Chinese style Eggplant in Sweet and Spicy Sauce...Trimurti!!

Chinese style Eggplant in Sweet and Spicy Sauce…completes the Chinese trilogy...Gong Xi Fa Cai!! J

Chinese style Eggplant in Sweet and Spicy Garlic Sauce

Ingredients: 

• Japanese Eggplants, cut into 3 inch by ½ inch long batons/wedges, 3 (or 1 large round Eggplant)
• Dried Red chilies, 2-3, broken into 2-3 pieces each, 1-2
• Fresh Red chili, finely chopped, 1-2
• Garlic, finely chopped, 3-4 cloves
• Shaoxing rice wine, 1 ½ tsp (you can substitute with equal amount of vinegar)
• Vinegar, 1 ½ tsp (preferably Chinese black vinegar, you can substitute with either balsamic vinegar or even regular white vinegar)
• Soy sauce, 1 tbsp
• Honey, 1 ½ - 2 tsp or brown sugar
• Spring onions/Scallions, finely chopped, 1-2, (use both white and green portion)
• Oil, 2tbsp + ½ tbsp

Instructions:

If using the large round eggplant, sprinkle the batons with salt, mix well and leave to drain in a colander for about half an hour.

Heat a wok or a large pan over high heat. I prefer using a large pan as so that I can cook eggplants in a single layer without tossing around too much. If using a wok or a smaller pan you may have to fry in batches.

Once the pan is hot, pour in 2 tbsp oil and swirl around to coat the base.

Drop in the eggplants and fry for about two minutes on each side – till eggplant is nice and golden and soft without losing its shape – don’t stir or toss around too much. Remove the eggplants and keep aside.

In the same pan, add in ½ tbsp oil. Add in the broken dried red chilies and fry for 4-5 seconds. Add in the garlic and the fresh red chilies (keep some aside for garnishing later)

When the garlic starts to change colour, add in the spring onions (keep a few greens aside for garnishing later).

Sauté for a couple of minutes and add in the Shaoxing rice wine, vinegar, soy sauce and honey/sugar. Mix well and add in the eggplant.

Toss around and let the sauce coat the eggplant well.

Serve immediately topped with the spring onions and red chilies kept aside.

Notes/Options:

• You can deep fry the eggplant – needless to say deep frying enhances the taste J

• Add in minced ginger along with the garlic.

• Skip the honey though it gives a nice glaze and balances the flavor.

• Use shallots instead of spring onions.

• Skip the vinegar and Shaoxing wine and use 1 tbsp chili bean paste or black bean paste.

• Make it saucier by adding some veg or chicken broth along with 1 tsp of corn starch mixed with 1 tbsp of cold water. Add these along with the rest of the sauces. Once everything comes to a boil and the mix thickens up, add in the fried eggplant.

Chinese 5 Spice Chicken with Soy and Honey...cluck cluck!!

Chinese 5 Spice Chicken with Soy and Honey…as promised…the chicken!! Another regular at home – sometimes with rice but more often with a huge salad on the side

Chinese 5 Spice Chicken with Soy and Honey

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken thighs and 2 drumsticks, bone in and skin on, ( you can go without skin and/or use chicken breasts if you want to go low cal, just adjust cooking time accordingly), weighed around 600 gms
• Scallions/spring onions or Chives, finely chopped, to garnish (optional)

For the marinade:

• Chinese 5 spice powder, ½ tbsp
• Soy sauce, 1 tbsp
• Honey, 1 tbsp
• Shaoxing rice wine or white wine, 1 tbsp
• Garlic powder, ½ tbsp OR Garlic cloves, finely chopped, 3-4 cloves
• Ginger paste, 1 tbsp (please don’t substitute with ginger power, it has a completely differently flavor profile)
• Red Chili flakes or Pepper powder, ½ tbsp or to taste
• Salt, to taste
• Oil, 1 tbsp

Instructions:

Whisk together all the marinade ingredients in a large flat dish. Add the chicken pieces to the marinade and mix well to coat.

Cover the dish and let it rest in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2-3 hours or up to overnight.

Bring the chicken back to room temperature and preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

You can...

EITHER:

Lightly grease the baking rack with place it on a foil covered baking dish. Arrange the chicken pieces in a single layer on the rack.

Cook uncovered, basting once or twice with the marinade, until the chicken is done, about 50 minutes with last 10 minutes at 200 degrees C.


OR:

If you want a little sauce to go along with rice, place the chicken with the marinade and 1 tsp of oil mixed in in a baking dish. 

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 40 minutes and then uncovered for the last 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees C. 

The juices from the chicken along with the marinade will give you just about enough sauce to drizzle over the rice.

Notes:

• Chinese 5 spice powder is readily available in markets and is normally a blend of equal quantities of ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground star anise , roasted and ground fennel seeds and roasted and ground Szechuan peppercorns. Some blends may also contain nutmeg and ginger. 

• 5 Spice blend is quite potent and may leave a slightly bitter taste if use in excess. Always use a small quantity. ( just like our very own Garam Masala) 

Chinese 5 Spice Pork with Soy and Oyster sauce...oink!

Chinese 5 Spice Pork with Soy and Oyster sauce…part of our lunch this past Sunday and luckily the man was out in the garden inspecting (or rather smirking at J) all the plants that I have managed to kill so far and I could get to click in peace…this is yet another one of Mo’s recipe (slightly adapted) and like all of her other recipes it has become one of the regulars at home…

Chinese 5 Spice Pork with Soy and Oyster sauce

Ingredients:

Pork, diced, 500 gms

For the marinade:

Shaoxing rice wine or white wine, 2-3 tbsp

Soy Sauce, 1 tbsp

For baking:

Corn starch, 2 tbsp

Chinese 5 spice powder, ½ - ¾ tsp

Salt, to taste

Pepper, 1 tsp

For the stir fry:

Onion, cut into wedges and petals separated, 1

Garlic, finely chopped, 6-7 cloves

Celery, finely chopped, 1-2 stalks

Green chilies, finely chopped, 1-2 (remove seeds if you want)

Soy sauce, ½ - 1 tbsp

Shaoxing rice wine or white wine, 1 tbsp

Oyster sauce, 1 tbsp

Spring onion/Scallions, whites and greens separated, whites cut into inch long pieces and greens finely chopped, 4-5

Oil, 2 tbsp

Instructions:

Marinate the pork with wine and soy sauce. Let it rest in the refrigerator overnight or a minimum of 4-5 hours.

Bring the pork back to room temperature and preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Discard all the marinating liquid from the pork and sprinkle the pork with the corn starch, Chinese 5 spice powder, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly so that all the pork pieces are covered properly.

Arrange the pork pieces on a well greased baking tray and cover with foil.

Bake covered for 30 minutes and then remove the foil and bake for another 10-12 minutes uncovered. When baking after removing the foil, turn the sides a couple of times to ensure all sides brown up nicely.

Once the pork is done, heat the oil in a wok.

Add garlic and fry for a about a minute or so. Add in the green chilies, celery, onions and white spring onions. Toss around and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

Add in the baked pork, wine, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Toss and mix everything well together. Let the veggies and pork cook together with the sauces for 3-4 minutes.

Garnish with green spring onions. Serve hot.

Notes:

• Chinese 5 spice powder is readily available in markets and is normally a blend of equal quantities of ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground star anise , roasted and ground fennel seeds and roasted and ground Szechuan peppercorns. Some blends may also contain nutmeg and ginger. 

• The blend is quite potent and may leave a slightly bitter taste if use in excess. Always use a small quantity. ( just like our very own Garam Masala) 

Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins...the day after!!

Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins…so what do you do the day after the whole hullabaloo of Valentine’s Day…you go blue! J (or black or even back to that pink and red !!)

Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins

(Recipe adapted very slightly from Joy of Baking)

Wet Ingredients:

• Eggs, lightly beaten, 1 large
• Buttermilk, 240 ml (1 cup) { I use 240 ml milk and add 1 tbsp vinegar to it, keep it aside for 10 minutes before starting on the recipe}
• Any falvourless Oil, 120 ml (1/2 cup)
• Vanilla extract, 5ml (1 tsp) 

Dry Ingredients:

• Regular All Purpose flour/Maida, 325 gms (2 ½ cups) *refer to notes
• Demerara Sugar or Granulated sugar, 150gms (3/4 cups)
• Baking powder, 10 gms (2 tsp)
• Baking soda, 5 gms (1/2 tsp)
• Salt, 1.5 gms (¼ tsp) 
• Zest of one orange or lemon (optional)
• Fresh or Frozen berries (blueberries, raspberries or blackberries or a mix of all), around 200-220 gms (around 2 cups) {I used only fresh blueberries. If using frozen, please do not defrost the berries first) *refer to notes

Topping: (optional)

• Granulated sugar, 1 tbsp

Instructions:

Optional Step:  If using fresh berries, take a handful and keep in the freezer a couple of hours before starting. If starting from frozen, just keep a handful back in the freezer till ready to use.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.

Butter the muffin tray and line with paper liners.

In a large bowl, sieve in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, salt and zest. Gently fold in the blueberries (if using all frozen, be extra gentle).

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract.

Now fold in the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.(and again if using all frozen berries, be extra gentle and careful – some berries will burst and colour the batter a bit but ensure most stay whole)
Stir only till the ingredients are combined – overzealous mixing will result in tough muffins and you don’t want that (and hence muffins recipes are perfect for lazy cooks like me). 

Using an ice cream scoop or two table spoons, evenly fill in the muffin cups with the batter – till about ¾ full.

Take out the berries kept aside in the freezer. Dust with a teaspoon of flour and top the prepared muffins.

Sprinkle the granulated sugar on top of every muffin.

Place in the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 22-25 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the centre of the muffin comes out clean. (A minute or two extra if you want extra crunchy top, like we do) 

Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the muffin tray.

Makes 12 regular sized muffins.

Notes:

• When using frozen berries, I reduce the flour quantity to 275 gms and add 50 gms of oats to the dry ingredients. Oats help absorb extra moisture released by the frozen berries. The baking times also increases by about 8-10 minutes...in my oven it takes about 29 minutes.