Braised Chicken in Fragrant Sauce Recipe

Home-cooked Braised Chicken in Fragrant Sauce

Remained unrivalled in taste, this dish is reminiscent of "Bak Kut Teh", a nourishing herbal soup that Malaysian proclaim as our national fare. The rich broth is flavorsome with mishmash of aromatic herbs and spices essence, dominated by sweet licorice aroma of the star anise and licorice (or liquorice).  This hodgepodge of sweet-woody fragrance of cinnamon stick, pungent-sweet aroma of cloves, aromatic-astringent aroma of cardamons, bitter taste of dried tangerine peel, citrusy-earthy aroma of the galangal, spicy heat of white peppercorns, unique lemony aroma of Szechuan peppercorns are nicely imbued with sweet touch of rock sugar, are all harmonized into a distinctive taste which is perfectly subtle on the tongue, providing a lingering after-taste. The chicken is falling-off-the-bone tender and has been soaking up all the herbal goodness from the broth. Simply nourishing!

Here's the recipe for braised chicken in fragrant sauce for you to replicate the store-bought "Bak Kut Teh" pre-mixes. The recipe is calling for one whole chicken, but if you don't have such a big appetite or only have limited number of guests or family members to serve, then you should consider to prepare the chicken proportionally.

Ingredients :

1 whole chicken, approximately 1.2kg, cleansed

3 eggs, cleansed thoroughly

A dash of sesame oil

Stock ingredients :

5cm cinnamon stick (??)

2 star anise (??)

8 cloves

3 cardamons, lightly smashed

2 slices licorice / liquorice (??)

2g dried tangerine peel (??)

2.5cm knob galangal (??), smashed  [Substitute : 2 times amount of fresh young ginger]

2cm knob old ginger, smashed

4 cloves garlic with skin, lightly smashed

1 tsp white peppercorns, smashed

1 tsp Szechuan peppercorns (????)

25g rock sugar

150ml light soy sauce

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 litres water

Method :

1. Bring half a wok of water to a rolling boil. Hold the chicken by the legs and head and dip into boiling water. Allow the water to seep into the chicken cavity, then the water being pour back into the wok. Repeat this 4 to 5 times to thoroughly clean the cavity. Discard the water.

2. Combine all stock ingredients in a deep stockpot and bring to a boil. Put in the chicken and 3 eggs. When the stock reach a rolling boil, reduce the heat and simmer over a medium heat for 1 hour or until the chicken is tender. Remove the egg halfway through, crack the egg shells and then return the eggs to the stock.

3. Leave the chicken to soak in the stock for another 20-25 minutes, then turn off the flame. Remove the chicken and leave it to cool before chopping into bite-sized pieces. Then halve the eggs. To serve, pour some stock over the chicken and drizzle a dash of sesame oil over.

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Braised Spare Ribs with Chinese Sausage and Yam Recipe

Home-cooked Braised Spare Ribs with Chinese Sausage and Yam

When there're moments of brain drains of what to cook for the next meal, sometimes rehashing what's worked before is a good idea, without breaking a sweat or slipping out of a comfort zone. This spare ribs dish is an alteration of previous poultry dish, clay pot chicken with chinese sausage, with different pairing ingredients to go with Chinese sausage (lup cheong).

There's something just so delectable about biting into sliced lanky Chinese sausage (or lup cheong as it's locally called) which is slowly braised with spare ribs, dried prawn and fried yam in a sweetish (with a hint of salty) sauce, predominantly redolent of Shaoxing wine. Not absolutely for the health-conscious, these waxy sausage render the unique umami flavors that carries hints of sweetness and smokiness to the dish as a whole. Yam pieces, on the other hand, bearing a taste and texture contrasting to Chinese sausage, are braised until they're soft and provide a melt-in-your-mouth sensation. Despite the slight salty, shrimpy flavors imparted by dried prawns, spare ribs retained their earthy flavors and not been overpowered by the sauce mixture after braising.

Here's the how-to recipe for home-cooked braised spare ribs with Chinese sausage and yam (??????). Enjoy!

Ingredients :

300g yam, cut into thick slices
1/2 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp dried prawns, soaked
1 pair Chinese sausage, sliced
500g spare ribs
3 cups oil for deep-frying

Seasoning :
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (???)
Dash of sesame oil and pepper
400ml water

Method :

1. Heat up oil in a skillet for deep-frying, deep-fry the sliced yam until golden brown. Dish up and drain on kitchen paper towels.

2. Leave 1 tbsp oil in skillet, saute chopped garlic and dried prawns until fragrant. Add in sausage, spare ribs and stir-fry until aromatic. Add in seasoning and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Add in the pre-fried yam and simmer for another 15 minutes. Dish up and serve with steamed rice.

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Fried Prawn with Ginger Sauce Recipe

Home-cooked Fried Prawn with Ginger Sauce (????)

What a gingery indulgence! For those who adore pungent, spicy, sweet gingery aroma, you'll find this dish intriguing. As counterpoint to plumpy, opulent sweetness of prawns trapped inside the shell, the outer coating which is concocted from juicy ginger puree and biting bird's eye chillies, is hot enough to make you experience more than a tingling tug at your taste sensation!

Here's some trick to perfect this shrimp treat! Oil must be hot enough during deep-frying to ensure prawns are thoroughly cooked to preserve its juiciness and crispiness. Then under deft fire control, coat the fried prawns with ginger puree and bird's eye chillies mixture briskly and dish up in no time, to prevent them from over-cooked.

Here's the how-to recipe for you to cook fried prawn with ginger sauce (????) at home.

Ingredients :
500g medium sized prawns
5 cups oil for deep-frying
150g young ginger, skin removed, mix with 50ml water and blend into puree
1 tbsp chopped bird's eye chillies
3 tbsp chopped spring onions (scallions)

Seasoning :
1 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp Shaoxing wine

Method :

1. Deep-fry prawns until golden brown. Dish up and drain on kitchen paper towels to discard excess oil.

2. Leave 1 tbsp oil in wok, saute ginger puree and bird's eye chillies until fragrant. Add in seasoning, prawns and stir-fry at high heat until well-mixed. Stir in chopped spring onions (scallions) and stir briskly, dish up and serve with steamed rice.

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Braised Spare Ribs with Bean Curd Stick Recipe

Home-cooked Braised Spare Ribs with Bean Curd Stick

Ever wonder what dried beancurd stick (bunched tofu skin or ??) should be paired with when you found it laying in the kitchen cabinet just begging to be cooked? Well, I did few days ago. For mom, one of her favourite dish she is hounded to make again and again is frying this dried bean curd stick until it is firm and crispy, then stir-fry with assorted vegetables and turned it into vegan treat. For me, I am not going to replicate this contemporary fare and always on the look-out for alternative recipe to turn this bean curd stick into something else. When I chanced upon this recipe from Amy Beh and with all the trimmings come in handy, I made this dish into our lunch yesterday.

Bean curd stick is soaked until it's pliable, then braised together with spare ribs, dried chillies, star anise and cinnamon stick. The sauce mixture after braising is redolent of Shaoxing wine (???, or Chinese sweet fermented rice wine), distinctive licorice taste from star anise, pungent taste from cinnamon stick and also tinged with heat and sweetness from dried chillies. Whilst the sauce flavors is seamlessly harmonized, I found the spare ribs' texture a bit hard to the bite, I reckon it's due to insufficient of braising liquid which is enough to cover the spare ribs (I only poured in 250ml of water to mix with sauce mixture) and maybe need to prolong the braising time to one hour. Despite this, the dish did satiate our taste buds.

Here's the how-to recipe for braised spare ribs with dried bean curd stick. ??(??)?????

Ingredients :
500g spare ribs, cut into pieces
2 star anise (??)
4cm cinnamon stick (??)
5 dried chillies, cut into pieces
3 pieces of dried bean curd stick (?????), soaked and cut into pieces (a.k.a tofu skin, bean skim, yuba)
1/2 tbsp oil

Seasoning Mixture :
2 tbsp Shaoxing wine (???)
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
400ml water

Method :

1. Heat up one or two tbsp oil in a skillet, saute star anise and cinnamon stick until fragrant. Then add in dried chillies, spare ribs and stir well.

2. Add in seasoning and simmer at medium heat for 30 minutes. Add in the soften bean curd stick and simmer for 15 minutes or until spare ribs are tender. Dish up and serve hot with steamed rice.

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is Green tea bad for our bone

is Green tea bad for our bone
Green tea is often a healthy lifestyle choice. However, behind his ability as a natural antioxidant for the body, green tea is feared to give a bad impact on bone health.

As quoted from page Genius Beauty, a number of researchers from the University of Oregon and Connecticut, USA, are developing adverse findings about green tea on bone health.

Research conducted on rats, which are grouped a number of foods consumed based. The first group consume food without green tea extract content, a second group with 1 percent green tea extract, and the last 2 percent green tea extract.

Results, groups of rats who ate the most green tea ingredients impaired bone quality. Like the smaller size of the femur, decreased bone mass and reduced bone mineral. This group also had lower body weight than the other two groups.

Research results published in the Journal of Nutrition in October was also identified in humans. However, researchers still continue to develop to ensure that consumption of green tea also gives bad effects to the health and growth of human bone.

source: http://id.news.yahoo.com

Making Soy Milk

Compared with cow's milk can raise cholesterol, soy milk actually lowers cholesterol. In addition, soy milk is also rich in isoflavones. In one glass of soy milk is approximately 20 mg of isoflavones, which is a source of potential antioxidants.
Isoflavones are beneficial for reducing cholesterol, reduce symptoms of menopause, prevent osteoporosis, and reduce the risk of cancer. For skin beauty, antioxidants in isoflavone keep skin smooth and smoothness.
Here is a simple way to make their own soy milk for optimum benefits can be obtained:

1. Soaking
Clean the soya beans and soak in water for 10-16 hours. You can peel and soybean seeds with water rinse. This soybean seed peel would make soy milk extraction process to be more efficient.

2. Heating (optional)
This warming can not be done. Heating is only to remove the unpleasant odor in soybean seeds. The heating process can be done by including soybean seeds that have been soaked into the microwave for two minutes.

3. Grinding soy beans
Milled soybean seeds that have been soaked in a liter of water in a blender machine. Filter using a cloth to separate the pulp with the juice soy milk.

4. Boiled soy milk
Heat the soy milk till boiling point and continue boiling for five to ten minutes. Wait until cool and ready to drink soy milk. This milk can be stored in the refrigerator up to three days.

5. Taste (optional)
Soy milk can be drunk as it is, but can also add sugar to taste. With soy milk, you can also make fruit smoothies are very healthy because they contain soy and fresh fruit.

the Apples, For Healthy Colon

In addition to genetic disorders, food consumed affects the incidence of colorectal cancer (colon). One of the foods that are proven to be able to prevent this cancer is an apple.
Recent research shows, an apple or apple juice have a positive impact on the large intestine. Content of pectin and polyphenols found in apples much, are known to increase biological mechanism to produce compounds antikarsinogenik (anti-cancer) in the fermentation process.
"Apples are a source of fiber and antioxidants are good. Apples are also rich in pectin are effective as an anticancer substance in the large intestine," said the researchers.

In a laboratory study conducted by German researchers, Dr. Dieter Schrenk, known components in apples can increase butyrate production, to prevent the formation of HDAC (Histone deacetlyases). HDAC declining production will push the growth of pre-cancerous cells and tumor cells.
Colon cancer is a cancer that is often encountered in Indonesia. Cancer is not just about the men but also women. Colon cancer risk increases in consumption of high fat and low in fiber, body fat, smoking, and lack of exercise.

be smart to Choosing Cooking Oil

In the process of frying, the oil serves as an introduction medium heat, savory taste, nutritional values and calories for fried foods. Smart select the type of frying oil used for food processing is one of the determinants of health. So that no one select, meet with various types of cooking oil.
Based on the presence or absence of double bonds in the molecule structure, the oil can be divided into three groups, namely:
(1) oil with saturated fatty acids (saturated fatty acids)
Saturated fatty acids, among others present in breast milk (Lauric acid) and coconut oil. Its stable and not easily react / transformed into other types of fatty acids.

(2) oil with fatty acid monounsaturated (mono-unsaturated fatty acids / MUFA) or multiple (poly-unsaturated fatty acids).
Unsaturated fatty acids having double bond carbon atoms are easy to decompose and react with other compounds, to obtain a stable composition of saturated fatty acids. The more the number of double bonds (poly-unsaturated), the easier it is to react / change the oil.

(3) oil with trans fatty acids (trans fatty acids)
Trans fatty acids found in many animal fats, margarine, butter, hydrogenated oils, and is formed from the frying process. Carcinogenic addition, trans fats raise bad cholesterol levels, lower good cholesterol, and cause the babies born prematurely.

Unsaturated fatty acids (omega 3, omega 6, omega 9) is often promoted has many benefits, including lowering "bad cholesterol" (LDL = low density lipoprotein) and prevent heart attacks. Lots contained in vegetable oils such as soybean oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, palm oil, and others.
However, with deep frying Frying system, which is commonly used Indonesian society, as well as repeated use of cooking oil, would alter unsaturated fatty acids into trans fatty acids, which can increase bad cholesterol and lowers good cholesterol.
In addition, excessive heating will change the unsaturated fatty acids into clusters peroxide and free radical compounds that can cause cancer. Because of that, get used to fry with the temperature not too high.
Types of oil that also should be avoided is jelantah or oil that had been used many times. This oil is more viscous, has a free fatty acids high, and blackish brown. Several studies in animal models show repeated use of oil can cause symptoms of carcinogenic and various diseases.
In addition, there are three types of fatty acids by long-short-chain fatty acids, namely a long chain (long chain trigliseride / LCT), the chain's (medium chain trigliseride / MCT), and short chain (short chain trigliseride / SCT).
Oil with a short carbon chain and was immediately absorbed by the body without going through digestive process convoluted. Immediately taken to the liver to convert into energy to improve the function of endocrine glands, organs and body tissues.
Vegetable oils are generally classified as long-chain fatty acids (long chain fatty acids = LCFA), which consists of 18 carbon atoms or more. The size of large molecules, so that should be processed first into small fatty acids and free fatty acid form to be absorbed through the intestinal wall.
Having escaped from the intestinal wall, free fatty acids are reassembled into lipoproteins and taken to heart. There is converted to energy, cholesterol, and the rest piled into fatty tissue. Well, cholesterol and fat that is the cause of many chronic diseases, degenerative diseases, and cancer.
According to research, most of its content is LCFA safflower oil (78%), followed by sunflower oil (69%), and canola oil (31%). LCFA content of olive oil ranges from 9%, while the lowest was coconut oil (2%).
Oil is good for health is containing MUFA and MCT. Olive oil is better and can protect the heart (because of lowering total cholesterol, triglycerides and cholesterol "bad" or LDL) when used as vegetable oil, not fried.
Vegetable cooking oil was classified as PUFAs and LCT will be better if used for sauteing, frying temperatures are not high. If you still want to fry with a high temperature, it is best to use coconut oil or palm kernel oil.

Reducing the Negative Impact of Cooking Oil

In our culture, fried foods, including favorite foods. It was a tasty, crunchy, plus low price makes many popular fried. However, eating fried food can be harmful to health.
Fried food fried in oil containing saturated fatty acids would be metabolized when consumed, will eventually increase in blood lipid profile. The higher the intake of saturated fat, higher cholesterol. This will eventually lead to degenerative diseases, such as coronary heart disease or stroke.
To prevent these undesirable due to consumption of fried foods, Prof.Dr.Ir.Made Astawan, food technologists, Bogor Agricultural University, share tricks.
1. When you choose to buy cooking oil in accordance with the needs, how to read labels and packaging, with good care. Select which include cooking oil complete information on the label.
2. For high cholesterol, choose oils that contains unsaturated fatty acids (such as peanut oil and corn oil).
3. Do not choose cooking oil just by color and appearance. A clear oil is not necessarily better than the yellow oil concentrated. Color is influenced by the content of carotenoids and other components in the oil. In some cases the very beneficial carotenoids to health.
4. As far as possible gorenglah food gangsa system (less oil) to prevent excessive oil absorption in fried foods, and repeated use of oil.
5. Cooking oil so that is not easily damaged, should not use too high heat. Control the size of the flame.
6. Save the cooking oil in a sealed container, cool, and avoid sunlight to prevent oxidation and rancidity was not easy.
7. Clean the frying pan or wok with a detergent that is free from the crust or other dirt.
8. Do not get used to using used oil that has been used repeatedly to fry.
9. Drain the oil in fried food before eating. If necessary use a tissue or paper to reduce the oil layer on the surface of the food.

i hope it can be helped.