Hainanese Chicken Rice

I only used this recipe for the chicken, but it does include a recipe for the rice. I use Kee's Hainanese Chicken Rice Mix - just add to your rice in the rice cooker. I found the sauce of this recipe too spicy, so I used a jarred thai sweet chili sauce. Also, my cooking time was 50 minutes, but use a thermometer to check it. Be careful when removing the chicken from the poaching water, you don't want to tear the skin (so it's nice and pretty when served). If anyone has another sauce to go with this, I'd love the recipe for it. The chicken didn't come out dry at all, and it had plenty of flavor. Delicious and not as hard as it seems.




Here's the recipe...
While your chicken is cooking, it helps to�prepare the ingredients for your chili sauce and rice. Both of these are usually assembled after the chicken is done because they require the chicken broth, but you can get started washing and soaking the rice, chopping the garlic and ginger before then. In this recipe, all of the poaching broth is reserved — some is used in the rice, a small amount is used in the chili sauce, and the remainder is saved to be heated and served as a simple soup to accompany the chicken.

1 whole chicken (3.5 lbs, 1.8kg), preferably organic
kosher salt
4” section of fresh ginger, in 1/4” slices
2 stalks green onions, cut into 1″ sections (both the green and white parts)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

FOR THE RICE
2 tablespoon chicken fat or 2 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1” section of ginger, finely minced
2 cups long-grain uncooked rice, washed and soaked in cool water for 10 min or longer
2 cups reserved chicken poaching broth
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt

FOR THE CHILI SAUCE
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoon reserved chicken poaching broth
2 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoon sriracha chili sauce
4 cloves garlic
1” ginger
a generous pinch of salt, to taste

FOR THE TABLE
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
Few sprigs cilantro
1 cucumber, thinly sliced or cut into bite-sized chunks

1. To clean the chicken, with a small handful of kosher salt, rub the chicken all over, getting rid of any loose skin and dirt. (Exfoliate.) Wash and pat very dry inside and outside. Season generously with salt inside and outside. Stuff the chicken with the ginger slices and the green onion. Place the chicken in a large stockpot and fill with cold water to cover by 1 inch. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat, then immediately turn the heat to low to keep a simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes more (less if you’re using a smaller chicken). Check for doneness by sticking a chopstick into the flesh under the leg and see if the juices run clear or insert a thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh not touching bone. It should read 170F.

2. When the chicken is cooked through, turn off the heat and remove the pot from the burner. Immediately transfer the chicken into a bath of ice water to cool. Don’t forget to reserve the poaching broth for your rice, your sauce, and the accompanying soup. The quick cooling will stop the cooking process, keeping the meat soft and tender, and giving the skin a lovely firm texture.

3. To cook the rice: Drain the rice. In a wok or sauce pan (use a medium sauce pan if you plan on cooking the rice on the stove top), heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add the ginger and the garlic and fry until your kitchen smells like heaven. Be careful not to burn the aromatics! Add in your drained rice and stir to coat, cook for 2 minutes. Add the sesame oil, mix well.

To make the rice on the stove: In the same sauce pan, add 2 cups of your reserved poaching broth, add salt and bring to a boil. Immediately turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit (with lid still on) for 5-10 minutes more.

To cook rice in a rice cooker: Pour aromatics and rice (after frying) into your rice cooker, add 2 1/2 cups of your reserved poaching broth and salt. Follow the instructions for your model (usually this will just mean “turn it on!”)

4. While your rice is cooking, remove the chicken from the ice bath and rub the outside of the chicken with the sesame oil. Carve the chicken for serving.

5. To make the chili sauce: Blend your chili sauce ingredients in a blender until smooth and bright red.

6. To make the soup: You should have six or seven cups of the reserved poaching broth left over to serve as soup. Just before serving, heat up the soup, taste and season with salt as necessary.

Serve the chicken rice with chili sauce, dark soy sauce, cucumber slices, and a bowl of hot broth garnished with cilantro or scallions.

Enjoy!

Easy Apple Tarts

Ingredients:
1/2 package Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry (one sheet)
3 apples, peeled and thinly sliced
cinnamon
lemon juice

caramel sauce


Directions
Defrost the puff pastry as directed. When it's ready, cut 4 squares (about 4 x 4 inches) and cut remaining pastry into 1/2inch strips. Using these strips, make a border on the edge of the squares. The border should go all the way around. If you don't have enough, make the square smaller.

Toss the sliced apples in some lemon juice and cinnamon. Lay the sliced apples on the pastry as thin or as thick as you like. Bake as directed on the puff pastry packaging.

Finish by drizzling warm caramel sauce on top. Serve!

Notes: You can experiment by making different shaped tarts, like an apple shape, heart shape. Have fun with it. So easy to make, but looks amazing.

Almond Jello.....

Anyone have a good almond jello recipe? I love the stuff, but am thinking it would be awesome if I could make it from scratch, instead of that pink box.....Anyone?

Chinese Style Steamed fish

1 pound whole fish

Ingredients:
(A) The 'bed':

4 stalks, scallions - cut into 3″ lengths
3″ piece of ginger - slice into “coins”

small bunch of cilantro

1 1/2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine to pour on fish prior to steaming (or any cooking wine like dry sherry)

salt & pepper

(B)The sauce:

2 tablespoons rough chopped

cilantro

1 teaspoon sesame oil

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt + 1/4 teaspoon white pepper (or black pepper if you don’t have white)

fresh chilli - thinly sliced (optional)

(C) Last step:

2 stalks, scallions - cut into 3″ lengths

2″ piece of ginger - finely julienned

2 tablespoons cooking oil

Equipment: shallow pan to hold fish & large pot or wok for steaming. If you don’t have a fancy steamer or steamer insert, take a shallow-ish bowl and invert to use as a stand.

1. Clean & Stuff: Clean your fish, pat dry. Season generously inside and out with salt and pepper. Take half of (A) and stuff inside the fish.

2. Take the other half of (A) and lay it in a shallow pan. If fish is too long, cut in half. Pour 1 1/2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine on top of the fish.

3. Steam: Add 2″ of water to your large pot, cover and boil. When it is boiling, uncover and wipe the inside of the cover clean of any condensation (all this condensation will drip back down on your fish, diluting the flavor) Put your fish pan inside, propped up with a small inverted bowl.

Steam the fish on medium.

Whole fish 1 lb: check at 12 minutes, add 2 minutes for every 1/2 lb

Check to see if its done at the times indicated. Poke your chopstick at the flesh near the top fin. If flesh flakes easily near the top fin, then its done. If flesh sticks together still, then add 1-2 more minutes to cooking time. Also check to make sure you haven’t run out of steaming water.

4. Take a microwave-safe bowl, add (B) and microwave for 30 seconds. Set aside. When fish is done steaming, carefully lift the fish out onto a serving platter, discarding all of the cooked cilantro/ginger/scallions and the fish juice in the pan. Pour the hot (B) over fish.

5. Prepare (C) in a separate pan, heat up cooking oil until you see smoke. Add the ginger and scallions, fry for 10 seconds to “pop” the flavors, then pour over the fish. You’ll hear a very satisfying sizzle so be careful!

Chicken Satay

Okay, so this is not exactly a recipe....ha ha...the recipe is on the box. But this satay is good, really good. I got it at Ranch 99, but it can be hard to find. It might not be in the section that you think it is. I couldn't find it in the thai sauce section, but over in the next aisle. Very tricky. Anyhow, you marinate the chicken in the sauce. Grill it, then cook the sauce. It's really good sauce, spicy and peanuty. Yum.

Ovenbaked Chicken Wings and Drumsticks

Sorry, no picture with this. But if you make it, feel free to put a picture up. Simple and very tasty! 

Oh, also, 2kg = 4.4lbs, and 180degC is 350degF. I am not from the US, so I measure with wierd scales and thermometers! At least 30 minutes here means 30 minutes there too! :-)

Ingredients

- Upto 2kg of Chicken drumsticks and wings 

Marinade

- 1 peeled onion

- 3 garlic

- 3 tbsp of water

- 6-7 tbsp of oyster sauce

- 5 tbsp of hoisin sauce

- 3 tbsp of soya sauce

- 5 tbsp of sugar

Instruction

1. Cut peeled onions small enough so that it can be blended without jamming your blender and causing subsequent explosion. :-) Then place all ingredients for the marinade into the blender and blend into a thick sauce.

2. Marinate chicken with the blended sauce for at least 4 hours in the fridge. The longer the marinating process the better. It also helps to poke little holes into the chicken before marinating. Just lets the marinade go through the chicken better.

3. Foil an deep oven tray. Place marinated chicken on tray and pour in any left over sauce. 

4. Preheat oven to 180 degC, fan forced. 

5. Bake chicken for 30 minutes or until chicken is nicely browned and cooked through.

Baked Doughnuts Recipe

Don't over bake these, if anything, under bake them a bit - they will continue baking outside the oven for a few minutes. You want an interior that is moist and tender - not dry. Also, be sure to cut big enough holes in the center of your doughnuts - too small and they will bake entirely shut. Remember they rise, and they rise even more when they are baking. These really need to be made-to-order, but you can make and shape the dough the night before if you want to serve them for brunch. Instructions: after shaping, place doughnuts on baking sheet, cover and place in the refrigerator overnight. Pull them out an hour before baking, and let rise in a warm place before baking.

My note: I would bake as many as you can eat right away, then do this refrigeration bit. They really only taste good hot hot hot!

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001561.html

1 1/3 cups warm milk, 95 to 105 degrees (divided)
1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour (alternately, white whole wheat might work - haven't tried it yet)
A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and set aside for five minutes or so. Be sure your milk isn't too hot or it will kill the yeast. Stir the butter and sugar into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt - just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. This is where you are going to need to make adjustments - if your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. Too dry? Add more milk a bit at a time. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.

Transfer the dough to a buttered (or oiled) bowl, cover, put in a warm place (I turn on the oven at this point and set the bowl on top), and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. Most people (like myself) don't have a doughnut cutter, instead I use a 2-3 inch cookie cutter to stamp out circles. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes - start checking around 8. While the doughnuts are baking, place the butter in a medium bowl. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl.

Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two. Dip each one in the melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl. Eat immediately if not sooner.

Makes 1 1/2 - 2 dozen medium doughnuts.