Chicken and Celery Herb Soboro, made with FlareLine "GREEN NUDGE"

Chicken mince, celery, ginger. Those three are all you chop, and the pan is on the heat for about ten minutes. Why not make it on Saturday, for the days ahead?

FlareLine "GREEN NUDGE" layers three mint-family herbs with tarragon, from the daisy family. The clove-like note of tulsi, the sweet greenness of basil, the camphor-like coolness of sage, the sting-free sweetness of tarragon. Green stacked in several textures, composed to go with chicken. The habanero is the most restrained of the five FlareLine blends, so the heat stays tucked behind the sweet-salty soy.

Herb aromas are fragile under heat, so the blend goes in after the heat is off. It keeps well in the fridge for four days.

Total time: about 25 min

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• FlareLine "GREEN NUDGE" 1 tsp
• Chicken mince 400 g
• Celery 1 stick (with its leaves)
• Ginger 1 knob
• Sake 2 tbsp
• Mirin 2 tbsp
• Soy sauce 2 tbsp
• Sugar 2 tsp
• Oil 1 tbsp
• Lemon 1/4 (optional)
• Rice (optional) as needed

Choose a celery stick that still has its leaves. This recipe uses them to the last. The leaves spoil faster than the stalk — they are the part that goes first, two or three days after you buy it. Cook a stalk-only dish and the leaves are usually what is left in the fridge. On a day when only trimmed celery is on sale, use 200 g of stalk and add a light handful of mitsuba or parsley if you have it.

Preparation

1. Pull the celery leaves off the stalk, and peel the thick outer strings from the stalk thinly with a peeler. Left on, the strings stay unchewable in the mouth even after frying.
2. Cut the stalk into a rough 5 mm dice. Cut the leaves into 1 cm ribbons and set them aside separately. Stalk and leaves go into the pan at different moments.
3. Peel and finely chop the ginger.
4. In a bowl, combine the sake (2 tbsp), mirin (2 tbsp), soy sauce (2 tbsp) and sugar (2 tsp).
5. If you are serving lemon, cut it into wedges.

Instructions

1. Put the oil (1 tbsp) and the ginger in a frying pan over low heat and cook for about 30 seconds, until fragrant.
2. Add the chicken mince (400 g), turn the heat to medium, and press the meat flat with a spatula. Leave it untouched for about 30 seconds, then fry, breaking it up. Stir from the very start and the meat weeps water — you get a simmer, not a soboro.
3. Once the meat has changed colour, pour in the combined seasonings. Keep the heat at medium and fry for about 6 minutes, until no liquid is left on the base of the pan. When a spatula drawn across the base leaves a trail that no longer closes at once, it is done.
4. Add the celery stalk and fry for just 1 minute. Stop when the edges turn translucent. Fry longer and the crunch is gone.
5. Add the celery leaves and turn everything over for just 10 seconds. Wilted is enough.
6. Turn off the heat, add the FlareLine "GREEN NUDGE" (1 tsp) and stir until it is through the whole pan. The green aromas of tulsi and basil are fragile under heat, so the blend goes in after the heat is off. It is coarse herb rather than powder, so flecks of leaf stay on the surface.
7. Taste at the end and adjust the salt. GREEN NUDGE is salt-free, additive-free and 100% plant-derived, so your usual amount of soy sauce is fine as it is.
8. Serve over rice. Squeeze the lemon over if you like — it is just as good without.

If liquid is still sitting on the base of the pan at the end, turn the heat to high for about 20 seconds, just there, to drive it off. Every bit of water left shortens the keeping time.

Let it cool before moving it to a container; it keeps about 4 days in the fridge. Beyond rice, it goes on cold tofu, into udon as a topping, or into tamagoyaki as a filling. On a slice of baguette with a squeeze of lemon, it is ready to sit beside a drink.

GREEN NUDGE contains habanero. On days you share the table with small children, cut the amount you stir in to a pinch, and dust the rest over the adults’ bowls at the end. If it is your first time, start small and add more at the table.