Add some spice

Pubs have won an important battle for the hearts and minds of the nation's consumers, and now's the time to press home the advantage. Research carried out for Mintel recently showed that pubs have overtaken Oriental and Asian restaurants as consumers' favourite places in which to eat out. Now, stop and think for a minute. When customers leave the pub, where are many of them going? That's right - they're off to find a chicken vindaloo or sweet and sour pork.

For some pubs, the option of offering a Chinese or Indian menu, either in the pub or as a take-away, might be an attractive one. However, even those who are happy to leave providing food in the wee small hours to the specialists are likely to benefit from adding some ethnic specialities. To give pubs a head start, we asked some of the leading food companies working with the trade to come up with some simple Oriental and Asian recipes. To start us off are two different approaches to one of the nation's favourite dishes.

Chicken Tikka Masala​

Serves 20-25

Ingredients:

• 2.25kg Tilda tikka masala sauce
• 2kg boneless chicken pieces

1. Sauté the chicken in hot oil and cook through until tender 2. Drain off any excess liquid.

3. Stir in sauce. Simmer until heated through.

4. Serve with Tilda rice.

Serving suggestion: Garnish with a swirl of cream and sliced red onions. Alternatively, cook strips of chicken in the tikka masala sauce and serve in pitta bread with a crunchy green salad.

Recipe from: Tilda ​

Quorn Masala​

Serves 10

Ingredients:

• 800g Quorn pieces
• 4 tbs sunflower oil
• 2 large onions - chopped
• 3 cloves garlic - crushed
• 4 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 4 tsp hot chilli powder
• 600g canned chopped tomatoes
• 10 tbs natural yoghurt
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 200mls single cream
• 4 tsp chopped fresh coriander

Preparation time: 10-15 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

1. Fry the Quorn pieces, onions and garlic in the oil for five minutes.

2. Add cumin, coriander and chilli powder and cook for one to two minutes, stirring all the time.

3. Add tomatoes, yoghurt, stock cube, salt and pepper, lemon juice and cream.

4. Stir well together and bring to the boil, simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Stir in the chopped coriander just before serving.

Recipe from: Quorn​

Peking Duck​

Peking Duck is one of the most popular Chinese dishes. This recipe serves four as a starter or two as a main course

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Chinese Roast Duck
• 1/2 cucumber, shredded
• 3 spring onions, shredded
• 12 pancakes
• hoisin sauce

1. Deep fry the duck and shred

2. Steam the pancakes

3. Divide the meat, shredded cucumber and spring onion equally between each pancake and drizzle the hoisin sauce over the top

4.Roll and serve.

For pubs where time is an issue, Cherry Valley's Peking Duck Starter Kit comes complete with 140g of sliced meat, six pancakes and 30g of hoisin sauce. Just heat and serve.

Recipe from: Cherry Valley ​

Chinese Pork with Crispy Noodles​

Serves 10

Ingredients:

• 2.25g lean pork fillet
• 1kg red onion, peeled and cut into wedges
• 500g baby sweetcorn, cut in half
• 1 kg carrots, sliced thin

Sauce ingredients:

• 300ml plum sauce
• 150ml sweet chilli sauce
• 100mls soy sauce
• 250g sugar snap peas

1. Place the red onion, pepper, baby sweetcorn and carrot into a roasting tin. Drizzle over the oil and mix together

2. Place the pork fillet on top. Mix together the plum sauce, sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce, and drizzle over the pork fillet

3. Cook in a preheated oven at Gas Mark 4-5, 180C , for 25 to 30 minutes. During the last 10 to 15 minutes of cooking add the sugar snap peas, mix through the vegetables, and cook for the remaining time

4. Serve the pork fillet cut into slices with the roasted vegetables and crispy rice noodles, or boiled egg noodles

Recipe from: British Pig Executive​

Vegetable Bhaji​

A great buffet dish or side order

Makes 12 bhajis

Ingredients:

• 250g gram flour
• 1tsp chilli powder
• 1tsp turmeric
• 100g julienne carrots
• 100g julienne mange tout
• 50g julienne aubergine
• 50g sliced onions
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• water

1. Mix together the flour, chilli powder, turmeric, salt and pepper in a large bowl

2. Add enough water to make a thick paste that will hold the vegetables

3. Pre-heat the fryer to 180×C

4. Add the vegetables to the paste and shape into small balls, drop the balls into the fryer and cook until golden

Recipe from: Woodward Foodervice ​

Beef Shui Mei with Oyster Sauce​

For an Oriental buffet dish or on the side

Serves four

Ingredients:

• 125g minced beef
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 25g finely diced water chestnuts
• 1 finely chopped spring onion
• 1/2 tsp grated root ginger
• 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp oil
• salt and pepper
• 20 wonton skins
• oyster sauce
• roughly chopped parsley

1. Mix the salt, pepper and bicarbonate of soda with the beef and leave to marinate for 30 minutes

2. After 30 minutes add the rest of the ingredients to the beef and pound together thoroughly

3. Place a generous teaspoon of filling into the centre of the wonton skin, wrap the wonton around the filling leaving the top open

4. On the top of the Shui Mei add a small amount of oyster sauce and garnish with chopped parsley

5. Place into a steamer and cook for 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size. Serve immediately

Recipe from: Woodward Foodervice ​

Tips for stir-fry ​

• Try to vary textures, tastes and colours by using a variety of
• vegetables for maximum visual and taste impact
• Have everything prepared before you start stir-frying, it should be a quick cooking process
• Place all the cut vegetables on a tray. That way you won't forget anything. Just be careful not to mix them up, as cooking times will vary among vegetables and meat
• Cut meat into uniform pieces so that it will cook more evenly. If you're not using a recipe, a general rule is to cut everything into bite-sized pieces.
• When adding oil to the wok, drizzle down the sides to ensure nothing sticks as you move it about the pan
• When deep frying, to tell if the oil if hot enough simply stick a chopstick in the wok. When the oil sizzles all around it, you can begin adding the food.

Thanks to: Cherry Valley​

Reader offer

Tilda is offering one pub the chance to get a menu makeover from Sal Henley, development chef for the foodservice team. Sal has been at Tilda seven years and her role includes menu and recipe development, new product development, and training workshops.

For a chance to win, answer the following question.

Which of these is not a spice?

A: Turmeric

B: Cormorant

C: Coriander

Send your entries to Tilda Menu Makeover Competition, Pub Food, The Publican, Ludgate House, 245 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 9UY, or email entries to pubfood@thepublican.com by June 19. Usual competition rules apply.