FOOD QUOTE OF THE WEEK

REVIEW: READY-TO-COOK HAINANESE CHICKEN MIX

 "Life is a box of ready-to-cook-meals."

I'm quite picky with processed food preparations I have at home. It's the taste and the content of preservatives that bother me. Doesn't mean that I can entirely avoid it. My work schedule doesn't allow me to cook fresh meals all day everyday and I can't afford to eat out all the time.  So mixes like this ready-to-cook Hainanese Chicken sauce from Prima Taste sometimes saves the day, almost.

I say almost because there are too many cooking steps, it's hard to multi-task.  This is not the kind of food prep you just whip out of the box and put in the stove. Despite having to re-read the instructions over and over again, I ended up with an acceptable meal of rice, soup, chicken and condiment. 

The soup turned out to be a bit bland, you can add a little more salt if you want to. Make sure your chicken's at room temperature before cooking otherwise you will end up with uncooked chicken on the inside. The soy condiments were great but the grated ginger had lost the zing you get out of fresh ginger. The rice was the tastiest part of the ensemble. To get best results, use Thai Jasmine rice and mix it in the rice cooker after the "cooked" alarm goes off.

I suggest that you use mix this if you have no energy or time to cook  BUT don't make this if you need to do other things (i.e. work) while making your meal.

Straight from the box, here's the Hainanese Chicken Recipe.

INGREDIENTS

What You Need

Water Hainanese Chicken Rice Premix ** Whole chicken Long grain rice  Hainanese Chicken Rice Fragrance Oil ** Chicken stock (for Step 3)

2.5 litres 1 pkt 1.2 - 1.5 kg 500 g 1 pkt 610 ml

Condiments
 Sesame Soya Sauce Oil **
Chilli Sauce **
Chicken Rice Ginger Sauce **
Chicken Rice Dark Soya Sauce **
Cucumber
Coriander leaves

Suggested Soup Garnish
Soft bean curd (tofu), Lettuce (shredded), Coriander leaves, Spring onion

** Included in Prima Taste pack


TO MAKE

To Cook Chicken and Stock

1. To cook chicken stock, fill stock pot with 2.5 litres water, add Hainanese Chicken Rice Premix and bring to boil on high heat. Submerge chicken into the stock with its back facing up. Lower heat and simmer for approx 30 mins.

2. Remove chicken from stock and chill in ice water for 15 mins. Drain well, set aside chicken and chicken stock.

To Cook Rice

3. Mix rice, 610 ml chicken stock(from Step 2) and Hainanese Chicken Rice Fragrance Oil in rice cooker.

4. Stir rice gently after 5 mins and continue cooking. When cooked, fluff rice gently with chopsticks (while loosening rice, avoid the bottom of the rice cooker). Leave at 'Keep Warm' setting for 10 - 15 mins.

5. Put whole packet of Sesame Soya Sauce Oil packet in a pot of boiling water and boil for 2 mins. Remove from heat, cut open packet and pour into a bowl. Set aside at room temperature.

6. Chop chicken into parts. Arrange on platter, over a bed of sliced cucumber. Pour Sesame Soya Sauce Oil over the chicken and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with warm rice. In separate condiment bowls, serve Chilli Sauce, Chicken Rice Ginger Sauce and Chicken Rice Dark Soya Sauce as dips. 

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TRIED AND TASTED: WATAMI

Casual dining is a description most restaurants use to convey a relaxed dining experience with food worthy of fine dining but reasonably priced. Watami, with its structured furnishing and linear interiors, hits the right note. The people behind this global food chain call it ishokuya or scene + meal + restaurant.

I lost the facade photos so we'll have to make do with this artsy pile of dipping plates.

The menu is a different thing, though. It's obvious that they specialize in Yakiniku or grilled meat, there's one too many dishes on the list and you feel a bit overwhelmed, your first reaction is to order what you're familiar with. Which is why the first thing we ordered was our go-to Japanese appetizer, Gyoza served on a hot plate. This turned out to be a bit oily. I guess we should have stuck to the the boiled edamame.

We also had the Watami salad for starters. Though it's different from the Singapore version, the salad had the same concept of putting together a winning combination of fresh greens, steamed broccoli, corn, nori, corn, tomatoes, fried dumpling wrapper strips and bits of chicken teriyaki drizzled with roasted sesame dressing.

The hubby had cold soba- wheat noodles dipped in Mentsuya, a mixture of soy sauce, sake (Japanese rice wine), mirin (cooking wine), kombu (seaweed) and katsuomobushi (dried bonito flakes).

I also ordered the Katuboyaki or grilled fish head.  It was a bit overdone with a lot of the skin burnt black. The bitterness from the charred bits get in the way of enjoying the fish. Which was a pity because they had great ponzu sauce (citrus-based soy sauce).

I used the ponzu sauce on the Yakiniku Pork Belly instead. Each slice had a right amount of fat which kept the meat from drying up which made it a perfect partner for the slightly sticky Japanese rice. I ended up eating like a Pinoy in a Japanese restaurant. As my cousins would say #RicePaMore!

 

Watami
Address: 6th Level Shangri-La Plaza Mall - East Wing Shangri-la Plaza Mall
Shaw Blvd. cor. EDSA, Mandaluyong
Telephone: (+63 2) 570-1719

FOOD QUOTE OF THE WEEK

TRIED & TESTED: CLEAN PLATE

Organic menus are a rarity in the era of processed food. The Clean Plate by Twist is one of the few restaurants to offer GO-free, all-natural organic ingredients whilst supporting local farmers.  

The shabby chic interiors reflect the  healthy alternative that the Clean plate menu offers- comfort food made with ingredients consciously sourced and prepared. That last sentence might send you running away but it shouldn't. Organic food doesn't have to be bland and boring, as The Clean Plate tries to prove.

I tried the River Prawn Sinigang. The tamarind -based broth had the right Pinoy level of sourness and you could taste that they used fresh tamarind (not bouillons or powdered mix). Instead of kangkong, the dish had arugula for greens. I like the bitterness that the arugula brought to the dish. 

To see if it was any different, I tried the Bacon Lechon Kawali. It was a too bland for my taste. I like my fatty food saltier. It tasted like unsalted Bagnet lite. And as you can see, the serving was spare and small. I failed to ask if these were weighed for caloric counts. But surely, a heftier eater would probably be disappointed.

 

I guess organic food is a matter of getting used to. Though I can't imagine how one can enjoy unseasoned meat.  Maybe next time I'll try the breakfast bowls and grass-fed beef plates, they seem to promise more excitement for my palate.

The Clean Plate

Address: 2/F UP Town Center, Katipunan Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City

Telephone: 02 2770622

FOUND ONLINE: FUNNY FOOD LABELS

Googled "funny food labels" and this is what I got. I wonder which of these are for real?

Have you got any funny food label pics? Share the pics and a laugh here on my Facebook Page =)
Just click here to get linked!

CRAVING FOR ROASTED STRAWBERRY BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

I recently had a craving for strawberries so I went to the supermarket. After satisfying my palate pangs, I still had a handful left. So I decided to make my own strawberry vinaigrette to use in the for salads in the next few days.

You can try this one out if you have strawberries to spare.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup strawberries
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp stone ground Dijon mustard 
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

TO MAKE

• Prepare the strawberries by washing, removing the stems and cutting into halves.
• Preheat your oven to 425 °F.
• Get  baking tray and evenly position the strawberries.
• Place the strawberries in the oven.  The fruit will release its own juices. Roast until it caramelizes. That should be about 15 minutes for small Baguio strawberries, and 20 mintes for the big-sized ones.
• Once roasted, remove the strawberries and let it cool.
• Purée the strawberries along with the balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, stone-ground Dijon mustard, garlic and pepper. Make sure to include any strawberry juices in the baking trays.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Once the mixture is consistently smooth, pour it in a jar. 
• Keep refrigerated and serve cold.

Did you know that aside from being used as a salad dressing, vinaigrettes can also be used to baste meat? I wonder what the Rosated Strawberry Balsamic Viniagrette will be good for?