One of the benefits of living in Hong Kong is the good adobo one can get from almost any home.  It’s a nice change from the Cantonese dishes.  Adobo is such a simple dish yet so flavorful.  I have been making it recently for my 18 month olds — the vinegar lends a lot of flavor, so I can reduce the salt amount.  The chicken is falling off the bone tender.  It’s even better the next day.

Chef’s tip:  Use the dark meat of the chicken.  It holds better.  If you refrigerate it overnight, the fat separates.  You cna just scoop off the fat the next day and it would be a really low fat dish!

2 lbs chicken thighs, legs or wings, trimmed
1 lb pork shoulder, cut into 2 inch cubes (omit if you would like)
1/2 cup white balsamic
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
5 bay leaves

1. Place all ingredients in a glass bowl and marinade overnight
2. Transfer to a pot and bring to boil.  Simmer on low for 1.5 hours or until chicken and pork are tender and sauce has thickened

Serves: 4

I first tasted kuku at my friend’s Tammy’s dinner party.  Not knowing what it was called or its origin, I remembered it was absolutely tasty and exploding with herbal freshness.  Tammy is my citizen du monde friend — from the Bay Area to Chicago, New York, London and now Paris….like those ad taglines for high end perfume.  But it was really from her Persian background, as I found out years later….although I still didn’t know what it was called. In a casual conversion with my Persian neighbor in the laundry room, I learned it was called kuku and eaten during the Persian new year.  That’s when the kuku exploration began.

Kuku is essentially a Persian fritata.  Many Middle Eastern stores sell a kuku mix, and the advieh mix.  But you can make your own from scratch.  Just make sure you use all fresh herbs….the dried ones are just not the same.

Chef Tips: Make your own Advieh with this recipe: In a coffee /spice grinder, add 1 X cardamom, cumin, ginger and dried rose petals, 2X cinnamon and 0.5X cloves and grind into a fine powder.

6 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons Persian Advieh
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 cup garlic greens, chopped
1 cup parsley, chopped
1 cup cilantro, chopped
1 cup fresh dill, chopped
1/2 cup mint, chopped
2 tablespoons dried barberries, reconstituted

2 Tablespoons clarified butter or olive oil
1 Tablespoon dried fenugreek

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Break the eggs into a large bowl. Add the baking powder, flour, advieh, salt, and pepper. Lightly beat in the chopped garlic, herbs and barberries.
3. Using a 10-inch oven-proof  skillet, melt butter.  Add fenugreek until the fenugreek pops.  Turn down the heat a bit. Add the eggs and herbs mixture and cook over medium-low heat — gently stir in the beginning then run a spatula underneath the sides of the omelet and tilt the pan so the uncooked eggs slide to the underside.   Cook until the eggs are just set.
4. Place the skillet in the oven and bake for about 5 minutes, or until well set and puffy. Remove from oven, slide kuku onto a large plate, cut into wedges and serve.

Serves: 4

There are two must-try dishes when you are in Singapore.  One is the Chili Crab, the other is the Black Pepper Prawns, which is sometimes cooked with crabs, too.  You read the recipe right, yes, it does require half a cup of black pepper.

Chef’s tip:  You will need to cook the prawns in its shell to get the full flavor for this dish.  To devein the prawn, use a sharp knife and split through the back of the prawn to remove the black vein.

Ingredients

½ cup whole black peppercorns, ground till a sandy finish, but not fine

2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 lbs jumbo shrimps, skin-on, tails-on, heads-on preferably, too

1 stick butter
20 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3 inch ginger, peeled, sliced thin
4 Tablespoons oyster sauce
1 Tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 Tablespoon light soy sauce
¾ cup water
Coriander leaves to garnish

Prep
1.    In a small skillet, toast the black pepper for a minute till fragrant.  Remove.  Set aside.
Preparing the dish
2.    In a large wok, heat 2 Tablespoons canola oil.  When hot, add prawns and fry till prawns turn bright red.   They need not be cooked through. Turn down heat and remove prawns from the wok.
3.    Reheat a wok on medium high.  Add butter.   When butter begins to bubble, add the minced garlic and sliced ginger.  Fry till fragrant, about 3 minutes.
4.    Add in the oyster sauce, soy sauces and water.  Bring to a boil.
5.    When it comes to a boil, add in the black pepper, stir to mix.  Add in the prawns and toss to mix.  Cover and steam 2 minutes.

Serves: 8