tailor-made holidays

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Travelling to far-flung destinations is one of life’s luxuries and a dream trip can open your eyes to new cultures, experiences and tastes.

Cox & Kings, the world’s longest established travel company, offers luxury holidays and tailor-made holidays to inspire and provide the experience of a lifetime.

Having visited Qatar this month, and fallen in love with the Middle East, I’m longing to explore its neighbouring countries. Nowhere does luxury quite like the Middle East and Cox & King offer bespoke holidays in Jordan, Oman, U.A.E, Morocco, Uzbekistan and Tunisia.

From one of their many globe-hopping adventures, Cox & Kings once again brought me back a culinary souvenir and challenged me to cook up a storm with it.

I often cook Japanese-style noodles and can make a mean Chicken Katsu Curry from scratch, but I admit, I have no expertise in the usage of soy bean paste – my gift from Cox & Kings.

After a bit of research, I found the soy bean paste works particularly well with chicken, so I set out to cook soy bean and garlic chicken with chilli, ginger and lime rice noodles.

Firstly, mix up a marinade with one large tablespoon of soy bean paste, a few teaspoons of water and mirin, one small clove of crushed garlic and a dash of sesame oil. Marinade overnight or just for a few hours if you don’t have time.

I pan-fried the whole chicken breast with just a touch of olive oil on a high heat to get the outside slightly charred and caramelised, then turned down the heat and left it to cook through (or you could finish it off in the oven).

Next, mix up a small amount of fresh or dried chilli, crushed ginger, one clove of crushed garlic, mirin and dark soy sauce, so you have enough to cover the cooked rice noodles.

To serve, twirl the noodles around a fork to get a nest effect and place the sliced soy bean chicken around them, and finish off with some scattered dried chilli or fresh coriander.

The chicken was deliciously succulent and the soy bean paste gave it a rich, malty flavour. With such a big tub of soy bean sauce, I’ll have to find some more interesting recipes – any ideas?

For more info and destinations, visit: www.coxandkings.co.uk

Where is your dream destination for a luxury holiday? Have you tried cooking with soy bean paste?

SPONSORED POST

There are few greater pleasures in life than travelling, particularly if it’s to a destination you’ve always dreamed of visiting. Cox & Kings, the world’s longest established travel company, offers luxury holidays and tailor-made holidays to help you see the world and get the best out of your trip.

With Cox & Kings, you can take a short break in destinations such as Portofino, Vienna and Bruges or long-haul vacations to Costa Rica, Madagascar, Fiji, Muscat, Rio de Janeiro and many more.

Of course, a luxury holiday doesn’t just mean relaxing by the pool, as Cox & Kings also offer wine tours throughout France, Italy and Spain and RA Worldwide Art Tours. An art expert will lead you through the cultural sights of Lebanon, Rajasthan, Florence, Ravenna or Barcelona.

Ever the intrepid explorers, Cox & Kings kindly brought me back some goodies from their last trip to Brazil – Autêntica Gold Cachaça and Dom Pedro ground coffee. My challenge was to cook up something delicious using these ingredients.

Cachaça, distilled spirit made from fresh sugar cane juice, is mostly used in Caipirinha cocktails and is Brazil’s most popular spirit. Making a Caipirinha just seemed a bit easy, so I tried using cachaça as a marinade for steak.

Simply buy some thick, high-quality steak, you can use hanger steak or medallions like I have, and cover it in a marinade to be left overnight. For two large steaks, I mixed up five tablespoons of cachaça, three tablespoons of soy sauce, two tablespoons of honey, one teaspoon of ketchup, two large cloves of crushed garlic, a dash of olive oil, a squeeze of fresh lime and salt and pepper to season.

Flash fry the steak to char the edges and either finish in the pan or the oven. I served the steak with Gratin Dauphinoise and asparagus, but you can go all out Brazilian and accompany it with rice and bean and Pão de Queijo (cheese bread).

The cachaça gives the steak a subtle aromatic, zesty flavour and was a welcome change to how I usually cook steak with either béarnaise sauce or honey mustard.

For dessert, I made a chocolate and coffee mousse with crushed amaretti and cachaça. I used a regular chocolate mousse recipe and added a splash of concentrated coffee, increasing the thickness to make up for the extra liquid.

Fill a glass ramekin with a small layer of crushed amaretti biscuits and add a tiny drop of cachaça (only to the bottom layer). Then alternate layers of mousse and crushed amaretti and sprinkle some on the top.

It’s perhaps not the most authentic Brazilian dessert, but the crunchiness of the amaretti and a powerful shot of cachaça was a great new discovery. You can even make it in a rush by using ready-made chocolate mousse and drizzling the coffee concentrate over the top.

For more info and destinations, visit: www.coxandkings.co.uk

Where is your dream destination for a luxury holiday? Have you tried cooking with cachaça?

A New Cooking Discovery From Cox & Kings

A Brazilian Treat From Cox & Kings