Recipe - Sweet Sauce ("Tim Cheong")

Sweet sauce ("Tim Cheong")

 Sweet sauce (“Tim Cheong”)
Sweet sauce is a popular condiment in Malaysian cuisine. It is commonly use as a dip in finger food such as fried spring rolls, fresh spring rolls (popiah), “chee cheong fun”, steamboat (hot pot) and etc.

Sweet sauce is  easily accessible in Malaysia. You can get them at the wet markets, local sundries and even supermarkets. I usually bring half a litre with me each time I return to Sydney from Malaysia. Since I can’t wait for another six months to get my sweet sauce, I decided to follow this recipe. I am very happy with the outcome of the sweet sauce and more importantly it tastes almost similar to the one I bought.

If you are living in overseas and wish to make this sweet sauce, here is the recipe.

"Taucu"

Caramel dark sauce ("Dark soy sauce")

 Ingredients

200 gm “taucu” (mince bean paste)
1 cup of water
½ cup of caramel dark sauce
1 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 ½  tbsp of corn flour mix with some water
Sugar (as to your taste)

Pound or blend the “taucu” until it becomes fine paste.

Heat the wok or pan. Once wok/pan is hot, add the oil. Reduce to small flame, and fry the “taucu” for 30 seconds.

Add water and keep on stirring until it boils. Then put in the dark sauce.

Add sugar. The amount of it is up to your taste.

Continue stirring and finally put in the corn flour to thicken the sauce. Turn off the flame. Let it cool. Pour the sweet sauce into an airtight bottle and put it in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Recipe - "Hainanese Chicken Rice"

Hainanese Chicken Rice

One of the things I missed about living in Kuala Lumpur is buying fresh chicken from the Tiong Nam morning market. I used to buy my chicken from one “aunty” (a polite way of addressing an older person in Malaysian culture) in Tiong Nam. I could always count on her in supplying me the right chicken for the appropriate chicken dish. If I needed to cook “Hainanese Chicken Rice”, I would inform her a day before and the next day, the “aunty” would get  me the right type of chicken for me to cook the dish.

This “aunty” taught me (briefly) the different methods in preparing the delicious “Hainanese Chicken Rice”. She mentioned that chicken has to be steamed. The rice has also got to be steamed together with the chicken stock. She told me to use lots of garlic to fry the rice.

Steamed Chicken aka Pak Cham Kai



Steamed Chicken

1 whole chicken with skin intact in room temperature
3 ½  tsp salt
2 inches ginger (roughly pounded)
3 Spring onions (cut into 2 inches length size)
2 tsp sesame oil
soy sauce

Procedure

Wash whole chicken thoroughly inside out.

Rub the outer and inner chicken with 2 tsp salt and follow by ginger. Stuff the ginger and spring onions into the chicken. Lastly rub the chicken with 1 tsp sesame oil.

Heat up wok and bring to boil. Place chicken on a steamer plate. Steam the chicken for ½ hour.

Keep the remaining broth of chicken collected in the plate.

Rub an addition 1½ tsp of salt on the chicken. Let the chicken cool. Cut into pieces and sprinkle with 1 tsp sesame oil and some soy sauce. Scoop with spoon some of the chicken oil from the steamer plate and pour gently over the chicken pieces.

The Steamed Chicken Rice - beautiful aroma and fragrant!

Steamed Chicken Rice

4 cups fragrant rice
3 pandanus leaves
Chicken stock + (dilute with 1 tsp of salt and ½ chicken cube)
4 slices of ginger
2  whole garlic (chopped finely)
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
3 tbsp shallot oil or vegetable oil

[Chicken stock : simmer 1 kg of skinless chicken drumsticks with 1½ liter of water for at least an hour]

Ingredient A

1 inch of ginger
4 shallots

Procedure

Pound finely ingredient A. Set it aside.

Heat up wok. Add oil. Low flame, fry Ingredient A. Add chopped garlic. Fry until garlic turns slight brownish. Put in rice. Fry for another 2 minutes. Add ½ tsp salt, butter and slice ginger. Once butter melted, spread evenly with the rice. Turn off heat.

Remove the rice and spread the rice evenly into the line baking tray. Pour chicken stock to the level where the stock covers slightly above the rice. Place the Pandanus leaves in the tray.

Prepare a steaming pot or wok and bring to boil with high heat. Steam the rice for 40 minutes.

Chicken soup - served with the "Chicken Rice"

Serve the chicken rice with hainanese chilli sauce (refer recipe : http://5foodway.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/recipe-ah-mais-special-hainanese-chilli.html, ) minced ginger, black caramel sauce and a bowl of chicken soup.



Hainanese Chilli Sauce that accompanies the Chicken Rice

 Chilli Sauce

To add some flavour into the chilli sauce, take some chicken oil from the steamer plate and mix with the chilli sauce. In addition to that, to enhance the taste, cut finely some fresh calamondin (limau kasturi) skin and mix it together as well. This makes a perfect chilli sauce to dip with the steamed chicken and eat with the rice.

The most rewarding moment for me is seeing my family enjoying eating my “Hainanese chicken rice” and  receiving praise by my father in law (a Hainanese) that I cook the best “Hainanese chicken rice”.