Chicken & Long Beans Stir Fry with Fermented Black Beans

Ingredient love.
Say hello to Chinese fermented black beans. I don't know why I didn't use this ingredient more often. A bag of it sat quietly at the corner of my fridge, so close to being forgotten.

How could I?

A savory girl like me. I should be ashamed.

It's an amazing ingredient.
It's very savory.
It's perfect with garlic.
And chilli.
It gives humble old dishes, just like my chicken and long beans stir fry, the extra oomph.
Use sparingly though, a little of this ingredient goes a long way.


Recipe
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1-2 small red chilli, chopped, remove seeds to tame the heat if necessary
- a bunch of long beans, cut into about 5 cm long sections
- 2 chicken thigh fillet, remove skin, cut into bit sized chunks
- 1 tbsp fermented black beans
- olive oil, corn starch, sugar, fish sauce

"Marinate" chicken chunks with two heaping teaspoon of corn flour, a bit of oil, fish sauce and sugar. Saute garlic and chilli in hot oil, add chicken chunks, add the fermented black beans, cook until you get a bit of brownage, and the meat's cooked. Add long beans, cook until it softens a bit, adjust seasoning if necessary, cook until the long beans reach the level of softness you like, serve hot.

Perfect with lots and lots and lots of rice.

I introduced this ingredient to my helper and now she can't get enough of it ^_^'

Black Chicken (Silkie), Mushrooms & Coconut Soup

When I was browsing through my photo folder to see which food gets flaunted shown off shared today...I suddenly realised that...I still owe you a soup recipe from my junk food fest birthday bash!

The feeling of owing a lot of people (and by "a lot of people" I meant...like two of them ^_^) is not good.
- It's like there's a heavy stone that needs to be lifted off my heart (I was told that this is a result of eating too much unhealthy food and burping will easily solve this)
- It's like there's a heavy person sitting on my shoulders (I was told that this is only natural for a person who spends almost her whole waking hour in front of a computer)
- It's like there's something that clouds my mind, demanding solutions (I was probably only thinking about dinner right after lunch)

I guess all of my "not good" feelings aren't caused by my owing people recipes after all :p

Anyway, here's another super simple recipe.

You love super simple recipes, don't you?

Recipe
- 5 cups of mushrooms of your choice (but straw mushroom and its earthy scent is a must for me), cleaned, sliced
- A pack of coconut meat that's chopped into pieces, rinsed
- 1 silkie chicken (black chicken), rinsed, pat dry
- olive oil, water (or stock), salt, pepper, sugar

Heat up a pot, saute mushrooms with olive oil, add the rest of the ingredients, add water (or stock), bring to boil, lower down heat and simmer for min 2 hours, remember to skim the floaty fatty bits. Season with salt and pepper, add a bit of sugar if you want to have the tasty effect of MSG (without adding MSG), serve hot.

Subtle chicken flavor, earthy mushrooms, sweet 'n smooth coconut...nuff said.

Why did I use black chicken (silkie)?
- I haven't tried it before
- Black is so "in" this winter
- My Chinese friends told me that it has more health benefits (lower calories, lower fat content, more antioxidant) than our good ol' regular chicken
- I was told that it is more mildly flavored than regular chicken (sc hates chicken that smells too "chickeny")
- Have you seen a silkie before? They're so mighty cute I started to feel bad cooking them~

Would it work with regular chicken? I think it would, try it and let me know?