Broccoli

 There are two methods to prepare broccoli to cook.  This is the Western way.

I prefer the Chinese way to prepare it. Chef Lau, who used to run a Chinese restaurant, shared in this video how broccoli should be selected and cooked.

I read from Woks of Life that chefs in Chinese restaurants blanch the broccoli first because it cooks faster and speeds up the stir frying process.  This dish can be cooked with meat added.  

These are the ingredients you need to cook the dish:

This is a dish that I cook with pork on a weekly basis because my daughter loves it.  I do not blanch my broccoli to cook it. To wash it, I cut each florets out and soak them in water with coarse salt added.  As the florets will float up, I will place a plate over them so they stay beneath the salted water.

I do not use baking soda as I use a meat mallet to tenderise the pork.

Frozen in this size, I can use them to fry pork cutlets.  I usually cut one to two pieces into strips if I need them in vegetable dishes like this.  This is my simplified method to cook it.

Ginger Soya Sauce Chicken

During my younger days, during Chinese New Year, my grandmother will boil a whole chicken.  The boiled chicken will be placed on the altar.  The broth will used to cook chicken rice.  After prayers, the chicken will be cut up to be eaten with the chicken rice.

The leftover chicken from lunch will be used to fry Ginger Soya Sauce Chicken to be served for dinner.   I discovered from this video that the Thais have the same tradition as we Chinese have.  This is a Thai version of Ginger Soy Chicken ไก่เค็ม (gai kem).

These are the ingredients required:

I do not boil a whole chicken for prayers during Chinese New Year too but I boil soup on a daily basis.  I usually steam additional dishes or heat them up over the pot of soup I boil for the day. If I need cooked chicken to make this dish, I will place my cut chicken in a bowl and steam it over my ABC Soup. The liquid in the bowl can be used instead of water to flavour the dish.  I can also pour it into the ABC soup to enhance its flavour even though I have already added pork soup bone to boil it.

This is my Malaysian version of Ginger Soya Chicken.