Fruity Nutty Chicken

The following is an adaptation of a recipe I saw from the T.V. show Poh's Kitchen. It's a Malaysian Chinese chicken stir fry dish with interestingly enough some fruits like honeydew added in. I like the bright colours of this dish as well as the different textures, flavours and the sweetness that comes from the fruits and sauce.

Ingredients

600g chicken breast, cubed
2 small capsicum (green/red/yellow), cubed
1 medium sized carrot, cubed
300g honeydew, cubed
150g toasted cashew nuts
225g tinned pineapple pieces, syrup juice drained
4 tbsp cooking oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed

Marinate (A)

2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp chicken stock powder
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
¼ tsp pepper (powder)
½  tsp sugar

Seasoning (B)

6 tbsp tomato sauce
6 tbsp plum sauce
1 tbsp vinegar
2 ½  tbsp sugar
8 tbsp water
2 tsp cornflour
Salt (optional)

Method

1. Marinate the chicken meat with the baking soda for 20 minutes and then rinse the chicken thoroughly (make sure that the chicken is properly rinsed clean of the baking soda). Pat the chicken meat dry with paper towels and then marinate with the rest of the ingredients for 10 minutes.
2. Heat up the oil in a wok over medium heat and sauté garlic till fragrant.
3. Add chicken and stir fry till almost cooked through.
4. Add in carrots and capsicums.
5. Pour in (B) and bring to boil.
6. Add honeydew and pineapple pieces.
7. Lastly, mix in cashew nuts.
8. Dish up and serve hot with rice.

Nonya Fried Rice

If you haven't figured it out by now, I like food and I like to eat. Which shouldn't come to anybody's surprise that I also like to watch cooking shows. However, I don't often cook what I watch on T.V. as most of the stuff that's cooked on the telly these days is too gourmet or fine dining for me. When I come home from an exhausting day at work, I don't want to necessarily be slaving away in the kitchen for 3 hours on a meal that will be eaten in 30 minutes and that doesn't taste nice reheated the next day for work. I tend to cook more easier, simpler, practical meals on a work night and occasionally on a weekend or a day off I might try a recipe that requires a bit more effort.

Watching Poh's Kitchen the other day, I saw her make a dish called Nonya Fried Rice. It looked quite easy to put together and the flavours of this Malaysian style fried rice intrigued me so much that I decided to give it a go and to my surprise I quite liked it (and so did hubby). There is a spicy prawn flavour as you eat the fried rice (that comes from both the dried shrimp and fresh prawns), with the refreshing and cool taste of the cucumber. The cucumber also adds a nice crunch and bite to the dish.

It's great to see Poh (the runner's up to season 1 Masterchef) have her own T.V. show and share some of her Malaysian recipes with the wider audience in Australia.

Ingredients

¼ cup vegetable oil
2 large red chillies, chopped and seeded
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 shallots, chopped
¾ cups dried shrimp, soaked in boiling water
10 green prawns, peeled deveined and cut into small pieces
1 ½ cups jasmine rice, cooked
2 tbs light soy
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp white pepper
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 telegraph (long thin) cucumber, quartered lengthways, seeds sliced off and discarded (for maximum crunch) and then sliced diagonally - about 2 to 3 mm

Method

1. Pound the chilli, garlic and shallots to a paste in a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, chopping finely will be completely appropriate.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok till hot and add the paste and sauté till it is rich and aromatic. (If finely chopping the aromatics, add the garlic first to the wok, and cook briefly, then the shallots and chilli and stir fry till aromatic).
3. Pound drained dried shrimp in mortar and pestle till shredded, or blitz in a food processor to a crumbly consistency. Add to the wok and stir fry till fragrant. Add prawns and stir fry till just cooked. Immediately add rice, soy, salt, sugar and white pepper.
4. Cook till rice has separated, and tender.
5. Make a well in the middle of the wok pushing rice to the sides. Tip in the egg and let it sit for a while so the bottom has a while to caramelise. With an eggflip turn it over on the other side till that is also nice and brown, then chop it with the eggflip so little pieces of it cook all the way through. Add the cucumber and give it all a final toss so everything is incorporated, checking for seasoning. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Notes & Tips

The trick to cooking great fried rice is to pre-cook the rice and put it in the fridge overnight spread out on a baking tray lined with a sheet of baking paper. This makes the grains stay separate and prevents the fried rice from getting stodgy when cooking.

Hainanese Chinese Rice

Hubby and I ate Hainanese Chicken the other day at a restaurant which inspired me to try and make this dish at home. The effort was worth the time in the kitchen. This recipe will yield a nicely poached chicken infused with ginger and rice cooked in freshly made chicken stock served with fresh ginger & shallot sauce. Hubby wanted to go back for seconds, but since I had only made enough for two, I should double the recipe for next time!

Serves 2

Steamed Chicken

2 Chicken Marylands
1 spring onion, roughly chopped
3cm piece ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 tbsp shao xing wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp sesame oil

Chicken Stock (makes approx. 3 cups)

2 chicken wings
2 chicken breasts, skin removed, roughly chopped
1 chicken carcass
1½ cup chicken stock
5cm piece ginger, thickly sliced
4 spring onions, green part only, roughly chopped

Rice

2 tbsp peanut oil
Skin from one chicken breast
Parson’s nose of chicken
2 garlic cloves, grated
2cm piece ginger, grated
1 cup jasmine rice

Chilli dipping sauce

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 red banana chilli, roughly chopped
1-2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
½ tsp peanut oil

Ginger and spring onion dipping sauce

¼ cup peanut oil
3cm piece ginger, finely shredded
2 spring onions, green part only, 3cm pieces, finely shredded

Method

1. For steamed chicken, fill a wok half way with water, place a wire rack on top, making sure water does not touch the rack. Place a shallow bowl with the chicken pieces, on top of the rack. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl to make a marinade. Place marinade over and around the chicken. Cover and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove meat from the bones or chop up if desired.

2. For chicken stock, place all ingredients in a medium saucepan with just enough water to cover the chicken bones. Simmer over medium heat for 30-40 minutes. Strain, set aside stock.

3. For the rice, heat peanut oil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Add skin and parsans nose, cook for 3-4 minutes, remove skin and parsans nose from the pan. Add garlic and ginger, cook for 2-3 minutes or until slightly golden. Stir through rice to coat in oil, add 2 cups of chicken stock. Bring to the boil, cook partially covered 5 minutes or until holes start to appear in the surface of the rice. Cover completely with the lid and turn heat down as low as possible. Cook a further 10 minutes. Remove the pan completely from the heat and leave to stand, a further 10 minutes. Season to taste.

4. For chilli dipping sauce, pound garlic and chilli in a mortar and pestle until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, stir through remaining ingredients until well combined. Spoon into dipping dish, to serve.

5. For ginger and spring onion dipping sauce, heat peanut oil in a small saucepan over high heat, place remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and carefully pour over the oil. Spoon into dipping dish, to serve.

6. To serve, place chicken pieces/maryland on a plate, top with spring onion. Spoon rice on the side of plate. Serve with the chilli dipping sauce and ginger and spring onion sauce.


Notes & Tips

You'll need 1 whole chicken for this recipe.