Hainanese Chicken Rice

This week's Singaporean theme is a little less labour intensive then usual. As my brother-in-law and his wife are away this week, I decided to take it a little easier since there were only four mouths to feed instead of the usual 6 or possibly more depending on if anyone else decided to pop by. Well...it's actually not that this dish is easy to make, it's just that there were less dishes to make. In any case, I think this really gave me and my loyal sous chef (mother-in-law) more time to really try to get this one right, and this is such a classic dish that I'm glad we spent the time to try to perfect it. Now we just have to figure out what we want to do with all the left over broth...

(adapted from Noodle Fever)
CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

1 Chicken
2" knob of Ginger (sliced)
3 stalks of Green Onions
5 tbsp. Sea Salt

DIRECTIONS

Fill a large pot or dutch oven 3/4 full with water and start heating up the water.

Wash chicken with cold water rinsing off any dirtiness, then dry off the chicken. Trim excess fat near the cavity opening and set aside for cooking the rice. Rub salt generously all over the chicken, both inside and out. Stuff the chicken with the ginger and green onions.

Place the chicken in the pot or dutch oven, then cover. Bring water to a boil, then lower the temperature and simmer for about 45 minutes (depending on the size of your chicken).

Using a large bowl or spare pot, fill half with cold water and half with ice. Remove your chicken from the pot and submerge into the ice bath. Cut up chicken once it is cooled and set aside on a platter.

RICE

INGREDIENTS

Reserved Chicken Fat
3 cups of Broth from poaching the chicken
2 cups Jasmine Rice
3 Shallots (minced)
2 cloves Garlic (minced)

In a wok, cook chicken fat over medium-high heat until fat is rendered. Discard the solid pieces. You should have nearly two tablespoons of fat, but if not, add a bit of vegetable oil.

Cook shallots and garlic in the chicken fat/vegetable oil mixture for a few minutes, until just starting to color.

Add rice and toast briefly (about a minute), then transfer to your rice cooker. Add the chicken broth from poaching the chicken and set rice cooker to cook rice as per regular.

CHILI SAUCE

6 Bird's Eye Chilies
1 shallot (minced)
2 cloves Garlic
2 tbsp. of Ginger
Juice from 2 Limes
2 tbsp. Sriracha Garlic Chili Sauce
2 tsp. Scallion oil (add hot oil to minced scallions)
2 tsp. Sugar
Pinch of salt

OTHER SAUCE/GARNISH

2 tsp. of Soy Sauce mixed with one tsp. of Sesame Oil

Quick-Pickled Cucumbers
Slice cucumbers thinly, then mix with one part coarse salt to three parts sugar. Let sit for 10 minutes, then drain and splash with rice vinegar.

Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice)

This week, I was a bit at a loss as to which country I wanted my theme night to be focused on. However, it only made sense to "visit" Indonesia when I looked at the ingredients that were available to me from both my Thai and Malaysian nights. (Unfortunately, I had not taken pictures of the Malaysian themed dishes I made the previous week, but I will probably want to recreate a few of them at some point).

My first entry of my Indonesian themed dishes is the Nasi Goreng. This recipe is adapted from the Rasa Malaysia website (http://rasamalaysia.com/), which is an absolutely amazing food blog website. I truly recommend it if you are trying to find an asian recipe. I thought this fried rice was really flavorful and I think there would be many ways to spice it up including putting other veggies and/or ground pork/chicken/beef.

INGREDIENTS

1 Shallot
1 Garlic
1 Chili (sliced)
1 Tomato (chopped into small pieces)
1/2 tsp. toasted belacan (terasi)
1/2 tsp. palm sugar
1/2 tbsp. kecap manis
8 oz. overnight rice
1 fried egg (well done and chopped)
2 tablespoons oil

DIRECTIONS

Break the overnight/leftover rice using the back of a spoon so they don’t clump together. In a wok, toast the belacan on low heat until it becomes dry and aromatic. Toasted belacan should be somewhat powdery and appear like tiny granules. Fry an egg (well-done), cut into small pieces and set aside.

Using a mini food processor, blend the shallot, garlic, red chili, and toasted belacan. Transfer the blended flavoring paste into a small saucer.

Heat up a wok and add oil. Add the flavoring paste and stir-fry until aromatic or when the oil separates. Add the rice into the wok and stir well with the flavoring paste. Add kecap manis and palm sugar into the rice and continue to stir-fry and make sure that they are well blended with the rice. Finally, add tomato and fried egg and continue to stir-fry. Dish out and serve immediately.