蒜爆雞塊 Garlic Fried Chicken

When hubby sent me home the other day and left for office again, I only have a few garlic and 2 pieces of chicken at home. When you’re leaving nothing to cook, I guess we got to think of an alternative way to cook something different.

But come to think of it, it wasn’t that bad, and it was a pleasant taste and it was full of wok aroma. Method of cooking this dish wasn’t that difficult too. I was just simply took whatever I have in the fridge and marinate it.

Oyster sauce is a sauce that is comfort those cook that is lack of confident in their cooking. Well, am one of them and some how it turn out to be something that hubby loves it.

Ingredients

2 chicken thigh, chopped

1 bulb of garlic, about 10 to 14 cloves

2 tablespoon of oil

Marinade

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

2 tablespoon of light soya sauce

Method

1.   Wash and clean the chicken thigh
2.   Marinate the meat with the marinades for about 20minutes
3.   Removed the garlic’s skins and lightly press on each cloves
4.   Heat the wok with 2 table spoons of oil
5.   Throw in the garlic, lightly fried it till fragrant and lightly burn & brown too
6.   Then after add in the marinated chicken into the wok
7.   Without turning it, straight away I covered it with the lid for about 30 seconds
8.   Lid off and stir the chicken lightly and covered it again
9.   The mentioned process repeats for couple of times, this is to make sure the chicken is fully cooked
10.  Once done, dish out and serve with steamed rice

  

Enjoy!

I am submitting this dish to Aspiring Bakers #28: Chicken Feast (February 2013) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker.

Steam Chicken 私房菜蒸雞

I know some people steam chicken will add in Chinese Sausages, and some will add Chinese Cooking Wine. But my version is only chicken and dried mushroom.  I find that adding the sausages into it, that could make the chicken very sweet, and it’s like losing its original taste.

However, different family will have their different way of steaming. For me, I cut it short and real simple. As long as no one complains and no one having stomach upset, I guess that’s the final result of that.

I truly appreciate if some one out there can give some advices, I guess I can find ways to improve it. Meanwhile here’s my simple version of steaming chicken.

Ingredients

2 chicken thigh

5 to 6 dried mushroom, soak and cut into strips

Marinade

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

½ tablespoon of dark soya sauce

½ tablespoon of light soya sauce

½ teaspoon of sugar (or less)

Method

1.      Marinate the chicken for about 20 to 30minutes
2.       Boil water till it’s boiling hot
3.       Line up the chicken on a flat plate and garnished the mushrooms on top of it
4.       Steam the chicken for about 10 to 15 minutes
5.       Then serve while it’s hot.

I am submitting this dish to Aspiring Bakers #28: Chicken Feast (February 2013) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker.

Fried Pork with Onion & Dried Chili 爆炒辣肉塊

I respect those housewives can cook all kinds of dishes for the family. Be it from chicken, fishes, meat, or Hokkien cuisine, Cantonese cuisine or Hainan cuisine. Some even spend time to grind the spices to curry, some even marinade the meat for a long hours.

For me, I rather have a quick one, even marinade for 15 minutes is just good enough for me. I believe most important is the flame and the wok.

Found this recipe from one of my recipe book which I bought for many years. This was found only decided to try it out when you’re running out of idea what to eat, and what to cook.  I guess this is an easy job for most expert cook.

Ingredients

500g pork tenderloin, cut into cubes

1 onion, peeled and cut into chucks

5 dried chilies, cut into small pieces (but I used chili padi instead)

Marinade

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp light soya sauce

Dash of pepper

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp corn starch

Seasoning

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp chili sauce

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp water

2 stalks spring onion, cut into short lengths

Method

1. Mix pork with marinade and marinate for 30 minutes
2. Heat up oil, pan-fry pork cubes until 80% cooked
3. Add onion, dried chili and stir fry until fragrant. Add seasoning and stir fry until well mixed
4. Lastly add spring onion and stir well
5. Dish up and serve with steam rice

Note:

Do note that if you are the person can’t take any salty food, my advice to omit the salt from the marinade.

Noted add in 1 tbsp corn starch for marinade could make the meat a bit too starchy, I guess need to modify that.

Without dry chili and replaced by chili padi also make this dish special too.

 

Enjoy!

Fried Chicken Cubes with Honey Peas滑炒雞球

When you’re just tired of cooking the same old dish every day, I guess, you will tend to go to bookstore to look for recipe books. Well, I have to admit that I was one of them that cooking the same old dish again and again. No doubt, many people gave me the advice that practice make perfect, but, the person keep eating the same dish also feel bored about it.

I bought this book last year and let it lying on my book shelf for a long time, till recently I realized that I have this book. A brief glance I noticed some of the recipes are easy to cook and the ingredients are easy to get too. But, I guess, it takes some time to refine the process or modify the ingredients.  Well, I could be wrong, however, never try never know, right??

  

滑炒 is a method where marinated ingredients that stir fry in the hot wok to retain the moist of the meat. From the book, I’ve learned that adding the egg white into the marinate process would help restore the juicy and the moisture.

  

Source: Yum Yum Magazine (2012 Apr/May edition) 所謂滑炒, 是說這樣炒出來的菜肴有著特別嫩滑的口感, 除了炒時有技巧, 也要加入蛋白這個重要醃料, 在醃肉時加一粒雞蛋, 炒出來的雞球果然特別滑溜。

Ingredients

2 Chicken whole legs, deboned and cut into cubes

1 cup oil for deep-frying

5 slices ginger

1 tbsp slice garlic

5 honey peas, cut into half (if you like honey peas, you can add more)

10 slices carrot (I did not use carrot but honey peas only)

Marinade

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sesame oil

1 egg white

½ tbsp corn flour

Seasoning (Mixed)

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soya sauce

¼ tsp salt (if you can’t stand too salty food, you can omit this)

Dash of pepper

100ml water

2 tbsp water, mixed with 1 tsp corn starch, for thickening (I omit this as the chicken cube is well blend with the corn flour, that could help in thickening the sauces)

Method

1.  Mix chicken with marinade and marinate for 30 minutes
2.  Heat oil until medium hot, add chicken meat and deep fry until 90% cooked. Dish and drain
3.  Leave 2 tablespoon oil in wok, sauté sliced ginger and garlic until aromatic. Add in the remaining ingredients, seasoning and stir well
4.  Lastly thicken with corn starch water (if you did not add this, you can omit this step)
5. Then after, dish out and serve with steam rice

I am submitting this dish to Aspiring Bakers #28: Chicken Feast (February 2013) hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker.

Home Cooked Honey Pork Belly

I came across this post while I was googling on other matters, and find it rather easy to cook and it’s originated from a Japanese.

Without second thought and much hesitation, I told myself, got to try it out. Even though I can cook, I find myself not a confident cook like others. Some how just lack of that in me… perhaps I am so afraid of failure. I know many chefs have gone thru many failures before they are successful. But, to me, though I know that’s the path that you ought to go thru, but I find it really a waste when the entire food just not eatable anymore.

I always like how the chef cut their meat, or the way they cut anything … for example this meat, I am not able to cut per what it said in the post. Thurs, my piece of pork belly looks a bit in odd shape. And also the food presentation, the way they presented their food on a plate or a bowl. It looks like an art to me, in fact, it’s a piece of valuable art.

Ingredients

350g pork belly

Oil

Blanched spinach (optional, the original post do add this and also some Japanese mayonnaise for beautifying)

Seasoning

2 Tbsp of honey

2 Tbsp of soy sauce

1 Tbsp of oyster sauce

2 garlic gloves

Step-by-Step

1.  Slice the pork belly into 6-7mm pieces
2.  Grate garlic cloves
3.  Heat oil in a large frying pan and start cooking pork belly on high heat
4.  When both side of the pork belly is nicely browned, turn off the heat
5.  Wipe off the excess oil completely
6.  Turn the heat back on the medium heat and add the seasonings
7.  Cook over medium heat until the meat start to have nice glaze. Try not to burn the sauce
8.  Once done, nice to serve with steamed rice
   
    

家常炒老鼠粉

許多朋友告訴我，兩人很難煮飯。但我從來不認為那是難題。不好又一餐，好又一餐。如果我們老是往外吃，基本上我們是吃了很多味精。儘管許多人聲稱，它的食物從來不加味精，如果常期下去也未必對我們的健康好。雖然我不是一個傳統的女人，但我深信一個完美的女人應該能做飯，管理家裡的一切瑣碎事物。同意我的看法嗎？

這一餐可以說是很容易也可以說很超值。我買老鼠粉RM2.00, 豆芽RM0.20, 辣椒醬RM0.50 和魚餅RM0.40。其餘的配料如肉末，大蒜，雞蛋家裡都有。所以我說很超值。

炒老鼠粉的食譜 (產量: 2人)

老鼠粉

蒜

肉末

豆芽

辣椒醬

魚餅切成細條

雞蛋

1.       燒熱鍋，放入蒜末。炒至香味。
2.       再加入魚餅。輕炒一會兒。
3.       再加入肉末。
4.       和老鼠粉。
5.       加入3湯匙醬油，同時再加入約2湯匙的老抽。
6.       輕輕翻炒所有的成分，再加入1湯匙辣椒醬。
7.       再翻炒，最後才加入豆芽和雞蛋。
8.       輕輕炒，再舀出後，趁熱吃。

冬至快樂

While everyone is talking about Maya calendar, doomsday, end of the world… I guess I was busy making Ta ng Yuen (汤圆) for prayer. Getting permission to leave office early to be home to make the dough, add in colour to make the Tang Yuen (汤圆) more colorful. Last year, did not get to do anything all due to the customs restriction of someone passing.

Anyway, today… December 21, 2012 is the Winter Solstice, Chinese called it Dongzhi. A day that what our elderly said it’s greater that Chinese New Year. Why would they said that… been trying to google it, some how just couldn’t find the missing piece.

 

Happy Dongzhi everyone! 冬至快樂!

Home Cooked Fermented Bean Paste Pork Belly 豆酱炒豬肉

What would you do when comes to weekend? Do you do all the cleaning like mop floor, wash car, wash clothes, wash toilets, wash drying area, clean your stove, basin, bathrooms, etc. I guess many of us, the working wife or the working mother that without a maid will do this house chores right?  And do you turn on the TV and not watching but carrying on all the work?? Sounds familiar huh? I was basically doing all these when comes to weekend,  I even ‘listen’ to the movies instead of sitting down and watching it! So, I guess am not alone of doing such weird stuff right?

One shot, listened and watched X–Men series … didn’t realize the whole movie was talking about human and mutants how to fight for staying in one planet. Anyway, the entire movie, can see these super heroes how to fight with the bad ones and so on. Though it isn’t that dry, some how, can never able to understand the entire movie story line, it’s just like the other movie named Transformer. I guess I am that kind of person will never spend such money to watch such sci–fi movies in the theater. I rather spend the money to watch movies like The Iron Lady, The Lady, The Green Mile, Dancing with Wolves those movies.

Because of the different movie interest, most of the time, I know my better half is accompanying me to watch those movie which he always called the dry one. And, I can just never ever sit with him to watch anything like thriller, or horrify movies. Ended up, he would have to invest into home theater, and buy some good movies to watch at home. Come to think of it, I am kind of unreasonable, huh?

Weekend is my only 2 days that I don’t have to cook, the only thing that I have to do is to do some marketing for the week. So when comes to Friday, will have to plan out the entire week dishes, whether is noodle, porridge, 1 pot dish, etc. 

Fermented Bean Paste fry Pork Belly is my favourite, and because of the way my mom fry it that become hubby’s favourite too. When comes to weekend, mom will cook this dish for us, and I can never ever learn the way she fried it. I guess I will have to master it. The ingredient is rather simple.. I believe each house hold will have a few things at home… things like garlic, onion, fermented bean paste, oyster sauce, etc. This dish is something easy to prepare and need not to have a lot of fancy things to cook.

Ingredients

500g pork belly

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce

1 tablespoon of chopped garlic

6 chili padi (chopped)

1 tablespoon of fermented bean paste

½ cup of water

Method

1. Cut the pork belly into thin strip, approximately 1cm
2. Marinade the meat with 1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce and 1 tablespoon of sugar for about 20 minutes
3. While marinating, best to kill the time by cutting the chili and the garlic.
4. Heat the wok with some oil, don’t pour too much, cuz, pork belly do release oil when you fry it.
5. Once the wok is heated, fry the fermented bean paste, garlic and chili till fragrant.
6. Then add in the meat, let it stay in the wok for few minutes, then fry it.
7. Make sure it’s high flame, the wok is hot.
8. In order to make the meat is fully cooked, best to cover the wok with the wok cover on and off and fry it again. That would make the dish real tasty and fragrant.
9. Once cook, dish out and best to serve with steam rice.

 

You must be wondering why am I not adding in any sugar, based on what I’ve tried, 1 tablespoon of sugar is sufficient. However, if you find it too salty before you dish out, you can still add a dash of sugar. Mom normally cook this dish without adding any water, that makes this real dry and normally she will add in ½ tablespoon of chili boh. But I prefer the chili padi that make the dish has a bit of spiciness, hence I use chili padi instead.

Home Cooked Hakka Nam Yee Meat Stewed 客家炸肉

 
This is my first attempt of making this Hakka dish, in fact, it has to make the Hakka Nam Yee Sauce before hand. However due to time consuming, I have cutting it real short and also due to health reason I decided not to deep fried the pork belly which the recipe said it’s required.

This Hakka Nam Yee Sauce is also can be used for Hakka Steamed Pork Belly with Yam (芋頭扣肉). Head

Let’s start with the sauce, ingredients were easily obtained from the market, in fact, I did not blend it as I do not have a food processor, … how I wish to have one now… and it would be absolutely perfect if it’s a Kitchen Aid brand. Ok, to cut it short,…. Here’s the ingredients –

a.       8 pieces of nam yee / fermented red bean curd

b.      3 tbsp chopped garlic

c.       3 tbsp chopped shallots

d.      1 tsp chopped ginger

e.       2 star anise

f.       5cm cinnamon stick

g.      3 tbsp oyster sauce

h.      2 tbsp sugar

i.        1 tsp sesame oil

j.        2 tbsp Shaoxing wine (绍兴酒)

k.      500ml water, 100ml oil

Method –

Heat up 5 tbsp oil, sauté chopped shallot, garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add in the remaining ingredients and bring to boil until thick. I excluded the Shaoxing Wine as hubby just couldn’t stand the taste and the smell, though we know wine can be evaporated.

Once the sauce is cooked, rest it to cool and keep in the airtight container and store in the fridge as and when needed.

Here’s the dish that I’ve tried to cook from this Nam Yee sauce –

Ingredients –

a.       600g pork belly sliced thickly

b.      100g black fungus, soaked

c.       2 tbsp Hakka Nam Yee Sauce

d.      1500ml water

Marinade –

2 tbsp Hakka Nam Yee Sauce

3 tbsp water

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp corn flour

5 cups oil for deep-frying

Method –

1.      Combine pork belly with marinade and marinade for 2 hours

2.      Heat up oil for deep frying, put in pork belly and deep fry until brown. Dish and drain.

3.      Put in all ingredients and water into a stock pot and bring to boil.  Lower the heat and continue to simmer for 45 minutes or until the pork is tender. (serves 4 to 5)

 

Happy cooking!!






Source: Hawker's Fair Sauces