Chillies fried chicken drumsticks

Fried chicken is one dish which I believe many would enjoy even if having to eat it often, especially children.  As a home-cook I will not always use the same ingredients for marinating the chicken, so as to have a different flavour, thus enhancing the taste of the fried chicken to give new boost to our taste buds from time to time.  Another point is that I will either use wings, drumsticks, thighs, mixed meat of the chicken, boneless chicken thigh, fried with special sauce to coat the fried chicken and many other styles of cooking it. It has always been exciting when comes to making a dish out of "CHICKEN."

What you need:

4 chicken drumstick

Marinade:

1 egg

2 tbsp corn flour

1/2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp chicken stock granules

Seasoning (mix well)

1 tsp five spice powder

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp chicken stock granules

1/2 tsp sugar

Chillies ingredients:

1  1/2 tbsp ginger (chopped)

1 tbsp red chilli (chopped)

1 1/2 tbsp spring onion (chopped)

3 bird's eye chillies (diced)

Methods:

1. Marinate the chicken drumstick with the marinade ingredients for at least half day in the fridge.  Turn over and rub the marinade onto the drumstick to let the ingredients seeps through it few times.
2. Put enough oil in a deep wok, deep fry the marinated chicken drumsticks in medium-low heat till golden and cooked.
3. Dish and drain on absorbent paper.
4. In a clean wok, heat 1 tbsp cooking oil, saute the chillies ingredients until fragrant, add in fried chicken and seasoning and stir till well combined. 
5. Dish and serve.

Stir-fried asparagus with prawns

Ingredients:
1 bundle asparagus
1/2 cup prawns (peeled and deveined)
3 pip garlic (chopped)
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 to 2 tbsp water

Seasoning:
1 tsp chicken stock granules

Methods:

1. Wash, cut into sections and peel off the woody outside part near to the stem end.
2. Put 1 tbsp cooking oil in a heated wok, saute chopped garlic till fragrant.
3. Add in prawns, give it a quick stir, then add in asparagus and drizzle over seasoning and stir till well mixed.
4. Add in water and stir fry for a further one minute, then dish and serve.

Note: Both the prawns and asparagus doesn't take long to cook, thus we need to stir-fry it quickly to prevent from over-cooking the dish.  

Deep-fried meatballs

Ingredients:
200g minced pork
2 tbsp red carrot (peel and chopped)
2 water chestnut (peel, chopped, squeeze and discard juice)
1 tbsp garlic (minced)

Seasoning:
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp corn flour
Dash of grounded pepper
1/2 tsp five-spice powder
1/2 egg
Dash of sesame oil
1 piece cream cracker biscuit (crushed)

Methods:

1. Put all the ingredients into a big bowl, add the seasoning and mix till well combined. Set aside for at least one hour.
2. Heat enough oil in a deep pot for deep-frying.
3. Use a spoon to scoop a portion of the meat ingredients and use our palm to shape into a ball of your preferred size.
4. Deep-fry in medium heat till golden in colour, dish and drain on absorbent paper to get rid of excess oil.
5. Serve hot on a bed of lettuce with either tomato or chillie sauce.

Note:  With the crushed cream cracker biscuit, chopped red carrot and water chestnut, these meatballs are more crunchier and the five-spice powder gives extra yummy flavour to the dish.

Sambal Prawns

Ingredients:
200g medium sized prawns (peeled with tail intact and deveined)
1/2 onion (shredded)
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 tbsp water

Sambal:
1 tbsp shallots (finely chopped)
1 tbsp dried prawns (soaked and chopped)
1 tsp belacan (toasted and grinded into powder)
1/2 tbsp chilli powder

Seasoning:
Salt (to taste)
Dash of sugar (to taste)

Methods:

1. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wok and saute the sambal ingredients until fragrant.
2. Add in seasoning and stir to mix well.
3. Add in shredded onion and stir fry until aromatic, then add prawns and give it a quick stir. Add in water and stir-fry till prawns are cooked.
4. Dish up and serve.

Note: In Chinese cooking there are many methods of cooking prawns.  Normally for me, I will decide what to cook, how to cook and what other ingredients to cook with depending on the size of the prawns.  It's a yummy dish to enjoy with a bowl of freshly cooked white rice. To those who love Fusion Food, I trust that this prawn dish will make a delicious topping for a plate of Spaghetti. 

Simple home-cooked soups

Soups are normally served as a dish in most meals of a Chinese family.  The important ingredients which forms the base of a soup is either pork ribs, chicken bones, chicken meat and or chicken feet.  These ingredients enhance the flavours of the soup and also provides the natural sweetness to it.  A soup dish need not always have to comprise of many ingredients, a simple soup can also taste yummy! 

The first soup which I would like to share is one which I believe is "Simple Yet Yummylicious" and is the favourite of many.

ABC soup

What you need: serves 3
8 chicken feet
3 chicken thigh
1 fresh corn (cut into pieces)
1 red carrot (peel, cut into chunks)
2 potato (peel, cut into chunks)
3 bowls of water (add more if needed during cooking)

Seasoning:
1/2 tbsp chicken stock granules 
Salt (to taste)

Few simple steps to cook the soup:

1. Clean the chicken feet and thigh, blanch in boiling water and drain.
2. Boil water in a pot, when it starts to simmer put in the chicken feet, corn, red carrot and potato and when it comes to a big boil turn the heat to medium-low for about 10 minutes.
3. Add in the chicken thigh and continue to boil till the chicken feet is soft and the meat is cooked.
4. Add in seasoning, taste and when the soup comes to another boil, off the heat and serve hot.

Bitter gourd soup

Few simple ingredients: serves 1 only
1 small or 1/2 big bitter gourd (cut into big chunk)
1 whole chicken thigh
1/2 tbsp of kei chi (wash and put aside)
1 1/2 bowls of water (add more if needed during cooking)

Seasoning:
1 tsp of chicken stock granules
Salt (to taste)

Few simple steps:

1. Blanch the chicken thigh with boiling water and drain.
2. Heat the water in a pot and when near boiling put in the chicken thigh and bitter gourd.
3. When it comes to a boil turn the heat to low and let it boil till the chicken is cooked and the bitter gourd is soft.
4. Add in kei chi, seasoning and taste.
5. When the soup comes to another boil, off the heat and serve hot.

Chicken with salted mustard soup

Ingredients: serves 3
some chicken bones
3 chicken thigh
1/2 portion of salted mustard
2 tomato (halved)
4 dried mushrooms (wash and soaked)
4 slices  ginger (peeled)
2 salted plum with 1 tbsp of the sauce
3 bowls of water (add more if needed when cooking)

Seasoning:
Salt and msg (to taste)

Methods:

1. Blanch chicken bones and thigh with boiling water, drain and put aside.
2. Wash the salted mustard, cut into pieces and soak in water for an hour to get rid of the saltiness, and drain.
3. Heat water in a pot and put the chicken bones to boil in medium heat for about 20 minutes, then discard bones.
4. Add in salted mustard, sliced ginger and dried mushrooms and simmer in medium heat for about fifteen minutes, then add in chicken thigh and salted plum with the sauce and continue to simmer till chicken thigh is cooked.
5. Add in tomato, seasoning, give it a taste and let it boil for another 1 minute.
6. Off the heat and serve hot.

Note:  I prefer using chicken bones, feet and chicken meat to boil soup because I am only cooking for three.  If you prefer pork ribs, just replace it with the chicken.  For the bitter gourd soup, as I am the only person in the house that eat this vege, so I am only cooking one portion or serving for myself.

Beetroot Fried Rice

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked rice
1/4 cup minced pork
1/3 cup beetroot (diced)
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
1/2 onion (diced)
1/4 cup long beans (diced)
1 1/2 tbsp cooking oil

Marinade:
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
Drizzle of sesame oil
1/2 tsp corn flour
Dash of ground pepper

Seasoning:
1/2 tsp chicken stock granules
Salt and pepper to taste

Methods:

1. Marinate the minced pork with marinade ingredients for  1/2 hour.
2. Heat oil in a wok, saute onion, then garlic till fragrant.
3. Add in marinated minced pork, stir fry then add beetroot and cook for a minute, add in long beans and continue to fry for a further 1 minute.
4. Add in rice and seasoning, stir till well combined and taste for the correct seasoning.
5. Dish and serve warm.

Note:  Beetroot contains lots of exceptional nutritional value and I enjoy the yummy taste with fried rice as much as soups.

Ondeh-Ondeh

This appetizing dessert or commonly known as 'local kuih' is popular among the Chinese. These beautiful green coloured balls coated with a thick layer of grounded coconut goes well with the sweetness and tastiness of the gula melaka on the inside.  It's something which we can't resist, can you??

Few simple ingredients:

• 250gm glutinuous rice flour

• 8 pieces pandan leaves - blend to obtain thick juice for the green colouring and flavour

• 1/2 grounded coconut - squeeze to get 7 1/2 oz. thick coconut milk and combine with the pandan juice

• Gula Melaka - cut or grated into smaller pieces

• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 cups grounded coconut (without skin, specially used for making kuih)
• pinch of salt

Few simple steps to make and serve the dessert or kuih:

• Add the coconut milk which is combined with the pandan juice to the glutinuous rice flour, mix well, then add in 3 tbsp cooking oil and knead to form a dough.

• Pinch a bit of the dough, roll into a ball, size of a twenty sen coin, flatten it with your fingers till slightly thin but not too thin as the dough will expand during boiling and the gula melaka will flow out. Wrap with a bit of gula melaka and roll into a ball and put aside till all is done.

• Prepare a pot of water and bring to a boil, then boil the above in batches till they floats to the surface.  A further 1 minute allowance can be given to allow the gula melaka to melt well.
• Dish up with a slotted lifting spatula to enable the water to drip off.
• Roll the cooked dough onto the grounded coconut sprinkled with a pinch of salt till well coated and put on a serving plate.

• Complete the process till all is done and it's time to EAT and ENJOY!

Note:  The size of the onde-onde is according to your own preference.  I prefer to make it smaller as it is easier to eat and I can put the whole piece direct into the mouth without having to bite it and the grounded coconut won't drop all over.