Not having cooked for a few weeks and not having been in the habit of thinking of new ingredients to use, I was at a bit of a loss on what to do and was uncharacteristically wandering round the local Sainsburys for a while before inspiration struck. Having fancied a bit of chicken, I then remembered I had some rice wine in the cupboard and thought I could use that, albeit maybe not as a main ingredient. I also remembered seeing Asian style coleslaw made a few times and thought I could quite easily improvise a recipe for that, to go with the chicken.

First I rubbed miso paste on the chicken thighs, then marinated them in honey, soy sauce, rice wine (pretty much like sherry), grated fresh ginger, 2 finely chopped fresh birds eye chillies and a couple of crushed garlic cloves, with a pinch of five spice. I only marinated the chicken for about 20 mins, but as with most dishes, the longer they marinate, the better. I then chucked it into the middle of the oven for about 25 mins at gas mk 7.

The coleslaw was dead easy, although I did add a level of tedium by using a vegetable peeler to get really thin strips of carrot. Once I’d eventually finished the single carrot, I added finely shredded white cabbage (about a third of a small cabbage) and lengthways chopped spring onions. A glug of rice wine mixed with a teaspoon of sugar was added, plus a tbsp of olive oil and finally some mustard seeds to act as a livener.

The taste of the rice wine didn’t really come through, although I did think it added a level of depth to the taste which was good. The crunchy coleslaw really worked well with the crispy, sweet & spicy, unctuous chicken, with the miso providing the umami/savoury taste that fish sauce normally adds, although I’m not sure if either replacing the miso with the fish sauce or adding fish sauce might have improved things a bit. It tasted pretty good, though, nonetheless!