Simple Cooking Ideas

This is probably the most common but popular soup among Chinese families. Not only it is easy to prepare, it is nutritious as all ingredients can be eaten as part of the meal. This is my grandchildren’s favorite too.

Ingredients:

300 gm chicken breast
2 potatoes
1 big oinion
2 carrots
1 big tomato
(Cut all vegetables into wedges)
11/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon peppercorn, crushed
2 tablespoon chopped spring onions and pasley
2 litres water

Method:

Boil water in a pot. Add in the chicken, crushed pepper and all the vegetables except tomatoes. Bring to a boil for one hour. Lastly add in tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt to taste. Garnish wilth spring onions and parsley. Serve hot.

Chicken feet is great for boiling soups. We love to dish out the chicken feet and dip in soy sauce. Having said that, chicken feet on its own does not actually add flavour to the soup. You need to add chicken meat or bones to make it tasty and rich.

Here’s our family favorite soup. As peanuts are great source of protein and minerals, this soup with steamed rice will make a wholesome meal in its own way.

Ingredients:

8 chicken feet, cleaned
300 gm chicken bones
1 cup peanuts
3 litres water
50 gm preserved salted vegetable (tai tau choy in Cantonese)
soaked in water to clean
8 red dates
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Add water to boil in a pot. Put in the bones, chicken feet, tai tau choy and red dates. Continue to boil. In a sauce pan, boil peanuts for 5 minutes and drain. Combine nuts with the ingredients and continue to boil. Simmer soup for 2 hours. Discard the bones. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve the soup hot.

Sweet potato leaves can be easily found in markets. You should choose the young shoots of sweet potato leaves.   This is a simple method of stir frying the potatoes leaves with crushed garlics.    It is healthy and nutritious as stir fry method is great for preserving nutritional value in the vegetables.

Ingredients:

300 gm sweet potato leaves
2 pips garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon concentrated chicken stock, mixed with 3 tablespoon water.
2 tablespoon oil
salt to taste

Method:

Discard the brown leaves and unwanted parts. Wash the leaves clean and soak in water for awhile. Drain and put aside. Heat oil in a wok till hot. Add crushed garlic and stir-fry until fragrant. Put in the leaves and keep stirring Add in the mixed stock and salt to taste. Simmer for 1 minute. Dish out and serve hot.

This is one of a chicken feet delicacy.  It is an appetizer and is eaten cold.  Here the dish need boneless chicken feet. One has to be skillfull to take out the bones from the feet. If you are not sure how to debone , get the boneless chicken feet in wet markets or supermarkets.

Ingredients:

500 gm boneless chicken feet
30 gm lemon grass
3 red chillies
6 small chillies (cilli padi)
1 bunga kantan ( found in markets and shopping mall)
Juice from 4 limes
salt and sugar to taste

Method:

Shred the boneless chicken feet into bite size.  Blanche the chicken feet in boiling water, drain and set aside. Slice finely the lemon grass, red chillies, cilli padi and bunga kantan. Sprinkle evenly on to the chicken feet. Mix all ingredients with the lime juice before serving. Kerabu may be served chilled or at room temperature.

Although eating chicken feet is an aquired taste, those who love to eat chicken feet will swear by it. It is a delicacy in its own right. Chicken feet can be cooked in many ways. The chicken feet is rich in cartilage, hence it is known among old folks that it is good for their joins. In this article , I am going to talk about some easy tips to prepare chicken feet dishes.

I prefer to use chicken feet to boil soups or stews. I use them to boil nutritious soups such as black bean soup, lotus root soup, peanut soup and old cucumber soup.  For the stews, you can refer to my Chicken Feet stew with Chinese Mushroom. Some people prefer to use fried chicken feet for stews, that is tasty too. You can easily enhance the flavour with clove and star anise, and cinnamon stick. Chicken feet can be used to cook curry too.

Basically, there are two types of chicken feet. The white feather chicken feet that we
consume almost daily, is easily available in the markets. The other type is “Kampong chicken” (Kampong is the local dialect for village) which is often found in rural village areas have feet which is firmer and tougher. Why is it firmer? Because the free range chickens run around a lot and thus its meat contain less fat. Of course, you can find “kampong chicken” in any supermarket nowadays, and not only in the “kampong”. This is best to use in boiling soups as mentioned in the above.

If you are not used to cleaning chicken feet, it can be quite tricky. These are some steps to prepare the chicken feet for cooking. First, you have to cut off the claws and trim of the harden unwanted spot normally seen beneath the feet. Then, rub the chicken feet with salt to clean it thoroughly. Rinse it. Finally, scald the chicken feet in hot boil water for 5 minutes.

I will be writing another chicken feet delicacy which is very popular among the Malaysians. It is an appetizer and eaten cold. It is called “Chicken Feet Kerabu”. Stay tune!

Black pomfret is another variety of the pompret fish. It is usually best eaten fried or cook in curry. This is a simple Indian curry dish which uses lady fingers, tomatoes as the main ingredients. To cook good curry, you need a good quality The rest of minor ingredients are mention below.

Ingredients:

500 gm black pomfret
1 packet fish curry powder
1 clove garlic minced
5 small onions minced
2 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon mixed spice (use for fish curry)
1 branch curry leaves
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
300 gm lady’s fingers, cut of both ends
500 ml water
2 tablspoon tamarind juice or lime juice
3 tablespoon thick coconut milk

Method:

Clean fish and cut into four pieces . Put aside. Blanch lady’s fingers in hot water for a minute and set aside. In a wok, put oil and fry minced garlic , onion, curry leaves and the mixed spice.

Keep stirring till fragrant and add in curry powder with a little water to mix smoothly. Then add in 500 ml water and bring to boil. Put in the fish pieces and the tomatoes.

Simmer until fish is cooked.

Add in lady’s fingers, tamarind juice or lime and coconut milk. Bring to boil and add salt to taste. Serve with rice.

Here is a delicious prawn dish that is fast and quick to cook. Big size prawns are more expensive. I prefer the medium size prawns which my grandchildren love to peel off their shell easily.

To ensure freshness, choose the prawn which is firm and its head and shell is firmly attached. Clean the prawns and cut a slit on top of prawns and slowly pull out the veins. Keep aside.

Ingredients:

500 gm medium size fresh prawns, clean and deveined with shells on.
3 tablespoon cooking oil
Half rice bowl water
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon black soya sauce
3 pips garlics, minced
1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon
some cucumber slices and coriander leaves.

Method:

Season prawns with black soya sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Put aside for 10 minutes. Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a wok. When the oil is hot, add in the prawns. Keep frying till the prawns are cooked. Dished out and put aside. Add remainder 1 tablespoon oil and saute the garlic until fragrant. Put the prawns in and add in half bowl water. Cook until it boils. Thicken the gravy with mixed cornflour. Scoop out prawns and garnish with coriander leaves. Line the dish with slices of cucumbers. Serve with hot rice.