Steam Salted Chicken

This is one of the backdate posts which I have no time to publish it out. We have this dish a few weeks ago on one of the weekend meal together with the Tomato Scramble Egg. The method of this Steam Salted Chicken is sort of similar to the Steam Herbal Chicken. But the main Ingredients here is salt pair with a lot of grated ginger and spring onion to infuse the chicken.

You can use either Chicken Maryland (refers to the thigh and leg)like what I have here or you can substitute it with chicken wings, or cut chicken pieces.

Ingredients:
1 Chicken Maryland, trim
2 Stalks of Spring Onion, cut into sections
1/2 Tablespoon of Grated Ginger
1/2 Teaspoon of Salt
1 Teaspoon of Wolfberries
2 Red Date, halves
1 Tablespoon Rice Wine, optional

Method:
1. Clean and trim the chicken fats, pat dry with paper kitchen towel then rub salt and ginger all over it and set aside.
2. Get a ceramic bowl or deep plate, arrange some spring onion at the base (this is to act as a supporting based to let the chicken cook through easily) then place the marinate chicken on top of it.
3. Next put half of the remaining spring onion on top of the chicken together with the red date and set aside in the fridge to marinate for about 30 minute or longer.
4. Remove from the fridge 5 minutes before steaming and steam it over medium heat for about 20 - 25 minutes or till chicken is cook through when you poke it with fork and the juice runs out clear.
5. Remember to add in the wolfberries and rice wine after 15 minutes of steaming time.

Note:
a) You can also cover the bowl or plate with a foil to keep steam chicken moist and as well trap the fragrant of the dish but then you might need a longer steaming time for this. Usually I will cover only when I add herbs to it so as to keep the fragrant of the herbs.

This is a very fragrant dish that you can serve it with hot rice and use the gravy from the steam chicken to serve with your rice. If you want it to be more herbal, you can add 2 to 3 slices of Dang Gui (当归) on top of the chicken and steam it accordingly.

Chocolate Overload

Talk about Chocolate both Reyon and me can't resists it. We have all kind of chocolate stuffs in the kitchen pantry and fridge, ranging from cookies to ice-cream and cakes.....So when I come across this recipe, I told myself that this is a must try list on our baking list. I show Rey the picture of this Chocolate muffin and at once he told me that he wants to make for me, Grandma and Grandaunt on Mother's Day.

So immediately after the washing up from our Salmon Bento lunch. We started our Mother's Day baking project. I help Reyon to measure all the ingredients and put them into separate bowl while he will follow my instructions to make the muffins. This as usual is suitable to be handle by kids as it require only, WHISK, STIR, POUR and BAKE. So do give your kids a chance to whisk up this simple and yet irresistible chocolate muffin.

Bento #27 - Salmon Onigiri Bento

Today is Mother's Day and after our usual Sunday Church service, we went to the nearby Supermarket to get some ingredients to prepare our lunch. After looking at the ingredients, we settle for Salmon Fillet, Button Mushroom and Corn.

With the ingredients in hand, we made some Salmon Flake & Corn Onigiri. Rey and I love the colour combination as our Church dress code for Mother's Day is Pink this year. I pan-fry the salmon fillet with shredded ginger and spring onion until brown then set aside. I cook the rice as per normal by adding some fresh corn kernel and chestnut and cook until done then I add in the salmon flakes and mould them into round onigiri.

With some olive oil, I do a quick stir-fry using the sliced button mushroom and carrot to serve it as a side dish. Tata... so after assemble above is what we have for our lunch today....

Bento #26 - Cheese Pie & Fruit Salad

Since I am alone in the office this week as my colleague went for Holiday Trip. I decided to pack some light and simple lunch for work today. I packed 3 different types of cut fruits which are Kiwi, Dragon fruit and apple to go with my Blueberry Cheese Pie. As we are in a rush, I forget to soak the cut apple slices in some salted water to prevent it for discolouration.

On the second day, I bring some cut dragon fruits and apple slices to work again and this round I have soaked the cut apple in some salted water for a while and the colour remain clear and nice through out even when I eat it quite late after lunch :)

I used this set of Mickey Mouse design vegetable cutter to cut my apple slices for the bento.... :) You can take a look at other range of the Mickey Mouse Bento Tools here.(click the link)