to go in a particular place, do exactly the opposite and it will look natural and organic.

David Chang: Brilliance is never effortless, and being an overnight success takes years of work (and after you’ve ‘made it’ it only gets harder). Also, it’s OK to sign autographs by copying out Pavement lyrics.

Darren Purchese: Patissiers are geniuses. If we don’t keep an eye on them, they are likely to take over the world.

Julie Goodwin: You don’t have to hate your old life to want a newer, shinier one.

Josh Emett: Restraint in cooking is a difficult thing to quantify, but when done well even the most complex dishes look effortless.

Warren Turnbull: Every ingredient in a dish should taste like what it is, and should be there for a reason.

Cherish Finden: Very small people have lasers that shoot from their eyes that can destroy buildings. And if you are strong, fair and kind, everyone will love and respect you for it.

Heston Blumenthal: Grace is just as important as genius.

"I made a '67 Mustang convertible into a ham sandwich. Then I made it invisible."

Franck Poupard: I don’t season my food enough. And I really should know better by now.

Mitchell Orr: I am much older than I thought I was.

Jan ter Heerdt: A third-generation Belgian chocolatier looks exactly how you think he would.

In Belgium there is a law that states that if you look like this, you must become a kindly chocolatier.

Margaret Fulton: As you age, a love of food keeps you young. And even though Masterchef is only a TV show, what we do on that stage is fundamentally important for the future of Australian food. She made me cry.

Adriano Zumbo: Evil exists in this world, and its name is Zumbo.

Adam Melonas: It’s important to dream big.

Christine Manfield: If Christine Manfield traveled through time in a fusion-powered DeLorean, she would apply for Masterchef under the name Courtney Roulston.

Alla Wolf-Tasker: The appeal of an audacious pair of spectacles should not be underestimated.

Mark Best: Synergies in food sometimes appear where you least expect them.

Jacques Reymond: Claire is a very beautiful woman.

Hiroyuki Sakai: My Japanese is not as fluent as I thought it was.

Shannon Bennett: A stoic calmness can be achieved through a thoughtful approach to food and life.

And last, but certainly not least:

Gary Mehigan: The best lessons in life and cooking are taught and learnt in equal measure.

George Calombaris: Food has a heart and a soul. That fact is unforgettable and irrepressible.

Matt Preston: Matt Preston is a giant food encyclopaedia robot… in colourful pants.

Brutal taskmasters.

One of my favourite challenges in Masterchef was the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ challenge, but watching it back I was really disappointed that the tasting of my dish didn’t make the final edit.  I chose the sin of ‘Wrath’ and made a dish that I called ‘Angry Bird’. This was a spicy Korean-inspired triple-cooked chicken dish with a fresh Red Coleslaw.  The judges all loved it and Gary was even asking for the recipe off camera.

This is not the exact recipe I made on the day, but it’s the traditional Korean dish that inspired it.  It’s called ‘Bul Dak’, which in Korean translates to ‘Fire Chicken’.  It’s scorchingly hot, but the heat of the chili is delicately layered so that each of the different flavours in the sauce work in synergy.  In fact, the hotter this dish is, the tastier it is.

I find that when using chili, layering flavours is all important.  Anyone can make a dish that is head-explodingly hot but to use the heat of the chili to intensify flavours is a real art.  This dish layers 4 different types of heat with 4 different types of sweetness for a final product that starts out sweet, moves through savoury and finishes hot-as-hell. I love this dish because it’s so surprising – you would never expect a big pile of intimidatingly hot chicken to have such a complex and wonderful flavour behind the heat.

In Tokyo my friends and I would head down to Koreatown nearly every Friday for the after-work unwind.  We’d always start with a big plate of Fire Chicken, an ice-cold beer and a few bottles of chamisul (a kind of Korean rice wine). There’s no better way to end the week.

Ingredients

1 Whole Chicken

Chicken Marinade

• 2 tbsp Sake or Cheong Ju (Korean Rice Wine)
• 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Honey or Mul Yut (Korean Malt Syrup)
• 1 tbsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Sauce

• 3 tbsp Kochukaru (Korean Chili Powder) or other hot chili powder
• 1 tbsp Kochujan (Korean Chili Bean Paste)
• 2 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 2 tbsp Honey or Mul Yut
• 1 tbsp White Sugar
• 2 tsp Karashi Mustard (or Hot English Mustard)
• Fresh Red Birdseye Chillies (to taste, I use about 3 whole ones because I like it really hot)
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 1/2 large Onion (peeled and cut into chunks)
• 1/2 large Nashi Pear (peeled and cut into chunks)

I’ve put the traditional Korean ingredients in italics so that you can use them if you have them, but they can easily be substituted for ingredients from your local supermarket.  Even kochujan is available in the Asian section of normal supermarkets these days.

Method

1. Joint the chicken (Chinese style if you can) and combine with the marinade ingredients.   Set aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. To make the sauce, just combine all the ingredients together in a food processor and blend to a smooth paste.
3. In a frypan over medium-low heat fry the chicken in a little oil.  The chicken will blacken quickly as the sugar and honey caramelise but don’t get concerned; this really adds to the flavour.  Reduce the heat a little and cook for about 10 minutes until the chicken is maybe two thirds done.  Then add in the sauce, stir it together and cook a further 5-10 minutes.  The sauce will darken to the deep red you see in the picture.  When it’s all finished transfer everything to a plate and scatter the chicken with some chopped spring onion, sesame seeds or – my preference as in the picture – a good amount of aonori.

Serve this with some simple pickled daikon (cubed pieces of daikon pickled in a simple brine of salt, sugar, white vinegar and water) and a kind of coleslaw (shredded cabbage and onion shaved on a mandolin, with a big dollop of mayonnaise swirled with kochujan.  I’d suggest going to the extra effort to make these traditional accompaniments, as they match with the chicken perfectly.  Also, you’re going to need them to cool down your mouth if you’ve made the chicken as spicy as you should.