Chinese Steamed Chicken

Steamed chicken is popular in some Chinese homes, especially Cantonese.  It is one of the many comfort foods that I cherish since childhood.  My comfort food spans from Indonesian to Chinese cuisines due to the fact that I was born and partly raised in Indonesia in a Chinese home.  This recipe is healthy and versatile, you can delete any of the supplemental ingredients in the recipe below if you want to.  Furthermore, you can adjust the marinade seasonings to your taste as well.

Oriental Eggplant

Eggplant is a versatile vegetable and used in many foods around the world.  Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Indian, Thai, and many others have eggplant as one of their main vegetable dishes in their cuisines.  You can either use it for curry, casserole, roasted, fried, sauteed, steamed, and on.  There are also different types of eggplants - big and round Italian eggplant, the long and slender Chinese eggplant, the short and thin Japanese eggplant.  The textures are slightly varied between them but very insubstantial.

The following recipe is shared to me by my 3D decoupage instructor, Kyoko.  She is an excellent cook and I love her foods, which is mostly Japanese.  This is one of her wonderful Japanese recipes that I am sharing here in the blog.  Unlike the Chinese version that has thicker sauce to it, this recipe is not too far off in terms of taste, flavor and texture to its Chinese counterpart - sweet, tangy, ginger and garlicky palate to it.  This eggplant dish is always popular whenever I made it for potluck or get together.  You can always opt to steam them instead of frying the eggplants if you choose the healthier version and don't mind a nod down in regards to taste (that's the trade off).  I have tried both versions.

Kato's Japanese Cabbage Salad

This is a simple salad that is delicious and great for summer BBQ or potluck.  I made this salad frequently for potlucks due to popular demands from friends who had tried it.  Interestingly kids love this salad and they often requested their moms to ask me bring this salad to potluck parties.

Five Spice Tofu with Sesame & Chili Oil

Chinese five spice tofu is rich in nutritional value, especially iron.  This recipe is easy to make and delicious to eat with a bowl of rice.  It's also versatile - you can substitute the other ingredients with anything else that you prefer. Adding chopped cilantro provides a complimentary flavor. 

Garlic Basil Sauce for Fish

Ingredients:

• Fish - either fried or baked first, medium size
• Olive oil - liberal amount, enough for sauce like
• Basil - 3 to 4 branches of basil leaves only
• Garlic - 1 big whole clove, finely chopped
• Honey - 2 teaspoons
• Soy sauce - 2 teaspoons
• Garlic chili sauce - 2 teaspoons
• Lemon/lime - 1/2 of its juice

Directions:

1. Stir fry liberal amount of olive oil and garlic over medium high heat until the garlic starts to cook/brownish
2. Add basil leaves and honey (to taste if preferred), switch heat to medium and continue to stir fry for a bit longer (5 minutes or so)
3. After basil softens, add garlic chili sauce & lemon/lime juice
4. Pour over the fish (fried or baked)

Recipe courtesy of Stephen Chew