Hot and Spicy Braised Chicken with and Potatoes

中文：大盘鸡

This is one of the most popular dishes in my family.  Every single time I make it, the whole dish would be finished really fast.  The traditional way to enjoy it is to serve the chicken in a large bowl first; and when chicken is half gone, toss the remaining spicy sauce with wide and thin homemade noodles.  It is so good that right now I am literally drooling when I am typing the recipe. O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients:

1 small/ medium size chicken
3 to 4 medium size potatoes
4 to 6 jalapeno peppers (substitute with 1 green bell pepper if you are not into spicy food)
4 to 6 fresh chili peppers (optional)
4 to 5 tablespoons Pixian spicy fermented bean paste (available in most Asian grocery stores)
1 to 2 teaspoons Sichuan peppercorns (available in most Asian grocery stores)
1 1/2to 2 tablespoons sugar
2 to 4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 can room temperature beer
1 handful of dried red chilies
2 gloves of garlic
1 small piece of ginger, thinly sliced
1 to 2 star anises
2 to 3 pieces of dried rhizoma
2 to 3 clovers
5 to 6 tablespoons cooking oil
salt to taste
 

Directions:

Pixian spicy fermented bean paste is one of must have key ingredients in Sichuan style cooking.  You should be able to get it from Asian grocery store.  The most authentic ones are produced in Pixian area, Sichuan province, China.

Sichuan peppercorns

I grew my own fresh chili peppers in the summer time.  Can’t wait for the next summer!

Directions:

Rinse the chicken and dice it into 1 inch pieces with a sharp cleaver.

Peel the potatoes or brush them thoroughly if you would like to leave the skins on.  Cut each potato into 6 or 8 pieces. 

Coarsely chop each fresh pepper to 3 to 4 small pieces. 

Peel and thinly slice the garlic. 

Rinse the dried chilies and cut all of them into halves.

Heat the wok over high heat.  Add cooking oil, and then sugar.  When sugar turns into golden color syrup, add chicken and stir fry until chicken is golden brown too. 

Add ginger, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, dried chilies, star anises, dried rhizome and clovers.  Stir fry for a couple minutes.  Add Pixian spicy fermented bean paste. 

Stir fry for another couple minutes.  Add beer.  When the broth boils, cover with lid and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add potatoes and jalapeno peppers.  Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. 

The Pixian spicy fermented bean paste is usually quite salty, so I don’t add any extra salt. 

I need my wok for another dish.  So I transfer the chicken to a Le Creuset cast iron pot to finish cooking.

Serve immediately. 

The most authentic way is to serve it with broad thin freshly made noodles.  I skip it this time.

Jujubes and Sweet Rice cakes

中文： 心太软 （蜜汁糯米红枣）

This snack was crazily popular about a decade ago in main China.  Jujubes and sweet rice are among Chinese favorite dessert ingredients.  When you combine both of them together, magic happens.  They taste so good with each other.  The jujubes have a unique sweetness.  The mini sweet rice cakes are soft and slightly chewy.  They are also thinly coated with rock sugar syrup which complements the sweetness from jujubes, bringing the whole snack to a new level.

Ingredients:

14 to 16 big dried jujubes
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
4 to 5 tablespoons whole milk / water
2 to 3 tablespoon rock crystal white sugar
3 to 4 tbalespoons water
water for soaking and steaming

Directions：

Soack the jujubes in warm water for 2 to 4 hours to rehydrate the jujubes.  Change the water twice in between to keep it warm.

Drain the jujubes.  With a small sharp knife, cut each of them open and remove the cores.  Be careful not to cut the date in halves or cut yourself. O(∩_∩)O~

In a bowl, combie sweet rice flour and milk / water.  Whisk and then knead with hands unitl it forms a smooth dough ball.  Sweet rice has no gluten.  So it is normal that the dough might fall apart during kneading process.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces.  Roll each of them into a small log and cut each of them into 4 pieces.  So we should have 16 pieces, each for a jujube.

Stuff each jujube with a piece of sweet rice cake.

Place them on a steaming rack.

 Steam on medium high heat for 20 minutes.

When the jujubes are be steaming, I make rock candy / sugar syrup.  Rock candy is made from cane sugar.  It is further exacted and processed so that it is crystalized and has a better sweet flavor.  That is why it is called rock candy / sugar.  It is also a stable and important ingredient in Asian desserts.

In a small pot, combine rock candy / sugar, heat on medium heat until it can thinly coat the back of a spoon.  Stir from time to time to prevent burning. 

Toss the steamed jujubes in rock sugar syrup so that they are evenly coated.

You can serve the jujubes hot or cold.  I personally prefer cold ones.  The sweet rice cakes in the middle develop become more chewy when cooled to room temperature.  I just love to enjoy them that way.

They go well with eithertea or coffee.

Korean Style Mini Sweet Rice Cakes

中文：软糯弾牙的韩式年糕

We love Korean style sweet rice cakes.  If you have never had any kind of sweet rice cakes before, it might be a little hard to explain how great they taste like.  They are mostly dense, al dente and [possibly a little bit chewy, in a good way of course.  Asian people are so found of sweet rice that we use it in all kinds of savory and sweet dishes.  Sweet rice flour and rice four, as well as wheat flours are my pantry staples.

This recipe is adapted from xiachufang.com.  Many thanks to the original author!

Ingredients：

300 g sweet rice flour
200 g rice flour
340 to 350 g boiling water

Directions：

In a large bowl, add both sweet rice flour and rice flour.  Gradually add water while whisking. 

Knead by hand until it forms smooth dough.  Be careful because the dough may be very hot.

Steam the sweet rice dough on medium heat for 50 to 60 minutes. 

Or cover the bowl with microwave safe lid and microwave on high for 6 to 8 minutes in total.  Heat for 2 minutes first; take it out; knead with a wooden spoon; cover; and send it back to heat for another 2 minutes.  Repeat the process until the whole dough becomes very hot and semi-transparent.

For the next step, please proceed with caution, because the dough is very hot at this point.  Knead the dough on wooden board until it becomes smooth and non-sticky.  The tricky part is that you cannot dust the board or dough with extra flour.  The constant kneading is very important in developing sweet rice cakes’ unique texture.

If you don’t want to do it by hand, go with a stand mixer or bread machine.

I use a bread machine with dual kneading blades.  What a life saver!   It kneads the sweet rice dough for 30 to 40 minutes.  It is very smooth and not sticky at all.

With a dough scraper / cutter, divide the sweet rice dough into 6 to 8 equal pieces.  Roll each of them into a small log shape, about 1/4 inch in diameter.

Cut them into one and a half long pieces.

You can eat them right away, with any of your favorite dipping sauce. 

Pack any extra sweet rice cakes in a zip-loc bag; and store in fridge or freezer.

Or, you can serve them in Asian style soup.  Blanch them in the soup and serve immediately.  Don’t cook them too long; otherwise they will break apart.  Ok, that is an issue I need to work on in the future about how to make them stay al dente when cooked in soup.

Another one of my favorite ways to enjoy sweet rice cakes is to toast them and then serve with brown sugar sauce.  Continue to read the full recipe here.

Roasted Sweet Rice Cakes

中文： 烤韩式年糕

I posted how to make Korean style sweet rice cakes at home before: ….. You can refrigerate any extra rice cakes in a sealed Ziploc bag for up to a week.  They can also turn into a simple sweet tasty snack in no time!

Ingredients：

15 pieces of mini sweet rice cakes
1/3 to 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (use more if you have a sweet tooth)
2 to 3 tablespoons water

Directions:

Add brown sugar and water to a small stock pot.  Heat over medium heat and stir constantly until it is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.  Remove from heat.

Skew every three pieces of mini sweet rice cakes together. 

Roast them over charcoal fire or electric burner until the rice cakes are golden brown.  O, it is too cold to go out to use the grill on the deck.  So I DIY a quick and simple BBQ rack over an electric burner in my kitchen. O(∩_∩)O~

Stack the rice cakes together in a big plate or basket.  Sprinkle with brown sugar sauce.

Top the rice cakes with brown sugar sauce and serve them immediately.  They taste the best when hot.

Apple Fruit Rolls

中文：苹果果丹皮卷

Fruit rolls were so popular in China when I was still a kid. They were like the potato chips today.  No matter where you go or where you shop, they are just everywhere.  The fruit rolls I used to enjoy were made from hawthorn (thornapple) fruits.  They are almost as tart as cranberry.  Once you add a lot of sugar, they become addictively sweet and sour flavor.

Actually, a lot of fruits high in pectin can be used to make fruit rolls.  I made them before using prunes.

And I find out you can make fruit rolls with apples too!  I made one batch a couple days ago.  They were gone in minutes!  O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

8 to 10 apples
6 to 8 tablespoon packed brown sugar (use more if you have a sweet tooth)
1 to 2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/4 to 1/2 cup water

Directions：

Clean and core the apples.  No need to peel them because most natural pectin is in apple skins.

Cut the apples into chucks.  Add them to a medium pot, along with brown sugar, lemon juice, ground cinnamon and water.  Heat over high heat until it boils.  Reduce the heat to medium high.  Stir the apples occasionally to prevent them getting burnt at the bottom.

 Cook until the sauce is thick enough to coat a wooden spoon.

Remove from heat and let it cool down to room temperature.

Sometimes I make larger batch and seal them tightly in mason jars.  Steam them for about 30 minutes; remove from heat; and place them upside down until they cool down.  Yea, it is just like how you can tomato at home.  The apples can be stored at room temperature for a long time.  And they go really great with pancakes and crepes.

Add apple chunks and it sauce to a food processor.  Puree the apples.

Divide the apple puree into halves or three equal pieces.  Spread each of them evenly on a dehydrator tray.

Run the food dehydrator at vegetable/fruits 135F/ 57° C for about 10 to 12 hours, or until the puree is totally dried out.

Peel it off the tray and roll it up. 

Now you have beautiful homemade apple fruit rolls!

The apple fruit rolls go really well with a cup of freshly brewed green tea!