Last night in class, we made Hainanese Chicken Rice.  The dish, often being claimed as the national dish of Singapore, always surprises folks unfamiliar to it on how tasty and flavorful it can be for a poached chicken and rice dish.  You need to use a whole chicken – chicken parts just won’t do.  Preferably a yellow-feathered, free range, organic chicken, or what they say back home, a “kampung” chicken.  The sauces are a must.

Chef’s tip: Poaching the chicken as described in great detail in the recipe – hot dip, long bath, and cold plunge  – may sound like a spa treatment, but it makes for really tender and moist chicken.  There you go -  proof that spas are good for you.

Rice:
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 inches ginger, peeled
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 cups jasmine rice
4 ½ cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
4 Pandan (screwpine) leaves

Chicken:
1 small chicken, about 3 lbs
2 tablespoon ginger, grated
1 teaspoon five spice powder

Soup:
2 inches ginger, peeled, smashed
3 stalks green onions, cut into 4 inch pieces
2 tablespoons Chinese wine
3 tablespoons kosher salt

1 small head of napa cabbage, tear into large pieces

Dressing Sauce:
3 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
¼ cup canola oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon brown sugar

Garnish:
½ English cucumber, sliced thinly
1 cup green onions, julienned
1 cup cilantro

Preparing the Rice:
1.    Smash garlic with skin on lightly, lightly smashed with the back of the knife, garlic should still be somewhat whole.  Peel ginger.  Smash into large pieces.  Set aside.
2.    In a 6 quart pot, fry garlic and ginger in sesame oil till fragrant. Add dry rice and coat the rice with the oil.  Saute for 1 minute until rice is translucent.
3.    Add chicken broth and salt.  Tie the pandan leaves into a knot and embed into the rice.
4.    Bring to a boil.  Wrap the pot cover with a tea towel and cover the pot and simmer under low heat for 20 minutes.  Do not open the cover at all.
5.    Remove from heat, and let sit 10 minutes.
6.    Remove garlic, ginger and pandan prior to serving.  Fluff the rice.
Preparing the chicken:
7.    Mix grated ginger with the five spice powder. Rub the chicken inside with it.
8.    Fill a large stockpot of water enough to cover the chicken.  Add ginger, green onions, Chinese wine and salt and bring to boil. When water boils, dunk in the chicken and bring to a boil again.  When it comes to a boil, cover, turn heat down and simmer 5 mins. Turn off heat & leave chicken for 40 mins in the covered pot.  Remove scum that forms on top with a slotted spoon.
9.    Remove chicken, and plunge chicken into a ice water bath for 5 mins.
10.    In the meantime, bring the chicken soup back to a boil.   Turn off heat. Plunge chicken back into hot soup for 2 mins to reheat. Remove chicken, and drain. Cut up chicken to 8 pieces.
11.    Add napa cabbage to the soup, salt to taste, and boil another 10 minutes till soft.
Preparing the dressing sauce & garnish:
12.    Mince garlic.  Brown garlic in oil till light golden brown.  Remove from heat.  Let cool.
13.    Whisk into the garlic oil the sesame oil, soy sauce and brown sugar.
14.    Slice cucumber.  Finely shred green onions (length wise) and cilantro
Assembling
15.    Mount a bowl of rice, top with chicken pieces.  Drizzle dressing on chicken. Garnish with cucumber, green onions and cilantro.  Serve with Ginger-Green Onion Sauce and Chili Garlic Sauce and a bowl of the soup.

Serves: 8

Chili Garlic Sauce

4 cloves garlic
10 fresh red chilies, deseeded
5 small sweet red peppers, deseeded
1 ½ inch ginger, peeled, chopped
2 small shallot, peeled, chopped
2 tablespoons sugar
Juice from 2 limes, to make ½ cup
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt

1.    Process to a fine paste all ingredients together in a food processor
2.    Season with sugar and salt to taste.
3.    Add more lime juice if needed.

Sauce will last for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Ginger-Green Onion Sauce

3 inches length young ginger, peeled and grated to make to make 4 Tablespoons
1 stalk green onions, green parts only, finely minced
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 – 2 teaspoons kosher salt

1.    Grate ginger with a microplace and mince green onions
2.    In a small pot, mix all ingredients together and heat mixture.  Bring to boil for ½ minute until the mixture fully sizzles.

Tags: Singaporean, street foods.

The perfume of the typical Thai aromatics of galangal, lemongrass, coriander and kaffir lime leaves is infused in the tender flaky fish.  The lime-nuoc nam dressing is well suited for oily white fish,

Chef’s tip: Baking en papilotte is a simple solution to steaming fish, especially if you have a big piece of fish and limited pot sizes.  There are many ways to crimp the parchment paper, some requires no staples.  I just use the staple approach to create a fool-proof leak-proof envelope.

Ingredients

Garlic Oil:
3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup of oil

Sauce:
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
1-2 lime – make about 1/3 cup juice
3 tablespoons water

Aromatics:
2 red jalapeno, seeded, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 coriander/cilantro roots, or 4 tablespoons cilantro stems, minced finely
1 stalk scallions, white part minced, green part julienned about 1 inch long for garnish
1 inch ginger, peeled, julienned finely
1 inch galangal, peeled, grated
3 kaffir lime leaves, chiffonade finely
3 stalks lemon grass – white part only, cut into 2 lengthwise, smashed

Fish:
4 pieces of parchment paper – 12 X 20 inch
2 lbs escolar / butter fish fillet/ sustainably-farmed chilean sea bass (or any fatty white fish, too)
A handful of cherry tomatoes

Garnish:
1 cup cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
1 cup of basil, preferably Thai

Preparing the infused oils and sauce
1.    Coarsely chop garlic. Heat oil.  Fry garlic till golden.  Drain and set aside.
2.    Mix sauce ingredients with 4 tablespoons garlic oil.  Set aside.
Preparing the, aromatics and garnish
3.    Mince jalapeno, garlic, cilantro stems, and scallion white part.
4.    Grate galangal, and using a mortar and pestle, grind cilantro roots into a paste, if using.
5.    Julienne ginger and chiffonade kaffir
6.    Julienne scallions green parts, coarsely chop cilantro leaves and chiffonade basil.  Reserve for garnish.
Preparing the fish en papillote
7.    Preheat oven 425F*
8.    Remove fish bones and pins.
9.    Take a large piece of parchment paper 30 x 22 inch, fold into half, and lay it flat on a baking sheet.  Unfold the parchment and lay pieces of smashed lemon grass at the base followed by half of the aromatic mixture.
10.    Place a fish on top.  Top with remaining aromatic mixture.
11.    Drizzle the sauce on top.
12.    Next sprinkle on julienned ginger and kaffir leaves.  Toss in the tomatoes.
13.    Cover the fish with the other half of the parchment paper and fold over edges, stapling if necessary to create an airtight seal.
14.    Bake in oven for about 15 minutes, depending on thickness of fish, rotating once.
15.    Open the package carefully, avoiding the steam.  Sprinkle with basil, cilantro, and green scallions. Drizzle with a teaspoon garlic oil.  Serve immediately.

Serves: 6

Tags: Fish, Thai.

Cantonese folks believe that the best way to savor the sweetness of fresh fish is to do the least to it.  A classic case of less is more.  “7 minutes” is the magic number to cook the fish.  Regardless of amount.  You want it just flaking, and not tough.  You can control how much oil you want to add.  This recipe makes a small jar of shallot oil that you can use many times over.

Chef’s tip: Invest in a steamer rack, like the picture below….for a grand price of $0.69.  You can find the racks in many of those houseware stores in Chinatown, typically hung outside the shop….as if in marketing terms, an impromptu purchase item.  Go figure.    Just place it on a big pot, wok or saute pan with a cover, add some water till it comes up to the height of the steamer, use a heatproof dish and you would have outfitted your kitchen with a steamer capability.

Ingredients:

2 shallots, sliced thinly
1/2 cup canola oil

8 oz soft, white fish (rock fillet, red snapper, sea bass)
1/2 inch ginger, peeled, julienned fine
1 Tablespoon light soy sauce
1 sprig green onions, green part only, julienned
1 sprig cilantro

To make the shallot oil:
1. In a small sauce pot, heat canola oil.  Add sliced shallots and fry till light golden brown.  Remove from heat and the shallots will continue browning to a deep brown.
2.  When cool, transfer oil and shallot crisps to a glass jar.  Shallot oil can be kept for a couple of months in a jar.
Preparing the fish:
3. Bring a wok of water with a steamer rack to boil.
4. Smear a heat-proof deep plate with a little of the shallot oil.  Place fish on the plate.  Top with ginger strips.
5. Place in steamer and steam under boiling water for 7 minutes.
6. Remove plate from the steamer, drizzle with 1-2 Tablespoons of shallot oil and crisps, soy sauce and top with green onions and cilantro. Serve immediately.

Serves: 2

Tags: Cantonese, Chinese, Fish, salty.