Japanese ginger and garlic chicken with smashed cucumber

Food writer Diana Henry is a Psychologies favourite – every book she produces is a bewitching combination of want-to-make-it-right-now photography and thoughtful, in-depth writing.

Her latest, A Change Of Appetite (Mitchell Beazley, £25), directs these skills in the service of food that appeals to your mind and heart as well as your stomach. Her writing often comes close to poetry and these dishes are too. Here’s one of our favourites, worth taking some time over:

JAPANESE GINGER AND CARLIC CHICKEN WITH SMASHED CUCUMBER

Diana says: ‘This dish has a great interplay of temperatures. The chicken is hot and spicy, the cucumber like eating shards of ice (make sure you serve it direct from the fridge). The cucumber recipe is adapted from a recipe in a wonderful American book called Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu. You can also make the chicken with boneless thighs and griddle them.’

Serves 4

Ingredients:

FOR THE CHICKEN:

3 ½ tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp sake or dry sherry

3 tbsp soft dark brown sugar

½ tbsp brown miso

60g (2oz) root ginger, peeled and finely grated

4 garlic cloves, finely grated

1 tsp togarashi seasoning (available in Waitrose), or

½ tsp chilli powder

8 good-sized skinless bone-in chicken thighs, or other bone-in chicken pieces

FOR THE CUCUMBER:

500g (1lb 2oz) cucumber

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

2 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp pink pickled ginger, very finely shredded

A small handful of shiso leaves, if available, or mint leaves, torn (optional)

Method:

Try this with… edamame and sugar snap salad

Serves 4

Photograph: Laura Edwards