Steamed D.O.M Chicken

I have bookmarked this recipe for quite some time and yet have not have the chance to try it out. Since the DOM wine is lying in my cabinet untouch till now, I decided to make good use of it for dinner tonight. All the ingredients are very simple and it's basically 'throw' everything in the deep plate and place it on a steamer. This dish is good to be eaten especially during rainy days as it will heat up of our body due to DOM wine. I am practically sipping up all the soup from this dish. Yummy.

Ingredients

2 large chicken thighs
3 tbsp DOM (D.O.M)
1 inch ginger, sliced thinly
5 tbsp water +1 tsp chicken stock
1 tbsp wolfberries
10 red dates
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
10 chinese mushrooms, sliced thinly
salt to taste

Methods

1) Place the chicken thighs into a wide and deep plate. Line the bottom of the vessel with sliced mushrooms, reserving some to top the chicken.

2) Add in ginger, D.O.M, water, sesame oil, wolfberries, red dates and the rest of the sliced mushrooms.

3) Seal tightly with aluminium foil and cook the chicken on high heat until the water at the steamer is boiling.

4) Lower down the heat and continue to cook for about 40-50 minutes. Serve hot.

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Coca-cola Wings

I bet most of us have tasted Coca-cola in some part of our lives. Coca-cola or famously known as Coke is a carbonated soft drink which is loved by young and adults. Besides serving it's purpose as a fizzy drink, there's various recipes that had used Coca-cola as part of the ingredients too. Today, I have tried to prepare to Coca-cola wings for dear Hubby's friend's house warming party.

The process of preparing them was pretty easy. I had included some pictorial tutorial in this post as well.

Heat up wok. Fry the wings till it's golden brown both sides without using oil. Set aside.

Heat up some oil in wok. Saute garlic, ginger, spring onions, cinnamon sticks and red chili till fragrant.

Add in wings, Coca-cola and rest of the seasonings.


Let it simmer till the gravy is boiling. Reduce to medium heat and let it simmer till gravy is thicken.


Stir well as the gravy is thicken to ensure the wings are well coated. Dish up and serve while it's still warm.

Aren't the wings looks so apetising and tempting??

Ingredients

1 kg chicken wings
5 tbsp light soy sauce
5 tbsp Shao Xing wine

2 tbsp cooking oil
1 small chunk ginger, sliced
2 stalk spring onion, use only the white part
5 clove garlic, bashed
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick

1 red chilli

3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tsp honey
3 tbsp Shao Xing wine
350ml or 1 standard size can of regular Coca-cola

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Braised Chicken Feet with 'Tai Tau Choy' and Peanuts

Chicken feet was something I felt grossed few years back but for the past few years, I had been introduced to a delicious chicken feet in Ipoh and I had changed my perception about them since then. When I saw this recipe while looking thru recipes book, I had decided to give it a try. Chicken feet was a good and cost effective source for collagen especially for women. It contains high levels of collagen and we all know that collagen is good for maintaining beautiful skin by helping to retain moisture and maintain firmness. Good news for all the women out there, it's not too late to start to like them now.. ;))

Ingredients

1 pack chicken feet

150g peanuts, soaked in water overnight

150g 'tai tau choy'

1 smoked garlic

1 star anise

800ml water

1 tbsp Shao Xing wine

(A)

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

10g rock sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

Methods

1. Soak 'tai tau choy' in water for 30 minutes to reduce saltiness. Rinse and chopped.
2. Put chicken feets in a pot, add in peanuts, 'tai tau choy', smoked garlic, star anise, water and (A), bring to boil.
3. Cover and simmer over a low heat until the chicken feets and peanuts are tender and flavour fully absorbed. Cook till gravy is thicken, splash in Shao Xing wine, toss well.
4. Serve hot.

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Chicken with Potato

Chicken with potato was a must have dish for me when I was small. I love the aromatic gravy, the crumbly feeling of the potatoes every time I take a bite of it. Mummy used to prepare this for us as we can basically just have this alone with rice. Slurrp slurrp... It was always 'nasi tambah lagi' for me every time I had this. This time it was no exceptional at all. Hubby commented that I seems to have more rice yesterday when I prepared it for our dinner. Calories counter going up here... SOS SOS... I guess I just loved to eat... Piggy piggy me.. *paiseh paiseh*

Ingredients

500g chicken - chopped into pieces
5 shallots - sliced
4 cloves garlic
11/2 inch ginger, sliced
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves
1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
2 cups water
3 potatoes - cut into chunks
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
salt to taste
sugar to taste

Marinade
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp white pepper

Methods

1. Mix together chicken pieces and seasonings, leave to marinade for about 30 minutes or best overnight in fridge.
2. Heat up in wok. Add shallots,stir fry until soft and aromatic.
3. Add in ginger and garlic, stir fry until aromatic.
4. Add in in star anise cinnamon, garlic cloves, stir fry until aromatic.
5. Add chicken pieces, fry until chicken is slightly browned.
6. Pour in Shaoxing wine and simmer awhile.
7. Add in potatoes and just enough water to cover all ingredients.
8. Let it simmer until gravy is thickened (about 30-45 minutes). Thicken with cornflour mixture.
9. Season with salt and sugar to taste.
   

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Black Vinegar Chicken

Vinegar trotter is one of my favourite dishes. It's been quite some time since I had cooked this. This round I have used chicken instead of pork trotter due to health reason (less fatty). For recipe, you can refer to here. This dish still taste good though chicken was used but of course if pork trotter was used, this dish will even taste better. Okay okay, no more posting now as I am going to have my second helping of my Black Vinegar Chicken.

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Baked Chicken with Creamy Corn

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil

3 onions, sliced

1 tin cream style sweet corn

2 chicken whole legs, deboned, cut into cubes

4 potatoes, sliced thinly

Marinade (A)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Marinade (B)

1/2 tsp salt

pepper to taste

Seasoning

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp oregano

Methods

1. Marinade chicken cubes with (A) overnight.
2. Mix sliced potatoes with (B). Leave for 30 minutes.
3. Heat up oil and saute onion till fragrant. Put aside.
4. Mix all ingredients except potatoes in a oven proof dish. Arrange sliced potatoes on top.
5. Baked in pre-heated oven at 180 Celsius for 35 minutes.Remove and serve hot.

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Herbal Chicken

Chicken is a commonly prepared dish especially when it comes to Chinese celebration. So I guessed it's a SOP to have in my dinner dishes for this Winter Solstice dinner in our house. Since I am cooking all by myself, the simpler the preparation of the dishes involve, the easier my life will be in the kitchen. So here's another simple dish that I had chosen for the menu - Herbal Chicken. Just marinate, dump everything inside the aluminium foil and put on a steamer.

Yummy Yummy...

I had placed in lots of wolfberries as well.

Ingredients

1 kampung chicken

8 slices dang qui

3 tbsp wolfberries

2 tbsp ginger, shredded

Seasoning

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp Shao Xing wine

1/2 tbsp sugar

1 aluminium foil

Methods

1. Marinate the chicken with seasoning. Leave overnight in fridge.
2. Place in remaining ingredients and wrap in aluminium foil.
3. In wok, bring water to boil. Place the wrapped foil into wok. Steamed over 45mins-1 hour in medium heat.
4. Serve hot.

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Simmered Chicken Wing with Mushrooms

Another chicken wing dish as I had bought a cook book all about chicken wings dishes. I love the presentation of this dish as I felt this dish is very suitable to be served during special occasion like family dinners since there's plenty of goodies in it - e.g mushrooms, broccoli and chicken. I had took my own sweet time arranging them in a presentable manner - just like in the chinese restaurant but now we are having it in the comfort of our own home in Kuantan. JOM JOM Makan time....:)

Ingredients

8 chicken wings
8 Chinese mushrooms, soaked and de-stem
100g brocolli
1 thumb size ginger, sliced
1 stalk spring onion, sectioned
300ml water

Seasoning
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp Shao Xing wine
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

Methods

1. Blanch chicken wings into boiling water. Dish out and drained. Keep aside.
2. Heat up 3 tbsp oil. Stir-fry spring onions and ginger till fragrant. Add in wings and mushrooms. Stir well till aromatic.
3. Add water and seasoning. Bring to boil and simmered at low heat for 10 minutes. Add broccoli and stir well.
4. Lastly, thicken with cornstarch solutions. Dish up and serve hot.

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Nam Yee Honey Chicken Wing

For Nam Yee lovers, you can tried this type of marinades for your BBQ.

Ingredients

10 chicken wings

2 pcs Nam Yee

1 tbsp oyster sauce

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp malt sugar / honey

1 tbsp Shao Xing wine

1 tbsp sugar

Methods

1. Rinse chicken wings and drain well. Season with marinade for 4-5 hours or best overnight.
2. Placed chicken wings on the grill. Grill for 15-20 minutes until cooked thoroughly and golden in colour. Serve hot or warm.

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Smokey Sweet Sauce Chicken Wing

Smokey Sweet Sauce Chicken Wing ready to be served to our guests.

My second recipes for my BBQ wing - a sweet and garlicky flavoured chicken wings. For those who have a sweet taste buds, you can opt to try this flavour out as well.

Ingredients

10 chicken wings
3/4 cup brown sugar
6 cloves garlic, diced
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper

Methods

1. Rinse and cleaned chicken wings. Pat it dry.
2. Mix all ingredients of the marinade in a large bowl.
3. Add the wings and toss to coat evenly. Marinade 4-5 hours or best overnight.
4. Grill the wings on the gas grills for 15-20minutes until its brown in colour.
5. Serve warm or hot.
   

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Grilled Mayo Black Pepper Chicken Wing

My first grilled wing from the new gas grill. It was very peppery flavoured.

This is the first selected recipes for my chicken wings. The main ingredients used for the marinades were mayo and black pepper. The wings were infused with the black pepper flavour with subtle taste of mayo. Give it a try if you're looking for some new recipes for BBQ chicken wings instead of the conventional honey baked BBQ ones.

Ingredients

10 pcs chicken wings
1 tsp black pepper
4 cm fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp sweet soy sauce/kicap manis
2 ½ tbsp of mayonnaise
salt to taste

Methods

1. Clean and wash chicken wings and pat it dry.
2. Put the rest of the ingredients into a blender and blend into a paste.
3. Marinate the wings with the paste for at least 4 hours or overnight.
4. Grill for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.
   

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The Wings Galore

Chicken wings is always a must when it comes to BBQ session. Few reasons for it to be the must have items in the BBQ as the wings offers us a more juicy, soft and tender meat, easy to be handle and the meats were not too thick which makes our waiting time for BBQ-ing them much more lesser. This is also the must have items which comes into my mind while preparing for our family BBQ session.

My next posts - all about the WINGS..

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Chicken Satay

As I had mentioned previously that I had bought a new gas grill to bring back to Kuantan for my family BBQ dinner. I had searched for satay recipes as I always wanted to make my own Satay and now it's the opportunity to try making satay and utilize my new gas grill. Satay was one of my favourite food items. I always love to dip lots and lots of peanut sauce while having satay. Since it's home made, I had cut the chicken meats into bigger chunks as I love a more meaty bite for my satay.

Marinated chicken meat thread into bamboo skewers

Hot from my newly bought grill.

One set of my home made Satay to be served.

Ingredients

6 chicken thighs, deboned and cut into pieces

Spice Paste:
2 tsp coriander powder
4 stalks lemon grass
12 shallots, peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
8 tbsp cooking oil
2 tsp chili powder
4 tsp turmeric powder (kunyit)
8 tsp kicap manis
2 tbsp oyster sauce
bamboo skewers (soaked in water for 2 hours to avoid burning)
1 cucumber, cut into pieces

Methods

1. Cut the chicken meat into small cubes.
2. Grind the Spice Paste in a food processor.
3. Add little water if needed as the spice paste mixture.
4. Marinate the chicken pieces with the spice paste for 10-12 hours or best overnight.
5. Thread the meat on to bamboo skewers and grill for 3-5 minutes each side. Serve hot with fresh cucumber pieces.
   

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Curry Kapitan

Making this dish from scratch was worth it. The curry was very aromatic and fragrant. Now, I am proud to say that I can cook curry from scratch and not using packet sauces bought from hypermarts but there's a price tag to pay, NOPE, not $$$ wise but just some sacrifices to my blender. Since turmeric can cause staining due to it's colour, now my whitish plastic/rubbery part of the blender was now bright yellow in colour. I guessed it's pretty normal for those who uses it to blend their spices for their cooking. Since curry was commonly served during any house gathering, I decided to serve them as another dish to by fellow guests too.

Ingredients

(A)
1 chicken, chopped into pieces
10 shallots, chopped
100ml oil

(B)
100g red chilli
5g belacan
100g garlic
30g lemongrass
100g ginger
15g turmeric
30g galangal (lengkuas)
6 buah keras

(C)
125ml santan
1 tbsp sugar
salt to taste

(D)
1 lime, juiced

Methods

1. Heat up oil, stir fry chopped shallots. Add in (B) and stir fry until fragrant.
2. Add in chicken pieces and stir fry for 5 minutes. Add in (C), cover and cook until chicken become tender.
3. Remove and add in lime juice and serve.
   

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Steamed Chicken and Tofu Pok with Salted Fish

We decided to have our dinner at home for this New Year Eve. Maybe age is really catching up for both of us or we had become kinda anti-social; we rather sit at home and not opting to go out to join the New Year crowd. I really don't fancy the idea of sitting in the car and get stuck on the road since this kinda big event, everybody will be rushing out to have fun. Hmm.. So back to my post here, we had simple dishes for to welcome the new beginning of 2010. We had steamed chicken and tofu pok with salted fish for dinner tonite. I had been trying to get 'rid' of the tofu pok that had been sitting in the fridge for sometime now. So after looking thru recipes, I had found this one to try on. The end result was GOOD. It's simple to prepare and all the ingredients are easily available in the hyper mart.

Ingredients

1 pc salted fish

1 tbsp ginger, sliced

5 tofu pok, sliced

500g chicken, cut into pieces

Seasoning

1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

3 tbsp water

1/2 tsp corn flour

Methods

1. Mix ingredients with seasoning. Marinate for 30 minutes or more. Put the mixture into a steaming tray.
2. Steam at high heat for 20 minutes or till cooked. Garnish with spring onions.
3. Serve hot.

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Eight Treasure Chicken

I had made this specially for Dad's birthday in Kuantan since Eight Treasure Chicken have a name that symbolize good fortune and prosperous. The fillings inside taste good but the chicken meat was rather bland. I think it's better to marinade the chicken overnight.

Ingredients

2 pcs lotus leaves

1 chicken (app 1 kg)

6 cloves garlic

1 Chinese sausage, sliced

4 Chinese mushroom, soaked, removed stem, cut into quarter

120g Chinese cabbage, sliced

5 chestnuts, soaked overnight

10 ginkgo nuts

40g lotus seeds

1 carrot, sliced

Marinade

1 tbsp Chinese rose wine

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tbsp salt

Seasoning

1/2 tbsp Shaoxing wine

1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

3/4 bowl water

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

dash of sesame oil and pepper

Methods

1. Cook lotus leaves in boiling water until they soften. Rinse and wipe it.
2. Rub marinades except dark soy sauce on the chicken's skin and inside of chicken. Marinade overnight. Then wipe the chicken with kitchen paper. Rub dark soy sauce on chicken, pour some hot oil onto chicken skin to enhance its colour. Then rinse the chicken with cold water.
3. Heat up oil, fry garlic until golden brown. Pour in wine. Add all ingredients in order except lotus leaves and chicken and fry until fragrant. Add water and seasoning. Cook till cabbage softens. Thicken gravy with starch solution. Dish out and leave to slightly cool.
4. Stuff the dish into chicken stomach. Seat with toothpicks. Place the balance of dish and stock at the side of chicken. Wrap with lotus leaves tightly.
5. Boil some water in a wok. Steam over low heat for 2 hours.
6. Serve.

All filling stuffed inside the chicken

Wrapped up in lotus leaves.

I had used aluminium foil to wrapped the lotus leaves too since the gravy is leaking out.

Hot hot hot!

The yummy fillings inside once the chicken is cut open.

All ready to be served.

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Celebrating Winter Solstice at Our Home

This year is the first year that we are celebrating Winter Solstice (Dongzhi Festival) in our home. I had prepared a few dishes for Hubby and I to celebrate this meaningful day for Chinese. I guess as we grew older, we realised the meaning the behind this tradition. Thus I made it a point that we should try to celebrate it every year.

Quoted from Wikipedia: Traditionally, the Dongzhi Festival is also a time for the family to get together. One activity that occurs during these get togethers is the making and eating of Tang Yuan or balls of glutinous rice, which symbolize reunion. Tang Yuan are made of glutinous rice flour and sometimes brightly coloured. Each family member receives at least one large Tang Yuan in addition to several small ones. The flour balls may be plain or stuffed. They are cooked in a sweet soup or savoury broth with both the ball and the soup/broth served in one bowl.

I had prepared the Tang Yuan the night before as it was needed during the praying on Dongzhi and some of the ingredients for the dishes for our dinner. So wondering what we had for the special day. Scroll down and have a look. Though it was not the most yummylicious meal, but it was good enough as we had each other company for this meaningful day. (Sigh, it'll be better if DongZhi was made a public holiday, so I can celebrate the day with my family too but of course there will be compensation for it, CNY is coming soon.)

Cantonese Style White Chicken

Nam Yee Steamed Fish

Lettuce in Oyster Sauce

Of course our highlight of the night: a bowl of home made Tang Yuan (in ginger and sweet Osmanthus soup)

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Cantonese Style Steamed Chicken

Since Hubby originated from a Cantonese family, I decided to try to make dishes that his Mum used to make every time when we were back in his hometown for the Winter Solstice dinner. This dish is normally made available whenever we were in his parents' place. So in order to have a more 'home' feel, we will be having Cantonese Style Steamed Chicken with the Ginger Garlic Parsley Sauce. This sauce it so good that you can eat it on its own and also good as a dipping sauce for other types of meat.

One whole steamed white chicken

Garnish with spring onions.

Ginger Garlic Parsley Sauce

Ingredients

1 whole chicken

1 pc ginger, flattened

1 tsp salt

250g parsley

10 stalks spring onions, diced

300g ginger, diced

30g garlic, chopped

100ml cooking oil

1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp salt

Methods

1. Bring half pot of water to boil. Add in chicken, flattened ginger and salt. Reduce to medium heat and cook for 20-25 minutes. Remove and soak in cold water.
2. Cut chicken into pieces and arrange on plate.
3. Heat up oil, stir fry diced ginger and garlic. Sauteed till aromatic. Add in parsley and spring onions. Stir fry again.
4. Add in oyster sauce and salt. Stir-fry till aromatic.
5. Remove and serve with chicken.

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Pineapple Chicken

Our dinner tonight will be Pineapple Chicken. The method of cooking this dish is similar to the method of cooking Ku Lou Yuk (Sweet and Sour Pork). I'll prefer this dish with extra gravy to serve with rice thus I'll be doubling the amount for sauce the next time I am preparing this dish.

Ingredients

400g chicken breast, thinly sliced
150g canned pineapple cubes
1 green capsicum, sliced
1 tomato, cut into wedges
corn flour for coating chicken
oil for deep frying

Marinade
1 tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
1 egg
1 tsp curry powder
1 tbsp corn flour

Sauce
1 tbsp Thai chilli sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp chilli sauce
3 tbsp canned pineapple juice
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sugar
½ tsp salt

Methods

1. Combine chicken breast with marinade and season for 30 minutes. Then coat with corn flour and deep-fry in hot oil until golden brown. Dish and drain.
2. Leave 1 tbsp oil in wok, put in pineapple, capsicum, tomato and stir well. Pour in sauce and cook until thick.
3. Add in fried chicken breast, stir well and dish up.

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Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken

Nasi Lemak is an all time favourite food in Malaysia. It can be considered as the 'national dish' for fellow Malaysian. Nasi Lemak is a common breakfast dish, sold early in the morning at roadside stalls in Malaysia, where it is often sold packed in newspaper, brown paper or banana leaf. However, there are restaurants which serve it on a plate as noon or evening meals, making it possible for the dish to be eaten all day. As a true Malaysian myself, I love Nasi Lemak too thus prompting me to try out to make them from a scratch after tasting Mum's home cooked Nasi Lemak during the recent house warming party. Since I do not have a blender at home, I had used the traditional way to prepare the sambal paste by using stone mortar and pestle given by Mum. I think I should fasten up my process of getting a blender for my kitchen soon. It was kinda tiring using the mortar. I really salute my Grandma and Mum's generation who had been using this tool for their cooking during their time.

So after asking for Mum's recipes for preparing the Sambal Ikan Bilis and Nasi Lemak and googling internet for the recipes too, I combined both and modified myself to get the 'modified and extended version' of the recipe.

Ingredients

Nasi Lemak
2 cups of rice

5 pandan leaves, knotted

1 cup coconut milk

additional water (top up the amount till your normal water level for cooking rice)

2 stalks of lemongrass, bruised

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and bruised

Sambal Ikan Bilis

2 red onion

2 cup ikan bilis (dried anchovies), deep fried

5 cloves garlic

10 shallots

20 dried chillies, deseeded

1 stalk lemongrass, bruised

2 tsp of belacan

1/2 tsp of salt

4 tbsp of sugar

tamarind juice (2 cups of water plus 4 slices of tamarind)

Side Dishes

Peanuts, deep fried

Ikan bilis (dried anchovies), deep fried

1 cucumber, sliced

2 hard boiled eggs, halved

Curry Chicken

Hot and spicy Sambal Ikan Bilis

Fragrant Nasi Lemak

Methods

1. For Nasi Lemak: Rinse rice as per normal and drain. Add the coconut milk, a pinch of salt, and some water. Add the pandan leaves, lemongrass and garlic into the rice and cook rice.
2. For Sambal Ikan Bilis: Rinse the dried anchovies and drain the water. Deep-fried the anchovies until they turn light brown and crispy and put aside. (Leave some as side dishes)
3. Pound belacan together with shallots, garlic, and deseeded dried chilies with a mortar and pestle.
4. Slice the red onion into rings.
5. Soak the tamarind in water for 15 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind constantly to extract the flavor into the water. Use the 'soaking' water for the recipe.
6. Add oil in wok and stir-fry the spice paste and lemon grass until fragrant.
7. Add in the onion rings.
8. Add in the ikan bilis and stir well.
9. Add tamarind juice and the rest of seasoning.
10. Simmer on low heat until the gravy thickens. Set aside.
11. Serve with hot coconut rice, peanuts, ikan bilis and any type of your favourite meat (poultry, beef, seafood etc)
    

Hot hot Sambal Ikan Bilis

Hard boiled eggs and sliced cucumber

Deep fried peanuts and ikan bilis

Curry chicken as the meat component for my Nasi Lemak

Bon Appetit!

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