Japanese Soy Sauce Chicken

Found this interesting recipe from KC forum and tried it last week. The outcome is delicious especially the sauce. Besides the soy sauce flavor, it also contain the sweetness and rich flavor from the balsamic vinegar. I could be a bit bias because I love balsamic vinegar on everything. From savory dish to sweet dessert.

For this dish I used the lightly aged balsamic vinegar rather the thicken version which is best use for salad and dessert. I made couple modifications the the original recipe. I marinated the chicken ahead of time and remove the chicken from the pot once it looks tender to avoid overcook the meat. This is my adapted version.

Ingredients:

• 8 chicken drumsticks
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and bruised
• 2 dried hot chili pepper

Method:

• Marinate the chicken overnight with water, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and sugar.
• Place all the ingredients in a saucepan over a high heat.
  
• Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes.
  
• Increase the heat, turning the drumsticks frequently in the sauce, and cook until the drumstick is tender.
• Remove the drumstick and continue cook the liquid until it has reduced to a sticky glaze.
• Arrange the chicken on a serving platter and spoon the glaze over.

Lettuce wrap with Ground Turkey

Since I have some lettuce head and ground turkey in my fridge, I really want to try this healthy version of lettuce wrapped from Steamy Kitchen. Unfortunately, I totally forgotten about the green apple when I was out for my groceries shopping.As a result, this is what I end up with Asian Lettuce Cups with Ground Turkey & Green Apple. I replaced the apple with 1/2 carrot and omitted the fried mung bean noodle.

Ingredients: (click here for original recipe)

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 orange bell
• 1/2 carrot
  
• 2 scallions
• 1/2 yellow bell
• 1.5 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
  
• 1 tsp soy sauce
  
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper

Method:

• Cut all the veggie into cube size.
• Heat pan on high heat with cooking oil. Add ground turkey and fry until 80% done. With spatula, make room in the center of pan to fry the aromatics. Just push the meat out of the way. Add a touch more cooking oil if needed. Fry garlic, ginger, scallions until fragrant, about 10 seconds.
  
• Add bell peppers and carrots Cook just a minute until vegetables are slightly softened.
  
• Add sauce ingredients. Mix well and heat through.
• Serve with lettuce cups, fried shallot and shaved carrots.

I really like the taste of the wrap, you don't really need any dipping sauce to add on like the one you get from PF Chang. The only sauce you need to kick it up a notch is probably chilies sauce is what Steamy Kitchen call it a rooster sauce. Definately thinking of giving it another try with the green apple.

Malaysia Chicken Curry - Chinese Style

I found this chicken curry recipe from Kuali long time ago and this is my favorite recipe so far when comes to chicken curry. Before this recipe, my chicken curry tend to be very dry and oily, not much sauce for rice, noodle or even for bread. I get so frustrated because I love those dry chicken curry noodle I used to have at home and I love to eat curry with bread too. This recipe is just perfect for me, more sauce for my rice and it's great for dry curry noodle. yum yum!

Ingredients

• 750g chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
• 200g potatoes cut into wedges
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 100ml thick coconut milk
• 400ml thin coconut milk
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Ground Ingredients:

• 5 fresh red chillies
• 1 stalk lemon grass, sliced finely
• 6 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp belachan
• 1 candle nut

Additional Spice

• 2cm piece cinnamon sticks
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 star anise
• 2 cloves

Method

• Heat oil in a saucepan, fry lemon grass, curry leaves, additional spices and ground spices until fragrant and the oil separates and the mixture start drying out a nit..
• Add chicken and fry for 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in thin coconut milk. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes.
  
• Put in potatoes and cover. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until chicken and potatoes are just tender.
• Lastly, add the thick coconut milk and bring to a simmering boil for 3 to 4 minutes.( this is very important, add this thick coconut at the end but don’t let it boiled for too long, otherwise the coconut will turn into oil and you won’t get that much sauce you like.)
  
• Add salt/sugar to taste.
  

Abalone Chicken Noodle Soup

Does Abalone Chicken Noodle Soup sound luxurious huh? Believe it or not, this noodle soup is delicious and yet easy to prepare. All you need are:

A package of uncle Sun Sup Abalone dengan Ayam, some Chinese Shitake mushroom, some dried scallop and dried wheat noodle ( mee sua).
The package instruction said cook this soup on stove for 2.5 hours. For me, I prefer a no fuss cooking method --- Crockpot. Put everything except noodle in the crockpot in the morning before I leave for work set the to 10 hours cooking time. When I return in the evening.. voila.. dinner is almost ready. All i have to do is to cook the noodle and add them to the soup.

Steam Glutinous Rice Malaysian Style ( Lor Mai Kai)

Do you realized that Malaysia Loh Mai Kai is very different that Lor Mai Kai people served at the Dim Sum place in the state. The one they serve here usually wrapped with lotus leave and don't have a lot of ingredient. Malaysian style serve in a bowl( usually a metal bowl) with chicken, Chinese sausage, pork and mushroom. Don't recall when is the last time I had Malaysian style Lor Mai Kai and hubby never had one for sure. So this week, I made some Lor Mai Kai Malaysia style for him to try. Pretty satisfy with the outcome and it is not very difficult to prepare at all.
Ingredients:

• 500g glutinous rice
• 2 chicken thigh cut into 8 pieces
• 7 slice Char Siew(bbq pork) - slice
• 1 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), slice
• 4 black Chinese mushrooms, soaked and cut into half

Chicken and mushroom marinade:

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp ginger juice
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp Shao Hsing wine
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp corn starch

Seasoning:

• 3 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp oil
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

Method:

• Wash glutinous rice, then soak it for overnight.
• Marinate the chicken and mushroom for about one to two hours.
• Heat oil in pan, add glutinous rice and seasoning until well mixed.
• Grease 7 small-size rice bowls.
• Arrange mushroom slices, a few slices of Chinese sausages ,chicken and bbq pork slices.
• Top up with glutinous rice and press down with a ladle.
• Fill the bowls with water make sure the water level is above the rice.
• Steam for 20-30 minutes.
• Turn over the rice bowl onto a plate and serve

Grilled Sesame Chicken Drumstick

This is another grill production from my hubby except that this time I am the one who prepared the chicken. The recipe was from Zu’s kitchen. The pictures showed in her blog looks mouth watering, I just can’t resist myself from trying this. Instead if oven bake, we were grilling with our new grill. Here’s mine modified version.

Ingredients

• 5 chicken drumsticks
• 100 ml water
• 150 ml oyster sauce
• 50g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp 5-spiced powder
• 1 large garlic, smashed
• 1 inch ginger, smashed
• salt to taste
• some sesame seed for sprinkling
• some sesame oil for drizzling

For oven roasting method, check out Zu’s kitchen

Stir Fry Chicken with Potatoes

Lately I am the mood of blogging my everyday dish. Since I won't able to try something special during the weekend as much as I would like to, I think maybe i just start from my everyday simple cooking. This dish is my husband favorite dish. Not that he love to eat this but the fact that it is so easy to made. I remember every time when I run out of idea what to cook for dinner, I will asked him for suggestion. He will response with what do we have in the fridge. If chicken is one of the ingredient, his response will be "what about Stir Fry Chicken with Potatoes or Stir Fry Chicken with Cream Corn?" so here you go. Ingredients:

• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 scallion, julienne
• 4 chicken thigh, de-boned and cut into bite size
• 2 medium size potatoes cut into cube
• 1 tsp shao xing wine
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1½ tbsp oil
• 1/3 tsp salt to taste
• ½ tsp sweet dark soy sauce
• ¾ cups water

Method:

• Marinate chicken with soy sauce and wine.
• Heat oil in a pan and add garlic and scallion, stir fry until soft
• Add in chicken and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until chicken turn brown.
• Add in potatoes and stir fry for another 2 minutes
• Add in water and dark soy sauce. Cover the pan with lid and bring to boil.
• Turn the heat to medium and continue simmers for 15 – 20 until the potatoes are soft and sauce are thickened.