Herbal Chicken

This is another of my favorite dish which I have modified from the more 'difficult' version. A relative taught me how to make the Emperor Chicken which uses plastic and foil to wrap up before sending it to steam.

I find the usage of plastic (the glass paper used for craft) is not a healthy choice as we are not sure if they are considered as food grade. Hence, I omitted it. Steaming the chicken the way I'm doing it now does not compromise the taste that much and it is a more healthy alternative.

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Ingredients

• 1/2 Kampung chicken (farm run chicken) - cut into small pieces


• A few slices of Dang Gui (Angelica sinensis)


• A few slices of Yuk Chok (dried polygonatum)


• 1tbsp Wolfberries (Goji berries)


• Salt


• Water

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Methods

1. Wash, clean and rub some salt to the chicken and place in a deep set plate.


2. Place all the herbal ingredients all over the plate and add in enough water to cover the chicken pieces.


3. Steam for 15-20 minutes until chicken are thoroughly cooked. Serve.

Sweet Buttered Prawns

PiggyBeng likes to buy prawns once in a while if he sees good ones in the wet market that he frequents. He knows the prawns much better than me so I will let him do the buying most of the time.

So happened while watching a food show on TV one weekend, there is this restaurant that prepared a very easy prawn dish which is also one of their signature dishes... I decided to try it out since we have some prawns in the freezer.

It is a little unhealthy but the taste was really good!

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Ingredients

• 300g Medium prawns (cut away the legs)


• 3tbsp Margerine


• 3tbsp Sugar


• Pinch of salt (optional)


• Curry leaves (optional)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok and melt the margerine. Add in the sugar and continue frying.


2. Toss in the curry leaves (if you have) stir for a while before tossing in the prawns. Stir fry till the sauce starts to caramelized. Sprinkle with some salt if you like it to be saltier as margerine already contains salt.


3. Serve.

Papaya Pickles (Jeruk Betik)

Sometimes I will crave for those pickles and if I do buy them from the shop, I don't get too much. Why? They could be pricey (as most are quite cheap ingredients), not fresh (only God know's how long they have been kept) and taste funny (don't know what other preservatives they added in). Therefore, I try to learn to do my own if I really enjoyed them... and if I could get all the ingredients.

One of such is papaya pickles. I love them especially if they are extra spicy! Yeah, I love to put cili padi (bird eyes chili) to give me that extra kicks which those store bought usually don't have. I have made this a few times and some friends have been asking for the recipes so I decided to share it here.

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Ingredients

• 1 Papaya (the unripe - dark green color)


• Vinegar


• Sugar


• Salt


• Cili padi (to the spiciness you want)


• Hot boiling water

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Methods

1. De-skin the papaya, cut into smaller piece before slicing them using a slicer (for equal thickness).


2. Once they are done, put them in a big bowl (non-metal) and rub them with salt and let it stand for a few minutes. This process is to make the papaya slices crunchy.


3. Then boil a pot of hot water and pour over the sliced papaya and drain away the water after stirring for a few minutes.


4. In a glass bowl ( I used a big corning pot) place the sliced papaya and add enough vinegar and sugar to your taste before putting in the cili padi.


5. Cover the bowl and stir occasionally. Once it has reached room temperature put them in glass or plastic containers before storing them in the fridge.

Pan fried Salmon in Homemade Terriyaki Sauce

I hardly cook Salmon now as they can be a little costly. My PiggyBeng don't fancy them as he complaint that salmon is too oily. While I was preggy with Darrius, I ate a lot as I read from some medical articles that salmon has the highest amount of Omega 3 which is good for brain development.

Then while I was in Jusco during one of my shopping trip with Darrius, I decided to get a few slices for the both of us. And this is my fish dish...

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Ingredients

• 1 slice Salmon fillet


• 2tbsp Light so sauce (preferably the Kikoman special fragrant sauce)


• 1tbsp Sugar (I used brown sugar)


• 2tbsp Water


• Few dashes of ground black pepper


• Corn flour

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Methods

1. Wash salmon and dry it completely with a kitchen towel. Sprinkle some light soy sauce and corn flour lightly coating both surfaces. Heat up frying pan and pan fried on low fire. Remove from pan when both surfaces turn golden brown.


2. Using the same pan, add a little oil (1tsp) and pour in the mixture of light soy sauce, water, sugar and grounded black pepper and let it boil. The sugar will caramelized after a while and pour onto salmon fillet.

ABC Pasta Bosco Soup

I guess I have been neglecting this blog big time! I have been extremely busy minding my  demanding 'boss' and also the long stay in KL plus my cupcakes e-shoppe as business was quite good when I was in KL.

This is a dish I concocted after our meal at one of these Hong Kong Char-Chan-Teng or eateries. Bosco soup is extremely popular among the Hong Kong people. From my understanding, this particular dish/soup has something to do with the European/Portuguese influence. It tasted very much like the minestrone soup.

Normally these eateries or restaurants where this soup is served, they will use macaroni but I am cooking for little boss so I used the Alphabets noodles instead.

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Alphabets noodles (boil in a separate saucepan)


• 2.5 cups Water


• 1/2 stick Carrot (cubed)


• 1/2 stick Celery (cubed)


• 1 Onion (cubed)


• 1 Tomato (removed seeds and cubed)


• 15g Silveryfish


• 2tbsp Tomato puree/paste (NOT ketchup)


• Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

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Methods

1. In a medium saucepan, saute the onion first with some oil. Then saute the carrot, celery and tomato cubes till fragrant and add in the Silveryfish and stir for a while.


2. Pour in the water, stir till it starting to boil and add the tomato puree. Let it boil for a while.


3. Drain the alphabets noodles and pour into the tomato soup and continue to let it boil for a further 5 minutes or so. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.


4. Sprinkle some dried herbs before serving.

Braised Chicken with Chinese Mushroom

Here is another easy and yummy chicken dish. I've always like braised chicken dishes as they are just so simple to cook and great for toddlers. Previously I'd put up a similar recipe but instead of chicken I used pork.

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Ingredients

• 3pcs Chicken drumsticks (cut into smaller pieces)


• 4-5pcs Chinese Mushrooms (soak and cut into half)


• 4-5 pips Garlic (coarsely chopped)


• 1x1" Old Ginger (sliced)


• Dark soy sauce


• Light soy sauce


• Oyster sauce


• Water

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with oil (2-3 tbsp) and saute the ginger slices and chopped garlic till fragrant.


2. Put in the chicken pieces and stir fry for 2 minutes then add in mushroom and dark soy sauce. Continue to stir before adding in water (around 1 -1.5 cup), stir and cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes.


3. Add in light soy sauce and oyster sauce (depending on your taste) and continue to stir.


4. Let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so before serving.

Spagetti with Chicken Meat Balls in Olive Pasta Sauce

When one cooks with a toddler in mind, there will always be pasta dishes as these are one of the kids' all time favorite. Like any other toddler, Darrius has also started asking for pasta or any noodles dishes. As compared to rice vermicelli or rice sticks, pasta or spaghetti are the healthier choice.

Though preparing such dishes can be time consuming sometimes, but when you see your kids gobble them down, the work are all worth it! :)

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Ingredients

• 100g Spaghetti (I used the wheat based)


• 120g Chicken pieces (use the thigh part as they will be more tender)


• Small section of Red and Green Capsicum (coarsely chopped)


• 1 Red onion


• 1 Chinese mushroom (soaked and cut into small cubes)


• 5tbsp Pasta Sauce (I used the one with olives)


• Salt and pepper for seasoning


• Some oil

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Methods

1. In a medium stock pot, boil half a pot of water with some salt (1tsp). When it boiling, put in your spaghetti and cook until desired softness.


2. Mince the chicken pieces and put in a bowl. Add in the chopped capsicums, mushroom and onions and mix with some salt and pepper and oil. Stir till they are well mixed. Then roll them into small balls.


3. In a frying pan or sauce pan, heat up with some oil and pan fried the chicken meat balls till golden brown. Lift them up when all are cooked.


4. In another sauce pan, heat up some oil and pour in the pasta sauce and stir till it is cook.


5. In a dish, put some of the cook pasta with the chicken meatballs on top. Then pour some of the pasta sauce over and garnish with some chopped capsicums.