Chicken Essence ???

The Chinese comsume a lot of chicken during confinement, most of it going into soups and herbal concoctions.
It's one kampung chicken a day! Yup! One chicken to prepare only one serving.
Well, kampung chickens are the local variety of forest chickens that runs around freely. Let's say, it's a free range chicken that is not prized for it's meat, but for its qualities. It is believed that soup made from this type of chicken is more nutricious compared to a normal free range meat chicken.

Almost everyday, I take this during confinement, except on the days when I take double boiled hasma.

So, here's how it's done

1. Put in 3 slices of angelica (dong gwai) into a big bowl.
2. Cover the angelica with a small bowl.


3. Chop Kampung chicken into smaller pieces for easy handling.
(skin and excess fat should be removed from the chicken)


4. Use a cleaver to chop and smash the chicken parts in it's bones to break up everything.
(it'll look like roadkill)


Can u recognise what part of the chicken this is???

5. Put the "chicken" into the big bowl, surrounding the smaller bowl.

6. Put in 2-4 Tbsp of liquid (water - if u're using herbs, if no herbs, u can use ginger juice, or DOM, or ginger wine or Henessy or whisky)

7. Cover the bowl with a plate.


8. Prepare half a pot of boiling water. Place a rack in the centre.

9. Place covered bowl onto the rack. Make sure the boiling water is half way up the bowl.

10. Let the water boil for another 10 minutes and turn to low heat to slowly double boil the chicken for 3 hours. You must cover the pot!

11. After 3 hours, turn off heat, and let the pot cool down to an easier to handle temperature.

12. Remove the pot cover and the covering plate. Remove bowl of chicken from pot.

13. Remove chicken bits from bowl. (the bowl looks dry, but don't be fooled)

14. Remove the small bowl and you'll release the trapped chicken essence underneath.

15. Strain the essence to remove excess oil. The chicken essence is ready to be served.



**This can be done with other herbs as well, eg: Cordyceps. Just replace the angelica in Step 1 with prefered herb.

**If u want to do this in a double boiler pot, just place the small bowl right into the upper pot of the double boiler. Place chicken directly into the upper pot with the small bowl underneath the chicken. The big bowl and plate used in this post is used in place of the upper pot of the double boiler pot.

Lydia is eyeing the chicken essence..wanting to taste it..

But I didn't let her, angelica is not advisable to be fed to small children.

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Pork Trotters in Black Vinegar ???

Tomorrow will be Lyanne's 12th morning.

Today is just the 11th day, we're making it a day earlier so that there will be more people eating it. Tomorrow's Sunday, and Mike's shop's closed, that's why there's less people around.

I'm a Cantonese, and according to Cantonese traditions, on the 12th day, we're supposed to eat Pork Trotters in Black Vinegar. Some even give this dish away to relatives and friends as gifts.

It's not confined just as a confinement dish..
It can be served on any other day, just that on this day, the 12th day of confinement is celebrated with this dish.

** Be warned that I like mine really sour. Do not add the whole bottles of vinegars without tasting in advance.

Ingredients

1 Pork trotter (chopped)
300gm -400gm old + young ginger (how much depends on individuals and the intensity of the ginger used, skin on or off up to ur preference, smashed or not, up 2 U)300gm molasses sugar
100gm sugar (optional, depends on sourness of the gravy)
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp Sesame Seed oil
200gm Black beans
1.5L water
1 bottle sweet black vinegar (720ml) (Try half bottle first, adjust later)
1 bottle sour black vinegar (623ml) (try half bottle first, adjust later)

Method
1. Wash and dry black beans. Dry roast them on the wok on low heat until they start to crack. (this step can be done in advance)

2. Place the beans in a big pot and boil them in 1.5L water for an hour.
3. Meanwhile, scald chopped pork trotter. Drain well.
4. Heat wok and put in sesame seed oil.
5. Put in ginger and saute for a minute.
6. Put in scalded pork trotters and salt. Mix well and fry until dry.

7. Transfer (6) into the big pot with the beans boiling in it.
8. Boil on medium heat for 1 hour.

9. Pour in both black vinegars and sugars. If too sour, add in more white sugar.

10. Bring to a boil and simmer for another 10 minutes, and turn off the heat.

****** This version is very sour, just the way I like it. If u can't stand the sourness, u can reduce the amount of vinegar used, or just dilute it with more water.


??

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Caramelized Anchovies & Peanuts ???????

When I was a kid, I love this dish made by grandaunt. It goes very well with plain rice porridge.

� cup cleaned split dried anchovies (don�t wash them!)
� cup raw peanuts
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
3 Tbsp cooking oil

1. In a dry wok, low heat, fry peanuts for 2 minutes or until skin is dry and can be removed easily. Remove skins by rubbing them with fingers and blow the skins away.
2. Medium low heat, heat oil and fry anchovies until golden. Dish up.
3. With remaining oil in wok, return peeled peanuts into oil and fry until light golden. Put fried anchovies back in and put in sugar and soy sauce. Stir until lightly caramelized.
4. Turn off fire and continue to toss until nicely caramelized. Try to toss until warm and not hot, so that the anchovies won�t stick to each other later.

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Steamed Oyster Mushrooms ????

They taste sweet when steamed with some ginger.

Ingredients:
250 gm oyster mushrooms
1 inch ginger (cleaned and smashed, or u can either julienne them)

2 shallots (thinly sliced)
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

Method:
1. Clean and tear oyster mushrooms to smaller pieces and arrange on plate.
2. Steam on high heat for 5 minutes or until they wilt.
3. Pour away juices.
4. Heat wok and fry shallots in oil until golden.
5. Spoon over steamed mushrooms. Drizzle with light soy sauce.

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Chinese Chives Omelette ????

There was once in my life, during uni days... when I was left with just RM50 for the whole month for food and petrol for my bike. I didn't have the guts to ask for more from mom, cos I overspent through out the semester.

What to do??? I had to make do with just RM1 a day for food.

What can I eat with RM1/day?? Instant noodles? Nah, not a balanced meal, can't even afford to add in an egg..it'll add up the cost.

The solution? Plain rice porridge with omelette! Eggs during that time, cost less than 20 sen each, and 50 sen chinese chives is sufficient for 4 meals.... So, I'll make 2 big bowls of plain rice porridge for my 2 meals/day, accompanied by this omelette.... OKOK.. I didn't eat this for a month..but I'd say 50% of the time. I made other omelettes as well, preserved radish, onion, and my favourite, remains to be this one.

And at the end of the month, I was left with RM17.. even after paying for my bike's petrol! What a feat! But I dun think I want to challenge myself this way again. It wasn't voluntary.

I learnt to add in dried shrimps to this omelette from my sis in law's sister. It adds a whole lot of difference to the omelette.

Ingredients:

100gm Chinese Chives

3 eggs

1/3 tsp salt

1 tsp dried shrimp, very finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely minced

3 Tbsp oil

Method:

1. Cut chinese chives into very short lengths... about 7-10mm.

2. Heat 2 tbsp oil and put in garlic and dried shrimp, fry until fragrant and slightly golden.

3. Put in chinese chives and stir fry until fragrant.

4. Dish up and mix well with 1 Tbsp oil, eggs and salt.

5. Pour a thin layer of egg mixture onto a frying pan and spread it well.

6. Fry omelette until golden.

**

I like my omelette really thin..... Mine is 2-4mm thick only. Thin ones are nice for porridge, but u may make them thicker to eat with rice.

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Long Beans Rice ???

My mom taught me how to do this (conventional rice cooker method), but I improvised it with �. an additional egg� cos there�s always lots of oil left after frying the sausages, and the oil remains quite a lot even after cooking the beans.. So, I soaked up the oil (plus flavours)with a scrambled egg�. and I'm cooking the rice in the microwave this time.

2 cups long beans ( cut into 2cm long, I cut 13 strings of beans)
1 chinese sausage (deskinned, sliced)
1 Tbsp dried shrimp (chopped)
1 egg
2 shallots (thinly sliced)
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 � tsp salt

1 � cups rice
2 cups water (depends on the type of rice, but reduce it slightly as long beans release some moisture)

Method:
1. Heat wok with oil
2. Saute shallots until golden, dish up and drain off excess oil.
3. With remaining oil in wok, carefully fry Chinese sausage. Be careful not to burn them. When they are cooked, remove and put on a plate.
4. There should be oil in the wok, as sausages release oil when cooked. Use the same oil to saut� dried shrimp until very fragrant.
5. Put in long beans and stir fry for 1 minute or until cooked, but not soft. Put in dark soy sauce and salt. Mix well. Dish up.
6. Pour in egg into the same wok and scramble them (u can omit the egg, but I use the egg as a method to not waste the seasonings and oil.. haha).
7. Put rice and water into a covered casserole.
8. Microwave High 4 minutes, Med 6 minutes. Give rice a stir.
9. Pour in everything (sausages, eggs and long beans) except shallots. Spreading them evenly over rice.
10. Microwave again 2 minutes on high, 8 on medium.
11. Remove from microwave and sprinkle on shallots and mix up everything.
12. The rice is ready to be served.

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Pan Fried Oyster Sauce Chicken ?????

This is one of the easiest chicken recipe, done in less than 10 minutes, prep and cooking!

This happened many years ago. I was at my cousin's place. Her house mate's friend was cooking in the kitchen. And she taught me this recipe. "Ah Goh" Thanks for teaching me this, easy and tasty.



Very Very easy and tasty.

Pan Fried Oyster Sauce Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 bulb garlic (chopped finely)
2 chicken thighs (cut small)
3 tbsp oyster sauce (I use Lee Kum Kee)

2 tbsp oil (if skinless thighs, add more oil)



Method.

1. Heat wok, add oil.
2. Put in garlic and stir until it's fragrant but not golden.
3. Put in chicken pieces and stir it so that the garlic won't be at the bottom.
4. Allow the chicken to fry for a while before turning them.
5. Fry and turn chicken few times and put in oyster sauce. Fry for another minute and dish up.


Cooking time: 5 minutes!!!




Dished up onto a butter plate, they're cut about 6-8 pcs per thigh.

The garlic taste superb!!! Crunchy and fragrant in the chicken oil.

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