Tomato Chicken Stew

After a week of bad coughing, sneezes and lack of sleep, I really need something to perk me up. Something spicy and sourish yet doesn't hurt my sore throat (big grin), to get back to my usual self... I had to cook the deboned chicken breasts & drumsticks I bought before expired. My brain still shrouded with sleepy lambs as I typed this entry and I still need to finish the antibiotics... urghhh! Please excuse me if there's typo error... :-D Outside, it's raining heavily and windy since yesterday morning. I don't mind though... it helps to cool down the hot weather several days ago. After this, I'm going to make a cup of hot cocoa... hmmm... maybe a jug?

Tomato Chicken Stew

Serves 2-3

500 g Chicken, chopped into 5 cm pieces (or drumsticks/breast meats)

Pinch of Salt & Tumeric powder

1/2 cup Oil (for shallow frying)

2 nos Onions, sliced

1 small can Tomato Purée

2 nos Tomatoes, quartered

1 tbl Sugar or to taste

1 tbl Salt or to taste

Some Water

Spices (ground/blend finely):

6 nos Shallots

3 cloves Garlic

6-10 Red Chillies, seeded

1 pc Lemongrass (use the plump white portion only)

2 cm knob of Ginger, skinned

Method:

1. Rub chicken with a pinch salt & tumeric powder. Set aside.

2. Heat oil in a deep pan/wok over medium fire/heat. When hot, fry the chicken in batches for 5 minutes. Remove chicken, drain on kitchen papers and set aside.

3. In the remaining oil, stir-fry the ground spices until fragrant and oil separates - about 3 mins.

4. Add sliced onions and stir-fry until they start to soften - about 1 minute. Stir in tomato purée and bring to a boil.

5. Add chicken and mix well. Pour some water to cover the chicken by 3/4 (about 2 cups). Bring to a boil.

6. Reduce fire/heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Add quartered tomatoes and continue to cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is tender and gravy is thick. Season to taste with salt and sugar. Garnish with chopped spring onions or coriander.

Notes: This is a Malay style stew. As with stews, it tastes better the day after. Prepare it a day ahead and warm up to serve. You can serve with rice, fried rice or even on pastas.

If you like really hot, you can replace the chillies with Dried Red Chillies but soak it first, remove the seeds and then ground/blend together with other spices.

Hope you like it... :-)

My First Award!!!

Oh my goshhh! I felt like an Academy winner or something :-D I couldn't believe it, really! Thank you so much to Ivy of Kopiaste To Greek Hospitality, a brilliant lady with scrumptious recipes and adventures, all the way from the country of my favourite composer Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou, Mario Frangoulis, delicious food, frappé, kafe Elliniko and who will feed you until have to crawl home :-D Your award really made my day after almost 1 week my family were sick with sore throat, sneezes, aches, you name it. I even lost my taste in food after all the antibiotics, pills...argghhh. When I'm finally back in front of my laptop, I had to pinch myself when I read the message from Ivy. Your award made my blurgh ... arghhh ... medicine no longer tasted that bad now :-D I'm going to complete the antibiotic course too (big innocent grin). Now, about this award...

This Brilliant Weblog Award is given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their designs. The purpose of this award is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogosphere.

The rules of this award are:

1. When you receive the award, post about it on your blog.

2. Name the blogger who gave you the award.

3. award the diamonds to seven (7) other bloggers.

4. Link to them in your post and ...

5. Let them know that you are passing this fabulous award onto them.

To spread this brilliant honor, I am awarding the Brilliant Weblog Award to the following bloggers in random order for their contributions and knowledge, not only for their love of food, cooking, creating/styling but also their quests to share the best places to enjoy the cuisines they loved. In addition to that, their links with the food also promotes the culture and heritage of their countries which is brilliant as well:

CK Lam of What2See: The Best of Penang Food!

Lily of Lily's Wai Sek Hong

Tamami of Coco and Me

Tom Aarons of Under The Tamarind Trees

Nilmandra of Soy and Pepper

Anh of Food Lover's Journey

Ranji of Ranji's Kitchen Corner

Such power of Internet that brought all of foodies around the world to unite as one for the love of food? :-D Until today, I'm still amazed each time I sit in front of my computer as if our world is inside my 2.75 cm x 32.5 cm x 22.7 cm ... c'est incroyable!

Thank you again to Ivy for the award. You really made my day!

Stir-fried Chayote Leaves With Prawns in Prawn Stock

First time I saw this plant years ago, I don't even know what's the name. There's no indication on the price label either. I only knew it's definitely edible and it's organic because it came from a reputable organic food supplier! Price? Real cheap... a bunch serves 2-4 persons. One day, I saw a staff of the organic farm arranging the shelves. I 'pounced' on her... well, not really but I did interrupted her work and asked her what's the name of the vegetable I'm holding in my hand. She asked me to wait so she could check with the staff of the supermarket. Huh? Gasped! "Excuse me??? Aren't you supposed to be a staff of the organic farm?" I asked. " Yes... but my job is only to arrange the produce on the shelves when the items reached the supermarkets. I don't know what's the name of this vegetable but the supermarket staff said it's from a pumpkin of some sort..." she replied.

Edible shoots and leaves of Chayote (Sechium Edule). Codename: Vegetable 007 aka Dragon's Beard aka Dragon's Whiskers.

Blunder!!! Sometimes, I don't know why there's no proper labeling of produce at supermarkets. Instead of printing the labels as 'Japanese Vegetables' or 'Vegetables 007', why not their correct name? I'm sure there are item descriptions in the invoices... Anyway, with a hunch I asked again, "Is this vegetable called Dragon's Beard ?" With her confused look, " I think so." Alright, to avoid more confusions, I thanked her and grabbed 2 packs of my 'vegetable 007'. I pitied her, really. How could a company being so ignorant of informing their staff their products? Furthermore, this vegetable is not 'Japanese Vegetables' but originates from South America! At least get the name right.

Close up of Chayote Leaves: Tight tendrils and spear-like leaves.

All that aside... this vegetable I'm so obsessed about is none other than edible leaves of Chayote (Cha-yo-tay). Chayote is known as Buddha's Hand Gourd' and the leaves are called 'Dragon's Beard or Whiskers' by Mandarin speakers. It sounds so fancy, exotic but with all the tendrils and spear-like leaves (after comparing pictures of Dragons of all sorts) it doesn't look any resemblance to any parts of dragon whewww!!! I like the look of the Chayote fruit though. Sometimes, it looks like boxing glove, a punched mouth of a puppet or a mouth without a denture...LOL! There are many ways of cooking the Chayote and its leaves.

Normally, I would stir-fry the fruit/gourd with dried shrimps, eggs and transparent noodles (cellophane noodles/ glass noodles/ mung bean threads)... just like hairy gourd (Fuzzy gourd/Mo Kwa). It's delicious in soups and desserts as well. As for the leaves, I preferred to stir-fry it with pounded chilli paste or sambal belacan with dried shrimps or fresh prawns. Sometimes, I would add fresh coconut milk to the chilli mix like Masak Lemak... :-D But today, I have to skip that idea because my guest is enemy to chillies! So, I just stir-fry the leaves with garlic, fresh prawns and some prawn stock which I made from prawn heads and shells I reserved from previous recipe.

Stir-fry Chayote Leaves with Prawns in Prawn Stock

2 packs of Chayote Leaves (about 300 g)

3 cloves garlic - minced

1/2 pc Carrot- slice thinly

100 g Fresh Prawns - peeled and deveined

300 ml Prawn Stock (you can substitute with chicken stock)

Shaoxing Cooking Wine

Some Kuzu starch/ Cornstarch mixed with a some water

Cooking oil

Method:

1. Wash and trim Chayote Leaves an discard hard stems. Trim the tendrils shorter if it's too long. We don't want to get choke here...:-D.

2. In a hot wok/pan, heat some oil and fry the garlic until fragrant.

3. Add in the prawns. Stir a bit until they turn slightly pink and cook evenly.

4. Add in the Chayote leaves.

5. Pour in the stock and stir evenly.

6. Cook until the vegetables are tender to your liking.

7. Add few dash of Shaoxing Wine.

8. Just before serving, pour in the starch mixture. Give a good stir until the gravy/sauce thickens to your preferred consistency.

9. Dish out and serve hot with rice. You may sprinkle some shallot crisps if you like.

Note: You can omit the starch mixture if you don't like thick gravy. It tastes just as great in plain. I preferred to use kuzu as thickener than cornstarch because when the dish is cold, the gravy doesn't turned watery. Also, it has no perceptible taste compared to Cornstarch.

Enjoy!