Beef with Mi-Cha

Mi-Cha is some sort of large ball of vegetable protein that is commonly found in Chinese specialty groceries. Some are dried while some are frozen. I normally use the frozen for ease of cooking and lesser time needed for its preparation. Mi-Cha is a good source of protein. Incidentally, I remembered that TVP or textured vegetable protein was invented by some German chemist during world war I era when he was conducting research on how to produce fibres from other sources. Instead of having fibres from his soy protein liquor, he produced TVP instead. Many recipes have been created using this product. TVP being very versatile can be made to look almost any type of meat as well as have its consistency mimic some of the well loved meats of the world. An alternative source of protein without the cholesterol indeed.

Ingredients:

1 kg Beef cut into cubes

¼ kg Mi-Cha cut into halves

1 pc. Onion (medium, quartered)

6 cloves Garlic (crushed, skins removed)

3 slices Ginger (fresh, thin slices only, about 1 tsp.)

1 inch Cassia stick

1 pc. Star anise

5 tbsp. Premium dark soy sauce

1 tsp. Chiu Chow chilli oils

½ cup Water

1 tbsp. Sugar

1 tbsp. Mirin wine

Cooking Instruction:

Place everything inside a pressure cooker and pressure cook for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn off heat and allow to cool normally. Do not force cooling by venting steam as the additional time for normal cooling which will take about 15-20 minutes is used as additional cooking time to tenderize the meat. Open the pressure cooker once safe to open and skim off any excess fat to reduce fat content of the dish. The sauce should be about 1/4 cup, if it is still large, then, turn up the heat to concentrate the sauce to desired volume and taste. Enjoy with plain steamed buns or with rice.

Chicken Feet

Few people have tried this one I bet. Still some people give that weird look if you ask them if they have tried having chicken feet. Actually, I enjoy eating chicken feet once in awhile. There are many ways to prepare delicious chicken feet but the easiest way is the one I share in this blog. It is influenced by Chinese cooking I might say.

Ingredients:

3 kg Chicken feet (blanched with tips and scales removed)

1 cup Water

¼ cup Premium dark soy sauce

1 tbsp. Garlic (minced)

¼ cup Onion

2 thin strips Fresh ginger

½ tsp. Black pepper (ground)

1 piece Star anise

2 tbsp. Safflower oil

1 tbsp. Sesame oil

½ tsp. Iodized salt

Cooking Instruction:

In a suitably sized pressure cooker, place chicken feet, black pepper, star anise, soy sauce. In a small skillet, heat safflower oil and sauté, garlic, onions, and ginger until garlic is golden brown and onion starts to caramelize. Transfer the sautéed items together with the oil into the pressure cooker. Pressure cook for approximately 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn off the flame and allow to stand so that pressure dissipates normally (Do not hasten dissipation of pressure by lifting the pressure knob of the pressure cooker. The additional time to dissipate the pressure is being used to cook the chicken feet so that it comes out nice and tender.).

When there is no more pressure inside the pressure cooker, open and skim any oils on the surface to reduce the fat content of the food. Turn on the heat again to start the broth boiling. At this point, if more water has formed from the pressure cooking, it can be boiled to reduce further the sauce. If the chicken feet comes out too tender to stand further cooking that will be performed so that sauce is reduced, it can be transferred to another container and the broth left in the pressure cooker boiled to reduced to desired volume. When the broth is of just the correct quantity, as the case with this recipe since the quantity of starting water for pressure cooker has been estimated so that after the desired cooking time, there is just enough water for a rich sauce, the chicken feet can be returned and salt can be added to taste. Just about when the flame is to be extinguished, sesame oil is added. Enjoy!!!