Last Indulgence before Detox (NOT!!): kolomee with soy sauce chicken
Latest Update!!
oh hm. I will just keep this short. The 15 day detox program idea (see below) has been scraped after much consideration and discussions. Just thinking about missing all those yummilicious christmas functions.....*aiks* So hm, the detox program has been postponed to after christmas. This is also a sound advice from a friend who wisely suggested that we pig out to the max during christmas and then do the detox. hmmm.....
Anyway. So the detox program has been postponed. *yay* Right. I shouldnt be sounding so happy about it. The plan at the moment is to exclude one kind of animal meat each week and try to cut out all processed food. Oh well. See how we go with it. Bet we can't fight over the Christmas temptation that is already everywhere!
The Original Post
We are having our last day of luxurious gourmet indulgences today as we decided to go on a 15 day detox program. More about this in my next post.
To make sure we left the gourmet world without regrets (for 15 days that is and not, I repeat, not permanently!) and to use up that last bits of meat in the fridge, I tried to make Hong Kong style soysauce chicken (yao gai in cantonese or you ji in mandarin).
♥ yao gai lou meen: kolomee with soysauce chicken
So here it is. The final supper (or dinner, whichever you call it): kolomee with hong kong style (or inspired?) soysauce chicken with steamed veggies on the side.
We used vegan mushroom-flavoured noodles which produces a nice and strong mushroom flavour when cooked in water. To make kolomee, we add few dash of sesame oil, few tablespoonful of the soysauce chicken marinate (si yao gai chap in cantonese) and a few tablespoonful of Taiwanese-brand Gau Ching Chyan jiang you gao (thick soy sauce paste) .
I made up my soysauce chicken recipe using dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, maltose, rock sugar, ginger, green onions, pinch of salt, chinese rice wine, star anise and water. Not very sure of the exact amount though since this is another agak-agak (Malay word meaning roughly estimated) kitchen experiment. I have also added 1 teaspoon of rosewater essence since I didn't have any rose dew wine on hand.
The chicken was given a quick braise in hot water first to remove dirt and blood. This is a step that is termed qu xue shui (getting rid of blood water). Rinse braised chicken in cold water. In another pot, I brought the marinate that i concocted to boil. Put the chicken in and bring to boil again. Let simmer for about 5 minutes (maybe longer if you use whole chicken. I used 3 large pieces of chicken thigh). Take pot off stove and leave chicken to macerate in the soy sauce marinade for at least an hour before serving.
♥ hongkong-style soysauce chicken (kinda)
The soy sauce chicken was a little disappointing in that it didn't taste like the soy sauce chicken you get from those hong-kong barbeque stores. But anyhow, it was rather well received.
The macerate process has left the chicken juicy, soft and tender with a nice shiny caramel coat without the worries of overcooking the meat. The taste is a cross between the sweet (from the maltose and rock sugar: I added heaps of these) and savoury (from the soy sauce).
The soy sauce marinade keeps well in fridge. I have also rid all the chicken fats on top before storing it. Next time (aiks, that will be at least 2 weeks later) I am going to add some hard-boiled eggs for lu dan (soysauce braised hard-boiled eggs)!
♥ pinkcocoa tabete @ Thursday, December 09, 2004
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