Red Wine Chicken -Honw Jau Gai (FuZhou)

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Okie...this is extremely easy. Special thanks to Aunt Alice for her recipe.

Please note that I have made minor changes to the recipe after a few experiements :

50 gm whole garlic (peeled) segments
350 gm ginger (julienned)
2 nos kampung chicken (chopped and marinated with 2 tsp salt & 2 tbsp wine)
2 cups red rice wine (Fuzhou red husk wine)
2 tbsp rice wine sediment (i forgot the actual term for this...:()
1 tbsp sugar


1. Heat 2 tbsp oil. Stirfry ginger & garlic until medium-low heat until SOFT (but not browned)
2. Add in the sediments (be sure to stirfry constantly or it will burn). Stir in the chicken pieces and stirfry for a while.

3. Pour in 1 1/2 cup of wine and sugar and turn to medium-high heat. Cover wok with lid.

4. Stir every now and then until it thickens.

5. Stir in the last 1/2 cup of wine and let it cook for a further 10-20 seconds b4 turning off the fire.

Thats it....

Note: It will be best to chop the chicken into smaller pieces especially the breast.

CARROT CAKE

I got this recipe from someone but made some modification to suite my taste (less sugar and oil)

NOTE : 1 cup means 330 ml drinking mugs not 250ml ones.

1 cup of fine brown sugar

1 1/2 cup walnuts, roasted and roughly chopped

3 large eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 vegetable oil

1 1/2 cup self raising flour (or plain flour with 1/2 tsp more baking powder)

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups grated carrots (gently squeeze out part of the juice from the grated carrots)

Method :

1. In a cake mixer, beat sugar and oil for about 2 minutes. Add in eggs one by one and continue mixing until sugar dissolves.

2. Mix flour with baking soda, baking powder, baking soda, salt cinnamon.

3. Sieve flour into the sugar mixture and fold the flour in evenly.

4. Fold in carrots and nuts.

5. pour into a oiled and floured baking pan and bake in moderately slow oven for about 45-50 minutes.

Note : I chose to squeeze out PART of the carrot juice so that the cake will be more fluffy and not soggy. I also preferred using baking powder despite using self raising flour for the same reason (after many testings). My oven has a scale of ten. Moderately slow oven means heat scale at 3.5. Use a toothpick to test whether the cake is done by poking right into the centre of the cake. If the toothpick comes out dry, then the cake is cooked. Salt it to get rid of the flour-ly taste of the cake. Sugar and Eggs gives a nice golden brown color to the cake.

Soft beancurd in syrup (Tau Foo Fah)

Ingredients : (makes about 6 - 8 bowls)
300 gm soy beans (soaked for at least half a day)
2 tsp "Sek Kou"/limestone powder
1.5 tbsp cornstarch (Must)
1.2-1.5 ltr water

Method:
1. After soaking the beans for at least 1/2 day, discard the water. Divide beans into three portions.
2. Place 1/3 of beans into a blender and add 1/3 of the water into the blender and blend to a count of 5 seconds. Repeat for another 2 times. (Be careful not to blend too long or the soy milk will turn out slimy.
3. Pour it out into a large basin/container.
4. Repeat the process for the remaining beans.
5. Use a coffee strainer (those traditional cloth ones), pour in a lade or two if the blended beans mixture and squeeze out the milk into large pot. (Don't add additional water !!)
6. Bring soy milk to boil (when it starts to bubble, keep a watch over the stove so that it won't spill over)
7. Meanwhile, in another pot, put in the cornstarch and "Sek Kou" and dilute with 3 -4 tbsp of water.
8. "Flush" in the hot soy milk into the pot of flour mixture and leave it untouched until the curd is firm (about 5-10 minutes...)
9. The sugar syrup (depending on how sweet you want it to be) consist of sugar (cane or normal sugar or some like to have gula melaka) melted in water and pandan leave. The syrup should be sweeter so that once added into the beancurd, will be just nice and not bland.
10. Scoop up the beancurd layer by layer (occasionally discarding the water formed) into the serving bowl and add in desired amount of syrup. Eat while its hot.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION......

You Tiao (Yau Zhao Kwai) - Chinese Crullers

300 gm high protein flour

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp alum

1/2 tsp amonia

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp limestone powder (Sek Gou)

190-200 ml water

1.5 tsp sugar

1.5 tsp yeast

2 tbsp lukewarm water

1. Mix water (190 ml) with alum, salt, amonia, baking soda and limestone powder. Set aside

2. Meanwhile, mix sugar, yeast and 2 tbsp water and set aside until frothy.

3. In a stainless steel bowl. Pour in high protein flour.

4. Gently pour in the water mixture bit by bit, mixing it with your hands. And pour in the yeast mixture. Mix well.

5. The dough may look slightly moist (not watery) and sticks to the hand, which is okay.  Mix well and set aside covered for 10 min.

6. The following kneading method must be used if you don't want to have a doughnut instead.

- Gently apply pressure with your fist(slightly pulling it outwards) to the sides of the round  dough. Place your palm (upwards) underneath one of the corners to lift up (and pull) some dough and fold it over to the centre until all sides have been folded. Turn it over and repeat.

 - rest dough for a further 5 minute and repeat the process. for 4-5 times.

- Cover dough with a oiled baking sheet and allow to rise for 2-3 hours.

7. Divide portions into 3. 

8. Use one portion and gently roll it out into a rectangle shaped flat dough (on floured surface)

9. Let it rest while you do the same for the other 2 portions.

10. come back to the 1st portion, gently pull (from centre to the ends) of the rectangular dough to even it out.  This helps stretch the gluten thinner and tighter so that the outer skin becomes thinner.  

10.  Use a pastry cutter and cut into about 1 inch thick short pieces. Carefully (try not to stretch) place one sheet onto another and using a floured skewer, press the centre of the dough to stick them together (NOTE : DO NOT PRECEED WITH THIS STEP UNTIL YOU'RE READY TO FRY IT).

11. Hold the ends of the dough and stretch it slightly so that its length more than doubled and carefully lower it into the hot oil.

12. MUST DO : Immediately (before the shape hardens) use a wooden chopstick to toss /swirl/turn the dough stick from left to  right. (you will see big air pockets starting to form.  If you do not do this, you'll end up with a crispy but compact/dense doughnut).

Fry until golden brown and drain off excess oil.

Note: It is essential to place two sheets together and mark it with a skewer.  As you fry it. The gluten from one dough stretches the other to form a thinner layer of crispy skin. However, the layed sheets should not be left unattended for too long and it will eventually form into one single dough, thus defeating the purpose of doing so. 

If you can't finish the entire batch, just deepfry it until the shape sets and freeze it until you need it.  Deepfry it straight off the fridge until golden brown and crispy.

Sweet & Sour Pork with Diced Pineapples

Ingredients:

330gm pork (Three layered-minus the skin), sliced

1.5 tbsp flour

1 tbsp Shao xing wine or 1 tsp brandy

1/2 tsp salt

80 gm cucumber (with skin, sliced)

120 gm diced pineapple

80 gm brown onion

120 ml canned pineapple syrup

3.5 tbsp vinegar

1.5-2 tbsp honey

1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp tomato ketchup

2 extra tbsp shao xing wine

Method :

1. Marinate pork with flour, wine & salt and set aside in chiller for at least 15-30 minutes.

2. Mix syrup, vinegar, honey, soy sauce, ketchup and extra wine and set aside.

3. Heat some oil in wok and deepfry the pork in batches until the fat browns slightly. Drain off oil.

4. Heat oil in wok and saute onions followed by pineapple. Add in the sauce mixture and reduce slightly.

5. Add in fried pork and cucumber and continue to cook under medium-high heat until the sauce only "just" coat the pieces of fried pork. Dish out and serve hot.

Chinese Pizza (2 versions)

I was playing with a variety of flour yesterday and I accidentally discovered more uses of wheat starch or more commonly known as Tang Mein flour, mainly used for Dim Sum Skin. I ran out of rice flour the other day and substituted it with Tang Min as batter for my deep-fried fish, and it turned out quite nice. So I tot I can just see if I can squeeze out anymore ideas from my brain. Now I have what I call the Chinese Pizza with chives & cheddar cheease filling (nicer) and the vegetarian version by substituting chives with cabbage which actually ended up a bit like "Okonomiyaki". So here goes :

120 gm chopped chives/cabbage
4 tbsp tang min flour
4 tbsp water
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking power
1 slice of cheddar cheese. sliced

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in wok and stirfry chivers/cabbage under medium-low heat until soft (and translucent for cabbage). Season with a pinch of salt and set aside to cool.

2. Meanwhile mix flour, water and salt and chill it for 15-20 minutes.

3. Before frying, beat in the egg yok and then mix in the vegetables.

4. Heat 1-2 tsp oil in wok (making sure that it coats even the sides)

5. Meanwhile add baking powder into the mixture and stir evenly.

6. Pour into the wok (from the center and tilt the wok to work out the batter into a thin and round pancake (medium heat)

7. Lightly spread the vegetables evenly with a spoon or spatula and allow to cook until the base firms and browns.

8. Spread cheese on top of the pancake. Carefully fold it into a semi circle and continue to cook before turning it over to brown the other side. Serve hot.

Note : As the cabbage filling one tend to be blend, shredded carrots may be used to substitute half the cabbage portion. Before serving, try drizzle a bit of Japanese Mayo on the cabbage pizza.