Soy-glazed Black Pepper Chicken

THIS. This chicken dish will knock your socks off! It's Hakka recipe #2 I'm sharing with you this year and you're gonna LOVE it. You should already know by now that I adoreThe Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anusasananan. This soy-glazed black pepper chicken recipe is what I'll be keeping for the rest of my life, and I'm not kidding here. It's one of the simplest chicken dishes you'll ever cook and it's got a big punch of flavors.

Linda had learned this chicken dish from a man named Ying Hsien who's father is a Hakka. Ying Hsien grew up in Northern India, and had moved to Toronto after the Sino-Indian war in the 60's because jobs became harder to find for the Chinese living in India. This soy-glazed black pepper chicken is what Ying Hsien learned from his mother in India, and I simply just can't believe that all it takes are four ingredients to produce such a distinct taste.

Don't let the color fool you! The chicken might look really really dark but it's not because the chicken is burnt. It's dark because of the use of dark soy sauce. I added water to the original recipe but if you're looking for a thicker, stickier sauce, adding less water to the pot will do the trick. The sauce will thicken up and reduce a bit as it cooks. I also deviated from the original cooking instructions and decided to sear the meat before braising which in my option makes a more tender bite. Searing will also change the overall texture by reducing fat from the chicken skin. And if you want to master this dish, use freshly cracked black pepper. It'll take you a few extra minutes of cranking on a black pepper mill but it'll enhance the spiciness of the dish by a mile.

Another tip when making this dish? Use a non-stick frying or saute pan. I love my Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick, and I don't think I can live without it. I've tried using my Lodge Dutch oven and another pan that wasn't non-stick, and the whole thing became a mess once the chicken and sauce started getting stuck to the bottom. It was not pretty and the sauce wasn't able to stick to the chicken as well as it could because it was mostly stuck on the pan. So I highly recommend using a non-stick!

And what's better to go with a super flavorful hunk of meat? WHITE RICE!

JUST LOOK AT THIS.

The outside is incredibly savory and aromatic while the inside is moist and tender. This is a dish I can devour everyday, hands down!

Soy-glazed Black Pepper Chicken

Prep time: 5 mins  Cook time: 50 mins  Total time: 55 mins

Serves: 2-3

You'll need:

• 2 lbs bone-in chicken thighs with skin, about 6 pieces
• 1 tbsp freshly cracked black pepper
• 1/4 cup dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp water
• chopped cilantro leaves, for garnish
• white rice, optional

Approach:

1. Trim excess fat off the chicken.
2. Set a deep frying pan or dutch oven over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add oil and twirl the pan to spread. Sear each side of the chicken tights for 5 minutes. Remove most of the oil/fat except 1-2 tablespoons. Add freshly cracked black pepper, dark soy sauce, and water. Twirl the pan a few times to incorporate all the ingredients together. Once the sauce starts to boil, turn down the heat to medium-low. Let chicken to cook for 20 minutes, then flip them and cook the other side for an additional 20 minutes.
3. Remove chicken from the pan or dutch oven, serve hot over white rice, garnish with cilantro.

Notes:

Adapted from The Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anusasananan.

Chinese Long Beans with Ground Pork (豆角炒肉碎)

Remember when I wrote that post a while ago about my Hakka heritage? Well, I kinda promise myself that I'd cook more Hakka dishes for the blog this year, and this Chinese long beans with ground pork is one of them. It's a stir-fry so it's really easy to prep, and you can have dinner on the table in a jiffy!

In Cantonese, we call Chinese long beans "dau gok" (豆角), and they are also known as Yardlong beans (but they're really not a whole yard long, more like half a yard). You can find them at most Asian grocery stores or markets. I've been eating dau gok since I was a kid, and can tell you that Chinese long beans are a little "chewier" and has a stronger green bean taste than regular green beans, they're usually skinnier in thickness, darker in color (although there are a handful of variety and I know there's even purple ones!).

There are a few ingredients that make this Chinese Long Beans with Ground Pork a Hakka dish. The use of pork, soy sauce, and fermented black soybeans called "dau si" (豆豉) in Cantonese. Fermented black soybeans are usually sold dried but sometimes you can also see them being sold in jars which the beans are soaked in liquid/oil. I'm used to the dried kind, and you'd just soak them in water for a few minutes then drain.

Fermented black soybeans are used in a lot of Hakka dishes as they carry a robust flavor that can be added to many hearty Hakka cooking. And if you grew up in a Cantonese household, you would know that a can of "dau si leng yu" (豆豉鯪魚), dace fish and fermented black soybeans, can go a long way with just a bowl of warm rice on those cold winter nights!

This Chinese long beans with ground pork dish, though, it's one of many Hakka dishes that my mom would serve on any given day. It just reminds me of her cooking and sitting at dinner with my family!

Chinese Long Beans with Ground Pork (豆角炒肉碎)

Prep time: 15 mins  Cook time: 15 mins  Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 2-3

You'll need:

• 1/2 lb ground pork
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• dash of white pepper powder
• 1/2 lb Chinese long beans
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp dried fermented black soybeans
• Sauce:
• 1/4 water
• 1 tbsp Chinese Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Approach:

1. Season the ground pork with soy sauce and white pepper powder. Set aside and let it marinate while you continue prepping.
2. Rinse, and cut Chinese long beans into 1 1/2" long.
3. Soak the dried fermented black soybeans in 1/4 cup of water for 5 minutes, then drain.
4. Mix the sauce ingredients together.
5. Set a wok or pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add oil and twirl the pan to spread.
6. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Then add chopped onion, and cook for 1 minute. Add the ground pork and cook for 3 minutes, then add the fermented black soybeans. Add Chinese long beans and sauce, cover, and let it cook/steam for 3 minutes. Uncover, and cook for another 5 minutes.

Notes:

Adapted from The Hakka Cookbook by Linda Lau Anusasananan.

Hakka Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐)

The fact that I am Hakka but have not yet featured a Hakka recipe on the blog is simply a crime. I can't say that I learned everything that I know about Hakka cooking from my Ah Gong (grandfather) who cooked and used the kitchen way more than my Po Po. But I can say that my desire to cook was partly influenced by him. And if you know me, you'd understand my craze for feeding a crowd. All that, was much influenced by my gigantic Hakka family. I mean, how can I not when I basically saw my entire extended family every, single, weekend growing up? A house full of 25-30 people? Checked. Food? DOUBLE CHECKED!

Being a Hakka in Hong Kong isn't all that out of the ordinary. There are many Hakka villages spread around the New Territories that are very much populated. People move around as lands develop so Hakkas living outside of villages are becoming very common these days. While a reasonable amount of Hong Kong-born-and-raised Hakkas had moved overseas, the Hakka tradition lives on with a handful of regular celebrations and gatherings throughout the year.

Have I bored you yet with my mumbo jumbo? Let's go back to the topic of today and talk food! You can certainly read more about my Hakka heritage in the Proud to be Hakka post I wrote a while back!

There are many classic Hakka dishes like the Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐) that people would consider or have mistaken as Cantonese. The truth is, both cultures share a lot of similarities in cooking, and have been adapting and borrowing from each other for quite some time. With its rich migration history, dishes like Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐) travels with the Hakka people wherever they land. To me, food is always about adapting and that's what makes food universal and interesting. When Hakkas take dishes with them to live somewhere else, they adapt local flavors, ingredients, and techniques. According to Linda Lau Anusasananan, when the Hakkas moved to southern China a long time ago, wheat wasn't widely available to make dumpling wrappers so they adapted by using tofu instead.

I don't expect Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐) in other Hakka-influenced Chinese communities around the world to be all the same. The standard and common ingredients for Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐) requires, of course, tofu. The filling is mostly pork but it can sometimes be mixed with fish or shrimp. The filling can also be used to stuff other vegetables like bell peppers and eggplant. While some people stuff the filling with tofu pockets, I always like to make the open-face version of Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐). For sauces, soy sauce is used most of the time as well as oyster sauce, and fish sauce for Hakka Chinese who had migrated to South East Asia. Some like to steam, others prefer to deep-fry (I like to pan-fry), and each cooking method has its own beauty really. You could also choose to make a braised stuffed tofu dish after the tofu has been fried. Pan-frying, for me, produces the right balance of slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It's really one of the perfect ways, one of my favorite ways, to eat tofu.

Learn more about Hakka cooking, culture and history from Linda Lau Anusasananan in The Hakka Cookbook. Available on Amazon.

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Hakka Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐)

Prep time: 35 mins  Cook time: 5 mins  Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 12 pieces, 2"x2"

You'll need:

• 1 lb (1 block) firm tofu
• ½ lb ground pork
• 1½ tsp minced fresh ginger
• 2 tsp Shaoxing cooking wine
• 3 dashes of white pepper powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 stalks scallions, finely chopped
• ½ cup corn starch

Sauce:

•  ½ cup chicken stock
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp corn starch and 2 tbsp water, mixed

Garnish:

•  1 stalk scallions, finely chopped

Approach:

1.   
2. Extract excess water from tofu by sandwiching it with few sheets of paper towels on a plate (underneath and on top of tofu). Using something considerably flat and heavy, gently place it on top and center of tofu for about 10 minutes.
3. Mix ground pork with minced ginger, cooking wine, white pepper powder, salt, sesame oil, and scallion.
4. Prepare, and set aside the ½ cup of corn starch in a medium size bowl (for coating tofu later before frying).
5. Prepare the sauce by heating up sauce ingredients (minus the corn starch mixture). Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to simmer. Stir in corn starch mixture slowly which will start to thicken up the sauce. Continue stirring for another 30 seconds, then turn off the heat.
6. Slice tofu into 12 pieces. Then make a cavity in each piece using a teaspoon as a scoop. Save tofu scraps for another use if you wish. Stuff each tofu with roughly 1 tbsp of pork filling.
7. Heat up a cast iron pan with some oil. Carefully pick up stuffed tofu pieces, and coat them with corn starch on all sides (shake off the excess gently). Place them on the hot pan with filling side down. Cook for about 2 minutes, then flip them over with a spatula and cook for 2 more minutes. Add more oil to the pan as needed.
8. Plate, then sauce. Garnish with finely chopped scallion. Serve immediately.

Chinese Tea Eggs (茶葉蛋)

Tea eggs (茶葉蛋), also known as marbled eggs, is such an iconic Chinese snack that's not only common in mainland China but also in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and pretty much most Chinese communities. Growing up, I would see them being sold in food storefronts, usually next to other street food like gai daan jai (鷄蛋仔 or egg waffles), curry fish balls, fish siu mai, and other fried goodies. Some restaurants in Chinatown would have tea eggs on the menu too, if you're in luck. While tea eggs are sold more commonly by street vendors in mainland China (and often eaten as breakfast), you can also see them sold in 7-elevens and night markets in Taiwan.

The flavor of tea eggs is quite unique built up by some really good spices like cinnamon, star anise, and dried orange peel, along with the infused liquid by soy sauce and tea. It sounds kind of fancy, doesn't it?

^ This is why they're also called "marbled eggs" because of the pattern it creates on the surface of the egg during the cooking process.

Get your liquid and spices going by heating it up in a pot. Bring it to a boil then leave it to simmer.

In another sauce pan, we're pre-boiling the eggs. Put your eggs in and fill water up to 1" over the surface of the eggs. Turn on the heat, add 1 tsp of salt, and let it cook until it's reached the boiling point. Once water starts to boil, turn off the heat, and let the eggs sit in the hot water. Cover with lid, and set your timer for 8 minutes. (A perfect hard-boiled takes 13 minutes, but we're PRE-boiling here.)

Drain them out of the hot water and put them in an ice bath for about 5 minutes (or run them under cold water).

Using the back of a butter knife, crack the egg all around but leave the shell on.

After you're done cracking all the eggs. Turn off the heat on the simmering liquid, place the eggs in the pot with the lid on. Let the eggs marinate overnight (transfer pot to the fridge once it has cooled down completely). When you're ready to serve them the next day, simply reheat (but not boil).

It's possible to leave the eggs to marinate for a shorter amount of time (at least 4 hours). However, eggs will not be as flavorful as they would being marinated overnight.

You can eat tea eggs plain or cut them in halves and serve them with a bowl of noodle soup!

Chinese Tea Eggs (茶葉蛋)

Prep time: 20 mins  Cook time: 4 hours  Total time: 4 hours 20 mins

Serves: 9 eggs

You'll need:

• Pre-boiling:
• 9 eggs
• Fill water up to 1″ above surface of eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• Liquid:
• 6 cups water
• 3 tbsp loose pu-erh tea leaves (普洱茶)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 star anise
• 4 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorn
• A couple pieces of dried orange peel (store-bought or homemade)

Approach:

1. Get your liquid and spices going by heating it up in a pot or sauce pan. Bring it to a boil then leave it to simmer.
2. Pre-boil the eggs in another pot by filling water up to 1″ over the surface of the eggs. Turn on the heat, add 1 tsp of salt, and let it cook until it’s reached the boiling point. Once water starts to boil, turn off the heat, and let the eggs sit in the hot water. Cover with lid, and set your timer for 8 minutes. (A perfect hard-boiled takes 13 minutes, but we’re PRE-boiling here.)
3. Drain them out of the hot water and put them in an ice bath for about 5 minutes (or run them under cold water).
4. Using the back of a butter knife, crack the egg all around but leave the shell on.
5. Turn off the heat on the simmering liquid pot, place the eggs in the pot with the lid on. Let the eggs marinate overnight (transfer pot to the fridge once it has cooled down completely).
6. When you‘re ready to serve them the next day, simply reheat (but not boil).

Notes:

It’s possible to leave the eggs to marinate for a shorter amount of time (at least 4 hours). However, eggs will not be as flavorful as they would being marinated overnight.

Proud to be Hakka (客家人)

I'm been wanting to write this post for quite some time now. It actually has been sitting in the back-end as a draft post since July. What sparked me at first to write this post started with my up-coming trip, back home to Hong Kong, some time last summer. I was looking for a couple new books to bring with me on my 16-hour flight. I ended up buying two books, and this was one of them – The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from around the World. This book is not just about Hakka cooking, author Linda Lau Anusasananan really dug deep and explained how the history of the Hakka people shaped the Hakka cuisine.

Let's talk about some fun facts that I learned from Linda, then I'll walk you through my heritage, and then we'll talk about food! Deal? :) The Chinese characters 客家 (Hak ka) literally translates to "guest family". The term does not originate from a certain area or a particular ethnic group. The made-up term simply describes the fact that the Hakka had left their homeland, and travelled to somewhere else as "guest" of the land they had visited and settled. According to Wikipedia, there're currently 40 millions of Hakka living in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. And another 40 millions living in over 50 countries worldwide. The migration history and journey of the Hakka people came a long way...

Take a walk with me

In the beginning of the fourth century (yes, that's like 300-something A.D), Hakka people were beginning to flee from the northern central part of China to the southern region because of invasions in the North. Wars and famine due to flood and droughts forced them to move. Over a long period of time by five big movements, from the 4th to the 19th century, Hakka had migrated to and lived in the southern region of China. The Hakka were seen and treated as outsiders and minorities of wherever they wanted to reside because earlier settlers had already claimed their territories. In order to survive, they were forced to settle at remote places and mostly hillsides. As a result, Hakka had gained the reputation as pioneers – farming and living on lands that nobody wanted. Over the course of the early political development in the 19th century in China, countless Hakka people migrated out of China. Many fled to Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, and even further from their homeland to North and South America, and the Caribbean.

The Hakka spirit was there century after century, and the Hakka people flourished wherever they could. The situation that they had to face and deal with really shaped the Hakka to be highly adaptive, independent, and resilient. And that mindset and attitude really helped them as they spread and settled throughout the world.

Now, walk in my shoes

After reading just the introduction and history by Linda, I felt incredibly proud to be a Hakka. I was hooked into Linda‘s great writing which was beautifully done with her ability to story-tell. I was inspired to look closer into my heritage and my roots.

My grandparents on my dad's and my mom's sides are both Hakka. They are both from the Guangdong Province but they do not speak the same Hakka dialect. While my mom's parents were originally from the Hakka heartland of Méi zhōu (梅州), the ancestors on my dad's side were originally from Bao'an, Guangdong. Speaking to my grandparents on my mom's side was always a challenge growing up but speaking to my grandparents on my dad's side with Cantonese was never a problem. I was brought up in a Hakka village in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Hakka villages are pretty common, and are spread out mostly, in the New Territories. There're many beliefs and arguments of when the Hakka started moving to Hong Kong. Some believed that they started migrating to Hong Kong during the late Ming and Qing dynasties (which is around the 1400's), long before the British set foot on Hong Kong Island in 1841, and making the Hakka Hong Kong's true indigenous people.

While it'll still take me some research in looking into the facts, all I know from growing up in a Hakka village in Hong Kong is this... There are 130 Hakka villages in Hong Kong, and most of them are "walled villages" called Wai Tsuen (圍村) located in the New Territories. They were built as a closed community to protect villagers from pirates and invaders. Some of the well-known villages like, Kat Hing Wai Walled Village (吉慶圍), Tsang Tai Uk (曾大屋), Fanling Wai (粉嶺圍) are well-preserved. There is also a list of declared monuments by the government in which you can easily find trails of the Hakka culture.

Kat Hing Wai Walled Village (吉慶圍):

Tsang Tai Uk (曾大屋):

Fanling Wai (粉嶺圍):

Like most Hakka people, my grandparents were farmers. The village I knew when I was young was full of life as everyone knew everyone, and you can see people working hard on their fields everyday. Seeing women working is very common as this is one of the Hakka cultural characteristics. On a sunny day, my grandma still wears the same Hakka hat that she wore on the field many years ago. Long before farmlands turned into houses, and outsiders began to live in Hakka villages, living in a farming village was a whole lot of fun. My childhood consisted of running around with 10-15 other kids, whom I was related to one way or another, playing or helping on the field whenever the adults allowed us to. Most Hakka families are big because the more people can help out on the fields the better. Big families mean big sunday dinners eating, of course, Hakka meals.

Interestingly, my grandma never liked being in the kitchen. My grandfather was the one who enjoyed cooking the hearty, robust, flavorful Hakka meals. Hakka cooking is bold. On one hand, techniques like salting, drying, and curing are used to preserve their food of which needed to survive both time and travel. On the other hand, dishes can also be as simple as stir-fry vegetable to balance out the meaty dishes. Pork (specially pork belly) can be considered as the main protein of Hakka cuisine. Rice is the main starch, and soy sauce is used as their main ingredient to braise meats. Hakka cooking is soul food to farmers and their families. It is the rustic, hearty meals that the farmers needed in order to do the labor-intensive jobs on the field. Over the past 20 years, farming has decreased considerably so such filling meals were not as necessary. Hakka home cooking you find these days may be a bit modified to accommodate the modern day lives while some of the robust, meaty dishes may be seen as a guilty pleasure.

Take off those shoes, let's eat!

Some of the Hakka classic that I enjoyed very much growing up are Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens (梅菜扣肉), Braised Pork Belly with Red Bean Curd (南乳燜猪肉), Braised Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐), Salt-Baked Chicken (鹽焗雞), Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausages (冬菇臘腸蒸雞), etc... And my grandfather's famous dish – the Poon Choy (盆菜) – literally translates to "basin dish". The dish was originally invented some time between 1000 and 1300 AD. Legend has it that when the Mongols invaded China, a young Emperor fled to the southern region of China, and into the New Territories of Hong Kong. In order to serve the Emperor and his army, locals gathered the best ingredients they could find. They prepared, cooked, and served the meals in wooden washbasins because they could not find containers that were big enough. A Poon Choy consists of many layers of ingredients including pork, duck, chicken, fish, prawn, squid, mushroom, turnip, and other vegetable. Ingredients are arranged by appearance usually with the more expansive and delicate ingredients on the top, and it's eaten from top to bottom. It's a dish that could take a couple of days to prepare and cook, and it's made for occasions like ancestor worshiping during special festivals. Take a look at this CNN Travel piece on a Poon Choy braised pork cook-off in Hong Kong. Poon Choy is truly a unique tradition of the Walled Villages of Hong Kong. It had gained popularity over the years, and nowadays, you can see it being served in Chinese New Year by non-Hakka families.

Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Greens (梅菜扣肉):

My grandfather's favorite of all Hakka dishes: Braised Pork Belly with Red Bean Curd (南乳燜猪肉):

Braised Stuffed Tofu (釀豆腐):

Salt-Baked Chicken (鹽焗雞):

Poon Choy (盆菜):

Cross-pollination with heart and soul

If you look closer at both Cantonese and Hakka cuisine, you'll find that they influent each other quite a bit, and share some similarities. Cantonese dishes such as Braised Fried Tofu with Pork (炸豆腐燜猪肉), Braised Stuffed Peppers, Eggplant, and Tofu (煎釀三寶) that you see at dim sum, Steamed Fish in Black Bean Sauce (豆豉蒸魚), Steamed Savory Egg Custard (蒸水蛋), and Steamed Fish with Green Onions and Ginger (薑蔥蒸魚), Braised Pork Belly and Lotus Root (蓮藕燜五花腩) were all originated from Hakka cooking. And because the southern region is close to the water and ocean, Hakka had taken the advantage of seafood. They had adapted this new source of protein, and had came up with seafood dishes that are true to their Hakka root. In many places in the world that the Hakka had travelled and migrated to, they continued to adapt local culture and cuisine. Don't be surprised if you ever see dishes from Jamaica, Peru, Honolulu, Tahiti, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, or Taiwan that had an influence of Hakka cooking. In many Chinese communities, you might be able to find restaurants that are own by Hakka families, serving dishes that are fusion beside the traditional. For many Hakka, their lives are about adaptation while sticking to the roots.

The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from around the World really was an eye-opener for me. I always knew that the Hakka population was big but I never knew just how big, and how much influence it had on other cultures.

Hakka is part of my identity, and I'll always carry that in my heart.