Hainanese Chicken Rice

In Australia we eat approximately 470 millions chicken a year.  That's equivalent to 20 chicken per person per year.  Boss man is someone who is out there to beat that average by miles because he loves to eat chicken.  And out of all chicken dishes, this Hainanese Chicken Rice is his favourite dish.

The chicken is poached gently in water till tender and juicy, the chicken rice garlicky and buttery (optional of course), combined with fragrant special soy sauce and lemony garlic chilli sauce… every spoonful is accompanied with a satisfied: MMMMmmmmmm!!! Even the little toddler knows it’s a special day when mummy cooks this! 

The following is my version- tweaked from many fun attempts =)

Hainanese chicken rice:

Step 1- for poached chicken:

1 whole chicken (reserve 2 T of chicken fat/skin for chicken rice)

Salt

Sesame oil

Cucumber and coriander for garnish

1. Rub chicken with salt and leave for 5 minutes. Rinse.

2. Place chicken in a pot of boiling water, ensure chicken is submerged in water. Partly cover.  Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium so that water is at a rolling boil. Gently boil for 15 minutes.  Turn off heat completely, cover pot, and allow chicken to remain in hot water for 20 minutes .

3. Remove chicken and immerse in icy cold water for 5 minutes.

4. Drain chicken, and rub into with sesame oil.

5. Reserve all poaching liquid for chicken rice, and soup.

Step 2 - for chicken rice:

3 cups rice

1 T ginger, finely minced (1 thumbsize ginger, reserve 1/3 for chilli sauce)

2 T garlic, finely minced (peel whole head of garlic, and reserve 2 cloves for chilli sauce, mince remaining)

3 coriander roots (reserve top for garnish)

Pinch of salt

1 T butter (yummy but optional :p)

1. Heat wok, fry chicken fat with some oil until chicken fat is slightly browned and fragrant. Add garlic, ginger, butter and fry until golden.

2. Add rice, salt and stir fry for another 2 minutes.

3. Transfer all ingredients into a rice cooker. Add coriander root, pandan leave, and 3 cups of poaching liquid. Press cook.

Step 3 – for chilli sauce:

3 red long chilli

2 clove garlic

1 t ginger

1 pinch salt

1 pinch sugar

1 squeeze from ½ Lemon

1. Blend chilli, garlic, ginger, sugar, salt, lemon juice, into a smooth paste.  Add a little poaching liquid if it’s looking abit dry. Taste and adjust with sugar, salt, and lemon.

Step 4- for special soy sauce:

1.5 T oil

1.5 t sesame oil

4 T light soy sauce

1 T dark soy sauce

1.5T caster sugar

3 T water

1. Heat all ingredients in a small saucepan, until sugar dissolves.

Before serving, cut up whole chicken. Serve with warm chicken rice. Comfort food at its best! Bon appetite!   

Stuffed pumpkin flowers

Have you ever watch any cooking show (Jamie O?  Gordan R?) that teaches you to stuff stuffs in the delicate, paper-thin zucchini/pumpkin flowers and then deep fry them?  Ever wonder why so fancy?  And maybe sounding a bit pretentious?  I thought so too....

But not if you have lots of pumpkin flowers growing like weeds in my vege patch!!!

Growing zucchini/pumpkin was my goal at the community plot this year. These members of the cucurbita family LOVE sun, which was why it was something I can never achieve in my shady courtyard garden.

I harvested some gorgeous yellow pumpkin flowers today- they are the large yellow male flowers- without the baby pumpkins attached. And made stuffed pumpkin flowers for dinner. There were plenty of leftover prawn paste, so I made fried wontons as well!

Boss man and toddler gobbled everything up in 2 seconds. Thank goodness I managed a quick snap before serving.  They are not just fancy but actually tastes great!

Stuffed pumpkin flowers recipe (original version by Luke Nguyen here)

4 pumpkin flowers, stems intact with stamen removed

150g tiger prawns (shelled and deveined)

2 egg whites

1 cup potato starch (or cornflour)

1 T fish sauce

1 garlic clove, finely diced

Sprinkle of dried dill

Vegetable oil for deep frying

Pinch of salt & pepper

1. Pound prawns in mortar and pestle into fine paste. Mix in sprinkle of dried dill, fish sauce, garlic, salt and pepper.

2. Take a teaspoon of paste and stuffed gently into pumpkin flower petals.

3. Coat each flower with egg white, followed by potato starch.

4. Deep fry flowers until golden and crisp. Place on absorbent paper towel.

Yummy dipped in sauce (fish sauce + sugar + chilli + garlic + lemon)!

Soy happy!

In the past, this is how I make soy milk at home. It's messy, and time consuming as you have to blend the soaked beans, stand in front of the stove to cook the milk, and I haven't mentioned the amount of washing up after! I love soy milk, but this is much too fussy.

One day, after hearing me out, my colleague who's from China suggested: 'Why don't you get a Jo Young soy milk machine? Everyone in China has one! And everyone drinks fresh soy milk everyday!!!'. I did my research online and was intrigued- all you need to do is add soaked beans and water, and the machine will work its magic. Wow! I wanted it, but it was expensive and I can only buy it online.

Fast forward 3 years later, I took the plunge and 'invested' in a soy milk maker (mainly because someone imports the product to Melbourne now and I can see it in person, and plus.... I have a soft spot for kitchen gadgets)!

The machine looks good and doesn't take up much space on my kitchen benchtop. All you need to do to get soy milk is:

Ingredients
1000ml water
1 cup of soy beans, soaked overnight

(1) soak a cup of soy beans overnight in the fridge
(2) add soaked beans and water to machine, press 'soy milk', then 'soaked beans'. Wait 20 minutes, and voila, fresh soy milk!

I experimented a little last night, by mixing in the following:
 
Ingredients:
5 Tbsp black sesame
1/2 rice bowl of white rice
1 Tbsp white sesame
4 Tbsp caster sugar
900ml water

(1) Press 'rice paste', wait 20 minutes, and voila, instant smooth and velvety black sesame pudding!!!

Boy was I pleased, and soy happy! :D

Confinement Food, Yum!

Chinese believe in the healing properties of post partum confinement food. After the birth of baby ε, mom fed me delicious confinement food - laden with ginger, sesame oil, and DOM for the entire month post partum! It was DELICIOUS!

I recently cooked a few dishes for my friend after she gave birth ... and the smell of the food cooking was just incredible. Reminds me of home and comfort.

I'm also thinking of sharing these recipes in a confinement food series, so do watch this space!

From Top clockwise: Chicken Wine, Chicken Wine kept warm in thermal pot, Pork trotters vinegar.

Baby ε's congee

This congee is baby ε's favourite. The chicken and carrots gives it a sweet taste; the dried scallops, sesame oil, mushrooms and anchovy powder makes it umami!

Ingredients:
250g of chicken mince
1 cup rice, washed
5 cups water
1/2 cup of enoki mushrooms, chopped
2 medium carrots
1 t anchovy powder
1 large Japanese dried scallop
1 egg
2 t sesame oil
small dash of soy sauce (omit if your baby is <1 year)

(recipe yields 3 portions of baby food)

1. Marinate chicken mince with the sesame oil and a small dash of soy sauce
2. Wash rice and dried scallop in medium sized pot. Add water to rice and bring to boil.  Add chicken mince.
3. Lower heat and let simmer for 30 minutes. Do not close lid. Stir regularly (every 10 minutes).
4. Add carrots, enoki mushrooms, anchovy powder and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
5. Lastly stir in the egg.
6. Let cool and store in 3 baby food containers.

Glutinous Rice Balls 湯圓 in sweet ginger syrup

Becoming a mom this year got me thinking of the value of rituals and traditions, and I would love to create some for our family. Winter solstice festival fell on the 22nd of December this year, so glutinous rice balls are the 1st Chinese tradition I'm starting us with! This brilliant recipe was passed on to me from my mom and aunties. Using a variety of sweet potatoes gives it lovely colour, much healthier than the usual food colouring.

Ingredients:
250g of glutinous rice flour (divide into 3 parts)
1 cup purple sweet potato, diced.
1 cup red sweet potato, diced.
1 cup white sweet potato, diced.
2 stalks pandan leaves (screwpine)
3 T white rock sugar
4 cup water
3 thin slices of thumb size ginger

1. Steam sweet potatoes in separate bowls until soft, then mashed finely or puree.
2. Mix glutinous rice flour into separate puree bowls until 'play doh' consistency.

3. Shape the 'play doh' into little balls (1-2 cm in diameter)
4. To prepare the ginger syrup, boil pandan leaves and ginger in water for 10 minutes. Lower heat and add sugar.
5. Put the glutinous rice balls into the bubbling ginger syrup. When the balls float to the surface of the water, you're done.

Tips:
1. If you could not reach the 'play dough' texture, try mixing in more glutinous rice flour if the dough is too wet, or mixing in some water if the dough seem dry. You'll get it in the end by process of trial and error, keep trying.
2. Use an ice cream scoop to divide your dough into equal parts, shape into thin rolls, cut rolls into 1-2 cm sections then shape into little balls.
3. You can also use steamed pumpkin, or any other fruits to get a variety of colours (beetroot?!).