Black Pepper Chicken Spaghetti

I seldom prepare Western food, unless for special occasions or simple pasta meals. I have always heard that tomatoes go well with black pepper sauce. Hence, this time, I decided to cook this dish to try out and it turned out great!

Ingredients

Butter

1 small potato cut into cubes

Salt

Black Pepper

Chicken thighs (My hubby prefers boneless)

Lee Kum Kee Black Pepper Sauce

Sugar

Water

Cornflour mixture (Water and cornflour)

Tomato (diced)

Spaghetti

Olive Oil

Steps:

Potato:

1. If you are not cooking the potatoes immediately, soak the potato cubes in salt water to prevent it from turning black before cooking.

2. Add olive oil then butter into the frying pan. This will prevent the butter from turning black quickly.

3. Add in the drained potato cubes and stir fry till golden brown.

4. Sprinkle some salt and black pepper.

Chicken:

1. Add olive oil then butter into the frying pan.

2. Add in the chicken thighs and brown them on both sides.

Sauce:

1. Keep a bit of the butter left over from cooking the chicken.

2. Add in the LKK black pepper sauce and water.

3. Add a bit of sugar if it is too spicy.

4. Adjust the consistency by adding in the cornflour mixture.

5. Add in the diced potato and stir for a few minutes.

Spaghetti:

1. Boil a pot of water.

2. Add in a pinch of salt and olive oil.

3. Add in the spaghetti and boil for 15 minutes. I finally found the perfect texture of the spaghetti by boiling for 15 mins. Feel free to boil them till the consistency that you like.

Drain the spaghetti and combine all to serve.

滷肉飯

In Taiwan, they have very big bookshops and there are books everywhere. It is amazing that the Taiwanese love reading and will hang out in the bookstores for hours. There was this bookstore that has more than 4 storeys of books and I was busy selecting the cookbooks.

滷肉飯 is one of the popular Taiwan dishes and I found this recipe in one of the cookbooks that I bought. it is really yummy! :)

Ingredients

600g pork (Preferably 五花肉)

5 shallots

Salt

Sugar

Dark Soya Sauce

Soy Sauce

1.5 litres Water

2 八角

Steps:

1. Diced the pork into 1cm cubes.

2. Add oil into wok, brown the shallots.

3. Add in pork and stir till the pork is almost cooked.
4. Add in the salt, sugar, dark soya sauce, soy sauce, water and 八角.

5. Simmer using low heat for 2 hours.

Cream of Chicken Soup

I'm finally back from all my travelling - Taiwan and Singapore. One of the first recipes I tried when I'm back in HK is this Cream of Chicken Soup. In general, I don't trust recipe books, it is more practical to learn from all the housewives' blogs since they are tried and tested and relatively simpler. However, I do buy those mini cookbooks. One of them is the "Chicken Favourites" and I decided to try this soup.

Ingredients

50g Butter

1/2 onion, finely dices

1 garlic cloves, crushed

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

100g chicken breast, diced into 1 cm cubes

1.5 tablespoons of plain flour

0.5 litres of chicken stock (If you are using the off the shelf chicken stock, do add water if you think it will be too salty and strong)

60ml cream plus 1 tablespoons to serve

Steps:

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add onions, then garlic, then celery over low heat. Stir frequently so the vegetables don't brown for 15 mins.

2. Add chicken and stir frequently for 5 mins.

3. Add the flour and stir for another 5 mins.
4. Add the chicken stock, a little at a time, stirring well so that lumps don't form.
5. Bring to simmering point, then cook uncovered for 30 mins.

6. Allow to cool then put them into the blender.

7. Pour the soup back into the saucepan and add the cream, simmer and season to taste.

8. Pour into bowls and add the extra cream to serve.