Winter Food Series: Today, Braised Chicken/Duck!

Chicken cooking...

People can't wait to taste it...

The final dish...

Or rather, Voodoo Chicken (Duck).

Dug into my freezer once again. Yes, got the urge for some meaty stuff. This bird has been sitting in the freezer for 6 months. Which is too long. Decided to tan this duck... easy peesy.

Ingredients

• 1 Chicken/Duck (1.5 – 2 kg)
• a wide and deep pan... even a Wok
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 heap tsp 5 spice powder (for Germans: Lebkuchen-Gewürz)
• 1/2 cup of dark soya sauce
• 1 piece dried mandarin peel (you can dry your own)
• 500 ml HOT water
• salt to taste
• 5 hard-boiled eggs, shelled

Method

Clean chicken/duck. Remove superfluous fat from the ar..

Heat pan, add sugar and let it caramelize. Be careful: I said 'caramelize' and not 'burn'.

Once the caramel takes on a light brown colour, add 5-spice powder.

Stir in for about 5 seconds and add hot water. Why hot water? If you add cold water to caramel, it will splash and you might get burnt.

Slip chicken/duck into the caramel water.

Add soya sauce.

Add mandarin peel (plus 'spare parts' like heart, gizzard, neck, bishop's nose for extra flavour) and cover.

Simmer at medium heat for about 2 hours.

Turn the chicken/duck over after 1 hour.

Add hardboiled eggs 15 minutes before the final 2 hours are over.

Add more water if necessary.

Adjust with salt accordingly.

To serve (Western[*] way) cut duck into 4 pieces with (voodoo) halved eggs, fresh spring onions and sliced cucumber. Dribble sauce over duck. Serve with hot rice. Use sweet-sour chilli sauce as dip.

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[*] Note: Western way

Handmade Hokkien (Chinese) Noodles - Experimenting with different types of flour

Brand 'Rosenmehl' Flour

Hand-made Hokkien Noodles

Brand 'Diamant' Flour

Hand-made Hokkien Noodles

Today I tried to make my own Hokkien noodles. But I wasn't sure which flour to take for best results. So I made some experiments.

Pasta Flour (Brand 'Diamant'

• 250 gm pasta flour
• 125 ml water
• 1 tsp lye water
• 1 tsp salt

Result: Colour is pleasant yellow like hokkien noodles. Chewy texture. Good result.

Allpurpose flour (Brand 'Rosenmehl')

• 250 gm flour
• 125 ml water
• 1 ts lye water
• 1 tsp salt

Result: Colour is yellow but with tinge of grey. Chewy texture. Good result.

In my opinion, both flours are suitable for Hokkien noodles. No big difference in texture. Only a slight difference in colour - all purpose flour has a slight greyish tinge but it is only noticeable when you put the two noodles together.

Portuguese Tarts ala Lina

Portuguese Tarts a la Lina

Ingredients

• 1 roll flaky pastry
• 400 ml whipping cream (2 tubs Schlagsahne)
• 5 eggyolks
• 1 heap tsp cornflour
• 180 gm sugar
• grated lemon peel
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence (see this post)

Method

Roll out pastry and sprinkle generously with flour.

Roll it up firmly with like a swissroll/log and divide into 12 pieces.

Flatten each roll (not sideways) with the swirl on top, roll out to about 10-12cm diameter.

Dust muffin pan generously with flour and gently press pastry to fit.

Place in fridge while proceeding with the filling.

Preheat oven to 250°C.

Place all ingredients in a saucepan. I used a plunger (Stabmixer) to whisk till well combined.

Cook over medium low heat, uncovered, stirring constantly with wooden spoon till custard starts to thicken.

Remove from heat immediately but continue to stir to make sure the custard is smooth.

Spoon custard into pastry cases and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until pastry is golden and custard is firm.

Ginger Garlic Paste

Garlic Paste: ingredients

Garlic Paste: result

A friend from India brought some fresh tender ginger. If there were more, I could slice them up and preserve them for sushi. With only 250 gm, I decided to add another 250 gm of garlic, 1 tsp salt and dump the whole lot (without adding any liquid or water) into the food processor and turn it all into paste.

Ingredients

• 250 gm fresh tender ginger
• 250 gm fresh garlic
• 250 ml sunflower oil
• 1 tsp salt

Method

Then heated up 250 ml of sunflower oil, cook the ginger garlic paste on medium heat.

A general guide to make sure that the paste is ready: the bubbling oil will be cloudy initially. After 15-20 minutes, as soon as the oil clears, it's done.

Cool and pour into a clean jar.

Keep in refrigerator for at least a month or longer.

This paste is good for Hainanese chicken rice, for curries and even as dip, eg. for pot stickers.

Place of Interest: Fishermen's Quarter in Ulm

Ulm is one old city along the river Danube with a beautiful old church going back to the year 1500. Here are some of the old houses from the Fischerviertel ("Fishermen's Quarter")...