chicken

Quickie Dinner

September 4, 2013 By Eleanor Hoh Leave a Comment

You can cheat but still keep it healthy! These types of meals are perfect for busy weeknight dinners when all you want is just something tasty but fast.
Answer? A ready cooked roast chicken, I got Mojo flavor, yum and blanch a big bunch of greens like rapini!
The quickest way to blanch rapini is in a wok! A wok has a wide opening and depth to hold lots of water.
Tip for keeping veggies bright green is to add a few drops of oil into water. Use a colander with handle and sieve them out if you have to do batches. Plate and add salad dressing, add a dollop of BBQ sauce to spike chicken and you’re done! Enjoy!

Repurposing ingredients

January 28, 2010 By Eleanor Hoh 17 Comments

Here’s how you can repurpose ingredients e.g. char siu marinade can be just as great on salmon! Or repurpose dinner leftovers for lunch. I’ll also share my experiments for quick, weeknight dinners (often cooked in my cast iron wok!)

I can’t resist taking photos of every meal I eat, so do check back frequently.

Most weeknights, I practice what I preach:

Use what’s in my fridge and put a simple meal together.

Jan. 25 Lunch: Tempeh marinaded with San-J tamari and Huy Fong chili sauce grilled and put on top of field greens. I often pickle tomatoes, chayote and onions so they don’t spoil. I’ll add them to my salad and top with salad dressing like Le Sandwicherie’s delicious Vinaigrette. Also had toast with fried egg for extra protein.

Jan.25 Dinner: Grilled Salmon slathered with leftover Char Siu marinade. Just because it’s usually used on pork, it doesn’t mean you can’t use it on fish like salmon. The marinade had honey, tamari, 5 spice powder and chili garlic sauce giving it a nice, crispy texture and keeping it very moist inside.

I stir fried Shanghai bok choy, snow peas, red bell peppers, scallions, cilantro. Also added leftover stir fried baby portobello mushrooms with dash of tamari, lime juice on top of the best fettucine (tasted like fresh, meaty and chewy, yummy!) I will provide brand when I next visit Wholefoods, definitely worth a try if you like pasta.

Jan.28 Lunch: I repurposed leftover Cuban bread from my breakfast when I attended the Entrepreneur Magazine’s Growth Conference 2.0. (I didn’t realize they were providing breakfast.) If you own your own business, this online and magazine is a ‘must read’, very inspiring entrepreneurs. I hope to be featured in this magazine when I’m ready. I’m a subscriber and keep all the issues for useful resources and reference. I’ll be posting about this conference soon – all the speakers provided tons of information you can apply instantly.

I grilled the bread and topped with bacon and crumbled goat cheese. I always have a crunchy salad, used up pickled tomatoes, chayote and onions with more Le Sandwicherie’s vinaigrette and topped with more tempeh.

Jan.28 Dinner: I defrosted a slab of Costco’s flap beef steak marinaded with lime juice, tamari and chili garlic sauce. This is a lovely cut for wok stir frys, very tender and delicious. I’ll grill this and have with the last bit of field greens and huge beefsteak tomatoes and sweet onions from Laurenzo’s Market. Photo later tonight.

Well, this is what being a Wok Star is all about! I changed my mind about serving salad because my husband likes hot food for dinner, he’s so Asian. See what I mean about using the same ingredients(tomatoes and onions) to make marinara sauce instead and wholewheat penne. Many would be horrified cooking marinara sauce in their cast iron wok because it’s acidic. It does dry it out a bit but you just have to wash out with hot water and oil it a bit with paper towel. The minute you start cooking in it, your patina will build up immediately, so not to panic.

I had to turn a baking tray upside down so the flap steak and pineapple had closer contact to the heat in the grill! You need high heat to give your steak a good sear.

I added the juice from the grilled pineapple and steak into the marinara sauce and heated up again, you can see the change of color in the sauce.

Flap steak with penne, marinara sauce and grilled pineapple.

Jan.29 Lunch: Quinoa salad with field greens, tomatoes, Redlands big head onion, goat cheese with Le Sandwicherie’s vinaigrette. I made lunch for Johnson & Wales culinary graduate
who’s assisting me.

Omelet with tamari and squirt of canola oil makes it fluffy and soft.
Choice of Lingham’s chili sauce or salsa verde or both!

Forgot to add crumbled bacon from yesterday. Also had leftover tempeh if I wanted. If you always have a variety of proteins and veggies in your fridge, you’ll have options to make something with them.

Chicken Soup and burnt garlic bread, oops

Feb.4: This dinner is the best example of “repurposing ingredients” i.e. using ingredients in a different way. I had defrosted skinned, deboned chicken thighs and planned on making soup to clear my head cold. I found potatoes, carrots, kale and scallions in my fridge, so that was the basis of my soup. I wanted to bulk it up a little, so I rehydrated some dried Chinese mushrooms. Once I started with the Asian ingredients, I decided to add more “dried” ingredients, so rehydrated Goji berries, lilly stems and fungi.

That’s the brilliance of having dried veggies always in stock – great as backup. I think my mom would cringe at the idea of mixing potatoes in this mostly Asian soup. But, I think that’s the beauty of being a creative cook plus also “repurposing ingredients”. Do whatever you want that makes you happy. I can hear Top Chef judges saying things like, ‘there’s a disconnect with your ingredients”. Phooey, I don’t care, they worked for me and that’s what matters.

I love this square spoon from CB2 (Crate and Barrel) but have to say it’s a bit awkward drinking soup with it. I’m sure they were not for drinking but I just wanted to try it. I got 2 for a friend’s birthday recently and he was so “tickled” when he opened his present. He loves sushi, so I’m interested to see how he’ll use them. I’ll be posting that soon.

Last minute, I decided to make my version of garlic bread. I didn’t want to melt butter with garlic, so I just diced the garlic and sprinkled on top. I love my Russell Dexter Chinese Chef Knife, it’s just the perfect feel and weight for all the chopping I do. I even use the base of the wood handle to thwack my ginger chunks for making soups (not necessary to peel or slice) and see how I transport my diced garlic to my bread?

Wow, grilling is so FAST, I was adding in kale to the soup and next thing I know, garlic smells were drifting up and poof my poor garlic bread got burnt but still good. My husband loves this kind of dinner.

Love to hear any strange East meets West ingredients you’ve used in one dish…

Malaysian Chicken Curry (Updated)

September 25, 2009 By Eleanor Hoh 6 Comments

Malaysian Chicken Curry on banana leaf and newspaper setup — Malaysian Chicken Curry served Street Food Style on newspaper and banana leaf.

I can make my Mom’s Malaysian Chicken Curry blindfolded. It’s so easy and fast. A simple “one dish meal” I make in my cast iron wok. Open cover and VOILA, done. You never get tired of it. It’s so delicious, typically served with basmati rice, I prefer brown jasmine rice but entirely your preference as always. It’s also great with naan or paratha or both rice and paratha for carb overload. Yes, I like to mix with other country’s way of serving, why not. And always with an ice cold beer.

HOW TO VIDEOS FOR MALAYSIAN CHICKEN CURRY AND CUCUMBER PICKLES

Watch step by step how to Youtube videos for Malaysian Chicken Curry and Cucumber pickle.
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This Malaysian Chicken Curry never fails to please me and guests! Best part? You can make curry and pickles AHEAD of time so you can enjoy your friends’ company.

Mom's Malaysian Chicken Curry with naan and ice cold, Tiger Beer — Mom’s **Malaysian Chicken Curry** with okra, naan (front), chipati and ice cold Tiger Beer.

Mom always served curries and spicy foods with a cucumber pickle to “cool” down the spicy curry, yin and yang. She also served it street food style on a banana leaf and we ate with our hands. I love serving it this way for special occasions so I can take friends on a “trip to Malaysia”.

When I was growing up in Hong Kong, my mom got my sisters and I pounding all the spices for curry by hand in a HEAVY stone mortar and pestle. I’m now the proud owner of that mortar and pestle. I had fantasies of how wonderful it would be to have freshly pounded spices. It didn’t last more than a week, it’s just not very practical for a small person to haul around a 60 pound mortar (exaggerating but really heavy). I now use a food processor to grind the “rempah” (see explanation below).

Stone mortar & pestle — Mom’s stone mortar & pestle I lugged back from Hong Kong.

Curry is basically many spices ground into powder. There are many different ways to make curry. I always choose the EASY, SIMPLE way, that’s what we, Wok Stars do.

Curries differ in spices used in India, Malaysia and Thailand. These are the 3 main countries that I associate curry with. I don’t necessarily agree with Wikipedia’s explanation of “curry”.

You can get good curry powder from Indian stores or Asian markets but I’ve never seen Malaysian curry powder, you can order from here.

Rempah
Malaysian curries usually start with “rempah” to kickstart the dish. Rempah can include spices like coriander, tumeric, chili powder, galangal(yellow ginger), blachan (dried shrimp paste). My personal preference is NOT to add the spicy stuff in the rempah because when you fry it, it’s extremely pungent and makes you cough and sputter. My simple version of a Rempah is just garlic, ginger and shallots. Since the curry powder already has many of the spices like tumeric, coriander, cumin, chillies in it, there’s no need to add any more.

Rempah and curry paste for Malaysian Curry Chicken — Rempah: garlic, ginger, shallots

Curry Powder
My mom started using Baba’s Curry Powder when we all left home, ha, ha. Baba’s is the BEST brand, best stored in freezer to preserve potency. It’s all mixed and ready to go, no grinding required. I like EASY and CONVENIENT.

Baba's Curry powder. Add a little water to make a paste. — Baba’s Curry powder. Add a little water to make a paste.

I absolutely love the smell of curry powder when it hits the hot wok. Yes, I cook curry in my cast iron wok. It’s the perfect shape and size, makes it easy to turn chicken around. If you’re worried about the acid from tomatoes or strong spices hurting your wok, I can assure you that once you wash it out and cure with a bit of oil and start using it, your patina will build up IMMEDIATELY.

You can HALVE this recipe if you just want to cook one tray of chicken (6 thighs) but curry is always better the next day. So, I like making a BIG batch since I’m doing the work already.

Share your feedback in comments if you make tried making this Malaysian Chicken Curry.
Or post on Instagram and tag @wokstar #wokstarway

Note 1: Just a word of warning, curry powder has tumeric, it turns everything yellow! So, cover your countertops if you don’t want any stains.

Note 2: I used Nuwave Mosaic Precision Induction Wok Stove to cook this curry. This is not a sponsored post. I wrote a review about this stove here. If you cannot have open flame where you live, this is a GREAT ALTERNATIVE!

Fresh ingredients:
2 trays of chicken thighs, drumsticks or quarters (skinless if you want)
1 large onion, cubed
1 large beefsteak tomato, sliced into wedges (or 4-6 plum/round tomatoes)
1 large potato, cut into large cubes (precook but still firm)
2 tblsp. grape seed oil for frying
enough water to just cover chicken

Spices:
1 small stick cinnamon
4-6 cloves
5 tblsp. curry powder
5 tblsp. cold water

Blend rempah in food processor:
4-6 cloves garlic
4-6 slices fresh ginger
4-6 shallots (if you can’t get these, don’t worry, still good)

Directions:
1. You know the stir fry drill, heat your cast iron wok, squirt oil, fry onions. Set aside.
2. Clean wok, always start with a clean wok otherwise you’ll get a hard fond forming at the bottom of your wok and you won’t be able to “brown” anything. Turn on low to medium heat. Fry rempah and dry spices (cinnamon stick and cloves) for a bit. Don’t let it burn. Add the curry paste and immediately add the chicken and onions. Use spatula and coat chicken and onions with the paste as best you can, don’t worry if it’s not completely all over.
3. Add just enough water but not completely cover chicken. Once the curry starts to boil, turn down heat to simmer. Time it takes to cook depends on quantity. At this time, add in tomato wedges and potatoes so they have time to absorb the curry flavor before you serve. Cook till chicken is tender.

Only 3 vegetables in Malaysian Chicken Curry — Vegetables for Malaysian Chicken Curry.

Next, fry rempah — Fry Onions and set aside

Use spatula to smear chicken with curry paste

Add in onions and tomatoes — Use spatula to smear chicken with curry paste

Last, add potatoes in to absorb curry flavors.

Disclosure:
When you click on these affiliate links, I will get a tiny commission. I chose these products to help you be a Wok Star!

Get Baba’s curry powder

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