1 whole chicken, chopped into 1.5 - 2 inch pieces (make sure all are the same size!)
One handful of dried black fungus (you can also use wood ear mushrooms)
4 dried shitake mushrooms
2 inch knob of ginger
4 - 5 whole garlic cloves
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons Tsao Tsing wine (optional)
Approx. 2 inches of a cup of water with a teaspoon of chicken powder (you can just use water)
Dash of finely ground white pepper
Coriander leaves and sliced chillies to garnish (Optional)
1. Pour boiling water over the black fungus and shitake mushrooms till they're covered. Let them steep for at least 20 minutes.
2. Cut your chicken up into pieces and add them to the dish you'll be steaming it in.
3. Peel and slice ginger, and peel and smash the garlic. Add them to the chicken whole.
4. Once the mushrooms have finished steeping, remove the hard stems. If using woodear mushrooms, you may need to cut into bit sized pieces.
5. Slice the shitake mushrooms.
6. Drain the water and add the fungus and mushrooms to the chicken.
7. Add in the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, Tsao Tsing wine, chicken powder dissolved in water and white pepper.
8. Mix and marinade in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 1 hour is better. More than 4 hours is best.
9. Remove from the fridge and steam on high heat for 20 minutes. (15 minutes if you have a smaller chicken)
4 chicken breasts with bone on
Chicken bones/chicken feet (Optional)
2 red tomatoes, cut into wedges
4 onions, cut into wedges
5 whole cloves garlic, peeled
2 waxy potatoes, cut into chunks
2 carrots, cut into chunks
1 ear of corn, cut into 4 - 5 pieces
1 - 2 inches Yunan ham, sliced into thick chunks (optional)
Enough water to cover ingredients
Salt, to taste
1. Boil some water and place the chicken feet, breast and carcass for one minute. Strain and rinse with tap water.
2. Chop tomatoes, onions, potatoes, carrots and sweet corn.
3. Place all ingredients in the pot and bring to a boil. Skim the scum off the top.
4. Once it boils, reduce to the lowest heat, cover and simmer for 2.5 to 3 hours.
5. Remove all the bones and serve hot.
* You can choose to serve with chicken feet – looks icky but packed with collagen (good for your complexion!). If you don’t like to eat, throw it away. I usually fish them out, pour some soy sauce, sesame oil and finely ground white pepper over it, and eat them! (They're always fought for in our family!)
Why is it called ABC Soup? The reasons are unclear but some say it's because you're getting all the Vitamins A, B and C from this soup. Or, that this soup is as easy as ABC to make! It is really so easy there's no reason not to try it!
It's also really a one pot meal. Just steam some white rice, spoon the rice into a bowl and the soup on top, garnish with some spring onions and soy sauce - it's a meal!
4 cups chicken or seafood stock (made from prawn shells and wing tips of chicken, or just store bought)
A pinch of saffron threads
1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil
5 chicken wings, wing tips removed and wings and drumettes seperated
About 8-10 prawns, shells and heads removed
1 small to medium squid, skin peeled and cut into segments
About 12 - 14 fresh mussels, washed and beards removed
1 chorizo sausage, cut into slices or chunks
1 medium white onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red capsicum, thinly sliced
2 small or 1 medium tomato, seeded and cut into small dice
2 cups medium or short grain rice, like Arborio or Calrose (the Spanish use bomba or calasparra but it's difficult to find) Do not wash/rinse it with water first like you do with Chinese steamed rice!!
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
salt and pepper
Garnish:
1 handful spring onions or coriander leaves, roughly chopped
1 lemon, cut into wedges, for garnish
Equipment:
38cm paella pan, or any round pan of the same size that you can put in the oven
1. Preheat oven to 200˚C or 180˚C for fan forced oven.
2. Prepare your chicken wings by removing the wing tips (you can save that for the stock), and seperate the wings off the drumettes. Season them with salt, pepper, olive oil and a bit of smoked paprika if you like.
3. Remove the shells of the prawns (you can save the shells and heads for the stock).
4. Clean the squid by removing the skin and beak, and cut into 1 inch pieces.
5. Wash the mussels, and discard any that are dead. Remove the beards.
6. Cut up the chorizo into chunks or thick slices.
7. In a saucepan, heat your stock until it comes to a simmer, then turn the heat off and add a pinch of saffron. Let it infuse.
8. Chop the onions and garlic, and slice up the capsicum. Deseed and chop the tomatoes.
9. Heat the pan over the biggest hob you've got on your stove. Turn on high heat and add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sear the chicken till it's golden brown on all sides, about 5 minutes - they don't have to be cooked all the way through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
10. Lower the heat, and add the chorizo. Fry till the red oil from the sausage's spices melt out, and use that oil to fry your onions, and capsicum, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic last as you don't want to burn it. If the sausage isn't oily enough, just add about 1 tablespoon more of olive oil.
11. Add the rice and the paprika and lightly fry the rice till it's coated with the oil, about 2 minutes. Then add the tomatoes.
12. Your stock should still be quite warm before you add it in, warm/heat it up it if it's not. Add the stock to the pan, it will bubble pretty hard. Lower the heat to a medium low and stir a little. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
13. Arrange the chicken into a single layer. Do not stir anymore at this point. Cook until the rice is about al dente, about 15 minutes, and just shake the pan a few times throughout.
14. When it's al dente, stick the mussels into the rice and scatter the prawns and squid. Keep simmering till the mussels slightly open.
15. Stick it in the oven for about 5 minutes or till the prawns and squid are cooked.
16. Remove from the oven and cover with foil and let it rest for another 5 minutes.
17. Sprinkle over with spring onions or coriander, and arrange the lemon wedges around the sides.
18. Serve immediately.
* Traditional paella needs to have a nice crust at the bottom and sides. My paella pan is Tefal and you will totally NOT achieve that with a non-stick pan. That pan is probably best used for other things rather than paella, but it was a gift from my mother so I'm not complaining! If you can find a steel pan, that will work so much better. It may look like a lot of steps, but it's really so easy to make. Best of all, you cook and serve it all in the pan and saves washing up! I adapted my recipe from Curtis Stone. You can watch his version here.
12 chicken wings
About 300 - 400g fresh pork sausage meat, like a spicy Italian
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1. Debone the chicken wings. You can watch how to do it here.
2. Remove the sausage meat from its casing and carefully fill the chicken wings with sausage meat. After they're filled, you can usually tuck the top drumette meat back into the skin to make it look neater.
3. Season with salt, pepper, and olive oil.
4. Grill till the meat is firm, about 20 -30 minutes. You can do them in an oven but I find this more of a barbecue, party type food.
5. Serve with dipping sauce of your choice.
* I've used fresh minced pork for this. You can even add some chopped vegetables to minced pork, or for a Thai twist, chopped lemongrass, lime juice, ginger, coriander, fresh chilies, garlic, onions, fish sauce and a bit of kaffir lime leaves. Or just use fresh sausage meat if you're lazy!
For the meat:
About 1.5 kg of chicken (I used legs and thighs, about 10 pieces)
Splash of soy sauce
Few pinches of finely ground white pepper
For the paste:
Grind together -
100g shallots (Comes to about 10 - 12)
200g big onions (About 2-3)
100g ginger (About 4 inch knob)
150g fresh red chilies, deseededAbout 8 - 10)
50g dried red chilies, cut and soaked for 20 minutes in hot water, deseeded *
For the stew:
5 tablespoons oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1.5 inch piece of ginger, thinly sliced
6 cloves garlic
1.5kg chicken, marinated with 4 tablespoons light soy and 2 tablespoons pepper for 20 mins
200g bacon bones **
10g mustard seeds, roughly pounded
½ tablespoon salt
½ tablespoon chicken stock powder
2 potatoes, peeled and quartered
10 chicken cocktail sausages
700ml water
1/2 head of cabbage, roughly chopped
1 cucumber peeled, seeds removed and cut into bite sized pieces
2 tablespoon vinegar
To garnish:
A few chili padi
Sprigs of coriander leaves
1.Marinade the chicken in soy sauce and finely ground white pepper for at least 20 minutes.
2.Soak 50g dried chilies in hot water for 20 minutes.
3.Grind together all the ground ingredients of shallots, onions, ginger, dried and fresh red chilies. You may want to chop them up roughly. I put mine in the food processor and blitzed for about 5 minutes.
4.Lightly pound the mustard seeds.
5.Heat oil and fry the garlic, onions and ginger till browned.
6.Add the chicken and bacon bones and continue frying till the chicken changes colour.
7.Add the ground paste, mustard seeds, salt and chicken stock.
8.Wait for the oil to rise.
9.Add the potatoes, cocktail sausages and water.
10.Boil till the potatoes are cooked and the curry thickens.
11.In the meantime, cut the cabbage and cucumber.
12.Add the cabbage, cucumber and vinegar.
13.Garnish with chili padi and coriander leaves. Serve with steamed rice.
* I used small dried chilies which I think is hotter, and I didn't remove the seeds. I was being daring as I thought we could handle the heat but it was a little too spicy. If you love it hot, leave the seeds and use the small ones. If not, use the bigger dried red chilies which are milder, and remove the seeds to keep spice levels low. ** I couldn't find any so I used smoked bacon belly instead. This recipe is adapted from Robin's Eurasian Recipes. I was inspired to cook it after having dinner at Quentin's Eurasian Restaurant at the Eurasian Community House and wrote a little blog about it after. The book is written by the father of the chef of Quentin's. I can't stress how amazing the food there is and I'm so glad I live just five minutes away! I didn't change too much of the original recipe, except that I added garlic to the list of aromatics, and as mentioned above, I was a little too bold with my dried chilies. I also couldn't find bacon bones, so I used smoked bacon belly instead. I also reduced the amount of cabbage - the original called for 400g, but maybe my cabbage is too heavy?? And reduced the tablespoons of vinegar from 5 to 2. 3 out of 5 adults in my house could take the heat of this and enjoyed it (me included), one couldn't put it to his mouth, the other could only manage one serving. The sauce itself is amazing and I reckon it could even be substituted as a vegetarian dish - just replace the chicken stock powder with vegetable stock, and use hard vegetables like pumpkin in place of meat.
We decided that in order to top off last year's Turducken (a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey), we had to do something really spectacular.
So, roasting a whole pig was what we decided. This pig turned out to be 26 kilos - we originally ordered a 17 kg pig but they didn't reserve that for us. It took 6 hours to cook, and fed about 25 people - but with plenty of leftovers.
There are no pig farms in Singapore and our pork is imported from Asia and Europe, this one is from Holland. The meat was so delicious and moist. We unfortunately screwed up the crackling as we score the skin enough. But, we had left overs and they could still be saved by removing the skin from the meat and roasting just the skins in a 160 degree Celsius oven for about 20 - 3 minutes.
Our house mate has done this many times before in his home country. However, they make a rotating spit with old windshield car motors. We can't get that here so the whole spit was made from scratch from pieces of wood, wire and metal. It was turned by about 6 people, each taking turns for 20 minutes.
As a side dish, I made a turkey (when you have a 26kg pig, the turkey becomes a side!), Peruvian inspired style, thanks to my favourite YouTube chef, Chef John from Foodwishes.com. I also made his Green Bean casserole, which was actually not much different to my husband's family recipe. And, for dessert also Chef John's pumpkin cheesecake pie.
10 pieces chicken drumsticks and thighs
1 1/2 palm sized pieces of old ginger
5 cloves garlic
Woodear mushrooms/"mok ee" fresh or dried, same amount as the ginger.(If using dried woodear, they have to be soaked in hot water for about 10-15 minutes to redydrate)
Ginger liquor or Ginger wine (I used Eu Yan Sang's Ginger liquor, or you can also use Stone's Ginger Wine)
Splash of tsao tsing cooking wine
Splash of sesame oil
Finely ground white pepper
Salt
1 chicken stock cube
2 -3 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Enough hot water to just cover the ingredients
1. Marinade the chicken pieces with some salt, finely ground white pepper, a splash of sesame oil, splash of tsao tsing wine, and a splash of the ginger liquor/wine. Let it sit for at least 20 minutes.
2. While it's marinating, peel the ginger and cut it into thin matchstick size, or julienne.
3. Cut the garlic cloves in matchstick sizes too.
4. If you're using dried woodear mushrooms, drain the water. Cut off the hard stems and cut into shreds or julienne. Cut the same amount as the ginger.
5. Heat the oil up oil in a wok and fry the ginger and garlic till there's an aroma, about 3-5 minutes.
6. Throw in the woodear and fry for another 3 minutes. Splash some tsao tsing wine on the side of the wok - it will sizzle.
7. Add hot water, estimate how much you will need to just cover the chicken.
8. Boil for about a minute, then add the chicken pieces along with whatever marinade is in the bowl.
9. Add another splash of tsao tsing wine, about 1/3 cup of ginger liquor (you can use less or more, depending on how much kick you want it to have. Add a little at a time and taste)
10. Add in the chicken stock cube, salt and pepper.
11. Lower the heat and cover for about 15- 20 minutes.
12. Serve hot with steamed rice or on its own.
* This is a very warm and invigorating Cantonese dish, usually made for women in their 30 days confinement after the birth of a child, although it doesn't just have to be women who enjoy it! This is one of my Dad's favourite dishes too. Wine is well known in Chinese food to promote blood circulation, and ginger for its healing properties. This recipe was given to me by my Dad's godmother, though she didn't tell me what were her exact measurements. So I usually make this dish by gut feel, sight and taste. Some people like it very gingery spicy, some don't. I like mine super gingery so feel free to cut back on the amount.
