Chicken Rice

Hello Everybody Its been two years since my last post!! How time flies when we are so caught up with everything life.

Ok lets get in to it shell we?

Coriander Salsa 

Coriander  1 bunch

Garlic 1/2  bulb

Vegetable Oil 4-5 tbsp

salt to taste

Wash Coriander to get rid of the sand or soil, cut off the root and reserve for the stock. slice as fine as you can and transfer it in to a bowl. With the garlic peel and slice. 

Then heat a pan or wok, add the oil in the pan. Add in the sliced garlic and pan fry on a mid to low heat. (be sure that the oil is not too hot we don't want burnt garlic) when its turned brown or golden brown, tip the garlic and the oil in to the sliced coriander. Add salt and give it a good mix. set a side too cool.

Chicken and Soup/Broth Component

basically you can put what ever Vegetable in the soup to enhance the flavours

here I have added

Onions 2

Celery 2-3sticks

Carrots 3

Ginger 2

stalks from the lemon grass

roots of the coriander

Garlic 1 bulb

Salt to taste

Water enough to cover the chicken

Size 9 chicken 2 

(reserve the fat of the chicken near the cavity of the chook for the rice)

Would have loved to add winter melon but I could not find any.

Put everything except the Chicken in to a pot. and bring to boil. turn the heat down to medium to low setting, then lower the chicken in to the stock and simmer for 40-45 minutes, turning the chicken at the 20 minute mark.

After that, Yes I understand the Chicken is cooked but the rice is not cooked. Take the pot off the stove and leave the chicken in the pot to keep warm till the rice is cooked.

There are many ways to cut up the chicken so below is just one of the ways to do it.

Oh nearly forgot, there is a soy sauce part to the chicken. Mix about 5-6 tbsp of chicken stock to 3-4 tbsp of soy sauce, then add a tbsp of sesame oil, mix and pour over the cut chicken.

The Rice Component

Chicken Fat - what ever Fat you can get from the cavity of the chook

Vegetable oil 1 tbsp

Lemon Grass 1 stick

Ginger 1size of thumb

Onion 1

Garlic 8-10 pips

Rice 2 1/2 Chinese bowls

Chicken stock 5 Chinese bowls

Wash the lemon grass, cut off the stocky part and save it for the stock. Now with the bottom part of the lemon grass slice it thin. onions peeled and finely diced, ginger finely diced, garlic crushed or roughly chopped.

Heat a pan on high flame, add in oil and chicken fat, render the fat till the pieces of fat turns brown, take the pieces out and discard. Add in the chopped and sliced ingredients and fry till soft with out browning. add in rice and fold thru.

There are two ways you could cook the rice on the stove or in a rice cooker. in this case i am using a rice cooker. Pour the rice in to the rice cooker and add the chicken stock.

Season to taste, and press the button and wait till the button pops back up, oh don't for get to turn the power on ;P while that's going

Chilli Component

Chilli 7-8 medium size

Garlic 1/2 bulb

Ginger 2 thumbs worth

salt

Chicken stock 4-5 tbsp

Cut and peel the garlic and ginger, roughly cut the chilli and place all of the ingredients in a jug or a container and blend with a stick blender. Or if your using a food processor just put it in, don't need to bother to cut it smaller. Then after thats done pour it in to a pot and bring to boil, turn off and set a side to cool.

Sliced Cucumber

Right, its all done now. Enjoy and I wish you all the best in trying this out. 

3 Egg and chicken Congee(Rice porridge)

1-2 small Onion, slice thin

1-2 tsp Garlic, crush

1-2 tsp Ginger, crush

1 Chicken Breast, dice

1 Century Egg, shelled and diced

1 Salted duck egg, shelled and diced

1 Chicken egg

200g Rice

800-1000 ml Water/chicken stock

Sesame oil

Salt and pepper

Method

wash rice and strain. Heat up a pot with a little oil, fry off ginger garlic and onion till fragrant. add in chicken and seal off. then add in rice mix, add in the water, century egg and duck egg. bring up to boil then simmer till the rice splits roughly 1-1.5 hrs. season to taste. then lighly beat the chicken egg and stir it in to the congee add sesame oil.

Now dig in :)

Enjoy:)

Ideas To decorate or use Gingerbread

Gingerbread house

Royal Icing

Ginger bread, rolled and baked as per the above picture

Candies/lolies/sweets/chocolates

Method

Cut the gingerbread in to desired shape(use a template if not sure if the design of the house would fit), using the the royal icing glue the ginger bread together as the following pictures. oh don't forget to cut out a door and window for the house after all it won't be a house with out a door and window.

you can put candies in to the house if you like or your gift

then decorate as you like

Sample 1

Sample 2

oh i decorated the gingerbread man gave it eyes and mouth, buttons and boots

Royal icing

1 egg white

250g icing sugar

1tsp vinegar/lemon juice

Method

pour in everything in to the mixing bowl, mix on low for 2-3 min then on high for 3-4 min or till white as snow:) scoop it out in to a piping bag :)

uses

Gingerbread house

Gingerbread man

(will add more as i go along)

Gingerbread

Ingredients

1L Honey

0.5kg Sugar

0.33L Fresh Milk(UHT milk can be used)

4 nos Eggs

10g Ginger Powder

13g Cinnamon Powder

20g Baking Powder

20g Baking Soda

2kg Cake Flour(plain flour)

Method

Bring sugar and milk to boil then add the honey and take off the heat. Mix well and set a side to cool. Sift all the dry ingredients together.

When honey mixture has cooled pour in to a mixing bowl(if using a mixer use a dough hook), add the eggs mix well.

scoop in the sifted dry ingredients on a low speed setting till it is all combined,( the mixture was too much for the mixture so i transfered it to another bowl to finish the mixing process by hand) Do not over mix the mixture.

When all is combined, set a side for at least 2 hrs resting time or you can continue the next step the next day.

On a floured bench take out a chunk of the dough, roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 0.5 cm. Then dock it with a fork or a docker(Dock=to make small holes on a pastry)

And use a cutter of your choice to cut the dough( in this case its a Gingerbread man). Place the gingerbread man on to a lined baking tray, brush egg wash over the gingerbread man and bake in a pre-heated oven of 160-170C(every oven is different i set mine at 150C) for 6-7 min then take it out of the oven and brush egg wash over the gingerbread man, back in to the oven for another 6-7 min or till golden brown.

Now you will have left over Scrap dough. What to do with it? well you still can use it, but remember you must not over mix it. So no kneading the dough, just pile the dough together and just press the dough together to form a square or round, and roll it out again like before.

Always try to get as much portions from the first roll.

This yields a lot of gingerbread man. I estimated about 60-70 nos of this size of gingerbread man.

Have fun:)

Golden Syrup

Ingredients

600g Sugar

450ml water

4 slices lemon (as in the picture below)

Method

Place everything in to a pot, over high heat desolve the sugar with out stirring(if it is stirred crystals would form and would not have a great result). bring it to a boil and then simmer for 50 min(soft ball stage, 120C)

Set it a side to cool, then pour it in to a bottle and it is ready to be used the next day.

*yes the sugar has to be made the day before (can be kept for a yr plus(for next yr)) making your moon cake or other recipes that require it:)

*yes i know i put only 2 slices of lemon i did only half recipe :)

My New Toy

As you can see this is my new toy in the kitchen!!!

My trusty hand mixer beater broke after 3 yrs of putting up with me:)

As my Grandfather always tell us, "if the old one don't go the new one won't come:)

now you will see more of it in my pictures:) oh i can do more with it too:)