Steamed Chicken with Preserved Wet Plums Recipe | Easy Asian Cooking

Preserved wet plums and preserved black beans perk up the steamed chicken with their sourness, and it's perfectly complemented by the sweetness of the chicken marinade. It tastes heavenly after steaming which seamlessly harmonize both flavours.

Chicken is justifiably one of the highly consumable meats within my family, the reason is, it is low in fat, is protein rich and exceedingly versatile. If you are an observant, you probably will notice that I opt for making poultry dish instead of beef or mutton, as I detest the high intense of goaty flavours. Fortunately my hubby is not as picky as I am over meat favourism.

This dish essentially relies on the commercially available preserved wet plums and black beans, which you can easily get from local groceries in wet market or supermarket. Bird's eyes chillies impart a slight hint of spiciness, which otherwise is unnoticeable. The finished dish, I would say, is an appetising dish smothered in the bath of sweet and sour sauce. It's a great companion to steamed white rice.

Ingredients :
2 chicken whole legs, cut into pieces
2 preserved wet plums, mashed
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp chopped bird's eyes chillies (cili padi in Malay)
1 tbsp preserved black beans, soaked and chopped

Seasoning :
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

Method :

1. Combine all ingredients, seasoning and marinade the chicken legs, let it stand for 30 minutes.

2. Steam at high heat for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. Serve immediately with rice while it's still hot.

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Spare Ribs in Black Bean Sauce Recipe | Easy Asian Cooking

Pork spare ribs are slightly browned and slowly braised in savoury fermented black bean sauce with garlic until tender. Black beans provide colour, flavour and texture in this easy to make entrée recipe.

Fermented black beans (豆豉) can hold their own unique salty and spicy flavor against the earthy flavor of spare ribs, and when it pairs with the spiciness of the red chillies, it's pretty alluring to the palate. The combination of flavours just simply get our taste buds screaming for more!

My childhood memories are vivid with images of mum preparing piping hot porridge with canned braised mud carp with fermented black beans (豆豉鯪魚) and preserved turnips omelette (chai poh nui in Hokkien) whenever I was down with fever. Thus I have been acquainted with similar dishes whenever my body's temperature soars, making braised mud carp with fermented black beans my natural comfort food to go well with gruel (thin watery porridge), realizing that I need to replenish lots of waters to tone down my body heat. Other common dishes made with fermented black beans is steamed spare ribs with fermented black beans and chilli pepper (豉椒排骨) and spare ribs in black bean sauce (蒜子豆豉骨), which I will lay out the later for you here.

Excerpt from wikipedia :

Fermented black beans (豆豉) is a popular flavouring used in Chinese cuisine, made by fermenting and salting soybeans, which turns the beans black, soft and mostly dry. But it should not be confused with black turtle beans, which is commonly used in the cuisines of Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.

蒜子豆豉骨食谱

Ingredients：材料
1 tbsp oil for stir-frying
3 tbsp chopped garlic
3 tbsp fermented black bean (aka salted black beans), soaked for 20 minutes and drained, coarsely chopped
3 red chillies, seeded and sliced into pieces
600g pork spare ribs, trim and cut into serving pieces

Seasoning : 调味料
1 tbsp shao xing wine (Chinese rice wine or dry sherry)
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
400ml water

Method : 做法

1. Heat the wok on medium-high to high heat and add oil, when oil is ready, reduce the heat to low, sauté chopped garlic and fermented black bean until fragrant. Then add in red chillies and onions, stir-fry with spatula until aromatic.

2. Turn to medium-high to high heat, add in spare ribs, stir-frying until they are lightly browned, then add in seasoning and bring to boil. Then reduce to medium low heat, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes or until the spare ribs are tender. Dish up and serve.

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