Re-post: Chicken In A Basket

Cute name, isn't it. After watching the movie 'V for Vendetta' last year, I did a little research. The first time I cooked it, Wey ate four pieces of chicken in a basket! When he got tired of it, I added the bacon, and he went all uncontrollable again. Try it on your kids, or even their father. Chicken in A Basket 1 pc thick-cut white bread 1 egg butter salt n pepper 1. Butter the bread quite generously (for health reasons, I do one side only) and, using kitchen scissors, cut a hole (smaller than size of a tennis ball) in the bread. 2. Heat up a pan (non-stick is easiest, but not for me; all that Teflon) and put the bread butter-side down. Now add a little bit of oil/butter in the hole if you're not using non-stick ware. Crack the egg in and cook at medium heat. 3. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Turn over and cook the other side. For pig n chicken in a basket, lay a rasher of streaky bacon (whatever pattern) on the pan and turn over when it's half-done( do use a paper towel to soak up some of the oil if health-conscious). Now lay the cut bread over it, making sure the hole is over the bacon. Crack the egg in. I don't salt this, just pepper it. Serve it for breakfast with a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice!

Repost: Sichuan Garlic Pork

As Sichuan food is not available in KK, we always have our Sichuan fix in Singapore. However, after Chengdu I found that the Sichuan food we eat in Singapore does not represent the real thing. Authentic Sichuan dishes are spicy and flavorful, with lots of red chili oil, ginger, garlic and Sichuan peppercorns which are numbing yet very fragrant and addictive. The only thing we didn't like is, like all food in China with the exception of cantonese food, the food is usually too oily. Last night we had a Sichuan feast in my place. We are blessed to know students from all parts of China who are studying in our local university. Three pretty Chinese students, from Chengdu, Jiangxi and Gansu, are going back for summer holidays and Leila, who's from Chengdu, kindly offered to cook us an authentic Sichuan meal. Twice-cooked pork Chunk of pork belly, boiled, sliced and then fried (thus the name of the dish) with bell peppers, onion, ginger and garlic mince, all blended by those essential ingredients: Sichuan peppercorns, red chili oil and Sichuan hot bean paste, preferably that with broad beans. In Chengdu this dish will be much redder and oilier. Garlic sliced pork. Boiled belly pork (which must not be too soft or too hard), sliced and drizzled with a dressing and then chilled. This dish just bursts with all the flavors of peppercorns, garlic and red chili oil. Garlic chives with pork. A simple stir-fry of crunchy sweet garlic chives and pork, blended by a sweet beanpaste sauce. We were so busy eating we forgot to take a picture of Leila's last dish, the famous scrumptious mapo tofu. The mapo tofu in KK is completely different, totally unauthentic! The several times I've cooked this dish I've been disappointed, until I went to Chengdu and bought prepared Sichuan hotbean paste, and learnt from Leila how to cut the tofu into small cubes and let it simmer long so the flavor invades the tofu. Goongbao chicken (photo taken in Chengdu, Sichuan). Another famous yummy Sichuan dish that's extremely flavorful, sweet and spicy. Goes well with hot rice. Of all the above, the garlic pork is the easiest to make so here's the recipe. Sichuan Garlic Sliced Pork 1/2 kg pork belly, not too lean or fatty 6 garlic cloves, smashed and finely minced 1 tablespoon ginger, pounded and very finely minced 2 tablespoon light soy sauce 1 tsp fine sugar a pinch of msg red chili oil (preferably home-made) Sichuan peppercorn oil and fried peppercorns 1. Scald the pork belly (uncut, in a chunk) with boiling water. 2. Put pork into a pot, add enough water to cover, add a piece of thumb-sized ginger and boil till cooked. 3. After 40 minutes or so, test with a fork. If too soft, it'll be hard to slice thinly. 4. Let the pork cool so it'll be easier to slice. You can chill it too. 5. Meanwhile, mix the first 6 ingredients well, till the sugar is dissolved. Season to taste. (Or, as Leila does it, sprinkle the pork layers with the ingredients one by one). 6. Slice the pork thinly against the grain and arrange it on a plate in a single layer. Drizzle the dressing over, then drizzle the peppercorn oil and fried peppercorns, then repeat with another layer. Finally sprinkle some fresh coriander leaves over and chill till ready to eat. Note (edited): Make your own red chili oil by heating up some veg oil till it smokes, then switch off the fire, pour the oil into a heat-proof container (thick glass jar) in which the chili flakes are already put. If the oil is too hot, the chili flakes will burn and become bitter. If oil is too cold, the flavor and color won't develop. When the oil runs low, add hot oil to it again but be careful about the jar. Make Sichuan peppercorn oil by heating up the oil until it almost smokes, let it cool a little (too hot n the delicate peppercorns will burn), then add the peppercorns into the oil and pour it into a heat-proof container.

Re-post: Rocket Parma Ham Pizza

 
This is my favorite pizza, for its simplicity and taste. If you don't try it, you loose out because I'm so reluctant to give the recipe away that I might delete this post after a week!! Have made pizzas a long time and never quite got the crust right. Then Wey had his 12th birthday at this popular pizzaria and I picked up a few tips from watching the cook because the party was a 'make-your-own-pizza' theme and everybody got to make their own pizzas. Two things I learnt: 1) the dough is made the night before 2) the oven is hot as hell, something home ovens can never achieve, which is why our crust can never crisp perfectly. One of my problems in making pizza is I haven't mastered the art of rolling and pushing the dough against the edge of the counter so I use a rolling pin but the dough would always spring back. To overcome that, I used plain flour which has little gluten so it's less elastic but that doesn't give a strong crisp crust. The trick as I've discovered at Little Italy is to use bread flour but make the dough the night before and let it rest in the fridge. I now can roll my dough into little discs and twirl them into the air using my knuckles...sometimes they still land on my head. The next thing I've learnt is, put your pizza pan directly on the floor of the hot oven which has been heated to the highest level it can go (usually 240 C). There's no point getting a pizza stone if you use a home oven because it'll take hours to heat through and it'll still not get hotter than the heat limit of your oven. Now to the task. Update 23/4/08: NO! Do not put your pizza pans on the floor of your home oven as I had advised because that caused my oven to wear out a hole. The instructions in my new oven manual clearly states that to bake anything on the floor of the oven would spoil the oven because doing that would affect the heat distribution. 

Pizza Dough 2 cups bread flour 1 1/2 t dry yeast 2 t sugar 2/3 t salt 2 T olive oil 3/4 cup cold water (in the tropics; use warm water in frigid places) 1. If you know your yeast is good, just put everything together in your KitchenAid or Kenwood mixer bowl with the dough hook and knead at medium for 8 min, till dough is soft and smooth and springs back when you poke it. You may have to add a little bit more water or more flour. Cover dough with a cloth and let it rise for 1 hour (longer if you live in Antartica or Canada). 2. Take dough out and divide into 4. On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece of dough into a ball, using a little bit of flour if necessary, and put them on a floured tray. Cover with clingfilm only if the film (has plasticizers, a chemical that is harmful and bleeds into food!) doesn't touch the dough (remember it'll still rise in the fridge). Otherwise, do as I do and dust the tops of the dough balls with flour and cover with a cloth. Leave in fridge 24 hours before using. Remember to take out 1/2 hour to 1 hour (longer in frozen countries) before using. The Tomato Base Ha, you'll really thank me for this. I used to make my own, which means cooking it. Now I just put tomato puree into a bottle together with chopped garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and dried basil and shake it. Baking the Pizza 1. Heat oven to as hot as it can go, say 250 C, using only the bottom element. Roll the dough out as thin as you can without tearing it and press it out to the edge, or use your knuckles under the dough to stretch it into a round big enough to fit the pizza pan and put it onto a lightly greased 31 cm (12") pizza pan. Spread about 2 large T of tomato base all over the crust (leave clear a 2 cm rim), then scatter grated mozzarella (you'll notice I used very little mozz; too many fat-conscious people at home) and bake on the lowest rack for 8 to 10 min, checking the bottom of the crust by using a cake server, say, in the 6th minute. When the bottom is brown and burnt in random spots, take it out. Overcooking will cause the mozz to harden. 2. Scatter rocket, shredded parma ham (not too much; very salty) and shaved parmigiano reggianno (that's high-grade parmesan) all over. Mmmm... Don't forget the wine!  
Grow your own rocket! This type of rocket is not as fancy as the baby wild rocket, but according to a pizza chef from Milan, this is the stronger-scented and preferred kind of rocket. I usually get my rocket and basil seeds at Signature.

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.

Taking A Break

By the time you read this, I will be in Bueno Aires. No, no chance. I will instead be in Guilin, China freezing my butt and toes off. I wanted madly to visit Vietnam but my Chinaman wanted to visit China, and you know the Chinese saying "Marry a dog, live like a dog". No disrespect but this is a real Chinese saying, if I'm not wrong. Anyway, I love visiting China. But not in winter. I hate to go anywhere in winter. Apart from the chilling numbing cold, there's all those bulky winter clothes. And how am I going to show off my new-found waistline? (lost 1 kg for the trip.)

Guilin is one of China's top tourist spot, famous for the sharp limestone mountains. I was there 3 years ago but we didn't know about Yangshuo and other ancient villages so this trip we'll cover them all, including the terraced rice fields of Longji. My daughter is looking forward to visiting ancient villages (she's sick of the cities she says, but her questions were all about shopping), my youngest asked if we are going for the food (yes) and if it's going to be cold, which he prefers. The middle child made no demands because he's lucky he gets to come along, things considered.

Just in case you'll miss me, here's a post from my previous trip to Guilin to keep you from feeling sad. I will also post my previous posts to keep you from feeling abandoned. Will write you when I get to Yangshuo. When the others go biking around the hills, I will stay back at the inn with a cup of hot tea and tell you if I love it or hate it there.

Guilin Dec 2006:

The mountains and Li River of Guilin.

The Li River is one of the must-go as instructed in the book "1000 places to See Before You Die." I was however a little bit disappointed, mainly because we took the beaten path and did what eveybody does when they go to Guilin: the 5-hour river cruise. It was torturous for me because we were stuck in the upper cabin of the boat with 10 other locals, three of them who smoked despite the no smoking signs and even when told not to. The food was simply not fit for eating and the squat toilet--it was like the river banks had burst. I nearly passed out not breathing, and kept thinking: my new Nikes! my new Nikes! Chinese authorities take note: I saw rubbish and leftovers and dishwashing water thrown overboard! Into your beloved Li River! It's a shame! I'd advise travellers to take a short boat ride to see the mountains and the river ("Quilin xhanxhui") and go to a quaint town called 'Yangshou' for a couple of days. I saw a lot of westerners, backpackers lodges and pubs but still it'll give you a real feel of the rustic country living with those old houses and streets and famous jagged hills all around.

The mountains of Guilin as seen from the Li River is so beautiful that it is captured in the RMB20 note. It was very beautiful, the unusual shapes of the limestone hills, the bamboo groves and the clear water. However, December is when the water level of the river is at its lowest, so the scenery may not be as good as, say, in April.

At the 'Liushanje' Park. Or some name like that.


Man with cormorants.

Yes, its hubby doing a good job of balancing the birds on his shoulders. These poor birds have a ring on their necks to stop them from eating the fish that they catch so their owners can have the fish for themselves.


The lone tree that still had leaves.

This is where they shoot movies when the gingko leaves turn yellow. My niece and her hub took a day off to drive us hours to this area where gingko is grown. However when we got there we were told rain came 4 days before that and the lovely yellow autumn leaves have all fallen. Even the fallen leaves were gone because all had been gathered to make gingko pills, something I should take because its supposed to improve my memory. It is said that as long as each family has a gingko tree they are rich.


Gingko seed.


Girl selling hand-knotted 'prosperity' knots.


Veg and fruits pickles.

They love their pickles, those Guilin people. Now I know why Mom loves pickles--she had lived here as a student, away from her village in Guangxi.


Guilin products.

The bag of yellow stuff (top left) is dried 'guihwa,' flowers from a tree grown for its fragrant flowers that is used to flavor desserts and cakes, like vanilla. The city, named after this flower, is planted with this tree and you can smell it everywhere. The balls are 'lohanguo,' a fruit that 'cools' your body if you eat too much fried food. At the bottom left is another famous Guilin produce, gingko seeds.


Firepot dinner of native chicken with herbs soup.

This was a really good meal. It was cold out (5 C), the firepot was warming and comforting. It was also very tasty, the chicken being 'native' or wild. The shopowner was horrified when we asked for a bowl of plain Guilin meefern/rice noodles which we dumped into the soup. She told us that's not the way to eat firepot, but we told her we just love the noodles, and she concluded that we are from Taiwan. We also enjoyed a wonderful firepot lunch of native chicken gingko soup at the gingko village. Don't be put off by the chicken head, butt and a few small feathers in the soup!



This meal was excellent, full of spicy flavor, and cost only RMB80, for 4 people. And all the food wasn't on the table yet.







This was the BEST bowl of Guilin noodles. Situated at the entrance of the ancient town, the restaurant is run by this lady and her son who make the most delicious bowl of noodles, better than any I have ever tasted. Apparently only the locals know where to find it. And it only costs RMB2.50 (less than US$0.35) a bowl. I noted down the topping: boiled pork slices, pickled long beans, deep-fried soybeans, preserved veg, chili paste, spring onions--only to be told the soup is made from 72 secret ingredients! How's that KFC? If I ever go back to Guilin, I'll eat this noodle everyday of my stay . Although the noodles look like the Penang laksa noodles, they are different in taste and texture. Freshly made, the noodles are moist yet el dente and slippery-smooth and full of the fragrance of freshly-cooked rice. Traditionally Guilin noodles are served with thin slices of horsemeat (we did try that, but the meat was too paper-thin to be of any taste and my niece said its unlikely to be the real McCoy because horse meat is rare and expensive).




The young people have left for the city and the old folks stayed behind, opening their houses to tourists (some charge, some don't) and selling whatever knick knacks from their homes. So few people come that the folks don't bother to stay by their stalls.


This grandma, whose kids have left for the city, lived alone. She was very friendly. She was having a simple firepot lunch of chinese cabbage and pork. It looked yummy. The firepot is very popular in China in the winter.


Making sausages.

This lady was making pork sausages which would be cured in the winter wind. She wasn't very happy with us dropping by. The stove of charcoal at her feet is to keep her warm.


WW1 vehicle?

I half-expected soldiers and gunfire when this vehicle suddenly appeared!


Curing meat in the winter sun.

Drying homemade sausages, pork belly strips and--rats! What's China without some dried rats eh?!