Steamed Salted Chicken with Wolfberries 杞子盐蒸鸡

I have not been putting my time in cooking lately. Reading is my current hobby ... LOL. So this another simple dish so that I can spend more time reading than cooking while the kids are away at school.

Ingredient

1 chicken leg (whole)

200gm chicken breast, cut into chunks

2 tablespoon cooking sea salt (or more to taste)

1 tablespoon shaoxing wine

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Some wolf berries, soaked

Method

1) Rub sea salt all over chicken leg and breast meat.

2) Pour shaoxing wine and sesame oil over chicken. Mix well and marinate for an hour.

3) Boil water in steamer or chinese wok, or deep enough pan.

4) When water is boiled, add wolf berries to the chicken and put the plate that hold the marinated chicken into the steamer. Cover and steam for about 30 minutes.

4) Dish out and serve ... 

I added chicken breast meat because it is less fat ... 

Braised Yi Mian (Gravy in Advance)

My eldest can finish everything in the photo!

Ingredient

100gm lean meat, sliced thinly

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp corn flour

1 tsp shaoxing wine

Dash of white pepper

Sauce

2 tbsp oil

15gm young ginger, sliced

4 cloves garlic, sliced

10gm anchovies, washed and dried with kitchen towel (Made this again without anchovies. We prefer the taste without it.)

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp brown sugar

750ml water
1 to 2 eggs

2 tbsp corn flour + 4 tbsp water, mix well

Some cabbage (or other vegetable according to your preference)

Method

1) Add salt, corn flour, shaoxing wine and white pepper to meat. Mix well and marinate for 30minutes.

2) Mix soy sauce, oyster sauce, shaoxing wine, salt and sugar from the sauce ingredient. Set aside.

3) Heat oil in pan. When oil is hot, put in garlic and ginger. Stir-fry until you can smell the garlic and ginger fragrant.

4) Add in anchovies. Continue to stir-fry till all are slightly brown (skip this step if not using anchovies).

5) Add in meat. Continue to stir-fry until meat is half cooked.

6) Add in water and soy sauce solution from step (2). Let it boil till bubbling.

7) While the sauce is still bubbling, crack the egg directly into the sauce. Then break the egg up gently and slowly. Give enough time for the egg white to get cooked and form the white streaks.

8) Add in corn flour solution last. Turn heat to low and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Now the gravy is ready.

9) When it is ready to serve, add your preferred amount of gravy, yi mian and cabbage into sauce pan/pot, simmer until noodle is soften. 

Simmer till noodle is soften

Simple Fried Rice

My girls prefer to eat the egg on it's own so I fried the egg separately rather than coating the rice with it

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup rice, cooked and kept overnight in fridge 

(This is approximate amount because I did not really measure it. I usually cook more rice the day before, and keep the extra in fridge overnight)

2 chinese sausages, diced

80gm french beans, diced

4 cloves garlic, diced

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Oil for frying

Seasoning

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp water

Method

1) Mix all seasoning and set aside.

2) Heat 2 tbsp oil in pan. When hot, pour in beaten egg and stir with the spatula to "cut" up the egg. When done, dish out and set aside.

3) Only take the rice out from fridge at this point. Use a fork to break up the rice if they are sticking together.

4) Heat another 2 tbsp oil in the same pan. When hot, add in garlic and chinese sausages. Fry on medium heat till slightly brown and fragrant. Add in french beans, stir to mix everything. You don't have to cook the beans through at this stage.

5) Add rice last. Use the spatula to mix everything up. Turn heat to high and add in seasoning. Adjust the amount of seasoning to pour in depending on the amount of rice and other ingredients. Keep "digging" up the rice from bottom of wok, and break up those that are still sticking, until the colour become even. This has to be done fairly quickly to prevent it to get burnt.

6) And tada ... it's done!

* Usually the professionals will use high heat from beginning till end to have the "wok hei", and they do it very quickly to prevent burning. But I am no professional so I have used medium heat throughout and only turn up the heat at last step. The high heat helps dry up the rice a little to prevent it from becoming too wet.

Steamed Chicken with Chinese Herbs 药材蒸鸡

Always prefer the taste of chinese herbs than western herbs

Ingredient

Main

2 fresh chicken legs

5 dang-sheng (党参)

2 slices dang-gui (当归)

10 red dates

1 tbsp wolfberries

10 pieces dried longan (圆肉)

5 slices young ginger

500ml water

Seasoning

1 tsp salt

1 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

Dash of pepper

Method

1) Add main ingredients (except chicken legs) and seasoning into sauce pan and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

2) Arrange chicken legs in a deep plate, pour herbal soup from step (1) onto the chicken leg. 

3) Steam chicken together with the soup for another 30 minutes.

Chinese Spinach in "Superior" Broth 上汤苋菜

Healthier choice is to make the chicken broth yourself. But I have opted for speed and simplicity so I used store-bought broth

Ingredient

200gm round spinach, pick out only the leaves
100gm minced pork
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 cup of anchovies
1 egg
500ml chicken broth
250ml water
1/2 tsp tapioca flour
1 tsp shaoxing wine
Salt to taste
2 tbsp oil

Method

1) Season minced meat with salt, shaoxing wine and tapioca flour. Set aside.

2) Wash spinach. Drain and pick out only the leaves. Discard stems. Set aside.

3) Rinse anchovies slightly. Dry with kitchen towel.

4) Heat oil in pan. When oil is hot, add in garlic and anchovies. Stir-fry till garlic is lightly browned.

5) Pour in chicken broth and water. Let it boil till bubbling.

6) Add in minced meat. I pinch a small amount and add in bit by bit.  

7) Add spinach last and continue to boil till spinach soften. At this point, you can add salt to taste, or not at all depending on the broth used. I have used store-bought broth which is already salty enough so I did not add any additional salt.

8) Dish out and serve immediately.