:: smells like home ::

these are the smells of our home today

 

sunshine and freshly laundered vintage table cloths
hopefully soon to be transformed into skirts and foraging satchels

and one of our all time cold weather favourites

 

this is not the best photographic representation but i wish you could share the aroma of the steam rising off the pot.
it fills our house with a warm ginger, garlic & aniseed perfume

 hai nan chicken
 a traditional malay dish
 (aka chicken rice)

the spicy warm aromatics of this dish greeted us when we returned to the house cold and tired after another big school holiday outing 

Hai Nan Chicken
1/2 to 3/4 fill a large stock pot with water, 5 or 6 cloves of star anise, a sliced 8 cm piece of ginger, 8-10 cloves of garlic, 2 stalks of lemon grass, 4 green shallots cut into 3 cm lengths, salt, white peppercorns.
bring to the boil
lower an average size chicken into the boiling water,

boil for 15 minutes
turn off the heat, cover the pot and allow the chicken to steep for several hours.
because the chicken steeps in the flavoursome stock it will absorb the tastes and retain all of its moisture
 

when ready to serve, 
place some chicken fat into a wok, heat and gently sweat off some eshallots that have been finely chopped.
place the rice (unwashed) in the wok and coat it in the fat and onion mix.
cover the rice (about 2 cm over the level of the rice) with chicken stock from the  pot that the chicken was cooked in. allow it to boil then reduce the heat , cover the wok and leave it until the rice is cooked
serve with stir fried green vegies and some traditional yellow bean and chilli paste

Comments

[Kate]

I'm loving your washing photos. I so miss hanging washing on the line (no point here over winter). Your table cloths are gorgeous, I can't wait to see them all sewn up. I hope you are having a happy week. X
ps. thanks so much for knitting tip. I'm sure it wont be too long before I get to try it out.

[sue]

The chicken recipe sounds and looks fantastic. I think I could live on food like that forever, unfortunately my family wouldnt!

[Anna]

Yum! I often order hainan chicken when I get to one of those laminex-table-chinese-cafeteria-type places. I think I'll definitely have to try it :-)

[Kirsten]

Oh, YUMMO! I'm gonna have to give that a try :)