葱油

I make this useful condiment every week or whenever I ran out of it. 葱油 gives that extra flavor to the mee pok dry, fried kalian dish, kuay teow soup or almost anything even salad. Like Mat Salleh add olive oil to spaghetti to prevent sticking. Try using 葱油, oyster sauce, bacon bits to that spaghetti, it is damn shiok!!

Thinly sliced Shallots - 2/3

Chopped garlic - 1/3

Dried chili – optional

Oil – generous amount - agaration

Cut up a handful of shallots into thin slices and fry them in generous amount of oil.

Add chopped garlic when the fried shallots are lightly brown.

I like my 葱油 to be a bit spicy, So I add some crushed dry chili and chili seeds.

When the shallots and garlic are nicely brown, remove them from the heat before it gets over done. Do bear in mind that the browning continues with the residual heat of the oil. Keep the 葱油 in a metal container for other uses.

I would prefer to use a metal/ cast iron shallow pan/skillet when frying these shallots and garlic as I felt that the browning are nicer and more even compared to non stick pans…

Sunday is chicken stock day

Chicken stock is so easy to make and really useful to extract that extra flavor or “oomph” in that plate of fried vegetable, stew, hor fun or meat dishes… My chicken stock is too simple to screw up with affordable ingredients. Sorry, got no 金华火腿 because no money.

1 free range chicken quartered with skin removed.

crushed black pepper corn (agaration)

sea salt (agaration)

2 bay leaf

½ large onion

4 slices of ginger

Begin by blanching the chicken with hot water to remove as much blood and scums as possible. Retain the chicken.

Simply boil another pot of water and dump everything (except sea salt) in. Agak agak the amount of water to boil. Slightly more than enough to cover the chicken will be a good start. The more water the less flavor. To have more stock then use more chicken lah. I use a medium size pot.

Boil the chicken for 5 minutes (remove scum if any) before lowering the heat to simmer the stock for an hour.

The key to a clear stock is to put in the chicken pieces into boiling water and do not stir the pot when simmering. Go watch your favorite Korean DVD but remember to check that you do not evaporate the pot of stock.

Strain the stock and keep the cooked chicken aside for other uses.

Lastly, adjust the taste of the stock with salt. I would prefer to add salt at a later stage of the cooking as some kuay / 鸡 are more flavorful like LKB. Hence less salt is needed.

Pack the cooled down stock into smaller portion and freeze them for future usage.