Ipoh Shredded Chicken Rice Noodles (Kai See Hor Fun) 怡保鸡丝河粉 (Version 2)

Why is there a version 2? Is it an improvement from Version 1?

Yes....it is and by judging only from the photo itself, you can tell that there is a lot of different!

The secret of version 2 lays on these two items: Prawn oil and Chicken soup

In my previous attempt, personally I do not find that the color of my noodle is very impressive. There is not enough 'red' color in my soup. I have been scratching my head thinking of which ingredient could give the 'red' color... definitely not chili; how about prawn's head? I tried to cook prawn's head with oil using low heat and to my surprise, red oil is produced!!! It is really amazed me.

Another improvement is the soup itself. In this attempt, I have added sweet turnip in my soup and it makes the soup change to slightly milky. The taste is so 'sweet' and the color is really looked like the one I found in Ipoh. I am really happy to announce that this is a real Ipoh Kai see Hor Fun!!!

Ingredients
(Serving of 4-6 persons)

For the broth
1 medium chicken 
3 liter of water
300 g of prawns, washed and deveined (reserved the prawn shells)
300g sweet turnip
Rock sugar (about 5 pieces or to taste)
Salt to taste
2 tbsp of oil

Shrimp oil
200g prawn's head
125ml oil


Garnishing
Chives
Fried onions (shallots)
Bean sprouts
Shredded chicken


Making the shrimp oil

1. Heat up the oil using low heat. Add in the prawn's head and saute until the oil is separated out.

Making the broth

1. Heat up 3 liter of water. When the water boils, soak the chicken in the water. Lower the heat and let it cook until it is done. It takes around 40-50 minutes. Upon cooked, immediately transfer the chicken to a pot of cold water and let it soak for at least 10 minutes. This step is important to make the meat juicy and tender. Then, remove the flesh from the bone. Put the bones back to the chicken stock. Reserve the chicken meat; shredded before serving the meat.

2. Using the same wok, saute the prawns shells for around a minute or until they turn to golden colour. Then, transfer to the chicken stock (step 1). Normally, I will use some water to raise the pan to make sure that all the prawn's juice that are stick on the pan is being transferred to the chicken stock (with bones). Simmer for an hour or longer until you see a milky chicken broth.

3. Strain the stock. Taste with sugar and salt. You may use chicken stock concentration to enhance the taste (optional).

                                             



Garnishing
4. Shredded the chicken meat and set aside.

5. Blanched the prawn meat in the soup, removed.

6. Cut chives into 1 inch strips. Blanch


Noodles
7. Blanched a serving of hor fun and bean sprouts in a pot of boiling water for around 5-10 seconds. Put into a bowl. Add some prawns, shredded chicken and chives. Then, add in the boiling broth. Before serving, garnish with fried shallots.

Ipoh Shredded Chicken Rice Noodles (Kai See Hor Fun) 怡保鸡丝河粉 (Version 1)

Weekend is finally here!! I really love weekend as this is the time I can explore a new recipe and let my family try on my new 'creation'! This week, I am planning to cook..... Ipoh Shredded Chicken Rice Noodles.

I am really excited as this is my first attempt of cooking this dish. I have been doing some research on this dish and I would say, the most challenging part is to get a nice chicken stock. Fresh ingredients is essential. Other than chicken,  prawn shells are also needed in preparing the soup. The soup is normally served with hor fun, along the shredded chicken, slices of prawn, chives and bean sprouts. You may include some fish balls for the kids.

My first attempt turns out to be very good. My family loves it a lot....... and it makes my day!!!!!

Ingredients
(Serving of 4-6 persons)

For the broth
1 medium chicken
500 g of prawns, washed and deveined (reserved the prawn shells)
5 leaves of Chinese cabbage (optional)
Rock sugar (about 5 pieces or to taste)
Salt to taste
2 tbsp of oil

Garnishing
Chives
Fried onions (shallots)
Bean sprouts
Shredded chicken

Making the broth

1. Heat up 3 liter of water. When the water boils, soak the chicken in the water. Lower the heat and let it cook until it is done. It takes around 40-50 minutes. Upon cooked, immediately transfer the chicken to a pot of cold water and let it soak for at least 10 minutes. This step is important to make the meat juicy and tender. Then, remove the flesh from the bone. Put the bones back to the chicken stock. Reserve the chicken meat; shredded before serving the meat.

2. Heat up a pan. Stir fry the prawns shells for around a minute or until they turn to golden colour. Then, transfer to the chicken stock (step 1). Normally, I will use some water to raise the pan to make sure that all the prawn's juice that are stick on the pan is being transferred to the chicken stock (with bones). Simmer for an hour or longer until you see a layer of red oil on top of the stock.

3. Strain the stock. Taste with sugar and salt. You may use chicken stock concentration to enhance the taste (optional).

Garnishing
4. Shredded the chicken meat and set aside.

5. Blanched the prawn meat in the soup, removed.

6. Cut chives into 1 inch strips. Blanch

Noodles
7. Blanched a serving of hor fun and bean sprouts in a pot of boiling water for around 5-10 seconds. Put into a bowl. Add some prawns, shredded chicken and chives. Then, add in the boiling broth. Before serving, garnish with fried shallots.

Fried Chicken with Lemongrass and Turmeric

My husband is really fond of Indian dish and he has requested me to prepare a fried chicken with some Indian flavor in it. It is a real challenge for me especially I do not really like fried food. Left with no choice, I have to Google around. Finally I manage to get similar recipe from the blog of Nasi Lemak Lover. I  did make a slight modification to suits with my family taste buds.

I have tried to use a lot of oil to fry, unfortunately it is still not that 'dry'. That is my husband's comment. I promise to fry longer so that the skin is really crispy.

Here is my first attempt of fried chicken....

Ingredients
10 pieces of chicken wings, cleaned

2 lemon grass
2 cm of ginger
5 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 tbsp of water
2 tbsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp of masalah powder
2 tps of salt
1 tbsp of corn flour


1. Blend lemon grass, shallots, ginger, garlic and water together until fine paste. Marinate chicken with all the ingredients for at least 1 hour.

2. Heat up a pot of oil. Test the readiness of oil using a chopstick. Once fine bubble appears around the chopstick, it indicates that the temperature is sufficient for frying.

3. Fry the chicken until brown and drain the excess oil using a strainer. Serve hot.

Steam Herbal Chicken

This healthy dish is really convenient for those individuals who are busy and yet wish to enjoy a healthy meal with their beloved family. You may opt to steam this dish on top of the rice cooker while cooking the rice. This is what my mom normally did when I was a kid.

After cleaning the chicken by rubbing with some salt, the chicken has to marinate with white egg. This is the secret of this dish as the chicken flesh will stay smooth after coated with a layer of egg white. Marinate for a round 5 minutes before adding in some sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger juice. Further marinate for another 30 minutes.

While waiting for the chicken, soak the fungus, mushroom, wolfberry and red dates. Cut the fungus into small pieces. Mixing all the ingredients together and marinate with sesame oil, salt and sugar. Do not add any water as this will dilute the taste. Steam chicken for at least 40 minutes.

Ingredients:
1/2 chicken, cut into small pieces
1 egg white
1 tbsp ginger juice
5 mushroom, soaked
5 fungus, soaked
5 red dates, soaked
1 tbsp wolfberry, soaked
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp corn flour
soy sauce

1. Clean the chicken by rubbing with some salt. Rinse and dry the chicken.

2. Marinate with egg white for 5 minutes. By applying a layer of white egg on the meat, it will give a smooth  and soft texture on the meat.

3. Further marinate with sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger juice for 30 minutes.

4. In the mean time, cut the mushroom into 2 pieces. Cut the fungus and red dates into small pieces as well.

5. Once the chicken is ready, combine all the ingredient together. After combined well, steam the dish using medium heat for 40 minutes.

6. You may serve with rice.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

It is not too difficult to cook a delicious Chicken Rice. As long as you follow all the secret steps, you can easily make your own delicious Chicken Rice.The most important is to have fresh ingredient especially the chicken and the herbs. The fragrance of the herbs will eventually bring the rice to the next level where we can really eat the rice by itself without any dish. 

It is necessary to have at least a chicken in order to get a good flavor of chicken rice. It is preferred to get a pot that has a size as close as the chicken so that you can immerse the whole chicken into the water without having too much water. The objective of this is to have a concentrate chicken stock so that you can use the stock to cook the rice. Besides water, we need to cook the soup with ginger, lemon grass and pandan leaves. Immerse the chicken with these herbs for at least 45 minutes or fully cooked. After that, lift the cooked chicken out of the boiling water and quickly immerse into the cold water (tap water). This will stop the cooking process of the chicken besides allowing the chicken's meat to absorb some cold water so that the meat will remain juicy and tender. After 5 minutes, remove the chicken from the cold water and cover the chicken with sesame oil. This will prevent the skin/meat from dehydration.

In the mean time, rinse and drain the rice. Use the chicken stock to cook the rice by following the manual instruction of the rice cooker. Add in some fresh pandan leaves into the rice. This will make the rice very fragrant.

Ingredients:

Soup

1 chicken (around 1-1.5 kg)

3 stalks of lemon grass

5 cm of ginger

5 pandan leaves

3 cups of rice

salt to taste

sesame oil

Chili Sauce

6 chilies

2 cm of ginger

1 clove of garlic

100ml vinegar

salt and sugar to taste

Ginger sauce

4 cm of ginger

50 ml olive oil

salt and sugar to taste

1. Heat up a pot of water. Make sure that the water level is high enough to cover the whole chicken.

2. When tiny bubbles start to form, add in the lemon grass, ginger and pandan leaves into the water.

3. In the mean time, clean the chicken by rubbing salt throughout the whole chicken. After rinsing with water, immerse the chicken in the hot water.

4. Let the water to heat up slowly and once it is boiling, lower down the heat and close the lid. On and off, turn the chicken. Depending on the size of the chicken, it will normally take around 45-60 minutes to cook the chicken. You may test the chicken readiness by checking at the thigh area.

5. Once the chicken is ready, lift up the chicken from the pot and immediately transfer and immerse the chicken in cold water. This is an important step as the cold water does not only stop the cooking process, it will allow the chicken's meat to absorb some water. This will make the flesh juicy and tender. Let the chicken soak inside the cold water for around 5-10 minutes. After that, lift up the chicken and hand it dry for a minute before use some sesame oil to rub all over the chicken's skin. This is to retain a layer of moisture on the skin.
                                   

6. While waiting for the chicken, rinse and drain the rice. Use the chicken stock to cook the rice. In order to get oily rice, use as much the oil portion from the soup. If the oil is not sufficient, you may add in a teaspoon of butter in the rice. Add in the pandan leaves, ginger and lemon grass (from the soup) as well. Cook the rice according to the rice cooker manual. 

                          

7. As for the chili sauce, put all the ingredient in a blender. Blend until fine and season with salt and sugar.

8. As the ginger sauce, put all the ingredient in a blender. Blend until fine and season with salt and sugar.

                          

Satay Chicken-Pan fry

Satay (skewered chicken) is one of my family favourite finger food. It is best to be served whenever there are gatherings with family or friends. Since the chicken is marinated with sugar, children love Satay a lot due to its sweetness.

I would call this recipe as a 'cheat' version of Satay as I pan fried the meat instead of barbeque it. However, the taste is as good as the barbeque version.


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Turmeric
(Source from WebMD)

Turmeric is a plant and mainly used as the main spice in curry.
-Turmeric is used for arthritis, heartburn, stomach pain, diarrhoea, intestinal gas, stomachbloating, loss of appetite, jaundice, liver problems and gallbladder disorders.
-It is also used for headaches, bronchitis, colds, lung infections, fever, menstrual problems, and cancer.
-Some people apply turmeric to the skin for pain, ringworm, bruising, leech bites, eye infections, inflammatory skin conditions, soreness inside of the mouth, and infected wounds.

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Ingredients

3 pieces of thigh meat, removed the bone
2 tbsp of turmeric
1 tbsp of masalah powder
1 tsp of salt
3 tbsp of sugar/ honey


1. Marinate the chicken meat with all the entire ingredients for at least 3 hours.
2. Heat up the pan and fry the meat until the meat is cooked. You may also grill the chicken.
3. Serve it warm.