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CHINESE STIR-FRY EGGPLANT

by siow on in RECIPES, Veggies

Eggplants don’t look like it, but they contain many vitamins and minerals such as potassium, fibre, Vitamin B1 and more. They also contain many important phytonutrients which have many antioxidants. There are lots of different varieties of eggplants and depending on the variety the flavour is slightly different. The most common type of eggplant we see in the market is the large ones with the purple skin and spongy texture. Depending on your location as well, different types of eggplants can be found in the markets.  Where I am at (Sydney) I can only find the classic large purple skinned eggplants, but if I go further out West I sometimes see the white eggplants and the Thai ones as well.

Growing up in Cambodia we eat a lot of fresh vegetables with dips. The common vegetables that are eaten with dips are 3 different types of eggplants (purple skin, Thai eggplant and Pea size eggplants), cucumber, green cabbage and sometimes water vegetables. Without even knowing the benefits of eating eggplants, Cambodians grow up eating and loving them. Because where I came from we often eat eggplants in their raw form or simply add them to soups or stir-fry, I was very surprised when I first encounter this dish from a Sichuan restaurant we found in Sydney. From then my mind opened up to many other eggplant dishes. My partner is a BIG fan of eggplant, any eggplant dish is one of his favourites and this is one of them.

Note: to make this dish the best type of eggplant to use is Chinese eggplant because of its thin and long shape there’s only small amount of the white spongy part. The white spongy part can get very soft and soggy when cooked, especially if they get overcooked which will make them mashy. For this recipe I use the large purple ones because they do not have the Chinese eggplants in my area. So as long as you don’t cook them for too long or leave them in the hot wok when finished their texture will be fine.

This dish is a spicy dish so because we use chilli bean paste to create the spiciness, you can simply adjust the amount of chilli bean paste to your own liking.

 CHINESE STIR-FRY EGGPLANT 

Prep-Time: 10 mins                 Serve: 2

Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

1 large eggplant, cut into strips and soaked in water

2 stalks spring onion, chopped

1 thumb size ginger, grated

1 garlic clove, grated

1 tbsp chilli bean paste

3 tbsp oil

1 tbsp sesame oil for finishing

1 tbsp plain flour / cornstarch

Seasoning

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp rice wine

Grounded pepper

pinch of salt

Method

Drain the eggplant from the water and set aside. Combine all of the seasoning in a sauce bow and set aside.

       

Heat the oil in a wok over medium high heat, once the oil is heated add in the garlic, ginger and the white parts of the spring onion. Cook for 4 minutes or until the garlic turns golden.

       

Add in the eggplant strips and cook for 5 minutes or until eggplant softens the heat and then add in the seasoning and the chilli bean paste. Stir to combine for 2 minutes.

      

Mix some water with the plain flour and then pour it into the wok and then stir to cook the flour for a few minutes until the sauce thicken. Add in the spring onions and stir to mix and then remove the wok from the heat and transfer on to a serving dish. Drizzle the sesame oil over the cooked eggplant and serve with steamed rice.

 

BAKED POTATO CHIPS

by siow on in RECIPES, Veggies

Potatoes are a good source of carbohydrates and nutrients. Great in meals as well as in snacks. Normally people would say that potatoes are unhealthy and are bad for you, well that’s because what they often see or eat is the store bought potatoes chips or the fries which are deep fried. So lets forget what the world says about it for a bit and think about the potato plantations. Potatoes are grown in the soil from the beginning of the plantation until harvest time just like other types of vegetables, this means that they also get a lot of nutrients and minerals from the soil and therefore eating potatoes isn’t just eating a bulk of carbs. They are very good for your digestion when eaten raw or uncooked. If you stop eating store bought potato chips or deep fried fries you will feel and think differently about potatoes.

I love potato fries as much as everyone else does, but what I don’t like is the fat they cook them in. So when you crave for chips, it’s not the potatoes you’re craving for it’s the fat because fat is addictive. When making potatoes chips I like to cook them in the oven because cooking them in the oven requires only a very little amount of oil or not at all and I still get the results I want.

Note: this recipe I made is for eating with grilled or roasted meat so I didn’t want the texture to be crunchy. If you are looking at making it for snacks and want a crunchy texture I recommend not using any oil because when you add the oil it will keep the potatoes moist so it doesn’t matter how long you cook them for, the oil won’t go anywhere so the potatoes won’t get the chance to dry out and get crunchy.

If making vegges or potato fries what I like to do here is coat the chopped potatoes with small amount of seasoned flour or store bought battered mix (dry), dust them off, spray some oil then bake them in the oven. The seasoned flour helps to give some crunch to the fries.

BAKED POTATO CHIPS

Prep-Time: 5 mins                 Serve: 2

Cooking Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

2-3 potatoes, thinly sliced

pinch salt and grounded pepper

1/2 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp chopped fresh dill

4 fresh thyme, leaves

Method

Preheat the oven at 220°C Fan Force and then line a baking tray with baking paper.

In a mixing bowl add in the potatoes and all of the ingredients. Toss the potatoes around until nicely coated with the seasoning.

                  

Line the seasoned potatoes on the tray and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the potatoes become soft and cooked through. Transfer on to a serving plate and serve with roast or grilled meat.

SPICY OVEN CRUMB WINGS

by siow on in Poultry, RECIPES

Whoever came up with the idea of crumbing food with bread crumbs is a genius. A very simple ingredient makes such a huge difference in food. I honestly love crumbed food especially crumbed fish, but what I don’t like about them is the deep-frying part. Whenever I order a crumbed fish, for some reason there’s always this idea I have that they will grill it for me and I alway forget to ask. I often get disappointed because the fish is soggy from the oil and there’s no crunch to it.

I eat very little amounts of deep-fried food especially at home but sometimes I miss crunchy coated wings or drumsticks. You know those ones similar to Korean style honey soy chicken, but it’s just too fattening when they are shallow or deep fried to get the crunchiness.  So I came up with this recipe to satisfy my craving for crunchy wings. It’s simple, less mess and effort.

Note: the crumb mixture is great for fish and also drumsticks. I chose joint wings instead of drumsticks because they take less time to cook and are easier to tell whether they are cooked through or not. 

The dipping sauce is very simple to make, it’s basically hot chilli sauce and bbq sauce. This mixture will give the sauce a smoky feisty bbq flavour. If you don’t like hot sauce feel free to use any sauce you like. 

SPICY OVEN CRUMBED WINGS

Prep-Time: 30 mins                 Serve: 3-4

Cooking Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

6 joint wings, separated and wing ends discarded

Pinch of salt

Fresh grounded pepper

2 egg, whisked

1/2 cup plain flour

bread crumb seasoning

1 cup bread crumbs

Pinch of salt

Fresh grounded pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp ginger powder

Dipping sauce

2tbsp organic bbq sauce

2 tbsp Asian hot chilli sauce

Method

Season the wings with salt and pepper and then leave them to set for 15-30 minutes.

Mix the sauces together in a sauce bowl to make smoky feisty bbq sauce.

Preheat the oven at 220°C Fan Force and line the baking tray with baking paper and set side.

Mix all the ingredients together to make crumb seasoning.

Dredge the wings in flour one at a time and then coat them each with the whisked eggs and lastly coat each of them in the seasoned crumbs.

          

Place the coated wings on a lined tray and repeat to finish the rest. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes turn the wings over and bake for another 15 minutes or until they turn golden.

Remove from the oven and serve with the sauce on the side or on top of the wings.

 

 

CHICKEN CREOLE

by siow on in Poultry, RECIPES

This is one of our favourite winter dishes, creole′ just like many other stew dishes is delicious and simple to make. What’s great about making stew during the colder months of the year is that it’s very heart warming. The hard work is only needed at the very beginning and the rest of the work you can leave to the pan/pot and our best friend in the kitchen, the stove. I love making stew because it doesn’t just taste great on the day you make it, but even better the day after. I love making it in summer as well, however the only problem I have in summer is that it often heats the whole house up so if you feeling hot at home already I don’t recommend cooking it on that summer day.

Where I live currently the meat the market/butcher is already tender enough so the cooking won’t take very long. In Cambodia though, the meat isn’t as tender as it is over here (unless you know how to choose tender pieces) and also good meat is more expensive everywhere so the meat used for a stew is often the chewier cuts with bones and also with some fat. The reason they choose lower quality meat for stews because they are only chewy if they are just cooked, but when they are stewed for long enough they taste better than good meat so using good quality meat in stew is quite a waste. This also apply to poultry, it’s not that they are bad quality poultry it’s just that the chicken isn’t as tender as they are in western countries and the reason is because they are running chickens (farm raised) they are skinnier and chewier. Even if they are cut into small pieces they still need to be cooked for sometimes to tenderize.

This dish has a very unique flavour because of the combination of dried thyme with lemon and hot chili sauce. By the sound of the ingredients it can be a bit scary, but like they say ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. If you have a tooth for spicy food this dish is definitely for you, but if you can’t handle spice you can always adjust the amount of chilies to your liking. This dish can be cooked the night before and is great for cooking in large quantities. The recipe cooks for 4-5 servings as it stands.

Note: just like I mentioned earlier this dish is a spicy dish. I used about 4 tablespoons of hot chili sauce and ½ tablespoon of cayenne pepper so if you don’t like spicy food at all then I recommend using only a small amount of the spices or none at all. My partner just started to be able to handle hot dishes, but he still has hiccups therefore don’t risk it. I use the hot chilli sauce I bought from an Asian market, the HUY FONG FOOD, INC. brand, you can find it in almost every Chinese/ Asian grocery store. 

It would be great to cook this dish in a Dutch oven or a crock pot, but if you haven’t got one like I don’t it’s alright to use a deep large wok or a pot. I personally like to cook this in my large stainless steel wok rather than in a pot because the wok is big enough for me to spread out the chicken and brown them in one go. However if you don’t have a big enough woke brown all of the chicken at once I recommend drowning them in batches instead. 

The snow peas are added at the very end of the dish to keep them crunchy when served, but if you like well cooked vegetables feel free to add them a bit earlier or simply cook them a bit longer. Besides snow peas you can also add broccoli into this dish which tastes great. If you don’t plan to eat the whole amount of the cooked dish on the day you cook it, it is best to only cook the amount of vegetables that you think you will eat and then add in the rest of vegetables in the next day when you plan to cook what is left. This approach enables you to have crunchy vegetables each time and it won’t make it feel like it is left overs. I heat the dish in a pot the next day and I like to add a small amount of water into it to prevent the sauce from burning and provide me enough sauce for this meal as well. When heating it the next day I recommend heating it on medium low to medium heat, this will help to tenderize the chicken even more and the sauce will remain basically the same and not simmer down too much.  

       

CHICKEN CREOLE’

Prep-Time: 15 mins                 Serve: 4

Cooking Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

4 drumsticks

5 joint wings, separated

250g snow peas, top and tail

2 tbsp dried thyme

1 tsp cumin

1 ½ tbsp curry powder

3 cloves garlic, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

oil

2 cups water/2 cups chicken stocks

4 tomatoes, diced small/1 can diced tomato

½ tbsp cayenne pepper (use less if you can’t handle the spice)

4 tbsp hot chili sauce (1-2 tbsp if you want it mild)

½ large lemon, juice

3 bay leaves

Method

Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.

         

Heat the oil in a wok/crock pot over medium heat, brown the chicken on both sides (in batches if you don’t have enough room to brown all of the pieces at ones).

         

Sprinkle the thyme, curry powder, cayenne pepper and cumin on the browned chicken in the same wok/pot and then stir for 2 minutes to coat the chicken with the spices and allow the curry powder to roast in the oil.

        

Add in the tomato, garlic and water and then stir to mix and bring to boil on high heat. Add in the chili sauce, lime juice, bay leaves, 1 tbsp rock salt and 1 tsp grounded pepper and then stir to combine and leave to boil for 25 minutes.

        

Return heat to medium high and allow the dish to continue to simmer for another 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens to your preferred thickness. Add in the snow peas and then stir to allow them to soften for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve with steamed rice.

 

SNOW PEA SPROUTS SALAD

by siow on in RECIPES, Veggies

The recipe I will be sharing today is a recipe I came up with when I was in a Chinese grocery store shopping for supplies. I was looking for some Thai beef balls and came upon the snow pea sprouts. Now I’ve been craving for Thai/Cambodian salad, you know the taste of lime, chillies and fish sauce? So I remember making a sunflower sprouts salad last christmas and thought why not try it with these beautiful looking snow peas sprouts. I honestly never cooked with snow pea sprouts before, but I was glad to come upon them and give it ago.

As healthy as sunflower sprouts, snow pea sprouts are great for your health. The shoots are high in protein and are a great source of antioxidants, phytonutrients, enzymes, oxygen, minerals and vitamins. It’s one of the best alkaline foods you can think of and it’s great to add them to your daily diet, which I will be doing.

Note: I added a huge amount of snow pea sprouts into my salad and found that they were a bit chewy because of the bulbs. So I recommend you trim about 1.5cm of the bulb to get rid of the harder parts of the shoots. 

Unlike sunflower sprouts, snow pea sprouts take longer to soften so when making this salad it would be best to mix the dressing with the shoots first to soften them and then add in the rest of the vegetables like cucumber. Cucumber softens really fast after being seasoned so if added the same time as the shoots it will become very soggy.  

SNOW PEA SPROUT SALAD

Prep-Time: 15 mins                 Serve: 3

Ingredients 

2 cucumber, thinly sliced

100g snow pea sprouts

150g cherry tomatoes, sliced

1 large shallot, sliced

dressing 

5 thai chillies

1 small clove garlic

1 tbsp brown/palm sugar

2 1/2 tbsp fish sauce

3/4 lime juice

Method

Ground the chillies and garlic in a mortar. Add in the rest of the dressing ingredients and then mix to allow the sugar to dissolve. Set a side.

         

In a medium sized salad bowl add in the snow pea sprouts and then add the salad dressing. Mix the salad for 3-5 minutes until the shoots soften and then add in the rest of the vegetables into the bowl. Toss the salad  to combine and all vegetables are nicely coated with the sauce. Transfer the salad on to a serving plate and serve as a side or with grilled meat and rice.

         

 

CAMBODIAN/ THAI CHICKEN SALAD

by siow on in Poultry, RECIPES, Veggies

Who’s ready to make some healthy after workout food or maybe just a light meal for the day? What do you normally eat when you go to an Asian restaurant? I am Cambodian so whenever I get the chance to go to a Cambodian restaurant (there aren’t many around here) I often forget about the salads because there are other yummier dishes that I miss 😀 but whenever I go to a Thai restaurant I always order a salad especially grilled beef salad, which is my favourite! I truly love the asian salad dressing. I think because I grew up eating a lot of sour foods, it’s hard to abandon those flavours.

Most Asian salad dressing ingredients aren’t that different, the key ingredients are lime juice, sugar and fish sauce. In spicy dressings we add chillies or chilli sauce, in a sweet salad dressing we only need to add a small amount of red chillies and then there are the dressings that we don’t use chillies or fish sauce at all.  They all taste great in their own way, but I’m a chilli eater so I love my chillies.

Note: In this salad I used about 5 thai chillies in the dressing so for those who doesn’t eat much chillies it might be mild or even hot, but if you are a chillies eater and want it hot I reckon add a few to suites your preferred hotness. 

There are different ways of cutting your vegetables, if you like your vegetables in a certain way feel free to use those cuts instead. I thinly sliced all of my vegetables in this dish, thinking maybe it might help with the presentation, but it doesn’t really matter how you cut them. What’s important is the flavour of the salad dressing. 

To cook my chicken, I slow pan grilled them, but if you prefer less work you can always oven grill them or even bbq them. 

CAMBODIAN/THAI CHICKEN SALAD

Prep-Time: 30 mins                 Serve: 1

Cooking Time: 15 mins

Ingredients

2 chicken drumstick/thigh fillets

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp fish sauce

4 tbsp oil

1 large carrot, thinly sliced

1 cucumber, thinly sliced

2 asparagus, thinly sliced

1/4 red capsicum, thinly cut

3 pieces green cabbage, thinly cut

dressing

3/4 lime juice

1 tbsp brown sugar

5 thai chillies

2 tbsp fish sauce

Method

Marinate the chicken with salt, sugar and fish sauce and then leave it to set for 30 minutes.

Grind the chillies in a mortar and then add in the rest of the dressing ingredients into the mortar. Stir the dressing until the sugar dissolve and set a side.

Heat the oil in a medium sized frying pan over medium heat. Add in the chicken and leave it to cook for 7 minutes on each side. Check and turn occasionally to prevent it from burning. If the pan is too hot reduce the heat to medium low. Remove the cooked chicken and leave to rest for a few minutes.

Place all of the vegetables in a salad bowl and then pour the dressing over the salad. Toss the salad with some tongs for a few minutes until the vegetables are well coated with the dressing. Transfer onto a serving plate.

Cut the cooked chicken into smaller pieces and place the chicken on top of the salad. Serve as they are or with steamed rice.

 

CHOY SUM STIR-FRY

by siow on in RECIPES, Veggies

The Cambodian name for Choy Sum is chopstick spinach referring to their long thin stems with leaves similar to most asian spinach and other vegetables. The vegetable is mainly used in stir-fry and sometimes as a topping in noodle soups. Choy sum are used in many Chinese stir-fry dishes, where in Cambodian we mainly use them in Choy Sum stir-fry with beef. The Cambodian way of cooking it tastes as great as many other recipes they are used in. This recipe I’m sharing has more of a Chinese influence than Cambodian.

The reason I came up with this recipe is because in Cambodia we often stir-fry vegetables with meat, but there are a few traditional dishes that do not use meat. I was tired of having meat in my vegetables stir-fry so I often stir-fry vegetable by themselves so I can have them with a meat dish like grilled/bbq chicken or pork. I’ve abandoned the Cambodian way of cooking it and got into the habit of cooking them to pair with my oven grilled wings. The recipe is very simple and  can be made in 15 minutes.

Note: There are many seasonings you can add with choy sum. One I have used to make this dish is teriyaki marinating sauce, you can buy this in super market. The other seasoning I use when I ran out of  teriyaki marinating sauce is my home-made seasoning sauce.

The recipe is for a non-vegetarian because oyster sauce or chicken stock powder is often added into the recipe, but if you are a vegetarian leave out the oyster sauce or use vegetables stock powder instead.  

Alway keep in mind to clean the vegetables you buy from the market before cooking. I always wash the vegetables thoroughly, including the bulb, 2-3 times to get rid of the dirt and rubbish that comes along with them. When cutting them down I recommend halting the bulb if they are big to make it easier to eat. 

Remember not to cook the vegetable for too long or it will lose its crunchiness and become very soggy. 

CHOY SUM STIR-FRY

Prep-Time: 20 mins                 Serve: 4

Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

2 bunches choy sum, washed and cut finger length long

1 tbsp rice wine

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce (optional)

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp sugar

4 tbsp oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

Method

Heat the oil in a wok or a large frying pan on medium high heat, add in the garlic once the oil is heated and cook the garlic for 2-3 minutes or until the garlic becomes fragrant and darkens in colour, take care not to burn the garlic.

        

Add in the choy sum followed by all of the seasonings. Stir to combine and allow the choy sum to cook for 3-5 minutes or until the vegetable starts softening. Once the vegetable starts to soften up remove from heat and transfer on to a serving plate.

 

OVEN GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS

by siow on in Poultry, RECIPES

Chicken wings are very simple yet very delicious, I don’t really remember having them so often when I lived at home. For some reason my mum used to make grilled ribs more often than grilled wings. The memories I have of eating chicken wings was usually when there were celebrations at home or when the whole chicken was cooked, but because I remember loving them so much I cooked then very often. When I started living by myself and now even more often since it has become one of my partners favourites. So who doesn’t like wings here?

There are many different types marinates that you can use to season your wings, but I will be sharing one of my favourites marinates you can easily make at home. Last year I shared a recipe of a grilled chicken wings recipe here as well, but the marination was slightly different. Oven grilling your wings is so much better than frying or deep frying. Besides the obvious reason that it’s way healthier it’s also because for me grilling them in the oven makes it easier to clean up after and I don’t need to use any oil at all to cook them since they have plenty of fat on them.

Note: this dish can be eaten by themselves as snack or as a side, we love having them with rice and the dish is best suited when eaten with another main vegetables dish. 

From all of the birds I’ve cut down into pieces, I find chickens are the easiest to do so. Their frame is simple and you can easily locate the joints. So when separating the joint wings, find the joint with your knife and press it down. It will cut off easily even with a fruit knife. It’s optional to discard the end wings. I often cut them off the joints and then grill them like the rest. 

Like other Asian countries, one of the ingredients used for marinates in Cambodia is MSG. They add when marinating wings and other meat. However I do not use MSG in my cooking instead to bring the flavour of the marination together I use some fish sauce instead.  

Remember to wear cooking cloves when marinating the wings to prevent your hands from smelling like fish sauce which can last for awhile even after cleaning. 

OVEN GRILLED CHICKEN WINGS

Prep-Time: 30 mins                 Serve: 2

Cooking Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

8 joint wings, separated

5 cloves garlic, peeled

5 thai chillies

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp rice wine

Method

In a small blender combine all of the marinate ingredients and then blend for 30 sec or until the ingredients become smooth. In a medium sized mixing bowl pour the marination mixture onto the separated wings and marinate by massaging the mixture onto the wing for 3 minutes. Leave to set for 30 minutes or over night for a better result.

                

Preheat the oven at 200°C on Grill.

Line your baking tray with the baking paper and then place the marinated wings onto the lined tray. Oven grill the wings for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes or until the side up turns golden on the skin, remove the tray from the oven and turn the wings over. Cook the other side for another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve. Delicious!

 

HONEY SOY CHICKEN

by siow on in Poultry, RECIPES

Hey guys! Today I’m going to share one of my favourite dishes Honey Soy Chicken. I know you are all probably gonna think ‘oh no not another one!’  Well let me just tell you that this recipe might not be what you expected. It’s not the typical Honey Soy Chicken you often see online so if you are not after that one then you are in the right place and in for a treat with this  Honey Soy Chicken recipe and I recommend you give this recipe a go.

Honestly it’s one of those recipes I came up with sometime last week when I had only chicken in the fridge along with some vegetables I had in my veggies compartment. I was craving something spicy and coated with flour so I thought why not use what I had and see what will happen. What happened was better than expected; it was soo good even my partner wants to add this dish into our fortnightly meal plan.

The reason I call this dish honey soy chicken is because I use honey and soy sauce as a few of the seasoning I added in my seasoning sauce. This recipe is a lot healthier than the classic honey soy dishes where they deep-fry their flour coated meat. It’s quite oily and I really wouldn’t want to eat deep fried every week so I oven bake this one instead. I would say this recipe is very easy so please do give it a go and let me know what you think.

Note: I guess I probably don’t need to point this out, but since many people often forget and ignore what they eat I might as well mention it here. Try to eat as little deep fried food as possible because the obvious reason is that it’s very unhealthy. The reason it’s very unhealthy is because of the oil used to deep fry the food, especially from restaurants and fast food stores, the most common oil used in those places are often pure animals fat, cotton seed oil and vegetables oil. I know that most people use vegetable oil in their cooking, but I recommend you using olive oil for salad or food cooked on low heat (because of it’s low smoking point), coconut oil and ghee are great for daily cooking (they have higher smoking point also contain health benefits) and maybe sunflower oil for shallow fry (it has one of the highest smoking points). So most oil is saturated fat especially when they reach their smoking point in cooking and turn carcinogenic that is very bad for your health. The oil I mentioned as my recommendation is the oil I find healthiest in my diet. In any case we are going to use quite a small amount of oil in this recipe.  

Stir-fry vegetables are best when they aren’t cooked until they are soft; it’s great to eat stir-fry vegetables while they retain their crunchy texture and are not over cooked that will destroy the nutrients and vitamins in the plants.

HONEY SOY CHICKEN 

Prep-Time: 30 mins                 Serve: 3

Cooking Time: 25 mins

Ingredients 

5 chicken thigh fillets, cut into pieces

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp freshly grounded black pepper/ Sichuan pepper

1 tsp sesame oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

a thumb size ginger, graded

1 carrot, sliced

1 bunch asparagus, chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, chopped

half 1/4 green cabbage, chopped

1 1/2 tbsp chilli bean paste / 1/2 tbsp if you don’t eat spicy food

(can be bought in Chinese market)

3 tbsp coconut oil

coating flour

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp chilli powder

pinch of salt and black/ Sichuan pepper

stir-fry sauce

1/4-1/3 cup organic soy sauce

1 1/2 tbsp honey

pinch of salt

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

Method

Marinate the chicken pieces with salt, pepper and sesame oil and then massage until the salt dissolves and then leave it to set for 15-30 minutes.

Preheat the oven at 200C on Fan force. Line your baking tray with baking paper and set aside.

Mix the coating flour (see above) ingredients together. Place the marinated chicken pieces in the seasoned flour in batches and coat each piece of meat till it is covered. Once fully coated, position the coated chicken pieces on the lined baking tray and spray some oil on the coated chicken.

         

Bake the chicken pieces for 15 minutes or until the side facing down turns golden. Remove from the oven and turn them over. Bake the other side for another 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Heat the coconut oil in a wok over medium heat and once the oil is heated add in the ginger and garlic. Stir to cook for about 3 minutes or until they start to fragrant and then add in the chilli bean paste. Once the chilli bean paste is added, stir-fry the sauce and cook for another 3 minutes or until the sauce starts to bubble around the sides of the wok.

                    

Add in all of the vegetables and turn the heat to high and stir to cook them until they soften from their raw form.

           

Make space in the centre of the wok and then add in the baked chicken pieces. Stir to combine and coat the chicken with the sauce for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve with steamed rice.

          

 

PORK CHOP

by siow on in Meat, Pork, RECIPES

When  I was younger my mum often cooked shallow fried marinated pork dishes which included rips, pork chops and the lean upper side cuts of meat. Thinking back, I especially loved the ribs dish she made, but I remember avoiding the chops and the upper side pieces. Thinking back I didn’t like to eat meat very much and often avoided big chunks of meat as much as possible.

As I grow up I came to like meat more and find pork chops very delicious. I love pan seared pork chop and sometimes when eating it I feel like I can eat heaps and heaps of them, but my eyes are always bigger than my stomach 😀

What I’ve learn from watching other chefs cook is that sometimes the simplest recipe tastes the best. I’m not quite sure how it works, especially with meat dishes. For example the simple flavour combination of cooked grill or pan seared meat, salt, pepper and herbs. Its just amazing.

Note: fresh thyme and rosemary go very well with pork and lamb, I usually use rosemary for lamb and pork but today I will be using thyme instead. So if you have your own preferred herbs to use in this dish please do so and share it with us. 

When cooking a nice piece of meat we don’t want it to dry out and over cooked. What we want is a nice juicy meat that melt in our mouth, so to get this result we always start with a nice and hot pan before adding the oil. If the pan is not hot enough we will end up steaming the meat and instead all the juice from inside that helps to seal the meat will be released as excess liquid.

To get the pork chop to cook evenly, score 4-5 parts on the skin/fat area, if we were sitting the chop up with the skin/fat at the top. This will help to keep the pork chop flat in the pan and cook it evenly.   

PORK CHOP

Prep-Time: 5 mins                 Serve: 2

Cooking Time: 6 mins

Ingredients 

2 pork chops, scored around the fat

6 fresh thyme

olive oil

2 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

Method

Score the fat and then sprinkle salt and pepper.

      

Heat a medium sized frying pan over high heat, once the pan is hot but not smoking hot add in the oil.Add in the pork chop facing the seasoned side down, lying it away from you so the oil won’t splash at you. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the other side and then add in the garlic and thyme. Cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side.

After turning the pork over, tilt the pan to one side and spoon the oil from the pan and pour it on top of the pork chops to keep them warm and to cook them evenly. When both sides are cooked, remove the the pork chops and allow them to rest for 3 minutes. Serve with mash, salad or another side of your choice.