（鸡）不择食 : Chicken rice- Local delights in the comfort of home

Ingredients:

For chicken stock and chicken
1 medium whole chicken
1 packet of chicken feet, nails and calluses removed.
2 large carrots
Half a head of lettuce
1 heaped tsp of salt (to taste)

For chicken oil:
2 tbsp Sesame oil
Chicken fat

Generous amounts of minced ginger
Three cloves of smashed garlic

For rice:
3.5 cups of rice
Chicken stock as required
1/4 tsp of salt (to taste)
Chicken oil

For sauce:
A knob of ginger chopped into matchsticks
1 tsp oyster sauce
1  tsp soya sauce

1  tbsp Sesame oil

20 ml of chicken stock

For sides:
1 packet of Beansprouts
1 piece of firm Tau Kwa, pan fried
6 pieces of fried tofu puffs, pan fried and chopped
1 tbsp of minced garlic
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
50 ml of chicken stock

Method:
1. Boil chicken feet and bones and chopped carrots in a big pot of water enough to fully submerge a whole chicken. Boil on high heat then simmer on low heat for about an hour. Add salt to taste.
2. Place whole chicken into the broth.
3. Bring to a rolling boil for a few minutes before turning off the fire. Leave the chicken to cook with residual heat for about an hour.
4. Remove from stock and submerge in iced water to stop the cooking process.
5. Fry reserved chicken fat with two tablespoons of sesame oil, minced ginger and smashed garlic. Remove chicken fat.
6. Add chicken stock into rice, a dash of salt and the chicken oil with ginger and garlic. 
7.  Bring the remaining chicken stock to a boil and blanch chicken with the soup to slightly warm up the meat before chopping to serve over a bed of lettuce leaves. Drizzle sauce over the chicken.

For the sides:
1. Add one tablespoon of oil and fry minced garlic till fragrant. 
2. Throw in beansprouts and stir fry on high heat.
3. Add in oyster sauce and chicken stock and stir fry.
4. Add in pan fried tau kwa and fried tofu puffs and stir fry to mix thoroughly with sauce. 

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

This must be Confucius' Favourite dish. The eggplant that doesn't have any egg. 鱼香茄子但有没有🐠哦。

Ingredients

1 large brinjal, sliced into halves and then lengthwise
250g minced pork
Half a carrot, blanched.
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sprig of spring onion, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon of (fermented beancurd) spicy bean paste
0.5 tsp of fish sauce
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tsp of dark soya sauce
A squeeze of lemon
100 ml of water


Marinade for minced pork

1 tablespoon shaoxing wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic

Cornstarch mixture

1 tablespoon cornflour
2 tablespoons water

Optional

Chopped spring onions
Sliced red chilli
1 tablespoon of chicken/ pork/fish floss

Method

Shallow fry brinjal slices. Heat three tablespoons of oil in the pan, place brinjal slices skin side down. After a few minutes, turn it on its side and repeat till all sides have been shallow fried. Set it aside on some kitchen towels to drain the oil.

Heat up the reserved oil and fry the remaining minced garlic with the white portions of the spring onion till fragrant.

Add in the minced pork and fry together with the spicy bean paste. Add the brinjal and blanched carrot slices. Stir fish sauce, oyster sauce, dark soya sauce and a squeeze of lemon into 100ml of water before pouring it over the ingredients in the pan. Give it a good mix to ensure that the sauce coats the ingredients evenly.

When it starts to bubble, turn the heat to low to let it simmer for 5 minutes. Then turn up the heat and thicken the gravy by stirring in cornstarch mixture to desired consistency.

Garnish as desired and serve hot with rice. Maybe two servings of rice. :)

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x