Nyonya Dish - Ayam Kleo

Claypot Chicken with Mushrooms

Roast Capon Chicken

Last night was the first time that my hubby and i had capon chicken. To our surprised, the meat was very different from normal chicken, it was very tender and juicy. We didn't know what is capon chicken until we google. In short, capon chicken is castrated rooster. You can read more about that here. It's very good for roast, because it's huge and my hubby thought it would be very good for curry chicken too. Hmm... I shall try that next time.

Braised Soy Sauce Pot

It has been a long time since i last cooked braised soy sauce pot. It's simple and delicious. Just prepare the sauce and put in what ever ingredients you like. What i put in my pot were chicken drumsticks, chicken wings, mini pork belly, hard boiled eggs, beancurd and fried beancurd. The best part about this dish is that you can keep the left over sauce in the fridge and use it to cook again. Or if you have left over ingredients, it can turn into lunch the next day. Just boil some noodle to go with the sauce and ingredients. Yum!

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Braised Soy Sauce Chicken

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Sauce Ingredients

- 1 whole garlic, light mashed

- 2 shallots, peeled

- 1 cinnamon stick

- 3 star anise

- 8 cloves

- 30g rock sugar

- 3 tbs dark soy sauce

- 2 tbs light soy sauce

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 4 chinese bowls of water

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Ingredients (just put anything that you like, this was what i put):

- 2 drum sticks

- 2 chicken wings

- 200g mini pork belly

- 2 beancurd

- 2 hard boiled eggs

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Directions:

1) Lightly brown garlic and shallot than throw in cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves. Over low heat, fry till you can smell light aroma from the spices, add in some water (2tbs) and the rock sugar.

2) When the rock sugar melted, add in the 4 boils of water, bring to boil. Add in the dark and light soy sauces and salt.

3) When the sauce comes to boil, add in all ingredients except the chicken. Let it boil for 15-20min over medium-low heat (with lid cover), than add in the chicken.

4) Let the chicken cook for 10min (15min if you are not using claypot) over low heat (with lid cover) than turn off the flame. Let the pot cover and braised for 1-2hour, undisturb (meaning, don't open the lid and stir).

** You can used any type of cooking pot, not neccessary claypot. However i enjoy using claypot because of it's ability to retain heat.

** If you are new to using claypot, take not that you are not supposed to use it over high flame or the pot will cracks.

Claypot Cabbage Rice

Claypot Lemongrass Chicken

Claypot Lemongrass Chicken

Ingredients
- whole chicken, chop into small pieces
- 2 stalks of lemongrass, finely shreadded
- 3 cloves of garlic, remove skin and lightly flatten with knife
- 2 shallots, remove skin

Marinate
- 1 tbs dark soy sauce
- 1 tbs light soy sauce
- 1 tbs chinese wine
- 1 tsp brown sugar

Method
1) Marinate the chicken for 1 hour.
2) Brown shallot and garlic in pan till mildly fragrant. Than add in the lemongrass and fry for one minute.
3) Throw in the chicken and brown them on high heat for 2min. Transfer to heated claypot and simmer on low heat for 15min, with lid covered.
4) Stir the chicken and simmer for further 5min, with lid cover than turn off the flame. Without opening the lid, let the chicken to continue simmer for further 15-20min.

Verdict: The chicken turns out to be very nice and fragrant. You may notice no water is added, however end of the cooking time, you will see gravy. Those are from the chicken itself.

Roast Lemongrass Chicken

Marsala Chicken

Roast Lemongrass Sakura Chicken

Both of us loves to eat roast meat, especially roast chicken. My hubby does not like the aroma of western herbs (which i loves), so i will normally omit them in my roast. But i always like to experiment new flavours so i tried out lemongrass this time. It turned out very nice. The aroma of the lemongrass makes this roast taste a little bit like "Hainanese Chicken Rice" because of the "ginger" flavour (but i did not put any ginger in it). My hubby said if only there was rice, it will be a perfect meal. Because the gravy was very good and will goes very well with rice because of the oriental flavour.

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I wanted to try out some new wine, so i got this Carmenere, which i had never heard off (partly because i am not a regular wine drinker :P). First taste was alright, but when i drink again, i didn't like it. It's not aromatic, but very strong alcoholic taste, some how like the chinese red wine that i have tried sometimes back.
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Lemongrass Roast Chicken
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Ingredients
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- 1 sakura chicken
- 2 stalks of lemongrass (sliced)
- 1 clove of garlic
- 3 shallots
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Marinate

- 1tbs lemon juice
- 2 tbs dark soy sauce
- 1 tbs soya sauce
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbs brown sugar
- 1 tbs mirin
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Method
1) Clean the chicken and remove the cavities.
2) Put all marinate and ingredients in a ziplock bag, than add in the chicken and rub the marinate all over it. Leave to marinate in the fridge for 4 hours or over night.
3) Remove chicken from fridge and leave chicken to cool till room temperature.
4) Preheat oven to 180 degrees and roast chicken for 40min. Than turn the chicken over to roast further 15min or till cooked.
5) Serve with fresh cucumber, tomatoes and rice.

Beggar's Chicken

My in laws came to our place yesterday, so i thought of impressing them by cooking them a good lunch. As my mother in law was working in the food industry, so not only she can cook very well, her expectation of food is very high too. However, instead of impressing them, i ... Arrh!!! Sigh.... i should have just roast a chicken instead.

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As i found this "Beggar's Chicken" recipe, so i thought it will be a good dish to impress them. But instead of impressing them, i had blew it instead. Because my dough was too thin at the bottom, the juice leaked out during baking. So in the end the chicken was very very dry. I was so disappointed and embarrassed.

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I will try this recipe again but will be more careful with my wrapping in future. Lesson learnt for the day: " Never attempt a new recipe if you are out to impress".

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** Where to find Beggar's Chicken in Malaysia?

** More stories on Beggar's Chicken and this

Steam Herbal Chicken - 蒸药材鸡

Steam Herbal Chicken

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Ingredients:

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(A)

2 Whole drum sticks and 2 Whole chicken wings

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(B)

6 Dried Longans (龙眼干)

8 Red dates (红枣)

1 tbs wolfberries (枸杞子)

15g Rhizoma Polygonati Odorati (玉竹)

2-3 slice of Angelica Sinensis (当归)

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Seasoning:

(C)

1 tbs Oyster sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1 tbs rice wine

1 tsp sesame oil

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2 cups of water

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Method

1) Bring all (B) ingredients to boil in the 2 cups of water for about 20-30min, until water reduced to about 1-1.5cups.

2) Remove from heat, add in all the seasoning in (C), stir till well combined.

3) Place a heavy duty aluminium foil on a plate and place the chicken in the middle.

4) Pour in the herbs together with the sauce. Wrap up the aluminium foil and steam the whole parcel for 1hr over medium-high heat.

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Note:

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**If you are using a wok for steaming, be careful and use more water. Otherwise the wok will dry up very fast. Therefore do not use high heat for steaming at wok.

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** You can omitt the Dang gui herb if you do not like this herb.

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Claypot Chicken Rice 2 - 砂煲鸡饭

This claypot chicken rice is simply delicious and very easy to prepare.

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Claypot Chicken Rice - using rice cooker

Serves 2

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Ingredients:

2 Whole Chicken Drumsticks - score the drumstick, so that the meat can be cooked faster.

2 Chicken wings

1 pair of chinese sausages (lup cheong) - cut into small pieces

6 chinese mushrooms

2 shallots

1 clove of garlic

some scallions for garnish (optional)

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Marinate for chicken:

1 tbs light soya sauce

1 tbs dark soya sauce

1 tbs oyster sauce

1 tbs sesame oil

dash of pepper

sprinkle some sugar

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Method:

1) Marinate the chicken for 4hrs or overnight.

2) Cook rice in rice cooker as usual (about 1.5 cups of rice), but with slightly lesser water.

3) Fried the shallots till brown, set aside together with the oil.

4) Fried the garlic than add in the mushrooms, than the chicken parts (and the marinate) and cooked the chicken till 90% cooked, set aside.

5) While the rice is still cooking, but almost dry up, add in the chicken parts in no.(4) (with the sauce) and the chinese sausage.

6) Chicken rice should be ready about 10 minutes after the "rice cooked" sign on. Remove the chicken (you may want to check if the chicken is cooked, if not leave inside for further 10min. Because individual rice cooker may give different results) and other ingredients. Add dark soya sauce (any amount, to your own liking), the fried shallot and oil. Stir thoroughly.

7) Serve with stir fried vegetables.

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Saturday brunch - Roti but not Prata

Actually i planned to make curry and eat it with instant roti prata (those frozen ones). But both me and hubby were hungry the night before, so we ate it (roti prata) for supper. So on saturday morning, i thought it will be a chance for me to try out this roti chanai recipe. But it was a flop. It was so terrible that it was totally not edible. Luckily i have rice in the fridge, so i fried the rice to eat with the curry instead.
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Claypot Chicken Rice - the rice cooker way

Craving for claypot chicken rice, so i decided to make it for dinner. But we don't have a claypot at home, so i made it using rice cooker instead. Outcome, the chicken rice was really very very delicious, except that it doesn't have the aromatic claypot smell. But that was good enough for us.

Saturday Feast - Oriental Roast chicken 中式烤鸡

After working so hard during weekdays, we like to indulge ourselves to sinful food on saturday nights. Our all time favourite are grilled gourmet sausages, grilled drumsticks with baked potatoes, pair with some wine. And if we do go out during the day, we will get some DVDs. Good food and nice movie, this will be a perfect saturday night for us.

What we had last saturday....

Oriental Roast Chicken

Oriental Egg Custard for dessert

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Oriental Egg Custard - 燉蛋

Serves 4

Ingredients

5 eggs
2.5 cups water
60-90g rock sugar (according to taste)
2 tbs condense milk (optional - increase the amt of rock sugar if not adding this)
1-2 tsp grated ginger (optional) - juiced

Method
1) In a saucepan, bring to boil the water and dissolve the rock sugar. Remove from heat and add in condense milk. Let it cool slightly.
2) Beat the eggs lightly and stir into the sugar syrup (keep stirring). Add in the ginger juice.
3) Strain the above mixture into bowls. Steam over medium heat for 10-12min or till set.


Oriental Roast Chicken - 中式烤鸡

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
3 Tbs light soya sauce
1 Tbs dark soya sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp 5 spice powder
1 tsp blackpepper
2 Tbs chinese shao xing wine
1 Tbs worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs grated ginger (juiced)
2 Tbs sesame oil
1 whole lemon
1 whole garlic (lightly flatten)

2.5 cups of water
pinch of salt
1 Tbs cornstarch + 1 Tbs water


Method

1) Mixed all the above in a ziplock bag, except the sesame oil.
2) Prick the lemon with a fork and stuff it together with a few cloves of garlic into the chicken. Put the whole chicken into the bag, zip it up and start to "massage" the chicken with the marinate. Leave it in the fridge for 2 hours, than add in the sesame oil. Marinate overnight or minimun 8 hours.
3) Bring chicken out from fridge and let it warm to room temperature. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
4) In a rectangular pan, pour in the water, pinch of salt, the remaining garlic and the marinate, stir and mix well. Grill the chicken over the pan of water.
5)Baste the chicken with the mixture after 25 minutes. Grilled for a further 10 minutes than turn the chicken over, baste. Leave it to bake for further 30min or till cooked. Total grilling time about 60min-75min.
6) Once the chicken is done. Mashed the garlic in the pan and bring the mixture to boil. Thicken the mixture with cornstarch water. Pour the sauce over chicken or serve at the side.