Thursday, December 08, 2005

Homemade Chicken Floss

This is my first time making chicken floss, all the while I have been making pork floss. Why the trouble of making my own floss right? I just have no idea how long the floss here have been sitting on the selves because the one sold here are just not fresh like the one we buy in M'sia. And since it's a meat product, I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. My life would be easier if I can take the leap isn't it? Haha...

Anyway, the method is the same as my pork floss just that it only takes an hour or less to simmer. I added some curry powder and no dark soy sauce in this. Since chicken meat is fairly tender, it's very easy to shred and I got the flossy texture that I want in a floss.

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However, I have encountered a few problems on the way that I have no idea what went wrong. I got the flossy texture but the floss turned out to be hard and chewy!! Thinking that my heat must be too high, I added some water and turned the heat to low and stir-fried it some more. To cut the story short, I did that twice in order to save it but still ended out with chewy floss, the one that's hard to swallow.

Think...think...think....finally my last attempt of saving my chicken floss, I placed it on a baking sheet and baked it at very low temperature (200'F) for 30 minutes. Now I have crispy chicken floss. Still not the fluffy one that Lily and I wanted but better than hard & chewy anytime. A failure chicken floss! :(

Questions:
1. Not sure why it takes longer for me to stir-fry the chicken floss compared to pork floss? I thought it should be shorter.

2. Why the flossy texture didn't produce a fluffy taste? *scratching head*

I think it will be a while before I attempting to make any meat floss again. Hahaha....

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Bah Kut Teh

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Made this bak kut teh for dinner yesterday. I used the Yew Chian Haw bak kut teh premix. I love this brand as it comes with pieces of herbs and got a herbal flavor. I added tau pok in mine.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Vietnamese Influence Turkey Noodle Soup

The best way to get rid of the turkey bones or the drumsticks and wings is to make stock or soup. If you make a lot of the stock, you can freeze it in some containers and take out one to defroze overnight in the fridge for next day use.

For this noodle soup, I used one back bone, two drumsticks and a wing and did a Vietnamese twist to it by adding lemon grass, star anise, 5 spice powder, roasted onions and ginger, fish sauce and salt & sugar to taste. I simmered it for four hours. I got the inspiration from tt's beef noodle. :D

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As to serve, I got some fresh basil, saw tooth herb, quick blanched bean sprouts and onion, turkey meats and DoDo fish balls. Oh tt, if you read this, the saw tooth herb really won't hurt my mouth. Hahaha... Thanks!

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After the noodle had been assembled. The herbs gave it such a nice fragrant and the crunchy bean sprouts gave it an extra bite to the noodle soup. I served it with Sriracha Hot sauce and Hoisin sauce.

Friday, December 02, 2005

BoBoChaCha

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I made this as a dessert on Thanksgiving night since I have some leftover yam from the yam kuih. Bobochacha is actually very easy to make and here's my version.

Ingredients:

~Yam, cut into cubes and steamed for 30 mins.
~Sweet Potatoes, cut into cubes and steamed for 10 mins.
~Gula Melaka or the yellow hard sugar, to taste.
~Coconut Cream/ Thick Coconut Milk.

Steps:

1. In a saucepan, add in the amount of water you want. When boiled, add in the gula Melaka, add to the sweetness you like (need to taste test, if too sweet, add some hot water, if not sweet enough, add more gula Melaka). Stir until sugar dissolved. Lower the heat and add in the coconut cream and the steamed yam & sweet potatoes, stir to mix well, about 5 mins. Turn the heat off. Serves hot or cold. Enjoy!

Monday, November 28, 2005

Simple Thanksgiving Dinner for Two

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As the title said, it's simple and quick to prepare. As most of you probably know, I'm lazy when come into preparing an elaborate meal especially just for the two of us. So, I had been cracking my head of what to cook on Thanksgiving night that's super easy to make.

I bought some brussel sprouts since it was on sales and I remembered watching Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) baked her brussel sprouts and according to her, crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside. So, I got to try it. Bought some baking potatoes too so why not baked it together with the brussel sprouts right. And I got the idea of pan-frying the turkey breasts from Rachael Ray (30 Minutes Meal), quick and easy. I cut my turkey breast thinly into slices so it's faster to cook compared to the whole turkey breast.

Baked Brussel Sprouts:

Preheat the oven to 400'F. Line a baking pan with aluminium foil and spread the washed and trimmed brussel sprouts on top. Sprinkle with EVOO, a generous amount of salt and freshly ground black peppers. Coat and mix everything together with your hands. Baked for 20-25 mins.

Potato Wedges:

Washed the skin of potatoes until clean. Cut and quarter the potato into wedges. Again spead it on aluminium foil covered baking pan. Sprinkle with EVOO, salt, black peppers, paprika and garlic powder. Mixed everything together with your hands. Baked in preheated 400'F oven for 20-25 mins. Turned the potato wedges over half way through baking.

Pan-Fried Turkey Breasts: (you can substitute it with chicken breasts)

Sprinkle the thinly sliced turkey breasts with EVOO, sage powder, salt, black pepper and garlic powder on both sides. Heat a frying pan with a little EVOO and pan-fry the turkey breasts until cooked. Do not overcook the turkey breasts as it will turn hard and dry. Take out the cooked turkey and place on a plate. Pour some white wine (that you drink) to deglaze the pan (or as the cook called it, to get all the good stuff out). When thicken add about 1 Tbp. or 2 Tbp. of butter into the sauce. Stir until the butter melted. Now, pour the sauce over the turkey breasts to serve.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Vinegar Green Chillies

I love to make all sort of chillies to accompany the dishes that I cook. Here's another one of them. Love it with wor tan hor and wontan mee.

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Marinating in a glass bottle and stored in the refrigerator.

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What it looks like.

This chillies is very easy to make. All you need are 2 ingredients, Jelepeno green chillies or Serrano green chillies and diluted white distilled vinegar. For those in Asia, use any green chillies you think is right for this.

Sliced the green chillies and put it in a glass bottle and then pour the vinegar on top to fill the bottle. Let it sit overnight on your kitchen counter and then put it in the refrigerator to store the next day.

Note: Make sure the green chillies you bought got a little kick to it. I once bought a wrong kind of green chillies which has no kick (or heat) at all and the end result was not satisfactory to me. Oh yeah, gave some to Lily so she should know. Hehehe...