Chinese Roast Chicken with Gravy

This recipe was adapted from All Recipes. Instead of using whole chicken, used only half chicken and half the ingredients accordingly. Did some modification to the chicken after reading some reviews. The chicken came out wonderful but need to improve on the gravy, as personally it tasted a little mild but overall its a good simple dish. Here is the recipe from All Recipes

1 (4 pound) whole chicken
¾ cup soy sauce
1/3 cup sesame oil
1 cup chicken stock
1/8 cup cornstarch

Method:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
Place chicken in a roasting pan. Coat with soy sauce and bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 30 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for 1 hour.
Drizzle oil over chicken and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove chicken from oven, place on a platter and keep warm.

To Make Gravy: Put roasting pan on stove; pour chicken stock into pan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently, scraping up bits of caramelized soy sauce. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch and water and mix; stir this mixture into roasting pan and stir until well combined and a nice, thick gravy is made. Serve with roasted chicken.

Modification Made: Rub chopped garlic (2 cloves), onion (1/2) and ginger (about 1 inch) under the skin and sprinkle some ground black pepper in addition to the soy sauce and oil.

Black Pepper Chicken

Here's the black pepper chicken. Added more sauce this time. Had finished this sauce and need to replenish soon but unfortunately, I think it's only available in Sarawak.

Black Pepper Pork 24 Sept 08

Mum gave a packet of black pepper sauce from Sarawak and tried using it to make simple pork dish (tried replacing pork with chicken and it tasted as good). It must be the sauce which make this dish tasteful. This is how I do it. Deep fry the pork and set it aside. Leave a bit of oil in the wok. Stir fry one onion (sliced) and then add in 1 cup of the black pepper sauce, 1 tbsp of sugar and 1/2 cup of water. Let the sauce simmer for a while and then add in the pork/chicken. Place some baked cashew nuts on the dish.

Soft Tofu

As a working mum, am constantly looking for dishes that is easy to prepare and fast to cook and this is one of them. We love tofu and it has always been a nice dish to pair with others.

Here is the recipe:

1 piece rectangular soft tofu
½ cup dried prawns (pounded)
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp spring onion (diced)
½ red chilli (sliced)

1. Place the soft tofu on a plate and steam for 8 minutes.
2. Heat up wok with oil and saute the dried prawns until fragrant. Dish on the soft tofu and add light soy sauce and soy sauce. Garnish with red chilli and spring onion.

Green Curry Chicken

Another day where instant sauce came to the rescue in preparing a simple meal for 3.

Added brinjal, ladyfingers and tomatoes into the green curry and had

fried eggs for a complete meal.

Dinner on Saturday

My FiL came over for dinner and had prepared these dishes.
Steam Fish: Firstly, rub salt on the fish. Place ginger, carrot, chinese mushroom, red chilli, ham choy (all sliced thinly) and asam boi on the fish. Add fish sauce and steam for 10-12 minutes.

Fried Ladyfingers: Heat up wok with oil, stir fry chopped garlic and dried prawns for a minute. Add in ladyfingers (sliced diagonally) and sliced red chilli and stir fry until the ladyfingers are soft. Add soy sauce to taste.

For satisfaction guaranteed, complemented the dishes with our all time favorite i.e. Roasted Pork. Of course this was not self-cooked but bought from the market nearby our place and it taste consistently good.

The favorite dish for the day was Tofu with Mincemeat: Fry 2 packs of Japanese tofu and set aside. Heat the wok with oil, stir fry chopped garlic and chinese mushroom for a minute. Add in mincemeat and soy sauce and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add in mix vegetable, salt to taste and ¾ cup of water and let it simmers for 4-5 minutes. Thicken the sauce with corn flour. Dish the mincemeat on the tofu and serve hot.

Sausage Pie

This dish is suppose to be called mexican sausage pie as it uses pork chipolata sausages (a type of small thin sausage originally from Mexico which I don't think are sold in Malaysia). Anyway went ahead to try it by replacing it with pork BBQ sausages. The sauce is good as it uses onion, baked bean and white button mushroom. The top was spread with mashed potatoes (which I would add more the next time I make this again).

Source: Baked