I get asked quite often why I like to cook. The first reason I give is normally because I like to eat. I am Thai and food is a big factor in our culture. We greet each other with hello followed by 'have you eaten? When guests turn up at your house it's safe to assume that they will expect to be fed.

The second reason is that as I grew up in the Northeastern part of Thailand, the poorest region, food was always hard to come by. We weren't hungry as there was always rice, but it was difficult finding something to go with rice. Now I do have ingredients to go with rice, I want to cook!

Sunday, 24 January 2016

Hainanese Chicken Rice.



Hainanese Chicken Rice (Thai Version)

(Strong Asian Flavours)

Serves 6.

One of Thailand's most popular street foods. The dish was brought to South-East Asia by early Chinese immigrants from China's Hainan Province but the Thais have truly nationalised it. Also popular throughout South- East Asia but I really do believe we do it best.

Equipment:
Rice cooker.

Preparation:
1.7kg free range whole chicken.
Cut excess skin from the chicken, sprinkle with salt.

In a frying pan, fry
-chicken skin, with
-4cm,thickly sliced,ginger,
-1 clove, roughly crushed, garlic, 
Cook stirring until the skin has turned slightly golden brown, do not drain, leave to cool in pan until needed.

In a large casserole pot, put in
-2 litre water,
-1litre chicken stock,
-6cm,thickly sliced, ginger,
-3 cloves,roughly crushed,garlic,
-1 large onion, peeled, quartered,
-2 celery stalk, cut into chunks,
-2 carrots, cut into chunks,
-a few stalks fresh coriander.
-2 tbsp oyster sauce,
-2tbsp soy sauce,
-1tsp sea salt.
Bring to the boil, add
- chicken.Then turn the heat right down, you should only be able to see a slow, steady streams of bubbles. Cover with a lid.
Leave to simmer gently for 45 minutes. 
Turn off the heat but leave the chicken to continue to cook in the residual heat for another 30 minutes.
When ready to serve, remove the chicken, put the stock back on the heat so that you'll have a hot broth to serve with the finished dish.

                Sauce:
-4cm ginger, finely chopped,
-2cloves garlic finely chopped,
-2tbsp salted soy bean, crushed with the back of a spoon(optional),
-chillies (as many as you dare)
-1tsp Palm sugar.
-8 tbsp light soy sauce.
-1 tbsp dark soy sauce.
-juice of 1 lime.
-1tbsp chopped coriander.
Combine the above ingredients in a bowl. Adjust seasoning to balance the flavour. Leave aside (the sauce tastes better if you leave it to sit for a couple of hours).


For the rice (serves 4 adults) In the rice cooker, put in
-4 cups of rice, washed, add
-fried chicken skin,ginger and garlic (and some of the cooking oil) add
-liquid from the stock pot. The liquid should be around 2 cm higher than the rice.
The rice cooker will tell you when the rice is ready.

When ready, 
-de-bone the chicken, slice into 1cm slices.
Serve with
-rice, 
-soup from the stock pot,
-spicy sauce,
-fresh vegetables.

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