Chilli Sauce For Hainanese Chicken Rice

When having Hainanese Chicken Rice, a must have is a good chilli sauce. I was introduced to this beautifully blended chilli sauce by my daughter. Everyday we have long telephone conversations . Topic ranges from food, furkids to bible verses. My daughter who is also my best friend stays in Australia, so it's a long distance relationship but fortunately technology has brought us nearer. We can WhatsApp call or zoom to see each other. Sorry for the short digress, back to our recent conversation on food we cooked, she recommended this chilli sauce that she makes everytime she has chicken rice.  I tried it out and guess what? It is a must have chilli sauce and today I made a big batch for keeping in the fridge. It is a tangy, sweetish and flavour packed sauce for chicken rice . Once I had it , I became addictive to it. A must have chilli sauce when having poached chicken . It is easy to whip up too. It is made up of fresh red chillies, bird's eye chilli for extra heat, garlic ,ginger, sugar ,salt and vinegar . 

 Sometimes I add a tablespoon of oil from the soup after poaching the chicken , it gives the chilli sauce the extra oomph

Chilli Sauce 

Ingredients:

12 pieces of fresh red chillies

3-4 pieces of bird's eye chillies

5-6 cloves of garlic

4cm piece of young ginger

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp of sugar

1 tbsp of vinegar or fresh Calamansi Juice

2tbsp of chicken fat from the steamed chicken.

Method:

1. Blend the first 7 ingredients in an electric blender till fine. Take out the chilli mixture and adjust seasoning to your taste .

2. Stir in the chicken fat into the chilli sauce when serving.

Note:

If storing in the fridge for long keeping ,do not add chicken fat. Add only during serving time. 

Stuffed Vegetable / Yong Liew

Stuffed Vegetables with minced meat fillings, pan fried in little oil till cooked and then cooked in fermented soybean paste  is one of our favourite dish to have for dinner. It is known as ' Yong Liew' in Cantonese language. The meat filling is made up of minced dried shrimps, minced pork, finely chopped garlic , with pepper and soy sauce seasoning. It makes a very tasty meat fillings for  vegetables like, Bittergourd, Egg plants, fresh Red Chillies, Long Beans, Red and Green Peppers. Can be served as a stand alone dish or added as extra ingredients for noodle soup. It involves a bit of work but worth making as it is a very versatile dish and tasty.

It is a very delicious dish served 

with fermented soybean paste gravy, adding a tsp of preserved  black beans to the gravy gives it the extra oomph and brings the dish to the next level

this dish involves a bit of work but worth it. Delicious and full of flavours 

Pan fry the stuffed vegetable first to brings out the umami taste of the dried shrimps that has been added to the meat fillings . And the slightly fried meat fillings gives the dish the extra fragrance

Fillings ingredients 

350 gm Minced pork with a little fat

2 tbsp of chopped dried shrimps

1 tbsp of light soysauce

1/8 tsp of white pepper

Vegetables of your choice

Red pepper/ Green Pepper, Bittergourd, Egg Plants, Okra, Red Chillies, Long Beans.  

Ingredients for Fermented Soybean and Preserved Black beans ( Tou Zi) Gravy 

1 heaped tablespoon of fermented soybeans ( taucheong )

1 tsp of preserved black beans ( tou Zi )

1 red bird's eye chilli - chopped

2tsp of sugar

1 tsp of dark soy sauce for colouring

1cup or more of chicken broth or water

1 tsp of minced garlic

2tbsp of cooking oil

Method:

Saute minced garlic in oil till fragrant, add in fermented soybean paste, chopped chillies , and preserved black beans and continue to stir fry for a few seconds till fragrant ,add in chicken broth or water and dark soy sauce and simmer till slow boil. Add in the pan fried stuffed vegetables and continues to simmer till the gravy boils. Dish up .

Enjoy!

Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream

Weather is hot and humid with scatter showers now and then. And I have been hooked on ' The Good Doctor ' for the past few weeks thus had shelved the idea of  making this delicious Matcha Ice Cream. Yesterday was craving for ice cream so had to take a rest from watching the Netflix  drama for a while to make the ice cream I  have been wanting to make. Bought this brand of matcha powder ( NikoNeko ) from their official store from Lazada, after a friend introduced to me. No regrets, it is fragrant and the vibrant colour reflects a good quality grade. 

There are many grades of matcha powder. Once opened it must be consumed within 2 to 3 weeks as matcha powder oxidised fast. That's why buy in small quantity unless one is operating a cafe or bakery whereby consumption is fast flowing. 

I used RICH's Korean Double Heavy Cream and Niko Neko Matcha Powder for this ice cream

and the texture is smooth and this is the matcha powder I have been looking for.

Niko Neko Matcha Powder, great for ice cream and in your latte drinks

Recipe link : Click here 

Have a good day!

 

Sweet Sour Pork With Pickled Cucumber

Sweet Sour Pork with Pickled Cucumber is a very refreshing dish. It has a sweetish sourish gravy that coats the fried  crispy pork. I used minced pork, shaped them into tiny rolls, coat them with potato starch and deep fried in hot oil. Make a savoury sauce of sweet Thai chilli sauce and tomato sauce and add in the fried pork , gives it a toss so that the pork is coated with the savoury sauce. It is an easy to prepare  dish and it is one of our favourite dish. Before the Covid pandemic, this is dish we will always order from the restaurant. Spare ribs can be used to replace minced pork. Of course, tomato and pickled cucumber and red onions are added to the dish too.

Add in tomato, pickled cucumber and onions to the gravy last. 

when oil is hot, put in the pork roll and fried till golden brown.

Seasoned the minced pork with black pepper and light soy sauce, shaped into tiny rolls, then coat with potato starch

before putting them into hot oil

Ingredients

(A)150 gm minced pork

1 tsp light soy sauce 

1/8 tsp of ground black pepper

(B)Sweet Sour Sauce ingredients 

2 tbsp Sweet Thai chilli sauce

2tbsp tomato sauce

1 tsp of chopped garlic

1tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup water or more

salt to taste

1pickled mini cucumber - diced

1 large tomato - diced

1 small red onions - diced 

Method

1. Seasoned the minced pork with black pepper and light soy sauce, shaped into tiny rolls, then coat with potato starch

before putting them into hot oil. Fried till mini pork rolls turned golden brown and cooked. Dish up and drained off excess oil.

2. In a frying pan, add 1/2 tbsp oil ,saute chopped garlic till fragrant. Add in all the sweet Thai chilli sauce and tomato sauce , a few seconds later add in water and boil till gravy simmers, add in pickled cucumber, tomato and onion. Add salt to taste. Once the gravy boils, add in the crispy fried pork rolls and keep stirring till all the pork rolls are coated with the sweet sour sauce. Off heat and dish up. Serve hot with rice.

Enjoy!

Kuih Bingka Ubi / Baked Cassava Cake

Hubby and I had a sudden craving for Nyonya Kuih - Kuih Bingka Ubi especially which we have not eaten since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic. Saw some very nice Cassava in Jaya Grocer and I knew I had to buy some back to make this Kuih Bingka Ubi.  I used Sonia's recipe but I tweaked the recipe a bit by adding cassava starch from the squeezed out water of the grated Cassava and used brown sugar instead of caster sugar. The grating was the hardest , the rest was easy ,just measure out the ingredients and mix them together till well combined. Cut some Banana leaves from the garden and lay them in baking tins. It gives the Kuih the extra fragrant. Turned out great. A keeper for sure. Need to reduce sugar by 20gms. It tasted exactly like those sold by famous nyonya stalls in town. Craving fixed for now.

the texture is soft with a slight bounce

a 500gm of grated cassava can  make 2 baking tins- size 7.5 inches by 3 inches

lined the base and side of tin with banana leaves before pouring in the cassava mixture

add in the cassava starch- residue from the liquid squeezed out from the grated cassava

use a muslin cloth to squeeze out water from the grated cassava

Kuih Bingka Ubi / Baked Cassava Cake -  recipe from Sonia

 

Ingredients:

 

500 gm grated cassava after grated and squeeze out juice (if not the kuih will be bitter)

1/2 egg

1 tbsp of  cassava starch ( residue of the cassava juice that was squeezed out earlier )

1/8 tsp salt

125 gm thick coconut milk

75 gm water

100  gm brown sugar - 70gm if you want it less sweet

20 gm salted butter

a tiny drop of yellow food coloring * optional

salted butter for greasing pan

Method: 

1.Wash cassava, cut the hard head and tail, then cut into few segments. Use a knife to make a slit on the cassava segment, then peel off the skin.

2. Use a grater to grate the cassava till finely.Then use a muslin cloth bag to squeeze out the juices( dont need too dry, it is ok when leave it with some juices) the rest of the juice ,leave it to settle down in the bowl. Later can use the residue starch .

3. Add all the ingredients in a bowl, just use a bare hand to mix the batter till combined.

4. Pour the batter into a greased pan lined with banana leaves.

 

5. Bake at preheated oven at 200c (middle rack ) for 60 mins or till golden brown.

6. Remove baked cassava cake from oven, brush on a layer of butter to enhance the flavours.

 

 7. Cut into slices when it has cooled down completely with a plastic knife.

Enjoy!

Pillow Shaped Bak Chang Bamboo Leaf Pork Dumpling

This is my 2nd attempt at making Bak Chang /Bamboo Leaf Pork Dumpling and this time I tried a different style of wrapping. Instead of wrapping a cone shaped dumpling, I wrapped them to shape like a pillow. After watching many times on YouTube, on how to wrap a pillow shape dumpling, I managed to get it done and feeling super happy , and I find it easier wrapping them into pillow shape. The fillings are the same as the Hokkien Bak Chang. I improved on the taste by adding more salt to the glutinous rice and adding a bit more of the five spice powder to the meat. They turned out tastier and delicious. So proud of myself and I find making Bak Chang very addictive. And I have reduced pressure cook time to 30mins . I have some to friends . It is a blessing to give and share with friends.

my hubby loves it, he says it is 95 percent very near to those he bought, in term of taste and those that I made are less oily which he prefers

very happy with the well wrapped pillow shaped

need 4 pieces of bamboo leaves for pillow shaped dumpling

so proud that I managed to wrap it neatly

wrapping the dumpling is addictive

I won't get tired of wrapping them, it is the art of wrapping that I am getting addicted now

I can make 12 big ones with a kg of glutinous rice

Click here for the recipe

Click here for the method of wrapping