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Tag Archives: shaoxing wine

Shaoxing Wine Ginger chicken

14 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by denisegan in Chicken, Chinese, Dinner, Healthy, Home Cooking

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

chicken, Chinese, easy, easy meals, easy recipe, ginger, ginger wine chicken, healthy, Home Cooking, scallions, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, shaoxing wine ginger chicken, South East Asian, spring onions, white pepper, wine, wine chicken

IMG_6403This dish brings back a lot of memories from my Warwick days. For some reason I remember that the preparation process was long and tedious back then! It involves deboning chicken thighs/drumsticks and skinning and julienning ginger. At the present though, I no longer find it as long and dreary a process. Perhaps I could attribute it to… better knife skills? Or maybe just better knives, I don’t think my knife skills have improved at all since then!

This is a very warming, hearty dish and the sauce is lovely with freshly cooked white rice. It’s currently a favourite with the family and guests who happen to try it! It doesn’t take very long nor need many ingredients and makes a perfect addition to the dining table. I include pictures from two attempts at cooking this dish and I realized that I naturally throw the same ingredients into the pan, despite starting off with perhaps a couple less ingredients in one of the photos. That goes to show that agaration (the South East Asian technique of cooking by guesstimating) isn’t very far off from precision after all!IMG_8442.JPGIngredients from trial number 1IMG_6367Ingredients from trial number 2.

But don’t worry, I’ve consolidated the ingredient list and summarized it as below:-

Ingredients (Serves 4)

  • 2-3 stalks of Spring onions including the white bits with roots removed
  • 3 inches of ginger, peeled and roughly julienned
  • 4 Chicken thighs with skin on, deboned
  • 3 tbsp Shaoxing wine
  • 3 tbsp clear chicken stock/broth
  • 1 tsp kicap manis
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil

Chicken marinade

  • 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
  • white pepper
  • 2 tsp dark soy sauce
  • 2 tsp corn flour

Cooking InstructionsIMG_6372

Upon deboning the chicken, remove the skin from two of the chicken thighs and discard. Keep the skin on for the remaining two chicken thighs. We want some chicken fat rendering in the gravy but not too much!

Trim off the excess fat and remove the tendons from the chicken. Tendons are tough to cut through and unpleasant to eat so be thorough in removing them whenever preparing chicken! Once that is done, cut the chicken meat into bite-sized, uniform pieces so they cook at the same speed. IMG_6373

Place the chicken in a bowl and lightly mix in the chicken marinade with your hands. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes at room temperature.

In preparing the scallions/spring onions, cut them into thirds or 2 inch sections. You can take some of the green sections to slice thinly for garnishing as well.IMG_6368

IMG_6375Heat up some oil in a pan/wok on medium fire. When the oil is hot enough (i.e. if you drop a piece of ginger into the oil it starts to sizzle right away), slide the ginger into the oil gingerly (I’m so funny I know) and fry for a minute until the ginger starts to turn a little golden and the gingery aroma seeps out. The point of this step is to flavour the oil with ginger as well as prep the ginger so it’s at its best to mingle with the chicken.IMG_6380IMG_8448.JPGAdd the chicken pieces and fry until half-cooked. IMG_6382

IMG_6383Then, flip the pieces over and add the chicken stock, sesame oil plus Shaoxing wine and cover to cook for a minute. We’re quick-braising/stewing the chicken with some moisture, not searing it to death. Remember, the chicken has to be swimming in a luscious pool of delicious gravy!IMG_6387IMG_6386Upon uncovering, add the spring onion sections into the pan/wok and stir fry for a little while more. Taste to check if it needs more white pepper or salt.IMG_6394

And it’s done!IMG_6400Not the fanciest of dishes but highly satisfying and easy on the stomach. Healthy too!IMG_6407

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Check out the before and after picture of trial number 1. I used 10 thighs for that round of cooking!IMG_8453.JPG

IMG_8456.JPG

Wiped clean. ❤

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Lobster glass noodle soup with shaoxing wine.

13 Saturday Dec 2014

Posted by denisegan in Chinese, Dinner, Healthy, Home Cooking, Lunch, Mains, One bowl meal, Seafood, Soup, South East Asian, Stew

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Tags

big head prawn, big head prawn noodle soup, Chinese, chinese lettuce, chinese soup, chinese soup noodles, coriander, dinner, easy meals, glass noodles, healthy, Home Cooking, huatiao, large prawns, lobster, lobster glass noodle, lobster glass noodle soup, lobster noodle, lobster noodle soup, lunch, Noodles, One bowl meal, prawns, seafood, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, Soup, South East Asian, stew, wine broth, wine soup

IMG_9795.JPGHere is the second half of the lobster (first half of which went to making the lobster pasta) and the easier recipe of the two. The original version called for fresh river prawns/big head prawns but since I had the lobster, I figured I could use that instead and add in some large prawns as a bonus. Since there is no recipe that I could refer to online I tried to recreate the taste the best I could remember. Turns out I’m actually quite satisfied with the results! Now without further ado, the recipe:-

Ingredients (4 pax)

  • 1/2 lobster
  • 6 large prawns (in my first attempt I used 3, but the attempt with 6 prawns tasted better)
  • 1 inch ginger, sliced
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 tbsp minced onion
  • 1/2 cup Shaoxing wine (maybe a dash more if you like)
  • 5 cups chicken stock
  • Chinese lettuce (I used a quarter of a head), cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 150g Glass noodles
  • Spring onions chopped into large three inch sections.
  • Coriander for garnish
  • Finely chopped spring onions for garnish
  • salt

IMG_9644.JPGThe array of ingredientsIMG_9646.JPGGlass noodlesIMG_9651.JPGLarge lobster.

So we shall start with the prawns. De-shell all the prawns and set the shells/heads aside. Do NOT throw them away! Then devein them and cut each prawn into three sections.IMG_9648.JPGSize of the prawn heads and my hand, just for comparison. IMG_0545.JPGLots of flavour in those prawn heads! IMG_0546.JPG

IMG_0548.JPG

IMG_9653.JPGCut the lobster into half. If the lobster is as spiny as this one, do use a towel and be very careful when handling it. A pair of strong kitchen scissors would be a great help here.

More pictures of the lobster… as you can probably tell, I’ve added pictures from a second lobster noodle attempt into the mix. The second lobster looked way fresher and more succulent with its firmer white flesh and golden globules.IMG_9655-0.JPG

IMG_0549.JPG

IMG_0540.JPG

IMG_0542.JPGWhen you’ve managed to cut the lobster into half lengthwise, chop the tail into three parts and dig out some of the flesh from the head (I forgot to do that here) and set that aside with the prawns. Leave the orange/golden stuff behind.IMG_9657.JPG

IMG_9660.JPGHeat up some oil in a large pot and fry the ginger, garlic and onions until the onions are translucent and the aroma of the ginger comes out. It helps to crush the ginger before or during this step.IMG_9661.JPGAdd the prawn shells and fry until half cooked (almost that coral colour they become when they’re fully cooked) before adding the lobster head to the pot.IMG_9663.JPGContinue frying for a minute or so, adding a little oil if it gets too dry. Then add the shaoxing wine to soak up all that flavour that’s coming from the prawn shells and lobster head. I actually would have liked to add another half cup of shaoxing wine but I was worried my family may not like the taste so I stuck with half a cup, but go ahead and use that extra half a cup if you like. IMG_9667.JPG

Add the stock and simmer for around 15 minutes before turning off the heat. Cover the pot with its respective lid and leave it for perhaps an hour.

Then, remove the prawn shells from the stock (if you had a strainer bag in the first place, use it to hold the prawn shells because it can be a chore to pick them out from the soup).IMG_9668.JPG

Toss in the lobster and prawn meat that was set aside earlier, along with the spring onion sections, lettuce and glass noodles. The reason why we cook the shells and the meat separately is so that we can extract the most flavour out of the seafood from the shells without overcooking the meat, which is only added at the end. If you were to cook the meat right at the start, you’re going to end up with some very hard, overcooked and dry chunks of prawn/lobster which is such a waste of good seafood.

Place the lid back on and bring the soup to a boil.IMG_9714.JPG

IMG_9715.JPGIMG_9716.JPGAdd the sesame oil at the end and season with salt. Top with chopped spring onions and coriander. Easy peasy!IMG_9744.JPG

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