Malaysian Chicken Soup

OK, I'm having people over for dinner, and I'm going to serve Malaysian Chicken Noodle soup. I've started this morning to make the soup.

Unlike the standard, American chicken soup, the Malaysian version has a lot more spices to flavor the broth. I'm starting everything from scratch. I'm not using even any pre-made chicken broth.

I bought a whole hen (not chicken, so the name of the dish is misleading), and this is what I'm using not only to make the broth, but also later on serve the meat as part of the dish. The reason why I'm using a hen is because I want to simmer the broth for a long time. A typical supermarket chicken will simply fall apart and turn to mush if I simmer them for as long as I intend to. A hen is older, and frankly, has a lot more chicken flavor.

But what makes this different than the standard broth are all the whole spices that I added. The spices are: cinnamon sticks, whole cardamom, whole cloves, whole star anise, and pepper corns. I also put 3 sticks of lemon grass, 3 stalks of celery, one large onion, 5 cloves of garlic, and 5 thick slices of ginger root.

It is simmering slowly right now and the whole house smells wonderful! I'm going to simmer this for about a couple of hours, and then I'll fish out the chicken.. excuse me, the hen pieces and let them cool down. Then I'll shred the meat, and put the bones back into the pot and let then simmer for another hour.

When that is done, I'll strain the broth and I'll end up with the most flavorful soup base for my noodle soup. I'll post some more on how things progress, including the final dish.

Zz.

Whole Spices

I wrote yesterday about using whole spices in making my own Chinese 5-Spice powder. I firmly believe that as far as possible, whole spices should be used and ground as needed. In most cases, the flavor and aroma of freshly-ground spices are significantly better than pre-ground ones. You just don't know how long those spices have been ground, and many of the flavor and aroma from these spices are rather volatile.

Black pepper is the first and most common example of something you should grind as needed. It shouldn't be difficult to use since pepper grinder are rather common. I've also used the back of a heavy pan, or even a pestle and mortar to smash black pepper if I need larger pieces. Pre-ground black pepper loses a lot of its strength, making it tame and wimpy.

Nutmeg is my next example. Pre-ground nutmeg has almost no flavor. Don't believe me? Do your own test. Sniff some pre-ground nutmeg powder and do the same on freshly-grated nutmeg. There is no comparison! If you're baking and spend time and effort to make something good, why wouldn't you just add a small effort in grating your own nutmeg?

Finally, there's cardamom. This has to be one of the most fragrant spices around, and yet, the pre-ground ones feels rather tame. Whole kernel of cardamoms can impart its pleasant aroma to a pot of rice, while ground ones seem to add nothing but grittiness.

So for me, these are the 3 spices where there is night-and-day differences between freshly-ground ones versus pre-ground ones.

Remember, life is too short to eat bad food!

Zz.

Chinese 5-Spice Powder

I have lots of whole spices. I use them frequently in my cooking, so I buy them in bulk. This actually saves a lot of money because I buy them at ethnic food market where they cost a fraction of what you pay for in those little jars that you find in a supermarket.

One of the flavoring spices that I use often is the Chinese 5-Spice powder. I've used pre-made ones when I rubbed chicken pieces before grilling them and then glazed them with a Chinese BBQ sauce. But one day, I looked up the ingredients for the 5-Spice powder, and realized that I could it myself since I practically had all of the ingredients except for the Szechuan pepper corns, which I promptly bought at a nearby Asian grocery store. And I can tell you that the one I make my own is waaaaay more fragrant than the one I bought pre-made. It is worth the extra effort to make this from scratch.

So here is the receipe for the Chinese 5-Spice powder.

• 1 tablespoon Szechuan pepper corns
• 6 star anise
• 1 1/2 teaspoon whole  cloves
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons fennel seeds

I dry roast them in a pan for a few minutes until I can smell the fragrant aroma from the spices. Then I pour the spices into a coffee grinder and pulverize them into fine powder. Keep in an air-tight container, and it'll keep for weeks or months. It won't go bad, but the fragrance and punch will certainly taper off after a couple of months.

I'll post some time soon a recipe for a glaze that you can use with the 5-Spice powder that will be perfect for summer grilling.

Zz.