HOT AND SPICY CHICKEN FEET

27 Feb 2011
I am cooking this recipe for the 3rd time....1st time was to try it out and 2nd time was for my children during the CNY.  I have adjusted some of the ingredients to my preference and I am preparing this for tomorrow's fellowship dinner with some cell group ladies.

This recipe suits me well as I was looking for one which does not call for deep frying and I was so glad to find this.  Below are pics to the cooking steps but I forgot to take pics in the beginning so I missed the first few steps.  Anyway, I believe these are clear enough for anyone to follow. 

 

Rub the chicken feet (1 kg) with kosher salt and let stand for 10 mins.  Rinse with cold water.
Then blanch them in hot boiling water for 5 mins. Drain and cool.
Dry fry for 10-15min till lightly brown. (You can first oil your wok with a little oil about 1 Tbsp).  Set aside.

Fry the ginger and shallots in some oil (about 2 Tbsp) till lightly brown, then add in the chillies, cinnamon and star anise to continue frying till fragnant.

 

 

Pour the chicken feet back in to stir fry with the ingredients in the wok.  Then add in the following sauces.

Add in the sugar (I like using rock sugar which gives a nice flavour but I ran out of stock, so I use brown sugar instead)

Stir fry till the sugar melts and the chicken feet is well mixed and coated with the sugar and sauces.

Now add in the ShaoXing wine (I put in wine instead of the 1/3 cup of water which is really personal preference of taste).  I kept the wine which I used  to soak the chilled pork leg in, during the CNY, for dishes like this Chicken Feet and Pork Trotters.  Yes, you can use this same recipe for pork trotters and they taste "yummily" delicious!

 

I transferred the chicken feet to my Kelomat pressure cooker in order to cook faster....15 min at 2nd ring.
(If you are just using the wok, you will have to constantly check on the gravy and either you add in more water or the wine to simmer the chicken feet till they are soft.  The last time I cooked in a wok, it took me 1 and 1/2 hr over medium heat and I had to add in extra 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of the wine.)

 

Wait for the ring to go down completely before opening the lid of the pressure cooker.



Ready to serve.  It's yummy but don't make this a frequent dish :)

Taro Cake

22 Feb 2011
I have got 2 yam in my fridge which I have almost forgotten about.  I have to get rid of like 1/4 of it as it has already started to soften and rot.  I am glad I still have 650 gm left to make 1 recipe of taro cake.

A)  Boil the yam cubes in 2 cups of water over medium heat so the water still remains after the yam soften. 

B) Fry the garlic (I just run out of shallots so I use garlic instead) and shrimps with some oil till fragrant, then add in the mushrooms to fry....then the pork till they are well mixed.

Add in the shredded yam to fry till all the ingredients are well mixed together.
Pour in to (C) mixture.

C) Mix these ingredients well together (make sure there is no flour clumps)
Pour in (B) - the fried ingredients.
When (C) is ready, pour in right away and stir immediately to mix them together. 
When done, put to steam for 1 hour or so. 

Now it is ready to be cut into pieces ......

......to be fried lightly in pan with little oil.  If you are using a non-stick pan you do not need much oil.  I just spray mine lightly with oil which comes in a spray can.

 

 

Pan fry the taro cake pieces till lightly brown and crisp.

You will note that the yam cubes are still in good shape and they give you a good taste of yam.

It will go well with chilli sauce or the Crispy Dried Shrimp paste of Cosway.

PICKLED GINGER

20 Feb 2011
I bought some more ginger. I wasn't able to find any young ginger when I was out shopping so I just got the best I could.  I reboiled the solution which I used previously and make another new portion of the sugar solution as I have more than enough ginger for one recipe. 

So here are the pics with the  ingredients.  This is a recipe for 250gm of young ginger.

 

I used bigger sized rock sugar but it took a much longer time to melt because I forgot to break it down to small fragments. It is better to use the CRYSTAL BROWN ROCK SUGAR, which is in finer form and melt faster so the solution won't dry up so much.

 Bring this ingredients to boil till the sugar dissolves.

Leave in the fridge and it will be ready for consumption after 3 days.