Hainanese Chicken Rice

This is a simple and delicate dish, not complicated but requires great patience and care when cooking.
It is basically a poached chicken dish and rice, sounds easy enough, how hard can it be right? wrong.
It needs the right amount of seasoning/flavouring and poached just long enough....oh and a good chicken! preferably an organic medium sized chicken.

Ingredients needed (serves 4):
1 whole (organic) chicken
1 large fresh ginger root, sliced
5 stalks of scallions/green onions
2 schallots
5-6 garlic cloves peeled
Coriander for garnishing
Light soy sauce
Shoaxingwine/ chinese cooking sherry
Sesame oil
1-2 tbsp coarse salt
cooking oil
Salt to taste
2 cups rice
Instructions:

To cook chicken

1. Clean a whole chicken. Cut excess fat and skin and put aside for later.
2. Rub coarse salt thoroughly on chicken skin. This will help exfoliate the skin surface,and helps a smooth silky appearance on chicken when cooked.
3. Clean inside of chicken and rub 1/2 teaspoon of salt on the inside surface. Also rub a dash of shaoxing, soy sauce and sesame oil inside.
4. Slice 2x2inch ginger root (no need for peeling) and stuff in chicken cavity along with garlic cloves and 3 stalks of scallions (chopped in half).
5. Put a large pot of water to boil and turn heat down and place chicken into pot, fully submerged, with breast side down. let chicken simmer and cook for 50 minutes on low heat. (do not let water boil as it might tear the chicken skin).
6. Then to keep skin crisp, carefully remove chicken from pot and immediately place into a large bowl of iced water.
7. Retain pot of water chicken was boiled in for broth/soup

To cook rice

1. Wash rice and rinse twice. drain.
2. Heat pan with a table spoon of cooking oil and render fat from excess chicken skin from earlier. oan fry 2 thinly sliced schallots then add in rice, half tsp of salt. Sitr fry rice grains for about a minute.
3. Transfer ingredients in pan into rice pot. Add 4 cups of chicken broth and 1 inch knob of ginger and add pandan (screwpine) leaves to boil - optional. 
4. When rice is cooked, fluff rice with a fork. 

To serve

1.  Use remaining chicken broth as soup-side dish by adding soup lettuce, sliced spring onion and a few dashes of white pepper.
2. For condiments, the dish is best served with a ginger and chilli sauce. For best results, blitz ginger in a mixer/blender and pan fry with a tbsp vegetable oil and half tsp salt. As for chilli sauce, blitz 2 fresh chillies, a tbsp of lime juice, 1 garlic clove, and 1/4 tsp salt and sugar.
3. To serve complete dish, garnish with some chopped spring onions and coriander leaves. Then pour 2 tablespoon of the hot chicken broth, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil onto chicken. Thinly sliced cucumber would complement the dish perfectly.

Prep Time : 30 min
Cooking Time : 1.5 hrs
Difficulty Level : easy

Steamed Glutinous Rice ('loh mai kai')

This is a delicious recipe for the above mentioned popular dimsum dish. I remember growing up with it over breakfast, lunch, tea and at the school cafeteria...
It's abit of work but i think it's well worth it. and surprisingly much easier to make than anticipated.
(recipe makes approx 4 servings)

Ingredients:

2 pcs chinese sausage 'lapcheong'
1tbsp finely chopped dried shrimps

(A)for filling
8 pcs shitake mushrooms (soaked till soft)
300-400g chicken fillet breast/thigh (sliced; bite size)
2-3 garlic cloves
2tbsp sesame oil
2tbsp light soysauce
1tbsp dark soysauce
3 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp shaoxing/ cooking sherry
2 tsp sugar
2 dashes of pepper

(B)for glutinous rice
450g glutinous rice
water for soaking
1.5 cup of water
1 tbsp sesame oil
2tsp light soysauce
1tsp dark soysauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp chicken stock
1-2 tsp chinese five spice powder
2 tsp sugar
a dash of pepper

Directions:

Preparations for the night before :

• mix all ingredients for filling and refrigerate overnight.
• soak glutinous rice overnight with water just enough to cover about 1cm above rice. 

1. Drained water from soaked rice then add 1.5 cups of water with all other ingredients (B).
2. Steam rice for about 20-25 minutes then fluff rice with a fork:
3. Place 2 pcs of chinese sausage on the rice and continue steaming for another 20-30 minutes (or until rice is fully cooked). then slice sausage and leave rice aside to cool.
   
4. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp of oil i a pan and fry dried shrimps until fragrant. Then add in marinated fillings and stir fry. Set filling aside.
5. To put dish together, prepare a small serving size bowl (since i did not have a stainless steel bowl i simply coated the bowl with aluminium foil) brush its inside with a little oil. Put together the fillings and sausage (approx 2 tbsps). Then add rice, followed by more fillings in between. I like this dish with more fillings than rice :)
6. To serve, i simply tilt the bowl over a plate and add some garlic chili sauce.

Prep time : (+overnight) and 1.5 hours

Difficulty level : Medium

Oven-baked Pandan Wrapped Chicken

Here's a simple way to make light, simple and tasty bites. I believe it's Thai origin, and it is yummier deep fried, but i prefer mine oven baked. It works with either chicken breast or tender chicken thighs.

Here's what you'll need:
Chicken meat, I used two large chicken breast pieces (cut into 1-1.5 inch cubes)
pandan leaves
3 inches ginger (grated and squeezed for juice)
1-2 dashes of soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
a dash of sesame oil
2-3 dashes of white pepper powder
3 tbsp of sugar (you may also use honey)

Instructions:

1. Marinate chicken pieces in all ingredients for at least an hour or two.
2. Starting on one end of the pandan leaf, start rolling in the chicken piece. Hold the wrap with a toothpick.
3. In a preheated oven, bake chicken pieces at approx 200 deg. celcius, for 20-25 minutes (until golden brown).
4. serve on its own or preferred dipping sauce
   

Prep + cook time: 1 hour

Difficulty level : easy- moderate

Chinese 'fu yu' (fermented beancurd) Fried Chicken Wings Recipe

I love the taste of this dish. I first learnt to make it from a friend when I was in Australia. It's actually pretty easy to make, as long as you have the right asian ingredients from your fav asian grocer. It's tasty, aromatic, crispy and goes very well with a warm plate of rice.

Here's what you'll need:

a dozen chicken wings (cut into two parts)
3 pieces fermented beancurd (fuyu)
1 tsp fermented bean paste (taocheo)
2 inch ginger (grated)
2 tsp garlic (grated/ finely minced)
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp corn flour
flour mixture for coating (3 tbsp wheat flour, 2 tbsp rice flour, 1 tbsp corn flour, small dash of salt and pepper)
oil for deep frying

Instruction:

1. Clean chicken wings and marinate chicken wings with all ingredients. Rub all ingredients thoroughly with your clean hands. Refrigerate over night.
2. Heat oil for deep frying. One by one, coat chicken wings with flour mixture, making sure that you get a thorough but light flour coating, shake off excess flour before popping chicken into oil. Do not over-fry the chicken. Once chicken enters the oil, turn heat to medium setting.
3. Drain crispy chicken wings and best served while warm and crispy.

Prep + cook time: 1 hour

Difficulty level : moderate

Ayam Tempra (Malaysian-Nyonya Chicken) Recipe

Ayam Tempra, one of my many favourite Nyonya dishes - must try!
I'm glad to be born into a baba/nyonya family, being able to experience its culinary wonders, the authentic flavours and aromas that never fail to satisfy my tastebuds. I remember visiting grandma over the weekends every now and then, meal time (plus the in-between snackstime) was always my favourite time of the day.
I learnt this recipe from a dear aunt of mine some time back, and it's a very simple recipe. It requires simple ingredients, but you'll need to get the techniques right, heating and timing. It's mostly a savoury dish, but at the same time slightly sweet OR sour (to your own liking).

So here's what you'll need:

0.5 - 1kg Chicken meat, cut into pieces (I prefer to use tender parts of the chicken meat with bones/ fats, eg. wings, drumstick. thighs. Try to avoid the breasts as it carries less flavour and brings less richness to the dish. I used chicken thighs and cut them into several pieces)
2x2" fresh Ginger, thinly sliced
2 big onions, sliced into longstrips (Red onions tastes best)
2 large fresh red chilies, sliced (add more if you like spicy)
1 stk lemon grass, cut into two parts and slightly pounded
1/2 green lime
3 tbsp cooking oil
2 cups water
1-2 tbsp sugar
2-3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp thick dark soy sauce/karamel sauce
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. Begin by heating the oil in a wok/ large sauce pan. When oil is hot put in ginger slices and stir fry until you smell the fragrance. (always keep wok at high heat, but careful not to burn the ingredients). Once you smell the ginger and it looks slightly brown, add in the onions and chillies. Stir them thoroughly on high heat for about 1-2 minutes/ until you smell the aroma, then add in the lemon grass and stir for a few more seconds.
2. Add in chicken and stir fry for 2-3 minutes (still on high heat). Add a few squeeze of lime juice + 1 tbsp light soy sauce and keep stirring until chicken is brown and you see the oil starts oozing out from the chicken fats. (this step is to ensure you get the flavours into the meat before you continue on the next step, otherwise you'll get dull tasting meat).
3. Now add in water (water should be JUST enough to submerge all ingredients.stil keeping wok at high heat). Add the light and dark soy sauces, sugar and salt. boil on high heat for 2-5 minutes minutes (or until 1/4 of water has evaporated) then add remaining lime juice (adjust acidity to liking. if you like more sour, add lime, if u like sweeter add sugar. keep tasting until u get the taste you like).
4. Cover wok and simmer for 15-20 minutes on very low heat. Serve with warm rice.You wanna give your rice a good drench with the gravy! :)

MMmmm..Mmm! YuuuummMmY, the Aroma in my kitchen is heavenly right now, I wish you could smell it!! Absolute mouth watering. I'm gonna have mine with some fresh cabbage kimchi i've prepared a few days ago. Smaklig Måltid ;)


Prepr + Cooking time : 50 min- 1 hr
Difficulty level : moderate