Kerabu Beehoon (Kerabu Vermicelli Noodles)

This is a Nyonya style noodle - spicy, tangy, refreshing, and appetising!

Preparation does take a while, however when all ingredients are assembled the mixing is easy peasy job. Served cold it's perfect for a Summer picnic, or a big party. If you prefer a warm meal, you can heat it up in the microwave too.

This dish always reminds me of the lazy weekend picnics we had as kids along Batu Ferringhi stretch of beach in Penang. Nothing beats a refreshing light noodle to fill your tummy after a dip in the sea!

Recipe below has been adapted as living abroad presents a challenge in finding authentic ingredients. For those who love food, this shouldn't stop us from making good food. We make do with what we can get our hands on.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:
• 400g Vermicelli Noodles
• 400g Beansprouts
• 250-300g King Prawns
• 30-40g Dried Shrimps
• 30g Fresh Mint
• 30g Flat Leaf Parsley
• 15-20 Bulb Shallots
• 50g Desicated Coconut

Mixing Sauce:
• 3-4 Lime / 1.5 Lemon Juice
• 4 tbsp Tom Yum Paste
• 4 tbsp Bottled Sambal Belachen (Fresh Belachan if available)
• 2-3 tsp Fish Sauce (add more to suit personal taste)
• 1-2 tsp Sugar to taste

Method:
• Blanche noodles in boiling water, turn off heat and cover with lid for 4-5mins. Drain under tap water to prevent noodles from breaking. Set aside for later.
• Wash beansprouts, blanche and set aside for later.
• Cook king prawns in boiling water. Let cool, then halve or sliced thinly and set aside.
• Soak dried shrimps in hot water, drain and roughly pound into pulp.
• Thinly slice fresh mint, and flat leaf parsley.
• Peel shallots and finely slice.
• Lightly fry (without oil) desicated coconut in a shallow pan


• In a mixing bowl, add all mixing sauce ingredients, stir well and set aside.
• When all ingredients are gathered, in a large bowl or container mix thoroughly all the ingredients except desicated coconut and mint leaves for just before serving.

NOTE:Above recipe yields approximately 12-14 portions depending on how hungry the crowd you are feeding feels.

For a more authentic taste, source for below ingredients to replace the substitutes above:

• Asian Lime
• Asian Mint Leaves
• Fresh Shredded Coconut
• Freshly Pounded Sambal Belachan (alternatively use a blender)

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Hainanese Chicken Rice is one of my favourite. When home in Penang, it serves as an afternoon lunch. I always return to the same favourite stalls for chicken rice. It's always the soft chicken meat, and springy chicken skin with the flavourful chicken rice topped with appetising dipping sauce that makes one return for more.

Living in London, it's not easy to find this dish. A friend made it one day and shared her tips on cooking. After tasting it, it's made me look up some recipes online for inspiration.

The recipe captured below might look lengthy and challenging, however it's rather easy once you get the procedure right. I'd definitely recommend an attempt as you can achieve a wholesome meal derived from one whole chicken!

Chicken

Ingredients:
• 1 whole corn fed chicken - given good scrub with generous amount of sea salt
• 1 inch ginger sliced into thins
3-4 springs of spring onion chopped into 3 or 4 sections
• Salt for seasoning
• 1 full stock pot of water
• 1 stock pot of ice bath

Method:
• Bring the full stock pot of water to boil.
• Prepare chicken by giving it a good spa treatment of rigorous salt scrubbing. If required, scrub several times, rinse away peeling skin and scrub again to achieve taut gleaming skin.
• Season chicken inside out and stuff it with ginger and spring onions.
• Slowly immerse whole chicken in boiling water, let it bring to boil again then immediately turn heat low enough to simmer throughout cooking time (approximately 2hours).
• As the chicken simmers in the stock pot, gradually sift / ladle out the scummy residue that surface.
• There are two ways one could use to determine when the chicken is done - a) use a cooking termometer to measure the temperature is 76 degree celsius (170 farenheit) at the thickest part of the chicken (in between the thighs not touching bones); b) reaching 2hours cooking time and a little beyond making sure it's at such a slow simmer that bubbles merely break through the surface.
• Carefully bring chicken out from stock pot, immerse fully into ice bath to stop cooking process and tightens chicken skin. This is key to getting the best skin texture for Hainanese Chicken Rice!
• Bring chicken out from ice bath, set aside.
• Keep remainder chicken stock in stock pot for use in making the rice, beansprouts, and soup for serving with the dish.
• When all other preparation is complete, just before serving, start chopping up or boning the chicken into nicely proportioned bite size slices onto serving dish.

Rice

Ingredients:
• 3 cups rice, washed and drained, set aside
• 2 tablespoon cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
• Chicken stock from poaching chicken
• 3-4 Pandan leaves, washed, divided and knotted
• Garlic minced - approximate amount based on cups of rice to cook
• Ginger minced - approximate amount based on cups of rice to cook

Method - with rice cooker:
• Heat up cooking oil in wok at medium-high heat, gently fry ginger and garlic until fragrant, but not burning it.
• Add rice, stir to mix thoroughly, cook for 2 mins.
• Ladle chicken stock into rice cooker, scoop up rice from wok, add sesame seed oil and pandan leaves then turn rice cooker on to cook.
• The frying step is meant to bring more flavour to the rice. It is also fine to skip the frying step if time is limited.

Learn how to cook rice over the stove here.


Whilst the rice is cooking, start preparing the dipping sauces, blanch beansprouts, and carve the chicken.

Dipping Sauces

Penang Inspired Chilli Sauce - Ingredients:
• 1 inch ginger roughly chopped up
• 3-4 cloves garlic peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 lemon grass, cut into small sections
• 1 red chilli, desseeded and roughly chopped
• 2-3 birds eye chilli, roughly chopped
• 2-3 lime juice (1 whole lemon juice can be used as a substitute if desperate)
• Sugar and salt to season

Method:
• Put ginger, garlic, lemon grass, chillies, lime juice all into a blender. Give it a quick blend once or twice, just enough to shred up the ingredients, but not overly processed.
• Pour chilli mix out into sauce dipping bowl, add sugar and salt to season.

Dark Soya Sauce Dip - Ingredients:
• 2-3 birds eye chilli, roughly chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic peeled and minced
• Desired amount of sweet dark soya sauce or just enough to cover the chilli and garlic mix

Method:
• Add chillies and garlic into sauce dipping bowl, top it up with sweet dark soya sauce.

Blanched Beansprouts

Ingredients:
• 1 packet of beansprouts, washed and drained
• 2-3 sprigs spring onion chopped into small chunks
• 1-2 ladles of stock from poaching chicken
• Medium pot of water bring to boil
• A few dashes of soya sauce and sesame seed oil to season

Method:
• Gauging when rice is just about ready, in a medium pot bring water to the boil.
• Add beansprouts into water and bring to the boil again.
• Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until beansprouts turn slightly translucent, yet still crunchy to the bite.
• Turn off the heat and dish out beansprouts into serving dish.
• Ladle over the chicken stock, season with soya sauce and sesame oil.
• Garnish with spring onion and serve.

If served as a buffet style dish, you can very well have all chicken in one big dish. If serving individually, below is a suggested method. Hope you have fun with this!

Jiao Zi (饺子)

This is a special post for my cousin Kristie who is living on Cayman Islands. We were online chatting about food, and I was describing what we were planning to have on this Winter Solstice evening. She requested for the recipe, so here it is!

The recipe below has been adapted from a well cherished recipe from my mother. It's developed from the basic meat seasoning recipe. The seasoned meat is very versatile. It can be used as meatballs in simple soups for noodles, or steamed as a dish to go with rice, and as below used for Jiao Zi wrapping!

I've included an extended list of ingredients as you will see. Excluding the optional ingredients will still give you a basic seasoned mince not lacking in taste.

Makes approximately 40 dumplings.
Ingredients:

1. 500g fresh ground pork
2. 1 egg
3. 1 tsp salt
4. 1 tsp sugar
5. 1 tbsp sesame seed oil
6. 1/2 tsp pepper
7. 3 tsp cornstarch
8. 3 spring onions thinly chopped (optional)
9. 6 water chestnuts chunky chopped (optional)
10. 200g shrimps roughly chopped (optional)
11. 2 packets (200g per pack) of Jiao Zi pastry

Method:

1. In a deep bowl or plastic container with lid, season ground pork with salt, sugar, pepper, sesame seed oil and egg. Mix thoroughly, then add cornstarch and mix until cornstarch is well disolved into meat. If in a bowl, use cling wrap to cover bowl, otherwise just pop the lid on the plastic container and chill prepared mince in the fridge.



2. This can be prepared 1 day ahead. If preparing on the same day, allow at least 30mins chilling time.
3. Whilst chilling meat, chop up the shrimps, spring onions and water chestnuts. Put aside in separate containers.
4. Bring out chilled mince from fridge. Add shrimps, spring onions, and water chestnuts into mince and mix well.



5. Now the wrapping of Jiao Zi begins... Taking one Jiao Zi wrap on one hand, using another scoop up a spoonful of mince and lay it in the centre of the Jiao Zi wrap.




6. Use some cornstarch in water to mix up a light solution that can help the sealing of the sides. Apply the cornstarch solution to the sides, then lightly fold it over into half, slowly sealing and lightly stretching the sealed wrapped edges.






7. When you're almost complete with wrapping, start a pot of hot water to boil. Add a dash of oil just before putting the Jiao Zi into the boiling water to prevent them from sticking together. Cook for approximately 10minutes, but usually when they float to the surface, it indicates that it's cooked.



8. The presentation and serving can vary depending on individual taste. You can serve it in a special soup; or serve it dry with special sauces (sweet & sour chilli sauce, garlic chilli sauce, sliced ginger in vinegar & soya sauce). If you're a Jiao Zi fan, you will know there are many ways to savour this dish. My favourite is the ginger in vinegar & soya sauce.

Here I share with you an article (in Chinese) with a short history of the Winter Solstice (冬至節). It gives you a short background to the significance of the Winter Solstice in Chinese culture. Hope you enjoy the Jiao Zi with this article!

Chicken and Mushroom Steamed Rice 有味饭

I remember my mum gave me this recipe when I went to college. It's easy to make and tastes good. Yes, mum knew I was a lazy person who likes easy 'all in one pot' (一窝熟)cooking.

Please note that this recipe requires the use of an electric rice cooker - available from most Chinese grocery stores or Argos. If rice cooker is not available, you can attempt steaming instead.

*Serves 4 persons*
Ingredients:

1. 2 cups rice
   
2. 2 whole chicken thighs (chopped into 5parts or deboned & sliced into bite size)
   
3. Desired amount of dried Shiitake mushrooms (re-hydrated & halved or diced into cubes)
   
4. 1 clove garlic (finely chopped)
   
5. 2 clove buds
   
6. 1 tbsp dark soya sauce
   
7. 1 tbsp soya sauce
   
8. 1 & 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
   
9. 3/4 - 1 tsp sesame seed oil
   
10. pinch of salt

Method:

1. Pre-soak mushrooms & slice them up as desired.
   
2. Marinate chopped chicken with garlic, soya sauce, dark soya sauce, oyster sauce & sesame seed oil for 20-30minutes.
   
3. When the mushrooms are softened, pour away the water and mix together with the chicken marinade.
   
4. Cook rice in rice cooker. While half cooked, add a pinch of salt, then pour in all marinated ingredients and cloves.
   
5. Stir well and let it cook thoroughly.
   
6. When the rice is cooked, lift the lid & give it a quick thorough mix then put the lid back for few minutes for the moisture and steam to settle.
   
   
7. Serve while it's hot.

Drunken Shaoxing Chicken

This recipe goes well with rice. The ingredients can easily be obtained from Chinese medicinal halls or Chinatown.

Ingredients:

• 2 whole chicken thighs [chopped]
• 6 pcs Chinese mushrooms [soaked & cut into halves]
• 1.5 tbsp Wolfberries
• 1/4 cup dried longan
• 1 clove garlic [chopped]
• Quarter cup Hua Tiao Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of pepper
• Half tbsp cooking oil
• 5 tbsp water.

Method:

1. Marinate chopped chicken with Hua Tiao Shaoxing wine, soya sauce, salt, pepper & sugar for 30 minutes - 1 hour.
   
2. In a pot, brown garlic in cooking oil.
3. Add in mushrooms and wolfberries and fry for about 7 minutes or until mushrooms are fragrant.
   
4. Add in the marinated chicken along with the marinade and continue frying for another 5 minutes then add in the dried longan.
   
5. You may add in another tablespoonful of Hua Tiao Shaoxing wine at this point, to enhance the taste of the dish.
6. Add in the water.
7. Leave to simmer for another 15-20 minutes [or until chicken is cooked] with the pot partially covered, stirring occasionally.

*Serves 2 persons

Mushroom & Oyster Sauce Chicken 豪油冬菇鸡

There was a special delivery of dried Chinese Mushrooms. So first thing that came to mind was to prepare this simple yet wonderful tasting chicken dish. It's good to go with white rice alone or better accompanied with a vegetable dish.

Ingredients:

2 whole chicken hind quarters (halved, cutting the leg from the thigh)

Chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked with hot water & sliced into bite size, keep soaking water)

2-3 cloves garlic (crushed & keep skin intact)

5 slices of ginger

1 tbsp oyster sauce

0.5 tsp dark soya sauce

1 tbsp cooking oil

water

Method:

1. Heat up cooking pot, stir garlic & ginger in cooking oil. Careful not to burn them.
   
2. When garlic & ginger stir is fragrant, bring in the chinese mushrooms. Stir till fragrant.
   
3. Add chicken & fry till meat is slightly white.
   
4. Add mushroom water & bring to boil, adding water if you prefer to have more sauce.
   
5. Season with oyster sauce & dark soya sauce.
   
6. Let simmer until chicken is thoroughly cooked.

Steamed Rice with Mushroom & Chicken 有味饭

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rice
• 2 whole chicken thighs [each chopped into 5 parts]
• Chinese mushrooms [amount as desired - soak & sliced]
• 1 string of Chinese wind-dried sausage [thinly sliced]
• 1 clove garlic [chopped]
• 1 tbsp dark soya sauce
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1.5 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sesame seed oil
• Half tbsp cooking oil
• A pinch of salt

Method:

1. Marinate chopped chicken with soya sauce, dark soya sauce, oyster sauce & sesame seed oil for 30 minutes.
2. Cook rice together with wind-dried sausages and a pinch of salt.
3. In a separate pot, brown garlic in cooking oil and lightly stir-fry the marinated chicken.
4. Add in sliced mushrooms and leave to cook for about 10-15 minutes.
5. When the rice is almost cooked, pour in the cooked chicken and mushrooms along with the gravy.
6. Stir well and leave to cook, checking occasionally and stirring.

*Serves 4 persons