Season's Fried Chicken

A new year! Like new clothes, a new year gives new chances to improve, to change and to be different. I wish all readers a best new year of possible impossibles!

I was craving for something deep fried such as salt and pepper squid a few days ago because I've been dieting and my body was screaming for something, anything, other than veggies and steamed fish. Couldn't get really fresh squid (hate the frozen ones) so I used chicken instead. My favorite part of the chicken is the drumstick and S & P drumstick seemed too bland. What could I season the drumsticks with that's not too spicy yet not too bland? This is not a sponsored post (you'd have noticed that I never do sponsored offers because I want to stay unbiased) for Season's seasoning mix, a product from Hong Kong.

Although Season's seasoning mix is called 'Spicy Bake Mix', it isn't spicy at all. I think the Chinese words 'salt baked chicken' was lost in translation The seasoning mix smells of Chinese 5-spice powder, a smell that always reminds me of Chinese grocers shops in Canada's Chinatowns. I know there's msg in the stuff, but life's too short to always eat right. The seasoning mix (there are five packets inside one box of mix, I think) is also good rubbed all over and inside a whole chicken (about 1.5 kg) which is then baked at 180 C for an hour and a half. Chop the baked chicken to serve a la Chinese style.

Although it's just simple Chinese shake and bake chicken, my jaded family was impressed, so I thought maybe you would be too. Great for times when you don't know what to cook when the family has eaten all your dishes too many times.

Season's Fried Chicken (serves 3 to 4)
3 chicken legs
1 1/2 pkts (or more, to taste) Season's 'Spicy Bake Mix'
1/2 t fine salt (optional)
1 1/2 cups plain flour (or an equal mixture of cornstarch and plain flour, or just cornstarch for a crispier and stronger crunch)
veggie oil for deep frying

1. Trim thick fat off the chicken thigh but try to leave as much skin on as possible. Joint the legs, chop the drumsticks into half if like ( I prefer them whole) and the thighs into 3 parts, making 12 pieces altogether.
2. Season the chicken pieces with 1/2 to 3/4 packet of the seasoning mix and the salt. Add an egg white and massage into the chicken. Cover and leave in fridge for an hour.
3. Put the flour(s) and one packet of seasoning mix into a clean plastic bag and shake to mix well.
4. Put a piece of chicken into the bag of flour and shake well to coat. Coat all the chicken pieces likewise.
5. Deep fry the chicken in 3 to 4 batches in medium-hot oil for about 10 minutes or more until well-cooked. Drain on paper towels. When all the chicken is fried, return them to the hot oil (careful!) in one batch and fry for one to two minutes. Re-frying makes the chicken crispier. Remove with slotted ladle, drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

Salty Chicken

Salty chicken

Xian ji, salty chicken (often erroneously called salted chicken, yen ji), is a tasty twist to the most common and popular Chinese chicken dish, 'white chopped chicken' which is simply boiled chicken. The Shanghainese often complain that white chopped chicken is too plain and so they season the chicken with wine to make drunken chicken and salt to make salty chicken.

This is an easy and quick way to make salty chicken. Instead of salting the chicken overnight and steaming it with ginger and spring onions, I prefer to salt it on the same day as I cook it and simmer it and rub salt all over when the chicken is still warm. This method saves you from having to prepare a night ahead, the chicken is tender and there's stock for soup and cooking. I serve xian ji cold, like drunken chicken, and it is a dish that never fails to get me praises. The only commandment I insist on keeping when making xian ji is that only free-range birds should be used. No dead white chickens from the supermarket. When the cooking is this simple, you must get the best chicken. I call my chicken farmer a day before I want the chicken and he slaughters it for me just before I collect the chicken at his house.

My friend Janet, who has recently relocated from England, gave me a box of smoked Maldon sea salt flakes which made a heck of difference to my xian ji. The salt not only gives a slight smoky flavor but also tastes great, without the sharp slight bitter saltiness that regular salt has. "Thou shalt use Maldon sea salt flakes to make xian ji" is now my second commandment for making this dish.

Laura of Florence, Italy once asked me how I chop my chicken into small pieces. This post is specially for you, Laura, and for all of you who have never chopped chickens.

My mom had only two knives in the kitchen. Okay, there were a couple more, but there were only two that she used daily. The most indispensable one was a  'dai doe ma' (meaning big female knife; apparently knives are feminine to the Chinese) which has a blade about 5"/13 cm deep and 10"/25 cm long. The other was a little paring knife. The doe ma peels, chops, slices, juliennes, minces, smashes, mashes and even lifts cut veggies from cutting board into wok.

Chopping a cooked chicken:

Joint the chicken into 6 pieces: 2 legs, 2 wings, breast and back.

Chop the back first, into 2 pieces lengthwise and then chop each piece into smaller pieces and place on the serving dish, so that they can prop up the breast. Plus it is the least attractive part. Instead of serving one chicken on one plate as is usually done, I've divided the chicken into half so that I can keep the other half in the fridge to chill and take it out if needed.

Cut the leg into three. Chop into smaller pieces and place on the serving dish. Remember, the idea is to arrange the bird so that it still kind of looks like one.

Cut the breast into half lengthwise. Here you get a better look of a dai doe ma, Chinese cleaver. It's big-bladed and heavy. Chops right through tough bones. 

Chop chop chop, making sure pieces are even (mine aren't because I tend to hesitate when I chop and that disturbs the chopping rhythm)

Yum

Put any leftover xian ji into a small pot or dish and pour in some chicken stock (from cooking the chicken) and Shaoxing Huatiao wine to cover. Chill until ready to eat. Yum yum yum!

Salty Chicken

1 free-range chicken, about 2 kgs

Maldon salt flakes (smoky or not, as preferred)

1. Rub about 1/2 teaspoon of salt inside and outside of the chicken, cover and place into the fridge for at least 1/2 hour (if longer, reduce the salt for rubbing later by 1/2 teaspoon). Boil a pot of water enough to cover the chicken. Carefully place the chicken into the boiling water, cover, and when the water comes to a boil again, reduce the fire until the water just simmers. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

2. Checl for doneness by plunging a thin skewer into the thickest part of the thigh. Let chicken cook longer if the liquid that runs out is reddish. Carefully lift the chicken from the water and place into a large bowl or pot of room temp water. Soak about 5 minutes (longer if making white chopped chicken).

3. Lift the chicken onto a large platter. Drain. Rub about 2 teaspoons of salt in and outside of the chicken.

4. Wrap the chicken in foil and when cool, put into the fridge for at least 5 to 6 hours before chopping.

Ginger Soy Sauce Duck Breasts

I posted this recipe years ago under a different name, 'Super Yummy Soy Sauce Duck'.  Since I now prefer to use duck breasts because they are all meat and easier to cook than a whole duck, and I like to serve the the duck slices in spring roll wraps, I'm giving the dish a different name.

This is a super easy dish to cook but it will impress your guests because they'll think it's otherwise. You need 4 ingredients only: the duck, cooking oil, sugar and light soy sauce. If you are serving the breasts with springroll wraps, and you should, or any other wraps, then pick up a cuke on the way out of the market. If you are really adventurous, make your own popiah wraps. I tried making the wraps but made a mess with the batter. It's another recipe to conquer, and when I do, I want to throw a popiah party.  House Of Annie has an excellent post that shows you how to make the wraps, here.

When choosing the duck breasts, look and feel for the larger, solid breasts (now, now) that are evenly thick from one end to the other. I was told that galangal (aka blue ginger, laos) can be used in place of ordinary ginger, for a stronger flavor. This is the perfect dish to impress anyone but best of all, it's easy to do.



Ginger Soy Sauce Duck
3 duck breasts, about 245 gm each
4 to 5 thin slices of fresh ginger (or galangal)
40 gm sugar
60 ml light soy sauce (Lee Kum Kee Premium is good)
100 ml water
1 T cooking oil

Serve with:
popiah wrap n cucumber strips

1. Put the oil, sugar and ginger in a cold wok or medium-sized pot. Switch on the heat to medium and stir the mixture until the sugar has melted and turned a golden color. Don't caramelize the sugar too much or the sauce'll be bitter.

2. Wipe the duck breasts dry with paper towels, place them skin-side down into the sugar-oil mixture and let the skin sear and brown. When the skin is golden and brown, reduce the heat to low to render more of the fat out. This will take a while. Do not let the sauce burn.


The sauce doesn't cover the breasts.

3. Add the soy sauce and water (the breasts will not be covered by the water), cover and let simmer 20 minutes, then turn over and simmer another 10 minutes. Remove the cover, turn breasts skin-side down again and increase the fire to medium for the last 15 minutes to reduce the sauce. If the sauce is not thickened after 45 minutes of cooking, take the breasts out and increase the fire to high to reduce the sauce until it is thickened but not too thick. Pour the sauce into a bowl and when cool, put the bowl into the freezer to get the oil to solidify at the top so that it can be easily removed. Leave the sauce at room temp until serving time. This dish doesn't have to be served piping hot so you can make it hours ahead but keep it well-covered so that it doesn't dry out.

4. Slice the duck breasts thinly and serve with popiah wraps, cucumber strips and the sauce.

Spice Pyramid

"The Nick Munro mould has more possibilities than 31 X 10!"


Konnyaku spice pyramid of cardamons, star anise, tangerine peel, several kinds of peppercorns, cinnamon bark and dried red chili. If using water or chicken stock without a gelling agent, the spice pyramid can go into the curry pot.

I think all the other 9 bloggers in the Royal Selangor Pewter Jellyriffic Challenge are just as caught up in squeezing their cerebrum for creativity and imagination as I am. While cooking soy sauce chicken a few days ago, I thought it would be fun to use the Nick Munro mould to freeze all the spices for one of my best recipes, soy sauce chicken. The liquid would be chicken stock and the whole frozen spice pyramid can be kept in the freezer and thrown into the pot when needed. But is HOT here so ice would just melt before I can take enough photos for my post.  But I liked the idea of a spice pyramid and if I can't cook with it, I thought, I can use it as a centre piece for a special dinner.

I have problems using gelatine powder because gelatine jellies go soft quickly in hot weather and are delicate and tricky to turn out from the mould. Agar is a much better choice for hot weather (now I know why agar is the preferred gelling agent in tropical South East Asia besides the fact that it is made from seaweed and not the bones and skins of animals, making it halal and kosher) because it gels at room temperature and doesn't melt even in very warm conditions. Agar, however, is slightly cloudy compared to gelatine. Konnyaku, a gelling agent made from a Japanese potato, like agar, doesn't melt in hot weather and is clear when set. Perfect for my pyramid. I'm telling you, I'm enjoying all these jelly experiments. It reminds me of chemistry and the best part is I don't have to write any chemical equations. The bad part for me is the photography--too stressful. The other drawback is I think my family (and our fridge) is reeling from jelly overload--they have to eat all the jellies, good or bad.


Groaning with jelly stuff.


The mould perks (that's right, perks) up my kitchen window.

Don't you think the spice pyramid looks pretty and fun as a center piece, perhaps for a curry party or in my case, a soy sauce chicken dinner? 

Spice Pyramid
2 teaspoons konnyaku powder (to make a hard jelly)
a pinch of citric acid
200 ml water
spices: cinnamon bark, cardamons, Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, dried orange peel etc

Method:
1. Put the water into a small, thin-based metal pot. Scatter (as wide and thinly as possible to prevent clumping) the konnyaku powder over the water and wait 2 minutes for it to soften. Heat gently, stirring all the time until agar is melted. You can use it straightaway as it will solidify quickly.
2. Rinse and place a Munro mould into a mug. Ladle 1/2 tablespoon of the molten jelly into the mould and leave in fridge to set.
3. Take mould out, place a mixture of spices and a bit of molten jelly just to cover. If you put too much, the spices'll float. Leave in fridge again to set. Repeat until mould is topped up.

Note: Make sure that the mould when full is level or jelly will lean when turned out. You may have to re-heat the jelly as it solidifies at room temperature. If you plan to freeze the pyramid for cooking later, I think using chicken stock is a good idea.

Gong Bao Ji Ding

The spicy Sichuan dish gong bao ji ding (Gong Bao's--whoever he was--chicken bits) is equivalent to the Cantonese gu lao rou (sweet and sour pork) in terms of popularity. Chinese restaurants in the USA in particular will without fail have gong bao ji ding, gu lao rou and beef with black soy beans on their menus.

I used to cook this dish until I taught my MIL who then cooked it so well that I gave up cooking it. Through the years however, MIL's gong bao ji ding has evolved according to my FIL's taste and she now makes the dish a mild version with lots of soy sauce, Shanghai-style, so recently I started cooking my version again and since she doesn't read my blog, I'll declare that my version is not only better than hers but also better than all the restaurants in this town because their gong bao ji ding are a black sticky mess of burnt chilies and a few chunks of chicken. I dare say that this recipe is so fool proof that there's no need for tweaking. You just need to know how to fry the ingredients to get them at their best flavor and texture.


Sichuan dried chilies are smaller than our red chilies and much hotter too. Next to the chilies are Sichuan peppercorns, best if straight from Sichuan because they loose their fiery numbness with time and bad storage. The peppercorns should be kept in a glass bottle in the fridge.

What makes a gong bao ji ding better than just good? Firstly, it must not only taste good but look right too. By that I mean the dish must look dark, not pale, and the sauce must be thick, not watery yet not starchy. Secondly, chicken chunks should be small so that there's greater surface area for the sauce to coat and for that, the sauce must be caramelized enough to cling to the chicken. If the sauce is thickened mainly by cornstarch, it will not have that caramelized soy sauce flavor and thickness. I do add a very small amount of cornstarch to hasten the thickening but not so much that the sauce is starchy. Thirdly, the chilies--preferably Sichuan dried chilies because they are packed with heat and capsicum fragrance--must be done just right: crispy yet not burnt. I'm not particular about the Sichuan peppercorns; this dish is good even without those numbing explosives. Fourthly, the nuts. Some restaurants, especially the upscale ones, use cashew nuts instead of peanuts. I've tried using cashew nuts but found that the dish is far better with peanuts. This is a dish that you pick at with chopsticks, savoring the sauce-covered chicken or leeks or nuts and perhaps washing them down with a cold beer. Cashew nuts just fill the stomach up too quickly compared to peanuts. Finally, the chicken. Even when you get the sauce right, you fail if the chicken turns out tough or dry. To make sure that doesn't happen, marinade the chicken in egg white and cornflour a few hours ahead of cooking and do not overcook. I like to use chicken breasts for this dish because they are very tender when cooked right. Also, keep to the exact amount of chicken and other ingredients. If you want two portions, fry each portion separately. I've tried the easy way out once or twice, using more chicken and other ingredients instead of frying in two batches and while it's okay, it's not superb. Follow the recipe and you'll get a super superb gong bao ji.

Gong bao ji ding is best piping hot and I like to cook it when my guests are seated at the table. It's a simple dish but you may need to practice cooking it before it's perfect.


Gong Bao Ji Ding
250 gm skinless chicken breast (one side of a large breast)
3/4 cup dried chilies (if big, cut into 3 cm lengths)
1 t Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
3/4 cup Chinese leeks, cut diagonally about 2 cm long
1 large handful (50 gm) fried peanuts
2 t finely chopped garlic
2 t finely chopped ginger

Chicken marinade:
2 t cornflour
1 small egg white
a few shakes of white pepper
2 T rice wine
1/4 t of salt

The sauce:
1/2 T white rice vinegar
1 1/2* T black soy sauce (Lee Kum Kee is good)
1 1/2 t castor sugar
1 1/2 T chicken stock or water
1/2 t cornflour
*or 2 T if you like a darker dish
--mix all the sauce ingredients together until the sugar is dissolved

1. Cut the chicken breast into small chunks, about 1.5 to 2 cm square. Massage marinade into the chicken with your hands, cover and leave in fridge for at least 1 hour.

2. Heat 1 cup veg oil in a wok, add the chicken and spread it out into a single layer. When chicken has turned white at the sides (high heat), turn over and stir. Do not overcook. I check by cutting one piece of chicken with the frying ladle. It should take about 1 minute only, less if the fire's very hot. Remove chicken onto a plate, leaving the oil in the wok.

3. Pour away the oil into a metal or ceramic bowl until about 3 T is left in the wok.

4. Fry the chilies, in very low heat, until crisp but not burnt (be careful, dried chilies burn quickly). Remove. Pour away all the oil because it is chili-hot. You can keep the chili oil for other dishes.

5. Add 1 T of the oil used for frying the chicken to the same wok (this IS a greasy dish; be brave) and throw in the leeks, stir until they turn bright green. You can remove the leeks onto the chicken or push them aside in the wok and proceed to the next step. Add the garlic, ginger and Sichuan peppercorns (if using) to the wok, stir a couple of seconds. Pour the sauce into the wok, stirring all the time at high heat. When the sauce is very dark and thick, add the chicken, chilies and leeks, stir quickly, then add the peanuts and dish up. That's it. Serve straightaway.

Duck Breasts In Hoisin-Plum Sauce

Pan-fried to render the oil and finished in the oven to crisp the skin.


Duck breast with hoisin plum sauce.


Duck breast on pancakes, a la Peking Duck style.

Today's a public holiday, the Ka'amatan or Rice Harvest Festival. For lunch, I cooked duck breasts with hoisin-plum sauce. This was the second time I cooked duck breasts. It was only recently that I found duck breasts at Hong Seng, the cold storage mart in Damai. At about RM8/USD2.60 per piece, duck breasts are  much cheaper than beef or lamb. And easier to cook and fancier too.

The first time I cooked duck breasts, I pan-fried them until they were nearly done. The meat was slightly pink, moist and sweet. This time, I decided that frying four breasts in two batches just takes too long so I fried them until half-done (7 minutes each side) and finished them in the oven. However, I was distracted and the breasts were in the oven for a good 20 minutes instead of 7 minutes. Duck breasts, as you know, are best slightly underdone. Anyway, although the duck breasts were a slight disaster, my Peking duck pancakes were good--  they popped apart. That was great, because I've always had difficulty pulling the pancakes apart. Now I know that the reason my pancakes were always stuck together was because they were underdone. That, or maybe because they used to stick together because I've always used my finger to smear oil on the pancakes but this time I used a brush. Oh, and another good thing about today's cooking experiment was that I found that potatoes fried in duck fat is heavenly! I saw cans of duck fat in Europe and imagined that they were rather gross, but oil rendered from the duck breasts didn't smell ducky at all and somehow made better potatoes than even butter. Wow. I actually preferred the potatoes in duck oil to the duck.

Duck Breasts In Hoisin-Plum Sauce
One breast per person is good. Score the skin (for easier rendering of the fat) and pan-fry the breasts, skin-side down, two each time, without any oil in the pan. In no time, the breasts will be swimming in oil. Halfway through, after 7 minutes on each side in medium heat (I actually cooked the breasts on low heat but I think medium heat will render even more fat out and make the skin crispier), season the breasts with coarse salt and pepper (black or white or even Sichuan peps is good), pop the breasts into the pre-heated oven at 200 C for another 7 minutes or so. Remove and let rest for 5 minutes. Slice thinly (mine were too thick). Spoon some sauce onto a plate, place duck slices over the sauce and serve. If serving with potatoes, boil the potatoes until just done, cut into smaller pieces and then fry in the rendered duck oil until golden. Season with salt and pepper.

For the sauce, just heat 1 spoon of hoisin sauce with 1/2 spoon of plum sauce for one breast.

Peking Duck Pancakes
1. Put 1 cup plain flour into a bowl and add 1/4 cup boiling water. Stir quickly with a pair of wooden chopsticks or fork, until small lumps form. After 30 seconds of cooling, gather dough into a ball and knead until smooth. If too sticky, add more flour and if too dry, add a little bit more water. Cover and let dough rest about 30 minutes.

2. Roll dough into a long cylindrical shape and break into even number of small pieces about twice the size of your thumb. Dust well with flour.

3. Take two pieces of dough, roll each into a ball and press to flatten into a disc/circle. Brush oil liberally (veg or sesame oil) on one disc and press the other piece on top, placing it slightly askew so that it'll be easier to see when you pull them apart. This is a very clever space-saving way of frying two pancakes at once, allowing more pancakes to be fried.

4. Roll (make sure not to press too hard or pancakes'll not pull apart easily) into a thin pancake and fry, without oil, in a non-stick pan until it turns slightly transparent on both sides, about 1 minute each side over low heat. Do not fry until golden or scorched. When cool, pull apart. Keep covered with a cloth as you work on the rest of the dough.

Karaage Chicken

Karaage chicken is just chicken nuggets, Japanese style. I suppose the only difference about Japanese chicken nuggets is in the seasoning, which is just light soy sauce, sake or mirin and some ginger juice. The coating flour can be corn or potato starch. Cornstarch is the flour of choice for Chinese cooking because it makes very crispy coating that stays crispy longer and doesn't brown as quickly as plain flour. The Japanese seems to prefer potato starch which makes very light, flaky and crisp coating but it doesn't stay crisp too long in humid weather so it's best to serve the nuggets as soon as they come out of the oil. The fried flakes that come off in the oil do taste like bits of potato chips. To cut the grease and freshen the palate, serve karaage chicken with some chilled cucumber slices.

Here's a very useful little gadget that I picked up in Tsukiji Market, Tokyo years ago. It's a ceramic plate that you can use to grate ginger, horseradish, tumeric and so on. The grated ginger is superfine and soft and I can get nearly a whole teaspoon of juice from a little thumb-sized knob of ginger.




Only about 7 cm from mouth to tail, this little grater plate is very handy and efficient.

Karaage Chicken
400 gm (2 deboned chicken legs or breasts, skin on is tastier)
juice from a small knob of ginger (size of the first joint of your thumb)
3 to 3 1/2T Kikkoman light soy sauce (to your liking)
1 T sake or mirin
3/4 cup potato starch or cornstarch
oil for frying
serve with: lemon wedges. mayo
garnish: cucumber slices

1. Cut the chicken into small bite-size pieces and marinade with the soy sauce, ginger juice and and sake/mirin for about 20 minutes minimum.

2. Coat each piece of chicken in the flour, pressing firmly to coat well.

3. Heat oil in a wok or fryer and fry the nuggets a few pieces at a time in high heat for about 1/2 minute, then turn down to medium heat to finish cooking. As with all food with flour-coating, a second frying will further crisp the coating or skin  but remember to do that in very hot oil and for a brief half minute or the meat'll dry out.

4. Drain on paper towels and serve hot as an appetizer with lemon wedges, Japanese mayo and cucumber slices.

Sandstorm/Windsand Chicken

Sandstorm chicken, two years ago.

Two years ago, I posted this recipe based on a dish I ate in a restaurant. Since then, I've improved on the recipe and so I'm posting it again, totally fine-tuned.

Here's my version of Moon Bell's sandstorm chicken. Behind the dramatic name, it's basically deep-fried cumin-flavored chicken. My China Chinese friends have not heard of sandstorm or storm sand chicken so I am not sure if this is a common Xinjiang dish or if it's a variation of another Chinese dish called wind sand chicken. I've been replicating Moon Bell's dishes recently and I think my sand storm chicken now tastes as good as the restaurant's although to be honest the restaurant's chicken seems crispier. One way to get crispier chicken skin is to re-fry it but I don't bother with that. Btw, Karen the proprietor is  the most friendly restaurant owner you'll ever meet. I have told her that the pieces of chicken have shrunk and the cumin is hardly detectable and I hope she does something about that.  Even the chili powder garnish around the plate that represents red desert sand is now missing, because "some of our customers don't want too spicy a dish".

The cumin gives a wonderful flavor to the chicken. I eat at least 3 pieces each time I cook this. If you don't have wine, a beer will be the perfect companion. Don't forget to sprinkle some chili powder or paprika (if kids are eating) over the fried chicken and around the plate. Sit back and bask in compliments.

Instead of garlic bits, I sometimes use garlic powder. Less work and makes dish look more sandy.

Sandstorm Chicken
2 whole chicken legs (drumsticks n thigh)
1 t salt
some white pepper
1 t cumin (jintan putih) powder
1/4 t chicken stock granules
1/4 t sugar
1 egg

Garnish: crispy garlic bits (chopped garlic fried in oil until crispy)
chili powder or paprika

1. Chop the drumsticks into two each and the thighs into three.

2. 'Massage' the above ingredients into the chicken pieces with your fingers and leave them covered in the fridge to marinade at least 1 hour.

3. Put the following into a clean plastic bag:

1/4 cup corn flour*
1/4 cup plain flour* (or potato flour)
2 t cumin powder (freshly ground is best)
a large pinch of salt
1/8 t chicken granules, grounded finely or a pinch of msg (optional)

* I got even better results using Korean ready-mix 'KFC' flour instead of the corn flour and plain flour mixture. Just add the salt, msg and cumin for the flavor.

*also, as pointed out by a reader, potato flour makes very crispy chicken. The Japanese use a mix of potato and cornflour to make crispy chicken called karaage chicken.

4. Put about 5 cups or more of oil into a small pot or wok. When it is hot, throw in a very small bit of garlic. If it sizzles and rises immediately to the surface of the oil, the oil is ready. Throw in the chopped garlic. Let it fry for a few seconds and when it just begins to color, scoop it out with a fine sieve. Remember that the garlic will still cook after you take it out so don't let it brown or it'll be bitter. Drain garlic bits on a piece of kitchen paper.

5. Drop a piece of chicken into the seasoned flour in the plastic bag and shake bag to coat chicken all over. If you like a thicker coating, press chicken firmly into the flour. Take the piece of chicken out and shake excess flour off. Carefully drop chicken piece into the oil. Add another few pieces more to the oil but do not overcrowd the oil because the temperature will drop too much. About 4-6 pieces at a time is good, depending on the amount of oil. After frying 2 minutes at high heat, turn heat down to medium. Fry the chicken until well-cooked through so that the skin is very crisp. After all the chicken pieces are fried, you can re-fry the chicken pieces ('second frying') to make them even crispier. I usually don't bother.

6. Arrange chicken pieces on a plate, scatter fried garlic on top and throw a pinch of chili powder or paprika across chicken and plate.

I tasted msg on the plate at Moon Bell (dragged my finger across the plate to pick up the paprika), so you can sprinkle a pinch of Chinese msg powder called ve tsin or some aji no moto (grind it finely) over the chicken. I don't bother with this because the chicken is excellent enough as it is.

Chicken, Tofu Bok and Glass Noodles Stew

Chicken, Tofu bok and glass noodles stew.

Casseroles are easy for times when all you want is to just feed the brood. No fancy elaborate dishes, just plain one-pot feeds all, from stove to table, very no-fuss cooking and serving. Saves on money, time and washing up too.

Here's a Shanghainese stew that you can cook ahead upto Step 3, although it's not necessary because the cooking prep and time are short. Add the glass noodles when re-heating and voila, a meal. You can serve some stir-fried greens to balance the diet or better still, serve it with a hearty soup. It doesn't look impressive but is very tasty. In my family, the glass noodles and tofu bok ( deep-fried spongy tofu balls) are finished before the chicken and it's no wonder because all the flavor and sauce are absorbed by the noodles and the boks. Try it and tell me what you think.



Chicken, Tofu Bok N Glass Noodles Stew

1/2 chicken (500 gm) or about 3 whole chicken legs, chopped into serving-sized pieces*
2 packets tofu bok (about 20 boks)
a large handful of dried mung bean/glass noodles, soaked & drained
2 slices of ginger
2 large stalks of spring onions, washed and tied in a bundle
3 to 4 T light soy sauce
2 T shaoxin hua tiao wine
1 piece rock sugar, about 1 teaspoon
1 T veg oil
2 to 3 cups water plus 1/2 chicken stock cube or 2 to 3 cups chicken stock (plus extra, if necessary)--the dish should be quite soupy

* in Chinese cooking, the chicken skin is not removed because it adds to the flavor and keeps the flesh moist.

1. Boil a small pot of water. Switch off and add the tofu boks, pushing them down with a wooden spoon. Cover and let soak for 3 to 5 minutes. Drain away the water and rinse with tap water. Squeeze out all the water gently. This step is done to remove as much oil as possible from the boks.

2. Heat up a clay or glass pot or an ordinary heavy-based pot and add 1 T oil. Put in the spring onions and ginger and fry for 1 minute. Add the chicken pieces, turning them over until they shrink and turn white.

3. Add the soy sauce, salt, cooking wine, rock sugar and water + stock cube or chicken stock. Cover the pot. When the liquid boils, add the boks, stir well and reduce the heat to low until the liquid just bubbles. Once in a while, stir to make sure the chicken or boks don't burn.

4. When the chicken is tender (about 25 minutes), add the mung bean noodles. Taste and season with more soy sauce or wine or sugar if necessary. If there's not enough liquid, add more. Depending on preference, this dish can be very soupy or not. The noodles are very absorbent.

Serve hot with rice.

Tashreeb Dijaaj And Tabbouleh

Tashreeb, an Iraqi chicken and chick peas stew.

I'm reading 'Best Food Writing 2009' and on page 187 is a recipe for an Iraqi chicken stew with chick peas which also appeared in Saveur sometime ago. When I found that sumac, a spice from the fruits of the sumac plant widely used in the Middle East, is one of the ingredients in the recipe,  I immediately got into action. I got some sumac in Dubai earlier this year and am unsure how to use it. Sumac, btw, tastes slightly sourish but is quite pleasant. It doesn't have a strong flavor and if you don't have it, it's not the end of the dish.

Tashreeb is a curry stew but it isn't Indian or Caribbean or Chinese or Malaysian curry. It's Iraqi, and it's milder and thinner than the curries we are used to. Which is why I get annoyed when people ignorant of other cuisine compare new food unfavorably to whatever they are used to eating. My hub thought this was my worst curry dish (and that's bad news because I'm not good at curries) because the curry flavor was so mild. But I liked it because I didn't think of it as our regular curry. Like I said, it's annoying when people compare.

Anyway, since I like it, I will blog about it. Tashreeb is served over torn pieces of flat breads such as naan, which soaks up the sauce. I didn't quite like the canned chick peas (bland and too soft) so next time I cook this, I will use dried chick peas. I served the stew with tabbouleh, a refreshing parsley salad that appeared at every meal I ate in Dubai. To be truthful, the tabbouleh scored better than the tashreeb. Tabbouleh is Lebanese in origin but is eaten all over the Middle East. You must make this salad. It is SO good and super easy to make. The ingredients are simple everyday ingredients that you have in your kitchen so you needn't run out to get them. I used parsley, mint and spring onions from my garden. I couldn't find bulghur and thought of substituting it with couscous or quinoa (which I dislike) but I couldn't find those either and didn't bother to try other supermarkets. I think that along with eating seasonal, we should improvise sometimes, and so I used--I know this'll make the Arabs mad--fine vermicelli pasta, those you find in chicken soup. What to do, I live in Borneo.

I suppose you can add more spices into the stew if you like the curry flavor more intense. Like I said, be open, this isn't curry curry.

Tashreeb Dijaaj

1/4 cup canola oil

6 cloves garlic, chopped

3 small onions (I used red onions), sliced

4-6 medium waxy potatoes, peeled & in large chunks

2 bay leaves

2 T curry powder (or 3 T if like)

1 T tumeric powder

1/2 T salt (to taste)

4 chicken legs

4 chicken thighs

1 19-oz chickpeas*, drained

1 lemon, quartered

1 T sumac (optional)

*or use chick peas but they have to be soaked overnight and cooked

1. Heat the oil in a medium-sized pot and fry the garlic, onions, bay leaves, curry powder, tumeric powder for a minute. Add the chicken and the potatoes, continue frying for about 8-10 minutes over medium heat.

2. Add 3 1/2 cups of water/chicken stock, stir through and let simmer until potatoes and chicken are tender, about 25 minutes.

3. Add the chickpeas and heat through, about 2-3 minutes.

4. Put a couple pieces of torn naan onto a plate and ladle the stew over. Sprinkle some sumac over and serve with the lemon wedges.

Tabbouleh. My sous chef that night had cut everything too thick and I couldn't get hold of bulghur but still, this salad was a hit.

Tabbouleh

1/4 cup bulghur

2 cups finely sliced flat leaf parsley

1/2 cup finely sliced mint

1 large ripe tomato, diced

1/2 onion, chopped finely or 1/4 cup finely sliced spring onions (I prefer the latter)

1 cucumber, preferably Lebanese, diced

juice from 1/2 lemon

salt & freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup EVOO

1. Soak the bulghur in very hot water for 5 minutes (depending on the brand; some are parboiled) and drain well.

2. Mix everything well and serve either at room temperature or cold.

White-Chopped Chicken

White chopped chicken, the most common way to cook a good chicken, Cantonese-style.

(Update: I had an interesting conversation with a Chinese cook 9/3/10 on cooking white chopped chicken and he insisted that the boiled chicken must be fully dunked into a bucket of room temp water until it sinks--apparently the chicken floats after it is boiled--which takes about 10 minues. This method is widely practised in Malaysia and Singapore and I'm not sure if they do this in Hong Kong and southern China. My mom, who's from southern China and had lived in Hong Kong for years never dunked her boiled chicken in water.)

I am almost embarassed to post this but I know there is a handful of mostly young people who have no idea how to cook this most popular and common Chinese chicken home dish. White chopped chicken is just boiled chicken--looks white*--that's chopped, not cut, not sliced, to pieces. Easy. And yet not. The easy part is in the boiling but the hard part is getting a chicken good enough to cook this way. The chicken has to be mature (at least 4 months old) and fed on a diet of corn and not processed commercial feed.

The younger generation (to me, that's anyone under 35) has a very different standard for white chopped chicken. Because of Hainan chicken rice, which is made with cheap farmed broilers that are about 8 weeks old, many younger people who have never eaten home-reared mature chickens prefer farmed chicken. They have grown up eating tender, slippery-smooth meat and skin and they don't mind the bland taste and mushy texture of farmed chickens. They don't realise that the savory taste of the chicken comes from the chicken rice sauce and not the chicken. Chicken rice sauce is a blend of soy sauce, oil and msg.

Those of us who grew up eating home-reared chicken search and long for the taste of a home-grown broiler fed on corn. Some may even remember the rare capon (yim gai), a castrated rooster reared specially for CNY. A capon is another class above the mature home-reared broilers. Castrated roosters need to be reared for as long as 7 to 9 months but because they are castrated, they grow big without growing tough and fat deposit is minimal compared to a hen of that age. It is rare to find a castrated rooster now because the skills in castrating a rooster is lost and it is uneconomical to raise a capon because it takes 7 to 9 months, compared to 4 months for a home-reared broiler and 56 days for farmed broilers.

Mature corn-fed chicken is utterly different from the chickens fed on processed feed. Even the color of the meat and skin is different, the home-reared chickens having a shiny yellow skin and pink healthy meat while farmed chickens have white flesh and meat. I would never cook white chopped chicken with a farmed chicken. I go to the ends of the town in search of home-reared chicken if I want to cook white chopped chicken. Home-reared chicken is so special that if you ask the seller how to cook the chicken, she'll without hesitation tell you to boil it. She'll protest in horror if you mention that you'll roast or braise her home-grown chicken. The point is, as any cook will tell you, the better and fresher the quality of an ingredient, the less fuss should be made in cooking it.

In Hong Kong (and the southern part of China, I think), white chopped chicken is served with a ginger and spring onion dip. My parents have always added soy sauce to this ginger-spring onion dip. I used to wonder why my friends' moms and the restaurants in Hong Kong don't serve their ginger-spring onion dips with soy sauce too. I still don't know anyone who does the dip my parents' way. I prefer the dip with soy sauce because it does taste better than with plain salt. In the last few years, I've learnt to add 'sand ginger' to the dip too, a tip from my friend L who gave me a sand ginger plant. Sand ginger has a stronger, different scent than ordinary ginger and perks up the dip beautifully. Two other dips I tend to like eating my plain boiled chicken with are oyster sauce and chili-lime sauce.



Sand ginger grows well in sandy soils and my soil isn't sandy so the ginger is knotty instead of bulbous.



Ginger spring onion dip with salt.



Ginger spring onion dip with soy sauces.

Forget about soaking your home-reared boiled chicken in cold water, as done with Hainan chicken rice chicken. Plain boiled chicken is NOT Hainan chicken. I've learnt that with a 4 or 5 month-old chicken, no matter how long you soak the chicken in, it'll never have the slippery smooth texture of a farmed chicken. It shouldn't. You are to enjoy the sweet, flavorful, wonderful aromatic taste of mature corn-fed chicken in all its meaty, oily, tough glory. You are to chew on the meat, even eat the thick slippery skin and sip the soup the chicken was boiled in and be reminded that the Chinese sure know how to cook well, even if it's just boiled chicken. And if you haven't eaten a real home-reared mature chicken, in my opinion, you have no idea what you are missing.

Don't serve boiled chicken like you would roasted chicken. It needs to be chopped, bones and all, and served with rice. Just in case you have leftovers, sprinkle the chicken with plenty of coarse salt and if like, you can add some Chinese sao xin wine or even brandy. Cover with cling film and store in the fridge. The next day, you can re-heat by steaming or leave it to room temperature. That would be xen ji, salted chicken. I am drooling.

*If you haven't been in the sun and your skin is pale, you'll very likely be labelled a "white chopped chicken".

White Chopped Chicken (feeds 6-8)

1 whole home-reared chicken, at least 2.5 kg with skin on

1. Boil a pot of water. It's good to get a pot that the chicken can just fit into. If the pot's too big, you need a lot of water and the stock will be too diluted for soup.

2. When the water boils, put the chicken in breast-side down. The water should just about cover the chicken. Cover pot. When the water comes to a boil again, lower the heat until the water just simmers gently with low bubbles (boiling the chicken will make it tough). For a chicken of 2 kg, boil for about 10 to 15 minutes, for a 2.5 kg, about 12 to 20 minutes. If, unfortunately, your chicken is younger, then reduce the time by 5 minutes. Switch the fire off and let chicken sit, covered, in the water for about 45 minutes. I use a glass pot so the heat is retained for a long time.

3. Remove the chicken and either a) soak it in a large bowl of ice cold water for 10 minutes to tighten the skin so that it has a nice firm bite b) let cool unsoaked. Chop by first jointing the legs, the wings and the breast, then chop these into smaller pieces. You need a very sharp heavy Chinese cleaver to do a good job.

Serve chopped chicken with this dip:

Ginger Spring Onion Dip
fresh ginger, about 30 to 40 g
a small piece of sand ginger, if available
2-3 stalks of spring onions
1 t salt or 2 T light soy sauce (I like Maggi's) + 1 T dark soy sauce
3 T oil
a few drops of sesame oil if like

1. Scrape the skin off the ginger. The traditional way to mince ginger is to smash it with the flat side of the cleaver and then use the thick blade of the cleaver (the upper side) to mince the ginger finely. This way, the ginger gets minced and smashed at the same time. If you use the sharp side of the cleaver, you'll get minced but hard bits of ginger.

You can use the mortar and pestle but the juice will be pounded out from the ginger.

Cut the spring onions finely. Put ginger and spring onions into a small bowl. Add the salt if using. Some restaurants sneakily add msg too.

2. Heat the oil up until very hot. Drop a small piece of ginger into the oil and if it sizzles immediately, the oil is ready. Pour the hot oil over the spring onions and ginger. If not using salt, add the soy sauces now. Add sesame oil if using. Stir well.

Easy Butter Chicken

Everytime we eat Northern Indian food, butter chicken (murkh mahani) is a must. It's like how some people order sweet and sour pork everytime they eat Chinese.

I'm not good with Indian spices and until now I can't tell between fennel and cumin, especially when they are ground. In this recipe, which is from a 2006 issue of Delicious, the garam marsala is made from scratch but that's like making my own fireworks, so I used the bottled stuff. The recipe doesn't call for plain yogurt, which is fine by me because it's an item that's hard to find here and even if I do, the remainder always goes to waste. I call this easy butter chicken because you don't need to marinade the chicken overnight. With so many spices, I don't think anyone would taste the difference if the meat is marinaded or not. Surprisingly, there's very little butter in butter chicken so it's not as sinful as it sounds. Vary the amount of cream and tomato paste to your liking; I used more tomato paste and less cream but my kids think it should be the other way around. I made slight changes to the recipe, like frying the chicken separately in a non-stick pan first.

A small dish of butter chicken in restaurants will cost about RM25/US$7, enough for one person only. The last time we ate butter chicken out, there was plenty of sauce but we had to fish for the almond-sized chicken so I prefer to cook my own butter chicken.

The best bread to eat butter chicken with is naan but at home I prefer to make chapatties because they are faster and easier to make. Chapatties are nearly oil-free, full of nutty wholemeal and very easy to make. Another easy flatbread (meaning they are flat, because no leavening agent is used) is puri but puris need to be deep-fried which makes them tasty but greasy. When I was about 8, my dad determined that our Eurasian neighbor could help me with my English. Aunty Epps whacked my fingers with a ruler whenever I made spelling mistakes and I was terrified of her but I was in awe of her too because she was a great cook. If she was in the right mood, she'd let me stay back after lessons and watch her cook curries, stews, cakes--food my mom didn't cook. Other housewives looked like housewives but Mrs Epps was different. She was always trendily dressed and her home always tidy with music playing all the time. She always greeted her husband at the door with a kiss, which to us then was like watching a peep show. Valerie, her grown-up daughter, listened to The Beatles and wore mini skirts and danced a-go-go while Uncle Epps drove a Volkswagon. I thought they were so cool and I wanted to be like Mrs Epps. It was Aunty Epps who showed me that cooking is fun and it was her who triggered my interest in cooking. Puris remind me of Aunty Epps, who I never met again after they moved to Perth.



Easy Butter Chicken
1.5 kg chicken, jointed or deboned as preferred
1 brown onion, chopped finely
4 garlic cloves, chopped finely
2.5 cm piece of ginger, grated and 5 cm piece ginger, in thin julienne strips
1 T lemon juice
1 t chili powder
2 t paprika
40 g butter + 1 extra spoon if like
3 T tomato paste
1 T brown sugar
150 ml thickened cream
1 cup water
3 t garam marsala
3 T veg oil
1/4 cup coriander (cilantro) for garnishing

1. Put the onion, garlic, grated ginger, lemon juice, chili powder, paprika and 2 teaspoon of marsala into a food processor, adding 1 to 2 tablespoon of water to make a paste.

2. Heat 2 T oil in a large non-stick frypan and fry the chicken, in batches if necessary, until browned on all sides. Remove and set aside.

3. Add the butter + 1 T oil to a pot large enough for the ingredients. Add the spice paste and fry 5 to 10 minutes until oil starts to separate from the paste. Add the water, tomato paste, sugar and salt (you can mix all these together in a bowl first) and let sauce simmer 10 minutes.

4. Stir in the ginger strips, cream and chicken and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes or until chicken is tender.

5. Before taking the curry off the fire, add 1 t garam marsala and an extra spoon of butter if like. Top with the coriander leaves and serve with Indian bread like naan, chapati or puri.



The Garam Marsala
1 1/2 t cumin seeds
1 1/2 fennel seeds
3/4 cardamon seeds (from inside the pods)
1/4 t kolonji/nigella seeds (which I couldn't find here)
1/4 t black peppercorns
1 small stick of cinnamon
4 cloves
1/4 t nutmeg

Heat a heavy pan and fry the spices at medium heat (except the nutmeg) for a few seconds until aromatic. Tip into a spice grinder and grind into a fine powder. Add the nutmeg. The garam marsala will keep in a glass jar in the fridge for several months.



Puris
300g fine wholemeal/atta flour or plain flour
1/2 t or less salt
1/2 t sugar
1/2 T butter, softened
300 ml (depending on the flour) warm water

1. Mix everything in a bowl and knead to form a firm smooth dough.

2. Divide the dough into half then each half into half and so on until you get 14 pieces of dough. Roll into balls and flatten each ball to make a small disc. Dust the work surface with flour and use a rolling pin to roll each disc into a thin 3 mm thick 6 "/15 cm circle.

3. Heat oil to deep fry (the more oil, the puffier and smoother-surfaced the puris. I didn't use enough oil) and fry each puri one by one, gently pressing it down so that it is immersed in the oil. As soon as the puri is puffed, turn over and fry for a couple of seconds and remove onto kitchen paper. Serve immediately.

Chapatties
300 g fine wholemeal/atta flour
less than 1/2 t salt
1/2 T butter, softened
300 ml or more warm water
extra flour for dusting

1. Mix everything in a large bowl until the dough is soft and smooth. Cover with a damp cloth and let stand 1/2 hour or preferably overnight to give a softer bread.

2. Divide the dough into half then each half into half and so on until you get 12 -14 pieces of dough. Roll into balls and flatten each ball to make a small disc. Dust the work surface with flour and use a rolling pin to roll each disc into a thin 3 mm thick 6 "/15 cm circle.

3. Heat a frying pan or griddle (no need to grease) and cook the chapatties over medium heat, 30 seconds on each side. Keep fried chapatties covered in a tea towel until serving time. Chapatties can be frozen and reheated when needed.

Re-post: Hainan Chjicken Rice

The Chicken 2 kg whole corn-fed chicken* coriander leaves for garnishing *mature corn-fed chicken will be tastier but tougher. Chicken rice shops use young farmed chicken which are very tender (and cheaper) but flavorless so msg is added to the sauce to cover the bland taste. Updated on 25/6/08: 1. Put enough water in a pot to almost cover chicken (too much water and your soup will be tasteless). 2. Put chicken into the boiling water, cover, turn heat to high and when it starts to boil, lower heat so water is gently bubbling. Simmer 10 min. Turn off heat and leave chicken in pot for 30 min, covered. Test the thigh with a skewer. If the water that runs out is red, heat the water to nearly boiling, then switch off and let chicken sit in it for another 5-10 min. If not, go to step 3. 3. Remove chicken and immerse chicken in a basin of ice-cold water for 15 min. Pour away water. Leave chicken to cool completely, rub some sesame oil over if like, before cutting into small pieces with bones on. Garnish with chopped coriander. The Rice 1 bulb garlic, chopped finely 5 cups rice 1 chicken stock cube, crumbled 1 tsp salt a knot of pandan leaves 3 to 4 slices ginger, smashed kunyit (tumeric)* juice or powder for color Heat 2 T oil and lightly brown the garlic. Remove the garlic but leave the oil. Fry the rice under medium heat for 1 min, then put rice into a rice cooker and add the stock from boiling the chicken till level 5 (or less, according to the type of rice). If you don't like your rice oily, do not fry the rice. Stir in all the remaining ingredients except the fried garlic. The garlic should be stirred well into the cooked rice just before serving. *Orange-colored ginger which is used as a natural yellow food dye. The Soup 1/2 head of Sichuan preserved veg, sliced & soaked in water for 10 min 3 to 4 tomatoes, in wedges finely cut spring onions for garnishing Put the Sichuan veg and tomatoes into the stock in which the chicken was boiled and let the soup simmer 15 min. Do not add salt. The Chili Sauce 5 red chilies 2 cloves garlic 3 cm piece of ginger 1/2 T vinegar 1/2 t fine sugar 2 T stock/soup 1. Pound the first 3 ingredients in a stone mortar till fine. 2. Heat 1/2 T oil and fry the pounded ingredients for 5 seconds, turn off fire and add the remaining ingredients. Ginger Dip 4 cm piece of ginger, pounded finely 2 cm piece 'sand' ginger, pounded finely spring onions, cut finely 1 T each light & dark soy sauce (if like) 1/2 T oyster sauce 2 T oil sesame oil (optional) Put spring onions in a sauce bowl. Heat 2-3 T oil until smoking, add the gingers, fry 2 seconds, then turn off heat and add oil and ginger quickly onto the spring onions . Add the soy sauces and oyster sauce if used. Alternatively, put the gingers and spring onions into a small dip dish and pour hot oil over, then add the soy sauces. The more common dip is ginger, spring onions, hot oil and salt but my parents included soy sauces in this and I prefer it that way. Note: Serve with sliced cuke, or blanched veg, or a simple beansprouts dish: boil the beansprouts briefly, drain well, splash a little fish sauce over and top with fried garlic bits.

Yakitori Chicken

Yakitori chicken

I've not been that busy, but I've certainly been lazy. On the pretext of taking my daughter (the 'pearl in our hand', as somebody described it, is back on winter break) out to eat her fav food, I've not been cooking except for Wey who has tuition at night and can't come out with us.

Talking of tuition, I was disappointed and dismayed after talking to Wey's English teacher yesterday. Wey and I had a big argument a few weeks ago when I sat him down to work on his English. For his PMR exams in Oct, Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde is one of the two books he has to cover, the other being Robinson Crusoe. He claimed that they haven't been asked to read the novels; he doesn't even have a copy of the novels. What they are using this year is two workbooks on Dr Jekyl. School just started Monday, so I went to the teacher who confirmed that the kids aren't required to read the novels because by the time they go through the workbooks, they'd know how to answer the questions. When I protested, she said they have no time (didn't they have 3 years, Form 1 to 3? And the novels, used by other schools, are in very simple English which a primary school kid would have no difficulty reading?) to read the books because the classes are big, the kids cannot be bothered, there are too many other subjects to cover and literature makes up only 10% of the total score. She then advised that I can always send my son for tuition. I was stunned. I don't think I endeared myself to her, because I told her as graciously as I could that if I was teaching, I'd make sure all the students read the novel first because what is the point of teaching literature if the students are not taught to appreciate the beauty of the language, the story, the prose? Her final word was that what everybody wants is to get high marks in exams so the school caters to that want. And so I rest my case, that education in Malaysia has gone to the dogs. I don't blame the teachers as much as I blame the schools and the Education Dept and parents, those who insist on all As, who regard any grade less than an A as a loss of face. Education here isn't about knowledge, it's about how many As the students can score. It isn't about learning important and relevant useful subjects because if it is, then students won't have to struggle with 11 subjects (12 if you do Chinese), of which the three subjects morals, civics and life skills, as far as I am concerned ARE A BLOODY WASTE OF TIME. Make that four subjects, because history is also a waste of time since it is 90% Malaysian history made up to brainwash the kids on the monarchy, our founding fathers and the government. If I am the Education Minister and I am truly concerned about education, I would review the present syllabus without any agenda but with a single-minded goal to make education truly meaningful, enjoyable and knowledge and skills-acquiring rather than score-seeking. Besides those 3 or 4 subjects, I would also throw out geography too, and replace all of them with a new subject that emphasizes geography, geo science, environmental science and ecology. This is what the future generation needs to know, the limitation of the earth's resources and how we should manage and preserve them, instead of where rubber trees are planted in Malaysia and the names of the tribal dances and different musical instruments of the natives.

So to the Chinese who are fighting to teach Science and Math in Chinese, and the Malays who want those two subjects in Malay, I say "Boot to the Head". The whole education system is rotten and we are fighting about teaching those subjects vernacularly.

Okay, that's some huffing I've done. If you still want food, here's what I whipped up for Wey's dinner tonight: yakitori chicken. If I had the time, I'd have skewered some shiitake mushrooms, bell peppers and even chicken livers, which is popular in yakitori joints in Japan. You do need a very hot grill for yakitori or you'll end up with a skewer of steamed meat. Make the sauce well ahead because you'll need some sauce to marinade the chicken with.

I think I need some leong cha to cool my head.


Yakitori Chicken
300g chicken thighs
2 stalks of leeks
wooden skewers, soaked in water 30 minutes
teriyaki sauce

1. Cut the chicken (with or without skin) into 4 cm squares, the leeks into 4 cm lengths.

2. Use 2 T of the teriyaki sauce to marinade the chicken for at least an hour.

3. Skewer the chicken and leeks alternately. It's good to start and end with a piece of leek because it holds the meat in.

4. Fire up that grill and grill the chicken on low heat for about 2-3 minutes each side, then increase the heat to high and baste with the teriyaki sauce for another minute or two. Be careful not to burn the chicken; the sugar in the sauce can burn easily and taste bitter. Serve with rice, or better still, with beer.

Teriyaki Sauce
1/4 cup mirin
1/2 cup sake
3 T sugar
1/4 cup light soy sauce
2 pinches of dashi (optional, but I like the extra umami taste)

Put everything except the dashi into a small pot and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes (add the dashi towards the end of cooking) until sauce is thickened. Remember that the sauce will thicken further upon cooling. I got about 5 T sauce for this recipe.

Dry Chicken Curry

Dry chicken curry

I am not good with curries, mainly because my parents were very ethnocentric about their Chinese food and the only times I ate curries were at dinners where the food was catered, which means there's bound to be a cheap curry dish, which probably is why I prefer watery 'Chinese' curries. I seldom attempted to cook curries from scratch because all those spices confuse me. Also everybody seemed to cook better curries than me, so I've never bothered with this dish. I've tried using ready-made packaged curry sauce but somehow the curries taste just what they are--packaged curry. Well, now I fret no more because I've found the perfect simple curry recipe (with slight adjustments) that I really like. This recipe is from one of those Periplus Mini Cookbooks called 'Nyonya Favorites'. It doesn't use a lot of spices but yet is full of curry flavor and tastes very 'from scratch'. Definitely a curry I serve with pride.

Now why would anyone want their curry dry? Well, for one it intensifies the flavor of the spices, and the chicken tastes more braised than boiled. But really if you still perfer it with lots of sauce, just add more water or don't reduce the sauce too much:


Chicken curry, lots of sauce

Dry Chicken Curry
1 kg chicken, in large pieces
400g new potatoes, skinned & in large chunks
1X4cm long cinnamon stick, washed
6 cardamons. washed
1/2 cup thick coconut milk (okay to use packet coconut milk)
1 cup water
2 t sugar
1 t salt
2 T veg oil
2 T crispy fried shallots** + extra for garnish

Mix together to make a paste:
2 T chili powder (or more if you want a hotter curry)
2 T ground cumin* (jintan putih)
2 T ground fennel* (jintan manis)
1 t tumeric powder (kunyit powder)
6 to 8 large cloves garlic, minced or pounded
6-7 T water

* I prefer to use whole cumin and fennel--makes more fragrant and thick curry paste--and whiz them in the food processor.
** Slice 4 to 5 shallots thinly and fry in 3 T oil until crisp. You can use the oil to cook the curry, or keep it for tossing noodles.

1. Heat the oil in a pot or pan, add the spice paste (one way to reduce use of oil in cooking curry is to make the spice paste watery-thin so it won't burn quickly) cinnamon stick and cardamons and fry until fragrant in low heat, about 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Add the chicken, potatoes, coconut milk, water, salt, sugar and 2 T of fried shallots, cover the pot and simmer until the sauce is thick. Do stir the chicken pieces once in a while to prevent them from sticking onto the pot. Add a couple spoonfuls of water if necessary. If you prefer more sauce, add 1/2 cup more water and do not let sauce reduce too much. If you want it dry, remove the cover and turn up the heat to reduce the sauce. Season to taste.

3. Garnish with extra fried shallots and serve with white rice, roti jala or bread.