Sambal Kangkong

I actually did this with spinach but of course it's more well-known with kang kong. The pounding crushes the ingredients and releases fragrant oils that aren't released if they are 'cut' using a food processor or blender. This is the key to nonya cooking - the humble pestle and mortar. But of course, in this modern day and age, who has the time to pound pound pound? For me however, it is therapeutic - pounding away my anger and frustrations. But it took me a good half hour!

Ingredients

2 sticks of lemongrass, roughly chopped

Half a white onion (optimally, use 3 shallots), roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, roughly chopped

2 tbsp dried shrimp (hay bee)

4 dried chillies, soaked in hot water until soft and deseeded (This gives only a slight spiciness, go up to 10 chillies if you think you can take it!)

2 tsp balachan

1 tsp sugar

3 tbsp cooking oil

1/4 cup water

1 big bunch of kang kong

Method

1) Pound all the ingredients, going in the order given in the ingredients above, omitting the sugar, cooking oil and water.

2) In a wok, heat up the cooking oil. This may seem like a lot but the sambal will soak it up. Fry the pounded ingredients using a medium heat until the it has a shiny and slightly oily texture. Watch the fire as it burns easily!

3) Add the water. Beware as this will splatter and produce a lot of steam! Turn down the fire. Stir until the water is incorporated and it is no longer watery. Add slightly more water if it becomes too dry.

4) Add the tsp of sugar. If necessary, add salt. (usally this is not necessary as the balachan is salty enough but everyone's taste differs). Add the bunch of kang kong and stir until the vegetable is cooked.

5) Serve immediately with freshly steamed rice.

Chicken and aubergine casserole in a bean paste sauce

Feeling like an all-in-one casserole, and since I finally had my favourite veg, it was either cooking it separately and spending 1/2 pounding a sambal, or throwing it together with the chicken. Guess which option won? :)
Ingredients
1 aubergine, sliced
8 -10 chicken thighlets
1 handful wolfberries (optional)

1 thumb sized ginger, skinned and cut into small slices
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1/2 cup of water

Marinade
2 tbsp spicy bean sauce (I used Lee Kum Kee for mapo toufu)
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tsbp chinese rice wine
1 tbsp sesame seed oil
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp sugar

Method
1) Marinate chicken with the marindate ingredients. Set aside for at least 1 hour. If you can do so overnight, all the better.
2) In a casserole dish, assemble by placing aubergine slices at the bottom and sides of the cassarole, before pouring in the chicken with the marinade. Pour in the water. The water level should not be too high, about 3/4 way up the cassarole otherwise it may bubble over in the oven. You may top up just a bit if necessary, as water helps the chicken and aubergine to cook.
3) Add the garlic and ginger and finish off by placing some aubergine slices on top of the chicken.
4) Bake at 180 deg C for 30 minutes.
5) Serve with steamed rice.

Curry chicken in Pita

Been looking for different staples to try out since I'm a bit sick of bread and rice. So came across wraps and pita bread in Cold Storage and thought, hey why not. It would go very well with my alfafa sprouts in the fridge.

Ingredients

1 packet of pita bread (5 pitas inside)

300g minced chicken

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp tumeric powder

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tbsp curry powder

pepper to taste

1/4 cup shredded chedder cheese

Alfafa sprouts

Lettuce

Cooking oil

Method

1) Marinate the minced chicken with the soya sauce, tumeric, cumin, curry powder and pepper for at least 20 minutes.

2) Fry the minced chicken and be sure to try to separate it as much as you can, which tends to be harder than with minced pork or minced beef. Once cooked, remove to a plate to cool slightly.

3) Warm up the pita breads by brushing them with oil and then popping them under a grill or on a pan. Turn over halfway.

4) While still hot, cut a slit at the top. Fill it up with the lettuce, alfafa, chedder cheese and chicken.

5) You can flash it under a grill again just to melt the cheese. Otherwise, if you don't like 'warm' lettuce and alfafa, don't fill in the pocket but serve it on the side as a salad.

French Toast 2

After the french toast experience at HK Cafe last week, I decided to resurrect my French Toast experiments. A summary of what I did last time:

Experiment #1

Coat bread with egg wash, and then dip in corn flour and pan fry.

Experiment #2

Coat bread with egg wash, then dip in normal flour and pan fry.Between these 2, the different isn't entirely discernable. With corn flour, the flour amalgamates easily with the egg wash, making the coating slightly crunchy but smooth. With plain flour, the flour acts as a separate coating by itself and you can still see the flour bits on the bread, not so pretty. However, it's most crispy than corn flour, probably because it doesn't amalgamate with the egg.
Experiment #3
Combine the corn flour and normal flour into the egg and beat. There will be lots of little lumps.This was the worst of the lot, didn't make it any more crispy, looked ugly (uneven finish) and just made the bread a bit 'tough' to chew on.

Outcome:

So I think the best compromise is still to coat with corn flour. Pretty and yet slightly crispy.

This time I did something different.

Ingredients

6 slices of bread

4 eggs

3 tsp of cornflour

2 tsp of cinnamon

Method

1) Combined 1 teaspoon of cornflour with 1 egg.

2) Buttered the bread on both sides, using the idea from Bread & Butter pudding

3) Turn the heat up on high otherwise the toast will never brown. While I fried 1 slice (cut diagonally into 2), I let the next one soak in egg.

4) Fry until golden and serve with condensed milk or honey or both! :)