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Lunar New Year

Aromatic Poached Chicken with Flavourful Stock

Steamed or poached chicken (鸡肉 jīròu) has always had a special place in my family, particularly throughout the 15 days of Lunar New Year. The dish must always be presented whole to signify completeness, prosperity, togetherness of the family and everlasting joy. It’s customary for Chinese families to have this dish as it was considered a luxury in the olden days.  

I used to get really nervous when I had to carve the chicken. You see, this is a Cantonese dish so it’s a prerequisite to know how to dismantle and present it on a platter in a classic 8-piece configuration: 2 breasts, 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 wings. Everything else goes in between, and every piece must be easily grabbed by chopsticks. There’s a saying, “yau tau yau mei”, which means you have a head and a tail on the platter, one on each end, symbolising a beginning and end. It takes skill to chop the bird into bite size pieces without tearing the skin, with a sharp cleaver. I hope I did justice to my forefather’s chopping skills because I was very happy with the end result, which you can see in the shot above. I usually opt for village-bred free range chicken fed on corn because it has naturally “golden” yellow skin which is very appealing and auspicious for most Chinese people. 

Here’s the recipe for an auspicious and aromatic poached chicken which you too, can replicate at home. Scroll all the way down for the recipe!

Serves 4 – 6 pax

Ingredients

  • One medium whole free-range chicken, or 3 pieces (750g) whole chicken legs
  • 1.5 litres boiling water
  • 3 shallots
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 2cm ginger, peeled and smashed
  • 2 stalks spring onion
  • 10g tong kwai (a type of Chinese medicinal herb; scientific name ‘Angelica sinensis’)
  • Cilantro leaves for garnishing
  • 1 tbsp salt to taste
  • 1 tbsp chicken stock broth
  • 1/2 tsp sugar to taste

Steps

  1. Rinse chicken, then use coarse salt to scrub the chicken skin to remove any residue. For a whole chicken, I’d scrub all over, including the interior. Remove any remaining feathers and guts, then rinse again.
  2. Lower chicken into a pot of boiling water, legs down and head up. Cover the pot and bring back to a boil.
  3. Immediately remove the pot from heat and allow chicken to soak in the stock for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked.
  4. Remove chicken from the stock and soak in a basin of ice cold water for 25 minutes. While chicken is cooling in the water, prepare the aromatic soup. Bring the previous chicken stock to a boil again, and add shallots, garlic, ginger, spring onions and tong kwai. Cook for 15-20 minutes. Add seasoning ingredients and allow the fragrant stock to cool.
  5. Take out chicken from the basin of cold water and drain well. Return the chicken to the fragrant stock soup in the pot and let chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours.
  6. Remove and chop the chicken, then transfer to a serving plate. Bring the fragrant stock to a quick boil and serve. You can add some blanched noodles and vegetables such as bok choy or choy sum to the stock and serve it along with the chicken—makes an excellent one-dish meal!
If you made this dish, let me know by tagging @saveurmalaisie on Instagram!
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Abundance & Prosperity Poon Choi with Umami-Flavoured Broth

Today marks the 15th and final day of the Lunar New Year. I’m commemorating the occasion with this auspicious Treasure Pot (poon choi or pen cai 盆菜). It’s a one-pot dish containing an overflowing of various ingredients such as abalone, shiitake mushrooms, prawns, sea cucumber, fish maw … all significant foods that carry symbolic meanings during LNY. Traditionally served in wooden, porcelain or metal basins, poon choi was born in Hong Kong during the late Song Dynasty, when the Emperor of China fled to the area around the Guangdong Province and nearby Hong Kong after a Mongol attack. To feed His Majesty and the troops, locals living in the walled villages cooked the best foods then serve these in large wooden washbasins as there weren’t enough serving bowls.

Recently, I thought about my late paternal grandfather. Yeh Yeh was a stern and dignified man who hailed from Guangdong. I feared him and like most Chinese, filial piety—obedience and respect—were virtues to be exercised towards the elderly. Yeh Yeh often regaled us with stories of how he escaped China by boat during World War II when the Japanese invaded. As I arranged the premium ingredients layer by layer, I remembered when Yeh Yeh would buy us cellophane lanterns in different animal shapes to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. He was a proud Cantonese man who rode a scooter religiously to his socks factory every day. How he must have lived during his heyday! I thought of his last days, when he could only walk with the help of his walking stick and finally, couldn’t find the strength to get up from bed without assistance. I was never close to Yeh Yeh because I’ve a poor command of Cantonese. But he loved to eat, so at least, this dish would have make up for our lost years. Scroll below for the recipe!

 

Serves 6 pax

Ingredients

  • 150g dried fish maw, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes till softened
  • 60g dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked overnight in hot water till softened (keep the soaking liquid); stems removed
  • 500g fresh or dried sea cucumber (if using dried ones, soak them overnight to soften; wash carefully and rinse after then cut into wedges)
  • 1 kg tiger prawns, keep shells on but deveined
  • 250g fresh or frozen scallops (if frozen, transfer to fridge to thaw for at least 2 hours before)
  • 1 kg roast duck meat (alternatively roast pork or chicken)
  • 1 can abalone, drained and soaked in cold water overnight, then washed and cleaned carefully with a brush
  • 1 can sea asparagus, drained, and soaked in cold water for 1 hour, then rinsed
  • 300g broccoli, keep the florets only
  • 150g carrot, peeled and sliced thinly
  • 500g napa cabbage, cut into chunks
  • 500g white daikon radish, head and root removed, sliced into chunks
  • Two handfuls of dried black sea moss (fatt choy), soaked in hot water for 15 minutes
  • 300g fried yam (optional)
  • 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 2 litres water (including mushroom soaking liquid)
  • 120ml oyster sauce
  • 60ml fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 60ml Hua Tiao Shao Xing wine
  • 4 tbsp cornstarch
  • 4 tbsp water, or more if needed (to make cornstarch slurry)

Steps

  1. Prepare all the dry ingredients in advance, soaking them to soften following the amount of time required.
  2. A) For the Broth: Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, then top up with water, mushroom, fish maw, cabbage, daikon radish, oyster sauce, fish sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar. Cover and bring to boil, then lower the fire to simmer for 30 minutes to an hour.
  3. B) For the Ingredients: While the broth is simmering, blanch these ingredients in batches, into the same broth: Prawns and scallops (3 minutes); abalone and sea asparagus (2 minutes); broccoli (15-20 seconds); carrots (2-3 minutes); sea cucumber (3 minutes). Remove cooked items then set aside for layering later. Turn off the heat after Step A (above) is done.
  4. C) Layer your Treasure Pot: Start with the napa cabbage and daikon radish at the bottom layer, followed by the fish maw, sea cucumber and carrots. Finally, arrange the roast meat, prawns, scallops, abalone, mushrooms, broccoli, sea asparagus, and fried yam, at the top layer. The black sea moss (fatt choy) goes into the center of the dish.
  5. For the Final Broth: Bring the broth in the pot back to boil. Add Hua Tiao Shao Xing wine and boil for 1 minute until fragrant. On the side, mix the cornstarch with water to form a flurry sludge. Slowly pour the mix into the boiling broth and stir well until desired thickness is achieved. Switch off the fire and scoop some broth from the pot then pour over the layered ingredients in the Treasure Pot. I usually use a traditional claypot to serve this dish, so it could be easily reheated over the stove if necessary.

If you made this dish, let me know by tagging @saveurmalaisie on Instagram!

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One-Pot Ginger And Yellow Wine Chicken Mee Sua

Yesterday was the 7th day of the Lunar New Year (“renri” 人日, or “yan yat”). I can’t believe I completely missed the memo. So why is the 7th day so important? I was told that it signifies the day all human beings were created. This day came about when Nüwa, the goddess who created the world, made living beings throughout the first month of the traditional Chinese calendar called “Zhengyue”. 

On the 1st day of Zhengyue, she made chickens.

On the 2nd day, she made dogs.

On the 3rd, boars.

On the 4th, sheep.

On the 5th, cow. 

On the 6th, horses.

Finally, on the 7th, human beings.

The custom dates back to the Han Dynasty in China, and gained importance after the Three Kingdoms period and Jin Dynasty. You can read about all the traditions on Wikipedia, but for now, I’d like to leave you with this bowl of mee sua (wheat vermicelli noodles) that I made with a recipe passed down to me from my mother. Traditionally, we toss yee sang (a Cantonese-style raw fish salad) on this day to celebrate, but in my family, mee sua has a long-standing tradition as “birthday longevity noodles”. 

My mother is from the Foochow clan, so she typically uses ang jiu, a Foochow red wine made from a fermentation of Chinese wine yeast and red yeast rice, to make this dish. After I gave birth, she made me this (apparently the high ginger and wine content is great for expelling “wind” in the body, post-delivery). This year, I decided to use yellow rice wine for a mild, sweeter taste instead. In Malaysia, I used to source mine directly from Sitiawan. In between young or old ginger, I went with the young one, as it’s juicier and less “spicy” or “heaty” compared to old ginger, although the older folks will tell you aged ginger is always the best for unrivalled warmth. Also, the quality of the sesame oil is important—opt for toasted sesame oil because it lends a more flavourful, nutty taste. You can serve this bowl of soupy goodness with red eggs or without, but the red eggs add a special meaning to the dish; they represent birth or a new start, and the red colour is auspicious. I like to add red dates or goji berries for tonic; they’re considered quite “neutral” (not too heaty or cooling) in traditional Chinese medicine. Scroll below for the recipe!

Serves 4 – 6 pax

Ingredients

  • 4 bundles of dried mee sua (flour vermicelli, or any other long noodles)
  • 2 whole chicken legs, blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes to get rid of impurities, then rinse in cold water
  • 500ml chicken stock
  • 400ml Chinese yellow rice wine, divided
  • 50g young or old ginger (peeled and sliced)
  • 3 tbsp toasted sesame oil
  • 5 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water until soft; stems removed
  • 10 red dates, pitted
  • Salt and white pepper to taste
  • Hard boiled eggs

Steps

  1. Heat sesame oil in a wok or pot over medium heat. Add sliced ginger and sauté for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.
  2. Add shiitake mushrooms and sauté for 30 seconds. Then pour in 200ml of Chinese yellow rice wine, as well as chicken stock. Top up with a little water if necessary.
  3. Gently lower the chicken legs into the wok or pot. Add red dates or goji berries. Bring it back up to a boil.
  4. Turn the fire down to a simmer and cover to cook for 25-30 minutes, until chicken is tender. Remove chicken from the wok / pot, then season the soup stock with salt and pepper.
  5. On the side, prepare a pot of boiling water. Blanch dried mee sua for 1 minute, stirring to loosen it, then take out and drain.
  6. Scoop the soup stock into a bowl, add chicken and mushrooms, and top with the noodles, sliced ginger and eggs. You can add some blanched vegetables such as bok choy or choy sum as well. Eat the noodles immediately upon serving, as the mee sua will soak up the soup quickly.

If you made this recipe, let me know by tagging @saveurmalaisie on Instagram!

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Hello there! I'm Deborah

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