I have to say that this braised duck dish is absolutely amazing. I'm not usually a big fan of duck dishes... Surprisingly to me, the duck turned out to be sweet and succulent, coupled with the aroma and flavors of the lemongrass, galangal, cloves, star anise, and cinnamon, dipped with spicy and sour lime sauce -- left me at a tingling sweet and sour high!
Teochew Braised Duck (Loh Arp)
2 tbsp of kosher salt
4 - 5 lbs of duck, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels
2 cups of water, plus more if needed
1/2 cup of dark soy sauce
2 - 3 plump stalks of lemongrass, trimmed, bruised, and halved
1-inch piece of galangal, smashed
1 tbsp of sugar
4 whole cloves
4 star anise pods
2 two-inch cinnamon sticks
1 tsp of black peppercorns
Chili-lime dipping sauce - recipe follows
Rub 1 1/2 tbsp of salt evenly all over the duck, including inside of the cavity.
In a large wok, mix together the water, dark soy sauce, lemongrass, galangal, sugar, cloves, star anise, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, and the remaining salt. Bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to medium-low. Gently lower the duck into the wok. The liquid should reach halfway up the duck. Top it off with more water if necessary.
For the first 20 minutes, baste the duck every 5 minutes or so to color it evenly. Cover and simmer for another 40 - 60 minutes, or until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender, flipping the duck halfway through cooking. If the sauce is drying up, add more water, 1/4 cup at a time.
To check for doneness, poke the duck in the thigh with a chopstick. If the juices run clear, the duck is cooked.
Turn off the heat and leave the duck immersed in the sauce for another hour if desired.
Cut the duck into serving pieces and arrange on a serving platter. Skim the fat from the surface of the sauce, then drizzle the sauce over the duck.
Serve with freshly steamed rice and the dipping sauce.
Chili-Lime Dipping Sauce
4 cloves of garlic
2 fresh red chilies, or 2 tbsp of prepared chili paste
8 tbsp of key lime juice
Salt
Pound the garlic and chilies in a mortar with a pestle (or whirl in a small food processor) until a coarse paste forms. Add the lime juice and salt to taste, and mix well.
Penang is admittedly the best place for hawker's food in Malaysia. Don't get me wrong, as there are other cities and states where one can find amazing food, but some of the most delicious food I had was in Penang - not to mention, they are easily obtained, quick, and inexpensive.
When I was little, Ah Po travel to Penang a lot, at least once a year and it was by default that she would take me along. At that point in time, Penang is like a second home to me.
As I was tasting my very own Penang Char Hor Fun, I realized that the ingredients used in many of these hawker's food are similar but by the way they are prepared and cooked, they present their very own taste and character. What an amazing journey...
Penang Char Hor Fun
1/2 pack of hor fun/ flat rice noodles (32 oz pack)
1/2 pack of vermicelli (14 oz pack)
3 tbsp of oil
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp of sweet soy sauce
12 shrimps, peeled and deveined
12 thin pieces of pork meat
12 thin pieces of fish cake
1/2 can of chicken broth (14.5 oz can)
5 stalks of choy sum, cut into 2-inch length
1 1/4 cup of water
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp of cornstarch, dissolved in 1/4 cup of water
Seasoning:
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp of soy sauce
1/8 tsp of fish sauce
1/2 tsp of sugar
2 dashes of white pepper powder
salt to taste
Soak the vermicelli in warm water for 15 minutes or until soft. Drain the water and set aside.
Break the flat rice noodles off by peeling the layers. Set aside.
Heat up the wok and add 1 1/2 tbsp of oil. Toss in the vermicelli and do a quick stir. Add 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce and 1/2 tbsp of sweet soy sauce and continue to stir the vermicelli until the soy sauces are well blended with the vermicelli. Continue to stir until the vermicelli are lightly charred. Dish up and set aside.
Repeat the same for the flat rice noodles. Dish up and set aside.
Add some oil in the wok and stir fry the minced garlic until fragrant.
Add in the pork, shrimp, and fish cake, and do a quick stir.
Add the chicken broth and water immeadiately.
Add in all the seasoning and bring to boil.
Add in the cornstarch mixture to thicken the gravy.
Add in the choy sum, do a quick stir and turn off the heat.
On a place, place the fried vermicelli and flat rice noodles equally.
Pour the gravy and toppings on the vermicelli and noodles.
Serve warm.
It was a nice spring day. One can finally feels the warmth from the sun. I had the opportunity to meet up with my good friend, Matt, upon receiving some good news. Matt had requested that I make Three Cups Chicken, a dish that we would order everytime we go to Evergreen, a Taiwanese restaurant in town. Three Cups Chicken is also a dish that I have tried making a few times over the past year, but mine just doesn't compare to that from Evergreen. Though I thought it was a little too dry this time, Matt commented that the taste had came closest to Evergreen's. That's improvement :)
I also threw in Ginger Duck and Assam Pedas Pomfret to the menu. Well, I sort of commanded Matt to cook the Ginger Duck, which he did an awesome job because we couldn't stop eating the duck while the Three Cups Chicken was still cooking! As for the Assam Pedas Pomfret, I was quite happy with it though I wished it had been spicier and sourer.
Nonetheless, I'm elated once again to be spreading some Malaysian love!
Three Cups Chicken
Ginger Duck
Assam Pedas Pomfret
Three Cups Chicken
1 lb of chicken, chopped into bite sizes
6 slices of ginger
6 cloves of garlic, smashed
2 tbsp of dark sesame oil
1 1/2 tbsp of soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp of Xiaoshing cooking wine
1 1/2 tbsp of dark sweet soy sauce (kicap manis)
A big bunch of Thai basil leaves
Heat up wok on high heat and add dark sesame oil.
Add garlic and ginger and stir fry until aromatic.
Add in chicken and do a few quick stirs.
Add soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, and Xiaoshing cooking wine, and continue to stir fry the chicken.
Cover the chicken and lower the heat, simmer for 5 minutes.
Add basil leaves and stir well with the chicken.
Dish out and serve.
Ginger Duck
1.5 lbs of duck, chopped into bite sizes
100 g of young ginger, sliced
300 g of leek, cut into 5 cm lengths diagonally
2 tbsp of fermented bean paste (tau cheong)
2 pcs of fermented red bean paste (nam yue)
2 tsp of ginger juice, from pounded ginger
4 tbsp of Xiaoshing cooking wine
5 cloves of garlic, smashed
1/2 cup of chicken stock
salt and sugar to taste
Marinate duck with Xiaoshing cooking wine, ginger juice, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 2 tsp of sugar for 20 minutes.
Mashed the fermented bean pastes together until fine.
Heat wok with 1 1/2 tbsp of oil. Fry garlic and slices of ginger for 2 minutes.
Add bean paste mixture and fry for a minute.
Add leeks and stir fry on high heat, before adding duck pieces.
Fry for another 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of chicken stock and simmer duck pieces gently for another 15 minutes or until tender.
If more gravy is desired, add more stock. Add salt and sugar to taste.
When duck is tender, serve in a lettuce lined casserole dish.
Assam Pedas Pomfret
1 pomfret (1 lb)
10 small okras
1 tomato, cut into wedges
1 tsp of fish curry powder
2 sprigs of Vietnamese mint/coriander
5 tbsp of cooking oil
1 tbsp of palm sugar/sugar
salt to taste
Spice paste:
1 clove of garlic
1 stalk of lemongrass (white part only)
4 shallots
8 - 10 dried chillies
1/2 tbsp of belacan (prawn paste)
Tamarind juice:
1 1/4 cup of water
Tamarind pulp (size of a small ping pong ball)
Grind the spice paste ingredients in a food processor. Set aside.
Soak the tamaring pulp in warm water for 15 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind pulp constantly to extract the flavor into the water. Drain the pulp and save the tamarind juice.
Heat oil and fry the spice paste for 2 minutes or until fragrant.
Add the tamarind juice, fish curry powder, and bring to boil.
Add the tomato wedges and okras, and bring to boil.
Add the fish, salt, and palm sugar/sugar.
Simmer on low heat for 5 minutes or until the fish is cooked.
Serve.
Or rather, rice cooker chicken rice! Well, Ah Po made it this way (even grandmothers take shortcuts). And I'm just following suit. Perhaps you don't get as much of the smoky taste as you would cooking it using a claypot, but if you're lucky enough you'll still get the burnt rice at the very bottom of the rice cooker. And that is Ah Po's favorite.
Even though it's a rice-cooker-made claypot chicken rice, it's still yummylicious!
Claypot Chicken Rice
2 cups of rice
3 boneless chicken breasts (or any chicken parts with bones), cut into bite sizes
1 stalk of scallion, chopped (optional, in my case)
3 inches of ginger, skinned and cut into thin strips
6 dried mushrooms, soaked and cut into thin slices
2 chinese sausage, sliced
Seasoning for chicken:
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1/2 tsp of cornstarch
1/2 tsp of sesame oil
5 dashes of white pepper powder
1/4 tsp of sugar
1 tbsp of xiaoshing cooking wine
Seasoning for rice:
2 tbsp of soy sauce
1/2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
2 tsp of cooking oil
A pinch of salt
Add chicken seasoning to chicken and mix well. Marinate for an hour in the fridge.
Rinse and clean the rice in a rice cooker after the chicken is marinated for an hour.
Add the rice seasoning into the rice and start cooking the rice.
Heat up a wok with some cooking oil. Add in ginger, chicken, mushrooms, and chinese sausage. Quickly stir fry until chicken is half-cooked. Dish out and set aside.
Add the stir fried ginger, chicken, mushrooms, and chinese sausage into the rice cooker when the rice is almost dry and continue to cook till rice is completely cooked.
Leave the rice cooker on "Keep Warm" for 15 - 20 minutes before serving.
This sunny afternoon makes me think of some Indian's/Mamak's spicy mee goreng... I rummaged through my fridge and found sufficient ingredients to conjour up my very own mee goreng. It's amazing that I can find raw food in my fridge these days!
Spicy Mee Goreng
2 cups of fresh Chinese yellow noodles
2 tbsp of chili sauce (sambal olek)
1 tsp of dark soy sauce
1 tsp of sugar
1/4 tsp of salt
3 tbsp of oyster sauce
3 tbsp of ketchup
2 tbsp of canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup of bean sprouts
1/4 lb of shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 lb of lean pork, cut into 1/2 inch slices
2 tbsp of xiaoshing wine
1/4 tsp of white pepper
2 tbsp of fried shallots (optional)
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cook the noodles for 30 seconds, drain, and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
Combine chili sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt, oyster sauce, and ketchup. Stir to combine. Set aside.
Preheat a large wok over high heat. Add the oil. Crack the eggs into the wok, stir until the eggs are lightly scrambled and just set.
Then add the noodles, bean sprouts, shrimp, and pork. Stir fry continuously until noodles, shrimp, and pork are cooked, about 3 - 5 minutes.
Add chili sauce mixture and keep stirring until well combined.
The noodles should begin to get drier.
Add xiaoshing wine and white pepper. Stir to combine and remove from heat.
Garnish with fried shallots.
I must say that I'm a big fan of Nyonya kuih in Malaysia. Kuih dadar is yet another favorite of mine and so, I thought I'd give it a try. It was a little intimating because I was trying to make pancakes to no success about a year ago (and I've never try again ever since)!
Turns out, making the crepe wasn't the difficult part, but making the coconut filling was. I might have burned the palm sugar while dissolving them the first time as the coconut filling hardened as it cools. (By the way, the palm sugar is really hard - I had to use a hammer to break them into pieces!) So, I used medium-low heat during my second attempt and never let my eyes leave the stove.
The assembling part of it was kinda fun, though I was not very good at it. I come to the conclusion that making kuih dadar requires great patience and delicate fingers, which I seem to have neither today.
Kuih Dadar
200 g of plain flour (sifted)
1 egg
300 ml of coconut milk
A few drops of green coloring
100 ml of canola oil
Filling:
160 g of grated coconut (subs. dessicated coconut)
150 g of palm sugar/gula melaka, dissolved in 30 ml of hot water)
1 1/2 tbsp of sugar
To make filling: Fry the grated coconut till just heated up. Add in dissolved palm sugar and sugar, stir till mixture is well-blended. Set aside to cool.
In a mixing bowl, combine half of the coconut milk with flour. Add in the egg, green coloring, and canola oil. Beat mixture till well-combined.
Gradually pour in the remaining coconut milk. Continue beating for 5 minutes.
Let batter stand for 30 minutes.
Heat up pan. Pour some batter onto the pan.
Tilt the pan so that batter is spread evenly and thin.
When sides turn dry and brittle, remove from pan.
Repeat until all the batter is used up.
When filling is cool, spread 2 teaspoonfuls of filling in the middle of the kuih. Roll up kuih. Serve.
