braised

Drunken Sesame Chicken

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Drunken Sesame Chicken 嘛醉鸡

This is an improvement to my previous recipe Chicken in Rice Wine. That recipe is great but this is much better. I discovered that by adding more sesame oil and also hua tiao jiu together with the hakka rice wine, the results were a sweet caramelized chicken.

I like to cook this with chicken wings as they have the gelatinous fats that would be so delicious once you pressure steam and fry the chicken in a clay-pot.

Make sure you add just the right amounts of ginger and if possible fry them until they become brown and almost burnt. When the dish is done, your clay-pot might be a light charred due to the sugars in the hakka rice wine caramelising, some of the chicken parts are burnt slightly due to the heat, but that is fine. A delicious chicken dish with steamed rice or best with porridge or congee.

Recipe

Ingredients

4 Chicken Wings with Drunplets (separate the drumlets from the wings and also the wing tips)
Lots of Ginger *maybe 8-9 cm of one inch thickness* (sliced thinly)
1/4 cup of Hakka Rice Wine
1/4 cup of Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu
White Pepper
2 tbsp of Light Soy Sauce 
1 tbsp of Dark Soy Sauce
2 tbsp Olive Oil
4 tbsp Sesame Oil

Method

1. Marinate the chicken parts with light soy sauce and white pepper. Allow the meat to marinate at least for 5-10 minutes.

2. Sliced the ginger thinly, and then heat the olive oil and sesame oil in a clay-pot over low fire. Then fry the ginger strips until brown and crispy.

3. Add marinated chicken meat into the clay-pot for cooking. Over medium fire continue to cook until chicken pieces turn whitish in colour. Add dark soy sauce and continue cooking over medium fire. Finally add the Hakka Rice Wine and Hua Tiao Jiu and allow the chicken to simmer and cook over a slow fire. Remember to close the lid. Once cooked serve with steam rice.

Bon Appetit!!

Braised Chicken Feet Noodles

Braised Chicken Feet Noodles

This is our all time favourite. Braised Chicken Feet noodles aka 鸡脚面. I kind of got tired of the long queues at our favourite chicken feet noodle stall nearby our place. The queue has been unusually ridiculous. I waited for 45 minutes the other day. Terrible.

So I decided to make my own braised chicken feet noodles ala ho sim lang style. My challenge was to make it such that the chicken feet still retains the gelatinous strains and the chewiness of the meat but yet tender and full of flavour.

I don’t quite like the ones at the Chicken Feet noodle shop because they usually deep fry the chicken feet first before braising. That method kind of makes the feet puffy and wrinkly. I prefer them cooked my way.

Truth be told it was quite a tedious process, but totally worth it. The preparation for the chicken feet took almost a whole day to prepare. The noodles was the easy part.

Recipe

Ingredients

10 pieces of Chicken Feet (usually the wet market uncle would already pack them in packs of 10, very convenient)
5 pieces of Dried Shitake Mushrooms
3 thin slices of Ginger
3 cloves of Garlic
3 stalks of Spring Onions
1 piece of Star Anise
2 tbsp of Oyster Sauce
1 tbsp of Light Soya Sauce
2 tbsp of Dark Soya Sauce
1/4 cup of Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu
Sprinkle of White Pepper
1 tsp of Castor Sugar
Tomato Ketchup
Shin Ramen Noodles (Korean instant noodles)
Olive Oil
Water reserved from the soaking of mushrooms

Method

1. Soak the shitake mushrooms in half a bowl of hot water. After they are soaked, slice the mushrooms into halves. Reserve the water for later.

2. In a pot, boil the chicken feet until the water becomes oily. Reserve the stock for frying vegetables (eg. Mani Cai with Egg). Reserve the chicken feet for later.

3. In a claypot, add 2 tbsp of Olive oil, turn heat to medium, add ginger slices, crushed garlic (not minced), spring onions halves (about 4 cm lengths) and star anise. Saute until fragrant. Fragrant here means all the smells of the ingredients become one. Remember to leave some finely chopped spring onions for garnishing.

4. Next add the soaked mushroom halves and stir fry with the rest of the ingredients for a while before adding the chicken feet into the pot to stir fry as well. Do this for a few minutes. Add sugar and white pepper. Continue to mix.

5. While the ingredients are frying, prepare the seasoning mix of sauces in a small bowl. Once ready, pour the seasoning sauce into the pot and give it a good stir. Add the reserved mushroom water into the pot until all the chicken feet are covered.

6. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer with lid on. Continue to cook for at least an hour. After that turn the heat off and leave it in the pot to soak up the marinate. Boil with lid on again and leave it to marinate overnight.

7. After more than 12 hours in the pot, the longer the better and in my case, almost 24 hours later, I turned up the heat for one last time before assembling my braised chicken feet noodles for breakfast.

8. In a separate pot, cook the Korean instant noodles. You can use whatever noodles you want. I like the Korean noodles because they are quite filling and easy to cook. Once cooked, plate it. Add a little dollup of ketchup and mix with sauce from the braised chicken feet.

9. Give the noodles a good mix, assemble the chicken feet and mushrooms and a generous sprinkle of chopped spring onions. Serve hot.

Bon Appetit!

Chicken Feet Noodles (Review)

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Chicken Feet Noodles (Review)

I don’t usually review heartland delights, but sometimes these boutique cooks of local delicacies are so adept at their craft that it warrants notable praise. Sometimes they behave like artisan chefs much like the ones I recently met at DSTLLRY.

The only difference between them is that the heartland uncle and auntie working at the wanton mee stall spend, and also have, less time making small talk with their customers but spend more time churning out the food. But that aside, the intensity with which they operate is just fever-pitched madness if you think about it. Sometimes customer orders for their wanton mee can be 10 packets at a time. It’s an endless stream of noodles flying in and out of the strainer scoop. The signature whacking of the ladle against the edge of the cooking pot is also very telling – “the chef is making brisk bucks”. Okay I just had to say that.

So today, I decided to try their kway kar mee (read: chicken feet noodles) and it’s nothing short of oh-my-gosh awesome!

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The delicately braised chicken feet or kway kar was just simply delicious. I added an extra order of their fabulous wanton which I couldn’t get enough of. It cost me an additional 50 cents! Amazing value.

The way they make their meat dumplings just reminds me of those dim sum places, very Hong Kong style. You probably had better wanton noodles but for the price ($3 and if you add wanton it’s additional 50 cents) and the fact that it was within my estate, I thought it was a rare find and a gem. It is the same price for the kway kar mee, so that’s a major plus for me. Some places sell chicken feet noodles a little more expensive than the regular wanton noodles.

Here’s the postal code location for those die hard fans who would want to venture a kway kar mee expedition. Go ahead Google maps it, it’s chicken feet I’m sure.

Postal Code: 751313

Bon Appetit!

Braised Pork Trotters

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Braised Pork Trotters

My favourite pork trotters in soya sauce. Finally found a recipe that I think works, but decided to cook it the way that I like to. Sorry the photo doesn’t do the dish justice. But I wanted to show that I took a short cut when preparing this dish.

In a nutshell, everything was thrown into the pot without marination. Reason is because this is a braised dish. Braising means you got to cook it for a reasonably amount of time and that means load everything essential into the pot and let the heat melt the gelatinous fat and bond everyone together.

In the end, it was a very nicely cooked pork trotters. Done the Ho Sim Lang way. It’s so easily done, anyone can do it also.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 whole foreleg of Pork (i’m sure you know I meant Pig)
5-6 tbsp Dark Soya Sauce (more if you like)
2 tbsp of Light Soya Sauce
2 tbsp of Oyster Sauce
5cm length of Cinnamon Stick
2 pcs Star Anise
5 pcs Cloves
2 tbsp Castor Sugar
2 tbsp Corn Flour
5 pcs of Dried Shitake Mushrooms
Half a bowl of Hakka Rice Wine
Water (enough to cover the meats)

Method

1. Place the foreleg into the pot. Drop the cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves in. Add the dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, oyster sauce and rice wine in. Add in hot boiling water and make sure the water cover the meats. Boil until water is bubbling. Do a taste test for saltiness. Meanwhile soak the Shitake mushrooms in hot water. Once soaked, cut off the stems and slice and continue soaking.

2. This is the part that is tricky. You want to taste the correct taste before you let the heat take over. If it is not salty enough, add more dark soya sauce. If it is not sweet enough add more castor sugar. The reason why this is crucial is because you are allowing the saltiness of the broth to braise the meats. So it has to be reasonably salty but not too salty. After your taste test is done, mix in the corn flour (mix with some water first) mixture. Add the soaked mushrooms.

3. Cover the lid. Turn the heat to low and go read a book. After about one hour and thirty minutes. It should be nicely done.

Bon Appetit!

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Braised Pork Trotters

Golden Pomfret in Dark Soy Sauce and Rice Wine

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Golden Pomfret in Dark Soy Sauce and Rice Wine

I realized through much trial and error that the best fish for frying in a combination of dark soy sauce and rice wine is none other than the Golden Pomfret.

The skin of the golden pomfret it seems is rather elastic and hard to tear for some reason, much like the skin of the shark. Of course the shark’s skin is probably tougher. So because of this elasticity, the fish after frying still looks really presentable. Unlike the black pomfret or some other variety of fish. In fact the taste of the golden pomfret fried is delicious.

All you need is a little corn starch and it fries to a nice golden brown. Very nice. The interesting thing about the Hakka rice wine is that once it is added into the hot oil, it bubbles and kind of caramelises the oil into a sauce.

It is also the only fish that we would eat until it is left an unrecognizable carcass of bones. Steaming doesn’t cut it. Frying is better.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 medium Golden Pomfret
3 inches of Ginger (julienned)
Olive Oil for frying
Corn Starch for coating the fish
2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
3 tbsp Hakka Rice Wine

Method

1. Heat oil in wok, then fry the ginger strips under low fire until crispy and slightly brown. Reserve the ginger aside.

2. Coat the pomfret with corn starch, just enough to cover the surface of the fish. Heat some more oil, sufficient for the size of the fish and when the oil is heated, fry the pomfret 5 minutes on each side under low fire.

3. Add the rice wine, and then the dark soy sauce and allow the sauce to bubble until the sauce goes into the fish. Once the fish is sufficiently doused in the sauce, serve with the ginger as garnishing.

Bon Appetit!

Braised Duck (Teochew style)

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Braised Duck (Teochew style)

Braised duck or the teochew like to call it, lo ack  (which basically means braised duck). I decided that I would learn and make an awesome braised duck yesterday, and that’s exactly what I did today. Thanks to this awesome braised duck video that I saw on YouTube.

Grandma’s recipes. Totally rocks! I decided that I would adapt her recipe to my preference and style of cooking. I like using the thermal cooker, so my recipe works with the thermal cooker.

Are you ready? Here goes!

Recipe

Ingredients

1. Half a duck *chopped*
2. Galangal or blue ginger – 6-7 slices
3. Raw sugar – 4 Tbsp
4. 1 cinnamon stick
5. Dark soy sauce *tai hua brand, standard quality* small bottle can liao
6. 250 ml of water.

Method:

1. Salt the duck lightly and then wash it away. I skipped this step because I found it quite dumb. Plus I didn’t want to waste salt.

2. Heat the sugar in a wok until it turns brown. Make sure it doesn’t burn. So moderating the fire is critical.

3. Dump the pieces of duck into the work and allow the sugar to coat the duck. The grandma video say 8 Tbsp of sugar. I think it is too much, so I used half.

4. After you roughly got some sticky sugar onto the duck, you then add half a bottle of dark soy sauce. Don’t go and buy the big bottle and add half a bottle. It is not the same Ok?

5. Add the sliced blue ginger into the pot. If you don’t like the ducky smell, add more ginger. Or par boil the duck first.

6. Add the cinnamon stick. Then add water. Adjust accordingly.

7. Boil at high heat for at least 15 minutes, then dump the pot into the thermal cooker and allow it to slow cook for at least throughout the day or overnight. Up to you.

8. Serve with steam rice.

Bon Appetit !!