Game for Stinky Food?

Thanks for dropping by, i am curious to know if stinky stuff appeals :) By stinky I mean strong smelling food that some people love but others can't even stand a whiff of it.  Any within your palate?? I am sure some of them would come to mind by now.  I always wonder how they ended up as something edible.  It amazes me how the penchant for stinky stuff is something universal as one can find so many types of stinky food across the globe.  Back home, durians the king of fruits would be on top on list.     There would be other seafood based ones like the belacan (dried prawn paste), cencaluk (shrimp sauce) and salted fish etc.  The Asians (Chinese/Korean/Japanese) would have fermented stuff like tofu, eggs and beans albeit fermented/preserve in their own unique ways.  In the west cheese and fermented fish like those in Sweden or Norway would come to mind.  

Come to think of it, I am quite a 'stinky' person too, I have quite a few favourites, i adore durians and i love the Chinese fermented yellow beans and tofu (aka fu-yee in cantonese).   They are really good as seasoning.  It gives such an exotic flavour to food.  The fermented tofu that i am talking about here is not the one made popular in Hong Kong, which are mostly eaten deep-fried and dipped in sauce.  Now, that one is stinky brought to the next level...this one is a no-no for me :)  The one that i am talking about is little cubes of tofu that is soaked in brine and bottled. When mashed it has a creamy texture.

So, allow me to share this chicken dish that is made with a tiny bit of stinky stuff.  Give it a try, it's not that stinky. Actually it smells and taste good with a combination of some chinese wine, soy sauce and honey to give it a nice blend of flavours. Enough to say little one had 2 bowls of rice with this :)

Recipe

Source : Christine's Recipe (with changes to liking)

Ingredients

600 gm chicken pieces

1 piece fermented beancurd, mashed into paste (chili fermented)

1 tsp Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp honey

3 slices ginger

Seasoning

1 Tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp dark sauce

1 tsp sugar

100 ml water

Steps

1. Heat oil over medium heat. 
2. Add ginger and fermented beancurd paste, saute to fragrant. 
3. Add chicken. Stir to combine and cook until both sides are light brown. 
4. Pour in wine and quickly stir to combine. Add seasoning. 
5. When it boils, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until chicken is cooked and sauce thickens. 
6. Stir in honey (use enough to liking).
7. Enjoy!

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All my Love with a scoop of Mocha Ice Cream?

Literally lovely breakfast it was that morning, a heart shaped muffin (yup, it's a muffin not cake) topped with a scope of mocha ice-cream!  Imagine coming down to a table which has been beautifully set with this or even being served in bed (in my case, i will have to be the one serving and not the one being served unfortunately), romantic huh?  

The idea came from my little one, he was helping me in the kitchen when i made this.  I asked him to help me get some muffin cups, he came back with this heart shaped mini cake pan and suggested using them, reason being it's more environmental friendly, no wastage of the paper cups.  I wasn't too sure about baking muffins in cake pans, never done it before.  I thought it would not go terribly wrong, at the most it won't rise up so much  From the way it turned out, it doesn't look bad, does it?

This was also a healthy treat, orange blueberry yoghurt muffin.   Nice fruity flavour and with the addition of yoghurt it was soft and moist, topping it with some ice-cream (also little one's idea) made it even more delish!  

Give it a shot, it's simple, all you need to do is a simple mixing of wet and dry ingredients.  No beating required as the recipe uses oil.  All done within 45 minutes (includng baking time) and i bet it will touched the hearts of the ones being served :)

Orange Blueberry Yoghurt Muffins
Recipe
Source : Anncoo Journal  (adapted from Food for Tots)
Note : My variation in blue, i like it a little less sweeter, but you can stick to original, i think it won't be too sweet either)

• 250g Plain flour (cake flour)
• 3 tsp Baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 120g Castor sugar (100g)
• 2 Large eggs (at room temperature)
• 4 tbsp Fresh orange juice
• 2 tsp Orange Zest
• 180ml Extra light olive oil/sunflower oil (canola oil)
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract (1/2 tsp)
• 160g Greek yogurt or plain yogurt
• 125g Frozen bluerries (1 punnet) (fresh blueberries)

Method

1. Sieve flour and baking powder in a mixing bowl.  Add in sugar and salt.  Mix well.  Set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs,  add in yoghurt, vanilla extract, orange juice, zest and oil gradually and mix until it just combined. Be careful not to overbeat the mixture. 
3. Add the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. Use a spatula, combine the ingredients with fold in method until they are well combined and no traces of flour. Stir in blueberries and mix well. Do not over-mix the batter. The batter should be thick ("spoonable" not "pourable").
4. Use a spoon to scoop batter into muffin cups until 80% full.
5. Bake at preheated oven 190C for 20-25 mins.

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Simple Chinese Pork Ribs Stew

A classic dish among us Chinese with many variations among the clans.   Essentially a meat dish (pork, chicken or duck) but sometimes one get extras like hard-boiled eggs, tofu puffs or shitake mushrooms thrown in.  This is one dish that I am sure many of us grew up with.    The choice of meat stewed in a combination of soy sauce and spice makes it very aromatic and tender. It goes very well with steamed rice or congee.   The steps to make this dish are easy and manageable plus one can make a bigger portion to keep for more than 1 meal as the flavor gets more intense when left overnight.  This makes it a good choice for busy mums who want to prepare some good home-cooked dish despite their busy schedules. Add a green to this and you will have one complete and balanced meal for the family. 

Although this is a familiar dish, I referred Ann of Anncoo Journal's recipe for it, simply because she has good recipes for everything, never failing me! Do hop over to her blog for a more exact recipe, I didn't follow everything to a T.  A good choice indeed, it tasted really good. Thanks, Ann!

Recipe
Source : Anncoo Journal

Note : I used 500g of pork ribs with the same amount of other ingredients and the flavour was just nice for our family

Ingredients:

• 1 Star anise
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 shallots, chopped
• Ginger, 3 slices
• 2 Dried chilli - remove seed (optional)
• 400-600ml Water
• 600g Pork Ribs (Ann recommends with some fats in it although I trimmed off most of it) , cut to about 4" length

Seasoning:

• 1 tbsp White vinegar
• 1 tbsp Light soy sauce
• 1 1/2tbsp Dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Five spice powder
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Hua Tiao Chiew)
• 1 tbsp Corn flour + 2 tbsp water

Method

1. Marinate pork ribs with seasoning for 2 hours.
2. Heat wok with about 2 tbsp cooking oil.  Add ginger, garlic, shallot, star anise and dried chilli, fry till fragrant.
3. Pour in the pork rib together with seasoning sauce, fry well and add about 400ml water.
4. Bring to boil and simmer at low heat for about one hour or cook the pork rib till tender (add a little more water when pork rib dries up a little).

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