Swiss Chicken Wing Recipe (瑞士鸡翼)

"Sweet Swiss chicken wings. Simply easy to cook, and delicious to savour."

Thanks to my readers who love my recipes. You gave me ideas on what food to cook and explore at times. I was requested to cook Swiss chicken wing this time. In fact, I wanted to cook this dish since my last taste of the Swiss wing at the cafe in Hong Kong during my trip there back in Sep.

As well-known by many foodies, especially Hong Kong residents, Swiss chicken wing is not originated from Switzerland. Swiss wing is believed to be a great creation by a Hong Kong chef. Hence, Swiss chicken wing is popularly served in many cafes and restaurants in Hong Kong. Some even considered this as HK cafe delicacy.

Swiss chicken wing is also known as Sweet chicken wing. It tastes simply aromatically sweet, and so, be named as 'Sweet' chicken wing, but later being misinterpreted as 'Swiss' by the diners due to poor communications between the diners and the servers in the original restaurant (which first created and served this dish) who do not speak proper English back in those older days. It is then rather popular to be called the Swiss chicken wings.

To cook this dish, bigger chicken wings are usually recommended as the wings will shrink after braised.
This recipe is simple and easy to follow. Taste is great, simply sweet with aromatic soy sauce flavor. It's sweet, and definitely kid-liking good!

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
10 pieces of 3-joint large chicken wings
1 teaspoon of chicken powder
4 tablespoons of premium light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
80 - 100 gram of raw rock sugar (about size of golf ball or slightly bigger, amount adjustable depends on the desired sweetness)
1/2 teaspoon of Sze Chuan Pepper aka Hua Jiao (花椒粒)
1 star anise (八角)
1 clove of garlic, lightly mashed
100 ml of water

Method
1) Season chicken wings with the listed ingredients in a large bowl. Mix and dredge the seasonings on the wings to ensure all sides of each wing are well seasoned. Cover bowl with cling wrap and marinate chicken wings for at least 30 minutes.

2) Transfer marinated wings together with the marinating sauce to a large pot and cover the pot with lid. Cook the wings on low-medium fire. Simmer the wings for about 30 minutes, or until the wings are cooked tenderly. You may adjust the heat while simmering to avoid over bubbling. Also, gently flip the wings occasionally to avoid wings from sticking on the pot and to ensure the wings are browned evenly on all sides. Heat off. Serves with rice or noodles.

A serving of two Swiss wings with steamed rice counts about 460kcal.

Tips: Unless you are going to marinate the wings overnight or more than an hour time, refrigeration is not necessary for 30-minute marinating process. You may season the wings directly in a large stove-proof pot and bring it to a cook using the same pot, then.
* Do not over cook the wings to prevent the joints from disintegrating. 30 - 40 minutes should be the right cooking time.

Rum Raisin Chocolate Lava Cake Pudding (冧酒提子心太軟)

"Impress your loved ones with this homemade romantic heart-melting sweet savoury this season"

Merry Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho!

Remember I told you that I took up a baking lesson during my last Hong Kong trip back in Sep? I went there to learn an iconic & famous chocolate dessert which is very popular in Hong Kong, the Chocolate Lava Cake Pudding aka Melting Heart. In Chinese word: 心太軟. Pronounced in Mandarin as "Xin Tai Ruan", and In Cantonese, "Sum Tai Yun". It literally means heart too soft. Just like the flowy chocolate lava in the cake, it's soft and... melting.. Try to imagine you bake this "Melting Heart" dessert for your loved one and he/ she feels so touching with his/ her heart melting to your love... Ahh.... (smile).

So, I thought I shouldn't delay this posting anymore, but to share the recipe with you guys. To get it prepared and baked for this coming heart warming season, Christmas day!

This chocolate cake pudding is definitely very suitable to be baked during this festive season. Present this adorable and delicious cupcake-sized sweet treat (instead of the usual log cake) to him/ her after a romantic dinner, and it will surely make a statement in your celebration this Christmas!

Yields 8 cups or single 6" cake
Ingredients
3 medium eggs
60 gram of cake flour plus some extra for dusting on the baking cups
10 gram of sugar
150 grams of butter (plus some extra for greasing the baking cups), room temperature
150 grams chocolate, melted

2 tablespoons of raisins (about 40-50 raisins), soaked in 2 tablespoons of dark rum for 30 minutes or longer.

Decorations/ Toppings:
Snow sugar or Icing sugar
4 strawberries with leaves remained intact, halved

Equipment:
8 cup cake-sized baking cups baking tin
Eletrical mixer
small plastic strainer (for dusting of snow sugar for decorative purpose)

Method
1) Break eggs, add flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Beat with hand mixer or eletrical mixer at high speed till well blended, for about 3 - 4 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent uneven mixture.

2) Add in butter and melted chocolate. Continue to beat till mixture is well blended, for another 3 minutes or less.  The texture of the mixture should be creamy now.

3) Preheat oven at 200°C, for about 15 - 20 minutes. In the meantime, prepare for the baking cups. Use a small brush, lightly grease each cup with butter. Then, lightly dust the cups with flour.

*How you do the dusting is: Place half a teaspoon of flour in a cup. Tilt and hold the cup 45°, and then, roll it all-round to coat the flour on all area of the inner side. Pour out the excess flour and tranfer to the next cup for dusting till all cups are done.

4) Now, scope about 1 tablespoon of cake mixture into a cup. Then, top about 5 to 6 raisins in the middle of the mixture. Thereafter, top more cake mixture to cover the raisin inside. Do NOT fill up the cup. The mixture in each cup should be just slightly more than half will do. Repeat step till all cups are done. The amount of cake mixture should be used up for just 8 cups. No more, no less. :)

5) Put all the cups on a flat baking tray and place on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 5 - 7 minutes. Check its doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle at about 5-minute baking time. The toothpick inserted into the bake should comes out clean.

6) Remove cup cakes from the oven and let it cool outside the oven for 5 minutes. Then, turn over the cup cakes and place each cake on a sheet of round cup cake paper. Remove the cakes from the baking cups. So, the top of the cakes should be facing down on the cup cake paper.

7) Lastly, decorate the 'top' of each cake. Dust some snow sugar on the cakes, using a small strainer to create snowy feel. Then, top 1 half strawberry on it. Ready to serve.

It is best to consume immediately or within an hour after baked so that the melting effect in the heart of the cake will remain flowy. Otherwise, reheat the cakes in microwave to regain melting lava effect.

1 cup-sized cake of my chocolate lava cake pudding counts about 360kcal.

Tips: You may pre-soak the raisins in dark rum overnight. Put them in a glass container, and store in the refrigerator before the use.
*Use of snow sugar aka snow powder is better than icing sugar as it will not melt easily.
* If you prefer making one single cake, substitute 8 baking cups with 1 single 6" heart-shape baking tin. Recipe remains the same.
** The effect of melting lava inside the cake will only remain runny for less than an hour, or it will be less lavaish and more or less set after a while. However, this will not affect the taste of the cake. Go ahead to reheat the cake before consume!

Overnight Camping & Visit in Jurong Bird Park Singapore

"Sleeping with the Flamingos"

Hey! I told you that I went for a sleepover camp at Jurong Bird Park on one of the Fridays in December. Yes, pitching of tents for a night inside the park. However, don't assume that it will surely an outdoor camping. Sad to say, it was not! We camped IN a air-conditioned function room by the flamingo lake. That's the camping experience for our precious Singapore children! Wahaha..

Actually, I personally find it not a bad idea with an indoor camping as there will be no mosquito bite, need not to feel hot in the sleep.. All we had is cooling air in the tent in that 'snory night'..

Well, just imagine that it is a camping in cold country during the Autumn season... Ahh... :D

Ok, it was a fun and educative trip, afterall. This camping event even allowed the participants to enter the restricted zone in the park where the bird hospital is.. It was an eye-opening experience to see how birds are treated medically in this modern city.. You'll feel sad to see those sick birds there. It also happened that there was a surgical treatment given to a tiny parrot during the hospital visit that day. We got a close-up view of how a lively bird to be put on sleep and laid on the surgeon to undergo an operation...

Just to share some photos with you here.. If you wish to see more photos of my camping and special visit events, simply log on to my FaceBook My Wok Life Fan Club which I have posted many more photos since yesterday (first-hand updates for my fans)!

Minestrone Soup

"The nights're getting colder and colder even in my year-long summer country, Singapore. So, nothing's better than having a hot hearty soup which easily cooked at home."

I always like Minestrone soup, and will choose this Italian vegetables soup whenever given a choice when dining out for Western/ Italian meal, but this was the first time I have this soup cooked at home. I wouldn't cook this for the family, usually, because I am the only one at home like tomato-based soup (Sob....)! None of them likes Minestrone soup since they are not a fan of tomato based soup. They wouldn't mind chicken noodle soup, but not the Minestrone. That's why I had never cooked this favourite vegetables soup at home! :(

So, why now? It's because I was home alone yesterday. Not reporting to work, as I am on hospitalisation leave for the rest of the year 2010 (Hey.. Don't gasp.. It isn't that long, k? It's just another week to end this year, alright? :D). I am resting at home to recover from a surgery treatment. Well recovering, and am able to do some simple cooking after a-week rest now.

To me, Minestrone soup is an easy and simple soupy lunch meal. Minestrone soup is about anything. It's about any vegetables you could find in your refrigerator and put them together in a tomato based broth for a good 45 minutes. Sound easy? It is, indeed. Let me show it to you, now. :)

Serves 3 - 4
Ingredients
1 bowl of chopped carrots, potatoes, celery, french beans, kidney beans
1 medium onion, chopped
2 stalks of fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup of short pasta (I used mini shell pasta)
1 clove of garlic, peeled and lightly mashed
1 small can of chopped tomato in juice (or canned whole tomatoes and chop them manually)
2 tablespoons of tomato puree (or Ketchup)
1 tablepoon of choppped Italian herbs

1 teaspoon of salt (more or less)
Pinch of grounded white pepper
Pinch of coarsely ground black pepper
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1200 ml of vegetable stock

Great accompaniment (Choices):
1 slice of toasted bread OR butter toast OR garlic toast OR crusty bread cubes

Method
1) Heat a large pot with olive oil over medium fire. Sauté garlic and onion till fragrant and softened.

2) Add the bowl of chopped vegetables and beans, as listed. Stir fry the ingredients for 1 minute.

3) Pour in chicken stock. Add in tomato puree and chopped tomato together with the juice in can. Stir to combine well. Cover pot with lid and bring it to a boil, for about 5 minutes.

4) Add in short pasta and let it cook for 30 minutes. Add in parsley, Italian herbs, white pepper, black pepper and salt, stir to combine and continue to simmer for 10 minutes on low heat. Heat off. Serve hot with crusty bread of your choice of flavours and shapes.

I served myself with my favourite Minestrone soup accompanied with toasty sliced bread. A simple plain toast is all you need to complete this hearty soup meal. Simply toast the bread on 170°C for 3 minutes.

Well, unless your crusty bread is rocky hard one, don't steep your plain toast in the soup for too long to avoid over-soften texture. Enjoy the aroma of the soup in your palate, at the same time, the crispiness of the toast which elevates your eating pleasure, just like enjoying the same experience of eating fried bun with Chilli Crab sauce. Yum yum..

Since this is a vegetables soup, it's pretty low in fat. A large bowl of my Minestrone soup counts about 180kcal (exclude plain toast of 70kcal).

For more options: Use of canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones was because the canned tomatoes together with the juice in can added into this cooking yields much richer flavour of the soup, but the choice is yours. As for the tomato puree, I preferred puree than Ketchup as it tastes better, to me. Increase the amount of tomato puree (or Ketchup, if this is opted for), if you are using fresh tomatoes and not the canned ones. The choice of vegetables is varied, too. You may add or substitute the listed recipes with cabbage, pea, baked beans, or zucchini.  Besides, the choice of short pasta can also be: elbow macaroni, spiral macaroni, alphabet pasta or broken spaghetti.

To prepare a REALLLY quick Minestrone soup at home, anytime, you may wish to prepare this tomato sauce base beforehand. Portion out and freeze to store it for many weeks or up to months. Take out only the required amount to simply cook this Minestrone soup by adding the vegetables, broth and 2-3 tablespoons of my homemade tomato pizza sauce which good for the soup, too.

Bon Appétit!

Tips: This is a vegetarian soup. If you prefer to have some meaty flavour in this soup, substitute vegetable stock with chicken stock. Add more stock/ broth or reduce addition of tomato puree, if you prefer clearer (more subtle flavour) soup.
* Use Italian herbs in this recipe help to liven up the overall flavour in the soup. Alternatively, use a mixture of oregano, brasil and thyme, or either of these herbs.

Walnut & Diced Chicken Stir-Fry (核桃炒鸡丁)

"Healthy delicious chicken dish. What's more?!"

Crunchy on walnuts, flavorful on chicken dices with mild sweetness yielded from the addition of honey in this dish. This is a dish likable by both the kids and adults.

In fact, I have this recipe and had the dish cooked up quite some time ago, but did not share so quickly due to lack presentation effect in my food photo. It's too monotonous with just a single tone of brownish colour on the plate. So, I wanted to cook this again to take and show you a nicer picture of this dish before I could post it up. However, I decided to post this recipe now, after reconsideration as I think the sharing of any good recipe is more meaningful than showing off pretty picture.

Here's my recipe for walnut chicken and hope you like it.

Serves 4
Ingredients
300 gram of chicken fillet, diced
100 gram of walnuts, toasted
1 red chilli, deseed and sliced
1 piece of thumb-sized young ginger
2 teaspoons of rice wine
1 teaspoon of grounded white pepper
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of honey
100ml of water½ teaspoon of cornstarch

Seasoning for chicken fillet:
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of chicken granule
Pinch of ground white pepper

1 cup of cooking oil (For frying use)

Method
1) Dice chicken fillet. Season with light soy sauce, white pepper and chicken granule for at least 30 minutes. Set aside.

2) Mix water, salt, rice wine, honey and cornstarch in a small bowl. Stir to combine well into slurry. Set aside.

3) Heat wok with 1 cup of oil over medium heat. Place walnuts into the heat oil and fry till fragrant and golden brown. Remove from wok, drain and reserve for later.

4) Using the same oil in wok, heat up again over high heat. Place diced chicken and quick fry till lightly browned. Remove from wok, drain and set aside.

5) Remove excess oil in wok and left only about 1 tablespoon. Add in ginger and chilli, stir fry till fragrant. Return chicken and walnuts. Continue to stir fry for about 1 minute. Add in the condiment slurry listed in step 2. Then, stir fry to combine all ingredients well. The slurry should be thicken almost instantly and chicken and walnuts will appear grossy. Heat off and dish up.

A serving of my walnut diced chicken counts about 360kcal.

Tips: To ensure crunchiness in the walnuts without any burning effect, use low-medium fire to fry till completely cooked. Alternatively, toast in the oven at 170°C for about 5 minutes or less. This will make your dish even healthier.
*Do monitor the toasting closely to avoid burning.

Clear Soup Mee Tai Muk (汤米台目)

"Flavourful soup noodle dish with Asian-type short bouncy rice noodle"

Other than plain porridge, this soup noodle dish would be my first option whenever I need some light meals.

Since this is a soup dish, it was so nice to have during this rainy season, especially in the cold nights. It makes my entire body warm by having the warm soup in the stomach.

Taste of this soup base was full as I added Thai fish sauce. So, addition of milk is no longer necessary here.

Well, It's easy to cook, easy to eat, and tasty to enjoy as light meal.

Serves 4
Ingredients
600g Mee Tai Mak aka rice noodles (in Chinese: 米太目)
8 quill eggs, hard boiled
8 pieces of store-bought fish paste wanton
4 chili fish cakes (white flat type fish cake with cut red chili in it), sliced
250 gram of minced meat, seasoned with 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of chicken granule, ½ teaspoon of sugar, followed by 1 tablespoon of corn starch, for at least 20 minutes

For soup base:
1 large pig's bone
2 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1 thick slice of ginger, about thumb size
1 cube of chicken stock essence
1 teaspoon of Thai fish sauce
½ teaspoon of salt
Pinch of grounded white pepper
1 teaspoon of cooking oil
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500ml)

1 separate pot of water (for blanching of mee tai muk)

Method:
1) Heat large stock pot with oil over high fire. Add in garlics and ginger. Stir-fry till fragrant, and pour in water while it sizzles. Bring pot of water to a boil.

2) When boiled, reduce heat to medium fire. Add pig's bone and dissolve stock cube in the simmering water. Reduce heat to low fire and let it continue to simmer for 30 minutes, with lid slightly tilted on the pot.

3) Remove lid, remove the pig's bone from the soup. Lightly loosen the marinated minced pork before adding into the pot. Then, add in fish wanton, fish cake and quill eggs. Drizzle fish sauce, add in salt and pepper. Gently stir to combine well. Simmer further till all ingredients are cooked, for about 6 - 8 minutes.

4) In the meantime, bring separate pot of water to a boil. Blanch mee tai muk in the boiling water for 5 minutes. Heat off. Drain and divide into bowls.

5) When soup is cooked. Heat off and ladle soup with ingredients into each bowl. Serve hot.

For more options: Add pumpkin or papaya into the soup cooking to make it taste sweeter, if desired.
* If you do not want to add pig's bone, try adding ikan bilis (dried anchovies) instead.

A serving of my clear soup mee tai muk counts about 380kcal.

Tips: As the minced pork meat was seasoned with generous amount of corn starch, the soup might turn a little thicker or murky with the addition of the minced meat. This makes the soup even tastier with texture.