Woohoo!
I’m so happy to see that Walmart and other such stores are beginning to recognize their target demographic (makes us Chinese people sound so cheap). They now sell Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) decorations and treats! They’re even cheaper than those available at select Chinese stores/malls! I purchased a dancing tiger piece for $3.88 (lucky 8 lol).
Soo…I finally cooked something “Chinesey” for dinner today and actually documented it. I’m still a little camera shy…we filmed me making a Chinese New Year Treat “Gum Cheen Waan” (can’t find the Chinese characters for it…) and I was just so smiley – my response to shyness…lol
Today I made Soy Chicken w/ Shanghai Bok Choy – I’m beginning to learn how to cook for 2. Portion control! I’ve realized that my major problem was adding too many ingrediants to a dish to the point where I’d go grocery shopping and end up putting everything in one meal!
So here we go:
Soy Chicken:
- 1 whole chicken
- 2-3 slices of ginger
- 3 stalks of green onions – 1 slices, remaining 2 into bigger chunks (if you like green onion – I’ve recently acquired a taste for it)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbspdark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- salt
- ground pepper
- 1 tbsp Chinese chicken marinade
*The measurements are all approximations as you really gotta experiment with what tastes good to you…
I regrettably bought a whole chicken from a Chinese supermarket. Only to find out when I got home that this includes the feet and the head – normally removed when you purchase one from your local loblaws/no frills..etc. No worries – you live and learn.
So! You take the whole chicken and cut it up into bits (basically you remove the wings, the drumsticks, the breasts and that’s about it – I save the carcass in the freezer for a soup or broth next time). You should end up with something like this:
I prefer to leave the skin on for flavor – and I don’t ever add my own oil so I make it up here I guess!
Now you want to marinate the chicken (the longer the better but who really has time?). These are the ones I use:
I first add the salt and pepper (always), the garlic, ginger and green onion and the remaining ingrediants. You may want to add a bit of water too since the cornstarch gets kinda coagulated.
Now, you want to sear the chicken thoroughly as we’re going to braise it later and this is your only chance to seal in all the flavour and juices before it gets cooked to the max. It also makes it a nice brown colour – totally bringing out the goodness of soy:
A little trick I used was to sear the drumsticks and chicken wings first – they take the longest to cook and they won’t toughen as much as white meat does when overcooked. Once everything is nicely brown, I add just enough water so that it covers about 3/4 of the chicken up the side of the pot and then simmer til its reduced a bit. Then I add the remaining green onions.
While its simmering, I’ll wash the shanghai bok choy:
Then you want to cut them into more manageable pieces – so they fit into your mouth a bit better:
Add about an inch of water to a large pot and a slice of ginger or two and let the Shanghai bok choy steam until tender.
This was our dinner:
I’m proud to say we finished all but 3 pieces of chicken! I’ve come a LONG way from portioning - I usually cook for what seems like 6!