Yakatori chicken

Start (preferably a day before) with the pickled cucumber. Cut a cucumber in half and remove the ends. Then slice both halves lengthwise very thinly till you reach the seeds. Then put  a good glug of white wine vinegar and a tbsp runny honey in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat. Wait a minute or so and put in the cucumber. Mix well. Cool and keep in the fridge overnight.

Normally chicken breast are used, but I found a nice fat coquelet ( 650 grams) which is enough for 2 people and meat from the bone is always more tasty. Warmed up the oven at 230C and oiled the coquette. Put it in the oven, turned down the heat to 180C and left the oven do the work for 45 mins ( but every 15 mins basked it with some oil).

In the meantime I had enough time to make the sauce (but you can buy it readymade if you want): mixing 1/2 a cup of mirin, 3 tblsp sake, 1/4 cup of superfine sugar, 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger and 4 tbsp soy sauce.

Then boiled the rice. To give it some color and bite I sliced a shallot finely, cut a celery stick and fried them softly. When the rice was done I mixed it with the vegetables and added some parsley.

When the chicken was done I took it apart: 2 legs and the 2 breasts, removed the skin and boiled the meat another 5 mins in the yakatori sauce.