Chicken stew

When I was younger, I used to love my mother's chicken stew. It had everything good and comforting in it - chicken, potatoes, onions, carrots and champignon mushrooms. I should emphasise that this is not your regular stew. This is chinese stew. A stew that you would eat with rice on a scorchng hot day. It's not comfoort food. It's just plain yummy.

Well, as I grew older and learned to cook, I would say that this dish should probably be called braised chicken. However, I will follow in my mother's footsteps and call this a chicken stew.

At the end of 2010, I took Mom to visit Nicole and Elizah in one of my favourite capital cities in Australia - Canberra (ok, I know I'm weird - lay off me! I like the Can!) Deb helped dogsit and as a thank you, I cooked a few meals for her - one of which was this chicken stew of mom's. She was watching, so there was a lot of pressure. My proudest (and funniest) moment was when she tasted the stew, turned to me and said "Can I have the recipe?"

Deb later on told me that she loved loved loved it as well, and I thought that I should make that for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, I fell asleep on the couch and did not have time to cook the stew for as long as I liked. So I thought maybe I should attempt a quick version of the stew, so here it is:

400g of chicken thighs (free range if possible)
1 onion (cut into wedges)
2 carrots ( cut into chunks)
Two cloves of garlic - chopped
Oyster Sauce (about three table spoons)
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
Three shakes of sugar
A dash of white pepper
About half cup of white wine (whatever's left in the fridge)
Enough water to coover the chicken

1. Cooking oil in the pot, and fry the garlic and onion until the onions are transluscent.
2. Add the chicken and continue frying.
3. Add the rest of ingredients and simmer until the liquid is reduced (in this case, if you are making a QUICK chicken stew, add less liquid and simmer until thickened slightly).

And VOILA! Quick chicken stew - Mom's style! :) I served it with some rice and stir-fried veggies (in this case, it was some kale, rocket and asian leaves Luke got from the supermarket).

Oktopodi

In preparation for my Chinese New Year Reunion dinner, I went to the shops to get some chicken and fish. Three whole chicken for $9.99 and about $18 a kilo for a whole Ocean Perch. I think. I can't even remember, but I don't think it was too expensive. Anyway, I couldn't help but notice some gleaming octopus at the Island Markets. Hm. I LOVE octopus. I pay freaking $20 odd dollars to have some  pickled octopus at the greek stores and when I was at the Estia festival last (Estia? I'm unsure of the spelling), all I ate was grilled octopus on the barbeque with some Ouzo. $7 a plate, and let me tell you - I can eat about 10 plates! :)

SO, I thought it would be a good idea to get some octopus. Some greek salad with some greek styled BBQ octopus (without the BBQ of course). The lovely people at Island Markets gutted and scaled the fish for me, but when I asked them whether they were willing to clean the octopus, it was a no go. No matter, I could totally clean and gut an octopus. I tuff.

I was so NOT.

I brought the octopus and dunked it in the sink. The whole time, I was psyching myself up "It's ok Ness,you can do it Ness, it will be fun Ness". Didn't work. I turned the water on and reached to grab it, but the minute I touched its head, I squealed like a little piglet. It was DISGUSTING. More than anything, it was the eyes that were STARING at me and the head was just ALIEN. *shudder* No deal.

So Luke came running into the kitchen and agreed to cut out the eyes, remove the beak and the ink sack. After that it was all on me. And to be honest - after the eyes were removed, it was a lot easier.

After I cleaned the octopus, I took a stab at attempting to marinate it Greek style, so in the same bowl, I added four cloves of chopped garlic, oregano, salt and olive oil.

Word to the wise - if you are attempting to cook BBQ squid, use a freaking barbeque.

Well, I didn't have one, so I thought that I would pan fry it. Bad idea. The octopus was swimming in its own juices.

The end result? The meat was sweet, tender and juicy. Completely worth the work and the squeals. However, I think that the recipe could be improved tenfold with the use of a barbeque. Might give it another go when we finally get one.