This is the signature dish in my family. This is one I associate with all big family meals and it's one my favorite dishes. It starts with copious amounts of ginger and garlic, finely chopped with a food processor.
Fresh chicken broth is made by poaching whole chickens. This was the first of three that Mom fit into the pot.
The rice is the best part of the dish. Generous portions of ginger and garlic are toasted in hot oil. Freshly washed rice is added and the grains are cooked until translucent.
Instead of water, the fresh chicken broth is used to cook the rice. Pandan leaves and lemongrass stalks are placed in the broth and the rice is cooked as usual in the rice cooker.
The poached chicken is cut into smaller pieces and served with a garlic/ginger dipping sauce.
Just for fun, I'm including a video of Mom going to town on the chicken. There's a wide range of boning and carving knives out there, but all she needs is her trusty meat cleaver.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
The Mom Series: Hainan Chicken and Rice
Labels:
Chinese,
Malaysian,
Singaporean,
The Mom Series
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3 bites:
Sounds like a wonderful meal! Loved the video...wish I could handle my cleaver that well! So just how much ginger and garlic was that?? I can just imagine how good that kitchen must have smelled :-)
I peeled 5 heads of garlic. :) I think Mom peeled two big roots of ginger. The metal dish is 8-9 inches in diameter, so that was a lot of diced ginger and garlic! It smells incredible, especially since all of it goes into hot oil. That smell is enticing, but for me, it takes me home. Growing up, I smelled that smell almost every day.
Wow, 5 heads of garlic! YUM!!