Simply Cooking: Braised Five Spice Chicken and Stir-fry sea plant, Pepper and Mushroom

On weekends, I usually cook something complicated. However, when assignment fever strikes, I usually settle for simple dishes. In my kitchen, no two dishes ever gets repeated unless it gets a "Whoa! This is delicious!" or "We must have it again".

Having said that, I do not have hundreds and hundreds of condiments sitting in my pantry. My pantry is tiny. You cannot expect much from a 900 square feet apartment.

I made braised five spice chicken and stir fry sea plant (miyuk) with mushrooms and yellow pepper a few weeks ago. Just now for lunch, at I had steamed red fermented bean curd with pork ribs and blanched choy sum with no dressing. ;) Hehe.

I got this braised five spice chicken recipe from Christine's Recipes. Most of her recipes are student friendly. Apparently, my ex-supervisor (when I was working in Padini Pavilion), is a fan of Christine! Ah, the world is indeed tiny.

Recipe: Braised five spice chicken (Orignal recipe from Christine) - serves 2

-Ingredients:

A: Meat and marinade
-2 chicken thighs, diced
-A pinch of five spice
-A pinch of pepper
-1 tsp of soy sauce
-1 tsp of Chinese rice wine
-1 drop of sesame oil

B:
-1 tablespoon of olive oil + 1 drop of sesame oil
-2 cloves of garlic crushed

C:
-1/2 tsp of five spice powder
-A few drops of fish sauce
-20 grammes of rock sugar, crushed
-3 tablespoon of light soy sauce (Add more if the sauce is too sweet)
-1 tablespoon of Chinese rice wine
-10 Goji berries
-1/2 tsp of chicken ! bouillon powder
-A pinch of white pepper
-About 50 ml of distilled water

D:
-A bunch of bok choy
-A pinch of pepper
-1 spring onion, chopped


Instructions:

1. Prepare chicken thighs, place in a bowl and add ingredients from list A into the bowl. Incorporate well. This must be prepared at least two hours prior to cooking. You can prepare the chicken overnight but do keep the chicken and the marinade in the refrigerator. Remember to leave meat in room temperature an hour before cooking!

2. Heat up a non-stick pan. Add in chicken pieces and brown them. The oil from the thighs will be rendered. Remove chicken from pan and let it sit in a bowl for about five minutes. You will see liquid pooling at the bottom of the bowl. Drain the liquid. If using an ordinary pan, remember to add one tablespoon of olive oil!

3. Remove the oil from the pan. Then, heat up olive oil and garlic pieces. Stir for about 1 minute until fragrant. Add in chicken pieces, followed by ingredients from list C. Bring to boil.

4. When the sauce is boiling, reduce to a simmer. Cover the pan. Simmer for 15 minutes.

5. After 15 minutes, add in the bok choy. Cook until softened. Finish with a pinch of pepper and some spring onions.

This dish is best eaten with noodles. :D

This sea-plant stir fry recipe is created by yours truly. I got the inspiration from a Taiwanese cooking programme. The original recipe was stir fry konbu with chicken. I decided to turn this recipe into a vegetarian one.

Recipe: Stir fry sea plant, button mushrooms and yellow bell pepper

Ingredients:

A:

-1 teaspoon of olive oil + 1 drop of sesame oil

-1 clo ve of garlic, finely minced