Clay-Pot Chicken Drumstick With Shitake & Button Mushrooms 雙菇鸡腿煲

Clay-Pot Chicken Drumstick With Shitake & Button Mushrooms 雙菇鸡腿煲

Recipe Source :  Chopsticks Recipes Cookbook - Chinese Casserole

Ingredients

50g dried shitake mushroom
1 tin button mushroom
3 chicken thighs
1 shallot
2 pips of garlic

Seasonings

1tbsp shao shing wine
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp salt


 Dissolve the seasonings in 1 Chinese rice bowl of chicken stock

Instructions

1. Soak shitake mushroom till soft. Squeeze dry and wash under running tap. Squeeze dry again and marinate with 1 tbsp wine, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tbsp oil and 1 tsp sugar.
2.Soak button mushroom in water and set aside. Discard water prior to using.
3. Chop chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces. Marinate with 2 tbsp ginger juice, 1 tbsp shao shing wine, 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp cornflour, 1 tsp sesame oil and 1/2 tsp pepper for 30 minutes.
4. Parboil the chicken pieces in oil, drain and set aside.
5. Heat clay-pot and add 2 tbsp of oil and saute garlic, shallot and ginger till aromatic.
6. Reduce fire to medium and add in the chicken pieces and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
7. Add in the bowl of chicken stock with the dissolved seasonings.
8. Add in the shitake and button mushrooms and stir thoroughly and cover the clay-pot with the lid and let it cook for 5 minutes. After that, remove the lid and stir the contents to prevent the chicken and mushrooms from sticking to the bottom of the clay-pot. Then let it cook for a further 5 minutes.
9. Serve hot.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #28: Chicken Feast (February) 2013

hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker

Hong Kong - Madame Tussauds Wax Museum 香港杜莎夫人蜡像馆

Hong Kong - Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

香港杜莎夫人蜡像馆

  ( 12th February 2013 )

Among the rich and famous inside Madame Tussauds wax museum located on The Peak.

Bruce Lee the kung fu exponent

Louis Koo, Hong Kong actor

 Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt

Aaron Kwok, Hong Kong actor

Jet Li, Mainland China kung fu actor

Andy Lau

England's Queen Elizabeth II

US President, Barack Obama

Former US president, George Bush

Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew

Saddam Hussein

Adolf Hitler

Chairman Mao Zedong

Donnie Yen who played the role of kung fu exponent Ip Man

Hong Kong singer and actor Leon Lai Meng

China's lanky basketball player, Yao Ming

Boxer, Muhammad Ali in his younger days

Tiger Woods

Pop group, The Beatles

David Beckham

The legendary king of pop Michael Jackson

Another legendary icon Elvis Presley

Madonna

Lady Gaga

Hong Kong pop duo, Twins

Michelle Yeoh

Clay-Pot Stuffed Chicken Wings 翅膀蘑菇煲

Clay-Pot Stuffed Chicken Wings 翅膀蘑菇煲

Recipe Source :  Chopsticks Recipes Cookbook - Chinese Casseroles


It was rather difficult for SK and I to get back to our normal routine after our long vacation. I felt lazy and lethargic and kept procrastinating and postponing tasks that needed to be done. Well, enough is enough. We just need to psyche ourselves and get on with the work.

SK is more disciplined. He managed to get out of the rut by cooking this clay-pot stuffed chicken wings. 

Ingredients

15 chicken wings
1/4 carrot ( cut into strips )
1 stalk Chinese celery ( use the stems )
1 can of button mushrooms
3 slices ginger
1 shallot ( minced )
2 pips garlic ( minced )

2 tbsp ginger juice                     }  this is for
2 tbsp shao hsing wine              )   blanching the chicken wings

Seasoning Ingredients

1 tbsp shao hsing wine
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/3 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp cornflour

Dissolve the above seasoning ingredients in 1 Chinese rice bowl of chicken stock

Instructions

1.  Blanch the chicken wings in boiling water with 2 tbsp each of ginger juice and wine for 5 minutes.
2.  Discard the water and rinse the blanched chicken wings under a running tap.
3.  Chop off both ends of the chicken wings and retain the middle sections.
4.  Remove the two bones from the chicken wings and stuff the carrot strips and the Chinese celery stems into the holes.
5.  Wash the button mushrooms and set aside.
6.  Heat a clay-pot and bring 2 tbsp of oil to the boil.
7.  Saute ginger, shallot and garlic until fragrant.
8.  Add the button mushrooms and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
9.  Add the bowl of chicken stock with the dissolved seasonings and the stuffed chicken wings.
10.  Bring the stock to the boil, cover with the lid and let simmer for 4 to 5 minutes.
11. Switch off the flame.
12. Serve hot

 The blanched and stuffed middle sections of the chicken wings before cooking

I am submitting this  post to Aspiring Bakers #28 : Chicken Feast (February 2013)

hosted by SSB of Small Small Baker

Steamed Pau With Red Bean Paste 豆沙包

Steamed Pau With Red Bean Paste 豆沙包

 Recipe source : Adapted from a booklet distributed by The Federal Flour Mills

 

 

Basic Dumpling (Pau) Recipe

 

500g pau flour
11g ( 1 tbsp ) yeast
100g sugar
50g corn oil
250g hot water
2 3/4 tsp double action baking powder
500g  red bean paste 
12 pieces of grease proof paper cut into 6 cm square 

 Read up on my post on how to make red bean paste

 Instructions

1.  Mix pau flour and yeast together.
2.  Dissolve sugar in the hot water.
3.  Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and knead dough with hands for 10 to 15 minutes or by electric mixer until it becomes smooth and extensible.
4.  Leave the dough in the bowl for about 1 hour to allow the dough to develop and rise. 
5.  Cover the bowl with cling film or a towel.
6.  After one hour, punch down the dough and divide it into 12 equal portions. 
7.  Divide the red bean paste into 12 equal portions and roll them into 12 round balls.
8.  Take a portion of the dough and roll into round circle.
9.  Place one ball of red bean paste onto the circle of round dough and wrap it up.
10.  Secure the edges and place pau onto a piece of cut grease proof paper. Place  the end with secured edges facing down.
11. Place the pau into a steamer and steam for 15 minutes at high flame.

A cross section of a pau showing the red bean paste filling

 

Hong Kong - The Peak By Night 香港-太平山的夜景

Hong Kong -The Peak By Night 香港-太平山的夜景

( 12th February 2013 )


After dinner at Wan Chai, we were taken up the famous "The Peak" for a night view of Hong Kong's city lights and to visit Madame Tussauds wax museum. The Peak was jam-packed with tourists, both inside the wax museum as well as outside in the cold. There was a long queue of people waiting for the cable cars to bring them downhill. It was already past 10-30 P.M. when we were there. I wonder at what time they get to go home that night with such a long and meandering queue of people.

The Peak is most beautiful by night.

 A landmark building on The Peak

 

 A view of the commercial hub of Hong Kong Island

 

 Another view of the same place with some buildings displaying a different colour.

 

 The viewing platform in three different colours

 

The Peak Galleria shopping Complex

Hong Kong - Day 1香港之旅的第一天

Hong Kong - Day 1 香港之旅的第一天

( 12th February 2013 )

SK and I decided to visit our eldest son who is working in Macau during the Chinese New Year as he was not able to get leave to come back. We should have made our bookings for our flight tickets and accommodation much earlier because we discovered to our dismay that the price of flight tickets to Macau during the Chinese New Year season was exorbitant. Likewise, hotel charges in Macau sky-rocketed during the Chinese New Year period as well. So, to cut cost, we joined a package tour instead of travelling on our own because tour groups enjoyed corporate rates at hotels and I suspected they enjoyed corporate rates for flights as well.

Our main destination was Macau but we joined a 5 day 4 night tour package covering Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Panyu, Zhuhai and finally Macau. It was very hectic and very tiring but the four of us, SK, our daughter, our youngest son and I enjoyed ourselves very much. 

We landed in Hong Kong around 5-30 P.M. After a long wait queuing at the immigration the entire tour group consisting of 24 people finally met the tour guide, Ritchie from Hong Kong. After the necessary introductions and pleasantries Ritchie whisked us to dinner which he had ordered in advance in anticipation of our arrival.

Dinner was at Wan Chai's Hennessy Road.  

While walking from our tour bus to the restaurant we saw this double-decker tram. Look at the tracks on the road which were made specially for these trams. The tour guide told us there are two opposing camps in Hong Kong, one camp is all for preserving the tram to show-case Hong Kong history and heritage while another camp is proposing to do away with the trams for better roads and communication to ease Hong Kong's notorious traffic jams. Well, I think they are still fighting over it !

 The address on the wall at the entrance to the restaurant where we had dinner

 A dish of brinjals stir-fried with fermented bean paste and dried chillies and a sprinkling of minced meat

 Roast goose

Sweet and sour pork with pineapple slices or koo loh yoke in Cantonese

 Stir-fried mixed vegetables

 Stir-fried celery with white meat

"Seng Kua"cooked with bell peppers and big onions. The "seng kua" looks like a cross between a cucumber and a zucchini. In fact, many in the group thought that it was just cucumber, but it tasted better than cucumber.

Was the dinner good ? Well, I would give a rating of seven out of ten points for taste. I would say the dishes served were ordinary fare, nothing outstanding about them. Perhaps, there are great dishes and dim sum available at this restaurant but as you know, food arranged for tour packages are usually on a shoestring budget.