“It might sound familiar to you, but this is my new dish.”
I was so excited when had the first taste of it as I was unsure how the taste would be, actually. This is an entirely new dish which I have created and cooked just last night, I considered it as a success by the fact that the entire dish including the gravy was entirely wiped up. Mum kept praising and describing to me how flavorful the dish was, and even gave me idea to adapt the same recipe for tofu stew. Not just them, I had extra rice to go with this dish, too. :)
As usual, this is simple and fuss free to cook. If you need a flavorful dish to whet your appetite, cook this. :)
Ingredients
½ chicken, chopped into pieces
1 eggplant aka brinjal, arm-length, chopped into (chunky) pieces
2 tablespoons of spicy whole bean paste (辣豆酱)
1 small cube of fermented beancurd (豆腐乳)
1 heaping teaspoon of sugar
10 – 15 curry leaves, rinsed and pat dry
1 tablespoon of dried shrimps (虾米干), rinsed and pat dry
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Chili Padi, chopped
50ml of water
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
1 teaspoon of corn starch, mixed with 1 tablespoon of water to make into slurry
Method
(1) Heat claypot with oil over medium-high fire. Add garlic, dried shrimps, chili Padi and curry leave and stir fry till fragrant. Then, add spicy bean paste and fermented bean curd, and stir fry a little.
(2) Add chicken and water. Stir fry to mix all ingredients well. Add eggplant and continue to stir fry for few seconds. Then, add in sugar and stir fry to combine. Let it cook till bubbling, and then, reduce heat to low fire. Stir fry a little to reduce then heat in the pot, and cover pot with lid. Let it simmer for an hour.
(3) Before heat off, increase heat to high fire and stir in corn starch slurry to thicken the gravy. Serve hot with a big bowl of rice.
Put your diet on hold for the moment. A portion of this chicken and eggplant stew counts at least 350kcal! :p
Tips: The eggplant will turn mushy and its flesh will be disintegrated after long simmering. So, you may want to cut into chunky pieces.
* Add spicy bean paste together with some of its chili oil in the bottle to cook this dish.
Janice October 14, 2014
Hi PatriCa,
I came upon yr blog and found it rather interesting with workarble recipes for busy mothers like you.
My family does not take spicy food and I was wondering if you can advise the items to be substituted for it to be non-spicy ?
Many thanks in advance!
Janice
PatriCa BB November 9, 2014
Try to use bell pepper/ capsicum instead, or just don’t add the chili.