Tricolour Paprika (Bell Pepper) Chicken with Lentil Rice

Earlier this week, I conducted a beginners'course to 6 teenies - teenies who swore they're diehard vegetarians but by end of the day, they ate up all the meat (chicken and pork) and left most of the vegies untouched.
Anyway, what to do with 6 paprikas - 2 red, green and yellow.  Either put them under the grill or cook gulash.
IMO gulash is autumn or winter food. So I decided to cook 'something' like gulash but a lighter version.      

 

Tahina Sauce Vegetables & Chicken

 

I am sure most of you are familiar with 'hummus'
which is a dip, ubiquitous in the middle east.
My dear friend in Isreal gave me a bottle of tahina
which is the key component of hummus.
Instead of hummus, I decided to turn it into a sauce
for vegetables, chinese way.   Afterall, the chinese
used sesame as oil as well as to flavour everything,
toasted and sprinkled on salads, as dips, in marinades
and soups.

The chinese have a similar paste called sesame sauce(芝麻酱)
It is not quite interchangeable with tahina because the
chinese paste is from ROASTED sesame.  
Taste wise, as one can expect, roasted sesame is
rocking nutty.


   

Chicken & shredded ginger stewed in rice wine

Ginger and sesame oil are considered as 'warm' food. And as such, good for new mothers' diet in the first month after birth. A very common and much loved combination is ginger, sesame oil with chicken. Chicken because chicken meat is considered 'light' meat. This recipe is about chicken & schredded ginger stewed in rice wine (homemade) residue.

Ingredients

• 2-3 pcs chicken breast or thighs (wash and cut into bite size )
  
• 300 gm ginger, peel and slice or cut into sticks
  
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce or oyster sauce (optional)
  
• salt to taste
  
• 3 tbsp rice wine residue or 1 cup (dry) sherry
  
• 1 cup water
  
• 1/2 cup (roasted black) sesame oil

Method

1. Heat the sesame oil in a wok or pan.
   
2. When the oil is hot, add ginger slices/sticks
   
3. Stir-fry briefly until it is aromatic, then add the chicken.
   
4. Stir-fry briefly, then add wine residue/sherry.
   
5. Turn heat on low and simmer 20-30 mins.
   
6. Thicken sauce with a little cornflour if necessary.
   
7. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Note: For more goodness, I added goji beries and mu errh mushrooms.

Drunken chicken (with homemade Huang Jiu)

There are many different ways of cooking drunken chicken. One popular version is to cook and marinate the chicken exclusively in Shaoxing wine. Another version (guess this is the 'foreign' chinese) is using glutinuous rice wine which is my personal preference as it is much lighter and simple to prepare. And one does not get drunk just from eating few pieces of chicken. Usually, this is a starter at a wedding banquet. The chicken is served in the liquor/wine flavoured gelatine. I have not eaten this dish since I left home. Lily and I made this dish at the same time so hope to see her version in blog soon. Ingredients

• 2 chicken thighs (deboned)
  
• A handful goji berries/wolfberries
  
• salt + pepper
  
• 1 cup homemade rice wine
  
• 1 tsp shaoxing wine
  
• Optional: 4 slices dong guai or ginseng, red dates, or dried longan.

Method

1. Trim excess skin. Place chicken thigh, skin down and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread goji berries/woldberries evenly over meat and roll up. Bind with string.
   
2. Place rolled chicken in a deep dish and steam at medium heat for 30 minutes or until cooked. (Add optional ingredients to steam at this stage.) You may stick a skewer into meat, if no pink liquid flows out, it is cooked.
   
3. Lift chicken out of dish and let cool. IMPORTANT - DO NOT DISCARD LIQUID/CHICKEN STOCK COLLECTED AT BOTTOM OF DISH.
   
4. When chicken is cooled, remove strings and with a very sharp knife, cut into 2cm thick slices.
   
5. Arrange chicken slices in a deep dish.
   
6. Add rice wine and shaoxing to CHICKEN STOCK.
   
7. Pour liquid over chicken slices.
   
8. Cover dish with cling film and place dish in the refrigerator to chill for at least 24 hours.
   
9. Serve cold with dijon mustard as dip.