Food Makes Me Happy

Aug 9, 2018

Braised Chicken with Black Sesame Oil and Goji Berries 麻油枸杞雞

Goji berry is the name that most Chinese people are familiar with, but do you know that it can also be called as wolfberry?

Why wolf? Such cute little red berry doesn't feel as fierce as a wolf. Following a brief research, I found out that goji berry is actually a type of wolfberry, but except some specific types of goji berries, both goji berry and wolfberry carry similar color and taste. And many sellers use goji berry as a commercial name for wolfberry. With its mild sweetness and a slight hint of herbal note, goji berries can balance off the heaviness from the black sesame oil used in this recipe. Pop in one or two jujubes for stronger scent if preferred.

Braised chicken with black sesame oil and goji berries 麻油枸杞雞 -

Ingredients?

1/2 medium sized chicken (cut in large bite size pieces, bone-in, skin-on)
12 pre-fried tofu cubes
1/3 cup goji berries
6 garlic cloves
4 ginger slices
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
Some chicken stock
Some black sesame oil
Some salt

How?

Drench pre-fried tofu cubes with hot water, drain and set aside. This helps in drawing out excess oil from the tofu. Peel garlic cloves.

Take a clay pot, drizzle sesame oil and add in whole garlic cloves, ginger slices, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Turn to medium high heat. Wait till the pot gets hot and sear these ingredients till aromatic and slightly browned.

Transfer chicken pieces to the mixture and give them a quick sear. Pour in rice wine and enough chicken stock to merely cover the chicken pieces. Also add in 1/2 teaspoon of salt again, along with tofu cubes, and goji berries. Bring to a boil then lower the heat to keep the mixture to a simmer, cover with lid.

Cook for about 20 to 25 minutes, check and flip the chicken once a while so all sides can cook more evenly. Also make sure the liquid doesn't dry out, reduced is fine, but not completely gone. Taste and adjust with salt if needed.

These yellow tofu cubes actually taste better than the chicken, since all the juice and flavors got absorbed. Once taking a bite, some juice might get squeezed out, so watch out!

Other Chinese chicken recipes:

Aug 4, 2018

Steamed Salmon Fillets with Thai Style Dressing

Never good at eating fish with bones, so boneless fish fillet has always been one of my top choices when it comes with cooking fish. I've been buying fillets straight from the market, but perhaps I should learn how to fillet whole fish myself, so I get to keep the bones to make some fresh fish stock, it'll be great for soup noodles. But for now, let's stick to the simple route.

Steamed salmon fillets with Thai style dressing -

Ingredients?

8 salmon fillets (thickness around 1 to 1.5 inches)
Some salt
Some black pepper
Some Chinese cooking wine

Sauce -

4 garlic cloves
1 stalk scallion
1 lemon
1 red chili
6 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

How?

Wipe the salmon with cooking wine then sprinkle both sides with tiny bit of salt and regular amount of black pepper.

Steam till nearly cooked through, mine took about 7 to 8 minutes. Once done, transfer salmon fillets to the serving plate/s.

As for the sauce, trim off scallion and red chili stems then give them a fine chop. Peel and chop the garlic cloves. Chop the cilantro. Grate the ginger. Zest whole lemon but use only half of it for the juice. Mix all these ingredients together with fish sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

Taste and adjust the flavor of the sauce if needed.

Drizzle the sauce over salmon fillets. Sprinkle some ore coarse ground black pepper before serving.

No fuss cooking recipe done! Easy prepping and absolutely easy cleaning. Not a seafood lover? This recipe works for chicken tenders too.

Other fish recipes: