Bite On It!

One thing I’ve been dying to eat during my confinement was this fresh turmeric chicken. However, due to jaundice in baby, I was ‘advised’ by a few friends to avoid any ginger in large amount especially turmeric. I do not know how much effect turmeric has on newborn jaundice so to be on the safe side, I avoided it for almost 3 weeks. That means my chance of having this particular dish is pretty limited!

So, die-die on the 3rd week I begged my mom to cook it for me else I’ll never have a chance! Not that I don’t know how to cook it just that I don’t wish to handle all the yellow stuff in my kitchen! Yeah, it can get a little colorful sometimes! Normally I will use turmeric powder which is less fragrant. Usually I will have them pan fried but you can always deep fried it or grill it… it is an individual preference.

I asked my mom to add in some curry leafs this time as these leafs give the dish an extra flavors! They are oh so yummy!
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Ingredients

• 2 pcs Whole chicken thighs
• 80-100g Fresh Turmeric (crushed/blender)
• 2 strands Curry leafs
• Sesame seed oil
• Salt for taste
• Black pepper

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Methods

1. De-bone the chicken thighs (optional) and marinade with crushed fresh turmeric, some salt and black pepper for at least 30 minutes (the longer the better as the turmeric juice can absorb better) and mix in the curry leafs before cooking.
2. Heat up frying pan with sesame seed oil and pan fried both chicken thighs till cooked.

During my previous confinement I took a lot of glutinous rice wine chicken which was the more soupy version as my mom made her own glutinous rice wine then. This time, she did not have the time to do it herself so she ordered from a friend. The taste was not as good…

Anyway, in most confinement menu, glutinous rice wine chicken is one of the most common dish so that means we could never go without! Since the wine was not as tasty as before, my mom did the stir fried version instead which uses less of the wine.

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Ingredients

• 1 Free range chicken (chopped into small pieces)
• 300g Ginger (coarsely chopped)
• 3tbsp Sesame seed oil
• 1cup Glutinous rice wine
• 1/2cup Water
• Salt for taste

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with sesame seed oil and saute chopped ginger till fragrant.
2. Put in chicken pieces and stir fry till cook and add in some water, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally on medium fire.
3. Pour in the glutinous rice wine and continue to stir and let it simmer without covering the wok till sauce thicken.
4. Add in salt for taste (optional).

I have been doing quite a lot of kids bento for Darrius lately which prompted me to come out with a lot of finger food recipes.  Though Darrius is pretty receptive to what ever I served him but there are still food that he will refuse. Therefore I will try to create different recipes using the same few ingredients.

Darrius is a huge fan of the pan-fried soy sauce chicken so I used that recipe to make drumlets which is very convenient to be packed into bento box as compared to chicken drumsticks. Today I am using oyster sauce instead.

Previously I never keep any oyster sauce at home simply because PiggyBeng believed that oyster sauce was made of left over water from fish in the market. o_O Yeah, apparently my BIL who used to operate a Chinese restaurant in Europe and he was told that this was how oyster sauce derived from.

Luckily I do watch TV and I’ve learned from a Master Chef (Tho-tho) from Hong Kong that oyster sauce actually came from boiling the fresh oysters with some ingredients.

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Ingredients

• 6 Chicken drumlets
• 1tbsp Oyster sauce
• 1tsp Brown sugar
• 1/2tsp Dark soy sauce
• Dash of pepper

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Methods

1. Wash and dry the chicken drumlets with a paper towel. Marinade the chicken drumlets with all the ingredients and best leave over night.
2. Heat up the wok with little oil (the skin from the chicken will release oil) and pan fried all the drumlets on low heat.
3. When the drumlets are about 90% cooked, pour in the remaining sauce from the marinade and cook till all the drumlets are fully glazed with the sauce.

Yesterday I went to Tesco to do my weekly marketing and has wanted to look for some chicken wings but they ran out of stock. Only saw some miserable chicken thighs and some ok looking chicken breast meat so decided to get a pack of the latter.

Normally I’ll use them for stir-fying with some vegetables but since I have quite a few pieces, I decided to de-bone them and make some simple teriyaki chicken on skewers since Darrius likes eating ’satay’. I pan fried it as I was lazy to start the oven.

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Ingredients

• Satay/bamboo sticks
• Japanese cucumber

Marinade

• 300g Chicken breast meat fillet (cut into square bite size)
• 1tsp Black sauce
• 1tbsp  Light soy sauce
• 1tbsp Mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine)
• 1tsp Corn flour
• 1tsp Olive oil
• 1tbsp Brown sugar
• Dash of pepper

Sauce

• 1tbsp Brown sugar
• 1tsp Corn flour
• 1tsp Black sauce
• 1tbsp Light soy sauce
• 1/2 cup Water

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Methods

1. Debone the chicken meat if there’s any, wipe dry with a paper kitchen towel and cut into square bite size.  Marinade and leave it for a few hours in the chiller.
2. Heat up frying pan with some oil and slowly pan fried the chicken cubes till cooked. Lift then up and put aside.
3. Continue on the frying pan with the sauce ingredients and cook till it comes to a boil and toss in the chicken cubes and let the sauce absorb into the chicken cubes on low fire. Lift up and skewer them onto bamboo sticks  and alternate with a slice of Japanese cucumber.

After away from Penang for almost 2 weeks, I do crave for something sour and spicy. I have wanted to get my Asam Laksa fix from the hawker behind our house but with the weather so hot, I dreaded walking out of the house.

Then I was running out of idea what to cook. PiggyBeng was ever so happy if I steam him his Barramundi fillets but to be very honest, I am so bored eating the same old dish a few times a week! Luckily I bought some chicken drumsticks as spares which I normally used for lunch.

Initially i have wanted to cook pan fried curry chicken with curry leaves. I even went to pluck some curry leaves from my neighbour’s garden! Then I discovered I did not have the appropriate curry powder at home! Dang! PiggyBeng only bought those for curry fish since he cook curry fish all the time.

Therefore I have to change my menu. Luckily I spotted the Tom Yum paste which I bought for my instant noodles. Sometimes back I bought some Japanese instant noodles and the flavor sucks so I bought the Tom Yum paste to replace.

And tadaaaa…. we have Pan Fried Tom Yum Chicken!

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Ingredients

• 2pcs Chicken drumsticks
• 1tbsp Tom Yum paste
• Lemon juice

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Methods

1. Cut the chicken drumsticks into thin pieces and marinate with Tom Yum paste and let it stand for 30 minutes.
2. Heat up wok with some oil in medium heat and slowly pan fried the chicken pieces until cooked.
3. When done, squeeze some lemon juice before serving.

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This Peace Brand Tom Yum paste is not so spicy so kids can take them.