5 Spice Chicken Congee

I had chicken that was over marinated because we left it marinated for way too long. So what to do with a salty chicken? Make congee with it :)
Turned out it was a pretty awesome mistake. It made a weeks worth of breakfast and some lunches since you can reheat it in the microwave in the mornings.

5 Spice Chicken Congee

Time: 60 mins Makes: 1 big pot of Congee

Ingredients

• 1 Cornish Hen or 1 Small Chicken (depends on how much meat you want)
• 1 muk or 1.5 muks of rice (frozen over night)
• 1/2 tsp or 1.5 tsp salt (pending on which bird you picked)
• 1/2 tsp or 1.5 tsp 5 spice powder (pending on which bird you picked)
• 1 green onion
• 1 cm block of ginger
• 1.5 - 3L of water

Directions

1. Wash your Cornish hen or chicken. Dry and then rub the chicken with the salt and 5 spice powder. Let it sit for 30 minutes to marinate or leave overnight in fridge if you desire.
2. Start off with 1.5L of water and bring to a boil.
3. Wash the green onion and ginger. Cut the green onion into smaller pieces and put both green onion and ginger into the water.
4. Add the rice
5. Once the water is back up to a boil, add the hen. The amount of time it makes Congee is about the amount of time required to cook a chicken so it's safe to add at the same time.
6.  Monitor the thickness of the congee and add more water as required. You'll probably want to increase it by at least 0.5L if you want to leave it unmonitored. 
7. Let it simmer at medium-low heat for half an hour until everything cooks through.
8. Once it's cooked, take 2 forks and shred the meat into the congee.

Serve hot. Great for breakfast or brunch. 

Chayote Squash and Pork with 雲耳 and/or 木耳

The Chayote in the picture above is home grown so they might look a little different from store brought ones.
This is an other one of those dishes where there are many different variations.

The very basic of this dish is Chayote, meat, soy sauce, sugar and cornstarch.
The onion, garlic and 2 types of black fungus is actually all optional.
The onion and garlic will add more flavour so I always cook with it as long as I have some on hand. But the fungus doesn't add flavour, just nutritional value.
My mother in law only cooks this dish with 雲耳
My parents likes to cook with both 雲耳 and 木耳.
I like to cook with both because I find the texture of both to be slightly different and I enjoy mixing the 2 together.

If you google the word of both types of black fungus, it'll return the same name in English! So when you go shopping, write these words down to find them both.

Chayote Squash and Pork with 雲耳 and/or 木耳

Ingredients

• 2 Chayote Squashes
• 150g pork neck 
• 1 small onion
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• handful of dried 雲耳 (optional)
• 5 dried pieces of 木耳 (optional)

Directions

1. Soak the dried 雲耳 and 木耳 for a couple of hours, or 30 mins in warm water.
2. Peel the chayote. Use a fruit peeler. You may want to use gloves to peel the chayote. I find it'll make my hand peel but it doesn't affect my mom in the same way. So give it a try.
3. Cut it in half. The seed is quite soft so you'll probably cut it right in half. Take the seed out. 
4. Cut it into slices like you would for apple slices. 

5. 

   This is 雲耳

   Cut the onion into strips. 
6. Cut the pork into thin strips and mix in a bowl with the soy sauce and sugar.
7. Once you're done all this, the dried 雲耳 and 木耳 should be ready for use. They should have expanded a lot. 雲耳 expands a lot more then 木耳. 
8. Lightly rub the expanded fungus to wash it. Rinse under the tap.
9. Check the back of the 雲耳 to see if you need to cut off any connection points. It should be small segments of hard white ridges. 
10. Cut it into 1 inch pieces so you can quickly and easily cook it. 
11. There usually isn't connection points on 木耳 but check and 

    

    This is the back of  the 雲耳

    cut away if necessary. Then cut into similar size as the 雲耳.
12. Heat a wok to medium heat, once it's warm add the oil, onion and garlic.
13. Once you smell the mixture cooking, add the chayote slices. Stir and let it cook at medium heat.
14. After 2-3 mins, add in the slice pork. Cook and stir. To speed up cooking time, cover for a bit in-between stir.
15. When the pork is about 80% cooked, add in the 雲耳 and 木耳
16. As usual, stir around to ensure it's getting cooked.
17. Cover and cook for another 2 mins and cover again and let it cook until the pork is done.
18. And you're good to go :)

Notes:
木耳 is firmer in texture where as 雲耳 can be softer.
Do not over cook either of them, especially 雲耳. It can be a bit slimy when overcooked so do not overcook it.

This is 木耳

Buttermilk Banana Bread

This is one of those baked goods that's more forgiving and easy to make.
All you need is a bowl and a fork and you can mix this by hand.
It's fast, easy and yummy. And it freezes well.
I use silicon modes to make bit size treats and freeze anything I want to keep for later

Buttermilk Banana Bread

Makes 12 normal size cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 40g buttermilk
• 40g vegetable oil
• 1 big banana, mashed
• 105g brown sugar
• 105g all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional, can be replaced by pecans as well)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and prepare your pans (either parchment paper or oil/flour them)
2. Mash the banana.
3. Add the egg, buttermilk and oil to the banana and mix.
4. In another bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, baking soda and salt and mix.
5. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
6. Pour into prepared pans. Add nuts to each individual cupcake to guarantee nuts in every bite. 
7. For cupcake size, bake for 20 to 25 mins or until cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean.
8. Remember to completely cool before you freeze.