rainee SG I found a recipe for it online, but I cannot find one of the ingredients here It says I need the 5 Spice Powder...don't even know what the heck is that And I don't know how to wrap the bak chang, heard it is not easy de...
JLennon SG 5 spice powder is 'wu xiang fen'. even if you have all the incredients (plus the leaves), its still hard work.
Global Freedom Solutions SG 5 spice powder = wu2 xiang1 fen3.(damn hope I got the hanyu pinyin right)
Rhonda SG rainee, bak chang isn't exactly something you should attempt to try and cook unless you're like Level 4 out of 5 on the culinary skills range. You have no idea how much time and effort it takes! It's not enough to just have the recipe for it. The wrapping stumps most, and then, there's the steaming part. If you fill it up too much, your bak changs will all burst whilst you're steaming them. I've watched my Teochew grandma make her wonderful bakchangs a years ago. (She's now too old and has dementia). They had to move their things out to the large vacant area near the staircase to cook because it generates a lot a lot of heat.
Rhonda SG I trust Prima's spice / sesoning packs because the food in their Prima Taste restaurant in Centrepoint is good and I've heard from SL that their food packs are great too. I would hesitate to try most other brands of 'instant' what-not because I've tried some that tastes yucks. It's always good to start from scratch! Spice paste aka 'rempah' required? No problem! Bring out the good ol' stone pestle and mortar!
Rhonda SG There's no motivation like a growling, relentlessly demanding stomach! hahaha!! rainee, should you need recipes for local food, try asking me! I'll try to help if I can!
rainee SG yea a bit worried cos I am using the oven again...the last time I tried to bake chicken wings in the oven, it didn't turn up very cooked And took me an hour! Should I preheat the oven at a higher temp than the temp I would use to bake the chicken later?
Rhonda SG Hmm... might help, especially if you tend to leave the oven door open a tad too long. Chicken wings are hard to cook if you're not plain frying them. Their wing tips often over-cook or worse, become totally burnt. When barbecueing, you'd have to leave the wings over a slow, steady fire for a long long time before they're well-cooked and even then, you'll have to try to 'stretch' out the wings so the surface area exposed to the source of heat is as large as possible. Quite cumbersome. Especially if you're hungry and dying to sink your teeth into them! Baking the wings would take a long time too. Try adjusting the heat and the time this time round. You might have to cover the wingtips with little bits of aluminium foil to ensure they don't become chao dah.
Rhonda SG No lah! Level 1 is boiling water, boiling egg in the shell, cooking maggi noodles! You're definitely on a higher level! hehe!
littlestream SG Huh? Level 1 ah? Not kindergarden ah? And yes........I am an ardent fan of Prima Taste paste. When hubby was back in S'pore last year, he had to cart home 70lbs of those. One luggage "gone". You can imagine I got a earful. We have the retail packs in one of the Chinese grocery chain store but I think I am slow. Always "ho lang cheo" (let people snatch).
the Bear SG chicken doesn't overcook so, there is no actual need to preheat the oven... bung the chicken in and let it slowly cook.. low heat + slow steady cooking = good chicken
Rhonda SG Chicken can overcook! It can turn very fibrous and hard in the microwave oven if you don't cook it well. Some Malay stalls also tend to overcook their chicken drumsticks when they cook their sambal chicken. And in the oven, the wingtips often gets burnt before the rest of the chicken has been cooked.
the Bear SG hmm... i was thinking maybe the chicken needs constant basting.. in that way, it doesn't as the sauce keeps the thing moist.. especially if it's going to be low heat
