Lemongrass Chicken

This is an easy and fast recipe that I used frequently for BBQ or grilling besides the usual satays for potlucks or gatherings. What I like about this recipe is that I can grill it in the oven even though it's more traditional to grill it on open charcoal burner. Living in apartment is not that easy so, oven is the only option but sometimes I tend to overdo it until the whole kitchen turned smoky just to get that chargrill effects :-D

You can serve sliced cucumber and satay sauce with this recipe if you want. Coleslaw tastes great too - kind of giving you crunchy, sweet and sour tastes with extra lemongrass flavour. It's also delicious with plain rice, coconut rice, Bryani Rice, fried rice and stir-fried noodles. It's one of those easy accompaniment recipes that won't go wrong and the usage of lemongrass sticks as pincers to hold the juicy chicken meats added extra topic to talk about in your gatherings :-)

*This is how the halved lemongrass looked like with the cooked meat in between.

Lemongrass Chicken

Serves 2-4

500 g Chicken breast meats

3 Tbl Honey

2 Tbl Light Soya Sauce

1 tsp Fresh Turmeric - grind/pound finely

Salt to taste

Enough Lemongrass for grilling chicken meat

Method:

1. Washed the chicken meat thoroughly and cut each piece into 2-3 portions. Pat the meat dry with kitchen paper. Set aside in a bowl.

2. In another small bowl, mix well the honey, light soya sauce and grounded fresh turmeric.

3. Pour the marinate into the prepared chicken meat and let the meat marinate for 1 hour.

4. Preparing the lemongrass sticks for grilling: Wash the lemongrass sticks. Split the lemongrass sticks into half about 1 inch from the root end (white part) but not all the way through the tip (green part). This is to make sure you have a space in the center of the lemongrass to hold (to pinch) pieces of meat and the other end to hold and turn the meat when grilling.

Note: If the lemongrass is larger and longer, you can add in extra meat instead of 1 piece per lemongrass stick.

5. Insert the marinated a piece meat (or more) between the halved lemongrass sticks.

6. Grill the meat until it's cooked. You can use the BBQ set to grill or in the oven at 200 ºC for 15-20 minutes or until it's cooked to your preference. Don't forget to turn on both sides (that's where the uncut portion of the lemongrass comes in handy).

Tip:

Sometimes, I don't use so much of lemongrass to hold pieces of meat for grilling. It could be expensive to buy and it may not be easily available in certain areas. What I did was cut 2-3 lemongrass sticks into halves all the way through and lightly crushed them. Mixed together with the chicken meat and marinate. If you want intense lemongrass flavour, marinate longer than 1 hour (I usually prepared it a day ahead) then you grill as usual. You can leave the crushed lemongrass sticks to grill together with the meat or use bamboo skewers to skew the pieces of meat before grilling.

If you have only dried lemongrass, I suggest that you mix into the marinate first. Let the dried lemongrass soak up some moisture before marinate the chicken meat. The flavour is less pronounce than fresh lemongrass, of course. If you can find fresh lemongrass, try to grow left overs in a pot. Let them grow some roots first in some clean water. Change the water every couple of days until they developed strong roots before planting them into ground or pots. Just beware that when lemongrass finds favourable condition to grow, they may outgrown other plants.

Enjoy!

Orange-Cured Salmon With Szechuan Pepper

I had this thing about salmon... I only eat raw, smoked or cured salmon but not the cooked salmon. I don't know why... LOL. I think it must be the smell of cooked salmon that seemed unpleasant to my taste. This recipe is frequently demanded by my family when we hosted dinner or lunch with friends. I like to made this when I'm invited to dine with friends. It's always a welcome and never failed to ask for recipe. I love is the Szechuan pepper gave a a subtle tangy/lemony overtones with pleasant tingling sensation in your mouth. The oranges give a sweet and sourish taste which masked the smell of salmon as well... LOL. I wonder if this recipe will work for Hákarl... errrr I don't think so... LOL :-|

Orange-Cured Salmon with Szechuan Pepper

2 nos Fresh Salmon fillets with skin on (cleaned & pinbones removed)

2 tbl Coarse Sea Salt

2 tbl Ground Szechuan pepper

3 tbl Granulated Sugar

2 nos Oranges - sliced thinly into rounds

Cling Wrap

1. On a clean flat surface - table or kitchen top, unroll a piece of cling wrap, bigger than the fillets. After cleaning & removing pinbones from the salmon fillets, lay a fillet with its skin side down on the cling film/wrap.

2. Mix the dried ingredients in a bowl. Rub the mixture on the fillet, gently rub it in (like massage :-P ) on the surface and the sides. Do the same for the other half of fillet.

3. Arrange the orange rounds nicely on the half fillet on the table. Now, carefully, put the other half of fillet with flesh side on top of it. If you have any left over sliced oranges, arrange on top of the fillets...

3. Now, the tricky part... wrap the cling film over the 2 fillets tightly (but not too tight until the salmon flesh squished). Make sure the ends are wrap or twisted firmly to avoid any side leakage later on. Put the fillets on a tray (large enough to fit the whole fillets) and another tray on top of it. Press it down with a heavy object. Put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight before serving (I preferred the later.)

Note: You can use a wrapped brick as weight or tie up the 2 trays with strings so that the fillets are pressed snugly in between the 2 trays. If you can't find Szechuan pepper, you can use Sansho (sold in little green labelled bottles @ japanese corner or shops) or replace it with grounded black pepper is just as delicious.

4. After the curing is completed, you will see the salmon's flesh shrunk and changed to darker color and the package filled with orange juice. Remove from the fridge (don't forget removing the brick if using one :-D

Remove the Cling Wrap slowly... On a clean cutting board, sliced the cured salmon fillets thinly or the thickness of your choice. I prefer to cut diagonally like cutting sashimi. Arrange nicely on a serving platter, sprinkle with some herbs like dill, chilli flakes, spring onions or minced flat-parsley. Serve as appetiser along with some sliced toasted bread or baguette and lime/lemon wedges. You can serve individual portions with some oranges as decorations as I did... drizzle some mixture of balsamic vinegar-olive oil at the side.

One more thing... If you are using only one fillet, split the curing spices into 2 portions. Keep the other half for later use. Sometimes, when I'm lazy I used sushi grade salmon fillet without skin (actually I preferred this way - no wastage.) For this, I will use only 1 orange and arranged sliced oranges around the fillet because it's a small chunk and cured the same way in the fridge. The same if you use 2 small salmon fillets. Just adjust the curing spices accordingly and stack the pieces together.

Enjoy!

Jellyfish And Kyuri Salad

It had been long time since my last jellyfish meal :-P Yes, you read it right  j-e-l-l-y-f-i-s-h that floating wobbly, water filled animal with long stinging tentacles that spells out trouble for swimmers and fishermen alike. You can say that's bizarre but it's a delicacy and enjoyed by many people. As for me, I rather eat jellyfish anytime than turtles! 

Ok... I don't know which species of jellyfish I'm eating but I guessed it's edible and not endangered (?) species right? :-D This batch was given to me by my neighbour. I think I got the tentacles part. Almost all the whole jellyfish parts can be eaten as mentioned by foodie blogger Melting Wok.

Jellyfish And Kyuri (Japanese Cucumber) Salad

300 g Jellyfish (already prepared and cleaned by seller :-D)

1 pc Japanese Cucumber (kyuri)

1 stalk Spring Onions

3 tsp Rice Vinegar

3 tbl Sesame Oil

4 tsp Shoyu/Light Soya Sauce

1 tbl  Fish Sauce (Optional)

3 tbl  Sesame Seeds

4 tsp Sugar

Some water to blanch the jellyfish

Method

1. Wash jellyfish in fresh water. Drain and set aside.

2. In a pot, boil some water. When water boiled, pour the jellyfish into the hot boiling water. Blanch the jellyfish in few seconds (you will see that the amount will shrink in size) and quickly plunge it into cold water to stop the cooking. Drain the jellyfish.

3. When jellyfish is cold enough to handle, slice the jellyfish into smaller pieces. Set aside.

4. Wash the japanese cucumber: cut into halves lengthwise and remove the seeds. Slice them thinly. Set aside.

For the dressing

1. In a small pan, roast the sesame seeds without any oil until fragrant and golden yellow. Crush lightly the seeds a bit to release the oil. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, mix the sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, shoyu until the sugar dissolves. Add in the sesame oil and sesame seeds. Stir the dressing well. Set aside until needed.

To assemble the salad; Mix the jellyfish and the japanese cucumber together. Pour in the dressing and mix well. Adjust the taste to your liking. Garnish with sliced spring onions. If you intend to serve the salad later, don't add the dressing too early or you will end up with watery salad. Few minutes before serving is better because you also want the jellyfish to absorb the dressing...

Variation: You can add on to your sushi or top it up on Donburi meals. You can also add some chopped fresh chillies or chilli flakes to give that extra 'kick' :-)

Jellyfish is one of sea turtles main food and that helps keeping the jellyfish in control but now with the dwindling of sea turtles population these jellyfish is back with vengeance! In countries that were badly hit with the surge of jellyfish population had cost lost of income to the fishermen. Only way to control this situation is to stop eating sea turtles (also their cousins) and their eggs or else we all end up eating jellyfish as food or the other way round!

Enjoy!