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Hainanese Chicken and Egg

24 Apr

This is a recipe in a few stages, so it does take quite a bit of time – although a lot of it is handsfree, hassle free cooking – one of the things I love most about my thermomix.  You do the basics, set it, press the button, and walk away – and when you come back, dinner is made!  What could be easier?

This recipe is from Trissa Lopez (see her website at trissalicious.com).

I have only had Hainanese Chicken and Egg a few times in my life – but one of them was a meal that stands out in my memory.  I was in Singapore, coming home from a long work trip.  I was exhausted, sick of eating airline food and hotel food, and just wanted to sit on a bed and watch TV and try and feel like I had a life. I saw this dish on the room service menu.  I ordered it, and it was divine.  Real comfort food!  I still haven’t had one that matches the Singapore experience, but this one was pretty good!

If you wanted to make it a little quicker (it takes 3 hours, plus extra time for brining the chicken) you could do the rice the conventional way, or do the poached egg the traditional way.  For mine, I love the way that the thermomix cooks rice AND poached eggs, so I used it for both.  The thermomix poached eggs are a little time consuming…but amazing – and no pan to clean up. I always thermomix my poached eggs now – they are just so good.

Want the recipe?  Check the recipe tab on my home page!

There are four steps to this recipe.  You brine the chicken, then cook that in the flavoured oil that you make.  Then you cook the rice and poach the eggs, then serve.  The eggs are best if you cook them just before serving.

Here are my tips:

I made the brining mixture first.  I always use raw sugar now I have a thermomix, and the salt I used was rock salt.  Because I didn’t want to put the chicken in warm water (which I suspect I would have needed to use to dissolve the sugar and the salt), I put in the the TM bowl to weigh, and then blitzed it for a few seconds to break it down a bit.  Then I poured the mix into a big bowl, and added the wet ingredients.  It must have worked as there was no residue at the bottom of the bowl after the brining was finished.  Brining the chicken makes it amazingly tender, really falling apart kind of tender – delicious!

The flavoured oil is dead easy.  I cleaned the ginger and then cut it into slices – they weren’t too thin.  Once the oil is finished, it takes on a cloudy appearance, so I found it difficult to put the thighs in between the blades.  Next time I’ll empty the oil into another bowl or jug, arrange the chicken between the blades, and then pour the oil over the top.

I used free range, skinless chicken thighs.  Next time I’ll do the skin on, as I think I prefer the crunchy skin once you’ve pan fried them for a few minutes at the end.  If I had have arranged the thighs a little better between the blades, then I wouldn’t have had to keep peeking to see how the cooking was going – I think my prodding broke some of the thighs up a little… I had a few perfect ones, and a few that ended up in pieces.

Rice cooking in a thermomix is a dream.  Perfect rice, every single time!  I think next time I’ll cook the rice in chicken stock rather than plain water, as I think it gives the rice more flavour.  But that’s just a personal preference.

Overall, a good recipe – one that I’d never attempted to make before.  I’m glad I did!!

 
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Posted by on April 24, 2012 in Main meals

 

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Beef Stir Fry

26 Mar

I was a bit taken aback when I saw a Stir Fry recipe in Dani’s book – I know my thermomix is versatile, but I had never really considered doing a stir fry in it.

First of all, I’m a bit of a lazy stir-fryer – think already chopped veggies in a bag from the supermarket and the beef strips already cut up by the good folk at Woolworths.  I did attend an Asian cooking class last year with one of my friends, and it was great, but I just hadn’t caught the bug enough to try out much of it at home.  Chucking in some oyster sauce, sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce is about as creative as I have ever been in terms of marinading the meat, and I must admit it’s usually been done as I’ve been cooking the meat, not actually marinading before cooking if you catch my drift.

Anyway, all that aside, I thought I’d give the Beef Stir-Fry a go.  It was a stir fry kind of night, the nights are getting a little bit shorter here, and it was getting cold, so what better than a stir fry?  I also thought it might convince the young Sir to try a few vegetables that he otherwise might not – he didn’t, but that’s another story!

My tips:

Trim the rump/porterhouse really well before you marinade.  You don’t want to eat steamed fat!!

The marinade is great, and I love the way the remnants of it flavour the rice as it’s cooking.  It really makes a tasty rice, which makes a lovely difference from the boring old plain rice I usually do with stir fry.

If I had my time again, I would not put the meat in the thermoserver once it’s cooked.  I’d cover with foil and rest on a plate, as my rump ended up a little over-done for my taste – I always like my meat to be pink. The thermoserver does a great job of keeping the rice hot, but do make sure you fluff it up with a fork before you dish it out into the serving bowls. I think the retained heat cooked the meat a little more than I usually would have done.

The omelette is easy, and quick.  Next time I think I’ll season the eggs a little, and maybe even throw in a few chilli slices and some sliced spring onion, just to see what it’s like.

Now, I happen to not be a huge ginger fan, but I used the ginger as stated in the recipe.  Sadly, the chillies I had bought at the supermarket disappeared somewhere between the supermarket and home – so I ended up using a chilli paste, which I don’t think was as good as the real thing.  Personally, I thought the ginger flavour in the end dish was a little overpowering, but that might just be me.  Next time I’ll reduce the ginger quantity by half.

I used some bok-choi, purple cabbage, and broccolini for my vegetables.  I couldn’t find baby corn anywhere around – I’m guessing it’s out of season at the moment.  I also thought I had some carrots in the fridge, and I didn’t, so I’d definitely use carrot and baby corn next time – it’s just not stir fry without it.  Next time I must remember to cut the vegetables smaller – I was a little pushed for time, so they were a little rough and ready I’m afraid.

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2012 in Main meals

 

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