Sticky Ginger Chicken

Ginger. I have a love-hate relationship with it. I know one person who is actually allergic to it. Hadi claims that one solution to the winter cold is by chewing ginger - he says the warmth will spread right through you... I'm not sure if that would actually work :P I don't really like ginger all that much but I DO love a hint of ginger in my food. With the right combinations of flavour, a subtle hint of ginger can make or break some dishes. One example is the Honey Chicken. Its fine without the ginger, but adding the ginger makes it all the more tastier!

As you might have guessed from the name, ginger is the main ingredient in Hadi's dish. I thought I would hate it. I was wrong! Read on! :D

What you need:

500g boneless chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 knob fresh root ginger, mashed (with a mortar and pestle, cut up finely if you don't have one)
4 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1/4 cup freshly brewed tea
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon Chinese five spice powder
1 shallot, sliced finely
2 dried chillies, sliced
1 tablespoon cornflour, mixed with some water to make a paste
Oil, for cooking

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken with the ginger, tea, soy sauces, turmeric and Chinese five-spice for about 30 minutes.
2. Heat some oil in a wok, and fry the shallots and until softened.
3. Add the chicken, and fry until almost cooked.
4. Add the dried chillies and cornflour, and mix well.
5. Turn up the heat. Fry the chicken until browned and slightly crisp. Serve immediately.

Hadi did make a sort of chicken soup to go with this, but that was ghastly. Even Justin refused to down it, and Hadi had just a few sips for his male pride. I dabbed a little on my spoon, but it was not very pleasant - salty, yet strangely empty at the same time, sweet yet slightly bitter. I don't know what he put in there, and I don't believe you would want to know either :P

That said, his chicken was actually very nice! The final browning gave the chicken a slightly crisp texture. Hadi only put it in because he likes his food burnt to a crisp... I don't enjoy his burnt toast, but this was quite a good call. I stopped him from making it too brown...

Ginger was, of course, the main point of this dish. But Hadi mashed it up so well, that there was only a subtle taste of ginger in the chicken, and no odd pieces of ginger "bombs". I absolutely loved it, Justin seemed to like it as well. Its not as presentable as some of his other dishes may be, but in this case, you should definitely not judge a book by its cover ;)

Instead of using oil, Had

i actually drained the fat off the chicken skins (by frying in a hot wok) and frying the shallots in that. Its up to you whether you want to do that or not. He was particularly proud of that step though, so I suppose I better mention it. The stickiness of the dish comes from the corn flour of the last step, not from any sort of sweetness (which would be what I would be thinking if I first came across the name... :P ) Hadi wanted to put in some honey, but I persuaded him not to. I really am not a fan of sweet chicken. :P The tea is more than enough exoticness, I should think :P There wasn't any taste of the tea at all in the end, but oh well...

That was yesterday.

As for today, I actually wanted to unveil the second recipe in my 1st year series, Ayam Putih vX.X But Hadi and Justin "forgot" to buy shallots (and neglected to mention it to me...), which is one of the big flavours of the dish really, so I saw no point. Otherwise, it would just be Ayam Putih v1 all over again. So I decided to make Claypot Chicken Rice again, of which I had all the ingredients. Its a funny recipe this, so temperamental. :P I made it exactly the same way as last time (except I added about a teaspoon of Chinese five spice to the chicken this time) but somehow it tasted slightly different. The chicken was a bit more flavoursome, but the rice not quite so. Seems like every time I make this, it comes out different :P Oh well...

PS Hadi's on a diet, the sweet little princess... throw him some sweets :P

Quote of the day: Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are.