Soy Sauce Chicken With Old Cucumber (Slow-Cooker)

This is a soupy soy sauce take.

I love the slow cooker for many reasons and believe that I have mentioned this more than once on this blog. It's a convenient way to cook. The basics - put all the ingredients into the pot, walk away for couple of hours while it works it's magic. The other reason I like it is that it draws out a rich, smooth flavour that is indescribably pleasant and makes meat oh-so-tender.

This is a dish I cook fairly often, with many variations. Carrots, potatoes, lotus root, dried red dates are some of the ways I change this recipe about.

The soup has a mild flavourful taste. I enjoy eating the cucumber flesh. This chicken dish is best eaten with white rice.

Old Cucumber And Chicken On The Slow-Cooker, Flavoured With Soy Sauce

Old Cucumber Chicken (Slow-Cooker)
Ingredients:
- ½ chicken
- 1 large old cucumber (remove seeds in the center, slice with skin on)
- 1 large onion (cut into chunks)
- 2 tbsp wolfberries (rinsed)
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- ½ tsp light soy sauce
- 3 cups hot water
- Fresh coriander for the garnish

To season chicken:
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- ½ tsp light soy

How-to:
1) Season chicken with light and dark soy sauce. Leave aside. Prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2) Switch the slow cooker on. Set on high. Add three cups of hot water into it.

3) Place onions, wolfberries and old cucumbers inside. Drizzle a little light soy and oyster sauce over. Stir.

4) Place the chicken on top. Slow cook for about 2 and a half hours (cooking time may vary), until chicken is lightly browned and tender, but not overly.

5) Serve garnished with fresh coriander.

1) Place vegetable ingredients into the slow-cooker.
2) Placing the chicken on top.
3) Almost done!

Tip: Baste the chicken (with either oyster sauce or the soup itself) after 1½ hours and continue cooking for a lovelier brown.

Soy Sauce Chicken With Old Cucumber (Slow-Cooker)

A Close-up - Chicken, Old Cucumber, Wolfberries, Coriander!

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Curdled Milk Chicken (Slow-Cooker)

I know the name of this dish isn't attractive, but it turned out to be a delicious experiment.

Inspired by Jamie Oliver's Milk Chicken recipe, but dying for convenience, I threw it into the slow cooker with my fingers crossed. The results were surprisingly good. Imagine bits of savoury silky soft tau foo fah (soybean pudding) with chicken. That's the closest description I can come up with!

Curdled Milk Chicken (Slow-Cooker)
Ingredients:
- ½ chicken (rub with salt, to taste)
- 2 large potatoes (cut into chunks)
- 1 medium red onion (slice into chunks)
- 1 key lime
- 4 calamansi limes (green stage)
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup water
- Salt to taste

How-to:
1) Set slow cooker on high. Add ½ cup water. Leave aside.
2) Heat butter in another pan.
3) Sear chicken and potatoes until lightly browned.
4) Transfer all the ingredients into the slow cooker (potatoes first, chicken on top). Add the onions in.
5) Sprinkle a little salt around. Squeeze key lime and calamansi juice over (seeds removed). Pour milk in.
6) Cook on high for 2 hours and 15 minutes (cooking time will vary). Chicken should be tender, but not until it breaks into pieces too easily.

1) Ingredients for curdled milk chicken. 2) Sear the chicken with butter.
3) Transfer seared ingredients into slow cooker. 4) Add milk, lime juice, season and cook!

Curdled Milk Chicken Fresh Out Of The Slow-Cooker!

Curdled Milk Chicken Garnished With Fresh Coriander

Best eaten on it's own. I went with rice. Habits die hard.

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Pumpkin Chicken With Razor Shells and Cauliflower (Slow-Cooker)

'Tis the season for giving, as it is with a number of festivals in Malaysia. This includes Chinese New Year!

Before traveling back to the husband's home town, I gave each of my friends a box of mandarin oranges. It was a Fedex same day delivery thing. We zoomed to several homes on the Sunday we had purchased it, dropped the festive-looking box off and greeted friends with 'Gung Hee Fatt Choi ' in advance.

Senior citizens hold a special place in my heart, so I usually pack a red bag of goodies for them. This may include canned mushrooms, dried food, nian gao, a packet of nuts, festive cookies, essence of chicken, bird's nest - typically food which carries good meaning or is said to contain health improving properties.

I'm sure those who celebrate this occasion would have received a little something from friends and family. My home is laden with goodies from food hampers. I am always grateful and excited to get these because it helps me save on grocery shopping.

Tips for sorting out food hampers
1) Group similar items together.
2) Arrange by expiry date.
3) Plan the week's menu to include hamper items. 
Begin with items that will expire first.

This is one of the dishes I cooked last week where I have cleared off a food hamper item. I can now mark canned 'Sea Asparagus' (Razor Shell) off my list!

Pumpkin Chicken With Razor Shells and Cauliflower (Slow Cooker)

Pumpkin Chicken With Razor Shells and Cauliflower (Slow Cooker)
Ingredients:
- ½ chicken (685g)
- 1 large garlic clove (sliced thinly)
- 1 cup cubed pumpkin
- 1½ cup cauliflower florets
- 425g canned sea asparagus/razor shell (rinsed)
- 1 sachet Kee Hiong Chicken Soup Spices
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- Handful of fresh coriander (roughly chopped)
- 3 cups hot water + 2 cups room temp water
- Additional water for boiling
 
How-to:
1) Brush 1 tbsp oyster sauce all over the chicken.
2) Add 5 cups water into the slow cooker. Set on high. Stir the remainder of the oyster sauce and white pepper in.
3) Place spice sachet in, along with garlic and pumpkin. The chicken goes on top. Cook for 2½ hours. Never open the lid in between.
4) At the 2-hour mark and in another pot, boil cauliflower until cooked and sea asparagus for a couple of minutes. Set aside in a colander or a strainer to drain away excess water.
5) Arrange the boiled ingredients onto a deep plate, along with the chicken and pumpkin. Pour the soup over.
6) Serve garnished with fresh coriander.

Note: Equipment used for this recipe : 3.0L capacity Faber Slow Cooker.
Cooking time and results may vary between slow cookers.

Best eaten on its own or with rice. For added oomph, complete the meal with a soy sauce-sliced chilli dip.

1) Pumpkin and garlic slices. 2) Brush chicken with oyster sauce.
3) Adding fresh ingredients into the cooker along with seasoning and spice sachet.
4) Place chicken on top.

Arrange all the ingredients on a deep plate.

I will try to give an idea how this tastes like - the soup has a pleasant sweet-savoury flavour with a hint of Chinese spice aroma. Cauliflower is blessed with a natural mild sweetish flavour so it compliments this dish although it was boiled only in plain water. The razor shells, on the other hand, are mildly saltish. Combined together, it's all thumbs up for me!

Garnish with fresh coriander.

Pumpkin Chicken With Razor Shells and Cauliflower (Slow Cooker)

Out of curiosity, what kind of items would you prefer to receive in a festive food hamper?

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Key Lime Chicken and Lotus Root Soup (Slow Cooker)

A bowl of chicken soup, chopped bird's eye chili in soy sauce and rice qualifies as a yummy and complete meal for me.

I'm always excited about using the slow cooker. It's the third most used cooking appliance in my home after the rice cooker! What's first? The electric multi-cooker. I'm rarely on the gas stove although it was where I really learned how to cook. The multi-cooker is just too convenient to use - it's equipped with a steamer top too.

Key Lime Chicken and Lotus Root Soup (Slow Cooker)

Back to the recipe. Taste-wise, there is nothing sourish about this soup. It's a nice blend of savoury lime flavour and chicken juice. The meat is tender.

Here's how I did it.

Key Lime Chicken and Lotus Root Soup (Slow Cooker)
Ingredients:
- ½ chicken
- 1 large onion (cut into segments)
- 2 key limes (halved, seeds removed)
- 1 fist-sized lotus root (sliced thinly)
- Salt to taste (Just under ¼ tsp was enough for me)
- 2 to 3 cups water (hot)
- Fresh coriander for garnishing

How-to:
1) Rub salt onto chicken. Leave aside.
2) Pour 1 cup water into the slow cooker. Switch cooker on and set on high. Add in onions and lotus root. Spread around.
3) Place chicken on top of onions and lotus root.
4) Squeeze key lime juice over and sprinkle a bit of salt in.
5) Add more water around the sides.
6) Cook for about two and a half hours (cooking time may differ). Baste once after one and a half hours.
7) Serve with fresh coriander.

1) Place onions and lotus root slices into the slow cooker.
2) Place chicken on top, season and add more water.
3) Cooked, after two hours!

This Slow-Cooked Chicken needs fresh greens to liven it up!

Best eaten with rice, accompanied with bird's eye chili dipped in soy sauce. For greens, fresh coriander works for me. Serving with lettuce arranged on a deep plate with this hot soup poured over, is also a delicious way to go about it.

Tender Key Lime Chicken and Lotus Root Soup (Slow Cooker)

Enjoy!

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Slow Cooked Ginger Kampung Chicken

It's also known as Sigun in East Malaysia and Malay chicken in other parts of the world.*

I was ecstatic. They were selling whole kampung chicken at a tag of RM3.50 in Tesco. It's usually priced between RM15-RM20. The due date was the next day. I thought, "Why not?" I'm always looking out for bargains and here it was.

That's me - I complain when it's too expensive. I'm suspicious when it's too cheap. The chicken was examined thoroughly. I looked for faults, anything that allowed me to say, "Yeah, I knew it! That's why they were selling it off cheap!"

Slow Cooked Ginger Kampung Chicken

I didn't find anything out of the ordinary, of course. That's how it landed in my slow cooker. Why the slow cooker, you ask? Simple. Kampung chicken is known for tough meat and the slow cooker is an adept tool for cooking anything into a delicious tender state. Meat goes weak in the presence of a slow cooker.

This recipe was born out of a I-feel-like-adding-this-and-that moment. It comes served in ginger gravy with a mix of rice wine. I was giddy for more and it wasn't from alcohol effects. This tasted yummy and wholesome.

Ingredients:-
- 1 whole kampung chicken (600g)
- 2 large pieces of ginger (a palm-sized piece - chopped)
- A handful of fresh spring onions (chopped)
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- A dash of black pepper
- ¼ cup tapai (Sabah rice wine)
- ¾ cup water

How-to:
1) Marinate the chicken with oyster sauce and a dash of black pepper. Leave aside for an hour.

2) In a pestle and mortar, pound chopped ginger and spring onions together, into a rough paste.

3) Pour water and tapai into the slow cooker. Place the chicken into the slow cooker. Pour the remaining oyster sauce that had accumulated in the bowl over the chicken.

4) Spoon ginger paste around the chicken. Pour the remaining ginger juice over the chicken.

5) Cook for 2½ hours on high. Quickly baste chicken using the gravy in the cooker. Continue cooking for a further 30 minutes or an hour until chicken is tender to your liking.

6) Serve garnished with fresh coriander.

This is best eaten with rice.

Note: Watch the water level at the 2½-hour mark. Add a little water with tapai, if necessary. These measurements are perfect for my slow cooker. For experienced slow cooker users, adjust liquid quantity accordingly at the beginning.

Marinate with oyster sauce and black pepper for an hour

Pound ginger and spring onions together

Place chicken into slow cooker

Here you go - lovely browned kampung chicken garnished with fresh coriander.

Slow Cooked Ginger Kampung Chicken

There is none of that overpowering gingery taste in this dish. The long cooking process and sweetish tapai diluted the intensity into a nice rich flavour. So don't be worried about putting in a lot of ginger.

Showing Off My Ginger Kampung Chicken Masterpiece

* (Sources: http://community.worldheritage.org/articles/Malay_(28chicken) , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkX4d6OQcwU )

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Chicken with Apples and Sweet Potatoes (Slow-Cooker)

I consider the slow cooker my best friend. Slurp worthy soups and totally random finger-licking meat recipes have been made in it.

It's like a fun game - toss into pot, wait-see and voila! Something magical happens. Food comes out tasting great even with very little seasoning. The wok, on other hand, is tougher to master because it involves playing around with flavour and fire.

So give me the slow cooker any day and I will whip up a perfectly good meal without much ado ...but if you want a taste, buzz me "hours" before you pop over!

Slow Cooker Chicken with Apples and Sweet Potatoes

This is the latest adventure on my favourite cooking utensil ~ whole chicken with a bunch of green apples. It's fairly simple to do.

Apples ...again?
 
"Why-you-no-like-apples!", I respond in manglish. My mother would have said - Apples are good for you. Eat it. It's healthy.

Ingredients:
- 1 medium whole chicken
- 6 green apples (remove skin, cut into cubes)
- 1 large sweet potato (cut into cubes)
- 1 red chili (sliced into squares)
- 1 large onion (cut into wedges)
- 1 tomato (cut into cubes)
- 1 calamansi / calamondin (halved, seeds removed)
- Dried oregano, rosemary leaves, pinch of salt and ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp light sweet soy sauce
- ½ cup water
- Greens like lettuce or pea shoots for serving 

How-to:
1) Season chicken very lightly with a pinch of salt. Add black pepper, dried oregano and rosemary. Rub evenly inside out. Stuff some apples into the chicken. Leave aside.

2) Place cut ingredients (apples, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions, chili) into the slow cooker. Place chicken on top of ingredients.

3) Squeeze calamondin juice all over.

4) Set slow cooker on high. At the two-hour mark, lightly brush soy sauce over the top of the chicken. Cook for another one and a half hours. 

5) Serve on top of greens of choice. Eat as is.  

From top-left, clockwise : 1) Ingredients 2) Cut ingredients are placed into the cooker.
3) Chicken is seasoned and placep on top. 4) Cooked on high, done in three hours plus.

Slow Cooker Chicken with Apples and Sweet Potatoes
served on a plate of fresh Pea Shoots

Enjoy!

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Winter Melon Pork Soup (Slow-Cooker)

It is always a good day for soup, so people say, and I agree. Chilled soups for humid season, hot soups for cold nights.

Admittedly, I've only ever been a fan of hot soup. Dunk in some bread and I have all the juice I need to vacuum the entire house before I start thinking about ..grilled steak, teriyaki chicken, Abbe's chocolate cupcakes, Shirley's pasta and the sort.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Winter Melon Pork Soup

This is clear soup, made the the slow-cooker way. Long hours of cooking breathe a lot of flavour into soups. For me, very little seasoning is required. Some may find the taste too light but I enjoy plain soups as much as rich ones.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of pork ribs
- 6 dried mushrooms (soak in water to rehydrate, this can take 1-2 hours or more)
- 1 cup winter melon (cut into cubes)
- 5 baby carrots (halved)
- 4-5 cups water
- 2 stalks spring onion for garnishing (chopped)
- Pinch of salt and pepper

Ingredients: Spring onions, Pork ribs, Dried mushrooms, Winter Melon
...oops, where's the carrot?!

How-to:
1) Place all the ingredients into the slow cooker.
2) Season with a just pinch of salt and pepper.
3) Add water.
4) Set cooker on "high" and cook for 3 hours.
Taste and season further, if required. Cook for another 30 minutes to infuse the flavour. 
5) Serve garnished with chopped spring onions.

Toss all the ingredients into the slow cooker

Add water and carrots (I forgot these), season!

Winter Melon Pork Soup garnished with spring onions

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Slow Cooked Beef Goulash

Slow-Cooked Beef Goulash

It was the perennial question - "what to cook for dinner". I had fresh beef. That helped a lot. At least it narrowed down the recipe search. Eve suggested that I make Goulash out of it, a paprika based stew with spices.

G-o-u-l-a-s-h ....sounds exotic. Why not!

I was skeptical about having only paprika in the stew. It seemed ...harsh somehow. There were many tug-of-wars in my mind about adding tomato into the mix - pureed, mashed, chopped and more tomato related thoughts. But I stuck it out and stayed on the paprika course. I was trying to be as "Hungarian" as possible! There were no regrets. It turned out fabulous.

Who knew that paprika could be more than just a pinch on anything...

A lot of flavours went into this stew so it's hard to describe the taste. I'll try! It's a little spicy but not as hot as I'd imagined and not the curry kind I was used to. A cross between chilli and pepper spiciness. Am I making any sense? All I can say is that it's addictive and goes nicely with the likes of naan, flatbread and even rice.

The recipe.

Ingredients:
- 500g beef (for stews, cut into chunks)
- 3 medium potatoes (peeled and diced)
- 1 cup diced pieces of pumpkin
- 1 red chili (halved and sliced into squares)
- 1 clove garlic (chopped)
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 2 tbsp paprika powder
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 stalks fresh coriander (chopped)
- 2-3 dried bay leaves
- Salt, to taste
- 1-2 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 cups hot water, or more

The ingredients

How-to:

1) Season beef with a bit of salt. Leave aside.

2) Heat oil in pan. Saute the onions and garlic.

3) Add the beef. Fry until it's browned a little. Then, add the potatoes, pumpkin and chilli. Stir well.

4) Add paprika and brown sugar into the mix and stir well. Transfer all the ingredients into a slow cooker.

5) Add 3 cups hot water or more, along with fresh coriander and bay leaves. Cook on high for 3½ hours or longer. Into the second hour, I mashed some of the pumpkin pieces in the slow cooker using a spoon.

6) Taste and season with more salt if necessary, in the last ½ hour of cooking

Note: 3½ hours was enough for me. Meat is tender, but not falling apart.

Paprika goes in. Mix it well.

Into the slow cooker it goes, along with some water, coriander and bay leaves

Beef goulash and flatbread! Yum!

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