Serves 8
Ingredients
Chicken & poaching liquid
1 free range chicken
2L chicken stock
3L water
1L shaoxing rice wine
200g yellow rock sugar
200ml dark soy sauce
100g peeled sliced ginger
1 bunch green spring onions (white part only finely sliced)
5 strips dried mandarin peel
5 star anise
3 cloves garlic
50g cassia bark
Jasmine sesame oil
50g sliced spring onion
1 jasmine tea leaves
10g sliced fresh ginger
200ml virgin white sesame oil
8 freshly shucked sea scallops
50ml white soy
24 Chinese artichokes
1 daikon radish
2 large aubergine
48 pea flowers
16 fine wheat and kuzu starch noodles
50ml Korean virgin black sesame oil
sea salt
Method
Chicken & poaching liquid
Prepare the chicken poaching liquid by combining all of the ingredients, bar the chicken, in a large pot. Bring to the boil, skim the surface with a ladle if necessary. Reduce the heat to a very low simmer. Simmer for 1 hour. Take the pot off the heat and strain the liquid into a new pot large enough to hold the chicken. Bring the liquid back to the boil, submerge the whole chicken, breast first. Bring the liquid back to the boil and as soon as it reaches boiling point reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 3 minutes, place a lid on the pot and turn off the heat. Allow the chicken to stay in the pot with the lid on until the liquid is completely cool. Refrigerate the chicken in the liquid until required.
Jasmine sesame oil
Peel and julienne the daikon radish. Make 16 small piles of julienned radish, lightly salt them and allow the radish to drain for 1 hour. Twist the radishes into 16 braid like twists, cover and refrigerate until required. Scrub the Chinese artichokes with a clean scourer, wash well under cold water, leave the artichokes in cold water completely covered in the fridge. Make the jasmine oil by warming the virgin white sesame oil until it reaches 55C. Add the jasmine tea, sliced ginger and spring onion. Allow to infuse for 1 hour, strain and discard the solids. Put aside. Blanche the silken noodles for 1 to 2 minutes. Refresh in cold water, drain and coat in jasmine oil. Put aside until required. To make the eggplant cream cut each eggplant in half, lightly dress in jasmine oil and gently grill the eggplant over charcoal embers. Once the eggplant is soft place in a bowl and cover it with cling film allowing the eggplant to steam. Once the eggplant is cold carefully cut away all the skin. Place the pulp in a food processor and process on high then pass through a fine drum sieve. Put aside the eggplant cream until required.
To serve
Remove the chicken from the cold stock. Remove the breasts from the bone with a sharp knife. Utilise the legs in another recipe. Remove the skins from the breast and shred the meat using your hands. The chicken should be very soft and moist. Place a tbsp of eggplant cream on the bottom of each plate and lightly spread out. Dress the shredded chicken with some of the fragrant jasmine oil and a little sea salt. Place 4 to 5 shreds of chicken on top of the eggplant cream, add 2 silken noodles and 2 braided daikon twists. Top with another couple of pieces of poached chicken. Thinly slice the sea scallops and briefly marinate in the white soy. Top the chicken with at least 8 slices of marinated scallop. Place 3 Chinese artichokes on top of each salad and garnish with pea blossoms and drizzle some Korean black sesame oil over the dish. Serve.