chicken rice

https://thewoksoflife.com/hainanese-chicken-rice-%e6%b5%b7%e5%8d%97%e9%b8%a1/

Hainanese Chicken Rice (海南鸡) originated––perhaps unsurprisingly––in Hainan, China, a tropical island located at the southern tip of the country. In recent years, it has become one of the top tourist destinations in China, probably due at least in part to the abundance of delicious plates of Hainanese chicken rice.

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Hainanese chicken rice has become a famous dish (thanks, Anthony Bourdain!), but it’s especially popular in South East Asian countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. There are large populations of Chinese in these countries, and this dish crossed borders along with Chinese migrant workers.

While the chicken is undoubtedly a key component of the dish, I personally think the main event is the rice, which is cooked with chicken fat and chicken stock (from poaching the whole chicken). Normally, rice is cooked with plain water, so I can only imagine the reactions when people first taste this rice: eyes-popping and jaws dropping (to shovel in more of that rice, of course). It’s a luxury to cook rice using chicken soup, and the taste is better than plain white rice by a mile and a half.

As if the rice weren’t enough, the Hainan chicken is perfectly cooked, emerging from the stock pot (and then an ice bath) perfectly moist and silky. And on top of all that, you get to douse the whole thing in as much sauce as you want. In this case, there are three sauces: a chili sauce, a ginger sauce, and a sweet dark black soy sauce. This Hainanese chicken rice recipe takes some concentration and a little elbow grease, but the results are well worth the effort!

For the Hainan chicken:

• 1 whole fresh (or organic) chicken, 3-3½ pounds
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 12-14 cups water
• 4-5 slices ginger
• 2 whole scallions
• Ice

Wash the chicken clean and remember to set aside the piece of chicken fat at the back cavity. Transfer the chicken to a plate and pat dry with a paper towel. Lightly rub the chicken with the salt. This will give the chicken skin a nice sheen. Set it aside.

Bring the water, along with the ginger and scallions, to a boil in a large stockpot. Before adding the chicken to the pot, rinse the chicken under running water to wash away the salt. Carefully lower the chicken into the boiling water, positioning the chicken breast-side up. Now is a good time to adjust the water level so the chicken breast just pokes above the water (so you aren’t left with dry white meat).

Once the water boils, carefully lift the chicken out of the water to pour out the colder water that is trapped in the cavity. Carefully lower the chicken back into the pot. Bring the water to boil again, and cover the lid. Turn off the heat, and leave the pot, covered, on the stove for 45-50 minutes (set a timer). To check if the chicken is done, stick a toothpick into the thickest part of the drumstick; if the juices run clear, it’s cooked through. The chicken in this Hainanese chicken rice recipe is very similar, if not identical, to how you cook Cantonese poached chicken.

When the 45-minute timer (for the chicken) is almost up, prepare a large ice bath. Once the chicken is cooked, carefully lift the chicken out of the pot, drain the water from the cavity and lower it into the ice bath. Take care not to break the skin. After 15 minutes in the ice bath, the chicken should be cooled, drain completely and cover with clear plastic until ready to cut and serve. The ice bath stops the cooking process, locks in the juices, and gives the chicken skin better texture.

Trust us.

To cook the rice:

• Chicken fat, taken from the back cavity of the chicken
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 cups of white rice, preferably jasmine rice, washed and drained
• Chicken stock, from cooking the chicken
• 2 teaspoons salt

While the chicken is cooling, make the rice. Heat a wok over medium heat. Add the chicken fat and render for about a minute. Stir in the minced garlic and fry briefly, making sure it doesn’t burn.

Add the uncooked rice. Stir continuously for about two minutes

Turn off the heat. Scoop the rice into your rice cooker and add the appropriate amount of chicken stock (instead of the usual water. This amount may vary depending on your rice cooker) and salt. Close the lid and press START.

If you don’t have a rice cooker, you can follow these steps. When you wash your rice, let it soak for an additional 20 minutes. Then drain the rice and follow the same steps above, but instead of transferring the rice mixture to your rice cooker, transfer it to a medium/large pot. Add 3 cups of chicken stock and the salt, giving it a quick stir. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Once it boils, immediately turn down the heat to the lowest setting. Let the rice simmer and cook (covered) for 10-15 minutes until the rice is done. It’s not quite as foolproof as the rice cooker, but you should get a very similar result. Just be sure to keep an eye on it; burnt rice is no fun.

While the rice is cooking, let’s prepare the three signature dipping sauces. You can also start preparing these sauces while the poached chicken is cooking in the pot.

steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce

Steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce

the photo is with rice. As you can see,  it's a bit darker than the video because I also crushed the black beans.  Very yummy and tender though


Note: I only rinsed for a few minutes and not the 11 minutes called for.  I also just eyeballed the black beans.  The meat however was very tender and the taste was spot on.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReIyBD3Ir88

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/8hw139/recipe_dim_sum_spareribs_%E8%B1%89%E6%B1%81%E8%92%B8%E6%8E%92%E9%AA%A8/

Ingredients:

One of the rare recipes we toss out where the vast majority of these ingredients can be sourced from a Western supermarket. The taro can be subbed with pumkin, and the one Chinese-food specific ingredient (douchi, black fermented soybeans) is really quite available online. And in a pinch, those fermented soybeans could even be skipped – the taste wouldn’t be the same but the dish’d still come out great.

1. St. Louis-style Spareribs (腩骨), 500g: Cleaved across the bone into 1.5-2cm pieces. This cut that we’re using is from the very bottom of the ribs – it’s basically the same as ‘St. Louis-style Spareribs’. You can also obviously just get a rack of spareribs and trim em yourself too.
2. Taro (芋头), ~500g. Cut into either 1.5-2 cm cubes or ‘diamonds’. The variety of Taro that we used is ‘Dasheen’, but either variety of taro should work great here. Because Taro takes longer to cook than ribs, we’ll be pre-frying this… if ya wanna skip that extra step feel free to use pumkin in its place.
3. Baking Soda (小苏打). Baked for one hour at 150 centigrade. We learned this technique from a ramen video by ‘Alex the French Guy Cooking’ (great channel by the way), and it makes a spot on sub for alkaline water. By baking the baking soda, you’re turning it into sodium carbonate – a stronger base with a pH of about 10.5-10.75. In the video, we baked 200g of baking soda total and jarred up the rest (we’ll definitely be using this stuff again). If you can source proper alkaline water, you obviously won't need the baking soda!
4. One liter of water mixed with one teaspoon of the baked baking soda -or- 10g of alkaline water if you can source it. To soak the ribs. The reason we can’t just use a higher concentration of baking soda is that pH is a logarithmic scale. Something with a pH of 11 isn’t just ~20% more basic than something with a pH of 9… it’s exponentially more basic. Full disclosure that I’m no chemist, but I’m pretty sure that our baked baking soda is somewhere between 31-56 times more basic than baking soda. Regardless… even if my understanding’s slightly off somewhere, we can confidently say that in our tests the baked baking soda gave a much better result in the end.
5. Marinade for the ribs: 1 large clove garlic minced, 1 tsp salt, ½ tbsp chicken boullion powder (鸡粉), 2 tbsp sugar, ½ tsp white pepper powder (白胡椒粉). This marinade’s more for flavor than texture – more on that in the notes below.
6. Douchi, Black Fermented Soybeans (豆豉), 10g. In the interest of convenience we’ll just be mixing this together with the ribs when marinating. Besides this ingredient, I know basically everything else in this recipe can be sourced in a well stocked Western supermarket… these guys’re available on Amazon if ya don’t have access to an Asian grocer.
7. Coating for the ribs: 4 tbsp cornstarch (生粉), 1 tbsp peanut oil (花生油), ½ tbsp toasted sesame oil (麻油). So the cornstarch coating’ll give the ribs a nice soft texture, while also helping to absorb any excess moisture released while steaming. The oils help give the ribs some sheen. We use dry cornstarch so we don’t introduce too much moisture to the mix (some people use a slurry), so ya might need to add a small drizzle of water too if it’s clumping up on ya.
8. Optional garnish: a few slices of red and green mild chilis. You could also use a little julienned red and green bell pepper, or just skip it. As an aside, uh… don’t do what we did in the video and garnish before steaming – the green chili comes out pretty unattractive looking. We’ll talk about this more in the process below.

Process:

So right, the basic idea here is to prep the ribs by mimicking that washing machine. We’ll soak those ribs in the alkaline mixture, then we’ll rinse em under running water while stirring, and finally thoroughly spin em dry in a salad spinner. Once we do that, we can just marinate, coat, and steam.

1. Bake the baking soda at 150C for one hour. Now, no matter how much baking soda ya bake, you’ll definitely still get some excess – jar it up in an airtight container. Also, use gloves to handle the baking soda after baking… it’s not so basic that it’ll hurt you, but it could definitely cause skin irritation of you touch it.
2. Cut the ribs and the taro into 1.5-2 cm pieces. If ya don’t own a cleaver, you’ll prolly need to get the ribs from a butcher or an Asian grocer. For the taro, a bit more traditional is to cut it into a sort of ‘diamond’ shape (cut into strips and then on a bias), but either that or cubes are both ok.
3. Toss the cut ribs into a large bowl with one liter of water and one teaspoon of baked baking soda. Soak for 30 minutes. Stir it gently to make sure everything’s mixed. The basic liquid’ll both tenderize the ribs a bit while also helping to draw out the myoglobin from the ribs. After a half an hour, that water should really appear quite red if stirred.
4. Drain the water, put the bowl under running water, and stir for 12-15 minutes. In the interest of obsessiveness, we’re actually copying the ‘wash cycle’ here. Stir for a bit in one direction, then stir backwards. After 12-15 minutes, the ribs should look much paler and the water should run relatively clear.
5. Put in a salad spinner and spin for ~2 minutes. To mimic the dry cycle of course lol. The salad spinner’ll not only dry these guys, but the motion’ll help remove some of the remaining myoglobin. After about a minute of spinning, check the water – it should be a relatively pale pink. If it’s a darker red, give that one more rinse under running water for a minute and repeat. After two minutes of spinning, it should be dry enough to marinate.
6. Mix in the marinade, then toss in the douchi black fermented soybeans and combine well. Marinate for at least a half an hour and up to overnight. So that soak in the alkaline water did all the work we needed re texture, this marinade’s mostly for flavor. Because of that, there’s not much of an upper limit in marinade time – a half hour should be fine (for reference, in the video we let it go for about an hour), but overnight is also great. Whatever makes sense for your mise.
7. Fry the taro. If using pumpkin, you can skip this step. Restaurants deep fry the taro at a high temperature (i.e. 200C+) for about two minutes to prep it, but we opted for panfrying because I know we’re already being a bit annoying with all that rib prep. So add ~5 tbsp of oil to a wok (or cast iron or nonstick) and pan fry those cubes, tossing occasionally, for ~6 minutes. Then, up the heat to high and stir-fry for about a minute.
8. Coat the now-marinated ribs. Mix in that four tablespoons of cornstarch in with the ribs. Really to a bang up job mixing it, and word of warning that there’s a good chance it’ll clump on ya (whether it clumps or not’ll basically depend on how well you dried the ribs in step #5). If it does, add in a drizzle of water… really, no more than a half a tablespoon because we don’t want this to be too wet. Then add in the peanut and toasted sesame oils, and coat well.
9. Assemble the steaming trays. This recipe makes enough for six small bowls of ribs in total (really, opt for small bowls if at all possible) – should be enough to fit into two large bamboo steamers. Place a layer of taro at the bottom, then layer the ribs on top. For a touch of extra sheen, drizzle a tiny bit of extra peanut oil on top for good measure.
10. Steam for 15 minutes. The water should be at a hefty boil.
11. If garnishing… uncover, place a couple mild chilis/peppers on top, turn the heat down to low and lightly simmer for at least one minute or until you’re ready to eat. Dim Sum restaurants garnish in between the primary steam and placing it on the those steaming trays. Also, if you’re making other dishes to go with this, feel free to just let that keep lightly simmering/steaming at a low temp til you’re ready to serve.

Note on using a steaming rack:

So you can use a steaming tray with this too, but it might just be a touch of a headache to nestle in. Put some small bowls onto the steaming rack, and plate a saucer on top of the small bowl to seal it. It’s important to cover the bowls if using this method, as the steam can condense on your lid and drip down onto your dish.

Note on marinades:

So formally, there’s two separate things that we translate as ‘marinades’ in these recipes: shangjiang (上浆) and mawei (码味).

Shangjiang is a marinade that is used for texture – it most commonly uses cornstarch, but you can also see egg whites, baking soda, papain… etc. While we usually just refer to this as marinating, I’m 90% sure that the term ‘velveting’ is an English translation for shangjiang. (I haven’t really been able to find much on the etymology of velveting, unfortunately)

Mawei is a marinade that’s used for taste. An example would be to marinate fish pieces with ginger and liaojiu (Shaoxing wine) to remove the fishiness, or to marinate organ meat with white pepper and liaojiu to remove the gaminess. We used a mawei in this recipe.

In informal language, usually Chinese recipes simply use one verb (腌制) to refer to both. So I feel it’s less confusing to not differentiate em in English, cuz the word ‘marinate’ is similarly colloquial.

wat daan gai choy ( stir fried mustard greens with slippery egg)

https://www.malaysianchinesekitchen.com/wat-tan-gai-choy-stir-fry-mustard-greens-in-silky-egg-sauce/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=li6EjVWTqbc

INGREDIENTS

• 1½ lbs Chinese mustard greens (675g)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 3 oz lump crab meat or imitation crab meat (85g)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tsp corn starch mix with ½ tsp salt and ½ cup (120ml) water
• 1 large egg (lightly beaten)
• 1 tsp sesame oil

INSTRUCTIONS

• Wash and drain Chinese mustard greens thoroughly. Trim ½ inch off the end of the stalks. Cut the leaves into 2 or 3 bite size pieces, about 2 to 3 inches in length. Cut the stem pieces into half lengthwise. Stems and leaves should preferably be separated.
• Bring a large pot of water to boil. Scald stems for about a minute. Remove and drain with a metal strainer. Scald the leaves for a shorter period of time. Remove and drain as soon as they turn a bright green color. Press out as much water as possible from the vegetables.
• Heat a wok or large pan. When it is hot, add vegetable oil. Sauté garlic for 30 seconds. Add imitation crab meat and fry for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Now, add the scalded mustard greens and soy sauce. Stir fry for another 1 to 2 minutes.
• Pour in cornstarch mixture followed by lightly beaten egg. Stir for another 1 to 2 minutes. Corn starch mixture and egg will thicken. If it appears to be too dry, add just a little bit of water. Stir to combine. Turn off heat.
• Drizzle sesame oil over vegetables. Remove and serve immediately.

Brownies from scratch

https://gimmedelicious.com/easy-one-bowl-fudgy-cocoa-brownies/

As advertised, easy one bowl brownies.  Actually melted butter, cocoa and sugar and then mixed everything in the pot used to melt the butter... before transferring to baking pan

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup melted butter or 1 stick
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 cup sugar see note
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt leave out if using salted butter

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8x8 square pan or line with foil and set aside.
• In a medium bowl combine melted butter and cocoa and sugar stir until fully dissolved.
• Add eggs one at a time then vanilla and stir until well combined.
• Stir in flour and salt until the flour is fully combine. Be careful not to overmix mix.
• (optional) fold in 1 cup of nuts, raisins, chocolate chips or anything you desire.
• Spread in pan and bake for approximately 20-22 minutes or until the center is slightly set.  Be careful not to over-bake!
• Cool completely then cut into 9 large squares or 16 small squares ( I cut mine into 16)

Bagels

https://www.skinnytaste.com/easy-bagel-recipe/

A little bready, not very chewy.  but pretty good.  We topped with Everything Bagel as well as Honey Sesame Cashew - left over from the Trader Joes snack.

Easy Bagel Recipe

PREP TIME:5 mins

COOK TIME:25 mins

REST TIME:15 mins

TOTAL TIME:30 mins

COURSE: Breakfast, Brunch

CUISINE: American

This easy homemade bagel recipe is made from scratch with just four (5) ingredients – flour, Greek yogurt, egg white, baking powder and salt!  No yeast, no boiling, no fancy mixer. Bake them in the oven or in the air-fryer!

Ingredients

• 1 cup (5 oz) unbleached all purpose flour, whole wheat or gluten-free mix*
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (make sure it's not expired or it won't rise)
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (use less if using table salt)
• 1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt (not regular yogurt, it will be too sticky)
• 1 egg white (beaten (whole egg works fine too))
• optional toppings: everything bagel seasoning, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried garlic flakes, dried onion flakes**

Save

Instructions

Oven Method:

• Preheat oven to 375F. Place parchment paper or a silpat on a baking sheet. If using parchment paper, spray with oil to avoid sticking.
• In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk well. Add the yogurt and mix with a fork or spatula until well combined, it will look like small crumbles.
• Lightly dust flour on a work surface and remove dough from the bowl, knead the dough a few times until dough is tacky, but not sticky, about 15 turns (it should not leave dough on your hand when you pull away).
• Divide into 4 equal balls. Roll each ball into 3/4-inch thick ropes and join the ends to form bagels. (or you can make a ball and poke a hole in the center then stretch it slightly)
• Top with egg wash and sprinkle both sides with seasoning of your choice. Bake on the top rack of the oven for 25 minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting.

Air Fryer Method:

• In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk well. Add the yogurt and mix with a fork or spatula until well combined, it will look like small crumbles.
• Lightly dust flour on a work surface and remove dough from the bowl, knead the dough a few times until dough is tacky, but not sticky, about 20 turns (it should not leave dough on your hand when you pull away).
• Divide into 4 equal balls. Roll each ball into 3/4-inch thick ropes and join the ends to form bagels.
• Top with egg wash and sprinkle both sides with seasoning of your choice.
• Preheat the air fryer 280F degrees. Transfer in batches without overcrowding and bake 15 to 16 minutes, or until golden. No need to turn. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting.

Notes

*To make them gluten-free I tested them with Bob's Redmill 1 to 1 Gluten Free flour mix, see notes above for oven temp and bake time. The points are 4 SP each with this flour.

**Toppings may add calories and points.

Adapted from Bella Gets Waisted

Serving: 1bagel, Calories: 152kcal, Carbohydrates: 26.5g, Protein: 10g, Fat: 0.3g, Sodium: 434mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 2.5g

Blue Smart Points: 3

 

Green Smart Points: 4

 

Purple Smart Points: 3

 

Points +: 4

Snow fungus soup

Snow fungus soup

based loosely on the following 2 recipes
https://www.sharefood.sg/2018/10/23/snow-fungus-chicken-soup/
https://www.ahappymomslife.com/recipe/snow-fungus-soup/

1.  First I cleaned the snow fungus -I boiled some water and placed it in the hot water to rehydrate.  After it rehydrated, I cut away the stem and cut the rest into small pieces.

Here's a tip on removing the steam of the snow fungus after soaking it in hot water

Here are some tips to prepare the snow fungus before cooking. Soak the snow fungus in hot water till it softens. Remove the steam on the underside of the snow fungus as it remains firm even after soaking. Cut into smaller pieces and set aside for cooking

2. I cooked the soup base. I had turkey stock on hand.  I also added some rehydrated and sliced shitake mushrooms and a few small slices of ginger

3. I boiled those ingredients - soup stock, snow fungus, ginger and mushrooms together.  I seasoned to taste with white pepper and salt