Let me paint a scenario for ya: you bump into a friend you have not seen in months on your way home, you start chatting and catching up on each other's lives, you start wondering, Geez, why haven't I made time to catch up with this person sooner? You invite the person to dinner at your house out of impulse, then realise that you have not done any shopping or meal planning. Oops, too late to pull out now. Time to make a quickie detour to the shops. Ideas are running through your brain as you try to figure out the best recipe to impress but no-fuss so to allow time for all that talking you are about to do. Well, I am one who often finds myself in that situation, as I love food and people both so much and what better way to catch up with my peeps than over a home-cooked meal?
One of my go-to recipes in situations like this is tacos. Okay, I would not exactly call it a 'recipe', as the ingredients are sooo easy to prepare and the assembling is done at the table in DIY fashion. My version of tacos is essentially made up of Mexican tortilla (shop-bought small tortillas, corn or flour)+grilled meat (I like grass-fed beef steak)+salsa and salad+sauce (I am a hoarder of chili sauces). Cooking method is a no-brainer also: season your steak with your favourite seasoning (be creative!) and grill to medium/medium rare (that's how I like it. You should cook to your desired consistency. Don't let any steak snob tell you that you can't). Rest the meat before slicing. While meat is resting, make a salsa. I used corn, diced avocado, halved cherry tomatoes, diced Spanish onion, diced cucumber and chopped coriander (or cilantro) with a sprinkle of lime juice and S&P. Before dishing up, I heat the tortillas on the grill for a few seconds till they are warm, and wash up some lettuce. Voila! My favourite sauce to go with beef tacos is definitely the smokey chipotle sauce. I am sure you don't need me to tell you how to make a taco: fill->wrap->enjoy!
What is so wonderful about a taco meal is that I often have leftover steak and salsa, and they make a perfect healthy salad the next day for lunch. Just add leftover sliced steak (re-heated lightly on a grill, if you like) and salsa, and drizzle some olive oil and smokey chipotle sauce, there you have it! The colour of the dish is absolutely irresistible, and the taste is refreshing, tangy, smokey and each mouth full is a perfect combination of tender steak and crunchy vegetables and herbs. Oh Myyyy...
So for your next last-minute meal, give this beef taco 'recipe' a go. Remember: good food is about finding good flavour and texture combinations, not about how long you slave over the stove for.
For those who are familiar with South-East Asian food, you must have heard of Hainanese Chicken. It is a national dish in Singapore and wildly popular in other parts of Asia also (such as Japan, Malaysia and Thailand). But what most of you may not know is that this is a Chinese dish that originated from the island of Hainan, a tropical island and popular tourist destination. This is a simple, subtle yet flavourful dish commonly served with oily chicken rice, dipping sauces, clear chicken broth and refreshing vegetables such as cucumber. The chicken skin is gelatinous, flesh tender and juicy, the chicken rice full of chicken goodness, the dipping sauces (commonly a garlic and chili one, and a shallot one) add great flavour boosts to otherwise quite a subtly-flavoured dish, the coriander garnish and light soy broth bring everything together.
I like making this dish at home because it is so easy (and healthy too)! Well, I could post my own recipe here, OR I could just point you to a few of the better recipes out on the world wide web. Those who are not familiar with the authentic taste and texture of this dish could easily get lost in the countless Hainanese Chicken recipes out there. Below are a few good Hainanese Chicken recipes I recommend:
- Adam Liaw, the winner of MasterChef Australia, has a pretty good recipe found here: Adam Liaw's Hainanese Chicken. I would say that this recipe would get you something fairly close to the Hainanese Chicken and rice sold in the Asian food court under Pittsway Arcade in Sydney CBD. I wrote a passionate blogpost on the chicken rice there called: The best chicken rice for under $10 in Sydney
- SBS food safari, a cooking/eating show, has a pretty decent recipe found here: SBS food safari hainanese chicken. I like the use of Chinese shaoxin rice wine but not quite sure about serving it with kecap manis, a Malaysian sweet soy sauce with the taste and texture of savoury molasses. I have never served my chicken this way. I am sure you can pick and choose the bits you enjoy.
- Pailins Kitchen, a YouTube cooking channel, has a good Thai version of the dish: Kao Mun Gai. If you are in Sydney, try out Kao Mun Gai at Yok Yor Thai Food Factory.
- Ochikeron, a YouTube cooking channel, has a good Japanese version of the dish: Hainanese Chicken Rice - Japanese variation. This is the easiest variation of this recipe, as this entire recipe is cooked in a rice cooker. But you are not going to get the same authentic taste and texture found in recipe 1.
As you may have noticed, each recipe varies depending on the cultural
origin of the chef and individual preferences, so don't
be alarmed by the number of variations. As a matter of fact, I would go so far to
say that as long as you follow the following basic principles, you can apply
your own little 'twist' to this dish as you like:
- Buy a good quality chicken as it is the star of the dish. I always get free-range organic whole chicken as they taste like chicken (unlike the sad caged hormone-pumped 'product' that grow from a chick to full-grown in 2 weeks). It makes a huge difference what chicken you get, trust me.
- The chicken needs to be cooked on low heat. Don't boil the crap out of it.
- The rice needs to be seasoned with chicken flavour. The best approach is to use the cooking liquid or chicken fat or both.
- There needs to be a sauce. Or this dish would be too subtle. Garlic, ginger and shallots are the 'holy trinity' in Asian cooking, and the most common Hainanese Chicken sauce ingredients. You can add them in the cooking broth also to flavour the chicken.
- Garnish the dish with something fragrant and 'crunchy'. Fresh coriander and/or shallots, or deep-fried shallots, or fresh chili, garnish brings the dish to the next level, both in taste and look.
Now that you are equipped with all of this knowledge, I bet you cannot wait to run into the kitchen and try it out yourself. I am going to leave you with a nice picture of the Hainanese chicken rice I cooked the other day to get you in the mood. Happy hainanese chicken eating, everybody!
